Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

AN: Hello again after loong time. I know... if you started to read this story at the time I started writing it, you probably don't even remember it any more and so if you still want to read it I suggest to reread it from beginning. (I might start writing small recapitulations at the beginning of each chapter if you want, so let me know if you do...)

I said I won't give up on this story but at times I thought I would. See, in two years that passed by since I started this, a lot of things changed and this story didn't seem to go the way I thought it should, based on personal experience. I wanted my characters be realistic, but they didn't seem so. They seem immature at the very least, if not downright unrealistic. But then I thought I will make it a challenge to myself to take them from carefree teenagers to mature adults as the life will lead them through some important experiences. We will see if I succeed.

This chapter has lied in my computer half finished for over a year I think, and I finally got around to finish it. I enjoyed writing the end very much and am looking forward to writing next one (although I don't know when I will get to it).

Yours always

Kate xx

-Chapter five-

Friends interfering

„Hi," said Lily tonelessly. She dropped her bag and sat down at the desk next to Alice.

"Sooo, what did Potter do this time?" asked Alice as innocently as she could manage, which wasn't much, as the boy in question entered the classroom at the same time and by the look on his face, he was ready to defend himself. Mary shot him a warning look, trying to stop him and for a few seconds they led silent battle of wills.

Fortunately, Lily didn't notice anything as she launched into the full recapitulation of the morning fight and finally James seemed to resign. He took seat far enough not to irritate Lily but close enough to hear the girls. He fixed his gaze on the front desk but Mary could tell he was listening intently, occasionally closing his eyes with tortured expression when Lily complained about him.

"He is such an insufferable, big-headed, arrogant, malicious git!"

"Well, yes he is. And extremely stupid too, but Lily, don't you think you overacted a bit? I agree, he is arrogant and all, but really, don't you think it's possible he was just joking. Because to me it does sound like some stupid joke Marauder would make. Besides, I doubt McGonagall would even believe him if he reported you," Mary said praying Lily wouldn't blow at her too.

"Since when do you stand up for Potter?" Lily asked turning her annoyance on her friend.

"She is not standing up for Potter," joined in Alice, lowering her voice after few more classmates took their seats nearby. She could see James out of the corner of her eye, straining to hear what she was saying. "She is merely pointing out that it's unlikely he would report you. Hagrid teased you about sneaking to kitchens too. You must admit that Lily Evans breaking rules is something big. And you said it yourself, he was trying to be polite."

"He was just polite so he could humiliate me more later on. He is playing some stupid mind-trick on me. Or haven't you noticed how he was acting last semester?" Lily huffed. But then she turn away from her friends and they could see corner of her mouth twitching.

"Hey, you like it!" said Mary astonished.

"Well, it does sound like something big doesn't it? Me, breaking rules." Lily said with rebellious glint in her eyes, all anger forgotten for a minute.

"Who are you and what have you done with my best friend." Alice stared at her in awe. Lily giggled. It was a feeling completely new and foreign to her. She was always orderly girl who did as she was told. She sticked to her believes and stood up for what she thought was right but she always obeyed the rules.

When Flitwick entered, they all turned to face him. Lily caught James staring at her with enigmatic face. She shrugged, maybe he really wasn't going to humiliate her this time, but that didn't mean she would forgive him so easily. Just then an idea hit her. She would prove them all wrong. Especially Potter. She was not that boring know-it-all who wouldn't recognize a joke if it was right under her nose, as he so often told her. No she would show him, she had as much sense of humor as he had. And she would show him how it feels to be on the receiving side of his jokes. She would prank him.

And so she set to work on plan. The prank needed to be something special. It needed to be clever and funny. Nothing seriously dangerous, yet something that would teach Potter his lesson. She didn't want to get in detention for it, but she wanted him to known that it was her doing. Therefore she had to be stealthy. To secure all of this was almost mission impossible but it was something marauders were known for and so she was determined that if they could do it, she could too.

At first she wanted to do it alone, but soon she learned she would need some help, and so, one evening, when they were all sitting in their dorm, she introduced Mary and Alice to her plans. They weren't as enthusiastic about it as she was, but, although a bit reluctantly, they agreed to help her. Together the three of them came up with various ideas but none of them satisfied Lily.

