Sunday, 4th February 1973

James was just swallowing the last bite of his chicken salad sandwich and reaching for his pumpkin juice when he felt a weird vibration around his neck, making him freeze in place as his gaze locked with Remus'. 'Was that what I think it was?'

'No, it's not the passage. That was the dorm alarm.'

'Someone's in our dorm?' Sirius asked.

Remus nodded. 'There's no rush, though. They're not going anywhere.'

'Still,' James took a few gulps of his juice before standing up, 'we should probably go see who it is.'

Sirius put his own goblet down and joined him. 'Place your bets now.'

'Well, it's not who it was meant for,' Peter said, nodding at the teacher's table as he stood. 'She's over there.'

'You know who is absent,' James said. 'They left right after we sat down.'

Sirius laughed. 'Oh, I hope you're right. It'll be priceless.'

'If only we had a camera,' Remus said, finally standing up too.

They took their time climbing the stairs and finally reached Gryffindor Tower ten minutes later. The door to their dormitory was closed, so James took the lead, pushing it open just enough to slip inside. As he'd suspected, the four members of the Marauders' Malediction were standing just inside the door, and he moved past them in silence, walking to his bed and settling down with his back against the headboard and his legs crossed at the ankles. His friends followed his lead, taking seats on their own beds, Sirius electing to lie on his stomach, Remus just perching on the end of his mattress, and Peter sitting in the middle of his with his legs crossed.

Only when they were all comfortable did James turn his eyes on the girls. 'Hello,' he said, brightly. 'Sorry to keep you waiting. How can we help you?'

'Stop messing about and let us go,' Evans said, her green eyes blazing with fire as she glared at him. 'We've been stuck here for ages.'

Sirius checked his watch. 'It's only been twelve minutes. I'm sure you'll manage.'

'I'm confused,' Remus said. 'If you don't want anything, why are you in our room?'

'Why did you booby trap your door?' Dorcas said. 'Bit of a strange thing to do, isn't it?'

'Apparently not,' James said, waving his hand at them, 'since we caught you sneaking in here.'

'And we're still waiting for an explanation,' Sirius said.

'We were going to get back at Potter for leaving Lily to hurt herself after he froze her, alright?' Marlene snapped.

James raised his eyebrows. It was unfair, to say the least, but he could respect the desire for revenge. 'Oh really? How were you going to do that exactly?'

'We were going to put itching powder in your bed,' Evans said with a shrug.

James stared at her for a moment. 'Wow, I'm kind of insulted that you put so little thought into it, to be honest. You're the Marauders' Malediction and all I get is itching powder?' He shook his head with disappointment. 'You can let them go, Remus,' he added, turning away to grab his bag from the floor as if he had no further interest in the conversation. Itching powder? Really? It was so boring.

'Put these on, please,' Remus said.

'Why?' Dorcas asked.

'Can't let you hear the incantations, can I?'

Evans sighed. 'Fine, but it's not like we're going to do this again.'

James pulled a random book from his bag and glanced up as he settled back against the headboard. The girls were all holding pairs of white fluffy earmuffs that Remus had found somewhere. Or transfigured maybe?

'Yeah, it's probably best you don't,' Remus said. 'I've been thinking of adding some modifications to the trap that are quite unpleasant.'

James bit down on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing as he opened his book. They'd only set up the trap a week ago, so it was extremely doubtful that Remus was already thinking of modifications, but the girls didn't need to know that. The book he'd chosen turned out to be his Transfiguration textbook, which was annoying; he'd finished reading it over the Christmas holidays. But he turned to the chapter they were supposed to be reading for homework and pretended to be absorbed in the text while listening to Remus work through the series of counter charms required to release them.

He peeked through his eyelashes when Remus completed the final incantation to see him motion to the girls to take off the earmuffs. 'You should be able to move now.'

'Thanks,' Evans said, after taking off the earmuffs. She handed them to Remus, but instead of turning to the door, she took a step towards Peter's desk, her eyes trained on the painting above it. 'Marls said you probably did these paintings, Black?'

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. 'Yeah, why?'

'They're beautiful.'

Sirius' guarded expression broke into a grin. 'Thanks.'

Mary had walked over to Peter while Lily was admiring the artwork, and she was rubbing her hands together nervously. 'Are we okay?'

Peter frowned at her. 'What? Yeah. Why wouldn't we be?'

'Well, because we broke into your dorm to do something mean to your friend?'

James snorted. 'Mean? Don't you mean boring?'

Peter shrugged. 'We do shit like that to each other all the time. I really don't care.'

'It's going to be fun to have new people to play with,' Sirius said, smirking at the girls.

'So, we should be expecting retaliation, then?' Marlene asked.

James chuckled. 'Oh, absolutely.'

'Better watch your backs, girls,' Sirius said.

'And you better watch yours,' Marlene retorted.

Evans looked at her and then back at James. 'What are the rules?'

James shrugged. 'Who needs rules?'

