Friday, 30th March 1973

As he gazed around at the commotion, Remus' stomach squirmed. They were going to be in so much trouble. Half the people in the room were making awful sounds of discomfort as the giant bogeys fought their way out of their noses. The other half were either firing spells at the bogeys that were attacking them or simply trying to run away.

'What do we do?' James whispered. 'Should we cast the counter?'

'If we do, people will suspect us,' Sirius said.

'They will anyway,' Remus said, pointing his wand at a bat-shaped bogey heading their way and splatting it against the wall with a powerful Knockback jinx. 'We're the only ones not affected.'

'It was an accident, anyway. We didn't mean to do this,' Peter said, waving his hand to indicate the craziness happening in the Common room.

'Peter's right,' Remus agreed. 'The other option is to take off our necklaces, and personally, I'd rather not have to deal with that.'

Sirius nodded and pulled out his wand. 'Yeah, alright,' he said before pointing it at the nearest student that was clutching their nose and performing the counter curse.

They all joined him, moving through the room as they performed the spell on all the affected students. Others quickly picked up the incantation and wand movements from watching them and it didn't take long to cure everyone. Once everyone could freely join the fight, the giant bat-shaped bogeys didn't stand a chance, and the room was cleared in a matter of moments.

'Time to face the music,' James murmured.

He was right. People all over the room were staring at them, pointing, and whispering to each other. Remus glanced around at all the annoyed faces and swallowed. It looked like their entire House was turning against them.

'It was you four, wasn't it?' a boy nearby asked. 'That's why you knew the counter spell.'

'Their door wasn't cursed, either,' another boy shouted. 'I saw them come out.'

'How did you do it?' one of the older girls called. 'How did you get up to the girls' dorms? You been spying on us?'

'What?' James asked in a shocked voice. 'No! We would never!'

'We didn't go up there,' Remus tried. 'This whole thing was an accident.'

'Oh, sure. You somehow accidentally cursed every door in Gryffindor Tower,' another girl said, her tone dripping with an admirable amount of sarcasm. Remus would have been impressed if he wasn't so outraged by the unfairness of it.

'Exactly,' Sirius said. 'You got it in one. Congratulations.'

'Alright, that's enough,' Sally said, pushing her way through the crowd to where the Marauders were facing down their accusers. 'The evidence against them is undeniable, but I won't allow you all to gang up on them. Toby and I will take them to Professor McGonagall and she can deal with it.'

Remus shot her a grateful smile as Toby—the other seventh-year prefect from Gryffindor—joined them, and she nodded at him in return before turning towards the portrait hole, waving them through ahead of her. But the moment Sally followed them through the exit, her hands flew to cover her nose and she groaned as the head of a bat-shaped bogey emerged between her fingers, wriggling its way out.

'Really? The portrait hole, too?' Toby asked, sounding annoyed. While he was busying himself breaking the curse on the doorway, Remus pulled his wand out again and cast the counter on Sally, making the bogey shrink into nothing before it had managed to struggle out enough to take flight.

'Like we said,' James said after Toby had climbed through into the corridor and closed the portrait behind him. 'We didn't mean to do this. It was an accident.'

Rolling his eyes, Toby turned away and started towards Professor McGonagall's office. 'Save it for McGonagall.'

With a barely suppressed sigh and a glance at his friends, Remus fell into step behind him. His nerves had settled down a bit since Sally had announced they would be taken to McGonagall. She'd always been fair with them in the past, and she knew enough about their activities to understand what they'd been trying to do, and why they were doing it. Although, that didn't mean there wouldn't be consequences. McGonagall was fond of consequences.

That possibility increased when a giant bat-shaped bogey came soaring down the corridor towards them from the opposite direction. Had their spell affected more than just Gryffindor Tower?

Toby vanished the magically animated mucus before it could reach them and didn't hesitate to communicate his disapproval with a scowl in their direction. The moment he looked away, Remus rolled his eyes at his friends, making them grin back at him. It was, quite possibly, the best practical joke they'd ever pulled off, even if it had been entirely accidental, and it wouldn't hurt to revel in the outcome a little.

And a little was all they had time for. It only took a few moments to reach Professor McGonagall's quarters, and Toby knocked sharply three times.

The door swung open after a long few seconds and Professor McGonagall was standing in the gap, fully dressed, despite the early hour, and frowning with concern. 'Yes, what is it?'

'Sorry to bother you so early, Professor,' Toby said politely. 'But these four students thought it a good idea to curse every doorway in Gryffindor Tower. Sally and I would have dealt with it ourselves, but they won't admit how they managed to reach the girls' dorms, and some of the students are understandably concerned.'

'I see,' Professor McGonagall said, her head tilting to one side almost imperceptibly. 'Cursed how?'

'It makes giant bats made of mucus climb out of your nose and attack you.'

She nodded, as if that was the answer she was expecting, and opened her door wider. 'You'd better come in and have a seat,' she said, looking at the Marauders. Then, turning back to Sally and Toby, 'Thank you for bringing this to my attention. You may go.'

Remus followed his friends into Professor McGonagall's sitting room and took a seat on one of the sofas. She joined them a moment later, adjusting her robes as she took a seat in the armchair.

'So,' she started, gazing around and making eye contact with each of them in turn. 'I don't believe for one second that you broke into my quarters last night to curse my bedroom and bathroom doors. Why don't you tell me what actually happened?'

'Your doors were cursed too?' James asked. 'That's not good.'

'We were booby trapping our dormitory door and window,' Remus said. 'Professor Tenebris has taken to kidnapping us from our beds at night, so we need to protect our dorm.'

Her eyebrows went up in surprise. 'She's been doing what?'

'It's okay,' Sirius said. 'It's part of our training. She's teaching us how to keep ourselves safe.'