"Why don't we just throw a bucket of water at him?" whined Mary after hour of discussing their ideas.

"No!" Said Lily dismissively. "It's stupid and childish and it's been done million times. It must be something that would surprise him. Something even Potter himself wouldn't come up with."

"No offense Lily, but that's impossible. The Marauders pranked every living person in this castle and probably even ghosts. They are masters of their craft. They are the only four people who were not pranked yet, and that's only because, obviously, they wont prank themselves."

"Well, that's it then!" called Lily victoriously.

"What?" asked Mary and Alice together.

"We need to get them to prank themselves!" Mary and Alice looked confused. "Come on, it's perfect idea. Just what we need."

"And how are we going to do that?" asked Alice skeptically.

"Without using imperius on them, I might add." said Mary with sarcasm. Lily thought for a minute.

"Well, we need to convince him to make something or at least gain information on some of the major pranks Marauders are planning and then sabotage it. I can't convince him to do anything, because for some reason he has been avoiding me lately, witch I'm thankful for, but even if he didn't avoid me, we are not exactly best friends." Lily said, than added: "No matter what you say," when she saw Mary was about to start with Potter-is-not-as-bad-as-you-think nonsense again. "As it is, it has to be you two who will get close enough to him to get the information we need."

"But-" started Alice.

"But what? I thought you were on the don't-hate-Potter ship with Mary. And now we need to get close to him." Lily looked at her watch. "I need to go, I'm late for patrols. I will try to get something out of Remus and you two can figure out what to do about Potter." With that Lily exited their dorm.

Alice looked helplessly at Mary.

"This sucks," she said.

"Yeah, pretty much. What will we do?" asked Mary

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about befriending Marauders."

"I'm not sure if that's good or bad thing. If we weren't already helping Potter get Lily I probably wouldn't feel so guilty about helping Lily prank Potter."

"Yeah, and if it works, he will get mad at us. And I don't want that, he is annoying sometimes but I think you were right about him and so far he has been doing everything we told him. It was going nicely, but then Lily comes up with this stupid prank... Why? It's so frustrating," complained Alice. She was combing her cat's hair rather violently. The cat hissed and jumped from her lap. "Sorry, Perseus," she muttered.

"Well, I can see where Lily is coming from," said Mary, "but that doesn't make it less complicated. I don't see how we can get out of this without the whole thing blowing up. Either James will think that we betrayed him, or Lily will get mad at us because we take Potter's side in this."

"I think we will just have to come up with a plan of our own. They are both relying on us, so it shouldn't be to difficult to coordinate them. We just have to think of the way to satisfy them both. Maybe we could sabotage Lily's sabotage of Marauders prank? We need to make Lily see what is James on about, then everything will be okay..."

"I don't like this. They both have bloody temperament and something could easily go wrong. If they realize we've been playing with them, we are screwed."

"Well then what do you suggest?" asked Alice.

"I would let them work it out for themselves, but I'm afraid that's impossible, so for now I 'm for persuading Lily the prank is bad idea. Even if she gets angry at us, she will come to her senses sooner or later, she is a reasonable girl. And it wouldn't do this school any good if Potter started hating her as much as Lily despise him. You-know-who would seem like tame pigmypuff compared to the two of them fighting a full on battle, don't you think? Besides, we can still switch to your plan if this doesn't work."

"Okay, that seems like the best option. We need to warn Potter of doing anything stupid before we get her off this prank plan. He won't be happy."

"Well, he has no choice."

Getting information on James form Remus while staying inconspicuous proved to be extremely hard because Remus was one of the best, most loyal friends you could wish for and he also was one of the brightest people Lily knew. That meant she had to be very careful with her questions.

"Hello Remus," she sad when she approached him in common room. "Ready for patrols?"

"Yeah, just a minute though, I want to finish this, I have only few pages left" Remus indicated a book he was reading. Lily bent down a little to see what the title was.