'Nothing painful or permanent,' Remus said, rolling his eyes at James. 'Otherwise, anything goes.'

'And no telling,' Sirius added.

'Agreed,' Evans said. 'And how do we decide on the winner?'

James grinned, not quite believing this was happening. He'd give her anything she asked for if she'd just keep talking to him. 'You want a winner, Evans? Alright. I guess we can score each other.'

'That doesn't seem like it would work.'

'Why not? Do you have a problem being honest?'

'No,' Evans said, scowling at him. 'I just don't trust you to be fair.'

James rolled his eyes. She really didn't know him at all. 'I can be fair. And I think a fair score for this attempt would be a zero. Zero for creativity, zero for execution, zero for skilled use of magic, and zero for impact. Zero out of forty.'

'Fine,' Evans snapped, walking over to James' bed. 'We'll total the score on the last day of May.' She held her hand out to him and he shook it. Her skin was so soft, and it made his stomach do a somersault.

'May the best team win,' he said.

'Before we go,' Evans said. 'What's with that blank sheet of parchment hanging on your wall?'

James laughed. 'Why don't you ask it?'

'Ask it?'

James nodded. 'Go on.'

Evans walked over to the door, and with one last distrustful glance in his direction, faced the parchment. 'What are you?'

'What's it say?' Sirius asked.

'It says,' Evans replied, sounding annoyed, 'that I must be an idiot if I thought that would work.'

All four boys burst out laughing.

'So childish,' Evans said, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she turned to the door. 'Come on, girls.'

'See you later, Peter,' Mary said, giving her boyfriend a kiss before following Evans out of the door. Dorcas turned on her heel and walked out without a word, and Marlene blew them a kiss. 'Bye, weirdos.'

'Look who's talking,' Sirius shouted after her retreating back. The door closing cut off the sound of her laughter, and the boys all looked at each other.

'Itching powder?' James said, finally.

Sirius shook his head. 'I don't believe it for a second. She told us too fast.'

'And she didn't argue the zero,' Remus agreed. 'I think they did something before we got here. The trap's designed to keep you in place, but it wouldn't have stopped them using magic. I couldn't find a way to do that.'

'Everyone, be very careful what you touch,' James said. 'Can we test everything with the detector?'

'Everything?' Remus asked. 'That'll take the rest of the day.'

'Just the most likely stuff, then.'

'Alright, like what?'

'The beds, our clothes, the desks…' James looked around. 'I don't know. They could have messed with anything in here.'

Remus sighed and retrieved the detector from his bag before proceeding to test anything he could think of that might have been messed with, but after almost an hour of tediously staring at flashing lights, he'd found nothing. Giving up with a groan, he dropped onto Sirius' bed. 'If there's anything to find, they've hidden it well.'

'Alright,' James said. 'We'll just have to keep being careful. If anything seems off, we test it first.'

'So, can we talk about what we're going to do to them now?' Sirius asked.

James grinned and sat forward. 'It needs to be epic.'

'Hold up,' Remus said. 'Let's think about this sensibly.'

'Do we have to?' Sirius asked.

'Yes,' Remus said, making Sirius pout at him. It was cute as hell and he wanted to kiss it away, but he couldn't, so he looked back at James instead. 'We've got four months to fill. If we go too big straight away, everything we do after that will look shit.'

'He's got a point,' Sirius said. 'If we start small, we can lull them into a false sense of security. And then hit them with something epic when there's no time left for them to retaliate.'

'What do you think, Pete?' James asked.

'I agree with them,' Peter said, nodding his head at Remus and Sirius. 'Start small, see what they do back.'

James huffed. 'Well, I can see I'm outnumbered.'

'Sorry, Sunshine,' Remus said. 'Also, I think we need to avoid targeting their dorm room since that's what the Marauders did.'

'If we have to avoid doing the things the Marauders have done, it's going to really reduce our options,' Sirius said.

'We don't need to avoid everything. Just the difficult stuff, like getting in the girl's dorms, Polyjuice, that kind of thing.'

'But how do we target them without targeting their dorm?' Peter asked. 'That's the easiest way. It's why we did it. It's why they did it.'

'Yeah, that's the problem,' Remus said. 'It's going to be much easier for them to get us since we sit in the same seats every mealtime.'

'Maybe it's time to switch up our seating arrangements?' James said. 'Make ourselves less predictable.'

Remus sighed. He still felt uncomfortable being close to anyone who wasn't a Marauder, but it wouldn't be unbearable, and it wasn't for long. 'Yeah, alright.'

'If you don't want to, Moons…' Sirius said.

'No, it's fine. I should break out of my comfort zone occasionally.'

'You'll tell us if it's too much, right?' Peter asked.

Remus smiled at him. 'Yeah, of course.'

'Keep an eye on him, Twinkles,' James said. 'You know he won't say anything.'

'Was already planning to,' Sirius said.

'Oh, for Merlin's sake,' Remus said. 'Do you all think I enjoy suffering or something?'

