The Years We Were Alive: Year 2

Shoes

September 4, 1972

Breakfast on the first day of school was satisfying. Lizzie found that most food was good compared to Will's cooking. She would never tell him so, but he was an awful cook. That summer was one time in her life where she was very happy to cook, rather than doing it to make sure she and J didn't starve.

"We need to do that stupid marble prank this year. It was pitiful, last year, honestly," Sirius shook his head, "Can't believe the best prank we did was the candles,"

"We have to figure out how to make sure nobody gets hurt," Remus reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius waved him off.

"Really," Remus glared at him.

"Of course," Sirius smirked, "we'll turn the floor to a mattress or something, James will be able to do it, the transfiguration wiz,"

"I'll figure it out," James shrugged while shoving hash browns onto a fork.

"It'll be just out of a movie," Lizzie shook her head, "I saw a movie this summe- "

"Or! We could do another levitating spell, let them slip and then never come down,"

"Oooo,"

Talk of pranks did not cease that day, or night, or even week. They were talking about pranks even on Peter's birthday. Sitting by the lake they were throwing around ideas. Lizzie was getting better at coming up with ideas. Though, she had checked out plenty of books from the library so she could do better in her studies. She was not going to fail any more exams; she was sure of it.

"Happy Birthday," Lizzie had looked up from her book to pass over an envelope to Peter. He opened it to see a drawing of him and his friends. He was front and center and everyone was pointing at him, making him the center of attention. He never got to be, and Lizzie knew that he suffered in the background, but was too shy to do anything about it.

"Thank you, Liz," he blushed when he saw the drawing. It was on parchment with a pencil, and she made it so that the picture moved like the others. She had learned that most of the time, wizards used a developing technique to make photographs move, so she tried over the summer to not use magic. It just soaked the parchment though; she couldn't figure out the trick. If there was one.

"You're welcome," she smiled at him.

"You outta live a little, put down the book," Sirius pulled the book from Lizzie's hands and closed it. She looked up glaring at him.

"Yeah, and fail another exam? No chance," she grabbed the book again.

***

"Oi, my shoes don't fit anymore!" James complained.

"Maybe you just need a bigger pair, we are growing boys after all," Remus said dramatically. He winked at Lizzie. She was behind it. She was showing them that she wasn't terrible at pranks.

She enchanted his left shoe to always fit too small. Not small enough that his foot couldn't get in, but it would be uncomfortable. Then, the right shoes were enchanted to be ever so slightly too big. Enough that it was noticeable.

"No, it's so weird," he pulled the shoes off of his feet to look at the size marking on the inside of the tongue, "they should fit,"

"Hmm," Lizzie had her nose in a book again. She hated the material. It was dry and she had a hard time wrapping her head around it, but she could relax once she knew she was caught up with the rest of the year, "try a spell to fix it," she suggested. She saw Remus smirk in the corner of her eye. He had helped her a bit with the spell.