The Years We Were Alive: Year 1

Stupid Stupid Stupid

April 21, 1972

"Wingardium Leviosa," all the marauders muttered at the same time in the Great Hall. A few of the floating candles started to stray from their position above the Slytherin table and made their way over the head of Severus Snape.

"How long do we have to hold this?" Peter asked shakily.

"Just long enough, you can do it, remember to feel as though you are holding them up with your own hands," Lizzie reminded. She was the least strained of the group. She had become the best in the class at charms, even above all the Ravenclaws.

The candles started to swirl around Snivellous, going faster and faster. Lizzie was guiding the group, and just using their magic as an extra boost.

"What in Merlin?" the boy looked around him as the candles started to get closer to him, spinning around him. He started to swat them away.

Lizzie started to snicker as she made different patterns in the air with the candles, she was being fueled by her hatred of Snivellous.

"Oh, look at him! He's going to try to leave the Great Hall!" Lizzie joked, "good thing the charm is stuck,"

She didn't know what she did, but she figured out that she could silently make things happen with her wand. She had been practicing making things stick to the boys. One day Sirius had a book following him around, and another Remus found himself with a bar of soap circling his head all day.

They had asked her how she did it, but she didn't really know what she did. She just, really really hoped that the spell would stick to them, and it did. Ollivander had given her a bit of parchment with information about her wand, and it told her that it was good at wordless magic, so that must have been what she was doing.

That was an empowering idea. She had thought that the only magic she could do were spells that already existed, but that taught her that she could use her wand and brain to make up new spells that other people couldn't re-create. None of the boys had wands that were well suited to silent magic. Maybe one day, she would figure out an incantation for those spells.

They all let their wands go, expelling the last bit of magic they could to make sure the candles stuck to Snape.

"Good work team!" Lizzie beamed at them, "it should stick to him for a while, at least how long that stupid bar of soap followed you around,"

"That was more than a day, Liz,"

"Perfect," she smirked.

"Those won't catch him on fire, will they?" Peter asked shyly.

"Shouldn't, those candles aren't actually fire, they just look like it,"

"Oh, alright,"

"I can't wait to see him in class later today," Lizzie sighed with a wide smile, "good prank marauders,"

For the rest of that day, Snape was followed by those pesky candles. He had tried to get them unstuck, and so had his friends. At one point in the day, Lizzie saw Lily Evans trying to get them to stop following him. She even tried to grab one of the candles with her hands, but it just slipped away. Just like Lizzie had hoped. They had to wait for her magic to fail. For once in her life, she felt powerful.

When the marauders walked into their potions class with the Slytherins they busted out laughing. It was uncontrollable. The sight of Snivellous trying his hardest to ignore the candles that continued to bump into him was hilarious. He looked so annoyed, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. They knew he had too much pride to go to a teacher to get help. Lizzie wasn't entirely sure that a teacher could do anything. She didn't know what counter jinx she would use as she didn't know what was making the candles stick to him.