The next day the second years got their new schedules. Lily anxiously took hers but before she took a look Jane filled her in.
"Today we have Double History of Magic first with the Slytherins, boring of course. Then we have Potions with the Ravenclaws and Charms with Gryffindor," she said.
Lily groaned. Any class with Klara Chang's house was a minus and as Jane had said Double History of Magic was sure to be incredibly boring. Charms wasn't too bad though and Gryffindor was surely the most bearable of the houses, mostly due to Seth.
History of Magic was as boring as Lily had expected with Binns droning on about a Werewolf Civil War which he managed to make boring with long descriptions about the leaders of the two sides. Lily had to wonder how the class managed to stay awake. Next in Potions Professor Krum was showing them how to make Sleeping Potion. Lily partnered with Jane. Unfortunately they made a few mistakes and had to start over. Jane yawned.
"This potion is really strong," Jane said. "I'm getting tired just making it," she finished.
The two girls broke down giggling until Professor Krum told them to focus. They managed to put together a fairly good potion. Finally Charms came. Seth sat with them as Flitwick taught them the Water charm, "Auguamenti". Lily enjoyed the first part of the class where Flitwick told about the historical context of the charm. Apparently, in a recent development her Aunt Hermione had made a water blasting charm by combining the charm with the blasting curse "Confringo."
Once they were in a group with Seth Lily thought of telling them about what she had heard in Diagon Alley but was distracted by getting the spell right. Only Seth seemed to be getting it.
"Why isn't this working?" Jane asked exasperatedly.
Nothing was coming out of her wand while just a few drops came out of Lily's into the goblet that Flitwick had given them all.
"You're swishing your wand in patterns too straight," he said. "It's curve up curve down like a sideways S," he said.
He demonstrated and a jet of water sprayed from his wand into the cup. Lily tried it. A choppy stream went into her cup.
"That's better, Lily," Flitwick squeaked as he came over.
Then suddenly Jane's wand backfired and the water shot up into her face. She spit out water and Lily resisted the urge to laugh. It looked like Seth was trying to do the same.
"One word from either of you," said Jane "And I will hex you."
The rest of the week went by in a blur. In Herbology, Neville had them watering Oblivoleaves. They had to be careful because if they touched the plants it would wipe a small portion of their memory if they touched them.
In D.A.D.A. they were learning the Curse of the Bogies, which was interesting despite a long wait for Professor Butler to get her lesson together. The American professor was disorganized and it was not uncommon for her to take a while to get the lesson started. Lily was partnered with Irene Alou while Seth was partnered with Jane.
"I'm so scared I won't get this," Irene said "You ready?" Irene asked.
"Yes," Lily said.
She didn't understand why Irene was so worried. It was only their first class. As they started practicing Lily realized Irene had no reason to worry. She did even better than Lily. They finished up. The last subject of the day was Transfiguration, Lily's best subject. She was easily able to turn a hat into a rabbit.
"Nice work, Lily," Professor Bones said as she passed by.
The next week Lily had still not told Seth and Jane about what she had heard in Diagon Alley. Now she was sitting with Seth and Jane at lunch where they were arguing over Quidditch teams.
"The Tutshill Tornados are the best team in Quidditch, Seth. Five titles in ten years! When's the last time Cannons have one?" Jane stated.
"Not much recently but we still have more wins over all," he pointed out.
"Not for long at the rate we're winning," Jane argued back.
"What do you think, Lily?" Seth asked.
"Hey I'm a Harpy for life," Lily said referring to the Holyhead Harpies an all women's team that her mother had played for.
Then suddenly she was taken from her thoughts by a piece of parchment that had appeared on her table in front of her. She picked it up and read to see her brother James' sloppy handwriting.
Dear sis,
You have been cordially invited to an adventure like no other. James Potter's Marauders II have organized their "start of term prank" and because of your accomplishment in rule breaking your first year you have been offered a chance to help carry it out. If you accept come meet in the laundry room on the second floor in one hour.
Sincerely, Your amazing (and quite handsome) brother James
P.S. You can bring your friends too
"Look at this," Lily said smiling and handed the letter to Jane and Seth.
They read it over quickly. Unsurprisingly, Jane was all for it while Seth was against it.
"It's a bad idea to get in trouble with the new Headmistress," he said.
"Please, this is a James Potter prank. It's way too important to pass up," Jane exclaimed.
Lily thought about it. She wasn't too keen on causing trouble, but it was true that her brother's start of term pranks had become legendary during his tenure at Hogwarts. Last year he had flooded all the school's bathrooms, which Lily probably would have noticed more if she hadn't been concerned with bullying about being sorted into Hufflepuff.