"Tricky transfiguration, hmm, sounds interesting. Do you mind if I borrow it after you are finished with it?" she asked, thinking this might be just what she was looking for.

"Er, ok," said Remus uncertainly, "although I'm not quite sure if you will find it as, um, contributing as I do."

"Why? You know I could always do with some extra reading on transfiguration. It was never my best subject," Lily said innocently.

"Well... it's not exactly educational material, you see. I doubt McGonnagal would approve of half of this spells."

"Don't worry, Remus. I can take a little joke here and there. Maybe it will help me discover the entertaining part of transfiguration and Merlin knows I could use that. I don't say it's not useful subject but I can't help but find it boring," sight Lily, hoping this explanation didn't sound to Remus as stupid as it sounded to her.

Remus raised his eyebrows in surprise, but then shrugged: "If you say so..." and he continued reading, occasionally chuckling.

Lily sat down in a chair next to him and stared of into the fire while she waited. Few minutes later Remus shut the book and got up.

"Well, I'm finished," he said as Lily got up too. He handed her the book: "Just take care of it, it's not mine." Lily raised an eyebrow, so Remus explained: "It's James' but he has read it so many times that he should know it by heart already."

"Thanks," Lily took the book, "I'll just drop in my dormitory then and we can start the patrols."

Few minutes later, they were already standing outside the portrait hole.

"So," Lily started cheerfully, "have you found something useful in that book for the next big Marauder's prank?"

"Since when are you so interested in our pranks?" laughed Remus. Lily mentally kicked herself. So much for being stealthy.

"Eh... since they tend to involve me quite often? I thought I would mentally prepare myself this time." Well it was part of the truth.

"You know that I can't tell you. We swore on Marauders honor that we won't tell anybody our secrets. But I doubt you will be the victim any time soon."

"Why?" asked Lily truly surprised by this. She thought that surely James would want a revenge for that morning a week or so ago, when she yelled at him. Especially since she was kinda-sorta-not-wanting-to-admit-it but really out of line.

"I think you have finally managed to get the message that you don't like him and want him to leave you alone across."

"Good, It was about time." Said Lily sourly though still surprised that he didn't want to retaliate. Or maybe this was just another plot to get her hurt.. no, Remus wouldn't lie to her. But maybe James lied to him too.. Eh, she was being paranoid.

"I still think you misjudged him, Lily. He is a prat, and he played some cruel pranks on you, yes. But he regretted them later. He was just too proud to admit it. He has a heart at the right place, though. And he is not evil like those Slytherins." Remus looked at her darkened expression. "Believe me, he would never judge person on where they come from or any such rubbish. I would know."

This time it was Lily's turn to look at Remus thoughtfully. It was clear she won't get any more information on pranks from him and she really didn't want to discuss Potter. Suddenly everyone seemed to defend his honor and she wasn't buying it. But this was a good opportunity to propose the other issue that was nagging at her mind.

"I know," she said slowly.

"Good," replied Remus, "because he really-"

"No, Remus, that's not what I mean. I know that you would know." Lily looked him in the eyes.

"What?" he asked, his voice a bit higher that usual, sounding slightly panicky. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I know that you are a werewolf, Remus." She said softly. He was starting to backtrack now, so she hastily added: "And I couldn't care less about it."

"You- You couldn't care less? You are not scared of me? Or repulsed?" He asked still in high pitched voice.

"No, why would I be? You are one of the nicest guys I know," she told him sincerely.

"But-?"

"Honestly Remus, I have known for a while now. If I was scared or repulsed, I wouldn't be so willing to go on those patrols with you, with no-one but a few ghosts around." Lily explained in a tone you would use with five-year old.

"Well, I guess..." He was now calming down a bit. "But how do you know? Does anybody else now?"

"Well, Severus had this theory -"

"It's not a theory," interrupted Remus darkly, "he has seen me, and wasn't it for James, I would..." he tailed off looking away.

"Oh," Lily said, remembering. "So that whomping-willow accident... it was you?"