'No,' James said. 'We just think you're so used to suffering in silence that you sometimes forget that you have people that care about you now.'

Remus blinked at him. 'You know, sometimes, it doesn't matter how true something is, it's still unfair to say it out loud.'

'Doesn't mean you don't need to hear it,' James said with a shrug. 'We love you, Moons. Accept it. Now, moving on, if we sit somewhere else for meals, they'll have to target us in class or in the corridors.'

'That makes things harder for them,' Sirius said. 'But we have the same problem.'

'True, but we also have an invisibility cloak and a house-elf,' James said.

'I don't think it's fair to use Peony,' Remus said. 'That gives us way too a big an advantage.'

James sighed. 'No, you're probably right. We're going to win, anyway. We don't need to cheat.'

'Only if we actually think of an idea,' Sirius said.

James pointed at him. 'True. I think we should take some time to think about it and present our ideas tomorrow night.'

'Sounds good to me,' Sirius said. 'I should probably get my Charms homework done.'

Remus rolled his eyes. 'You haven't started that yet?'

'I've thought about what I'm going to write. Does that count?'

'It's a foot-long essay,' Remus said. 'No, I don't think thinking about it counts.'

'Then no, I haven't started yet. It's fine. I've got plenty of time.'

'It's due first period tomorrow.'

'Exactly, plenty of time.'

Remus shook his head. He would never understand Sirius' willingness to leave work until the last minute. The anxiety of it not being done would drive him to distraction. But he had to admit, no matter how late Sirius left it, he always did get it done in time, and well enough to earn at least an E. 'I'll leave you to it, then. I need to work on the Valentine's day thing, anyway.'

'You can work here,' Sirius said.

'I won't distract you?'

'Moons, you'd have to leave the room entirely to not distract me.'

Remus laughed. 'Fine, let me get my stuff.'

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly as they all worked on their separate projects, interrupted by the occasional burst of conversation that lasted until one of them remembered they were supposed to be working and reminded the others. When dinner time rolled around, they put their work aside and left for the Great Hall. Walking into the room, Remus scanned the table and decided to sit in the gap beside Frank Longbottom. He was a quiet sort and probably wouldn't be too boisterous. And he was entirely focused on his girlfriend Alice, so he wouldn't take any notice of them.

Despite the choice, and despite Sirius' reassuring presence on his right, Remus was extremely uncomfortable. His friends noticed, of course, and no one lingered over their food. The meal was finished in record time, and they left before dessert was served. He could only hope it would get easier with time.

Remus joined Sirius on his bed again after dinner, but he was too tired to continue working, so he took a book to read and snuggled up under the covers while Sirius finished his essay. He must have fallen asleep at some point because he woke up to the darkness of drawn bed curtains and the cold horror of an all over body itch that he knew too well. But how could he be transforming now?

'Sirius! Wake up,' he yelled in a panic, sitting up. 'James! Peter! You need to get out.'

Sirius shot up to a sitting position, immediately alert. 'What's wrong?' Then he squirmed and scratched at arms. 'Fuck, I'm so itchy.'

There was no pain, Remus realised as James called from his bed. 'Shit, it actually is itching powder, isn't it?'

'Gods, I thought I was transforming,' Remus said, putting his head in his hands as relief flooded his body.

'Well, you do look kind of hairy,' Sirius said.

Sirius' hand stroked up and down his back comfortingly, and Remus looked at him. His face was covered in fine black hair, and his arms were sprouting a thick coat of black fur. 'Yeah, so do you.'

Sirius glanced down at his own arms. 'Oh my gods. James, it's not itching powder. It's a hair growth spell or something.'

'Yeah, I noticed,' James said, pulling back the curtains to Sirius' bed. The hair coating his face and body was the same shade of very dark brown as the hair on his head, and it was just as unruly. Remus couldn't hold back a laugh.

'What are you all yelling about?' Peter asked, poking his—very smooth and not at all hairy—face out from between his bed curtains.

'Well, how's that for favouritism?' James said. 'We all get furred and Bubbles gets away with it.'

'How do you think it works?' Sirius asked. 'Think it's something on the bed?'

James grinned and yanked the pillow out from under Remus' head. 'Let's find out.'

Sirius grabbed the quilt and leapt off the bed after him, leaving Remus with nothing to hide his hairy arms. He stared at them as he listened to James and Sirius chasing Peter around, trying to rub the bedding on him. It looked identical to the coarse fur that sprouted from his skin every month, and he shuddered at the memories. Peter's squeal finally made him look back up, and he laughed at the sight of James and Sirius pinning Peter to the floor and rubbing the bedding all over his face and arms as he struggled to fight them off.

'Marauders share everything, Bubbles,' James said, laughing. 'If one of us has to be hairy, we all have to be hairy.'

Remus choked on his laugh. 'Not strictly true, is it?'

'We're working on it,' James said, releasing Peter. 'Ha, it's working.'

'Oh gods, it's so itchy,' Peter complained, scratching everywhere he could reach as the fine blonde fur sprouted across his face and body.

