Eyes as Green as a Fresh Pickled Toad

Chapter Seven

The War of the Shoes

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Lily Evans screamed as she looked into the mirror. "I-I-I-" She gasped, trying to find the words. "I'M A BLUEBERRY!"

Her eyes were wide, which looked freakish, because they were completely blue, just like the rest of her. She was surprised she could even tell where her eyes were at all-every part of her body was exactly the same color, and there was little difference between her hair and her face; her cheek and her chin.

"Wha...?" Came a confused, sleepy voice, and Lily whirled around to see the other girls in her dormitory climbing out of bed. Mimi was the one who had tried to speak, and Lily glared at her.

"What part did YOU have in this?" she demanded accusingly, pointing a finger at Mimi.

Mimi blinked at the sight of a completely blue Lily and, without realizing it, began to giggle.

"I knew it!" Lily exploded, and dug her wand out of her robes. Her wand wasn't blue, at least; that was a relief. "You will pay for this. Puniceus!" Lily cried, and the spell shot out of her wand, turning Mimi bright pink.

"Aah!" Mimi cried. "Lily! TAKE THIS OFF OF ME!"

"WELL YOU TAKE THIS OFF OF ME FIRST!"

Mimi, looking very much like she was covered in radioactive pink bubble gum, stomped her foot. "I didn't DO it!"

"LIAR!"

"I AM NOT!"

By this time, all of the girls in their dormitory were very awake, and watching the fight with interest. Susie, who had forgotten to put her glasses on, was awake but very confused, as it looked like a blue blob of jelly was arguing with a pink blob of jelly, and...why were there blobs of jelly that big in the girls' dormitory at all?

"Well if YOU didn't do it then WHO DID?" demanded the blue blob of jelly, which for some reason sounded very much like Lily Evans. Susie decided to find her glasses.

"I don't KNOW! Can you think of no one else who HATES YOU?" Susie found her glasses just in time to see the pink blob throw this insult at the blue blob. Once the blobs were in focus, Susie began giggling, because of course they weren't jelly blobs at all.

"It's NOT FUNNY!" Lily and Mimi screamed in unison, and Susie stopped laughing before either one of them decided to turn her purple.

Lily turned back to Mimi, fuming. "Well, FINE then, o thou who has SO many friends, I'M GOING TO FIND MELODY!"

Lily stormed out of the girls' dormitory and through the Ravenclaw Common Room. She didn't stop storming until she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"WAKE UP!" she demanded of the portrait. The Fat Lady woke up looking quite sour.

"Who exactly do you think you are?" she demanded of the very blue and very angry Lily.

"OPEN UP!" Lily demanded of the Fat Lady.

"That is NOT the password!"

"I. DON'T. CARE!"

"Well! Then I guess you're NOT getting in, are you?" the Fat Lady huffed, and she flitted out of her portrait to find one of her friends. Lily glared at the blank painting for a moment, and then screamed at the top of her lungs:

"MELODY CAULDWELL! I'M CALLING YOU OUT!"

The whole of Gryffindor Tower heard her yelling, but only a few chose to respond. Melody, who normally would have rolled over and gone back to sleep, had no choice but to get up and walk down to the portrait hole. Of course, once she got there, she didn't really mind. After all, Lily was blue. She burst out laughing, and made no attempts to restrain herself, not even when Lily took out her wand and shrieked:

"Puniceus!"

With that, Lily stalked off to the hospital wing to have her blueness fixed.

* * *

Melody spent several more minutes laughing after Lily walked off, unable to get the picture of a completely blue Evans out of her mind. She re-entered the portrait hole (which the Fat Lady had just returned to), still giggling, to find Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James waiting for her. The Marauders all had very odd expressions on their faces, and Sirius looked as though he were about to laugh.

"What?" Melody asked. "What's so...AAAAAAAH!" She had just discovered that every inch of her body was pink. By then, all the Marauders were laughing hysterically.

"Oooh! This is NOT FUNNY!" Melody stomped her foot. "LILY KNOWS HOW MUCH I HATE PINK!" Melody's face would have been bright red, had it not already been pink.

Remus calmed down enough to speak. "Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey."

Melody's eyes narrowed. "Ha! And have Lily laugh at me? That's where SHE's going."

"So you're just going to stay pink?" James asked, snorting.

"You!" Melody exclaimed, whipping out her wand. James's eyes grew wide.

"Why me?" he squeaked as Melody waved her wand at him threateningly. "You know you look a lot like Lily when you do that?"

Melody chose to ignore this comment. "She's YOUR girlfriend, James."

James shook his head fervently. "No she's not!" he said quickly.

"James, get out your wand," Melody instructed. "We are going to duel this out."

James shook his head. "I don't duel with girls," he said, sounding like a prat.

"JAMES POTTER!" Melody screamed, infuriated. "Stop acting like a git, stop acting like you're really afraid of me, get out your wand, and DUEL!"

"What are we dueling over?" James demanded, getting out his wand.

"Lily. Are you going to assist her, or me?"

James groaned. "Melody! This is ridiculous! And for your information, I don't plan on assisting either one of you!"

Melody's eyes flashed. "You're involved in this whether you like it or not! Petrificus Totalus!"

James blocked and sent back a leg-locking curse. "I am not!" he insisted as Melody shot curses at him.

"You are too!"

James sighed, blocking all of Melody's spells expertly. "This is YOUR fight. You picked this fight with Lily, and you can finish it by yourself!"

"Grr..." James was making too much sense. It was time to end this duel. "Expelliarmus!"

Unfortunately, this spell didn't have entirely the effect Melody had hoped. She called this spell just as James did, and they switched wands. They continued shooting spells at each other for a while, until their wands began malfunctioning.

James couldn't seem to get anything but daisies to come out of Melody's wand. It was very temperamental, and at first had not worked even for Melody. Melody, on the other hand, couldn't seem to direct any of her curses at James. They kept rebounding and shooting back at her.

"Aauugh! I can't duel like this!" Melody cried, throwing James's wand back at him. He caught it easily, with all the grace and athletic movement of a Seeker. James looked at the wands in his hands.

"I guess this means I win, then?" James asked, smirking and tossing Melody's wand back.

"It's not MY fault your wand is defective," Melody huffed.

"I don't have to take sides now, ha!" James stuck his tongue out at her, and Melody returned the childish gesture. She sighed and looked down at her magnificent pinkness.

"I guess I'll be going to get this reversed then, won't I?" she sighed. "Off to the hospital wing again!" she saluted the Marauders and marched off, ignoring the giggling of the Fat Lady as she walked down the corridor.

Halfway to the hospital wing, she was intercepted by Mimi.

"Whoa!" she said.

"You laugh, you die," Melody warned. Mimi shook her head.

"Nothing to laugh at. Lily put that curse on me too."

"Really?" Melody said, sounding thankful, as Mimi looked perfectly normal. "So how do you take it off?"

Mimi shrugged. "I'm not...entirely sure. All I know is that I put the spell on someone else, and I wasn't pink anymore. Then I had to run because Susie was kind of mad at me." Mimi paused to consider the fact that 'someone else' had changed to 'Susie' rather quickly, and without explanation, but Melody didn't seem confused.

Melody giggled. "Well then! What's the spell?"

"Puniceus."

"Right," she said, looking around for a target. Mrs. Norris just happened to be in the hallway, and Melody shrieked with delight. "Puniceus!" she cried, and the spell shot out of her wand. Mrs. Norris meowed, alarmed, as the spell hit her, and ran off, suddenly very pink, to find Filch. Melody and Mimi exploded in giggles, and ran down to the Great Hall for breakfast before Filch could catch them.

* * *

Lily, her pride very injured, sat in the hospital wing and sulked. Madam Pomfrey had given her an awful-tasting potion to drink that slowly took off the effects of the spell. Her hair was mostly red again, except for the ends, and her forehead looked completely normal again, except for her half-blue, half-red eyebrows. The rest of her body was still blue, though, and the potion had already been in effect for an hour. Lily suspected this was going to take a long time.

Suddenly, shrieking and wailing filled the hospital wing. "Help! Madam Pomfrey! My nose! My eyes! My ears!"

"Oh my goodness!" came the startled voice of Madam Pomfrey. Lily couldn't see what was going on from behind her curtain, and had to admit that she was quite curious.

"Please, Madam Pomfrey, say you can fix it!" the girl wailed.

"Why, dear, of course I can fix it! There's nothing to be afraid of! Now sit, dear, and try to calm down a bit," the nurse soothed. Lily listened curiously as Madam Pomfrey asked the girl all kinds of questions.

"Now--your eyes--they were--ah, yes. Does that look right? The ears, I'm assuming, go here--

"No, on the left," the girl replied.

"How long has it been this way?"

"Ten minutes, I guess," the girl sniffed.

"Well, it'll all be all right in a minute. I--oh dear!"

