AN- hey guys! Next chapter, sorry it took so long, and I hope you like it. If you want to see the next chapter, or a preview of it, check out the bold bottom.
Lily-
"What do you mean, you got Black back?" Severus repeated, for the fifth time this morning.
"You saw the flyers. Who did you think Tigerlily was? I'm positive that the Marauders are Black, Pettigrew, Lupin and-"
"Potter." Severus spat, his disgust showing. "Yes, I now. I've known ever since third year. You've known ever since they gave you that clown suit. But we don't have any proof, and…wait. You mean to say, you snuck up into their dorm in the middle of the night and cut Black's hair as revenge for what he said to you in Transfiguration a few days ago?"
"Yup."
"That was you?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well…congratulations." Severus didn't show his feelings to anyone very well, but already I could see him gloating.
"Thanks. Don't tell anyone, okay? I only told you because I need the sleeping draught antidote, so that they can't pull one over on me while I'm sleeping."
Snape nodded abruptly and pulled one out of his jacket, handing it to me. When I gave him a strange look for it, he replied, "I take one every morning this week. It's the week."
"Is it really? Already? Well…I think this week will be a little more interesting." I replied, taking the antidote, and handing him the money.
Severus Snape and I are by no means friends. He's still nasty, still calls me mudblood, and still forgets to wash his hair. But when it comes to business, he's always very careful about how he acts, and we get along rather nicely. I bought wizarding developing fluid from him for my cameras, and all sorts of potions and products that the teacher lets him make after class.
And as to the week, that was something I would have to watch out for. It was always the time when the Marauders stuck the worst, the last week of October. All of it led up to the master prank that the Marauders did on Halloween, and each year the pranks became bigger and better.
A small part of me, (a very small part of me,) didn't want to battle them this week. The entire school looked at this as a week of laughter, and with the small attacks that are happening all around by a new dark wizard, the entire school needed it.
And they never focused the pranks on just one person this week. At some point, everyone in the great hall (including James and friends, who wouldn't want to get caught and pinned as the Marauders,) would be pranked. Even teachers didn't bother to try finding `the Marauders' this week, and I had always halted my search for a week, to let the school have it's fun. People had actually gotten angry with me when I had tried to catch Potter and his gang on this week, and I wasn't about to ruin anything.
But this was war, and I doubted that they would stop targeting me, so I had to keep up my guard and fire back.
I spent so much of my time that day watching my back, I don't know how Potter managed to slip me a note that took me ten minutes to realize was there. When I did notice, however, I was cautious to open it. There could be a prank in it, some type of poison or puss.
There wasn't any, though, just a note.
Alright, Lily, so you're pretty good at this.
Prongs, don't compliment her. She cut my hair!
Did a good job though!
MOONY!
Right, well, anyways, you're up for a war, and we're ready. But as in all wars, there are rules, and a strict code of honor that we always stick to. First off, no poison. Antidotes are fine, but poisons can really do damage, particularly if you are allergic to them like I am. Second, no real physical damage. This is about embarrassment, not pain, and it always has been for us. I hope you'll keep it that way. And the third rule I believe we've made quite clear. No adults. This includes caretakers, teachers, and Headmasters. That's the only rules we're sticking to, and we're asking you to oblige to these.
Oh, very diplomatic, Prongs.
Thank you
I had to bite my lip to stifle a giggle as I read the note. They were pretty funny when they wanted to be, but I wouldn't let that keep me from accomplishing my goal. If the Marauders wanted war, war it would be. I knew internally that by cutting Sirius Black's hair, I had won the second battle.
When I walked into the Great Hall for dinner, though, I realized that they had won the third. Battle that is.
Everyone was staring at me in amusement, and I couldn't figure out why. I had been on my guard all day, so there's no way that the Marauders could've done anything… until I realized that in the last few minutes, I had been completely absorbed in that note. Many people were whistling and cat-calling, and slowly, carefully, I turned my head and looked down.
Sticking out from under my skirt was a moving tiger tail.
Just as slowly, and just as carefully, I turned to the Marauders. Each of them were in side-stitches.
Narrowing my eyes at them, I looked to Professor McGonagall for help, who told me to go to the Hospital Wing and see if Pomfery could remove it. She looked towards the Marauders, but ran into the same problem as always. There was no proof.