'Right.' Professor McGonagall sounded a little faint, but she took a deep breath and straightened up. 'We'll come back to that. How did cursing one door end up cursing every door in Gryffindor Tower and my quarters?'

'That's what we'd like to know,' James said. 'Also, it may be worse than that. We saw one of the bat things in the hallway on the way here.'

'I think it might actually be every door in the castle,' Remus said. 'That makes more sense than it being random doors.'

'Yes, you could be right,' Professor McGonagall said. 'Walk me through what happened. Maybe we can work out what went wrong.'

James nodded. 'Alright, so I was adding the bat-bogey hex to the door, and Remus was adding it to the window—'

'Adding it?'

'Yeah, we already had spells on the door and window to trap anyone who came in and keep them from being able to move, but it didn't stop them from casting magic. Professor Tenebris broke in Monday night and we had to fight her. We won, but she told us we should add something to delay an attacker from being able to cast at us.'

Professor McGonagall inclined her head. 'Alright, so you were adding the spells. Then what happened?'

'Right as I finished casting, my wand got really hot,' Remus said. 'It burned me. I had to drop it.'

'Not just your wand,' Peter said. 'Remember? The whole room got hot for a second. It was like the hot wind that hits you in the face when you open the oven.'

'Yeah, that's right. It was weird,' James said.

'It sounds like your spell was augmented by something,' Professor McGonagall said slowly, her brow creased with thought. 'The simultaneous casting would have increased the potency a little, but not enough to cause this. Do you recall anything else? Anything at all. Even if you don't think it could be connected.'

'There was a storm,' Sirius said after a few moments of silence. 'The first lightning strike happened right when they were casting the spell.'

'And Mister Lupin was right by the window,' Professor McGonagall said, her face relaxing into understanding, 'creating a chain to Mister Potter casting on the door. The electricity would have been attracted to your combined magic. And because you were casting on the castle, it spread through the structure, affecting every door and window in the building. I've read about storms affecting group spells before, but it's incredibly rare.'

'The electricity made the magic stronger?' Peter asked.

Professor McGonagall nodded. 'In a way. It would have bound Mister Lupin and Mister Potter's magic together. I'm not sure why it spread so far, though. It's almost like it was forced away from you by something. Were any of the spells on the door barrier spells?'

'No,' Remus said. 'Nothing like that at all.'

'I think it was me,' Sirius said, looking at the floor. 'Accidental magic, maybe.'

'Were you scared at the time?' Professor McGonagall asked.

Remus took Sirius' hand in his and squeezed gently, answering for him so he wouldn't have to say the words. 'Sirius doesn't like storms.'

'Yes, that would explain it,' Professor McGonagall said, looking at Sirius' bowed head with sympathy. She hesitated, but seemed to decide not to say anything more about it because she continued with, 'It seems this was nothing more than a series of unfortunate events. However, there are consequences to every choice we make, and we have quite a problem on our hands here. I'm assigning the four of you to de-curse all the doors and windows in the school, except for the other House areas, during your free time for however long it takes.'

'What?' Sirius said, his head shooting back up. 'That's not fair. It was an accident!'

'Accident or not, there are consequences. If you drop something and it smashes, someone else doesn't clean up the mess for you because it was an accident.'

'Yeah, the house-elves do it,' Sirius said.

Peter laughed. 'Not everyone has house-elves, Sirius.'

'Oh, yeah. Right.' Sirius shot Peter a sheepish look before turning back to their Head of House. 'You realise this is going to take forever?'

'Your Easter holidays start in two weeks, so you'll have plenty of time.' They all groaned, which just made Professor McGonagall smile.

'Fine,' Sirius said. 'You're a hard woman, Minnie, but I still adore you. Can we go now?'

Professor McGonagall's lips twitched at the nickname, but she didn't acknowledge it. 'There's one more thing I need to address before you leave. While I understand that protecting your dorm from intruders is a part of your lessons with Professor Tenebris, I do need to have access as your Head of House.'

'I can make you an exception like I did for us,' Remus said. 'So you can get through? I just need an item to link the magic to. Ideally, something you carry all the time so you don't need to remember to bring it with you.'

Professor McGonagall nodded. 'That seems acceptable.' She hesitated for a long moment before reaching up to her throat and pulling a chain out from the neck of her robes. Handing it to Remus after unclasping it, she met his eyes with a serious expression. 'I'm trusting you not to lose this, Mister Lupin. Please return it to me as soon as possible.'

Remus looked down at the item in his hand. Threaded onto the chain was a silver ring with a single tiny diamond set into the band. An engagement ring? He hadn't known Professor McGonagall was married. Or perhaps the relationship hadn't worked out, and the ring was a keepsake. Whatever the reason, the jewellery was clearly important to her.

'I won't lose it,' he promised, tucking it into the pocket of his robes. 'I'll do it this morning and give it back to you in Transfiguration.'

'Thank you.' Professor McGonagall smiled at him and stood up. 'Alright, you may go. I'll ask the Headmaster to make an announcement at breakfast so everyone knows it was an accident. Hopefully, that'll prevent any retaliation against you.'

'Thank you, Professor,' Remus said, climbing to his feet. The others joined him and they walked to the door together. 'Did you already de-curse this door?'

'No, but don't worry about it. I'll do it before I go down to breakfast.'

Remus nodded and pulled it open, stepping into the corridor with his friends right behind him. 'I guess we should do Gryffindor Tower first?'

James shook his head. 'The prefects probably already did it. Let's just go to breakfast. I don't fancy trying to convince everyone it was an accident on an empty stomach.'

Remembering the angry faces of their fellow Gryffindors, Remus realised he had a point and agreed. 'Yeah, they were pretty mad, weren't they?'