"Yes, Sirius thought it would be funny to tell Snape how to get into the tunnel under that tree. Naturally Snape followed me there and if James hadn't showed up..." Remus went quiet for a moment, then added: "Anyway, he did and he dragged Snape out of there, but Snap had seen me. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Dumbledore said he took care of it." Remus finished bitterly.

"Well, he had his theory even before that, but I didn't care much... only when we became prefects I started noticing you more," Lily smiled at him in encouraging way. Just then she realized something: "I don't suppose Marauders call you Moony for sleepwalking... they know too, don't they?"

"They figured it out in first year." Remus said with small smile om his lips. "You have no idea what it meant to me. That even when they knew, they still wanted to be my friends. Werewolves are often looked upon as some dangerous animals. Most wizards would be resentful and scared if they knew their kids go to school with me. That's why I value their friendship so much. They even thought it was cool," Remus shook his head amused at memory. "They help me pull through really rough times."

"With pranks," snorted Lily in a good-natured way.

"What's better way to brighten your mood then fun with friends? But it wasn't only for my entertainment. We all had to deal with difficult times. Yes, even James." Remus said when Lily gave him doubtful look. "As I said there is a reason why he did things he did. It's the unfortunate way he deals with hard times."

Lily just nodded trying to process what she had just learned. So Remus really was a werewolf and apparently the bond between Marauders went deeper than in casual group of teenage friends. She wandered what Remus meant by saying they all had to deal with difficult times. She knew that Sirius came from family of Dark wizards who didn't appreciate his anti-Voldemort sympathies. But James? What problems could he possibly have? He was rich, spoiled, naturally talented, arrogant and careless to the point of cruelty. Well, she will show him soon.

That night, when Lily returned from patrol she headed straight for her dormitory. She picked up a book that Remus gave her and started flipping through it. At first she scanned the pages, recognizing many spells that she had been subjected to or witnessed at hands of Marauders. Some of them, she learned required quite skillful spell-work, but she already knew that Marauders weren't stupid even if they acted so. Many spells had a notes with Marauders improvements on prank. Halfway through the book one spell in particular caught Lily's attention. It was underlined and next to it was a single world written in hand: Lily. She was sure that it was just another pranking spell, when she noticed that a spell fell into Intuitive magic category. She started reading the description soon realizing that this spell really wasn't a prank. It was supposedly an ancient spell, that when performed right transfigured any inanimate object into some symbol of heart's true desire, helping the performer to discover it. According to author of the book it didn't really work since when he tried it he accidentally transfigured his favorite armchair into a pig and wasn't able to reverse the spell, but he recommends to try it just for the fun of it. Lily scoffed and frowned at her name at the top of the page.

Just then Mary entered the dormitory with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Guess whom I just caught snogging on my way from library?"

Lily shrugged: "Pray tell."

"Alice and Frank! Looks like the boy finally got his act together and kissed her!"

"It was about time too." Lily said good-naturally. "I thought that Frank would graduate sooner that work up the nerve to do something with Alice."

"Well, he did and that leaves you as only single occupant of this dormitory. We need to do something about that," Mary winked at her clapping her hands together.

"Don't start again. You know that as..."

"As long as Potter walks the corridors of this school you don't stand a chance at getting proper boyfriend. I know, I have heard that annoyingly long sentence at least thousand times. But he hasn't bothered you lately, has he?"

"No. Now he has taken to staring at me all the time. It's kinda creepy. But I will put an end to it soon." Lily lifted the book and showed the cover to Mary.

"Oh no, you still haven't given up on that prank idea?"

"Nope, and you and Alice better help me." Lily said in tone that leaves no room for objections.

"Okay then," resigned Mary. "I see you are already preparing yourself," she noded at the book. "Have you any ideas yet?"

"Not really. As I said I will need your help in getting information from Potter and his friends. We need to crash their own prank and it needs to be something big. I was thinking about their annual Valentine's day prank. That could be fun." Lily grinned and once more turned to the book, trying to decide what to make of her name next to that ancient spell. Then she closed the book, writing it off as workings of Potter's perverted mind. "Well I'm ready to go to sleep. Good night."

