You wish Potter : A Jily Fanfiction

Soapy Success

The final term of the school year was drawing to a close, and a drowsy silence lay over Hogwarts. Sunlight spilled like melted butter over the grounds, the courtyards quivered in the heat, and the owls in the Owlery ruffled their feathers restlessly. For the students, who had retreated into the shade of the cool castle, the summer holiday could not come sooner, and until it did, nobody felt like moving an inch. The Marauders decided that it was time to shake things up a bit.

"Ready?" James asked Lily, an amused grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Ready," she nodded, adrenalin pulsing through her body.

Marlene and Remus had been up all night charming the soap, and Sirius and Peter had persuaded Moaning Myrtle to help them get it into the water system in the early hours of the morning. And now Lily stood outside the girls' bathroom, five feet away from Potter, when she should have been watching him sleep in their History of Magic lesson.

Lily had long ago been forced to reconcile herself with the fact that James Potter was a good-looking bloke, and seeing as his pranks had always infuriated her, she had done so reluctantly. But in all her years of acquaintance with him, Lily did not think she had ever thought James quite as handsome as he looked now. His shirt was untucked, his sleeves rolled up, and his soft brown hair was tumbling down over his forehead. He was grinning, and something about him just seemed to contain a certain energy.

"Aguamenti!" James yelled, following a towering wave of water into the boys' bathroom. Lily was snapped out of her daze. She burst through the door, flushed every toilet, started every tap, and stopped in the middle of the room, breathlessly watching foaming gold water pour from the cubicles and spill over the edges of the sinks like frothy tidal waves.

"In for a knut in for a galleon." Lifting her wand above her head, she shouted, "Aqua eructo!" and she was knocked off her feet by the jet of water that burst from the tip of her wand.

Lily waded on her knees through the frothing bubbles, her ponytail plastered to her face, and her wet clothes clinging to her body.

"James?" she called, laughing as she watched him slide through the corridor towards her with a snowstorm of golden bubbles drifting from his wand.

There was complete pandemonium as Flitwick's first years piled out of their classroom and were hit by a wave of gold bubbles.

"I feel so rebellious!" Lily called happily over the uproar.

James blinked the soap from his eyes and wiped the wet curls from his forehead. "I have a question," he said, frowning seriously.

Lily sobered. "A question?" She slipped sideways, clutching James for support, looking nervous. It was as though all the air had been sucked out of her, and, for a second, she held her breath.

"I expected more, Mr Potter," said Professor McGonagall, as the first years sent Professor Flitwick sliding past her down the corridor, and the moment popped like a soap bubble.

James sighed quietly, let go of Lily, and ran one hand through his thick hair. "We thought the corridors were looking a little dusty, Professor," he shrugged, as he turned his back on Lily. Neither James nor Lily mentioned his question again.

The bubbles continued to spread all over the school that afternoon. Though they caused plenty of disruption, the upshot of it all was simply that James and Lily had to spend the evening clearing up their mess. Apart from that, the Marauders went unscathed, and the school wasn't expecting another prank for a while.

James and Lily were heroes that night in the common room. The rest of the Marauders had to fight their way through the excited crowd to find a place to discuss their next plan.