"I think Jane's right," she said. "This is something we can tell our grandkids about," she joked.
"Thank you Lily!" said Jane.
"I guess I'm outvoted," said Seth.
After a mildly interesting Potions lesson, the Trio went to the small laundry room where quite a few house elves were magically operating the washing machines. But behind them were a group of students.
"Hey it's our newest member!" James said.
Lily walked over and the Marauders II began cheering. Lily saw James was with his cousins Fred and Roxanne, a Gryffindor named Charles Finnigan and Ravenclaw Jack Colins.
"So Lily who are your friends?" Charles asked.
"I know she brought that one home for Christmas," James said pointing to Seth. "And you're Jane Macmillan aren't you," he said.
"Yeah I am," Jane said.
"How does he know you?" Lily asked.
"You mean aside from the fact that I helped you stop a former Death Eater?" Jane asked. "I tried to burn down a Slytherin banner at a Quidditch match in my first first year," she said.
"You were really a piece of work," said Lily.
"Still am," she said smiling.
"And that's the kind of people I like to hang with," James said. "Now I'd better fill you in on the prank," he said.
He first took out a map, which looked old and yellow. He opened it by saying "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." It was a map of the Hogwarts grounds, complete with moving people whose names were shown on the map. He pointed to a place marked Whomping Willow.
"If you don't already know the Whomping Willow is a living, moving tree on the edge of the Hogwarts grounds," said James. "But using this map I have found a secret passageway to the Shrieking Shack," he said.
"What's that?" Lily asked.
"It's supposed to be the most haunted house in Britain," said James.
Lily thought she heard Seth mutter "Brilliant" sarcastically.
"But don't worry that's just a legend," he said.
"The more important thing is that everyone else thinks it's really haunted," said Colins.
"Now here's where we come in," said James.
Fred and Roxanne pulled out two small cubes out of their pockets.
"These are our creations," said Fred.
"We call them Loudmouths," Roxanne finished.
"What do they do?" Jane asked.
In response Fred and Roxanne slammed their fists down on the cubes in unison. Immediately an extremely high- pitched noise came from the cube. Lily covered her ears and the house elves flew away in fright. James put a dirty rag over the two cubes and they stopped.
"That's how loud two are," James said. "We have thirty, that'll be so loud they'll hear it in the castle," he said. "Kids'll be scared from the start, more scared when they realize it's coming from the Shack, it'll be hilarious," he finished.
He tossed Lily the rag.
"Hold this," he said.
"When do we start?" Finnigan asked.
"Tonight," James said grinning maniacally.
The rest of the day went by unbearably slow for Lily. She could hardly wait to help make the prank happen. She had to admit it was a brilliant idea. It would also be fun to break rules just for fun, not because of some evil lurking around Hogwarts.
She went out to the grounds with Seth and Jane and saw it was starting to get dark. They met up with the rest of the Marauders II.
"You guys ready?" Fred asked. They all nodded.
"All right just follow us," he said.
They followed James. They stopped at a humongous moving tree that had to be the Whomping Willow. James started to speak.
"All right we'll be in two groups. Me, Jack, Charles and Lily will go first. Fred and Roxanne you stay behind with Seth and Jane. In five or six minutes we'll call you if everything's safe," he said.
"Let's go," he said.
Lily followed James and the other two boys into the dark passageway.
"Lumos," James said and his wand lit up the path in front of them.
After about half a minute of walking Colins yawned.
"Merlin I'm tired," said Colins.
"Bloody hell didn't I tell you to get a rest before we came," said James.
"Actually I'm feeling tired too," said Finnigan.
Then suddenly both their eyes closed and they fell to the ground.
"What in-," James started before yawning too.
Lily also began to feel drowsy.
"There's something in the air," Lily started. "That's making us fall asleep," she barely finished.
James now succumbed to the air and fell asleep. Things were getting worse. If they didn't get out of the passageway, whatever it was in the air might kill them. Then Lily remembered the rag. She took it out of her pocket and put it over her mouth and nose. She raised her wand.
"Wingardium leviosa," she said into the rag.
Finnigan's body was levitated. She led it out and dropped him outside the passageway. She ran back and performed it on Colins next. This time it took two tries but she managed it. Then she went back the last time for James. She was feeling more and more tired. The gas must be getting through her rag.
She cast the levitating charm again. She led her brother out and then dropped him halfway through losing connection with the charm.
Summoning her last bit of strength and determination she took her brother's arm and dragged him the rest of the way. She finally managed to drag him and herself out of the passage before finally falling asleep.