"Night Lily," said Mary. She waited for another hour and half until Alice returned from her evening rendezvous with Frank.

"We need to talk she whispered to smiling Alice as she dragged her to her bed, drew the curtains and casted a silencing spell around them.

"Yes! We do!" squealed Alice. "You won't believe what happened today!"

"You snogged Frank," Mary laughed at Alice's surprised blush. "I saw you two on my way from library. You know there is one perfectly good broom cupboard just one corridor from there and you don't need to scare innocent first years!"

"Um.. I will remember that." Alice said sheepishly.

"You better do. But that's not why I dragged you in here."

"Uh,uh.. why then?"

"We have a problem. Lily is still hung up on the idea of crashing one of Marauder's pranks. In fact, she wants us to find out what their Valentine's Day prank is gonna be." Mary finished with an exasperated look.

"Well... you must admit it – it could be fun, get Marauders to prank themselves."

Mary smiled thoughtfully: "Yeah, but I don't think they would take very kindly to it. We've been able to hold James off Lily's back for now, but he is becoming restless and this thing could ruin everything."

"I know, but it seems we have no other choice but to help Lily. At least this way we can supervise it and minimize the damage. If we let Lily do it on her own, she will find a way, and the results could be far more disastrous."

"Soo... how do you suggest we get them to tell us what are they planning?"

Alice grinned mischievously: "We don't. We tell them what they are going to do."

"And I suppose they will listen, no questions asked," remarked Mary sarcastically. "And when it all blows up, they will have absolutely no idea whose doing it was."

"Well, we have to make it look like they came up with the idea themselves. I already have something in mind," said Alice and she started explaining her idea of the prank. When she finished Mary was in awe.

"Wow Alice, I never thought you had it in you. That sounds brilliant!"

"Only I'm not sure how to pull it off since neither off us takes potions," confessed Alice unhappily.

"Leave that to Marauders. They will figure it out..."

….

A week later Mary arranged a meeting with James in library to update him on win-Lily-over plan.

"How am I going to get her to give me a chance if we don't speak together?"

"That's exactly how James. Because whenever you open your mouth around her, something awfully arrogant comes out."

"But it's been almost a month..."

"Me and Alice are working on it. She has to forgive you for the past before she will be able to accept the fact that you changed," reasoned Mary. She omitted to mention that the forgiving process will most likely be sped up by revenge. Instead she continued: "Right know the only thing you can really do is practice your good-but-not-too-good-boy behavior. Now please help me find this book for Muggle studies. It should be somewhere here," she led him to the part of the library dedicated to mauggle-wizard relations. As she predicted the first thing that caught Potter's eye was a bright orange book entitled 12 ways to crash a party. When he pulled it out she asked him: "Is that it?"

He quickly closed the book and hid it into his bag.

"Um, no, it's just something for a light reading," he gave her his most innocent smile.

"Right," she said doubtfully. "Never mind, I think I found it. I'm going to finish that blasted essay. So by for now. And don't do anything stupid." She gave him a meaningful look, and with a wave of hand departed from library.

"I think he bought it," said Mary later that day to Alice.

"He did. I overheard him talking to Black just few minutes ago. Genius these muggles. With a few magic tweaks it would be a perfect prank for Valentine's." Alice mimicked. "Now we only need to pay a close attention for exactly what tweaks they plan to do and if need be, push them into the right direction."

But it turned out there was no need for pushing because Marauders planned the prank exactly as Alice and Mary wanted. Marauders never talked about it directly, bur since Mary and Alice already knew what was the main subject they were able to figure out the plans. They fed Lily small innocent lies about how they found out about the prank and the night before the Valentine's day they made plans on how to sabotage the whole thing. Luckily Lily agreed with their ideas.

"I don't think we need to completely change it. As much as I despise Marauders, it is pretty harmless and even funny," mused Lily, missing a grin that Alice and Mary exchanged. "However we need to make sure that Marauders, and namely Potter will be subjected to it as much as everyone else."

"We already agreed that we will make sure they drink it too. We will wait until they leave the kitchens and then switch..."

"Yes, that too" Lily interrupted Mary's rant. "But I have something else in mind."

