Prank {Lily}
It wasn’t that Lily Evans didn’t like a bit of fun. Pranks and mischief could be lovely, if done in good humor and without too much ill intent. But the pranks that the ‘marauders’, as they so shamelessly called themselves, always got up to left a bitter taste in her mouth.
She worked very hard to justify her aversion. They were cruel to Snape, who was her friend, and often the butt of their jokes and pranks. However, he was cruel right back, and usually cruel first, so that justification never quite worked. They also had a tendency to target Slytherins as a whole, when it was only a few handfuls of them who ever really caused any trouble. Of course, with the war mounting, and slytherins generally being a house of purebloods, the tension and association was there, but the slytherins had to deal with the war just as much as everyone else.
In any case, not a single person who knew her would’ve been surprised at her adamance to stop whatever prank the four marauders were so clearly planning. The only thing that was a bit surprising, really, was James Potter’s willingness to share almost every detail of it.
Before this story continues, it is worth noting that Lily Evans was not always called Lily Evans. When she was younger, before she was comfortable with herself and able to explore and discover all possibilities, she was assigned the incorrect role of being a ‘male’. Because everyone has been made aware of that mistake, she will be addressed accurately and respectfully in this story, despite the fact that she used different pronouns and a different name when this story took place.
James Potter and his attraction to Lily Evans were never impacted by this. He cared about who she was as a person, nothing beyond that. His main concern that the last name ‘Evans’ would one day be changed to ‘Potter’. He was a bit more subtle about it before she transitioned, as it was the 70s, but he was still completely shameless in his constant flirting. Lily, of course, rebuffed every one of his advances, even for a while after transitioning.
As it was, the marauders had a plan. Lily was set to stop it.
“I know you lot are planning something awful to do to the slytherins again! Tell me what it is.”
Lily had not taken much tact in her approach. She could have gone about it more subtly, maybe wheedled the information out of them, but she was far too impatient for that. Especially with James, who no doubt would see right through that.
The four boys had been murmuring and laughing in the corner of the common room that they had claimed as their own. They all looked up at the sound of her voice. The conversation halted, but no one except James seemed at all bothered by the intrusion. James seemed the exact opposite of bothered, if anything. A cool smirk played at Sirius’ lips, and he addressed her first.
“You want in on the prank, Evans? Finally proving yourself as a real gryffindor?”
“Taking us up on our offer to let you be one of us?” James chimed in hopefully, his eyes never leaving her face and his voice a bit dreamy.
Peter snickered. “Hell, James, did someone slip you amortentia?”
“You’re drooling.” Remus added helpfully.
“Oh, shut it, all of you.” Lily interrupted before they could get caught up in themselves once again. “I don’t want to join your stupid bullying club. I want to know your plan so I can stop you, obviously, or at least warn everyone.”
She expected that to take some of the humor out of them, but no one seemed at all bothered. Sirius and Remus shared a look. Peter spoke up.
“Why would we tell you anything if you’re going to stop it? That’s a bit dumb.”
“Don’t call her dumb.” James snapped before Lily could respond, and Peter shrunk a bit, murmuring an apology.
“I’ll tell you about it if you go on a date with me.” James said hopefully.
“No.” Lily immediately turned to leave. She could just figure it out on her own, then, or with Snape. Maybe Mary and Marlene could help, they often had enough patience to deal with those four. She didn’t need them to tell her anything. She’d stop them on her own.
“Hey, Evans, wait!” James’ voice stopped her, and she turned back. He muttered something to the other boys. Sirius gave him an exasperated look, but then he said something else that made all three boys look eager. All of them except Potter ran off, saying goodbyes to Lily as they passed her on their way out of the common room.
“I’ll tell you our plan.” James said. Lily frowned.
“I don’t want to make some weird deal with you.”
“No deal. I’m just gonna tell you. Unless you don’t care anymore. Or you wanna join us.” His lips quirked in a grin.
Turning her nose up, Lily crossed her arms and sat down on the couch. “Fine. Tell me. But don’t be surprised when I stop you.”
James joined her on the couch, respectfully leaving space between them.