'Aw, you look like a Labrador,' James said, laughing.

'What does that make you?' Sirius asked. 'You're basically a ball of fluff.'

'Shut up,' James said. 'I look adorable.'

Sirius stroked his arm. 'So fluffy. I think we need to update the Malediction's score. This is worth more than a zero.'

James nodded. 'Bonus points for concealment, too. I'm still not sure how they did it.'

'Do you think they'll notice?' Lily asked the moment they were back inside their own dorm with the door closed.

Marlene shook her head as she sat down at her desk. 'Not a chance. Cas did a great job transfiguring the false bed canopies. Potter and Black will be furry by morning.'

Mary climbed onto her bed on her stomach, catching sight of the small bouquet of flowers on her bedside table as she did so and smiling at the memory of Peter picking them for her as they walked around the Lake the previous evening. He was so sweet. She propped her chin on her crossed arms and watched her friends.

'I can't believe how easily they fell for the itching powder story,' Dorcas said. 'God, I wish I could be there when it happens.'

'Me too,' Lily said, laughing. 'I bet it'll be so funny.'

'We should get up early and wait in the common room,' Marlene said. 'Catch them when they try to sneak out to the Hospital Wing.'

'Oh my God, yes,' Lily said. 'Mary, where's your camera?'

'Should be in my trunk,' Mary said.

Dorcas grinned. 'We're going to get photos?'

'Yeah, we still have some of the developing potion left,' Lily said, crossing the room to Mary's trunk. She opened the lid and rummaged around for a minute before pulling out the camera. 'Found it.'

'Excellent,' Marlene said. 'We'll have to send them a copy of the photos.'

'Are we going to wait for them to do something back?' Dorcas asked. 'Or plan something else straight away?'

'Why wait?' Marlene said. 'I say we plan something now.'

'Potion in their food?' Lily suggested. 'They always sit in the same place, so it'd be easy.'

Mary shook her head. 'No good. They haven't stopped testing all their food since the hair thing.' And they were the only ones who still did. Everyone had for a week or two, but most forgot about it pretty quickly. Those four hadn't, though, and Mary found that interesting.

'Damn Professor Tenebris for teaching everyone that spell,' Lily said. 'Although, we should probably start using it, too. Peter's pretty good at potions, isn't he?'

'Yeah, he is,' Mary said, smiling. So good he could probably brew Polyjuice. If he had a reason to, that is. 'Really good. Did I tell you he's doing an apprenticeship with James' dad?'

'Yes,' they all responded together.

'Several times,' Dorcas said.

Mary giggled, burying her face in her arms. 'Sorry. I can't help it.'

'We know,' Lily said. 'It's sweet. Don't worry about it.'

'You would say that,' Marlene said. 'You're just as bad. Sunshine was so sweet today. Did you see the flowers Sunshine sent me? I wonder if Sunshine would like me with my hair up.'

'I never said that last one,' Lily argued.

'No, but I bet you thought it,' Dorcas said.

Lily blushed. 'I'm admitting nothing.'

'You don't need to,' Marlene said with a smirk at Dorcas. 'It's written all over your face every time you look at them.'

That was rich considering how Marlene looked at Dorcas, but that was none of Mary's business. It was also none of Mary's business that when Peter was telling her about his work for his apprenticeship the previous evening, he'd referred to James' dad as 'Sunshine's dad.' He got so excited talking about potions—it was adorable—and in amongst his lectures, he occasionally said things that he probably shouldn't, but he never noticed when he did it. Luckily for him, Mary wasn't one for gossip. And she found it quite amusing that Lily didn't realise she was flirting with the boy she hated the most in the whole school.

Of course, if Lily had an actual reason to hate him so much, Mary would tell her. But her opinion of James seemed to be based solely on bad assumptions and nasty words whispered into her ear by Snape. As far as Mary was concerned, Snape deserved everything he got. He was a nasty piece of work, and none of them could understand why Lily still gave him the time of day. Snape didn't deserve her loyalty.

And if James was as bad a person as Lily said he was, then he wouldn't have kept it to himself when he realised they were the ones who messed with the Quidditch match, would he? Lily was a stubborn witch, though. She wouldn't hear anything about James that contradicted the opinion she already had of him, so Mary saved her breath and held her tongue. Maybe when she eventually found out Sunshine and James Potter were one and the same, she'd finally admit she was wrong about him.

'So much for them always sitting in the same place,' Marlene said when they walked into the Great Hall for dinner a few hours later. 'Seems they realised that made them easy targets.'

'Well, I've never accused Potter of being stupid,' Lily said. 'Just lazy, mean, and arrogant.'

Mary rolled her eyes at that. The four Marauders (four, not two like everyone thought, and wasn't that clever?) were sitting halfway down the House table, eating quickly, and barely talking. Either they had somewhere to be, or they weren't happy sitting there. And obviously, there must be a reason they sat at the end normally. It couldn't just be a habit. More than likely, it was for Remus. He'd spent most of first year afraid to touch anyone. Maybe it still made him uncomfortable to be close to people who weren't his friends. If James was so mean and arrogant, would he agree to sit so out of the way for his friend's comfort? No, he wouldn't. Mary wanted to shake her and make her open her eyes—the evidence that James was a good person was everywhere—but as always, she held her tongue.

