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.
"We should do it tomorrow!" said Lily brightly.
"Are you feeling alright?" Sirius asked, staring at her dubiously.
Lily continued as though Sirius hadn't said anything. "After all, the whole point of this prank was to make them think that you wouldn't pull another one any time soon. Well, you can't much sooner than the next day."
"These things take time to plan, Lily," said Sirius with an air of importance.
"No, she's right," said James, "it has to be tomorrow night." That was the end of the discussion, and the friends began to deliberate what they could do.
"Let's bring a muggle into school," Marlene said in desperation forty-five minutes later. "You must know a few muggles, Lily, you could get us a muggle, couldn't you?"
Lily propped herself up on her elbows and drowsily blew the hair out of her face. "Mr McGregor?" she shrugged, "Or Tammy Tassel? She's a right-"
"I think we may be pushing the boundaries of the law with that one," Remus interjected.
"I feel like messing with the snakes," Sirius said moodily, prodding the newspaper in the dying fire.
"Me too," Lily agreed in spite of herself.
James smiled lopsidedly. "How about Cornish pixies in their common room?"
Lily frowned at him incredulously.
"I might know a guy," he said, scribbling a note on a piece of parchment and attaching it to the leg of Marlene's owl, who was perching outside the window.
"Hey, where are you sending Adelaide?" Marlene asked looking alarmed.
"Don't worry, she'll be back to deliver Witch Weekly in the morning," James smiled mischievously.
It was the following night. James had entered the hidden passage beneath the one-eyed witch statue fifty-five minutes ago, and the others were waiting anxiously by the stairs for him to return.
"He's back," said Sirius, shoving the map into his pocket.
"For goodness sake, Potter," said Lily, storming over to the statue with her arms folded, "how long does it take to pick up a few Cornish pixies!"
"Aberforth offered me a Hog's Head brew, I could hardly refuse," came James' voice from the passageway, but instead of his head, a cage of electric blue Cornish pixies appeared out of the statue, followed by another.
They were jabbering like small angry birds and rocketing wildly around the cage, rattling the bars, and pulling bizarre faces at Sirius and Marlene, who were holding the cages warily at arm's length.
"Immobulus," said Lily, pointing her wand through the bars. She shook a frozen pixie off the end of her wand and faced James, who had emerged out of the passage.
"Where are Remus and Peter?" he asked. He was flushed and his hazel eyes were brighter than usual, perhaps with the excitement of the prank, but it probably had more to do with the Hog's Head brew.
"Filch was in the dungeons. They went down to distract him," Lily replied, looking curiously at James. "Sirius," she said handing him the cloak, "maybe you and Mar should take the pixies. There are only two cages and it'll be less conspicuous. James and I will go back to the common room and meet you there."
Sirius nodded and headed in the direction of the dungeons with Marlene and the Cornish pixies. James didn't protest as Lily pulled him in the opposite direction.
On the ground floor, they rounded a corner, on the other side of which Dumbledore and McGonagall stood in quiet counsel. Lily spotted them before they had the opportunity to see her and doubled back, pulling James with her.
"Merlin, Evans!"
"Shhhhh!" Lily peered around the corner.
"What are you doing?" whispered James.
"I'm trying to hear what they're saying."
"Eavesdropping – classy."
"Shut up, Potter."
They moved a little closer to the corner. "The students are too young, Albus," McGonagall was saying. "They might not understand what it would mean."
"When the time comes, they'll want to join. They will want to fight. And I won't stop them," said Dumbledore.
"There are dangers involved of which even you have no idea yet, Albus-"
It seemed Dumbledore was about to respond when Filch came sprinting down the hall, his mop still in his hand and terror on his face.
Lily and James gasped and retreated further around the corner when Filch reached the professors. "Pixies," he wheezed, his pouchy cheeks trembling, "in the dungeons."
The click of McGonagall's heels could be heard, growing louder and louder. Lily peered around the corner to see the caretaker and the two professors heading quickly in their direction. She whipped back around the corner and steered James through a nearby door. It closed behind them with a click, throwing them into complete darkness. When the sound of McGonagall's shoes disappeared, Lily turned on the light. They were in a broom cupboard.
"This is a broom cupboard, Lily," said James in a low whisper. "This is the most cliché hiding place you could have chosen."
"I'm sorry I didn't take us to...the Bahamas of hiding places," said Lily sarcastically.
"This is the stupidest hiding place," James mumbled, suddenly realising that she was standing very close to him.
"They've done it then," whispered Lily.
"Seems so," said James. His mouth was dry. The toes of her shoes brushed the rubber tips of his trainers.
"What do you think they were talking about?"
"No idea," said James. He could not think. A tingling sensation was spreading throughout him, paralyzing his arms, legs, and brain.
She was even closer now. So close, he could have counted the freckles on her nose. James stared down at her lips, which were dangerously close to his own, and moving closer and closer. Lily wasn't conscious of closing her eyes, but suddenly she was feeling James, not seeing him. Her hands moved to his shoulders, his neck, his hair. His breath warmed her where it touched, and she wasn't sure if she actually felt the brush of his lips, or if it was just the anticipation...
"Stop," Lily gasped, stepping back with one hand on his chest. She opened her eyes. James took a step back too, looking like he'd had the wind knocked out of him, as he ran one hand though his hair.
"I'm sorry," Lily whispered, staring at the ground, "I don't-"
"It's fine," James said quickly, "I should probably go."
"Okay," Lily replied. Something about her voice sounded strangled.
"Night, Lily," said James rather hoarsely. Then he left.
When he returned to the common room, he found that the others had already gone to bed.
"What kept you?" Sirius asked, as James sank into the bed next to his.
James didn't answer. Half of him wanted to tell his best mate what had just happened, but the other half wanted to take this secret with him to the grave.
"What's up?" said Sirius, hoisting himself up on his elbow to get a clearer view of James.
James decided not to say anything. "Nothing," he smiled. "Congrats on the pixies."
On the other side of the tower, Lily had also decided to keep the incident to herself, and dropped miserably onto her bed without waking her friends. She stared at the patch of starry sky visible through the window next to Dorcas' bed. Maybe next time...if there was a next time.