This chapter is dedicated to all those faithful readers who continued to wait patiently for an update, and picked it back up even after the months that it took for me to rewrite everything. It's especially dedicated to madhu893, TheOtherAudrey, Princess, and JayaMioneDurron, who reviewed to tell me that not only are they still reading, but also I haven't lost my touch. If I forgot you or misspelled your name, please let me know so that I can fix my mistakes.
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It had taken many fights, more than a few ground rules, and quite a few talks with Harry, but eventually James and Lily had formed an uneasy truce. They still didn't talk about personal matters with one another, but by the middle of November they could at least have a civil conversation about their Head duties and homework.
James was thrilled every time he talked to Lily, even if it was just for a few moments. He'd wait until she was out of earshot, and then tell the rest of his friends all about their conversation, even if it was just a few words, then fall into his monologue on how beautiful and smart and sweet Lily was.
At first, Harry had found it funny. Then, he had learned to tolerate it. Then, he had tried to block it out.
But by now, it was just getting annoying.
"Why doesn't he ever actually tell her all of these things, instead of repeating them to us over and over again?" Harry asked Remus, exasperated.
Remus smirked. "He can stand up to the most frightening of teachers, and talk back to the Headmaster himself, but when it comes it Lily, James just isn't brave enough." Somehow, this reminded Harry of something Hermione had said once. Only she'd been ranting about how he could face Voldemort time and time again and yet he couldn't just apologize to Cho for doing something stupid.
And why was he thinking of Hermione again? Better yet, what had he been thinking about before?
"Harry?" Remus was waving his hand in front of his friend's face. He knew that dazed expression all too well; it was the same one James wore every time he talked about Lily. Harry rarely wore such an expression, and Remus was curious to what or who could've caused it, but he didn't feel that he knew Harry well enough to ask. Instead, he asked, "Why? Did you have something in mind?"
"Huh?"
Patiently, Remus gave a brief summery of their conversation just moments before and repeated his question. "Did you think of some way to get James to stop talking to us about Lily and start talking to Lily?"
Slowly, a manic grin grew on Harry's face. "Yeah. I might have some idea."
Remus would've been afraid. In fact, had that grin been directed towards himself, he definitely would have run for his life. But as it was, that evil smile was directed towards James, so Remus leaned forward with a matching expression that held interest and amusement.
"Well, what'd you have in mind?"
Sirius smiled slightly as he walked into the dorms later and saw Harry and Remus huddled together on Harry's bed, their homework forgotten, as they leaned over a piece of parchment. A very familiar piece of parchment…
"You showed him the map?" Sirius asked, his voice rising slightly.
Remus arched one eyebrow up at him and said, "Yeah. Why?"
"Well…it's just, we're all supposed to vote before we show something like that to anyone, even Harry. You know that!" For some reason, it upset Sirius to see that Harry had gotten so close to Remus, to see that Remus had shown Harry the map without him being there to see. Somehow, he felt a little left out.
"But…I thought you were all for us telling Harry everything, remember?" Remus asked, hesitantly. He always hated fighting with the friends he still couldn't believe he had and didn't want to lose.
"Well, yeah, I'm all for it, but James might not be! Or Peter! How could you not ask any of us?"
"I made it." Remus pointed out logically. "Therefore, the map is mine to show to whomever I choose. Besides, we couldn't tell this to James."
Something about the smile on Remus's face and the light in Harry's eyes told Sirius that maybe he should just forget about Marauder protocol this once. If Remus was breaking tradition for whatever it was they were doing, then it had to be worth it.
"Well, I might have to let it pass this once. It depends." Sirius smile made both of them return the grin. "What're we doing?"
When the three boys left the dormitory the next morning, identical smirks on their faces, everyone within three feet of them instinctively took a step back and winced. Someone was going to be pranked, and everyone hoped it wasn't them.
Lily was instantly suspicious when she saw those innocent looks. She had. In the last several months, gotten to know Harry Potter very well, and if there was one thing she knew about him, it was this; Harry Potter was never innocent.