They elected to get an early night so they could wake early and be in the common room before the transfigured bed canopies reverted back into air and released the hair growth dust on James and Sirius' heads. At five-thirty the next morning, Mary was woken by Lily shaking her, and they all dressed quickly and made their way downstairs to wait, curling up on the sofa in front of the fire with Marlene in charge of the camera.

Half an hour passed before they heard footsteps on the stairs, and they all turned their heads towards the opening at the bottom, Marlene watching through the camera's viewfinder. James appeared first, looking for all the world like a vaguely human-shaped ball of ragged fluff. He grinned at them through the hair on his face, and the camera flashed.

'Morning, girls,' he said, posing for Marlene to take another photo. 'Did you want to stroke my fur, Evans?' He jogged over and held his arm out to her, his eyes twinkling with suppressed laughter. 'It's very soft.'

'No,' Lily said. 'We just wanted to get photos of our work.'

'Ah, go on, Lily,' Sirius said, coming to stand beside James. His fur was sleeker than James' but he still looked hilarious. 'Why did you make him all furry, if you're not going to pet him?'

'I'd rather pet a werewolf on the full moon,' Lily said, and James and Sirius looked at each other for a beat of silence before bursting into laughter as if it was the most hilarious thing they'd ever heard.

When they were done laughing, the two boys happily posed for photos as Marlene snapped the camera, and out of the corner of her eye, Mary noticed movement. She turned her head to look, just in time to see the portrait close over the opening. Did someone sneak out while they weren't looking?

'Where are Peter and Remus?' she asked.

'Probably almost at the Hospital Wing by now,' James said with a shrug. 'They didn't want you photographing them, so we were the distraction.'

'Why would we photograph them?' Lily asked. 'We only did it to you two.'

'Ah well,' James said. 'We didn't think that was right, did we, Sirius?'

Sirius shook his head. 'Absolutely not. You go after one of us, you get all of us.'

'Exactly,' James said, nodding sagely. 'So we made it even.'

'So, Remus and Peter are furry, too?' Marlene asked. 'Damn, I want to see that.'

'Tough,' James said, crossing his arms. 'They're gone.'

'And it's time we joined them. We'll see you later, ladies.' Sirius bowed and grabbed James' arm, pulling him towards the exit.

Half an hour later, they were back in their dorm when there was a tapping on the window. Lily opened it and took the scroll from the cutest little owl Mary had ever seen. It flew around the room once before soaring back out of the window. Lily sat back on her bed before opening the scroll and reading it aloud.

Ladies,

In light of recent events, we've adjusted your score. Your new total is itemised below.

'God, why do they have to be so posh?'

Marlene laughed. 'You have no idea what a wealthy pureblood education is like.'

Lily wrinkled her nose. 'I don't think I want to know.' Looking back at the scroll, she continued.

For creativity, we award you a three. We don't think making us grow hair everywhere was particularly imaginative, and we suspect you used a Zonko's product to achieve it. A poor effort.

'Well, they're not wrong,' Marlene said. Lily ignored her and continued reading.

For execution, we award you an eight. It would have been a ten had it not been so obvious you were lying about the itching powder. However, despite knowing you'd done something, we were unable to find anything. Good job.

'I guess you were wrong about them not being fair,' Mary said.

'I don't believe they knew we were lying at all,' Lily said. 'They're just saying that for an excuse to take points off.'

Mary suppressed a sigh and shut her mouth. There really was no point arguing with her.

For skilled use of magic, we award you a five. We're not entirely sure how you hid the product, or how you made it stay put until the middle of the night, but we suspect transfiguration was involved and none of us noticed it. Excellent work. However, again, you used a Zonko's product, so you lose points for that. (Please, let us know if that's not the case and we'll adjust your score accordingly).

For impact, we award you a six. You woke us up early on a Monday, and we'll likely have to miss at least one class. If we have to miss more classes, we'll increase this score. However, we did make it to the Hospital Wing without being seen, so you get no points for humiliation.

This gives you a total of twenty-two out of a possible forty. Not bad for a first attempt. Well done.

All our love,

Your furry opponents.

Lily rolled the scroll back up and tossed it onto her desk. "Not bad for a first attempt. Well done." It was so patronising. Who the hell did Potter think he was, anyway?

'Think we can increase our impact score by plastering the photos all over the school?' Marlene asked.

'Doubtful,' Dorcas said. 'Not with the way they were posing for them.'

'They probably did that on purpose,' Marlene said. 'Clever.'

'Not clever. They just don't feel embarrassment,' Lily said. 'Because they think they're God's gift to mankind.'

'That's a bit harsh,' Marlene said. 'I don't really know, James, but Sirius is cool.'