And I ran into another problem. I couldn't have told on them, because I had promised not to. Rules were rules, and I had always followed them. I couldn't go back on my word and break the rules now.
"Lily? Do you have anything to say about this?" McGonagall asked, as she always did. But instead of the usual, I replied,
"Well, it is the week," looking straight at James Potter and his merry little gang. It must have been the response they had been looking for, because even Sirius Black gave a slight nod of approval. And… this was weird. James Potter had smiled at me in what almost looked like pride, and…I couldn't help smiling back a little. I know that it was a dry smile, but I hadn't thought about it before hand.
He turned back to his meal, and I went to sit at my table and have mine, but as I thought back on that smile, and how his eyes had been shining at me, I'm pretty sure my smile became a bit wider.
More pranks followed the first few. I put an illusion on Remus Lupin to make it appear to everyone but himself that he had the bottom of a worm, and put the sign, `Gryffindor Bookworm' on his back. They made my nose big as a hag's with warts and gave my normally orange hair black streaks, with a note that said, "I'm into the holiday spirit!" `Small' things like this continued for a while, and I'd like to think that both parties involved were enjoying them. I know I was.
I took to planning while I wandered the halls at night, on patrol, instead of trying to catch Potter. And when I did see Potter… when I did see Potter, my stomach kind of did a flip, and it wasn't from anger or fear anymore. Oh, I knew what it was from. I mean, I may not date James Potter, but I did date, and I knew this feeling. It was a small form of a crush, but I didn't act the way one usually acts around their crush. Instead, I was really competitive, and outgoing. It was actually becoming annoying, because I wanted to flirt back with him when he flirted with me, (which he always did, and everywhere. Example? Uh…classes, hallways, patrol, meetings, quidditch games…everywhere.)
Instead, however, I had to force myself not to trust him.
I was thinking this whole thing over out in the halls when I heard someone whispering across the hall. In a moment I knew it was James Potter's voice; a soft and smooth tenor.
I wasn't going to jump out like I usually did, and I wasn't going to try taping anything, because that didn't go by the rules. Instead, I was going to take whatever prank it was that they were planning and lay it back on them.
But Sirius Black's voice wasn't so small, and so whiny.
I turned the corner carefully and saw James speaking not to the rest of his little gang, but to a child. A little…Slytherin?
"Are you really one of the people that have been pulling the pranks all week?" He asked, as James guided him by the shoulders back to the Slytherin dorms.
"Yes I am."
"Then why are you going to get me in trouble? I was just doing what you do." He boy argued.
"Because I'm a hypocrite." James replied solemnly, and I could tell that he meant it. When the kid continued to whine, James finally said, "I stopped you because that was dangerous. I don't know where you learned that curse, Regulus, but if your brother finds out that you even attempted to use it on someone-"
"She's just a mudblood! She probably wouldn't even know that it happened!"
"She has muggle parents, but she's not a mudblood! And she would know that it happened, because she would feel pain." I heard James argue. "I don't want to fight with you, Regulus. Sirius still hopes for you. He knows that your mother and father's views of muggleborns can't be changed, but yours can!"
"You're the reason my brother ran away in the first place! It's because people like you put ideas in his head. But he's a pureblood, and he can't change his bloodlines. It's not like you can do anything about that."
"Not that I wouldn't if I could." James muttered darkly.
"You only like mudbloods because you're in love with one." James gritted his teeth, and I could tell he was very close to saying something he would regret. And this kid would probably tell on him for it.
"Look, Regulus, Sirius may have faith in you, but I don't. Here's your detention, and here's your wand. You're lucky I don't break it."
"I don't get you!" Regulus, the kid, growled. I had to agree. I didn't get James Potter either, "You're a pureblood too! It's the only reason my parents let Sirius hang with you! But you get your name dirty by associating with mudbloods."
After that, James slammed the door to the common room, shaking his head.
I laughed the next morning with the rest of the Great Hall when Regulus Black came into room, dragging dirt in behind him, covered in the stuff himself. I hadn't been the one to pull this prank, but that didn't make it nay less funny. James, it seemed had taken all of Regulus's comments to heart.
The clean area on the back of Regulus's robes looked like a note. As I read the clean dark area, I smiled.
It isn't the purity of blood that matters. It's the purity of heart.
STUCK ON YOU- Sirius is sick of James talking about Lily, and decides to humor himself and everyone else and do something about it. I think the title gives a little away.
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