A/N

I'm really sorry. :( Don't really have an excuse except that life sucks, pressure, school, and everything.

But I'm on spring break right now so hopefully I can finally relax and take a breather.

People said they wanted one chapter for one question, so I guess they wanted that instead of me to update quickly so that's why it took so long, because I had the first part done and just sitting there, but I didn't have inspiration for the second half.

Please enjoy anyways.

It had been nearly two weeks, and the initial hype of Valentine's Day was now over. The Great Hall had lost its holiday pink flair, and the girls in school had mellowed out once the celebration had ended. Lily, as usual, was back at her spot in the library. She felt as though her seat was always empty, because the fact that she was in it 80% of the time had automatically claimed it as her personal spot. Not that she was complaining, of course. She liked having a corner of the library to herself, no one who would distract her, no one who would bother her…

"Hey, Lily!"

Ah, of course.

She spun around in her chair cooly, acting bored, "Yes, Potter. How may I help you?"

"Why the formalities? We're all friends here!"

Cute yet annoying. What a troublesome combination.

"Potter," she emphasized, "What do you want?"

"I bring news, milady."

Lily was sure that one day her eyeballs would fall out from being rolled too much. It seemed that every ridiculous thing James said (basically everything he says then) caused her to roll her eyes. And yet, Lily was painfully unable to keep the smile off her face.

"What is it?"

James was acting, she could tell, because he was breathing in and out deeply, as though pausing for dramatic effect. "Our new question is up!" He suddenly screamed in excitement, throwing his hands in the air.

Lily jumped at his sudden enthusiasm. "Oh, is that all?" She replied nonchalantly, leaning back in her chair.

"No," He grinned mischievously. "This one…this one is special." He looked up at the ceiling, as if he was imagining something. Lily followed his line of sight and saw nothing there.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, nothing, just got lost in my thoughts," he waved his hand in and offhand manner.

"Why is it special?"

He turned back to her, grinning. "If you answer it, you'll know." He stood up abruptly, pushing his chair back with a loud screech. Madam Pince whirled around furiously, but he only winked at the old librarian and proceeded to stride out the door.

"You're only saying that because you want me to answer your question!" Lily called after him. The librarian turned and hushed her, and Lily ducked her head down in embarrassment. Madam Pince had never hushed her before. Lily looked back down at her paper, cheeks filling with color.

She missed the smile that James had given her.

"Hey, Lily, done with homework? You were in the library for hours!"

"No, I got distracted," she replied nonchalantly.

Mary's eyes flashed and her head whirled around so fast it was simply a blur of brown hair. "By who?"

Lily raised her eyebrows, "What makes you think it's a who? It could've been a what, for all you know."

She began to grin, and in that moment, Lily decided that Mary's I-know-something-you-don't grin was one of the most irritating things in the entire world.

Lily glared right back at her and said, "If you're going to suggest that it was James…"

"Was it?"

She hesitated, "Well…yes, but—"

"I knew it!"

"It doesn't mean anything!"

"What did he want?"

"To tell me about the new question."

Mary raised her eyebrows, "Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's not interesting…what did he say exactly?"

"I don't really remember," she shrugged nonchalantly, "Something about how I should answer it."

"And…?"

"And, uh…he said something about it being special?"

Mary leaped up from the sofa and landed gracefully on the floor, knees bent. "Special? You missed that vital piece of information, Merlin, next time start with that would you? Gosh, I can't believe you didn't tell me!"

Lily's green almond eyes had widened considerably during Mary's little rant, "Does it matter?"

"Does it matter? Does it matter, she says. OF COURSE IT MATTERS! Do you think he's going to ask you out again? Gosh, he hasn't done that in a while. What do you think he means by special?"

"Mary, calm down, I'm sure he doesn't mean anything by it."

Her friend rounded on her wildly, and Lily realized that Mary was assuming that the next question was going to be some grand show for her.

"Calm down? Calm down?" Mary gasped for breath, and instead of becoming even more crazed like Lily imagined, Mary only fell back onto the sofa and breathed heavily.

"Er…are you okay?"

"Mhm…" she replied loosely, "I still think he's up to something."