'Yeah, so cool he dumped you,' Lily said. 'I still don't get why you're still friends with him after that.'

'You don't need to understand it,' Marlene said, scowling at her. 'Just accept my decision.'

Lily sighed. She didn't want an argument, and she was mad at Potter, not Marlene. 'I'm sorry, you're right. It's none of my business.' She stood up and grabbed her bag. 'We should get ready to go.'

Lily's bad mood didn't last long, and by the time they'd finished breakfast, she was over it. The boys weren't in Charms, and they didn't turn up for third period Defence either. But they were in the Great Hall for lunch, de-furred and smiling. Lily was walking into Potions, past Potter's desk at the back by the door, when he grabbed her arm and pulled her over to him.

She yanked her arm out of his grip and scowled at him. 'Don't do that again.'

'Sorry,' he said, not looking the least bit apologetic, 'I needed to give you this.' He handed her a slip of parchment and grinned. 'Don't worry, it's just a note.'

'I wasn't worried,' she said. It came out a bit sharper than she'd intended, but his smile didn't falter. It was infuriating, actually. No matter how rude she was to him, the way he looked at her never changed. It was like he was completely unaffected by her. She turned away from him and walked to her desk, which she shared with Severus. He wasn't there yet, so she opened the parchment. It was written in the same annoyingly perfect calligraphy as the letter they'd received that morning.

Ladies,

As it turns out, the fur was impervious to all magical forms of removal, and Madam Pomfrey was forced to resort to muggle methods. McKinnon, if you're unaware of what 'shaving' involves, I'm sure Evans or McDonald will be happy to fill you in. All we're saying is, it was a decidedly unpleasant experience, and we're raising your impact score to a nine. Congratulations.

With a little less love,

Your no-longer-furry opponents.

Lily laughed despite herself at the signature. They had to be Remus' words. She refused to believe that Potter had a decent sense of humour.

'What's funny?' Severus asked, taking his seat beside her.

Lily folded the note and shoved it into her pocket. 'Nothing, just a note from Mary.'

As she'd known he would, Severus sneered and turned his attention to his textbook. He didn't like Mary. Mary didn't much like him either. She glanced over her shoulder at Potter and was surprised to find him already looking at her. Their eyes met, and he waggled his eyebrows, making her quickly turn away before he could catch the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. What the hell was wrong with her? She wasn't supposed to like him. He was horrible; always picking on Slytherins just because they were Slytherins. Like anyone got a choice about where they were sorted. Black didn't even speak to his brother anymore because of his sorting. And she knew exactly how horrible that felt.

No. She refused to be taken in by his charm. Good looks didn't make a good heart.

The girls spent the next day in a state of paranoid anxiety waiting for the boys to retaliate, but by Wednesday lunchtime they'd calmed down and accepted it was going to happen at some point and there was nothing they could do to prepare for the unknown. Besides, they had their own things to plan.

'Wish we could ask Sirius to make these posters,' Dorcas said. 'I am so not an artist.'

Marlene walked up behind her to peek over her shoulder. 'It doesn't look terrible.'

Dorcas laughed. 'Thanks, I guess.'

'They don't need to be pretty,' Mary said. 'Just because the Marauders do it, it doesn't mean we have to. The Chiefs last year didn't.'

Lily walked over to Dorcas' desk to have a look. It looked like she'd attempted to draw a picture of a couple ice-skating together, holding hands under a moonlit and starry sky, but it really was awful. 'Yeah… Let's scrap the picture idea.'

'Thank God,' Dorcas said, dropping her pencil and pushing the chair back to stand up. 'I was not looking forward to making three more of those.'

'What we need,' Lily said, 'is some kind of animation charm. We can just draw a border of simple hearts and stars, and then use magic to make them move. I bet I can find something in the library.'

'You want to go now?' Mary asked. 'I had an idea to make transfiguring the ice-skates easier, but I need to do some research.'

'Yeah, alright.' Lily turned to Marlene and Dorcas. 'Are you coming?'

Marlene shook her head. 'No, think I'm going to take a nap before Astronomy.'

'Yeah, me too,' Dorcas said.

'Okay, see you later, then,' Lily said. Mary had already grabbed her bag and was waiting for her by the door, so she grabbed her own things and waved to the others as she followed Mary out of the room. 'Have a good sleep.'

They only made it as far as the common room before they were forced to stop by the density of the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. 'What's going on?' Lily asked rhetorically.

Mary shrugged, moving back up the stairs a couple of steps and standing on tiptoes. 'Seems to be some kind of tent in the middle of the room?'

'A tent?' Lily joined her, and sure enough, there was a tall, square, tent-like structure in the middle of the room, just big enough for one or two people to stand inside. And students were milling around it, investigating.

'Peter!' Mary suddenly called, waving. 'Peter! Over here!'

How she'd managed to spot him, Lily didn't know, but a moment later Peter emerged from the crowd, smiling at Mary. 'Hi.'