"You have any idea what they're up to?" She muttered under her breath to James, who was sitting two seats down, the space between them reserved for Harry. Bemused, James shook his head. Some poor sod was about the be the victim of a prank.
"No idea." He replied, adding at Lily's look, "Really, I don't know what they're doing. I was in the Prefect meeting until late last night, remember? By the time I was up there, they were already in bed. I was really bummed, too. I'd wanted to tell them about the new Seventh year privileges." Lily studied his face for a moment, and when she saw only sincere honesty, she reluctantly nodded.
All day everyone was expecting some sort of elaborate prank, but none ever came. Everything seemed normal, aside from the time that Sirius, Remus, and Harry spent in the library, bent over books about Charms and Hogwarts. Otherwise, the day was average, and it wasn't until much later that night that anyone was pranked at all.
Lily sighed when the stairs started to shift again. It was late at night, she'd been patrolling the halls silently with James Potter for hours on end, and she just wanted to go to bed. Even after years at Hogwarts, she didn't understand why the stairs had to shift and stick her in some deserted corridor at exactly the wrong moment.
But the staircase didn't move to another corridor. It got about halfway there, and then stopped in midair, leaving Lily and James with no way of getting anywhere.
They waited for a few moments before either of them said anything. Finally, James said, "I don't think it's moving."
Lily rolled her eyes, sat on a step, and buried her head in her hands. "Well, how do we get off then?"
"I don't know." James answered easily. He didn't seem at all upset or tired, just curious. "Are the stairs even supposed to be able to do this? I mean, what if this happened in between classes and students were stuck here?"
Lily shook her head. "I read about it in `Hogwarts, A History.'" From his little hiding space in a nearby corner, Harry felt a pang. Every time someone mentioned that book, he remembered Hermione, and felt a pang of homesickness and sadness. He listened again to his extendable ears.
"This was an old defense strategy for the castle." She continued, then sighed when James shot her a puzzled look. "If enemies were creeping about the castle at night, they couldn't really get anywhere, now could they?"
"But…but what about the students?" James asked.
Lily smiled slightly. "The students knew better than to slip out of bed at night."
James frowned as he thought about this. Deciding that it made sense, he asked, "Well why don't they do this anymore? Then we wouldn't have to patrol all the time; the castle could take care of it for us."
Lily frowned, not as though she was annoyed, but as though she were trying to remember. "I think someone tried to jump to another floor beneath them, slipped, and died." James raised both of his eyebrows and shook his head.
"Well, there goes my first suggestion." Lily spared him a tired smile, and James felt a jolt of energy. "So what do we do now?"
Lily ran a hand through her short red hair, like James always had through his messy black hair. The gesture was out of frustration, but James couldn't help but smile. She wasn't purposely being hypocritical, but he couldn't help but think that maybe she'd picked this gestured up after yelling at him for doing it so many times.
"I don't know." Lily murmured tiredly. "If the whole castle's gone into defense mode, doing any sort of magic in the halls really isn't a good idea. The founders cast all sorts of jinxes and curses to prevent people from doing anything at night." James nodded, thinking of that kid trying to jump to the floor below and just missing, then falling, falling…
Shaken by the idea of that happening to him, James sat a few steps up from Lily.
Eventually, James really got tired of the silence. He didn't do well with silence, and he'd always been more awake at night than during the day. Most of his friends joked that he was nocturnal, but all of the Marauders could handle late nights pretty well; they were used to them.
"Do you think there's a reason the castle's like this?" James asked, concerned.
Lily's head shot up from where it was still buried in her hands, her eyes wide. "Oh, I didn't think about that…someone could be hurt, or in danger. Oh…but we're responsible for all of the students."
"If something had happened, we would've seen it when we were patrolling though, right?" James asked logically. His voice sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her.
"Right…" She murmured uneasily, biting her lip. She noticed the concerned expression on James's face, and instantly jumped to the wrong conclusion. "You do know what it is that your friends are up to! I bet you four have been planning this all along! And now you're worried that they've been caught in the dark somewhere pulling some prank!"
