The Diary

He always knows just when the time is right

He never shows what he's thinking

He keeps it inside because he's

Too cool for school.

"Too Cool For School" - Fountains of Wayne

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James Potter was in his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He probably should have been in the library doing homework, but the only time he had ever seen fit to visit the library was when it was the setting of a prank. No, instead he was focusing on a different kind of task. The kind involving one Lily Evans, an attractive red head who, in James' opinion, had a little too much respect for the rules. That, and she was one of the few girls who did not find James and his three best friends, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. the Marauders, entertaining. In any case, he was set on obtaining her diary for the purposes of magnifying the pages in the Gryffindor common room. Normally Sirius would be at his side, and the two would be tossing witty banter back and forth. However, James had chosen to fly solo on this particular mission. This was most unusual, and James felt somewhat guilty about it, but it had been Sirius who had started it all.

During Potions class that afternoon, James and Sirius had been in the back row of the dungeon, not really paying attention to Professor Slughorn's lecture. They had opted to charm two of their potion bottles to race around the edge of the table for their own amusement while Peter looked on in anticipation. Remus was dutifully taking notes, and would undoubtedly be sharing them with the other three later that night. Slughorn had just turned around to grab an ingredient when Sirius whispered a spell that shot right at Severus Snape's cauldron. Snape had bent down to collect a cork he had dropped on the floor and failed to see the spell whizzing over his head. James gave Sirius an intrigued look, but Sirius merely grinned knowingly.

Before James could ask him what he was up to, Slughorn had instructed the class to begin to make the potion. Masked by the sound of people shuffling around, James whispered to Sirius, "What are we doing to Snivelly today, Sirius?"

Sirius merely looked offended and responded, "Why James, I don't know what you're talking about. As you can plainly see, nothing has happened to Snape's cauldron." James glanced at Snape's table, and indeed, it looked untouched.

James opened his mouth to ask another question when Slughorn came lumbering down the aisle. "James, m'boy, you don't even have the ingredients out! You'd better hurry up, class is over in another half hour." He flashed a grin at James, suggesting that it would be impossible for James not to finish the assignment. James returned the smile, but nudged Sirius once Slughorn had turned his back.

"James, if you need me to make your potion for you, just say so," Sirius joked. It appeared that James wasn't going to get an answer out of him anytime soon, so he focused on catching up with the rest of the class.

Snape's cauldron did nothing remarkable whenever James looked over at it, but James was sure he had heard Sirius mutter a spell. What was he playing at?

Five minutes before the end of class, everyone was finishing up their potions. A few had started collecting samples for grading, but it had been a difficult potion; not many people were finished. James had been distracted by his curiosity, and as a result, his potion was clearly less than perfect. It didn't matter, though; he'd just attend Slughorn's next Slug Club dinner to make up for it. He was about to start cleaning up when Sirius stood up and marched down the aisle to the front of the room. He loudly asked Slughorn when the next dinner party would be. The professor looked somewhat surprised, but told him it would be the following Tuesday. Sirius thanked him and started back toward his seat.

James managed to catch Sirius' eye, but all Sirius did was wink at him. As Sirius passed Snape's table, he looked at Snape and proclaimed, "Oi, what's happened to your potion, Snape?" Snape, who had been fishing in his bag for an empty vial, jumped up and stared at his now empty cauldron.

He shot daggers at Sirius, who merely looked amused. "Black, what have you done with my potion?"

Sirius tried to give an innocent look and said, "Me? But Snape, as you can plainly see, I am without a wand." He gestured to his own table, where his wand was lying on top of his schoolbag. "You really shouldn't go around accusing people of such nasty things, Snape, it isn't kind." He gave Snape a slight smirk before returning to his and James' table. "Brilliant, wasn't it?" he whispered to James. Unfortunately, Sirius did no get the reaction he expected.

"Why didn't you just tell me what spell you used?" James sounded faintly upset.

"Honestly James, aren't I allowed to have a bit of fun on my own every now and then?"

The two corked their samples in silence and didn't speak for the rest of the hour. Peter and Remus merely looked at each other and shrugged. James and Sirius would work it out eventually; they always did.

Sirius might not have thought it was a big deal, but James had felt left out. Sirius had managed an excellent prank and hadn't allowed James to be in on it. They were Marauders - they told each other everything. That, and James still hadn't figured out which spell Sirius had used.

Thus the plan was born. Sirius wasn't the only one who could do solo pranks. Evans had become the target simply because she was one of James' favourite people to prank. She always became incredibly upset over the slightest misconduct. That's what made the plan so brilliant in James' mind - not only did he get revenge on Evans for all the times she had ratted them out, but he also showed Sirius that he could also be a lone agent.

After Potions, everyone had headed to dinner. Everyone save for James, of course. He had raced to the broom closet to acquire his Cleansweep. Covering it with his Invisibility Cloak, he carried it back up to Gryffindor Tower. After checking that no one was in the common room, he put it on and flew up to the girls' dormitories with the cloak covering himself and his schoolbag. James carefully opened the door to the fourth years' room and landed inside.

He headed over to Evans' bed, reminiscing about the last time he had been in here. He and Sirius had put cockroaches in her bed because Evans had told McGonagall that they were the ones who had put the Babbling Beverage in John Ackerly's pumpkin juice. The memory of Evans' smouldering glare brought a smile to his face.

James began to rifle through her nightstand, making sure he didn't rearrange anything. Evans would be the type of person to notice even a quill out of place. After extracting all the objects with no success, he spotted a small string along the inside of the drawer. He pulled it, and with it the false bottom on the drawer. There it was - a small diary.

James grabbed the spare journal he had in his schoolbag and placed both books on the bed. One major component of any good prank was the surprise, so James replicated the diary's pages onto a spare journal of his own. Evans would never see it coming. On a whim, he cast the Protean Charm so that he would also be able to access any future writings. Wonder what she'll write about this, he thought to himself. He quickly replaced the original diary, the false bottom and all the other belongings into the drawer. Covering himself with the cloak once more, he flew down the staircase and into the common room.

By the time James had returned his broom, dinner was over. He was hungry, but he could always nip down to the kitchens later. The house-elves were more than willing to help, and Peter would probably come along. He never missed a trip to the kitchens.

Back in the common room, the other Marauders were sitting in front of the fire. Remus was writing an essay while Sirius and Peter played a game of Exploding Snap. "Oi, James! Where've you been?" asked Sirius.

"Nowhere of consequence, Sirius," James answered shortly. "Well then, I'm exhausted. 'Night all." He started to head for the dormitory, eager to work on his plan. Sirius stared after him while Peter and Remus shared another look. Sirius opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it. He'd talk to James later; right now, he had to beat Peter at Exploding Snap. He laughed when the cards exploded on Peter, and grinned at the girls across the room.

Up in the dormitory, James drew the curtains around his bed. He leaned back and cracked open the diary.