“Would suck if you stopped this prank, cause I think it’s a really good one.” His eyes gleamed with excitement as he spoke, and Lily resisted the urge to be drawn in and excited along with him.
When she didn’t say anything, he began explaining.
“So, right. See, the other day, well really a few weeks ago, Sirius was messing with his hair and kept complaining about it and trying out spells. Wanted to make it shinier, a bit longer, y’know how he is. But his arm’s gone a bit wrong, because of, um,” James hesitated, panic flashing over his face, “because of a quidditch accident.”
Lily wondered what had actually happened to Sirius’ arm, but decided it was best not to ask. She’d heard enough rumors about his family to have a good guess, and it made her sad to think about. She was pulled out of her thoughts when James continued.
“Anyways, his arm was wonky, so his casting was a bit off. His hair ended up bright pink. Obviously he panicked, and started spelling it like crazy. He only made it worse. It started changing all sorts of colors at once!” James eyes twinkled with humor, and he laughed a bit. Lily fought back a smile at the image that popped up in her head of Sirius Black with a rainbow on his head, panicking about his precious hair.
“So, anyways, Remus got him sorted with a bit of work, we all had a laugh, but then he also had an idea.” James glanced around to make sure no one was listening, and then leaned in a bit. Lily found herself leaning in as well.
“Remus and Peter worked a bit while Sirius washed his hair a dozen times to make sure it was fixed. They figured out how to replicate the spell. And then they got the colors to change- tested it a few times before we got it down. So, right at the start of dinner, we’re gonna spell all of the slytherins and make their hair red and gold!” James laughed, finally sitting back. “It’ll be brilliant, won’t it? All of them showing off gryffindor pride. And if they can’t figure out the counter, it can just be washed out. So no real harm. Just a bit of fun. Though, the washing bit may make things a bit difficult for your friend Snivellus. Doesn’t look like he ever washes his hair.”
Lily frowned, her mind working. The prank really was rather harmless. Still, she doubted she would have appreciated having her hair changed like that. She couldn’t find any real reason why the prank was so bad, or worth the effort, of stopping, so instead she said, “Don’t call Severus that.”
“You like the prank, don’t you?” James grinned at her, bouncing a bit with excitement. “You can, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone that miss goody-two-shoes Evans can laugh every once in a while.”
Lily bit down the smile that tried to rise, instead settling for a haughty look.
“It’s still quite rude.”
“They can get over it. So? Still going to try to stop us?”
Lily hesitated. It really wasn’t as bad as she had expected. “I’ll still try to warn them.”
She looked down at James as she stood, but his gaze went past her. Following his eyes, she looked at the clock on the wall.
“Too late.”
Right as he spoke, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all burst into the common room, laughing and panting.
“Bloody hell, James, you gotta come see this!” Sirius was laughing hardest.
Lily whipped around to face James, who joined their laughter. Noticing her expression, he gave her a sheepish grin.
“Sorry, Evans. Had to distract you in case you ruined things.”
Damn. They were far too clever for anyone’s good. She silently scolded herself for falling for it, and for getting too drawn into James’ storytelling to notice.
“You tosser.” She pushed her anger at herself outwards, but it did little to subdue the marauder’s joy.
“Come off it, Evans, just a bit of fun. You didn’t enjoy talking to Jameseypoo?” Sirius threw his arm around Lily’s shoulder, and she immediately shrugged it off.
“Sod off.”
“Language, Evans.” Remus was laughing at her far more openly, but he was the only one of them who could get away with it.
She offered a challenging smile, seeing the humor in everything despite her bitterness.
“You’re one to talk. You’ve said swears I’ve never even heard before meeting you.”
Remus blushed a bit as the attention was turned to him, but his grin was shameless.
“Come on,” Peter interrupted everyone, “James, Evans if you want, you gotta see before they all fix themselves!”
The four boys rushed back towards the door, but not before James paused and looked back at her.
“Coming, Evans?”
“It’s cruel and unusual punishment that you’re inflicting upon all those people, you know.”
He shrugged and carried on, leaving her alone in the common room. After a moment of hesitation, she chased after them.
“Wait up!”