Dumbledore made his announcement near the end of breakfast, informing the student body that the curse placed on all the doors and windows throughout the castle had been an accident—giving a vague description of what had occurred—and that the people responsible for it had "volunteered" to repair the damage. He finished his speech with a weighted hint that helping others was good for one's soul, and as the Marauders left the Hall to begin the de-cursing of the doors on the ground floor, they spotted several groups of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws already working on it. Apparently, they wouldn't have to clear the entire castle of hex magic alone, after all.

With the teaching staff taking care of the doors and windows to their own classrooms and personal quarters, the prefects dealing with the Common Rooms and dorms, and small groups of self-appointed helpers wandering the halls, all the regularly used rooms had been cleared by the end of the day, leaving only the lesser-known 'doors' still a danger. Remus wondered how many secret passages remained cursed because they weren't known by any of the castle's current occupants, and how long it would take for all of them to be found. It was funny to think of an unsuspecting first year discovering a secret passage years in the future and wondering why someone had bothered to curse it with a bag-bogey hex.

After dinner that night, they returned to Gryffindor Tower, finding their house-mates had calmed down a lot since that morning. They still received a few scowls as they made their way across the Common Room, but most of the students seemed to believe Professor Dumbledore's explanation and had forgiven them. The results may have been extreme in this instance, but they weren't the first to have caused mayhem with magic gone awry and they wouldn't be the last.

They'd been in their dorm for half an hour before Remus noticed how quiet Peter had been. It wasn't unusual for any of them to become focused on their own things and forget about the rest of the world. Right then, for example, James was so intent on learning to play his guitar that he hadn't so much as glanced at them for twenty minutes. But the moment they'd arrived in the room, Peter had settled on his bed, pulling books and parchment from his bag without a word, and he hadn't looked up since. It wouldn't be that weird, but he hadn't even said what he was doing.

'You working on something important, Bubbles?' Remus asked. His question caused James to look up from his guitar and Sirius to lower his arithmancy book, as well as making Peter stop scribbling in his notebook and meet his gaze. There was an excited gleam in his eyes and he ran a hand through his hair before answering.

'I think I've figured it out.'

Remus raised his eyebrows at the vague response. 'Figured what out?'

'How to make the moonsickness potion work.'

That made him sit up and pay attention, and his hand went to his stomach to keep the squirming feeling from bursting out. 'Really?'

Peter nodded eagerly. 'Electricity.'

'What?'

'It's what McGonagall said about the lightning binding yours and James' magic together. I need to do some experiments, but I really think this is going to work. I'll have to do something else for my apprenticeship project, of course. Muggle electricity isn't a known potion ingredient. But that doesn't matter.'

'Slow down, mate,' Sirius said. 'We don't understand what you're talking about. How does the magic binding thing help?'

Peter sighed heavily. 'You never listen to me.'

'We do,' James said. 'We just forget because we don't really understand it.'

'Alright, I'll try to keep it simple for you,' Peter said. 'I'm trying to combat all the symptoms, right? I figured out the nausea and the tiredness, but I couldn't find a way to stop the pain without using murtlap tentacles and salamander blood, and they require aconite to bind them. But if electricity can bind different magics together, then—'

'Then you won't need aconite,' Sirius finished for him. 'Fuck, Pete. You're a genius.'

Peter flushed. 'Well, we don't know if it will work yet.'

'I think you're ignoring one important detail,' Remus said, making them all look at him. 'Electricity is dangerous. I won't let you risk killing yourself for me.'

Peter rolled his eyes. 'That's why I've written to Bella, asking her to send me some books about electricity. I'm not stupid, Moony.'

'Where are we going to get electricity, though?' James asked. 'Are we just going to wait for another storm?'

'There's electricity in the squib wing,' Peter said. 'I figured we could set up a brewing station over there.'

James nodded. 'Sounds like a plan.'

'Sounds like a really dangerous plan,' Remus said.

'Good job we have a competent safety monitor, then, isn't it?' Sirius said, smirking as he dropped a kiss on Remus' lips. 'Stop worrying, Moonbeam. It'll be fine.'

With only a few weeks to go until the Easter holidays, Lily had been keeping an eye on the Gryffindor noticeboard and the Sunday following the bat-bogey incident, a poster finally appeared advertising Hogwarts' Annual Super Secret Midnight Flying Competition which would be held on the 6th May.

'I guess they're not doing anything for Easter then,' Lily said, trying to mask her disappointment. With the Creature Hunt lessons over, she had no way of getting hold of Sunshine and had been hoping to get a chance to see them before the break.

'Why don't you just send them a message again,' Marlene said, seeing right through her as usual. 'Like with the flowers.'

'Saying what? I miss you. Can we meet?' Lily shrugged and started moving towards the exit. 'It's been more than a month and they haven't tried to talk to me despite actually knowing who I am. They're clearly not interested. I'd look like an idiot.'

'Maybe they're just trying not to be pushy,' Mary said.

'Or trying to keep you from guessing who they are,' Dorcas said. 'Because they're a seventh-year and they don't want you to know.'

Lily pushed on the back of the portrait to open it and climbed through. 'I wish you'd stop saying that.'

'Why?' Dorcas asked, following her. 'Because you know it's a possibility, and it makes you uncomfortable?'

'No,' Lily said, stopping to wait for the others. 'Because it's really unlikely. And it doesn't matter, anyway. They're not interested.'

'I think you're reading too much into it,' Mary said, coming to stand beside her after climbing through the portrait hole. 'Maybe they've just been really busy.'

Maybe the werewolf had a bad couple of full moons, Lily thought with a twinge of guilt. 'Yeah, you might be right.'

Marlene joined them a moment later, pushing the portrait closed behind her. 'Why don't we do something for Easter if the Marauders aren't?'

The suggestion caused a thrill of excitement to run down her spine, and she grinned. 'An egg hunt all through the castle? That could be fun.'

'House teams?' Mary asked. 'Like they did for Halloween?'

'That would make the most sense,' Marlene agreed. 'If we did small teams, there's more chance of it ending in a tie.'

