The Years of Prongs

Chapter Four:

Operation Fire-Snake

    I woke up the next morning to a pillow colliding with the side of my head.

    "Sirius, no," I moaned, burying my head under the covers. "Five more minutes."

    "We don't have five more minutes," Sirius said, yanking off my blankets. I scrunched my eyes shut; the sun wasn't even awake yet.

    "He's right, we have two hours instead," came Remus's voice.

    "Then let me sleep," I muttered, giving a fake yawn.

    "But we have to prepare operation Fire-Snake!" Sirius yelled, stomping his foot.

    I sat up. "Is that what we're calling it?"

    "Of course," Sirius nodded. "Every great plot has to have a code name. Now, get out of bed."

    "Oh, I'm up," I grinned, swinging my legs over the side of my bed.

    "Why now?" Peter groaned from within the depths of his four-poster. "Can't we do it later? Whatever it is we're doing?"

    "We can't!" I yelled, slipping on my glasses. "How can we prepare a prank if everyone is right there eating breakfast?"

    "Get up, Petey!" Sirius jumped over and flung open the hangings.

    "Leave me alone!" Peter squealed, as Sirius grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him out of bed and onto the floor.

    "Ow!" Peter moaned, rubbing his head and climbing to his feet. "What?"

    I bit my tongue, trying to keep from laughing. Remus had a small smile on his face, and he looked away. Sirius just let out all his chuckles.

    "What?" Peter wondered, shifting uncomfortably at not knowing what was so humorous.

    "Nice pajamas, Pete," I said quickly as not to burst out laughing. But it was no use. At the mention of Pete's pajamas, we all collapsed into fits of laughter.

    "FOOTY PAJAMAS!" Sirius snorted, and fell over. That's right, Peter Pettigrew wore footy pajamas. And that was only half the laughter. The fuzzy material was covered with little white bunnies.

    Peter blushed a bright red. "It's not funny!"

    "You're right, Pete, they're just lovely pajamas!" I smiled. Remus nodded, and then covered his face with a very serious expression.

    "Let's just get dressed and get this over with," he sighed, rubbing his eyes.

    "No, we'll have plenty of time before breakfast, when we come back up," Sirius said.    

    "So we're pulling a prank in our pajamas?" Peter asked, looking down at his bunnies nervously.

    Now, if I was a mean person, or Sirius, I would have said, "Who wouldn't want to be running around the castle in footy bunny pajamas?" But I'm not mean, and I'm not Sirius.

    "Of course! Pajamas are absolutely the most comfortable article of clothing in the world!" Sirius cried, surprising me with his nice comment. "If I could, I'd go everywhere in my pajamas!"

    "No, if you could, you'd go starkers," I pointed out.

    "Too right, I would," Sirius agreed. "Now, we need to gather the essential materials. James!"

    "They're in my trunk," I said, walking over to the said trunk and opening it. Sirius peered over my shoulder.

    "James, you smell like the lake," he said, scrunching up his face with disgust. "Don't you ever bathe?"

    "Sirius, I believe I'm right in saying that you fell out of the boat, too," I pointed out. "Let's see . . . rope . . . fireworks, and. . . ." I rummaged through my spare clothes. ". . . .ah, here it is! Spellotape."

    And so we pulled on our bath robes and stepped into slippers. Well, Peter didn't need slippers, with those footy pajamas of his. When we realized this, Sirius and I shared another set of snickers. And then we crept down to the common room. It was empty, and still mostly dark except for the beginning of the sun peeking through the windows.

    "Where do you boys think you're going?" the fat lady demanded as we stepped out into the hall. "Off to cause mayhem?"

    "Ah, shove it and mind your own business!" Sirius glared, and we all stomped away. "Honestly, that painting reminds me a bit of my mother."

    "So, what is the prank?" Peter asked, as he hadn't been there when I had explained the prank yesterday.

    Operation Fire-Snake was quite simple really. The house we were pranking was Slytherin. Why? Because, for starters, Gryffindor and Slytherin are rival houses; always have been, and I suppose - no, know - they always will be. Also, Sirius's entire family has been in Slytherin, and he hates the lot of them. Frankly, so do I.