"What?" came the girl's voice, sounding very alarmed.

"Well, this isn't going to be entirely easy. Your nose--hold on, dear, while I get you a potion to loosen your skin up."

Lily heard the curtain around the girl's bed close, and Madam Pomfrey's footsteps as she walked off to her potion cabinet. The girl continued to sniffle.

"I thought I was the only one having a bad morning," Lily said, out of nowhere.

The girl sniffed again. "What's wrong with you? I bet it's not as bad as mine."

"Well, I'm half blue. It's not exactly fun," Lily replied. The girl sniffed once more and laughed mirthlessly.

"You should see my face. I look like a Picasso."

"Yikes!" Now Lily understood all the talk about noses and eyes and ears...

"So, who's the cause of all YOUR troubles?" the girl asked of Lily.

"My ex-best friend," Lily said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"Ex-best friend? Are you sure you're not just having a stupid fight?"

"The stupid part is right, but I'm going to get her back for this anyway."

The girl laughed a little again.

"What about you?" Lily asked. "Who rearranged your face?"

"Ooh!" the girl exclaimed, suddenly sounding angry. "Frank Longbottom! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!"

Lily laughed. "Sounds like another James Potter," she said, rolling her eyes.

The girl paused momentarily before replying. "James?" she echoed, sounding confused. "No, no, no! Frank isn't ANYTHING like James! James is...suave, and...handsome, and he knows how to treat girls. If ONLY I had a problem with James Potter! I think I might actually enjoy HIM constantly bothering me. He's SO cute!"

Lily coughed. "ExCUSE me? Argh! What IS it with everyone and James Potter?"

There was another pause. "Well, don't YOU think he's cute?"

Lily considered for a moment. Well, he wasn't devilishly handsome like Sirius. And James definitely wasn't as cute as everyone made him out to be, but... she thought of his smile, and his eyes, and the way he looked at her...

"No!" Lily suddenly cried, her cheeks flushing. "James Potter is NOT cute!"

A moment of astounded silence. "Well, I think you're crazy, but I guess you're entitled to your opinion!"

Just then Madam Pomfrey came back with the potion, and Lily and the girl's conversation ceased. Lily sighed and laid back down as Madam Pomfrey started babbling again.

"Now, just drink it down. Good! Okay, now...where exactly was your nose positioned...?"

This was going to be a long day...

* * *

Melody snatched a croissant off of the Gryffindor table and waltzed over to the Ravenclaw table.

"So, Mimi..." she began. Mimi looked up at her and blinked.

"So, Melody?"

Melody grinned. "How would you like to be my partner in crime?"

Mimi raised an eyebrow. "What crime?"

"Come with me and we'll talk about it," Melody said mysteriously. Mimi rolled her eyes and followed Melody out of the Great Hall.

"We must pay dear Lily back for turning me pink," Melody said decidedly, opening the front doors.

"What about me?" Mimi asked as they began descending the stairs.

"There was a 'we' in that sentence, you know," Melody pointed out, taking a bite of her croissant.

Mimi sighed. "I just-oh, never mind," she concluded, thinking that it would be quite futile to point out to Melody that she, too, had been turned pink.

"So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to let me into Ravenclaw House and assist me in pulling another marvelous prank on Lily."

"Okay, two things: one, you already have the password; two, what's the prank?" They reached the lawn just as Melody finished her croissant.

"Well," Melody began, licking her fingers. "Lily will undoubtedly change the password now that we are at war. And I don't exactly have a prank yet-I was hoping you could help me think of something."

"Hmm..." Mimi considered all this for a moment. "Well, the question is, then, when are we going to pull it, once we know what we're going to do? In all fairness, Lily is probably still blue. We wouldn't want to hit her with a double whammy, would we?"

"I don't think it really matters WHEN we do it, it's just WHAT we do. Lily's never been much of a prankster. Based on how things played out this morning-well, first, I turned her blue. In retaliation, she turned me pink. Think about it for a second. All she did was mimic me. So..."

"Whatever we do to her, she's just going to throw right back at us?"

"Exactly!" Melody said. "So what we need to do is come up with something that would be completely upsetting to her, but in return would have no meaning whatsoever to me."

"What, like stealing all her books?" Mimi joked. Melody was notorious for not studying, losing her textbooks, and failing to bring said textbooks to class. Melody, however, didn't seem to recognize it as a joke. Her eyes sparked.

"Mimi, that's perfect!" Melody cried. "We're going to steal all of Lily's books!"

* * *

Despite the fact that the majority of her body was still blue, Lily was having quite a fun time. She and the girl with the Picasso face (whose name, Lily discovered, was Gertrude Nessom) had gotten involved in a lively conversation about their families. Gertrude, like Lily, was a Muggle-born, and it turned out they both had Muggle sisters who resented their talent. They also both had boys who severely annoyed them, and whom everyone insisted they were going out with. They ALSO discovered that they had Herbology together, and agreed to work on the next few projects together, which was a relief to Lily, as Mimi had previously been her partner, and now they were...well, pink and blue (or so Lily assumed). They began to talk of pranks they could pull on Melody in retaliation.

Gertrude threw around a few hexes, but Lily dismissed them all quickly.

"She knows too many countercurses," she said, shaking her head.

Gertrude nodded, considering Melody's reputation. She was one of the more mischievous girls in the school, and very fond of pulling pranks on people. "You'd better hope you don't get into a duel with her," she said, shuddering. She'd heard that Melody was associated with the Rita Skeeter episode a week ago--she and Sirius Black. Rumor had it that Rita had challenged them to a duel, which eventually got so violent that Rita was turned into a donkey.

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not worried about dueling Melody Cauldwell," she said, leaning back and trying to make herself comfortable against her pillows. "Her attacks are strong, but her techniques are too repetitive. You can usually land a good curse or two if you pay attention. She is getting better, though," Lily noted, and frowned at the silence from Gertrude. They were both still behind their curtains, so Lily couldn't see the look of awe and horror on Gertrude's face.

"You've dueled with Melody Cauldwell?" she squeaked.

"Uh...yeah," Lily said, and the tone in her voice plainly declared: 'duh!'.

"Did she turn you into a donkey?" Gertrude breathed.

Lily burst out laughing. "No!" she cried, snorting and laughing harder. Gertrude didn't seem to find this entirely amusing. Lily calmed down after a bit, and then spoke. "Melody is--was--one of my best friends. We were just dueling for fun." Lily noted the was in her sentence with a pang of sadness, and wondered if it were entirely true. They would get over this eventually...wouldn't they?

"Oh," Gertrude said, breaking Lily's train of thought. "Well--"

Her sentence was interrupted by a large disruption near the entrance of the hospital wing.

"What is the meaning of this?" came Madam Pomfrey's irritated voice.

"Sorry, Madam Pomfrey, sorry!" came a very familiar voice, accompanied by even more familiar laughter. Lily groaned.

"What?" Gertrude whispered.

"It's Sirius and James!" Lily moaned. Gertrude didn't seem to find this annoying at all. Instead, she squealed in delight and began fussing over her face.

"I hope it looks normal," she muttered. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes.

"My patients need rest! Now please, if you--"

"Madam Pomfrey, we came to drop Lily's homework off!"

"Well, give--"

"No, no, we can take it, can't we Sirius?"

"Oh, all right, but be quiet!"

Lily could just see the evil grins on Sirius and James's faces as they waved Madam Pomfrey back into her office. She put a hand to her forehead and began to pray, as she heard their footsteps grow nearer, that they wouldn't pull her curtain back.

Too late.

"Lily-bean!" James and Sirius cried, taking in her half-normalness, half-blueness with glee.

"Hello," Lily said miserably.

"Aw, cheer up, Lily-bean!" James said, setting some books down on the table next to her bed. "Look, bubbles!" he said, flicking his wand. Blue bubbles floated out of it.

"No! Not those stupid blue bubbles again!" Lily shrieked. "Away! Away!" she cried, waving them away fervently with her hands.

Gertrude peeked out from behind her curtain. Fortunately for her, James and Sirius didn't notice.

"Perhaps you prefer little pink flowers?" Sirius suggested not-so-innocently, a devious grin on his face. He created a chain of flowers with his wand and set it on Lily's head.

"I hate you," Lily said, glaring at them. Sirius and James smiled. She sighed and rolled her eyes, removing her flower headdress and flinging it on the pile of books on the table next to her bed carelessly. "I'm still going to get you back for that," she muttered.

"Of course you are, Lily-bean! We'll have a rematch over Christmas holidays!" Sirius declared.

Lily frowned. "Actually, I can't. I promised mum and dad I'd come home for Christmas this year."

"And so did we, remember, Padfoot?" James said, hitting Sirius upside the head. Sirius staggered comically, and Gertrude giggled. She quickly retreated behind her curtain at the looks from Sirius, James, and Lily.

