20 Simple Questions Chapter 5: The Fourth Question, a harry potter fanfic

A/N

I'm finally back! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

WARNING: FLAMES WILL BE LAUGHED AT AND USED TO MAKE MARSHMALLOWS FOR S'MORES.

I've always wanted to say that. :) Anyways. Onwards!

Lily's antlers fell off after a week. A week! Her neck ached to no end and she even skipped Transfiguration so she could rest. Yeah, that's how bad it was. Lily Evans never skipped classes unless it was absolutely necessary. And in this case, it was. She had expected her antlers to disappear abruptly, or slowly crumble, piece by piece. She was immensely surprised when one day during History of Magic, there was a loud plop! And her antlers were on the floor, rocking back and forth. Lily looked to her friends and saw that the floor around Marlene and Mary were covered with fur, and they looked normal now.

Lily's head felt very light compared to what it had been before. Over the next few hours, Lily had seen some crazy fangirls put some fur in a plastic bag to keep so they could remember this and say they had 'a part of the Marauders'. Lily had even spotted a sixth year girl trying to take her unattached antlers upstairs unnoticed. It was impossible for people not to notice, however, because the girl had tried to hide the antlers in the front of her robes, and long story short, people wondered why the normally skinny girl suddenly had a bulging belly. Lily had silently laughed herself silly, though on the outside, she kept a cool exterior, because she was a prefect and she was supposed to be strict, yet kind.

But she was being a hypocrite. After the antler had fallen off, she had placed them in a box and mailed it home. Five owls had to carry it together because of the weight, and she had written her parents letter explaining that the antlers were some kind of memoir so she would remember what had happened during her years at Hogwarts.

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In the next week, Lily's favorite lesson had been Charms, since they'd been learning Patronuses. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it.

"Ugh! I just can't do it! Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!" Only faint wisps of smoke spewed from the end of her wand. Soon, she had tried just about all of her happy memories, like the time she learned about magic, when she made her best friends, all her birthdays and the holidays, but nothing worked.

Then an image came, unbidden, into her mind. It was after that time in fifth year. Snape had just called her that filthy word: Mudblood. She had kept a cold, cruel indifference after that incident, but when she was alone, she remembered her old childhood best friend, and sometimes she couldn't help it and the tears began to fall. She cry silently, curled up on the floor, and that was how James Potter found her once. She had yelled at him, screamed at him, punched his stomach, but he refused to leave. Patiently, calmly, he had comforted her and made a few jokes, until all the tears subsided and she felt better. She never cried over Snape again after that.

She remembered the way he had hugged her, how it felt so different and how it made her feel so special. "Expecto Patronum!" She said, and shockingly, a bright silver doe shot out the tip of her wand. Lily watched it gallop around the classroom, interacting with other animals. Her eyes widened when her silver doe pranced to the middle of the room with a stag patronus. They seemed to exchange a silent greeting, then both of them began to leap through the air, twirling, as if they were dancing. Lily could help but notice how they seemed to perfect for each other. Obviously, she added in her mind, they're a doe and a stag. Of course they belonged together. Stupid Lily.

The stag and the doe had soon dissolved into mist, and class was dismissed. And then Lily slowly began to piece it together. Prongs was a Marauder nickname. After James had seen Lily's antlers, he had said "You chose Prongs! I knew you'd warm up to me some time Lilykins!". That meant that Prongs was James' nickname. Prongs meant stag. There was a stag patronus, and it must have belonged to James Potter. And Lily had thought that her doe and the stag had belonged together, so she had indirectly implied that…Bloody hell.

It happened for the first time. Lily's friends were extremely surprised, and Lily enjoyed seeing the gobsmacked looks on their faces. That is, until they began teasing her about Potter. Again. So what if she had actually run out of Divination so she could check the Marauder's question? Divination wasn't important anyways. It was just a load of dragon dung.

Believe it or not, Lily was actually the very first person to see the question, which was really saying something, since she had to fight her way through the crowds of fangirls trying to get there first.

"Hello. Greetings. Salutations. Hi. Howdy. :) Now, for the fourth question. You might think it's not original, but don't be fooled!…Actually, do be fooled. That way you'll be more surprised by the result!…We ruined that didn't we?…Just forget what we just said. Ooooh, you don't remember anything, do you? No you don't! So haha!…Okay, we'll stop now.

What's your absolutely favorite animal?

Ta-ta for now."

True, Lily was disappointed. But she wasn't fooled. She wasn't stupid, and her previous experiences taught her that the Marauders were able to change something tiny into something huge and unbelievable.

Her favorite animal was a doe, just like her patronus, luckily. She had once heard that a fourth year's favorite animal was a leopard (Even though she was nothing like one) and her patronus turned out to be a penguin. Poor girl. (A/N: I think that it's possible for you patronus and your favorite animal to be different because what you like doesn't necessarily have to be what you're like. So just go with it.)

Lily left wondering why they wanted to know peoples' favorite animals. The only way they could change the students into animals was by transfiguring them, but they would have to do it one by one, and there were too many people to be able to do it all at once. A potion that would turn people into animals hadn't been invented yet, so what were they going to do?