    Now, what we were going to do was all thanks to Mum, really. "I don't want to get an owl from Dumbledore telling me you've blown up the Slytherin table on the first day." Well, that's exactly what we we're going to do, and Mum was probably going to get a letter from Dumbledore. We were going to string together some of Dr. Filibuster's Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks, and attach them to the underside of the Slytherin table. Only the rope's not ordinary rope- It's actually fuse. The same kind of fireworks Dr. Filibuster uses for his wet-start fireworks. Extremely hard to come by. So don't ask how I got it.

    During breakfast, we would have Remus, who had proved to be our own walking dictionary of spells, perform a simple wetting charm to set off the fuse. Thus, a wonderful display of fireworks would ensue.

    "We'll be starting the year off with a bang," Sirius grinned.

    "Literally," I nodded, as we hurried down the marble staircase, my box of fireworks under my arm and my pockets stuffed with fuse and tape. "Remus, Pete, you stand guard outside the hall."

    "Okay, but don't take forever," Remus said.

    Sirius and I quickly walked into the Great Hall, after first checking that it was empty of course, and quietly shut the massive doors.

    "Okay, let's start tying," Sirius said, opening the box of fireworks.

    Sirius and I had tied a lot of things in our youth, so we were extremely good, and fast, at doing so. Meaning it only took about eleven and a half minutes to tie together one long rope of explosives, twice as long as the table.

    "What are you two boys doing down here?"

    I froze. Damn! Someone was out in the hall! I frantically started taping the string to the table.

    "We're waiting for breakfast," came Peter's voice.

    "Breakfast?" the voice asked suspiciously. I didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded rough and scratchy. "It's a bit early, isn't it?"

    "What time is it?" Remus asked. "I - I forget my watch back home."

    "It's not even six o'clock," the man said.

    "Oh," Peter and Remus said in unison.

    "Well," Remus continued as Sirius and I hurried, "we're only first years, so we don't really know the schedule of things yet."

    "Right," the voice said slowly. "But breakfast doesn't start till seven. Get back to your common room until then. Especially you, with your bunny pajamas - are those feet at the bottom of 'em?"

    "Yes sir," Peter said awkwardly. I fought back a laugh.

    "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't be walking 'round in footed bunny pajamas," the man said. "Do you know what those Slytherins would say to that?"

    "Slytherins?" I could hear the fear in Pete's voice. "I didn't even think of that. . . ."

    "And it wouldn't just be those Slytherins, but everyone really," the man continued. "And some of the teachers are just as brutal."

    "He's trying to psyche him out," Sirius muttered, as we taped the last few up.

    "We'd better get back upstairs then," Remus said.

    "And if I catch you out this early again, I'll see to it that you get a detention," the man growled. "Now, get."

    "Yes, sir," they muttered, and went off somewhere.

    Sirius and I sat there with baited breath to see if that man would come into the hall. After a few silent and uneventful minutes, we figured it was safe.

    "Okay, let's go," I said, stuffing the remainder of the supplies into my pockets.

    And so were hurried back upstairs, hoping that we wouldn't run into the same person Peter and Remus had encountered. I did, however, almost have a heart attack when our two companions jumped out at us from behind a statue on the fourth floor.

    Once we had made it back to Gryffindor Tower, we all went to our bathroom to take showers. It was crucial for Sirius and myself, as we smelled like the lake. Not a very pleasant odor.

    Afterwards, we sat in the common room playing Exploding Snap until students started coming down for breakfast.

    "Good morning, boys," Lily smiled as she came down with Abby.

    "'Morning," we chimed.

    "Aren't you coming?" Abby asked.

    "In a bit," I said, slamming down my cards with a loud bang. "Ha! I win!"

    "See you all at breakfast then," Lily rolled her eyes, and left with her friend.

    "Can't we go now?" Peter whined. "I'm hungry."

    "Not until almost everyone's in the hall," Sirius said. "Give it ten more minutes."

    And so, ten minutes later found us leaving the common room, and five minutes after that, we were walking over to the Gryffindor table, where Lily and Abby were sitting with a girl I had never seen before.