"Who's that?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Just leave her alone," Lily said, and Sirius shrugged.

"Anyway, o dearest blue Lily-bean," James said, noting, with amusement, that Lily was still blue from the waist down, "we just came to bring you some homework! Dear Professor Thorne was missing you desperately in Potions."

Lily gagged, for the benefit of Sirius and James, who laughed appreciatively, then looked over at the books on her bedside table.

She rolled her eyes.

"James, these are Care of Magical Creatures Books!" At this statement, Gertrude peeked out from behind her curtain again.

"Are they really?" James asked, sounding not at all surprised. "Well, then, I guess we'll have to go retrieve the Potions book!" he said, sounding very pleased with himself and grabbing the books from the bedside table.

"Can't wait!" Lily said, unenthusiastically.

"Farewell, my dearest Lily-bean!" James cried, picking up the flower chain. "Until we meet again..." he said, far too dramatically, and placed the chain back on Lily's head, while simultaneously giving her a kiss on the cheek. Lily, blushing furiously, rather lamely waved good-bye as Sirius and James bounced out of the hospital wing.

"Aaaaaw!" Gertrude cried, once they were gone. Lily's face, which had been nearly normal, suddenly went very pink again.

"Aaaaaw what?" Lily muttered, looking very embarrassed indeed.

"James is so sweet!" she cooed.

"He is not!" Lily cried, desperately trying to cool her cheeks.

"Oh, please!" Gertrude rolled her eyes. "I think you're crazy about him."

"And I think you should shut it, or I'm going to start referring to Frank Longbottom as your boyfriend!" Lily threatened, and Gertrude quickly shut her mouth and retreated behind her curtain.

"It was still cute," Gertrude muttered.

Okay, so it was.

Maybe just a little bit.

* * *

James and Sirius's second visit wasn't nearly eventful as the first, because Madam Pomfrey refused to let them anywhere near Lily's bed. She brought the books back to Lily herself, and then urged her to go to sleep, as she'd been urging both of the girls to do all day. Lily was normal down to her knees by then, and it was getting dark outside, so it wasn't as hard to fall asleep then. She'd never been able to sleep during the day. She and Gertrude talked a little before they fell asleep, and when Lily woke up the next morning, Gertrude was gone.

Lily looked completely normal the next morning, to her utter relief, and walked down to the Great Hall early, clutching James's Potions book in her arms. She found most of her professors eating at the High Table, and apologized for her absence from class yesterday. She scribbled her assignments on a spare piece of parchment from Professor Flitwick and walked back up to the Ravenclaw Common Room to get her books before returning to the Great Hall for breakfast with Susie and Matt.

They sat at the end of the table, and Susie and Matt informed her of yesterday's events. Lily giggled as Matt told her about what had happened to Mrs. Norris yesterday--apparently she had been turned pink twice by Lily's 'puniceus' spell. Filch had been beside himself with anger. The students responsible (Melody and Susie, in turn) had been given a detention apiece.

"I've never had a detention before," Susie said nervously, squirming in her chair.

"They're not that bad," Matt said dismissively, loading potatoes onto his plate. "The only one I didn't like was when I had to clean out Professor Thorne's jars, which were covered with all kinds of...slime, and...mold, and...nasty stuff, and I dropped one of them, and the sludge ended up on my favorite pair of musical socks..." he sighed, remembering the blue-and-green, "Fur Elise"-playing, large, fuzzy, musical socks. "They've never been the same!"

Susie and Lily both giggled.

"That's nice, dear," Lily said, taking some potatoes for herself. Just then the doors to the hall burst open, and the Marauders came through, quite noisily, with Melody, and, Lily saw, with a lurch in her stomach, Mimi. She shook it off, and tossed James's Potions book to him as he passed.

"Lily...why is Mimi with a bunch of Gryffindors?" Susie asked, sounding confused.

Lily shrugged. "Dunno," she muttered, pushing her potatoes around on her plate aimlessly. Matt and Susie exchanged a glance.

"Lily...?" Susie said cautiously. "Is there something you want to...talk about?"

"No!" Lily said, almost yelling. She let her fork clatter onto her plate as she stood up, and she ran out of the Great Hall.

The Marauders and Mimi, who hadn't quite reached their table yet, turned to look as Lily ran out of the Great Hall. Momentary looks of guilt passed over both Mimi's and Melody's faces; Remus, Peter, and Sirius shrugged, and James ran after her. He burst through the doors of the Great Hall and saw a flash of red hair disappearing behind the closing front doors. He followed her out and down the steps in front of the school.

"Lily!" James called as she ran across the lawn. Lily didn't stop. She didn't even bother to look back.

* * *

Silent feuding passed between Lily, Melody, and Mimi for the next few weeks, during which Lily spent a lot of time in the library, talking with Susie, Matt, and Gertrude, and avoiding James. Avoiding James was the hardest; he seemed to be everywhere. It wasn't that she was mad at James, really; she just didn't feel like talking to him. He would make her explain everything, and then try to come up with a solution, and she, for once, didn't want a solution. If she and Melody were going to have a fight, they were going to have a fight, damn it, and James had better not get in the way!

Besides, she didn't need James disrupting her plans for revenge. She had to do something...something better than turning Melody pink again, at least. Something better than what Melody would come up with. Something...prankster-ish. The only problem was, she couldn't come up with anything that the Marauders hadn't already done, and she was not about to be a copycat. And even if she was a copycat, Melody would know how to fix everything right away, so it would be pointless to try.

Lily was pondering this one afternoon, right after lunch, as she walked to the Ravenclaw Common Room to get her books for Potions and Arithmancy. What could she do, she wondered, entering the common room, that would make Melody really upset? She briefly considered cutting Melody's hair while she was sleeping as she ascended the stairs to the girls' dormitory, but dismissed the thought as she approached her four-poster. She lifted her Bottomless Bag off of the bed and began digging through it for her books.

Having a Bottomless Bag sometimes had its drawbacks. For example, sometimes her books got lost in its bottomlessness, and it took quite some time (and perhaps a Summoning Charm) to retrieve them. She usually tried to get all necessary books near the top before class started, but it looked like today she'd have to walk through the halls with her hand in her bag, searching.

She groaned and left the Common Room, still digging around in the bag. Her hand hit something, and she pulled it out. It was her copy of Hogwarts, A History.

"I have been looking for this!" she exclaimed, then sighed and tossed the book back into her bag. She was almost to the Potions dungeon already, and she still hadn't seen any sign of her book.

"Come on! Where are you , you stupid book?" she demanded. She pulled out something else, rolled her eyes, and groaned. "I thought I had gotten rid of all these," she muttered, tossing the year-old box of chocolates back into her bag.

By that time, she had reached the Potions dungeon. Lily swore under her breath and pulled out her wand.

"Accio Potions book!" she hissed, pointing her wand inside the bag. She concentrated, and waited, and waited, and concentrated, and...no Potions book.

"WHAT?" Lily shrieked, digging furiously through her bag. "That's impossible!"

"What's impossible?" came the voice of the person she'd been avoiding for days. Lily sighed, and turned around to face James.

"I've lost my Potions book," she explained, as she really wasn't in a mood to avoid anybody at the moment.

James put on a face of fake horror. "Lily? Lose a book?"

Sirius, who was hovering nearby as always, chimed in with, "Everybody run! It's the Apocalypse! The unthinkable has happened! Lily's lost her Potions book!"

Lily, her cheeks growing red, crossed her arms and looked at James, trying to ignore the Idiot. "James, can we share yours?" she asked pleadingly, because now she not only didn't have a partner in this class, she didn't have a book either.

"Sure," James said, ushering her over to the table where he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter normally sat.

"You do realize this table's only fit for four, don't you, James?" Remus said.

"Not to worry!" Sirius said, clearing his throat and eyeing the seat next to an attractive Ravenclaw across the room. "Peter, you can go sit with her,"

Well, that wasn't what Lily had expected Sirius to say.

"Me?" Peter asked, bewildered.

"Sure!" Sirius said. "I mean, look at how short she is! She'd be perfect for you!"

Peter looked rather doubtful of the last statement, but Sirius had been right in pointing out that she was short--she looked several inches shorter than Peter, at any rate, who was rather short himself.

"Go get 'er, Wormtail!" James said, with a wink. Peter gulped, rather nervously, but set off across the Potions dungeon with a swagger that so mimicked Sirius's that Lily had to laugh.

"We've trained him well, haven't we?" Sirius said dramatically, and Lily rolled her eyes. They took their seats just before Professor Thorne burst into the dungeon. He looked at James's table sourly before beginning the lesson.

Lily, who had never worked with James on anything before, was surprised to discover that he was actually rather good at potionmaking. Between the two of them, they had their potion finished before anyone else in class. And there was another benefit to working at James's table, besides--he, Sirius, and Remus were always cracking ridiculous jokes, which made the class fly by faster than usual, despite the fact that Professor Thorne kept swooping over their table like they were up to something.