James's concern transformed into anger. "Yeah, I'm worried about my friends, but not because I think they've gotten caught. We don't get caught when we pull a prank. But someone might be hurt, and it really wouldn't surprise me if it were Sirius or Harry or Remus or Peter! Peter's been acting really distant since Harry came, and Sirius just seems to go looking for trouble, and Remus just seems to find trouble and Harry…" James smiled slightly and calmed down as he thought of a way to describe Harry.
"Harry just seems to be trouble?" Lily finished helpfully, a small smile on her face. Harry did seem to change a lot of people's lives. It really was a lot like in her life there was a BH, for Before Harry, and an AH, for After Harry. If someone was hurt or in trouble, chances were Harry had something to do with it.
"Yeah." James said quietly, running his fingers through his hair out of habit before letting them rest in his lap. Lily thought about it, but in the end didn't tell James off for running his hand over his hair again. Sure, it made his hair messier, but he didn't seem to do it on purpose anymore. Now it sort of seemed more like a nervous movement.
"Sorry. It's just…I guess it's just habit to blame things on you." Lily muttered half-heartedly.
"Well, I wonder why." James said sarcastically. "It really isn't always my fault. Sometimes it's Snape's, or Sirius's, or someone completely and totally unrelated to me."
"Fine. 99.9% of the time, it's you." Lily deadpanned, and James grinned and nodded in agreement. Seeing his dopey smile, Lily couldn't help but smile herself. "You really do like causing trouble." She said, the laughter in her eyes contrasting with her serious face.
James again nodded easily. "But you have to admit, I've been a little better."
"A lot better." Lily agreed. Ever since Harry had set James and his crew straight on what was considered fair when attacking an opponent, the pranks had been enjoyable and light. It was like the was a BH James and an AH James, and Lily found that she didn't really mind the AH James.
"So why'd you change?"
James began to realize that he was having an actual conversation with Lily Evans and brightened up considerably, and proceeded to talk to Lily about anything and nearly everything for the rest of that night. It wasn't until the sun began to filter in through the windows that the staircase gave an abrupt jolt that they both stood up. Lily tried to straighten herself up, and James dragged himself up, clinging onto the rail of the stairs.
"Well…I'm going to bed." The staircase came to an abrupt stop as it reached the proper corridor, and Lily nearly fell back down. James quickly and gently gripped her elbow and helped her regain her balance. When she gave him a questioning look, he smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry. Reflexes. I'm not a seeker anymore, but they're still there." Lily smiled slightly, then tucked her hair behind her ear and murmured a quiet, `thank you' before she turned away and began her walk towards their dorms. James took the time to pick up his bag carefully and stretch, but called out down the hall, "Good night, Lily."
Lily turned around to walk backwards for a moment, so that she was facing him, and called back, "Good night, James."
Grinning triumphantly, James began to walk not towards Gryffindor tower, but instead towards a banister a few feet away.
Slumped behind it and sound asleep were Sirius, Remus, and Harry. James grinned and conjured a bucket of cold water, glad that he was able to use magic again. Slowly he positioned the bucket over his friend's head, and then levitated it until it hovered just over Sirius, who was in the middle and snoring slightly.
Had anyone been in the halls and watching, they would've wondered why Remus, Sirius and Harry were chasing James down the corridor at six in the morning, soaking wet and angry, while James cackled merrily and ran, waving his arms all over the place.
Peter, clutching his left arm, sure wondered when he was heading back from the Slytherin dorms. For a moment, as he watched them run and laugh, he wondered if he'd made a mistake by going to Lucius Malfoy and taking the mark from the Dark Lord.
But then he watched Harry trip over a hysterical James, and saw Sirius and Remus fall into the dog pile, and reflected that maybe this would be the thing to get him there. He hadn't been like that with his friends even before Harry had come, and now it hurt to see someone so new be accepted so easily, while Peter, who'd been there since the beginning, had never been accepted at all.
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