    "What are you up to?" Abby said, looking us over as we sat down around them.

    "Nothing," we all shook our heads.

    "What makes you think we're up to something?" Sirius asked as if we could do no wrong. True, of course.

    "For one, you're grinning like a madman," Abby rattled off. "And two, you and Potter can't be trusted."

    "Evans, can I be trusted?" I asked, batting my eyes.

    "Um . . . no comment?" Lily smiled.

    "Do you care to introduce your friend?" Remus interrupted casually.

    "Oh, sorry about that," Lily apologized, more to her new companion than to us. "Everyone, this is Makenzie Lamerick. Makenzie, this is Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter."

    She saved the best for last, of course.

    "Nice to meet you all," she said, "but I prefer Kenzie."

    Kenzie had long, straight black hair pulled into high pigtails, and gray eyes framed with cat-eye glasses. And she was Scottish.

    "Now that we're all introduced, time to dig into some brekky!" Sirius said, grabbing a blueberry muffin.

    Just as Peter went to drink out of his goblet, a loud series of explosions erupted from the Slytherin table behind him.

    "What did you do?" Abby demanded, as we all howled with laughter. Even Lily and Kenzie were giggling.

    The firework display was amazing, if I dare say so myself. But what was great was that all the Slytherins were either jumping off or falling from the benches, the hems of their robes smoking. Severus Snape, the git I had hexed on the train, stood up rapidly, fell over the bench, and rolled around the floor. It brought tears of mirth to my eyes to see the hems of his robes smoldering as he yelled for his mummy. He quickly gained recomposure and stood up, smoothing down his clothes. He looked right at me, and gave me a venomous look as I waved.

    "That's ace!" Sirius yelled over the snapping of fireworks and yells from most of the students and some of the staff.

    "I have to admit that was rather clever," Lily said when the last firework died, and the final student (a Hufflepuff, no doubt) had stopped screaming and running around. "Are you sure you came up with it on your own?"

    Her female companions snorted. How dare she think that!

    "Who else do you think came up with it?" Sirius wondered.

    "Anyone but you four," Abby said. "Well, Remus here seems smart enough, but I don't think he's that stupid as to use his brains on coming up with pranks."

    "What an insult!" I cried.

    "I didn't think so," Remus smiled. "And by the way, they got the idea from James's mum."

    "Remus!" Sirius and I yelled. "How could you?!"

    "Thank you, Remus," Lily and Abby chimed.

    "Peter, what are you doing?" Sirius asked, watching our friend across from us.

    "I spilled my juice all over me," Peter muttered, grabbing napkins and wiping off his lap. "I got a bit startled."

    "I'd say so," I nodded. "But you do realize it looks like you wet yourself?"

    "Oh, no!" Peter moaned, and frantically grabbed more napkins.

    There was a chorus of hoots, and a hundred or so owls flew in from the windows, bearing letters and packages.

    "Wow," Lily let out an audible gasp.

    "Oh, I got mail," Peter said, throwing a napkin as a gray owl dropped a small box on his empty plate.

    A tawny owl, similar to the one that had delivered my Hogwarts letter, dropped three envelopes in front of me.

    "What are those?" Kenzie asked.

    "Our detention notices, no doubt," Sirius said, grabbing the one that had his name. He ripped it open and his eyes flickered back and forth. "I get to clean the chamber pots in the hospital wing. That won't be too bad. They shouldn't be dirty already."

    "Let's see what I've got," I tore off the envelope of my letter.

Dear Mr. Potter,

For your detention you will be cleaning the trophies, supervised by Mr. Filch. Be at the Trophy Room at seven o'clock this evening.     Professor M. McGonagall.

    "I get to polish trophies with Mr. Filch," I said thoughtfully. "I wonder who he is?"

    "Imagine how dirty those will be," Remus said. "I imagine they haven't been cleaned all summer."

    "Oh, shut it," I glared. I looked over at Sirius, who was cramming his notice into his backpack.

    "You're saving your detention notice?" Kenzie wondered.

    "Of course," Sirius nodded. "I'll have quite a large collection when I graduate."

    "If you graduate," Abby muttered. Sirius stuck out his tongue.