Melody, who was working across the dungeon with Mimi, glared at them throughout the entire class period.

* * *

"This is ridiculous!" Lily cried as she entered the Arithmancy classroom.

"What's ridiculous?" Susie asked, blinking.

"I can't find my Arithmancy book!"

"Really? And you couldn't find your Potions book either?" (She had been working with Matt during the Potions class.)

"No! I don't understand! I put all of my books in here this morning, and I went to my first two classes just fine, and now I can't find any of my books. The only one I've found is Hogwarts, A History, and that really isn't going to do me much good! I just don't know..." she gasped suddenly, unable to finish her sentence. "Melody," she hissed. "DAMN IT!" she yelled, throwing her bag onto the floor.

The entire class was looking at her, and Lily suddenly realized how lucky she was that the teacher had not been in the room. "Sorry," she said, and picked up her bag. Melody was so going to pay for this.

* * *

Mimi stumbled up to the Northeast tower, doubled over in laughter. Melody was already there, waiting for her.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Lily--was--so--mad!" Mimi gasped. "When she realized--what you had done--she--she-" Mimi was brought to her knees in a fit of laughter. "And she didn't even blame me for it!" she cried, wiping away tears of laughter. Melody giggled.

"This is perfect," she said. "Now all we have to wait for is the retaliation...come on, let's go down to the kitchens and get some food for celebration!"

* * *

Lily paced outside of the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, Bottomless Bag in hand, ignoring the Fat Lady, who was watching her curiously. She had loads of homework to do--but this was more important. Suddenly, the portrait hole opened, and two third year students walked out, arguing.

"I wish I had never agreed to write that stupid letter!" one of the girls cried, turning to face the other, her black hair whipping behind her.

"Well I wish my best friend wasn't a--" but she froze in midsentence upon seeing Lily. The other girl turned, and froze once she, too, had seen Lily.

Lily hurried past the third years and into the Gryffindor Common Room, only slightly curious as to what letter they were talking about. The portrait hole closed behind her, and the girls' shouts were muffled as they resumed their fight. She hurried across the Common Room, ignoring the Gryffindors' curious stares, and marched up the stairs to the Sixth Year Girls' Dormitory.

The dormitory was, thankfully, deserted. Lily marched to Melody's bed--last on the right--and began to put her brilliant plan into action.

* * *

After she and Mimi were done celebrating, Melody sighed and began wandering around the school. Her thoughts drifted back to Potions class...Lily had been sitting with James, Sirius, and Remus, in a spot that Melody had never managed to earn, no matter how much time she spent with the Marauders. She had never been more jealous of anybody in her entire life, not even that time when her little sister Novolie had gotten invited to Callie Manilow's birthday party and Melody hadn't, even though Callie was the same age as Melody, and Novolie was a whole year younger.

Melody came from a very large, very poor family--she had seven brothers and sisters in all. Every year she told Lily that Christmas was too much of a pain at home, and that was why she stayed at Hogwarts--but the truth was her family didn't have enough money to bring her home. They didn't have enough money to come and get her, or feed her, or take care of her. They only managed during the summer because four of her siblings were carted off to a Muggle summer camp for underprivileged children somewhere in Scotland for two months. And last summer had been even easier on her poor parents--one of Melody's uncles had taken her on that trip to Venezuela, and given her parents some extra money.

Melody was the only witch in her family. She was the only product of her mother's first marriage, to a Mr. Barry Cauldwell. Melody's dad, along with her dad's entire family, was magical. Her mother, however, came from a long, boring line of Muggles, and her second husband, Steve Huntington, was as big of a Muggle as they came. He was also about as poor of a Muggle as they came. Melody wished, at least once every day, that her father were still alive.

He had been killed on the job--his job being top-secret work for the Ministry of Magic. It had been so secret, in fact, that no one had ever told Melody exactly what it was that he had done. All Melody knew was that her father had been one of the first victims of the Dark Lord Voldemort; one of the first victims to have the Dark Mark painted in the sky over his dead body; one of the first to leave behind a shell-shocked family; one of the first to leave behind a daughter who wanted revenge.

Melody had devoted all her spare time (that wasn't occupied by playing practical jokes) since arriving at Hogwarts to learning how to duel. She paid special attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and sometimes studied late into the night, out of large, thick volumes about dueling that no one in the world knew about--but she had a feeling Lily and Sirius knew about it anyway. And maybe James and Remus; James, because she spent so much time with him, and Remus, because he was just a naturally perceptive person.

Her siblings didn't understand her endeavors, or all the time she spent studying at home. (She had to study at night when she was home, too, because she spent all day cooking, cleaning, and taking care of her siblings.) Of course, Melody didn't really expect them to understand--none of them were magical, and they weren't her father's children. But she loved them anyway.

Melody's mother had remarried several years after Barry Cauldwell's death. Steve had once been married himself, but he hadn't been widowed; he was simply divorced. He also had a daughter; Novolie, with whom Melody usually got along very well (excepting after Callie Manilow's birthday party, when Melody had been mad at Novolie, and after Melody received her Hogwarts letter, when Novolie had been mad at Melody for being a witch and going away). They had then produced the remainder of Melody's siblings, and had fallen into a state of poverty.

Last summer, for Melody, had been the best experience of her life. Her uncle's mistress, Catalina, had taken her shopping almost every day, and she'd bought herself a large amount of shoes (Melody was very fond of shoes) and a variety of new clothes and dress robes, as well as a fantastic new racing broom--a Nimbus 1001!. She'd also bought a lot of things for her siblings, and had gotten Christmas gifts for her entire family, as well as for all her friends at Hogwarts. Melody's uncle was very rich and very extravagant. He had taken her to lush, elegant parties almost every night, where she met some of the finest, richest, most respected, and charming witches and wizards in the world.

Everyone at the parties had loved Melody. They commented on her beauty, her grace, her charm. She had enjoyed being treated like royalty. She had enjoyed not having to spend her entire day cooking and cleaning. She had enjoyed being fawned over by young, handsome wizards, each of whom were heirs to fortunes even larger than her Uncle's. There were no unpleasant people there, and even if they were, they didn't dare insult the niece of Hans Cauldwell. There were no Snapes present at the parties, thank God--not that the Snapes were rich at all; Melody, in fact, had no idea. The only people there that Melody didn't like were the Malfoys, but even they could be a tolerated for a time.

But even so, she had enjoyed coming home. She had enjoyed returning to Hogwarts. And, most of all, she enjoyed seeing Sirius Black again. She wished, desperately, that Sirius had been invited to Venezuela with her. The only thing missing from that vacation had been someone to enjoy it with. Oh, sure, Catalina was nice enough, and her uncle was very pleasant to be around, and the people at the parties were interesting to talk to, but...none of them were Sirius. None of them had his wacky sense of humor, his devilish grin, his confident swagger, or his wonderful, perfect, beautiful, intelligent, mischievous, dark brown eyes.

Melody was suddenly jolted out of her memories as she realized she was standing at the entrance to MHQ.

"Tea kettle," she muttered, and was granted entrance to the place. Upon entering, she saw Sirius sitting at the long table, looking very thoughtful and quite troubled. "Oh," she said, and turned to leave.

"Don't go," he said, and Melody turned to see that he had come out of his trance.

"What were you thinking about?" she asked.

"What were you?" Sirius shot back. Melody rolled her eyes.

"I asked you first."

"Well I asked you second."

"What in the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know, you started mentioning order!" Sirius shrugged. Melody shook her head and giggled.

"Never mind," she said, sitting down across from him.

"You want to know what I really was thinking about?" Sirius asked, looking serious again.

"What?"

"Voldemort."

Melody's eyes darkened. "Voldemort," she spat.

Sirius blinked. "Oh, so you hate him too? I thought it was just me."

Melody sighed. "I guess...I haven't told anyone about my father, have I?"

"No," Sirius agreed. "Not more than the fact that he died, but...he didn't just die, did he?"

Melody shook her head, looking sad and angry at the same time.

"Voldemort?" Sirius asked, needlessly, and Melody nodded again, looking strangled. "That explains that, then," he said quietly.

"Huh?"

"The circles under your eyes," Sirius said, reaching a finger over to touch her cheek gently. "All your dueling practice."

Melody chuckled. "Kinda sad to know I'm that transparent."

"Oh, it's not about transparency--just because you're really bad with make-up--"

"Shut up!" Melody cried, smacking him on the shoulder lightly, but laughing all the same. Sirius caught her hand as she tried to pull it back and, for no reason, began examining her fingers. They were long, and, just like the rest of her, elegant. He laced his fingers through hers and waved their hands around aimlessly.

"Is there any point to this?" Melody asked as their hands spasmodically shot up into the air and then came back down again.