"It's Potter. Of course he's up to something."

Lily stepped up to the board. It was nearly midnight, and the common room had begun to clear out, which meant Lily could answer the question peacefully, without any of the Gryffindors bothering her.

Unsurprisingly, Mary had immediately told her other friends that James had said that the question was 'special', and they were all convinced that this meant it was for Lily. Because of this, they had all refrained from answering. It was stupid, Lily thought. The question thing was meant for everyone, and just because everyone had some warped thinking that Lily and James were meant to be together…well, it was stupid, and that was that.

Nevertheless, here she was, standing in the front of the board, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

This…this felt like life or death, and she could almost imagine the dramatic music playing in her background.

Lily, stop being stupid.

She opened her eyes and looked.

Guys. This is *special*. Really.

So, what's your favorite color?

…That was the question?

THAT was the question.

That was…

That was stupid.

In fact, Lily thought it was the most stupid thing she had heard all year.

How on earth had she become so apprehensive over nothing?

Lily forced her thoughts to change; she needed to stop thinking about why and how if she wanted to be able to at least get her feet unstuck to go back to the dorms. What could her favorite color be? Oddly enough, she had never thought about it, as it seemed too much of a childish and shallow question. Red? Black? Blue? Periwinkle? Magenta? Hazel? Her favorite color had to be green, as Slytherin as it sounded. It was mostly because of her eyes, the only part of her that people seemed to comment on and make her feel special.

Green, she put, and she walked away without a second thought.

"You guys," she began, as she opened the door to their dormitory, "are the most stupid people to ever walk on this stupid earth. The question wasn't for me! Go answer it—ugh—I can't believe I let you talk me into going down there alone."

Mary grinned slyly, "Well, don't be so upset about not being special!"

"Upset? I'm not upset! I'm perfectly calm, thank you very much, why do you think I'm upset?!"

Chortling, her friends followed Mary and went downstairs.

Lily stared at the empty dormitory and then mentally slapped herself.

Damn it, Lily, that wasn't very subtle was it?

"Well, what do you think the result will be?"

"Ugh," Marlene answered, weakly flopping down on her bed, "I'll bet it'll be something stupid, like turning our skin different colors."

"No way," Lily responded huffily, "The Marauders would never do something as bland and dumb as that."

To be honest, she was beginning to become nervous and anxious. She was sure the Marauders would be able to turn something simple and stupid into a huge deal, and she was slightly afraid for what would come.

Still, there was nothing she could do but wait.

Tick tock.

Nothing happened.

Absolutely nothing.

Until…

"Hey, pass me that shirt will you?" Lily said casually, brushing her long red hair back into a ponytail.

There was no reply, but when the girl turned, her friends were staring at her. "Lily…you look green."

"What? What are you talking about? I'm not sick—I feel fine."

"No, no…I mean. You look…green."

Lily grabbed a random mirror from her bedside table, her fingers fumbling in confusion. She stared. She was green. Her skin was bright, emerald green.

Alice looked down and screamed. She was purple. In a whirl of brown hair, she spun and pointed an accusing finger at Lily, "YOU-YOU SAID! You said it would be something special!"

Lily spluttered helplessly, "I-what-I-I THOUGHT it would be!"

Alice looked back at the mirror and moaned, "Oh merlin…I'd be fine with purple hair…I'd even love purple eyes…I'd even rather have purple poo…what am I going to do—I don't want Frank to see me like this!"

Marlene sat up in her bed, and Lily was nearly blinded by the pure white that the girl had become. And yet, she didn't seem to care, "It's not too bad. Plus, When you and Frank get married, he'll see how monstrous you look in the mornings anyways."

Mary grinned impishly, "He loves you no matter what, Alice. And I'm pretty sure his favorite color is blue, so you have nothing to worry about."

Lily turned to Mary, confused, "Wha-Why haven't you changed?"

Mary grinned devilishly, "My favorite color is peach."

"Is it really?"

She gave a great snort of laughter, "No, of course not. But I wasn't going to let them change my skin color. Perks of dating a Marauder!"

"What? I'm dating a Marauder too! Why didn't Sirius tell me?"

