Avoiding The Marauders

The Plan

I let out a slow breath and blinked my eyes, wondering if it could be true. Could this possibly have actually happened? Rubbing my eyes and pushing my tangled hair out of my face, I let my lips break into a small smile that grew as I looked around.

It was over.

It was finally over!

After a whole seven years of cramming spells, dates and facts into my head, I had done it! No more essays, no more studying and no more exams! We were finally free!

I slipped out of bed, pushing my books all onto the floor and then staring down at them in slight wonder. These books that I had lived out of for the past months were now pointless to me.

I could burn them.

The idea of burning books made me feel a bit queasy, so instead I decided to settle with just shoving them under my bed and pretending that I had burned them. Metaphorically.

I glanced around the room for my robe and found it hanging off the side of my trunk. After yanking it on, I looked at myself in the mirror, taking the image in.

Black robes, scarlet and gold, school skirt and my shiny Head Girl badge. I would never have to wear this again after today. After today, I would no longer be a student at Hogwarts School For Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was going to have to venture out into the real world, and the thought both terrified and excited me at the same time.

Hitting the stairs at a bit of a run, I headed to the Common Room. People sat all around the place and I don't think that I've ever seen it so packed. As it was the last day, we had no lessons. They gave us the time to pack and, for us last years, to say our goodbyes.

By the fireplace that was always my favourite, as it always smelt of burnt candy, sat James, Peter, Sirius, Remus and Mel. To my great shock and clearly the others, who were watching them in a mixture of amusement, disgust and horror, Mel was tucked under Sirius's arm and they watched each other in a romantic ugh kind of way.

"Lily!" Yelled Remus, sounding more than a little relieved when the caught sight of me. "You're awake. We were starting to wonder if you'd died of purpose loss or something up there."

I laughed and flopped into a the space James made for me, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. "You can't get rid off me that easily." I glanced at James and whispered, "What's up with them?"

James shrugged and slipped his arm behind my back. "Who knows," he said. "As long as I don't get the details, I'll be fine." He looked over at Sirius, who met his eyes and gave him a wink, before returning his attention back to my best friend.

Remus sighed. "Only they would finally get together on the last day of school," once he said it, we all blinked and stared at each other.

James lay his head back in his chair. "Merlin," he breathed. "We actually have to do things with our lives now."

We all nodded silently.

Remus shook his head a bit. "So, what do you wanna do today?"

Sirius pulled away from Mel and smirked, "Oh, I'm sure I can think of something."

***

I was kneeling down with my wand held firmly in my hand wondering if even Merlin knew how I had allowed myself to be stationed here in the first place.

I was perched in the vertical wooden beams that supported the staff room, looking down at the unsuspecting professors below me. They seemed to be discussing the end of year exams, but I couldn't really hear them from this height, which was lucky really because it means that they also couldn't hear me.

We had waited for lunch, so that we knew the chances of teachers being in the room were low and eventually they had all clear led put to get food. Then it had been a scramble to get onto the beam quickly before they all piled back in.

I looked to the door and saw it open as Professor McGonagall entered with Professor Dumbledore, she seemed to be frowning. However, that's the facial expression that she normally pulls, so who knows if she's upset?

"Oh, they will be back, I expect," she was saying, her nose wrinkling in annoyance. "Back to wreck havoc whenever they can."

Dumbledore chuckled and headed over to the little kitchen in the corner of the room and pulling out what looked to be a large bag of sweets. He smiled as he popped one into his mouth. "If I am not mistaken, Minerva," he said, "I would guess that you are sad about their leaving." He cocked a white eyebrow to the side with a small amused smile on their face.

The other teachers around the room seemed to be in their own conversations, not paying  attention to one another.

McGonagall frowned even more. "I most certainly will not," she almost snapped, but Dumbledore just chuckled.

That's when I heard it. The loud popping noise that came from just outside the door. The teachers jumped up onto their feet and rushed to the door, following the cackle of Peeves out of the room.

The cupboard door flew open and Sirius stuck his head out, peering around. Once he saw that the coast was clear he pulled Mel out with him, they were both giggling and I cringed, hoping I never found out what happened in that cupboard.

James jumped down from a pillar near me, landing on his feet like an athlete. My descent, however, was not as easy. I hit the ground with a thump and wobbled, knocking a candle over with me.

With a curse I put the flames out before they could spread. James chuckled, "You could have let me help you down."

I frowned. "I did it fine myself, thank you very much." It could have gone a lot worse, I thought.

Sirius was pulling Peter out from a small cupboard under the sink. He blinked a few times, looking a lot like a rat and scratched his head.

"They were talking about us," Sirius said, with a satisfied smirk on his face. "I knew McGonagall had a thing for me, I just didn't think she shared it around. What would my dear old mother say?"

I rolled my eyes nervously and almost physically jumped when Remus opened the staff room door and nodded when he saw us and no one else. "They should be occupied for fifteen minutes at minimum."

I shuffled on my feet. "We should hurry up."

James grabbed a paper bag out of his pocket, the words Zonko's written on the side, and pulled out a few pots of powder. "Okay," he said, handing one to each of us. "Everyone put a small amount of this in every food or drink around that you can find," he sprinkled some into a cup of coffee, "and don't put too much in." He said this staring at Sirius.

Sirius did a mock salute. "Yes, Potter, sir!"

For the next few minutes we searched for anything edible and added the white powder to it in small sprinkles then stirring or covering it with something else to keep it hidden. It reminded me off salt. Or dandruff, but that's totally not a good thought to have with it in my hand.

"Guys," Remus's voice came from the other side off the room. "Look what I found."

We all walked over to where he was and I let out a chuckled when I saw what was stashed in the corner off the room. "Firewhiskey," I said.

Sirius picked up a bottle and looked at it closely. "Bet this is Slughorn's," he said. "Always seemed like the type to me. Only an alcoholic can be that happy all the time."

James uncapped his bottle. "Make sure to put some in each bottle," he said. "Add a bit more, let's find out who's it is."

Five minutes later we all stood around the room admiring our work.

"Oh," Mel said, putting her bottle in her robe pocket. "This is gonna be good."

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