'What's the tent?'

Peter shrugged. 'It appeared out of nowhere a few minutes ago. People are saying it's for Valentine's day? To send messages or something. The Marauders set it up.'

Mary smiled sweetly. 'That sounds fun. I wonder if anyone will send me a message.'

'I think that depends on if you want one,' Peter said. 'Apparently, they're going to be delivered publicly.'

'Oh. Well, maybe not then. That sounds really embarrassing.'

'I wouldn't mind,' Lily said. 'I think it'd be nice.'

'You're mad. Everyone would be looking at you.'

Lily shrugged. 'That wouldn't bother me.'

'I agree with Mary,' Peter said. 'I'd hate that kind of attention.'

Lily looked away when Mary took a step down towards Peter to kiss him and noticed the crowd had thinned quite a lot while they'd been talking. 'We can probably get through now.'

'Alright,' Mary said, still smiling at Peter. 'We're going to the library. I'll see you later.'

Lily spent the next three days thinking about sending a Valentine's message to Sunshine. They seemed like an extroverted kind of person, so she thought they'd like it but was it too soon for something like that? She still hadn't decided when she arrived at classroom 12c for the third and final Creature Hunt lesson. Next weekend would be the test.

Sunshine was in their usual disguise and was again wearing wizarding robes over a muggle outfit consisting of flared jeans and another skin-tight top, this time in red. The Marauders' ability to put together decent muggle outfits had her fairly certain at this point that at least one of them was muggleborn, or perhaps a halfblood raised in the muggle world. She was also quite sure at least one of them was female, not least because they'd made it into their dorm room. Although, they could have used Polyjuice for that. She wasn't sure how it worked.

It was a while before Sunshine approached their group, first helping the various groups of first years and then some of the less powerful second years, but eventually, they headed in Lily's direction.

'Miss Evans. Ladies,' they greeted with a smile. 'How are you all today?'

'We're okay,' Lily said. 'I don't think we're going to have any problems in the Forest.'

'From what I've seen, I don't think you will either.'

Lily couldn't stop herself from smiling. 'We do intend to win.'

Sunshine inclined their head. 'But of course. I wouldn't expect any less from the four of you. I've been keeping an eye on the noticeboards, though. Are you having trouble getting your posters put up?'

'Ah, yeah,' Lily said. 'We can't find Hufflepuff, and haven't been able to get a password for Slytherin yet.'

'I know both of those things. Want me to tell you?'

'That would be great. Thanks.'

'No problem.' Sunshine lowered their voice even more than it already was and leant in close. 'The current password to Slytherin is Lord Voldemort—'

'Really?'

Sunshine nodded. 'Yeah, I know. Bit much isn't it?'

'Ridiculous.'

'Hufflepuff is in the basement, near the kitchens.' Sunshine moved back to look at her face and Lily nodded to show she knew where the kitchens were. 'The entrance is hidden in a stack of barrels. The correct one is the sixth from the right, second row up, and you need to tap it with your wand in this pattern.' Sunshine tapped their wand against the palm of their hand to show her the right rhythm, and Lily copied them.

'That's it,' Sunshine said, nodding, then they winked. 'Have fun. And don't get caught.'

'And if we do, don't tell,' Lily said, laughing. 'Yeah, I know the rules.'

Since they'd switched from learning how to survive various attempts on their lives, to learning how to control and use their mental connection, Professor Tenebris' lessons had lost some of their intensity, but Peter still felt a certain amount of trepidation approaching her classroom the night before Valentine's day. The previous week, they'd been practising forcing themselves into a state of happiness and joy to cancel an alarm, and joy wasn't an emotion that came easily to Peter.

That wasn't to say he didn't enjoy things. There were lots of things that made him happy, brewing being one of the highest on the list, with his friends and Arabella taking the very top spot, but there was a thin layer of dark clouds covering the sky of his life, preventing the gentle glow of happiness from developing into bright rays of joy—his guilt and shame. So, these lessons were hard on Peter. He'd actually preferred the ones where they were intentionally making themselves afraid. He took a little comfort from the fact that Sirius and Remus were struggling almost as much as he was. The only Marauder that seemed to find it relatively easy was James. No surprises there. It was hard not to feel jealous of how easy his life was sometimes.

'Good evening, boys. Come in, come in. Sit down,' Professor Tenebris said. 'I've had an idea.'

And why did that sentence coming out of her mouth fill Peter with so much dread? James made a valiant effort to hide his laugh with a cough and squeezed Peter's hand. Guess he heard that. Whoops.

'What's your idea?' Sirius asked for them all, taking a seat in one of the transfigured armchairs.

'Cheering charms,' Professor Tenebris said. 'You can cast it on yourself and counter it immediately. However, it is a third-year spell, so I'll need to test your cores first.'

James pointed at Sirius, 'Fourteen.' He moved his finger to Peter, 'Twelve. Thirteen.' He jerked his thumb at himself, and then he pointed at Remus and rolled his eyes. 'Twenty-nine.'

