Little Red |Sirius Black|

Oh Merlin- Lily

Lily Evans had always prided herself on her principles. Never had she misused any advantage she had ever been given in life, never had she ever wanted to.

When she had received her prefect badge in the mail along with her letter, Lily could never have imagined ever misusing the privilege....and yet here she was, in front of the Marauders' dorm room.

She had been standing in front of the closed door for almost five minutes now, but somehow couldn't summon the courage to go in.

"Come on Lil, you can do this!" she said under her breath, trying to give herself a pep talk. "Your friends are relying on you. Use some of that Gryffindor courage!" She drew a deep breath and raised her hand to knock on the door- and promptly fled.

"Nope, nope, nope." she muttered as she raced down the stairs as quietly as she could. Her parents had not raised her to be exploitative. They would just have to find another way to bust the Marauders.

Lily found the girls exactly the way she had left them- pretending to look occupied as they waited for her in the common room. Alice and Dorcas were playing a game of wizard chess, and Arianna was seated by the window, her head hidden behind a book. The girl reads far too much, Lily thought shaking her head as she made her way to Dorcas and Alice.

"I can't do it." Lily whispered as she reached them, careful not to be overheard by everyone else in the common room. "Arianna." she whispered from across the room, feeling half a fool as she tried to call her friend. "Arianna!" The girl didn't so much as move.

"Oh, for the love of.." Dorcas muttered as she picked up a Knight from the chess board and chucked it in Arianna's direction. The knight squealed in terror as it was launched into the air, and hit Arianna's book with a loud thud.

Lily had to hide her smirk as she watched her friend jump at the sudden impact, and mutter a few curse words as she picked up the squirming chess piece and made her way towards them. "What the hell?" Arianna hissed as she reached them.

"You weren't listening." Dorcas said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Lily, what are you doing here by yourself? Shouldn't you have brought the Marauders down with you?" Arianna asked her, after pointedly glaring at Dorcas.

"She says she doesn't want to do it." Alice explained.

"What do you mean you don't want to do it? Lily, what you're doing is pretty essential to the plan!" Arianna whispered lowly.

"I know how to handle this." Dorcas said to Arianna, getting up from her armchair. She took Lily by the shoulder. "Lil, try to remember all the times the Marauders have messed with you and Severus, all the times you've wanted to teach them a lesson, but you couldn't. Think about when the Marauders spit Mandrake leaves in Severus' potion last year!"

Lily's eyes narrowed as the memory came back to her. How could she have forgotten that? James and Sirius had somehow managed to spit mandrake leaves into Sev's cauldron when he was away, causing the cauldron to explode. Sev had lost five points for Slytherin that day. The older Slytherins had not been pleased, and Severus had sported a bruise on his cheek for a week. When Lily had tried to tell Professor Slughorn what had really happened, he had dismissed her for lack of proof, and the Marauders had gotten away yet again.

"Why did the Marauders have mandrake leaves in their mouths? They're not exactly very chewy." she vaguely heard Arianna ask, though by now Lily was too busy recalling all the times the Marauders had gone unpunished, her mind going through the memories like images on a film reel.

"We've long since stopped asking ourselves why the Marauders do the things that they do. Lily where are you going?" Alice asked when she noticed that Lily had turned around.