"Is there any point to anything?" Sirius asked, in the usual Sirius-like way of answering a question without answering it at all. (Actually, that really didn't count as an answer--it was just another question.) Melody rolled her eyes. Instead of responding, however, she grabbed Sirius's other hand, and then their hands were waving all over the place, wildly, as if both sets of arms had been possessed. Melody began giggling at the ridiculousness of the situation, and Sirius soon joined her, with his own booming laughter. Soon both of them were laughing so hard their sides hurt, and, although the arm-waving ceased, they refused to let go of each other's hands.

Melody recovered first, and she slowly lifted her head off of the table and looked at Sirius, who was still laughing, in spasms. He looked up at her, with a slight dash of tears in his eyes, and squeezed her hands. Melody smiled so widely she thought her cheeks would break, and squeezed his hands back.

And suddenly, she really, really, really wanted to kiss Sirius Black.

* * *

Lily exited the Gryffindor Common Room through the portrait hole, now shouldering her quite heavy Bottomless Bag, and encountered the same two girls she had seen when she had entered. They were standing in the hallway, completely ignoring everything around them, and screaming their heads off at each other.

"--CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE SUCH A STUPID, BACKSTABBING, UNSUPPORTIVE FRIEND!" the blonde girl screamed.

"WELL, I'M SORRY IF I GOT TIRED OF YOUR STUPID, RIDICULOUS CRUSH ON SIRIUS BLACK! HONESTLY, HE'S ALL YOU TALK ABOUT! SIRIUS THIS, SIRIUS THAT, BLAH BLAH BLAH! IT'S ALWAYS, 'OH LIN, WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT SIRIUS', NEVER 'HEY LIN, THANKS A LOT, YOU'RE A GREAT FRIEND, WANT TO PLAY SOME EXPLODING SNAP?'! OH NO, YOU'VE GOT MUCH BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN CARE ABOUT YOUR BEST FRIEND!" the black-haired girl finished her speech in a sea of rage, and turned around and stormed into Gryffindor tower, eyes blazing, before the other girl even had a chance to respond. Lily's heart went out to both of the girls, and especially to the blonde, who took one look at Lily, realized she had heard their fight, and turned and ran, her face crumpling and her eyes leaking tears as she did so.

"Hey! Wait!" Lily called, and ran after her. After all, the poor girl wasn't the first blonde to have her heart stolen by Sirius Black.

The girl stopped and looked back just as Lily rounded the corner. She looked thoroughly embarrassed.

"What do you want?" she asked, sniffing and wiping her tears away. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" she asked, eyes wide.

"No," Lily said, shaking her head. "I just...it looks like you're having a rough time. With your friend, that is. Did you...um...do you want to talk about it?" she asked awkwardly, unsure why she had decided to approach this girl. The girl looked at her suspiciously.

"You're not in Gryffindor," she said abruptly, and Lily blinked in surprise.

"Um. No," she replied.

"Why did you go into our common room? And how did you know where the entrance was? And...wait, you're James Potter's girlfriend, aren't you?"

Lily's face went beet red, half from embarrassment, half from anger. "James is not my boyfriend!" she yelled, a little more vehemently than necessary. The blonde girl took a step back.

"Okay, okay, he's not your boyfriend!" she said, holding up her hands defensively.

"Sorry," Lily said, regaining her composure. "Just...never mind about James. We were...what were we talking about?"

"You wanted to know if I wanted to talk about...something."

"Right. Your friend. Do you?"

"Well...why do you want me to tell you?" The blonde girl looked slightly confused.

"I dunno," Lily said, shrugging. "I thought you might want to talk to someone about it. I mean, I'm having a fight with my best friend right now, too, and...well, it's kind of a pain in the butt, if you know what I mean. And it's a lot of stress, too." Especially when you're dealing with Melody, she added silently.

"Really?" the girl said, now sounding slightly more interested in Lily's proposition. Lily nodded.

"Come on, let's go to the Southwest Tower. It's always deserted." The girl followed Lily to the tower, where they both sat down and the third year girl spilled her guts about her crush on Sirius Black, and her fight with her best friend.

"I know you're going to say I'm too young for Sirius," she sighed. "And...I guess you're right, but...I...I..." the girl sighed hopelessly. "I'm completely in love with him."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's...love? I mean, no offense, but it's kind of one-sided, and you really need two people involved for it to be love."

The girl glared at her. "Well what would you know about it?" she spat, suddenly vengeful. "You don't even have a boyfriend," she muttered, glaring off into the distance.

"Hey! Calm down! Boyfriends are not God's Gift to Women. I don't need to have a boyfriend to know what I'm talking about," Lily said, only slightly offended. What was up with this girl? Were kids always this touchy?

"I'm not a little girl, you know. I am thirteen," she said pointedly, crossing her arms. Lily rolled her eyes and briefly wondered if the girl was psychic.

"Yeah, and I'm sixteen, and I'm older than you, so just deal with it, okay? Trust me. I know what I'm talking about."

"What's your name?" the girl asked suddenly.

"Lily. And yours?"

"Wendy."

"Wendy? You sound like you should play Quidditch..." Lily said jokingly, and Wendy glared at her. "Okay, okay! Old joke?"

"Way too old," she agreed, then sighed. "So, you think I should give up on Sirius too, huh?" She looked completely miserable. Lily nodded, and smiled ruefully.

"There are other guys in the universe," she pointed out.

"I suppose..."

"And don't forget to apologize to Lin."

Wendy screwed up her face. "Great. I hate apologizing." Lily smiled.

"You're not the only one..."

"So, what about you? Why are you fighting with your best friend?"

Lily, fingering her Bottomless Bag, decided that it would be better if she didn't talk about it right now, before Wendy caught her red-handed. "Never mind that," she said hastily, standing. Wendy stood, too, and looked at her accusingly.

"What are you hiding in that bag?"

"That's really not important right now!" Lily said, shouldering the bag. "What is important is that you apologize to Lin before your fight gets blown way out of proportion." She pushed Wendy along as they exited the tower.

Wendy glared at her when they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Well, at least tell me one thing."

"Hm?"

"When did you get over your crush on Sirius?"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "What makes you think I ever had a crush on Sirius?" she asked, bewildered.

"Well, why else would you talk to me about it? And you seem to know a lot about Sirius, besides."

Lily shook her head. "You have the complete wrong idea. I never had a crush on Sirius."

"Oh," Wendy said knowingly. "So you still like him, eh? So is that what all this was about? You were trying to get me to forget about him so you could move in on him guilt-free? I see what you're up to!"

Lily smacked herself in the head. "Look! I--do--not--like--Sirius! I have never liked Sirius!"

Wendy looked at Lily sideways, as though she still didn't believe her. "So your friend does, then?"

Lily sighed, exasperated. "Yes, if you must know, one of my friends does like Sirius, okay?"

"A-ha! So that's the friend you're arguing with?"

"Yes. The same one."

"And you were fighting about her crush on Sirius, right?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well, you should definitely apologize to her," Wendy said, nodding knowingly. Lily felt very much like patting her on the head and shooing her away.

"Thanks for the advice, kid. I'll keep that in mind."

"I am not a kid! I am a teenager! Thir-TEEN. Do you hear that 'teen'?"

Lily sighed again. "Look, I have to study. Come find me if you ever need to talk again, okay? I can be, like...your mentor, or...something like that."

"Will you help me with my homework?" she asked eagerly, noting Lily's shiny Prefect badge.

"Sure. Why not?" Lily muttered.

"Okay! Bye, Lily!" Wendy called, running off toward Gryffindor tower. Lily shook her head and began making her way back to her own common room.

* * *

Melody stared at Sirius for a moment, then suddenly took her hands from his.

"I have to go," she said, her cheeks growing hot.

"Melody..." Sirius said weakly as she turned to go. Melody, however, ignored him, and took quick, sure strides toward the door. Sirius, thinking quickly (or, perhaps, not thinking at all), leapt over the table and caught her arm just as she reached the door. Melody looked up at him, her heart pounding ridiculously hard in her chest. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Melody turned to leave once more, but before she knew what was happening, Sirius had whirled her around again and lowered his mouth to hers. Melody closed her eyes and allowed Sirius to kiss her, but for some reason, something inside of her told her not to kiss him back. Memories flashed through her mind--memories of last summer--of a certain man--

She broke away suddenly, feeling sick.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said immediately.

"No," Melody said softly, shaking her head. "It's not you, it's..." she stopped, knowing that it wasn't quite her either.

"You? Not the right time? Someone else? What?" Sirius asked bitterly.

Melody frowned, as the feeling of nausea went away. "Nothing," she said, slightly surprised, and she threw her arms around Sirius's neck and kissed him fiercely. Sirius froze for a moment, taken aback, but quickly attuned himself to the kiss and slipped his arms around her waist. Neither of them had any idea how long the kiss lasted, but it was just long enough for James, Peter, and Remus to walk in on them.