    "Hey, Lily, what's your detention?" Peter asked, still trying to mop up the orange juice from his lap.

    "I haven't opened it," Lily said, looking at the envelope as if it would bite her.

    "Why, let me have the honor!" I grabbed the envelope, tore it open, and shook the letter with a flourish. "Ahem. Dear Miss Evans, for your detention you will be cleaning the trophies, supervised by Mr. Filch. Be at the Trophy Room at seven o'clock this evening. Professor M. McGonagall. You lucky girl! You have detention with me!"

    "It was nice knowing you," all present said to Lily; I frowned.

    "First year schedules," Abby's older sister and prefect, Jemma, walked over and handed us each a sheet of crisp parchment.

    "Double potions with the Slytherins?!" Abby yelled with outrage. "This has to be a mistake!"

    "No mistake, little sis," Jemma shook her head. "It's always been like that."

    "This is an outrage," Sirius said. "There's no way I'm having class with those snakes."

    But at the end of breakfast, we gathered our stuff and headed down to the dungeons. Hooray.

    The tables were set up for pairs, and as there were seven of us, there was a scramble to not be the odd one out. Lily and Abby were together at the middle table of the back row, with Kenzie and Remus to their right, and Sirius and myself on the left. Which left poor Peter sitting in front of me, alone.

    "He's rather creepy," Lily whispered, looking at the front of the room. Sitting there at his desk was Professor Marion, the potions master and Head of Slytherin House. He had a wide nose, a shining bald head, and large yellow eyes that were watching us like a hawk.

    "Don't stare at him!" Abby hissed. "Oh, he is rather scary, isn't he? I imagine I'll have nightmares."

    "Aw, is ickle Abby afwaid?" Sirius joked. Now it was Abby's turn to stick out her tongue.

    In a large crowd, the rest of the class came, silencing the moment they took their seats. Of all the people who could have sat next to Peter, it had to be Severus Snape, that greasy haired Slytherin from the train.

    "Alright, it's time for attendance," Marion said in a low, raspy voice.

    Sirius raised his hand. "But, Professor, the bell hasn't rung yet. What if everyone's not here yet?"

    There were scattered laughs from us, Gryffindors.

    "What is your name," Marion demanded, his tone sharpening, but his volume staying low.

    "Sirius Black," my mate answered. "And yes, I'm here."

    "Five points from Gryffindor," Marion said, and the bell rang. "Now, I believe I can take roll now?" He pulled a sheet of parchment in front of him, and dipped a long black quill into a poison green ink. "Andrew Avery."

    A Slytherin with copper hair responded.

    "Bellatrix Black."

    "Here," Sirius's cousin said in an oily voice that sent shivers down my spine.

    "Sirius Black is here," Marion checked off before Sirius had a chance to open his mouth. "Laurali Bulstrode."

    A massive and ugly girl raised her hand without a word.

    "Lily Evans."

    "Present," Lily said, not looking up from doodling on some spare parchment.

    Marion looked hard at her. "Being smart, Miss Evans?"

    "No, sir," Lily looked up and shook her head.

    "Not likely," Marion glared. "Five points from - my, my, the Gryffindors are awfully cheeky this year, aren't they? Rodulphus Lestrange."

    Damn that Marion! Nobody messes with the friends of James Potter! Oh, I'd prank him good someday; no one can be that uptight. Today was not the day; this required something well-planned, with lots of thought.

    "We will be producing a simple boil curing potion," Marion stood up when finished with attendance. "The steps and ingredients are written -" he waved his want at the chalkboard - "before you. Begin now."

    Well, it was a simple potion. At least Sirius and I had no trouble. Too bad Peter wasn't having the same luck.

    "Why are you so incompetent?" Snape yelled. "You weren't supposed to put in that many porcupine quills! You're lucky it's not too late to fix it."

    "Snape," I whispered. "Snape. . . ."

    He ignored me, and instead slapped Peter's hand. "Don't touch. I'll do it." He gave a sniff.

    Stupid git. And he seemed to sniff every time he said something.

    "Hey, Snivellus!" I said, raising my voice.

    Snape snapped his head around and glared. "What do you want, Potter?"

