AN- I have someone very important to thank. An anonymous review gave me an idea of what else could happen in this fic, and got me re-thinking about it, again. Because of their suggestion, I have decided not to give up the fic just yet. It'll probably only have six or seven chapters, but in the end, it'll show how the Marauders lost their precious map.
Disclaimer- Hey, I'm fourteen now! When I wrote my first disclaimer for this story, I was thirteen. How about that!
YOU NEED TO KNOW! There was information in an interview given to JK Rowling that revealed that Lily was in Ravenclaw. It broke my heart, because it ruins so many possibilities and good stories, but it made the plot for this fic better.
James-
"I can't believe we're doing this!"
"I can." I replied To Peter's moaning. "I don't want to get caught!"
"But Evan's might have messed up again." Remus pointed out. "I mean, you are blowing this way out of proportion. She could've already even turned us in!" Moony had a point, but I was determined not to admit it.
"Nah. She doesn't want us gone that much. If she admitted that she had the footage, it's be admitting that she was up at two in the morning, and that would mean she'd lose her position too! This'll be easy, Moony. We'll just slip in, unnoticed, and switch the footage with this footage. Not that difficult, really."
"But the girls' dorm stairs are different!" Remus insisted. "And it's in the Ravenclaw common room. They all sleep on needles, and we didn't have any idea we'd need to sneak in there tonight! I mean, there's no sleeping draft, no-"
"The Ravenclaws sleep on needles?" Sirius asked, looking amused.
"It's an expression, Padfoot." Remus hissed, annoyed.
"Besides, I can do a sleeping charm long enough for us to slip in there and grab the camera." I argued. We had spent the last hour, ever since Evans had caught us on an actual Witch camera, (it followed us, which it can be programmed to do, explaining how they get all of those celebrity photos that the famous people don't want taken,) planning how to not only get her back, and dispose of the evidence against us, but also how to do all of this within two hours.
"And have you actually practiced this sleeping charm before hand?" Remus asked sarcastically. I don't know why he still bothers, because he knows I never did.
"Well, no. But that's why you're coming." I answered, snickering.
We had been able to get up the stairs before to the girls' dorms, just never in a common room besides our own. But how much different could they be? All we had to do was levitate each other up the staircase, then do a simple unlocking charm on the doors. Not that difficult, really.
It went just the way it was supposed to. We slipped in, quietly, Sirius levitated me up, Remus levitated Sirius up, Peter levitated Remus up, and Peter stood guard in the common room. I unlocked the doors, Remus cast the light sleeping charm we'd learned earlier that day, (well, the one we were supposed to be trying to learn, I wasn't really paying attention,) without decapitating anyone, and Sirius got into Evan's trunk, no problem.
She was laying there, her red hair spread over the pillow, a look of peace on her face. For once, she wasn't glaring at me, or yelling at me, or cursing me, hexing me, or basically causing me any harm.
"LETS GO!" Sirius didn't yell it, he hissed it, but I got the message, as he hissed it right in my ear.
So we left, me taking a last longing look at Lily, before heading out. It was one of the first times after a prank that I hadn't felt like laughing.
"What do you see in her anyways?" Peter asked me, as we headed back to the common rooms to try to get at least two hours of sleep.
"She has this determination. I can't have her. She's beautiful. And she has a fire about her…" I drifted off, and left the other three to think about that, until Sirius snickered.
"It's all about the hair, then?"
"Sirius, English, please."
"Well, everything you just said has to do with the red hair." Sirius replied, while Remus started laughing, obviously catching something I hadn't. "Red heads are always determined to do what they want, stubborn to a fault, and the fire and beauty…"
"Padfoot, sometime you are impossible."
"Maybe, but can you imagine the look on McGonagall's face tomorrow when she sees we have that?"
By now I felt like laughing again.
* * *
Even Remus is allowed to mess up, just not as often as the rest of us. I'm not sure if it was nerves, or if it was even a mistake and not intentional, but the seventh year Ravenclaw girl's dorm came into lunch, still exhausted. They had been taken to the hospital wing earlier when not even "Enervate!" had been able to wake them up.
Anyways, Remus told me later that he had used a more powerful charm than we had planned, so everything was thrown off, and at first we weren't sure we would be around when Lily showed McGonagall the `evidence' that proved us guilty of what was just short of three hundred pranks. Lily looked like she was about to jump up in the middle of Charms and run out of the classroom and into McGonagall's, and it seemed like the only thing holding her back was her love for Charms. It was pretty funny to watch, seeing her squirm like that, thinking she had enough proof to get us a few detentions and the loss of the House Cup, when all she had was… you'll see.
And about halfway through Transfiguration, when Lily still hadn't turned us in, but was glaring at us threateningly, Sirius had to say, "Evans, love, I know we're good looking, but I don't like girls who are too obvious about their affection. And I thought we were keeping our relationship a secret until we could get James to say your name without asking you out, remember?" It took me a moment, I am ashamed to admit, to realize that he was joking.
Padfoot wouldn't ever betray me like that. None of the Marauders would.
Finally, Lily lost her patience. Luckily for us, she didn't want us gone when she presented her proof. She wanted us to watch our years of dedication and hard work go to waste.
My first thought on this is, that was stupid. Mocking us wasn't a good idea, and it was hard to believe such an idiot, (a beautiful idiot, but an idiot,) could be in Ravenclaw. Sirius, if not all of us, would see that she knew not to tease us later on. Right now, we were too busy to think up plots.
But not for the reasons she thought we were. See, she was sure we were busy trying to think of how to get ourselves out of this. And we were busy admiring how easily we'd gotten into it in the first place. And trying to keep from laughing, because that would've given away that we were the marauders. We would've known what was coming.
