The Rainy Day

When we last left James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter, they were doing the usual- sneaking out of their common room to torture Snape- and the rest of the Slytherins, of course. Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs were squished together under the invisibility cloak (they hadn't fit three people under it at once since their third year, and they figured the cloak shrunk), and everyone in a while an "Ow!" or a "Padfoot!" was heard from their general area. Peter would have laughed, but that was the disadvantage of being a mouse.

Remus had the invisibility cloak in hand, and has looking over it carefully. They first had to head towards the Great Hall, and then down the stairway leading to the larger dungeons. The Slytherin common room was to the left, pretty near to the Potions classroom. As they moved towards the Great Hall, Remus stopped suddenly and pulled them into the nearest classroom.

"Wait," he whispered.

"What?" James gasped. "Is someone coming? Then talk quieter!" But Remus didn’t move.

"No, I-"

"Remus, what in the-"

"Shut up, Padfoot, I'm talking," Remus hushed him. "I was looking at the map and…"

"Yes?" Peter asked, resuming human form as Moony pulled off the cloak.

"I know our plan was to head straight to the Slytherin common room, but-"

"What?" Remus' three friends asked worriedly.

"Well, y'see, can we stop in the kitchen first?" he asked. "I'm bloody hungry."

"Blast, is that it, Moony?" Sirius rolled his eyes. "You got me- I mean Prongs and Wormtail- pretty scared there."

"Sorry, but do you want my stomach to give us away?" Remus glared at him.

"Well, no, but-"

"Then let's go." James rolled his eyes. Sometimes he wondered if Sirius argued with everyone just for the fun of it.

"Okay, maybe Twinkle and Bibbie will have some whipped cream we can cover the Slytherin common room in," James grinned. Twinkle and Bibbie were two eccentric (and not very smart) house elves. So, naturally, they were the Marauders' favorites.

"Good idea, Prongs!" Sirius laughed. "But Snape is all mine."

"That's not fair!" Moony, Wormtail and Prongs exclaimed at the same time.

"We can all get revenge on Snape for that last detention," Peter agreed.

"Yeah, I can't believe he caught us sneaking out," James sighed. "That stupid fool. When will he learn?"

"He?" a voice asked. "What about the lot of you?" The Marauders turned around, and before them, smirking broadly, was Lily Evans.

"Evans?" Sirius yelped. "What in the he-"

"You might want to watch your language, Black," Lily sighed, shaking her head. "We can't afford to lose any more points from you. After the muggle jello incident, especially- forty points from Gryffindor! I couldn't believe it."

"Okay, okay, you caught us," James winced. "Hey, wait one minute- what are you doing here?"

"As a prefect, it's my job to make sure things are in order throughout the castle," Lily smiled devilishly. "It looks as if I'm doing my job correctly."

"Well- how come we didn't see you on the- never mind," James shut his mouth. If Lily Evans found about their enchanted map, they would be done for. As pretty as she was in his mind, she still had beat him out for the position of fifth year prefect, and she made sure to rub it in.

"You are wondering why you didn't see me?" she asked smiling secretly. "Why should I tell you? At this moment, you four are in deep trouble, and I could yell at this very moment for Professor McGonagall-"

"No!" James burst out. "Is there anything we can, er, bribe you with?" Sirius was grinning broadly. Bribing was his specialty, at least in circumstances like this.

"Possibly," Lily smiled again. "There is one thing-"

"Well?"

"Let me come along with you where- wherever you're going," she said shyly.

"What!" Sirius exclaimed. "Lily Evans wants to help us make mischief? Madam, I have a new respect for you!" He kneeled down and kissed her hand, which she pulled away and tried desperately to clean off.

"Oh gross, keep your slime off me!" she shuddered, backing away from Padfoot. He muttered something inaudible.

Lily Evans had been known to never break the rules or lose any points for Gryffindor. The Marauders were speechless, and at the same time, impressed.

"Look, Snape did something that was, well, slimy the other day," she said, rolling her eyes. "But it's prefect's business, not that he deserves to be one." It was James' turn to mutter something unheard. "And don't pretend you aren't going to torture Snape. Why else would you be taking so many precautions? I don't typically believe in revenge- it's not right- but this is, after all, Severus Snape. And this time, he really asked for it."

"You swear you won't tell anyone?" Remus pleaded. "Oh, and if you do, it wasn't my idea," he added quickly. Lily nodded, and it was impossible to not believe her.

"So when do we leave?" she asked quietly.

"I am still hungry!" Remus whined. "I have the um- y'know- so I can look out for anyone coming. The rest of you can go on ahead under the invisibility cloak."

"We won't all fit under there," Lily thought out loud.

"I know, I don't need it, I'll be fine," Peter explained. He couldn't tell Lily he was an unregistered animagus, so he would cover it up the best he could and hope she didn't notice a rat nearby.

"So that means Lily, Sirius, and I will use the invisibility cloak," James replied, thinking things through.

"I think I'll go with Remus," Padfoot decided, as he winked at James. Prongs rolled his eyes. "We don't want him to be all alone. So it's just Lily and James using the cloak." They both turned beet red.

"Are you sure you won't need it, Peter?" Lily asked, making a sad attempt at making the Marauders think she wanted to squash a third person under the invisibility cloak.

"Well, actually," he started, before Sirius nudged him in the side. "Ow! Uh, I mean, yeah, I'm pretty sneaky. I'll keep a look out. Sirius, James, how about we meet you in the potions room? Professor Limogue has surely left already. It's getting late."

"And bring any gross food you can find!" James laughed. And with that, Remus and Sirius left the room with the map.

"Okay, let's go," said Peter, who transformed into a rat as soon as he was sure Lily wasn't looking.

"Alright, Miss Prefect," James said, sneering on the word prefect, "let's go."

"I can give you away any time, James," Lily snapped, "so you might want to watch out."

"Well, sorry," James rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long night.