'We should advertise it as soon as possible before people start deciding to go home for the holidays,' Dorcas said.

'We can make a poster after breakfast and put it up tonight,' Lily agreed. 'There's no need to make it a secret event, so we can just put it up on the main noticeboard.'

'Are we going to include the teachers?' Mary asked.

'I don't know,' Lily said. 'They'd have a much smaller team than the rest of us. Doesn't really seem fair.'

'Yeah,' Dorcas agreed. 'They had an advantage in Capture the Crystal that made up for it, but having more experience with magic isn't going to help them find chocolate eggs.'

'Unless there's a spell to locate chocolate,' Marlene said. 'You don't know. There might be.'

Lily laughed. 'If there is, I want to learn it.'

'Talking of chocolate,' Dorcas said. 'We're going to need a lot of it.'

'Do you think the house-elves would give us the eggs?' Mary suggested. 'It is technically food.'

'It won't hurt to ask them,' Lily said. 'If not, we'll have to use fake eggs. We can't afford to buy enough for the whole school.'

'We can go to the kitchen after breakfast,' Marlene said.

It turned out that the house-elves were delighted to provide them with a large quantity of chocolate eggs once Lily had explained what they wanted them for, and they arranged for them to be delivered to their dorm the evening before Easter Sunday before returning to their dorm to make the posters.

Lily skirted around the edge of the open space between their beds, avoiding standing on her and Mary's latest jigsaw-in-progress, which took up most of the floor. It was a 5000-piece monster of a puzzle and they were only about halfway through completing the tranquil forest scene. The last thing she wanted to do was destroy their progress with clumsy feet. After taking a seat at her desk, she pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment from the top drawer and picked up her quill. They'd decided that each of them would draw up a poster and then they'd pick the best one to hang on the noticeboard. A little competition always made for better results.

Mary's poster won the vote—the little animated bunnies she'd decorated the border with were too adorable not to put on display—and they crept down to the Entrance Hall late that night to hang it on the noticeboard.

The following day, in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Tenebris announced that they were finished learning new spells, and would be spending the rest of the year practising what they'd learned in mock duels. Lily was partnered with Remus for the lesson and it was fun. They were pretty evenly matched, with her skill in offensive charms a perfect mirror for his ability with defensive magic of all types, but it was what happened near the end of the lesson that had given her an idea.

They'd been locked in their fifth duel, it was to be the decider as they'd both won two a piece at that point, and there were only a few minutes to go until the start of lunch. Many of the pairings had opted not to begin a fresh duel when their last one came to an end and were moving to watch the pairs that were still fighting. And for no apparent reason, Remus had allowed Lily's Jellyfingers Jinx to hit him when he could have easily deflected it, making him drop his wand and winning her the match.

'He hates attention,' Lily told her friends later that night. 'Peter too. So if we want to maximise our impact, we need to target those two, and leave Potter and Black out of it so they can't draw the attention to themselves.'

'We'd have to make sure they can't do what they did with the hair-growth powder,' Marlene said. She was sitting on her bed testing out a nail colour charm they'd found in the library, and she held up a hand with nails painted bright orange. 'What do you think?'

Lily squinted up at her from her position on the floor, surrounded by puzzle pieces. 'It's a bit bright, don't you think?'

'It's supposed to be,' Marlene said, grinning.

'Then it's perfect.'

'That's what I thought.' Her smile turned sly as she inspected her fingers again. 'Do you think the boys know anything about beauty charms?'

'Probably not,' Lily said, grinning. 'That's a brilliant idea!'

Dorcas frowned. 'I don't get it?'

'We could give them a very public makeover,' Lily explained. 'And they wouldn't have a clue how to undo any of it. We'd need a way to apply the spells from a distance, though.'

'I don't really like the idea of embarrassing Peter like that,' Mary said, putting down the puzzle piece she'd been examining. 'Not without the others.'

'He agreed to the competition,' Lily pointed out. 'No one forced him to.'

'You know, there is a way we can include Sirius that he would definitely hate,' Marlene said, and when Lily looked at her, there was an evil glint in her eyes.

'How?'

'We mess with his hair. He's completely obsessive about it.'

'That's true,' Dorcas said. 'Remember when we did the hair colour potion? He made it stay black all the time. And that can't have been much fun.'

'I still want to know what he was thinking about to keep it that colour,' Lily said. Black had been caused by emotions of stress, anxiety, and fear, so whatever he'd been focusing on, it couldn't have been pleasant. 'But you're right. That does prove how much he cares about his hair.'

'So it's just James we're leaving out, then?' Mary asked.

'Yes,' Lily said. 'And the very fact that we ignored him will drive him mad.'

'Merlin, you're right,' Marlene said, laughing. 'It's genius.'

'If we can find a way to cast the spells without being spotted,' Dorcas said.

Lily shrugged. 'I'm sure we'll be able to find something in the library before it's our turn. We can go Wednesday afternoon.'

When Wednesday morning brought the first clear skies and sunshine they'd seen in weeks, Lily began to regret the plans they'd made to shut themselves away in the castle, but by the time they'd finished Flying lessons and had changed back into their uniform for lunch, she was beginning to feel a little weird and decided that maybe staying in was for the best.

It wasn't anything serious. She just felt a little light-headed and warm. It wasn't worth mentioning anything to the others and by the time they'd all finished lunch and they were on their way to the library, she just felt extremely happy. The dizziness must just have been because she was hungry.

The library was fairly deserted, so they set themselves up at a table in the middle of the main area and began perusing the shelves for anything that might help them to solve their problem. It wasn't long before they had a small stack of books on their desk, most of them focused on beauty charms—spells for make-up, hair-styling charms, and the like—but there were also a few that concentrated on charms theory or remote magic.

'What do you think Sirius would look like with curls?' Marlene asked after a few minutes of flicking through Hair Styles for Every Occasion.