And the prank that had almost gotten us caught? That comes later.
But the double pranking, (two in one night, in case you're an idiot, because it seems the beautiful ones always are,) was quite a success on our behalf.
Lily first said, "See how they've got the shadows under their eyes? It's because they couldn't sleep last night. Want to know why?"
"Bad dreams?" Sirius asked, and all four of us snickered.
"No. They were out again last night, and I have the proof." Lily stated this proudly, handing the tape we had made over to McGonagall.
I think Peter, (and maybe Sirius,) laughed so hard when he saw the tape and what was on it, for the seventh time, he wet his pants. Again. It's just one of those things you have to be able to see to laugh about. But once you see it, even if you've seen it countless times beforehand, you can't help laughing. I suppose it's time for some explaining, isn't it?
We knew that Lily Evans would try to hand us in to McGonagall, because one; McGonagall has had it in for us since we started school, (yes, our first prank was literally the day we started school, though Padfoot and I are guilty of at least a dozen more beforehand at my house,) and two; she always does.
So McGonagall held the small glowing ball that was the tape in her hand, and carefully set it in a box that projected the image to enlarge it. And instead of showing us sneaking about the school at all hours of the night, it showed something much more entertaining. McGonagall, who was a cat animagus, was playing with a ball of catnip. Not just playing, but sniffing. Rolling. Rubbing it against her face. And best of all, the ball of catnip happened to have come from the drawer of her desk.
Even better, Lily had been sure of her evidence, so she had asked anyone who wanted to know who the marauders were to stay behind.
And because of how many enemies we had, everybody stayed.
But as long as the prank wasn't on you, we had discovered, it was all right to laugh. So the class laughed, (rather loudly,) at McGonagall's behavior, while she flushed and ripped the glass ball from the screen.
She threw it against the ground, intending to break it. And break it, she did. She has a surprisingly strong grip and arm for someone who looks so old. (I would know from all of the times she's caught me in the act of hexing someone and dragged me down the corridors by my ear.) But we had thought to charm the glass ball, so instead what happened was, the glass cracked open, and a rainbow-colored illusion of letters appeared making the words,
It's all about honor, and if you're honestly going to turn us in, as we suspect, you have none. This is student against student; don't bring staff into it.
It wasn't our funniest note, but the message was clear. We were honestly fine with people like her trying to catch us, it made it a challenge, and in Padfoot's animal-like mind, a game. It was like being on the run, or doing something like our pranks just for the thrill, the risk of getting caught.
But in my eyes, dragging the teachers into it was cheating. Something against the rules of the set game.
Lily looked strait at me and glared, and I could almost hear her saying it wasn't over.
* * *
"SHE CUT MY HAIR!" Sirius howled, throwing things out of his way as he stomped across the room. "THAT-SHE-I-…" Sirius was clearly at a loss of wards, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I had just woken up to the loud, angry, stricken Sirius that was presently stomping about the room.
"Padfoot, what are you talking `bout-"
"Your-your-" He seemed to be debating what say carefully. "Your soul mate decided to play barber shop." I pulled the hanging back farther to look at Sirius and try to understand.
"My soul ma-" I paused, as I realized who he was talking about. "Lily. What do you mean she-"
I couldn't continue any farther with my sentence. I had just seen Sirius, and some things were worth early mornings. His scalp was bald in some areas, some areas were dyed pink, or green, and in some places the long, almost shoulder-length hair was still intact, but curled with a curling iron or done up in bows.
"Well," I said, studying my friend's head, still laughing, "She's a little immature, but she could be improved with work. Not bad, not bad at all. She as potential, even. How did you know it was her?"
Still fuming, Sirius handed me a crumpled piece of paper. On it were the words,
Payback, Black. Watch your mouth next time. I was going to wash it out, but I decided I didn't want to go anywhere near it. Who knows how many mouths it's touched. Hope you like the new look. I know everyone else will.
Tigerlily.
Behind the word `tigerlily' was a beautiful, magical flower. Sirius was right. It was diffidently Lily.
"We going to tell someone about this?" Wormtail asked, still half asleep. "I mean, about Evans slipping up into the boys dorm?"
But I think we all already knew we couldn't. After what we had said yesterday, it would have been going back on our word. No one said anything, because the question could be answered by silence, so Remus picked up the note while Sirius struggled to get the bows and curls out. After a moment, Remus said,
"You'd think Evans would be smarter than that. I mean, a simple spell will return it back to it's, er… faded glory." Padfoot's pride and joy was his hair, just like Lily's pride was that she didn't stoop down to date one of the Marauders. I didn't say anything, but after what Sirius had said yesterday, it seemed a little like a fair trade.
Anyways, the four of us, (Sirius's hair restored,) marched down to the Great Hall for breakfast, and were greeted with a rather unpleasant surprise. (On Padfoot's behalf, that is.)
Flyers were spread throughout the hall, a stack of them on the trays breakfast was sent by the hose elves up on. And it seemed the whole school did like Sirius's new due.
"This," Sirius said, face red as he kept his eyes down and shoveled food in is mouth, "means war."
AN- Is you like this chapter and want more, at least five reviews are appreciated. And don't say I want the reviews because I'm not a good writer, or I don't have passion… that will just peeve me. if you don't lie I, please review with a reason concerning my writing. Sorry if that came across as rude, but I'm a little upset at the moment. Anyways, hope you liked it! also, any ideas you have for pranks and other things are really appreciated. Without them, I may have to stop writing this fic!
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