    "I advise you leave Peter alone," I said. "You wouldn't want your dripping nose larger than it already is, would you?"

    "You wouldn't dare," he hissed.

    "Oh, wouldn't I?" I smiled. "Snivellus?"

    Snape scowled. "You think you're so clever, but your stunt at breakfast this morning was not amusing."

    "Oh, you didn't think so?" Sirius smirked, leaning forward. "I thought it was just brill."

    "Now, be nice to Peter," I said in a low voice, "or I may have to target you again someday."

    "Potter, threatening classmates?"

    I looked up to find Marion beside me.

    "Only those who deserve it," I shrugged.

    "Detention," Marion said. "I see you've finished your potion?"

    "Yes, sir," Sirius and I nodded.

    Marion stirred it. "Satisfactory work, but I'd be foolish to expect better." And he walked off.

    "Damn Slytherins," Sirius muttered. "By the way, great name, Snivellus."

    "Why, thank you," I smiled. "I'd bow if this table wasn't in the way."

    "I understand," Sirius nodded with a wink.

    The rest of the day went by smoothly, what with only having Charms and History of magic, which was easily the most boring class ever. Taught by a ghost by the name of Professor Binns, it was enough to make anyone fall asleep. For a ghost, he was extremely boring, and no one payed attention. Well, Lily and Remus did, but everyone slept, wrote notes, or played solitare. At least if you wrote notes it looked like you were paying attention. Needless to say, Peter, Abby, Kenzie, Sirius, and I all copied Remus and Lily's notes, or else we'd end up in deep trouble by the time exams came at the end of the year.

    Charms was with the Ravenclaws and taught by their Head of House, Professor Flitwick, a young wizard who was about three and half feet tall. At most. He seemed overly excited about his subject, and spoke in a very cheerful voice. He ran the class from behind his desk, which was placed in the center of the front of the room. He had to stand on his chair to be seen properly, and even then he had to have a stack of a dozen books atop his seat to be as tall as most his age.

    He was teaching us a simple levitating charm, and when I say simple, I mean that Sirius, Lily, Remus and I got it down the first try. And of course my best mate and I had to show Flitwick just how good at it we were.

    First we levitated our feathers all the way to the ceiling, and then we waved them over and placed them on the professor's head. He was just thrilled that we had that much talent already.

    Next, being such a great pal, when Flitwick asked Peter to levitate his feather, I did so from beside him very secretly. Peter didn't even realize what I was doing, and got excited when he thought he could do. But Flitwick was even more excited; don't ask me why.

    We started lifting various objects in the class, much to Flitwick's delight. We moved books, parchment, quills, and ink bottles. But Flitwick asked us to stop once a bottle 'accidentally' spilled on his head.

    But we just couldn't stop. When Flitwick raised his wand to clean the scarlet liquid from his hair, his wand was not in his hair. It was floating out the door, curtosy of yours truly.

    "Oh dear!" Flitwick squeaked as the class began to laugh. "Class dismissed!"

    And he scrambled out of the classroom. He was obviously expecting it to go off far, but I couldn't do that. So I made it fall right outside the door. Flitwick retrieved it, but by the time he did so, students were pushing their way out the door.

    "That was great," Peter clapped me on the back as we headed up to our dorms to drop off our books.

    "It was clever," Remus nodded in agreement. Sirius and I beamed.

    "You're lucky Flitwick is laidback," Abby said. "Or you'd be getting another detention."

    "No," I shook my head. "He loved it. He thinks we're intellegent."

    "And I'm sure he thinks you're show offs," Lily smiled.

    "Potter and Black, I suggest you two stop."

    We all turned around. McGonagall had stopped us.

    "Good afternoon, Professor," greeted Lily, obviously trying to get on her good side after last night.

    "Good day, Miss Evans," McGonagall nodded. "Potter and Black, I'd like a word with you please."

    "Yes, ma'am," we said, and told our friends we'd see them at dinner.

    "I'd just like to say that your performance this morning at breakfast was highly inappropriate," she said sternly.

    "What makes you think it was us?" I wondered.