Lily pictured it in her mind and the image she conjured made her break out into giggles. 'God, yes. But short, and make it really tight little curls. He'll look ridiculous.'

'Can we change the colour too?' Mary asked. She was also giggling, and her face looked a little redder than usual. 'If we turned him blonde, but left his eyebrows dark…'

'Can we make his eyebrows grow?' Dorcas asked. 'His are always annoyingly neat.'

'Actually, I did see something. It's for when you accidentally remove too much, so you can grow it back.' Marlene flicked back through the book. 'Yes, here it is. Looks simple enough.'

Lily snorted with amusement. 'Let me see,' she said, leaning over the table to tug the book from Marlene's hands and knocking over the stack of books in the process. The topmost book went tumbling to the ground with a thud, and they all froze, glancing over to the librarian's desk. She was staring right at them, her face contorted with anger.

'Sorry,' Lily called, leaning down to pick the book back up. 'It was an accident.' The book was just out of reach, but if she leant just a little further… She squealed as she felt herself overbalance, but managed to break her fall with her hands so she didn't face-plant the ground.

When Lily looked up, Madam Pince was on her way over. Climbing to her feet, she brushed her hands off on the front of her robes and tried her best to look apologetic, which was hard because everything had been an accident and it was completely unfair for the librarian to be mad at her for it.

'One more outburst from you four and you'll be out,' Madam Pince said when she reached their table. 'The amount of noise you've been making is completely unacceptable. This is a library.'

Lily cringed. She'd never been told off by the librarian before. It was mortifying. 'Yes, Madam Pince. We're sorry.'

With one last scowl around the table, Madam Pince turned on her heel and returned to her desk. And the moment she was far enough away, Dorcas, Marlene, and Mary all broke into giggles.

'It's not funny,' Lily hissed, but she, too, felt the corners of her mouth twitching. 'We could get banned!'

'It's kind of funny,' Mary said, still giggling.

Giving in to the overwhelming mirth building inside her, Lily broke with a snort, which quickly melted into a full-on giggle fit. The more she tried to control it, the harder it was to stop.

Marlene was turning red in her efforts to keep her laughter quiet, but managed to choke out the words, 'Something's wrong,' before she buried her face in her arms on the table. Her shoulders shook as she laughed silently, broken only by the occasional gasp for breath.

'Fuck, my sides hurt,' Dorcas gasped, doubled over and clutching her stomach but still laughing as tears crawled their way down her face.

'Right, that's it. Out! All of you. And don't even think about coming back for a month.' Madam Pince appeared next to the table looking like a bird of prey in her anger. Lily hadn't even noticed her approaching. She'd been so distracted by the uncontrollable laughter.

'We're sorry,' she gasped before dissolving into another fit of shoulder shaking laughter. She picked up her bag as she struggled to regain control of herself before stumbling towards the door. Her eyes were blurred with tears and she had one arm wrapped around her stomach, trying to ease the pain, and then she tripped. Her foot caught on the uneven stone and she staggered forward, trying to stay upright. The fear of falling wasn't enough to stop her laughter, however, and as she realised she wasn't going to regain her balance and she flung out an arm to break her fall, she continued to laugh without restraint. Blinded by tears as she was, she didn't see the bookcase in front of her.

She couldn't blame Madam Pince for her reaction. From her perspective it must have looked like Lily had maliciously shoved the bookcase over in retaliation at being kicked out of the library, especially with the uncontrollable laughter that didn't stop even as she'd stared at the devastation, didn't stop even as she was informed she was banned from the library for two months, didn't stop until they'd discovered the enchanted coins in their pockets, no doubt secreted there during flying lessons when Potter had asked to use the toilet.

The charmwork on the coins was infuriatingly clever, but she was furious at the boys for getting her banned from the library for two months. How was she supposed to do her homework? Nevertheless, she couldn't allow personal feelings to impact the scoring. It had been a bloody good spell.

To our no-longer-colourful-but-forever-sparkly opponents,

Was it your intention for your spell to activate in the library, or was that a lucky break? Either way, the results are undeniable.

For impact, we award you a ten. Yes, a ten. We have all been banned from the library for a month, Lily for two months due to the unfortunate pushing over of a bookshelf. We hope you're proud of yourselves.

For execution, we award you another ten. We have to admit that the gradual onset of the spell was a stroke of genius. We had no idea anything was wrong until it was far too late.

For skilled use of magic, we award you a third ten. We've examined the magic on the coins and the modifications you made to the standard Euphoria Charm are clever.

For creativity, however, we can only award you a six. Making us act out in the library wasn't that interesting.

That gives you a total of thirty-six. However, we feel you should lose some points as a penalty. The rules we agreed on stated 'nothing painful.' Have you ever laughed uncontrollably for half an hour? It hurts. A lot!

Your sore-and-exhausted competitors.

They sent the note off with Spectre—the black-banded owl belonging to Marlene—after dinner, and she returned less than thirty minutes later with a reply in the form of a scroll attached to a flat, rectangular package which she deposited in front of Lily before flying over to Marlene for some fuss. Ignoring the parcel for now, Lily removed the scroll from the shiny red paper it was wrapped in and unrolled it.

To our sore-but-hopefully-soon-to-be-smiling competitors,

Please accept our sincere apologies for the pain we caused. The charms must have been stronger than we intended. You were only supposed to become a little giggly, not be taken over by uncontrollable laughter. We accept whatever reduction in points you consider appropriate and we hope you'll accept this small token of our remorse.

And to answer your question, we knew exactly where you were planning to spend the afternoon. You should be warier of your surroundings when you discuss things.

Your repentant-but-hopeful (and-of-course-sparkly) opponents.

'What's in the parcel?' Marlene asked when Lily finished reading the note aloud.

She shrugged, placing the scroll to one side so she could tear the paper off. 'Oh. Wow.'