"--and then he--" James was saying, but he was cut off abruptly by the sight of his best friend caught up in a very passionate kiss with the girl they were supposed to be teaching how to be an Animagus. (They were also, of course, Melody and Sirius, but this wasn't the point.)

"O...kay!" Peter said. "I vote we--"

"SHIT!" Melody yelled, having broken out of the kiss, but Sirius's arms were still around her, and both of their faces had gone very red.

"Um, " Remus said, looking scandalized. "Maybe..."

"Maybe we should do the Animagus lesson later!" Melody said, twisting out of Sirius's arms and running out of the door. After she had gone, all the Marauders turned, very slowly, to look at Sirius, who looked guilty and embarrassed.

"Erm..." Sirius said, before the other three Marauders exploded and jumped on him, with shouts of...

"Way to go, Padfoot!" (Peter)

"Awesome, Dog-boy!" (Remus)

"Sirius, you rascal!" (James)

Then, James, Peter, and Remus stepped back, and took a look at the now-disheveled Sirius with pride.

"He's all grown up!" James cried, wiping away a fake tear, which made Sirius laugh.

"My little boy!" Peter cried, clasping his hands together, which made Sirius scowl.

Remus, instead of saying anything, burst into ridiculously fake sobs and ran to Sirius's side, fake-sobbing onto his shoulder, which made Sirius push him to the ground and begin dusting off his robes.

* * *

Melody spent the remainder of the night studying, and stumbled into class the next day without even bothering to change her robes--or, for that matter, her shoes. Melody normally changed her shoes at least once every day. As usual, she had forgotten her book, but in this class it didn't matter--nobody paid attention in History of Magic anyway.

She spent half of the class with her head on her desk and the other half giggling at Sirius's dead-on imitation of Professor Binns. During the time she had her head on her desk, James was complaining to Sirius about the fact that Lily couldn't find any of her books (has she not figured it out yet? Melody wondered curiously) and she was now borrowing James's, for the classes where she couldn't share a book with a fellow Ravenclaw. This, consequently, made Melody think of the Potions class yesterday, and she frowned, making a mental note to talk to Sirius about it. She was not about to be replaced by Lily Evans.

* * *

Lily found Wendy the next day and told her that, if Melody Cauldwell was in any way upset about anything missing, she should owl Lily right away.

Unfortunately for Lily, Melody didn't go back to Gryffindor Tower that day at all, until well past midnight, and it was several more days before Lily received any kind of owl at all.

At breakfast on October the ninth, Lily received her owl, and ran out of the Great Hall in a fit of giggles, passing Melody as she ran out. Melody, in turn, stormed in, and began yelling, loudly, to anyone who would listen, about her missing shoes.

* * *

Quidditch practice began that same week, and practices weren't fun for the Gryffindors, mainly due to the fact that Melody was still steaming about her missing shoes and kept hitting the Bludgers toward all of her teammates, envisioning that they were Lily, and wishing desperately that Lily were on the Ravenclaw team so she could whack her in the head with a Bludger. Sirius had an especially hard time at practices, as he was in charge of making sure none of his teammates got bludgeoned to death by one of Melody's ill-hit Bludgers.

"MELODY!" James yelled at one practice, after nearly having been decapitated by a Bludger she had hit in his direction.

"What?" Melody demanded from below him, annoyed, as she hit another Bludger toward Mundungus Fletcher, one of their Chasers.

"Would you PLEASE STOP TRYING TO KILL US ALL WITH THE BLUDGERS?"

Melody glared at him, but, just as she was about to hit another bludger in his direction, her club was snatched out of her hand. She turned to see the face of a very impatient Arabella Figg looking at her. Arabella was their Keeper, a fellow sixth year, and normally a rather good friend of Melody's, but at the moment she looked royally pissed off.

"Melody," she said sternly, holding the club out of reach as Melody grabbed for it. "We all know you're mad at Lily, but you're acting like a three-year old." The remainder of the team (who were, besides James, Sirius, and Mundungus, Seventh Year Andrew Brown and Fifth year Mary Appleton) formed a circle around Melody and Arabella."Calm down or you're not getting your club back," Arabella continued. Melody glared at her for a minute, but then realized that the entire team was staring at her. Little pink spots appeared in her cheeks as she realized what she'd been doing.

"Sorry," she mumbled, looking at the ground. "I just...look out!" she cried suddenly, seizing her club back and whacking a Bludger away from Arabella's head. With that, the team resumed practice, and the Quidditch pitch returned to its normal state of chaos.

* * *

"'Lo, James," Lily said, easily, as James came up to greet her. They were meeting by the statue of Boris the Bewildered, as they'd been doing for the past week. "Thanks," she said as he handed her his Transfiguration book.

"I still don't see why you won't just ask Melody for your books back. I mean, you have her shoes now; you might as well call it square."

Lily sighed. "You of all people should understand. Haven't you played enough pranks on Snape to realize that the war's not over 'till it's over?"

"At this rate, the war won't be over 'till you two have completely switched possessions, and then you'll have a time getting it all switched back!" Lily giggled.

"I don't think she's going to try to steal anything else of mine," Lily said. "Not after I took her precious shoes." She frowned. "I'll bet she wasn't expecting that."

"Judging by the way she went off screaming...no. I have to admit I was impressed. I didn't think you had it in you."

Lily raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really?" she asked, sounding defensive. "Are you suggesting I have no spirit in me, James? No mischievousness?"

"Not with those long words flowing out of your mouth, you don't," James said, grinning. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, James, sometimes you act as though you were stupid!"

"And who's to say I'm not?"

"Dumbledore, apparently," Lily said, flicking his Prefect's badge.

James sighed. "Don't mention it," he said, as though the mere thought of it were painful. "I'm still ashamed!" He hung his head in mock embarrassment. Lily smiled.

"Getting back to the point...you didn't think I could do it, did you?"

"Well...no. Not more than once anyway."

Lily was slightly offended.

"Don't presume to judge me so quickly, James!" she said, stiffening.

James blinked in surprise. "Well come on, Lily...you're always reading...I don't think anyone really expected you to--"

"To have a spot of playfulness in me? To come up with a prank? To take my nose out of my books long enough to have a little fun? I'll have you know, James Potter, I have as good a trouble-making mind as any of you!" Lily snapped, flushing bright red.

"Lily--come on--I didn't mean anything by it--"

"Oh, you didn't mean anything, did you? Ready to take it all back then, are you? Well I won't have it! I'm sick of people making up their minds about who I am before they've even got to know me! Including you!"

She pointed a finger accusingly at James. However, she wasn't trying to be scary. She was looking rather...injured, actually.

"Lily, I'm sorry! I know you're not a complete bore--I--" he winced, knowing, once again, that he'd said the wrong thing.

"A bore? Is that what I am? Well, that's just lovely! Just because I study hard--"

"Lily, that's not what I mean--"

"Oh, but it is! And I can't exactly blame you, I mean, after all, I do study a bit, but it's not like that's all I think about! I mean, really, no one expects me to do anything else, do they? You all think I'm just a little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, don't you?"

"No...yes...I mean--"

"Well, I'll show you, James Potter! I'll show you all! And you don't forget it, either!" Lily turned on her heel and began stomping off. She wasn't mad at him, really; she was just tired of everyone pinning her down as a Perfect Prefect. And besides, she and James both knew he knew better than that. After all, he'd asked her to help him pull a prank last year, hadn't he? (Well, technically Melody had asked her; this wasn't the point.) Just because she didn't use her brains to make mischief all the time--like him and Sirius--well, she had plenty of good ideas now!

A few feet down the hallway, she stopped and thought of something.

"James!" she called, turning around. James, who had only gone a few feet in the opposite direction, turned to look at her.

"What now? Going to lecture me on how you tortured your poor sister Petunia before you came to Hogwarts?" he asked jokingly.

"Oh, never mind that! When's the first Quidditch game?" she asked.

"Um...sometime after Halloween, I think. I'm not really sure yet; we only started practice last week."

"Who's playing?"

"Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Why?" James asked suspiciously.

"You'll see!" Lily said happily, and turned and began walking down the corridor. The light expression on her face quickly turned thoughtful. This was going to take a lot of planning...and besides, she still had Melody's shoes to deal with...

* * *

Melody walked into Transfiguration later that day with Remus and Peter, talking loudly, as usual. It was funny how much better she and Peter had gotten along ever since the Marauders had started training her to become an Animagus. James and Sirius came running in a few minutes later, nearly late for class as always, and were nearly to their seats when the bell rang. James plopped into his seat, panting, but Sirius was staring, transfixed, at something hovering near the ceiling. Professor McGonagall walked in just then, and looked at him curiously.