    "You seemed to have forgotten that I am your Head of House, and the Fat Lady informed me of four students leaving the tower in the wee hours of the morning," McGonagall explained. "Mr. Filch also informed me that there were two students outside of the Great Hall just twenty minutes later. Based on his descriptions, I ruled out that it was Messrs. Lupin and Pettigrew, leaving you two as the culprits."

    "Very impressive," Sirius nodded.

    "Thank you, Mr. Black," McGonagall gave a curt smile. "Now, the Headmaster has sent letters to your parents, and you will each receive another detention."

    "Yes, Professor," we nodded, and we parted ways.

    "That means we've each got two detentions already!" Sirius grinned as we hurried up to our Tower.

    "No, this is my third," I corrected, "because Marion gave me one this morning."

    "Lucky duck," Sirius muttered, shaking his head.

    "Lily, you have to eat," Kenzie said, pushing Lily's plate closer to her as Sirius and I finally joined the crew.

    "I'm not hungry," she muttered, forcing it away.

    "What's up with Evans?" Sirius asked, grabbing Lily's roll from her plate.

    "She's not looking forward to detention," Abby explained. "She's never been in trouble before, and it's because of you that she has to go!"

    "Ah, cheer up, Evans," I said. "You and I will have lots of fun polishing the trophies tonight."

    "Speak for yourself," Lily muttered, resting her chin in her hand.

    "Just don't go," Peter offered.

    "She'd get in even more trouble," Remus pointed out.

    In the end, Lily decided to go to detention. Maybe it was because she realized it would be fun. Or maybe she didn't want to get in more trouble. Or maybe it was because Sirius and I each grabbed her arm and led her skipping out of the Great Hall.

    When we got to the Trophy Room, we split up from Sirius, who was on his way to the hospital wing, and crept inside the dimly lit room.

    "We're early," I said, looking down at my watch.

    "I wonder where he is?" Lily asked, closing the door behind us. "Do you suppose he forgot?"

    "You're late."

    We jumped - well, I mean to say that Lily jumped; I never get afraid of anything - and we looked at the far corner. Stepping out of the shadows was the most disgusting individual I had ever laid eyes on. He had long, stringy brown hair, stubble all over his chin, and a long tattered overcoat that looked as if it could use a few dozen washings. In his arms was clutched a gray cat with piercing yellow eyes.

    "What did you say?" I asked.

    The man pointed at a clock above the door, which read seven o' six. "You're late."

    "Excuse me, but my watch says the same time as every other clock in the school, and it reads six fifty-eight," I argued. "We're early."

    "But according to this one, you're late," the man snarled.

    I opened my mouth to argue, but Lily placed her hand on my arm.

    "I'm sorry that we're late, sir," she spoke quietly. "Are you Mr. Filch?"

    "Yes," he nodded and gestured down at the cat. "This is Mrs. Norris, my cat, who will inform me of any trouble you cause. Are you Potter and Evans?"

    "I believe you mean to refer to her as Miss Evans," I corrected, "and yes, we're here."

    "Don't get smart with me, Potter," Filch glared. "Everything you need is by the door. You'll be doing this job the Muggle way." He gave an evil sneer full of yellowing teeth.

    I groaned; I've never cleaned anything in my life!

    "Oh, that's quite alright," Lily said. "I'm a Muggleborn."

    Filch's smile faltered. "Get to work." And he set down Mrs. Norris and brushed past us on his way out.

    Lily coughed, and I gagged. "He smells like mold."

    I noticed the cat was watching us, so we stared back.    

    "James, I don't think she blinks," Lily whispered minutes later. "Well, we might as well get to work."

    And so we began to clean.

    I soon discovered that cleaning could remain a job for the house-elves. My arm was sore from scrubbing after ten minutes, and my fingers on my other hand grew tired of spraying. Not to mention that I was getting a slight headache due to the strong fumes from the cleaner.

    I glanced over at Lily, who was polishing away on her half of the room, whistling to keep her spirits high. I noticed that she was already a quarter of the way done, as opposed to the six trophies I had polished. Damn.

    "James, you've stopped again?" Lily noticed that I was just standing there. "You won't get anything done that way."