'What is it?' Mary asked, standing up from where she'd been sorting puzzle pieces on the floor.

'It's a painting,' Lily told her. 'Of us.'

'It's beautiful,' Dorcas said, having crossed the room to take a look. 'I can't believe Sirius painted this in half an hour.'

Lily had to agree. The painting showed the four of them with their arms around each other in front of a backdrop depicting the Forbidden Forest, and the detail was insane. 'I think he must have been working on it for a while, and just used this as an excuse to give it to us.'

'What's that?' Mary asked, pointing at the mattress just in front of where Lily was sitting cross-legged.

Following the path of her finger, Lily spotted a folded sheet of parchment. 'It must have been in the parcel,' she said, picking it up and unfolding it. It was a page duplicated from a book, and across the top it read Personality Integration Charm. She scanned the rest of the page quickly, picking out the important information. 'It's instructions on how to infuse the paintings of us with our personalities.'

'So they'll move around like the one's in the boys' dorm?' Marlene asked, and at Lily's nod of confirmation, she grinned. 'Brilliant.'

'We should write back and say thank you,' Mary said. 'Sirius must have worked really hard on this.'

Lily nodded and pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment.

To our repentant-and-forgiven (not-forgetting-forever-sparkly) opponents,

The painting is beautiful, and we love it. Thank you, Sirius. We're excited to 'wake-up' our painted selves, and we accept your apology for the pain your spell caused. We've decided on a reduction of five points, which will put us on an equal footing of sixty points each.

Your still-sore-but-now-smiling competitors.

The next afternoon, they decided to forgo a pre-Astronomy class nap and head into Hogsmeade instead. Their banishment from the library had left them in dire need of books, not just for class, but for the sake of their pride. The boys could not be allowed to win the competition, and they still needed to find a way to cast their spells from a distance.

They spent more than two hours browsing through Tomes and Scrolls bookshop before they found what they needed. It was in a book for actors of all places and had been designed for quick costume changes between scenes. By storing a set of spells in a prepared object, which required the brewing of a potion, all the actor (or victim) need do was touch it and their entire costume would change instantly; hair, make-up, clothes, the lot.

Marlene paid for the book and they left feeling triumphant. There was no way their plan wasn't going to earn them the full forty points.

'Celebrate with a butterbeer?' Marlene suggested as the door closed behind them. 'On me.'

'Sounds great,' Lily said, while Mary and Dorcas merely nodded.

The Three Broomsticks was quiet compared to the crowds that formed there on an official Hogwarts-Hogsmeade weekend, but there were still plenty of customers. Many of them seemed to be having an early dinner/late lunch and the mix of different foods in the room created a tantalising smell that made Lily's stomach rumble.

'Can we get some chips, too? I'm not sure I can wait until dinner.'

'Sure.' Marlene winked at her and left to give their order to Madam Rosmerta at the bar while Lily, Mary, and Dorcas found them a table.

'The Shrieking Shack, they call it. You don't want to go near there at night,' a man was telling his companion on the next table to the one they chose. 'Screaming and howling the like of which you've never heard before. Banging, too. Vicious, nasty ghosts, they are. Moved in the summer afore last.'

Lily slid into her seat as the friend replied, 'Thanks for the warning, mate. I'll steer clear of it while I'm here. On the edge of town, you said?'

'Yeah. You can't miss it. It's all boarded up and spooky-looking.'

'Drinks!' Marlene cried as she placed the tray on the table, drawing Lily's attention from the conversation, but she filed it away to think about later. A boarded-up house with a reputation for screaming and howling occupants was exactly the kind of thing she'd been looking for.

'No chips?'

'Ros is going to bring them over in a few minutes. She's got a fresh batch almost ready.' Marlene took her seat and grabbed the closest glass. 'Help yourselves. I'm not serving you.'

'Posh cow,' Lily said cheerfully as she took her own drink.

Mary picked up her own glass and held it up. 'Here's to winning!'

'And wiping the smug smile off of Potter's face,' Lily added, holding up her own glass.

Marlene raised her glass, grinning. 'And to seeing Sirius with blonde curly hair.'

Dorcas sighed and picked up the fourth glass, holding it aloft. 'Cheers.'

They all clinked them together and took a drink of the sweet, warm, and frothy brew. It really was better than anything she'd tasted in her life before Hogwarts and she relished every drop. The chips, when they arrived, were just as delicious, and they left the pub refreshed and ready for the journey home after squabbling over the crispy bits in the bottom of the bowl.

The next morning, a strange owl she hadn't seen before woke her up by pecking at the window, and assuming it was a note from the boys, she let it in and opened the scroll it deposited on her bed.

Miss Evans,

I've missed talking to you since the Creature Hunt lessons concluded, and I was hoping you would agree to meet me for a picnic by the lake at noon on Saturday. There is no need to reply. Just turn up, or don't. I will be waiting by the large oak tree.

Sunshine.

'What if she doesn't come?' James asked, fidgeting with his wand.

'Then she doesn't come,' Sirius replied, annoyingly. 'That's the risk you took by telling her she didn't have to reply. And stop flicking your wand like that. You're going to cause an explosion or something.'

James stopped flicking his wand between his fingers and tucked it back into his holster. 'I couldn't risk her tracking the owl back to me.'

'I know,' Sirius said. Coming to stand in front of him, he put his hands on his shoulders. 'If she comes, great. If she doesn't, it's Sunshine she's rejected, not you.'

'Yeah,' Remus said from his position on his bed, where he was watching the proceedings. 'She rejected you back when she first met you.'

'Not helping, Moonbeam,' Sirius said, laughing.

Remus shrugged. 'Not trying to help. I still think this is a stupid idea.'

'Yes, we know,' Sirius said. 'She's warming up to him. He should stop with the Sunshine charade and hope she never ever finds out it was him. The problem with that is, she's definitely going to find out, eventually.'