The rest of the class looked up at the ceiling, and frowned at what appeared to be...

"MY SHOE!" Melody cried, jumping on top of her desk and grabbing her shoe. It was red, high-heeled, and looked to Sirius as though it had a few too many straps. Ignoring the stares from her fellow classmates, as well as the stern glare from Professor McGonagall, Melody hugged her shoe before hopping easily off the desk and sitting down once more.

"Well, that's quite enough!" Professor McGonagall snapped. "Everyone, in your seats and your attention to the front of the classroom, please!"

Melody hastily shoved her shoe into her bag and turned her attentions to Professor McGonagall. Transfiguration, for her, was becoming increasingly more important, as she had hopes of becoming an Animagus. They had started human transfigurations, and she was becoming quite good at them.

However, Professor McGonagall did not begin lecturing them about human transfigurations. In fact, she wasn't speaking to them on the subject of any kind of Transfiguration at all.

"It is my duty as your Head of House," she was saying, "to inform you of a wonderful opportunity. As many of you may already know, every few years the Aurors at the Ministry of Magic go on a marvelous recruiting campaign to bring more Aurors in the service. And, as I'm sure all of you have heard, there have been a number of strange disappearances lately, as well as a bucketload of rumors of a Dark Wizard somewhere in Britain. Now, I'm certainly not encouraging these rumors, but the Ministry has of late been taking these events more seriously. The Aurors, in another one of their recruiting campaigns, have extended a most unique invitation to next year's seventh year Hogwarts students.

"The Aurors have invited next year's Head Boy and Head Girl, as well as ten additional students of Professor Dumbledore's choosing, to an Auror Training...camp, so to speak. Anyone seriously interested n becoming an Auror should see me after class."

At this, the room exploded in a blaze of questions, conversations, and exclamations of excitement.

"Quiet down, quiet down!" Professor McGonagall said sternly. "That is quite enough! We can worry about this after class. Now, on to Transfiguration!"

* * *

Throughout the next few weeks, Lily, Melody, and the Marauders all fell into an odd routine. Lily and James met up at the statue of Boris the Bewildered at strategic times throughout the day to swap books, so Lily wouldn't fall behind in her classes. Every night, Lily would meet with Susie and Gertrude in the library to do her homework.

Melody sat with Remus, Peter, and Arabella during Potions; Lily sat with Sirius, James, and Mundungus Fletcher. It became a normal part of the day for Melody to find one or more of her shoes floating around a classroom, stuck to a wall in the hallway, being delivered to her by owl during breakfast, or tap dancing across the grounds.

The Hufflepuff and Gryffindor Quidditch teams were training hard for the first match of the season, which was to be held on November eighth. Lily was also working hard; she had a brilliant plan. She let Matt, Susie, and Gertrude in on it, and together they figured out a way to make it happen.

Halloween approached swiftly. Lily was still having a silent fight with Melody and Mimi; that is, she wasn't talking to them. Lily had commissioned her third year friend, Wendy (whom, she was glad to hear, had apologized to her friend Lin), to keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior (well, more suspicious than usual) from the Marauders (although she knew perfectly well that all suspicious plans would more than likely be discussed in MHQ rather than the Gryffindor Common Room). Although Lily was still mad at the two of them, her anger was ebbing, and their war had sort of come to a standstill (despite the fact that Melody's shoes kept popping up all over the place).

Nevertheless, the Halloween Feast was, as always, very enjoyable. The Ravenclaw Sixth Years mostly chatted about the Auror Training Camp they'd heard about only a week ago from Professor Sinistra. Those who were interested (everyone, naturally) had stayed after class and learned the details. Anyone interested would have to go to a couple of meetings before Professor Dumbledore chose which ten students were qualified to go. There was a small chance, of course, that either the Head Boy or Head Girl would decline the invitation to go, but the students felt that there was so little chance of this it wasn't worth mentioning. Every sixth year in school wanted to go, but everybody was sure Professor Dumbledore would only pick Prefects for something of this magnitude. Everyone teased Lily about how she didn't even need to bother going to the meetings; that she would be Head Girl next year and would get to go anyway, but Lily was still adamantly holding on to her belief that she would remain only a Prefect next year.

The Seventh Years were quite miffed that they hadn't been extended this invitation as well, and frowned every time they heard a Sixth Year talking about it, but the Fifth Years were quite excited to hear this, thinking that if all went well they might have a chance of going when they were Seventh Years, too.

The Halloween Feast flew by in a flash for Lily, who very much enjoyed all of the festivities, especially the fact that she had managed to put one of Melody's shoes in each of the twelve giant pumpkins situated around the Great Hall. The end of the night for her was marked by a lovely, highly embarrassing, peck on the lips from James as they both met up and parted ways at the doors to the Great Hall.

* * *

Lily got out of bed very early on the morning of November 8--even earlier than James, which was hard to believe, as he was normally up at 5AM on the morning of a Quidditch game, and could be found in the Gryffindor Common Room prodding little figurines of Quidditch players around on his model of the Quidditch pitch with his wand, muttering to himself. He was, after all, the Gryffindor team's captain. That as it may be, Lily was up earlier than he, and sneaked down to the Quidditch pitch and back before anyone had gotten up for breakfast. Peeves nearly caught her, once; she had rounded a corner to find him quite occupied with turning all the heads of the suits of armor backwards, so they were pointing to the walls, and she had had to duck back into her corridor and find another way to get out of the castle. But even so, she was back in the Ravenclaw Common Room now, safe and sound and quite impatiently awaiting the start of the Quidditch game.

She awoke Susie and Matt at promptly 7:00, and they were among the first in the Great Hall for breakfast. They greeted a very sleepy Gertrude, grabbed some toast from their House tables, and hurried outside, Lily clutching her bottomless bag and nervously looking around to make sure no one was following and/or watching them. They hurried to the equipment locker, where all the players' brooms were kept, and made quick work of their task. Matt was the most helpful here; he knew which brooms belonged to the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor players, and made sure they weren't tampering with Ravenclaw or Slytherin brooms. Even so, Lily thought they might have made a slip here or there--but no matter; it was harmless enough.

Once they were done, they sneaked back out of the equipment locker and back into the castle, trying to look as innocent as possible as they walked back into the Great Hall, which was much fuller than when they had exited.

Albus Dumbledore, who had been watching them all from his office, decided to go to the Quidditch match.

* * *

James, Melody, and Sirius arrived in the locker room first, all clutching their Nimbus 1001's, and waited for the rest of the team to grab their brooms out of the equipment locker. The Gryffindor team had had rotten luck with brooms in the last few months; Mundungus Fletcher's had been brutally beaten by the Whomping Willow just yesterday, during a game of Touch-The-Trunk; Arabella's good-for-nothing Uncle Marvin had put hers up as a bet in a game of poker and lost; Mary's parents were Muggles and consequently didn't understand the need for a racing broom. They were all currently using school brooms. Andrew had a broom; however, it was an old Tinderblast and he didn't feel it was valuable enough to bother keeping in his room, when he could just as easily keep it in the equipment locker.

Arabella, Mundungus, Mary, and Andrew all filed into the locker room, and each of them dropped two pairs of shoes into Melody's lap, looking quite unhappy.

"MY SHOES!" Melody cried. She had over half of them back now. "Where did you find them?"

"On our brooms," her four teammates snapped in unison, looking quite unhappy.

Melody gasped suddenly. "You don't think--" she began. "The Hufflepuffs--?"

But her teammates nodded, and Melody went bright red and ran out of the Gryffindor locker room, sprinting over to the Hufflepuffs' and banging on the door to get her shoes back.

James had to give the team their pep talk while she was gone, as it was nearly time for the game to begin, and Melody, who came back looking murderous, was even more upset when she found this out. There was no time to pummel James with her bludger club, however; it was one minute 'til game time and they had to walk out onto the pitch.

"I can't believe her!" Melody cried as they reached the pitch. "I mean, shoes are one thing, but interfering with Quidditch is just going too far!" She looked up at the stands, located Lily, and proceeded to glare at her until the redhead noticed. Lily laughed when she saw Melody's faced and waved sarcastically, accompanying the wave with a cheesy smile. Melody didn't hear Madam Hooch say "Mount your brooms," and was therefore still standing and glaring at Lily when she blew her whistle and the thirteen other players kicked off around her.

She swore under her breath, going even redder, and kicked off almost too hard, but compensated for her mistake by whacking a bludger away from Mundungus and toward the youngest Hufflepuff Chaser, who panicked, swerved, and dropped the Quaffle, which Mary snatched up right away. She zoomed toward the Hufflepuff end and passed to Andrew, who scored. Melody cheered along with the crowd and whacked a Bludger off in Sirius's direction, which he in turn whacked straight toward the Hufflepuff Keeper, ruining her concentration as Mundungus flew in and scored for the Gryffindors again.