She got her answer a week later. Day after day had passed, but Lily had secretly been waiting for the prank that was sure to come. And sure enough, it did.

It was just like any other dinner. Lily was talking with her friends about homework, shopping, and others, just like any other day.

"Well, that was very satisfying." Dumbledore exclaimed happily. "I feel full to the brim, don't you? Well, now that that's over, off you trot!" His eyes twinkled mysteriously. They seemed to be looking directly at Lily and she felt that perhaps there was some hidden meaning to his words, though Lily had no idea…unless he heard about her doe, but why would be be bringing that up now?

There was no more time to dwell on it, because people had already begun to move towards the doors. That was when Lily felt another odd sensation, like last time, except this time it was in her feet. Lily heard a few mutters and gasps as some of the other students felt the same tingling feeling she had.

She stopped walking, and just about the whole crowd of students did too. So they were all standing there, a huge mass of people blocking the doorway. It seemed like the Marauders had struck.

Suddenly, there was a loud shriek, and Lily saw Narcissa Black standing not too far from her. It seemed like she was the first victim. Black was standing on two skunks, one for each foot. The skunks looked like they were lying on their stomachs, and Lily watched, half amused and half disgusted as the skunk's foul odor filled the air. People moved away and Lily saw clearly that Narcissa's nose was wrinkled and she looked absolutely horrified and disgusted.

Then Lily felt like she was growing…except she didn't feel any different; she didn't feel like she was being stretched. It felt like she was on one of those Muggle platforms, and the platform was rising. But it didn't feel at all like a flat platform for two reasons. One, it felt slightly curved, and two, it was furry.

Lily was standing on two deer. Doe, to be exact. Of course.

"Argh!" Lily yelled, and then she fell backwards. The Great Hall was filled with yells and students toppling off shoes that had been transfigured into their favorite animal.

Lily, who was ever so organized, was the first student who calmly made her way out the Great Hall in just socks, leaving her 'pets' behind. Eager to get away from the chaos, she didn't see where she was going, and as a result, she crashed headfirst into someone. Potter and his cronies. Just her luck. Come to think of it, they probably weren't in the Great Hall because they didn't want to be in the middle of all the pandemonium. They weren't wearing shoes either.

James had two stags around a leash, two dogs were being held by Sirius, and Peter was holding two small animals in his hands. Remus didn't have any animal with him, so Lily assumed that they were too small to be seen.

"Why do you have them with you?" Lily indicated the deer.

James looked amused. "You do too."

Lily whirled around, and sure enough, the same two does were there, looking at her with a slightly interested look on their faces.

"Wha-" Lily took a step back. They stepped forward. Lily stepped back. They stepped forward. They continued in this fashion until Lily finally asked. "Why are they following me?"

Sirius snorted with laughter. "All the animals are trained to follow around their 'owners'."

Argh, that meant that she'd have two does trailing after her wherever she went. And they did. Wherever she went, they went. It was the same with the other people's animals too. Classes hadn't been cancelled, though the extra animals were an interesting addition, especially during one class where Lily suddenly found her notes smeared with deer droppings. It was gross.

Also, since her current shoes had been turned into does, she was only in socks. She had made her way to her closet, the animals right behind her. Luckily, she had brought an extra pair. Imagine her surprise when she opened the door and the shoes were gone. There were two more does in their place. So then Lily had four of them following her everywhere. Oh, the joy. (Note the sarcasm.)

The animals actually changed Lily's Hogwarts life quite a bit. Sometimes they scared her, like the time she woke up peacefully and suddenly saw a doe face looming so close to her own that its nose was just about a millimeter away.

One thing that Lily noticed was how her does and Potter's stags got along so well. Even though they were trained to follow their 'owners, during classes they had together, their animals seemed to talk to each other and interact like a family. It was odd to say the least.

Lily still didn't know when she would get her shoes back, but she hoped it would be soon because some of the other girls' complaining was getting extremely irritating. ("I want my shoes back! They were very expensive, you know; my mother bought them for me!")

Lily couldn't wait for everything to go back to normal. Well, as normal as Hogwarts could ever be with the Marauders still there…

A/N

Ok then. :) Sorry about that author's note I threw in, but not everyone reads the notes at the end and beginning, so I thought that if I put it in the middle then it'd be clearer, just to let you know.

Also, this is seventh year, but there aren't Head Dorms. I thought that the Heads had to share a dorm, but then in JKR's books it never mentioned it. Thank you to iheartweasleytwins for clearing that up for me!

I guess this one was pretty long, but I don't know if it was good...so review please and tell me if there are mistakes. :)

Finally, school's starting soon, so I probably won't be able to update fast, because of homework and everything.

I sometimes feel like I'm so young to be writing on this, since I've read people with author's notes that say things like 'I'm very busy with college/university..' That sort of thing. And I'm far from college. =.= Eh.

So review. :) I won't put that if you review I'll update faster because that won't be true. I've gotten 55 so far, and I can't thank you all enough!

-TheEvilPinkCupcake