'Even if that's true. I don't see how him taking her out as Sunshine is helpful.'

James watched them arguing back and forth and finally threw his hands up in the air in irritation. 'By Merlin's short and wrinkly dick, will you two stop? We don't have time for this and it's too late, anyway. I'm not going to stand her up.'

Sirius snorted. 'Poor Merlin. He really gets a lot of shit, doesn't he?'

'I wonder if any of the stuff people say about him is actually true,' Remus said, chuckling.

'Guys, focus, please,' James begged.

'You need to lose the wand holster,' Peter said. 'And your Crest. Can't have that falling out during the picnic.'

'Thank you, Bubbles. Finally, some constructive comments.' James took the offending items off, pulling his wand from the holster before chucking them onto the bed. 'Now, which outfit?' he asked, walking over to the drawer that was dedicated to clothes for their Marauder alter ego and pulling it open to survey the options. Their collection was getting quite extensive thanks to the Owl Order catalogue Sirius had subscribed to.

'It's my time to shine,' Sirius said, suddenly appearing beside him. 'Let's see…' He started pulling items out of the drawer and holding them up against each other, humming in approval or disapproval before tossing them aside and selecting something else. Finally, he stopped, rooting through the discarded items and picking out a pair of pale blue jeans, a black top with straps like string, and a long-sleeved white shirt that was almost transparent.

'Here. You'll look all pretty and summery in that. Better with a skirt, but I know how you feel about those.'

'They feel weird on my legs. Tickly. I don't like it.' James took the clothes Sirius was offering and changed into them without argument. If Sirius said the outfit would look good, he wasn't about to argue with him. A few minutes later, James was dressed in the Sirius-approved ensemble, and Peter was handing him a dose of Polyjuice.

When he was finally ready, he left Gryffindor Tower under the Invisibility Cloak, stopping by the kitchen for his picnic basket before heading to the large oak tree halfway around the lake. Evans hadn't arrived yet if she was going to at all, so he laid out the blanket he'd brought along and placed the basket in the middle of it before settling himself against the trunk of the tree to wait.

Gods, he was so nervous.

This would be the first time they'd ever spent any time alone together, the first time she would get any real sense of who he was, and if she rejected him now, even without the knowledge of his true identity, then that would mean she genuinely disliked him and it wasn't just bad first impressions colouring her opinion. He had to admit, he'd been a bit of a dick on the train their first year. Not that Snivellus hadn't since proven he deserved it, but James hadn't known that back then.

Unfortunately, that was something that happened to him a lot. When he was nervous or excited, he said things without thinking and they were often stupid and occasionally hurtful. His mum called it 'having the blurts.' And he had been both nervous and excited that day, finally off to Hogwarts and wanting so badly to impress the Black heir, and then finding himself in a compartment with the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. It wasn't surprising that he'd suffered one of his worst cases of the blurts to date.

And he'd never been able to repair the damage. It was infuriating.

'Hi.'

James looked up, and she was there, looking radiant with the sun glinting off her hair and making her eyes shine like emeralds. 'Hi,' he said on a sigh, before remembering he was supposed to be Sunshine and making a heroic effort to pull himself together. 'I'm so glad you decided to come.'

'Whether I'm glad I came or not has yet to be decided,' she replied, smirking at him as she lowered herself onto the blanket opposite him.

James chuckled. 'I missed this.'

'You didn't have to.'

James wrinkled his nose. 'Would it lower your opinion of me if I told you it took me a while to build up the courage to write to you?'

She hummed. 'So, not a Gryffindor, then.'

'Bravery isn't a lack of fear,' James said with a soft laugh. 'It's doing it even though you're scared. But I'm not confirming or denying anything.'

'You never do,' she said with a laugh that made James feel warm and tingly in his stomach.

'I don't want to make it easy for you.'

She smiled, lowering her eyes to her lap for a moment before looking back up at him. 'How long do you plan to wait for me to work it out before you tell me yourself?'

'I hadn't thought about it, because I'm sure you will work it out.'

'It's nice that you have confidence in me, but I'm no closer now than I was in September. You don't give me any clues at all. It's as if you don't want me to know. My friend thinks it's because you're much older than us.'

'I'm not,' James blurted. Then, in an effort to not give too much away. 'I'm no more than a year older or younger than you.'

'Well, you can't be younger because you were here last year.'

'I could still be younger by a few months.'

'True, but you can't be a first-year.'

'No. Shall we eat?'

Evans laughed. 'Trying to change the subject? Alright, I'll allow it. I got more out of you than I expected. What did you bring?'

James breathed a sigh of relief and opened the basket, pulling out the contents one by one. 'Grilled chicken, salad, and some bread and butter. And for dessert, strawberries, and melted chocolate.'

'Healthy,' Lily commented. 'I'm not keen on salad, though. I'll just have a chicken sandwich.'

'Oh,' James frowned. 'Crap. I'm sorry. I should have brought more of a selection.'

'It's okay,' she reached forward, placing her hand on his leg and James' mind went completely blank for a moment. 'I like chicken sandwiches. And I love strawberries.'

She was touching him!

Okay, be calm. Breath. Smile at her. There, that's good. He'd been quiet for too long. Say something! 'Um, yeah. Strawberries are great.' Oh, Merlin. What the hell was that? She was going to think he was a complete idiot.

She chuckled and pulled her hand away, reaching for a slice of bread. 'Yeah, they are. Can you pass me the chicken?'

James did as asked, handing her the dish with a smile. The action coupled with the removal of her hand from his leg allowed him to recover his senses, and he decided to try to make up for his idiocy by turning the focus onto her. 'So, what do you like to do when you're not voiding quidditch matches, covering the quidditch pitch with ice, or fighting off forest trolls?'