Alice and Mary exchanged worried looks. This was bad news.

"And what is it, pray tell," asked Alice sweetly.

"You will see," smirked Lily.

…...

Next morning Hogwarts castle awoke with anticipation. It was Valentine's day. The day most of the boys dreaded and most of the girls anticipated with great expectations, that were rarely fulfilled. It was also a day of great annual marauder's prank. Some looked forward to it, some fared it, because they often served as a laughing stock for rest of the school. Lily Evans was usually one of those who dreaded Valentine's day. This year however she woke up with a smile plastered on her face. She went down to kitchens with her friends, stealthily following Marauders and then switching cups at their usual places, making sure there were few dry drops of that genius potion at the bottom of each cup on the table. They waited another fifteen minutes before they made their way to Great Hall. The potion was said to start making impact at random time varying from half an hour after consumed to six hours, so they had time. Lily was in such a good mood, that she even said "Morning, Potter" when she passed him in a Great Hall. He spilled a pumpkin juice on his robe from the shock and she just laughed. When she set down she discreetly cleaned her cup with a spell and piled up some food on her plate. Then she dropped a fork. She bend down to retrieve it making two small well aimed flicks of her wand on her way up. It was perfectly timed because precisely at that moment professor McGonagall stood up from teacher's table having already finished breakfast and made her way down the hall. However she came to a halt in the middle of Griffindor table.

"Mr. Potter!" James seemed to jump in his seat, when whole Great Hall turned to look at him, laughing. Just then did he notice that he was wearing bright pink tutu. "What is the meaning of this? Change back to your robes this instant!"

"What the hell?" James looked down at his outfit.

"Language Mr. Potter!"

"But.." spluttered Potter.

"Nice antlers, mate," laughed Sirius.

James hand went to his hair, his nervous habit, but instead of hair his hand collided wit something very solid and... heart-shaped? He grabbed a spoon and looked into it. He had in fact grown a delicately twisted antlers and his usually oval glasses were also heart-shaped and pink-rimmed.

"Mr. Potter! Unless you want a week's worth detention I suggest you change your appearance back to normal this instant!"

"Yes professor," James agreed hurriedly taking his wand. He tried to reverse the spells but nothing he tried worked. Lily had put a timing charm on top of the transfiguration so it was impossible to change it back until the time ran out. That of course, no one knew but Lily.

"Mr. Potter, you are wearing my patience thin." Her lips were getting thinner and thinner – a sign that she was seconds from losing her patience altogether. "I told you numerous times, that..." James was sure that now she would yell at him for everything he had ever done, but then suddenly something in her expression changed and she faltered. "...that... you have very beautiful eyes and I just love your untidy hair. It looks so rebelliously sexy," she sighed with dreamy eyes. "And those antlers...mmmm."

James' eyes popped out of it's sockets. He gaped at professor McGonagall as if she had grown two heads. Sirius was laughing so hard that he had trouble staying on his seat. And he wasn't the only one. Whole school was laughing at him and McGonaggall. Next to him Remus whispered to Peter:"I think the potion is working." Unfortunately the strict professor had snapped out of her dreamy state and heard him.

"Mr. Lupin, what was...?" she was however cut of by Sirius, who all of the sudden stopped laughing.

"My dearest Minerva, I allays taught you..." But McGonagall, sensing what was coming tried to over-yell him.

"Potter, Black,.."

"...look extremely..." Sirius raised his voice to level McGonagall.

"...Lupin, Pettigrew..."

"...attractive, wen..."

"...my office..."

"... I didn't do anything.." whined Peter.

"... you are yelling at me!"

"...right now!" McGonagall finished and turned on her heel, marching from Great Hall. The boys stood up, following her confused – the potion wasn't meant to affect them. James was still in his pink tutu and antlers and Sirius was yelling after McGonagall.

"I know you will once realize how much you love me! I will forever keep you in my heart!"

Few seats down the row, Lily Evans smiled at her friends.

"Well, that was fun," she commented contently.

Her content smile was however wiped from her face when she open a letter that Aurel just brought her.