Melody was having quite a fun time. The Gryffindors had quite a strong start, and besides, they were playing Hufflepuff--it wasn't like they were matched up against Slytherin or anything. The Hufflepuffs wouldn't play dirty if you paid them to.

Melody zoomed around, knocking Bludgers out of her teammates' ways, and listened, quite happily, to the commentary being given by Seventh Year Eric Chang. He'd been commentating ever since Melody's second year at Hogwarts, and she had to admit she'd be sorry to see him go. He was a very interesting commentator, if a little biased toward Ravenclaw House.

"Figg passes to Appleton, Appleton to Fletcher--ouch, that Bludger must have hurt like five hundred packages of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans landing on your toe! Gudgeon to Sweetwater--she shoots--she misses like she were shooting a machine gun blindfolded with her left foot!"

"What the hell is a machine gun?" Sirius demanded, flying over to Melody, absentmindedly knocking a Bludger out of his way as he did so. Melody laughed, performing a flawless Bludger Backbeat and zooming up the Quidditch pitch to cover Arabella, who had two Bludgers attacking her.

"Muggle weapon...don't worry about it," Melody advised, as they knocked the Bludgers away in unison.

"Melody?" Sirius said, sounding confused.

"Yeah?" Melody said back, knocking another Bludger out of her way. Was it just her, or were they being returned awfully fast?

"Are there...four Bludgers on this field?"

Melody blinked and looked around, frozen in midair for a moment, counting. "WHAT?" she cried. Sirius was right--there were four. And...what were all those floating things on the Hufflepuff end?

"MELODY! SIRIUS!" came a shout from above them. James was being singled out, it appeared, by yet another Bludger. Sirius zoomed up to cover him, and Melody zoomed around lower on the field, knocking away three Bludgers in a row.

Something funny happened to the third Bludger, though---it exploded. Melody shrieked and zoomed off as it blasted apart, but was encountered in midair by--

"MY SHOE!" she screeched. The Bludger had exploded into several pairs of her shoes. "SIRIUS! THESE EXTRA BLUDGERS ARE MY SHOES!" she cried, as he knocked another shoe-bludger apart. "No!" she shrieked, as they went flying. "You're going to dent them!"

"Well what would you have me do?" Sirius demanded. "Let our Chasers be pummeled while the Hufflepuffs score? We are ten points down, you know,"

"WHAT?" Melody shrieked, knocking away a Bludger--a real one this time--and glaring at the Hufflepuff team.

"You heard me!" Sirius yelled, zooming off to cover Mary. Melody sighed, and, trying to ignore her shoes, went off to cover Arabella, who was again being attacked by more than one Bludger.

The pitch was getting more and more congested; the more shoe-bludgers the four Beaters knocked apart, the more shoes there were flying around. Melody discovered, however, that if she knocked the shoes with her club, they would fall to the ground innocently. She put herself on double duty, and proceeded to knock as many Bludgers out of the way and shoes out of the sky as she could before--

"And there goes Potter, in another one of his magnificent dives, at an angle steeper than the Titanic right before it broke in half! Cartleton tries to follow, but it's like the Americans against Brazil at the World Cup--there's no hope--and...yes, ladies and gentleman, Potter has the Snitch! Gryffindor wins, two hundred points to sixty!"

The Gryffindor supporters erupted into cheers, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team swooped down on James, congratulating him, and ignoring the enormous quantity of shoes raining down on their heads. James was looking at the Snitch quite oddly, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"What's wrong?" Arabella asked, frowning at their Seeker.

"The--the--the Snitch!" James gasped, staring at it in disbelief. "IT'S A GIANT MILK DUD!"

* * *

"You know what?" Lily said to Matt, Susie, and Gertrude (who was very miffed that the Hufflepuff team had lost) as they left the stands. "I think I'm really beginning to like Quidditch."

* * *

Melody met up with Mimi after the match, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I can't believe she did that!" Melody exclaimed. "That Quidditch game was ridiculous!"

"Tell me about it," Mimi said, rolling her eyes.

"But," Melody conceded, "it was a pretty good prank."

Mimi grinned.

"It was hilarious!" she agreed.

"Were you laughing at me?" Melody demanded.

"Who? Me? Of course not!" Mimi lied, but she started giggling hopelessly. Melody actually smiled.

"You know what, though? I think it's time we gave Lily her books back. And that we apologize."

"As long as she apologizes to us, too," Mimi said. "She did overreact a little bit, don't you think?"

"Well, duh! She's Lily!"

"But--speaking of apologizing--do you think she's still going to want to know whatever 'secret' it is that you're hiding?"

Melody bit her lip, mulling it over. "Probably," she sighed. "But then again, maybe it's time she knew."

"What about me?"

"What about you?" Mimi's jaw dropped.

"You--"

"Just kidding!" Melody said quickly, holding up her hands in surrender and grinning. Mimi rolled her eyes but smiled back.

Melody dashed up to Gryffindor Tower to grab all of Lily's books, and then Mimi led the way to the Ravenclaw Common Room, and both witches entered. Lily was in the corner, talking happily with Matt and Susie. Melody and Mimi approached them slowly. Lily saw them and broke away from her two other friends to meet them.

"Well?" Lily prompted, raising an eyebrow and looking testy.

Melody sighed. "You know I'm not good at this....here are your books," she said, handing over the bag. Lily broke out into a huge smile and sighed in relief, accepting her books back gratefully.

"Thanks," she said, and looked at both of them for a moment. Then...

"I'm sorry!" All three girls exploded at once. They laughed, and Lily flung her arms around them, smiling wider than she had in weeks. Spending time with James had been nice and all, and she was really glad she'd gotten to know Gertrude, but no other people in the world were quite like Melody Cauldwell and Mimi Ramirez.

* * *

"So, what brilliant prank have you come up with now?" Lily asked as James and Sirius strutted into MHQ several days later. She, Melody, Mimi, Peter, and Remus were all sitting on top of the table, their feet on the chairs. Lily and Mimi had been informed that Remus was a werewolf (although Lily kind of already knew--after all, Lily didn't just miss these sort of things), but no one had told them yet that the Marauders were Animagi. They were, however, being honored as 'co-Marauders', in the same category as Melody and Mundungus Fletcher. They had also been accepted into the 'Order of Marauder'...whatever that was, and were both now quite comfortable with MHQ (Lily slightly more so than Mimi, but no matter).

Sirius and James, grinning devilishly, launched into a detailed description of their latest troublemaking scheme. Once they were done, the rest of the Marauders were doubled over laughing.

"I think we've struck gold again, James," Sirius said, spinning a chair around and sitting in it backwards.

James just smiled at Sirius and turned his attentions to Lily, who he expected would be their naysayer--if there was something hideously wrong or illegal, she would be the first to point it out. However, she simply laughed and smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. He gave her a dopey, lopsided grin, which caused the rest of the Marauders to roll their eyes, and then returned to business.

The next step in their prank was to decide who was going to do what, and the room fell into a tense silence for a few minutes as everyone thought. James sat down in the chair next to Sirius and screwed his face up in concentration. After about five minutes of this, Sirius looked around the room, bored. It was his job to come up with the pranks, not assign the roles.

He looked around again, and considered. After a moment, he stood up.

"Now would be the appropriate time for a song," he decided. "BE KIND TO YOUR WEB-FOOTED FRIE--" he began singing at the top of his lungs, but all of the Marauders jumped at him at once, clamping their hands over his mouth. They all fell rather painfully to the floor.

"God, does he ever shut UP?" Melody demanded, from the top of the pile, her hair hanging in ringlets over her face.

"Can someone just...unplug him, PLEASE?" Lily asked, irritated, from somewhere in the middle.

"Unplug?" James, Remus, and Peter chorused.

"What's a plug?" James asked curiously, and Lily groaned.

"Never mind..." she said.

Sirius, from the bottom, began wriggling and shouting out something that sounded vaguely like "Oooh! Oooh! I know! I know!", but the Marauders ignored him and decided to clamp their hands more tightly over his mouth.

Once Sirius had decided he valued his life and actually shut up, the Marauders let go of him, and he turned, for once, serious. The Marauders returned to their thinking, and soon all the parts were assigned.

The next day the Marauders were shown the fruits of their labor, as a very colorful, very angry, and very afro-ish Severus Snape burst into the Great Hall, and most of them were promptly awarded a handful of detentions each; for some reason, Lily was spared.

Lily marched up to James after breakfast and demanded to know why Professor Thorne had not given her a detention. James shrugged.

"I guess we...forgot," he lied. The truth was, he hadn't actually wanted Lily to get in trouble--think what it would have done to her perfect record! Apparently, however, Lily hadn't appreciated his gesture of...well, chivalry, he supposed, because she poured a glass of pumpkin juice on his head and stormed off to Arithmancy.

* * *