    "But my arms are tired!" I moaned. "How can you keep going?"

    "I've had loads of practice," she shrugged, and returned to her chore.

    And so I continued working as well, and I was incredibly bored. And I had to stop after five more trophies. Behind me, Lily was getting a new bottle of cleaner; that was her third. I was still on my first.

    I heard a low meow at my feet. I looked down, finding Filch's mangy cat.

    "Go away!" I muttered, and sprayed the cat. Mrs. Norris hissed, and ran out of the room, tail held high.

    "James! You're going to get in trouble!" Lily sighed, giving me a disappointed look.

    "Think you can get away with not doing anything?" Filch demanded, storming into the room. Behind his stained corduroy legs, Mrs. Norris stared at me, her tail flicking back and forth.

    "Sorry," I glared, and angrily went back to polishing. When I was sure he was gone, I muttered, "I'd like to see him do this."

    "He's the caretaker," Lily pointed out. "It's his job to keep the castle clean."

    I frowned, and scrubbed hard on a Special Services to the School award for Tom M. Riddle. Lily was such a know-it-all. She needed to loosen up. I peeked over my shoulder to make sure Lily wasn't watching me. Grinning, I sprayed her with the cleaner and spun around like nothing was amiss.

    "James!"

    "What?" I asked innocently, turning around to find her hand at the back of her head, which was now damp.

    Lily got a very strange look on her face. It was almost as if she was going to get revenge.

    And I was right. Before I knew what the hell was going on, I got hit with a face full of cleaning solution.

    "EVANS!" I spat out the horrible-tasting stuff.

    That was the start of a full-fledge cleaning war. We were spraying each other, and throwing rags, and getting polish all over. The thing was that, though I hadn't known Lily very long, she was acting very unlike-Lily. She wasn't acting at all stuck-up or proper.

    "What is going on?"

    I gave one last spray, hitting Lily on the side of the head, and she dropped her rag. Apparently Mrs. Norris had gone to retrieve her master.

    "Acting up during detention?" Filch grinned maliciously. "Perhaps McGonagall needs to give you another one?"

    "But, Mr. Filch, the trophies are all clean!" Lily argued.

    So they were. During our fight, we had sprayed all the trophies, which were now sparkling in the dim light.

    Filch muttered something along the lines of "nasty kids," and yelled at us to leave.

    "I'd be glad to!" I said, giving a bow and marching out of the room. Lily followed, only not marching.

    "Evans, that wasn't so bad, was it?" I asked as we trudged through the darkened halls.

    "No, I don't suppose it was," she shrugged, pulling at her drenched red hair. "I smell rather gross."

    "I'd say clean," I corrected. "Now, you have to admit you did have fun."

    "What do you mean?" Lily asked, looking at me curiously.

    "During dinner, I said you'd have fun, and you said no," I reminded. "And you ended up laughing."

    "I don't know what you're talking about," Lily shook her head. "Cahrename."

    I followed her up into the common room. "You know, Evans, there's hope for you after all."

    "Goodnight, James," Lily said loudly, and went up the girls' staircase before I could say another word.

* * *

    "What the hell is that smell?"

    I groaned. "What are you yelling about now?"

    "Can't you smell that?" Sirius asked. "Someone obviously used to much cleaner in here last night."

    I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Just because you don't bathe doesn't mean a clean smell is a bad smell."

    "Oh, shut up, Potter!" Sirius snapped; he definitely wasn't a morning person.

    "Actually, I kinda like the smell," Peter said thoughtfully as I pulled open the hangings. Come to think of it, there was a very strong smell that made my eyes water slightly. "It reminds me of Mummy."

    "Mummy?" Sirius howled.

    "Shut up!" Peter blushed.

    "All this cleaner is giving me a headache," Remus muttered, already dressed. "I think I'm gonna head down to the common room and wait for you guys."

    "I'm gonna take a shower," I hopped off the bed and headed toward the bathroom. But as I passed Sirius, he grabbed my arm and buried his nose in my hair.

    "Sirius, what are you -"

    "It's you!" he coughed in my face. Remus stepped back into the room, a curious look on his face. "You're what smells!"

    "Well, I -" I began.