Lily's anger and befuddlement was slowly disappearing, and she could talk now without wanting to punch James Potter in the nose. "Come on, it's Sirius. Remus is too sweet to do anything to Mary."

Lily now grinned widely at her friends' antics, and she steadily grew optimistic. I mean, it's not like she was the only one in the entire school who looked like an alien. She could think of this as some…skin party. Right?

"Merlin's pants, Padfoot! Look! It's the Wicked Witch of the West!" James shrieked the moment Lily entered the Transfiguration classroom.

Lily could do nothing but glower at him. He pushed his jet black hair our of his face. He grinned at her, but because of the bright color his face had become, it only reminded Lily of a monster baring its teeth seconds before devouring a human being.

"You're one to talk," she retorted at last, "Why'd you choose red anyways? Too much Gryffindor pride?"

As Lily passed by his desk to get to her own, he tugged on her hair, "I think you know why, Lily-flower."

"…Shut up."

As the hours flew by, Lily was forced to become accustomed to her new look, and this time, she didn't even try to get rid of her green skin, because let's be honest, what could she possibly do that could outsmart the Marauders? Sure, she was Lily Evans, but she had still to admit that her knowledge was confined to books and spells, not tricks and hexes.

"This is so dumb," Lily huffed as she sat down at her table. Her skin was still tinted green, and even from an outsider, it was easy to see that no matter how much she tried to accept that it would take while for the green to fade, she couldn't.

"Stop complaining and have some pudding," Mary grinned.

Dinner passed by uneventfully. At first.

But when Lily was finally done with her meal and was reaching for her pudding, Marlene gasped as she caught side of her own reflection in her goblet. Her skin was changing colors rapidly, going through the rainbow, before finally settling on her original color.

As Lily looked around, she realized that her friends were all going through the same change, and she fumbled desperately for something with a reflection. In the end she settled for her own goblet, pouring the contents straight onto the pile of pudding on her plate. She looked into the goblet and screamed.

She was dripping.

Dripping, as in melting. Her skin bubbled, and as she touched one hand to her left cheek she felt the goo latch onto her fingers and continue bubbling, like a cauldron with potion that had gone wrong.

She could feel the outer layers of her face drip down and form a puddle on the floor. Lily flinched as she felt a finger cautiously press her cheek. "What the-Lily! What's wrong with you?"

Lily was too speechless to talk, too worried for her own well-being.

Her skin continued prickling, continued to drizzle down her clothes and form piles of goop on the ground.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she reached for a napkin and wiped her face. When she pulled away, her green skin stuck like strings of melted cheese, but she could at least feel her own peach cheek under what the Marauders had done to her.

She heard the laughter of the people around her and tried to smile, but couldn't because it felt as though her lips were glued together.

"…shower…"

It took harder to shower off that she had expected. It took hours of body wash and shampoo for all of the green globs to wash off, because Lily had found that the Marauders had made it so that magic didn't work. Those sneaky arseholes.

There was James Potter. There he was. Lily took a deep breath and prepared to confront him. "Oi! Potter!"

His face immediately brightened as he turned around and saw the redhead, "Lily! What a pleasure—I see you're back to—"

"Save it. Why was I the only one who bubbled?"

He gave a small snort and rubbed his nose, "I did give you a hint when I called you the Wicked Witch of the West."

"What—I didn't—what?! You—you shouldn't even know about that book—It's a Muggle classic!"

He shrugged happily, "Well, you called me…what was it? A "heartless tin man"? So I asked Remus and he told me about this…this muggle wizard book."

Sirius leaned from his seat and smirked at Lily, "and an idea was born!"

Well. WELL. Well what was she supposed to say now? "Is this what you meant by special?"

Potter smirked again, "Yep! You were the only one who bubbled—don't you feel lucky?"

"What—lucky? NO!"

James just laughed.

A/N

Yes. I know it's short, but I haven't updated in half a year and then Lil' Quill PMed me and it made me so happy that they still remembered me, so here I am again.

It took me a long time to upload because I was so worried about pressing the button for some reason hehe.

Please review, I would love you forever.

-TheEvilPinkCupcake