Armamentarium: a fruitful source of devices or materials available or used for an undertaking.

June 1, 1977

"If you lot are trying to kidnap me, I can assure you you'll be in a world of hurt very soon. And Mary saw us leaving, don't forget. She can call out the dogs faster than you can blink."

"Stop snickering, Padfoot! We're not kidnapping you, Lily."

"The blindfold begs to differ."

"Come on, Red, don't you trust us by now?"

"I will never trust you, Black."

"Touché. But you trust Remus and Petey here, don't you?"

"We're almost there, Lily, I promise. Sorry about the blindfold, but this git insisted."

"I'm not giving away all our secrets! Prongs would never forgive me if I let that happen."

"You talk about him like he's the one that died, Padfoot. He's just stoped pulling pranks with you."

"Peter, you are tactless. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"I'm tactless? Who tried to get James plastered the night before his dad's funeral?"

"I grew up in a dysfunctional family. I only ever learned how to drink or scream away your problems, and I wasn't about to shout in Mrs. Potter's house."

"But stealing her Firewhiskey was more than acceptable."

"Remus, you're a prude. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Can we get back to why you're dragging me through the castle blindfolded?" Lily interrupted as her captors jostled her around yet another corner.

"Right," Remus said sheepishly, darting ahead to begin pacing in front of what looked like a perfectly blank stretch of wall.

"You said you wanted to help pull James out of his rut," Sirius said, leading Lily to stand squarely in front of the door Remus had just coaxed into existence. "Well, here's how you can help. Petey, my man, do the honors."

Peter scuttled forward and pushed open the heavy oak door. Only after Sirius and Remus had pulled Lily through it did Remus untie the blindfold.

Lily felt her jaw drop slightly at the sight that met her eyes. "Where are we?" she asked, turning in a circle and staring up at the crates of stockpiled sweets, butterbeer, Zonko's products, and odd gadgets Lily couldn't even identify.

"Our warehouse," Sirius grinned, spreading his arms and looking proudly at the supplies piled to the ceiling of the closet-like room.

"But how has Filch never found this?" Lily wondered, unable to keep the slight awe out of her voice. If nothing else, it was an impressive accomplishment to have kept this away from the caretaker who spent his free time prowling the corridors trying to catch mischief makers.

Sirius smirked at her expression, and Lily quickly wiped it off her face.

"As a prefect I really ought to report this, you know," she said in her sternest voice.

"You won't," Sirius said unconcernedly.

"And why not?" Lily demanded, pinning him with a stare.

"Because Remus is a prefect, too, and he hasn't spilled and you actually like him. You don't want to get him into trouble."

Lily sighed. She hated it, but Black was right. "So what does this have to do with cheering Potter up?"

Sirius strolled over to a stack of boxes labeled in a kind of shorthand Lily couldn't decipher. He had only rummaged for a second or two before Remus impatiently told him to look in the other corner, to which Peter insisted it was really the middle stack that held what they wanted. Lily began to tap her foot, wondering why she had consented to go anywhere with the Marauders. Although she didn't like admitting it, they had grown on her, but she still ought to have known better.

"Look," Remus said at last, rolling his eyes and turning away from Sirius, who now held a clucking rubber chicken for Merlin knew what purpose. "We're out of ideas, Lily," he admitted, fixing her with a beseeching look. "It's been a month, and I know this isn't… something you just bounce right back from, but it's like he's disappearing. If we tried any of this, it would just piss him of, but if it was you…."

He gestured toward the teetering stacks of marauding supplies as if to say 'it's all yours'.

"This is our arsenal," Sirius told her. "And for a limited time only, you've got an official pass. What d'you say, Evans? They don't come along often, I can tell you that."

Lily gave the rubber chicken in Sirius's hands a thoughtful look. "I say I can work with this, Black."

Sirius grinned. "I might just like you after all, Red."

A/N: I do like Lily and the Marauders. :) This would be in that strange place when Lily is starting to warm up to them since she's not friends with Snape anymore, but she hasn't started dating James yet, so it's not as natural as it will become, you know? I'm not great in the prank department (I gravitate toward other genres), so I apologize for the lack of Fred/George-ish type of stuff. I love them and the Marauders and that whole part of Harry Potter, but it's just not my forte in writing.

Thank you all for your kind words and feedback! You are all brilliant people! :)