    "Did you get any polish on the trophies?" Sirius wondered.

    "Yeah, but me and Evans got in a bit of a cleaner fight," I explained.

    "You mean Lily?" Peter asked.

    "What other Evans is there?" I rolled my eyes.

    "You're going to be the death of her," Remus sighed, and disappeared out of the room.

    "Now get in the shower and don't come out until you smell normal!" Sirius pushed me into the bathroom and slammed the door.

    We arrived to breakfast forty-five minutes late, meaning post had come and gone by the time we got there. Lily looked particularly blue, with her chin resting in her hands, staring long and hard at an opened letter in front of her.

    "What's up with Evans?" Sirius asked.

    "She got a letter from her parents," Kenzie explained. "They're disappointed that she got detention."

    "Not to worry, Evans," I said, putting a 'comforting' arm around her shoulder. "That's just the beginning."

    Lily smiled. "You'll be the death of me, you know."

    There was a hoot from high above, and Dalmatian swooped down and landed beside the milk pitcher.

    "He's a bit late this morning," Abby said. "What's that he got?"

    Tied to the owl's leg was a scarlet envelope.

    "Is that a -?" Kenzie asked with interest. "I've never gotten one before."

    "Yeah, that's definitely a Howler," Peter nodded, as I relieved Dalmatian of the topic of our conversation.

    "What's a Howler?" Lily wondered. "It looks like a normal piece of post."

    "Oh, it's not like any other mail," Kenzie shook her head. "They're awful."

    "No, they're interesting," Sirius shook his head.

    "You might want to plug your ears," Remus suggested as I went to open the envelope.

    "Why would I -?" Lily began, but the Howler had already begun.

    "JAMES HENRY POTTER! YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE! WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA TO BLOW UP THE SLYTHERIN TABLE? AND SIRIUS BLACK, YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER AS WELL! AND I HOPE TO MERLIN THAT REMUS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS! PLEASE TRY AND BEHAVE YOURSELVES; IT'S STILL ONLY THE FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL! THAT MEANS NO MORE DETENTIONS! NOW, I SUGGEST THAT YOU TWO DO NOT COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS BECAUSE IT WILL NOT BE AN ENJOYABLE TIME ON YOUR PARTS! OH, AND CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING INTO GRYFFINDOR, ESPECIALLY YOU, SIRIUS."

    And with that the letter set itself aflame, the ashes sprinkling all over my toast.

    "Well, that wasn't so bad," I said.

    "Could've been much worse," Sirius agreed.

    "She just had to mention me, didn't she?" Remus said, a pink tinge to his cheeks.

    "Makes me glad my parents are Muggles," Lily muttered, shaking her head.

______This chapter was finished much sooner than I thought, but I'm sure no one's complaining!! I hoped you like it, and that there was enough mischief for you. Chapter 5's been started, but it's not far, and it won't be out as soon as this one was. Coming up then will be flying lessons and some more mischief, and some more from the Slytherins.

    I want to thank Ayesha for being an awesome Beta!

    Please please please join my yahoo!group, YearsProngs ([email protected]). There are currently 8 members (including myself) and no one is posting anything there. I'm very disappointed in all of you. If you're a member and you're reading this, take this as a hint. And if you aren't a member, please join and please POST!! Ask questions about the fic; I'll answer them! Ask/say anything! I'll respond! Or personally send me an email (my email can be found at the top of this page). I have a number in my head. When I get that many posts at my group, I'll give you a spoiler. I know, that's bribery, but I want some action at my group! It makes me sad that nothing's happening!

    Oh, I'm going to be away at camp for the next 6 weeks (however I'll be home one weekends), but there will be internet access there, so I can respond to any questions/comments/anything (hint hint). And I'll have a notebook with me, so if I can't sleep, I can write down any ideas I get, and continue the next chapter, and so on.

I'll give you some quotes of Chapter 5 so far:

**Nikki

I only like it if it's flying through the air.

"Tell me, are you a pureblood?"

"What in the name of Merlin is going on here?"

"Er - hello. Do I know you?"

    Hmm...suspense for you? Any theories? Go to my yahoogroup!