'Failing to fight off forest trolls, you mean?' she said with a small laugh. 'I like to read, and Mary and I do jigsaw puzzles together. Marlene's into a different thing each week and sometimes I'll join in with what she's doing. Last week it was Spots. That was a lot of fun.'

'Spots?' James asked, frowning.

'Have you not heard of it? Marlene got it from a magazine. It's a game. You cast the spell, and it makes circles of light appear on the walls of the room you're in, all different sizes, and they move around at different speeds. Then there's another spell to cast at them. You get points for how close to the centre you hit the spot.'

'That sounds brilliant,' James said, forgetting to be restrained in his excitement. That sort of game would help them improve their aim enormously. 'Can you give me the spells?'

'Sure. But I didn't bring anything to write on.'

'Damn, neither did I.'

'I could just send it to you by owl.'

James raised his eyebrows. 'I'd have to tell you my real name for that to work.'

'Oh, yes, you would, wouldn't you?'

James shook his head, laughing softly. 'Not going to happen, Miss Evans. How about you just show me?'

'We'd need to go inside for that. To an empty room.'

'Don't you trust me?'

'Dorcas would kill me. She made me promise to stay in a public place. We don't know who you are. If you decided to hurt me, I wouldn't know who to say it was.'

James nodded. 'That's fair. She's being a good friend, you should listen to her. But would it make you feel better if I told you the teachers all know who we are? The Super Secret games aren't quite as secret as the students think.'

'I have no way of knowing if that's true though, do I?'

James had to concede that was true. 'What about if we took a chaperone? Your friend, Miss McDonald?'

'She's out with her boyfriend.'

James already knew that, of course. That's why he'd suggested her. 'Perfect, a double date.'

'I suppose we can ask. They should be around here somewhere.' She peered around for a minute before pointing at two small figures some distance away. 'Over there. Shall we go?'

'Oh, but we haven't had our strawberries yet.'

'Well, if you don't mind sharing, I know Mary likes strawberries.'

James grinned. 'I don't mind at all. Let's go.'

Mary and Peter looked at them with surprise when they approached, but their expressions quickly turned to smiles when they explained what they wanted, and they agreed to join them. James could only hope Peter wouldn't slip up and use his name.

They decided on classroom 12c as their arena of choice. It was empty, and a good-sized space for a four-player game, or so Evans said. Apparently, the girls had played there a few times. Evans showed him how to cast the spell on himself so that when he shot the targets, the game would record his points, and Mary showed Peter. Then, once everyone was ready, Evans cast the spell to start the game.

It was nothing less than brilliant. The targets flit about the room, shrinking and swelling at will, and changing speed or direction on a whim, and the four competitors leapt and whirled around in a frenzy trying to win. By the time the first match ended, they were all panting for breath. The spots vanished and the final score appeared on the same wall Evans had fired the spell at to start the game.

The winner was red with a massive eighty-six points; twenty-two more than second place, which was gold. James decided he could live with coming second to Evans.

'Congratulations,' he said, offering her his hand.

She shook it, grinning. 'You did well for your first time.'

'I'll beat you next time.'

'Shame we don't have time for a rematch now. Mary and I have things to do this afternoon.'

'Do you at least have time for strawberries before you go?' James asked, wondering if the girls' plans for the afternoon had anything to do with the competition between their groups. He wasn't going to ask. It wouldn't be fair to take advantage of his anonymity like that.

She grinned. 'There's always time for strawberries.'

James didn't have long to wait to find out what the girls were planning. It happened on Monday afternoon when they took their seats in potions. The moment Sirius, Remus, and Peter touched their stools to pull them out, there was a bright flash of light and then they were transformed.

Sirius' hair was short and blonde and curled into tight coils against his head, but his eyebrows were still black, although much bushier than usual. James snorted at the sight before turning his eyes to his other friends. Remus' hair was long, straight, and jet black, and his face was made up with bright green powder on his eyelids and a purple stain on his lips. Peter's was even worse. His hair had been lengthened too but styled into a fashionable up-do, his nails had been coloured bright red, and instead of comical make-up, his looked like it had been applied with skill and care. He actually looked quite pretty.

The entire class was pointing at them and laughing, and Remus and Peter looked mortified. Sirius, on the other hand, just looked murderous. James tentatively reached up to check his own hair, but it felt normal, and when he looked at his distorted reflection in the shiny surface of his steel-bladed knife, he could see no signs of make-up. Had they left him out? Why?

'Alright, settle down, everyone. Boys, perhaps you should go to the hospital wing? Unless anyone here knows how to reverse this?' Professor Slughorn said, raising his voice to be heard over the laughter.

James was looking straight at Evans as she shook her head along with the rest of the class, and she smirked right back at him, raising her eyebrows challengingly. Yeah, they really were going to have to plan something epic if they were going to win the competition. The girls were far more ruthless than they'd anticipated.

To our hopefully-no-longer-sore-but-definitely-savage competitors,

That was brutal. We applaud your no-mercy approach to this competition.

For Creativity, we award you a ten. Using beauty charms as a weapon to humiliate was inspired.

For Skilled use of magic, we award you another ten. The beauty magic was extremely skilful, particularly Peter's hair-do. And we'd love to know the method of execution once the competition is over. It may come in useful for future projects.

For execution, we award you another ten. Even if we had known your plan, there would have been no way to avoid triggering the spells.

For impact, though, we award you a twelve, because a ten just isn't enough. Sirius is furious about what you did to his hair and is unlikely to calm down anytime soon, Remus and Peter both say they have never been so embarrassed in their lives, and James is devastated that he was left out, which we assume was your intention. Not only that, but you heaped this humiliation on us in front of the Slytherins. We may never live it down.

Your score stands at one hundred and two, and you have proven yourselves to be more than worthy opponents. Don't expect us to hold back anymore.

Your dying-of-embarrassment-but-perpetually-sparkly opponents.