Professor Tenebris raised her eyebrows. 'Test yourselves often, do you?'

'About once a month,' James said, shrugging. 'It's important information to know.'

'We like to push ourselves,' Sirius said.

'I've noticed,' Professor Tenebris replied with a chuckle. 'Alright, well, Peter, this spell is right on the edge of your capabilities. You might be able to cast it with a little lightheadedness, or it might drain your core. It's up to you if you want to try it.'

'Um, what happens if it drains me?'

'I'll have the replenishing potion ready. I won't let you go too far, but it won't be pleasant.'

'That's an understatement,' James said. 'It's really awful, Pete. Worst thing I've ever experienced.'

That's not really saying much. Peter bit back the mean-spirited thought and nodded. 'I'll try it.'

Professor Tenebris gave him an approving glance and stood up. 'Alright then, I'll take you through the theory and then we can give it a try, yes?'

Forty-five minutes later, they were all able to cast the charm about fifty per cent of the time, which was good enough for their purposes.

'Alright, let's see how well this works then,' Professor Tenebris said. She waved her wand and conjured nine small wooden cubes, each one in a different colour. Then she grabbed a sheet of parchment from her desk and drew a picture, which she handed to Remus. 'You're going to tell Sirius what's on the parchment. He will tell Peter, who will tell James. James will recreate the picture with the blocks. Understand?'

They all nodded, and Peter sat back in his chair to wait. Remus had his eyes closed and was concentrating hard on sending the first message to Sirius, and it was less than a minute before Sirius grinned and closed his own eyes. Another minute later, Peter heard Sirius' voice in his head. 'It's a square and the bottom row, from left to right, is orange, yellow, blue.'

Peter smiled. They were pretty good at sending messages on command now and had been working on extending their sentences so they could send longer ones. It seemed Remus was getting the hang of it.

Remus cast a cheering charm on himself, followed immediately by the counter after a small giggle, and Peter closed his eyes to run his panic-inducing scenario—his death by acromantula in the Forest. Just as the giant spider stalked towards him out of the trees, clicking its pincers, he shouted the message, repeating it several times as the scenario progressed to be sure it sent.

When he heard James start messing with the blocks, he opened his eyes and watched as he arranged the first three blocks in the right order, and then he took a deep breath—slipping his hand into his pocket to grip one of the chess pieces stored there—and cast the Cheering charm on himself. The dizziness was awful, but the charm still worked, making him not really care that he felt so ill and sending him into a state of such euphoria he started to giggle. Casting the counter was a bit of a struggle, knowing it would make the feeling stop. He didn't want it to stop. It was wonderful. But he scraped up enough self-control to make himself cast it, and the euphoria drifted away, leaving him with just the dizziness. Peter was glad he was sitting down.

By the time they'd finished, Peter was struggling to keep his eyes open, but they had one more thing to do before he could crawl into his bed. It had been ten days since the event they referred to as the hairy morning and it had taken much effort on Remus' part, but they were finally ready to retaliate.

'Mary said they were all going to the library this evening,' Peter said. 'They should still be there.'

'Perfect,' James said. 'It'd be so much harder in the common room.'

They wandered around the shelves of books, peeping into rooms as they passed, for several minutes before they found the girls sitting around a table, heads bent over books and notes. James grinned and pointed his wand at Lily. 'Ready?'

Peter aimed up on Mary, only feeling a little guilty about it, and nodded. Sirius took Marlene, and Remus, Dorcas.

'After three. One, two, three.'

In unison, they moved their wands and recited the incantation. The spell had no visible effects as it flew to its target, but the pages of the open books on the table fluttered as it passed.

'What was that?' Dorcas asked as the boys ducked back behind the shelves.

'Someone probably opened a window or something,' Mary said.

'Or something,' James whispered, making Sirius chuckle.

'Let's get out of here before they see us,' Remus said. Peter was more than happy to obey. His head was aching and his bed was calling to him. Unfortunately, there were four flights of stairs between him and it, so the sooner he got started climbing them, the better.

It involved no small amount of lurking at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, but they managed to "accidentally" bump into the girls the next morning, and it seemed they'd yet to discover the enchantment the boys had cast on them. So James took it upon himself to reveal it to them.

'Hey Evans!' he called to get her attention. 'I don't suppose you know where Snivellus is?'

Peter bit his lip to keep from smiling as the small grey cloud began to form above her head. 'I've told you not to call him that, Potter.'

'Ah, shit, sorry. But do you know where he is? We bought him a gift. It's an especially expensive hair potion for extra greasy hair.'

The cloud above her head expanded and let out a few drops of rain, making her glance up. 'What the fuck?'

'Oh, dear,' Sirius said, smirking at the girls—the other three had their own clouds forming now, whiter than the one above Lily's head. 'Seems like you have a bit of a weather problem going on.'

'What did you do?' Marlene shrieked as her cloud began sleeting on her.

'It's a simple enough spell,' James lied. 'I'm sure you'll figure it out.'