The sky outside was getting darker, and the Common Room was growing steadily quieter. Flames crackled in the grate, but there was a chill creeping in anyway. Sirius Black rubbed his hands, wincing from what the Animagus form of himself - a black dog, which did help Remus out - had done to help James woo Lily Evans, the girl he loved. Why had he agreed to pretend that he was a stray, lost and in need? It had been disastrous. Lily had realised James was behind it all and, while being careful not to slap or hex James, she had thoroughly scared him off by threatening him within an inch of his life. James' shoulders had slumped and he had looked disheartened. Sirius sat beside James now, trying to keep him from hexing himself.

"Prongs, look. Trying to be a flirt with a hot-head like that will get you in a ton of trouble. Try, er, someone less... feisty next time," he said, giving James a pat.

Glaring, eyes dangerously flashing, James yelled, "Try someone else?!"

"Erm... never mind," Sirius muttered, glancing around and checking that no one had seen the outburst from James.

James sighed and slumped into the armchair he was sitting in.

"There is no way I'm giving up on her. Just... she won't... ugh!"

"Very literate, Prongs." Sirius grinned, visibly taking pleasure from James' current predicament.

"Shut up, you. I don't need that right now. Next time, Remus's furry little problem is what I'll be sticking to." Sirius grinned teasingly. At that moment, Peter walked in to witness Sirius licking his scratches with his tongue.

"Am I interrupting something, Padfoot?" Peter said, tilting his head to the right, sniggering. Sirius stared perplexedly back at Peter, wondering what exactly was so amusing. Peter smirked and looked at James.

James just shrugged, not exactly caring. He was busy thinking of new ways to convince Lily to go out with him. Maybe if he... "Sirius? What are you going to do about - " James began.

"Don't talk about Lily," Sirius growled. Completely fed up with talk of Lily, Sirius was ready to hex somebody.

"But this is important, Padfoot! How are we going - "

"We? You're on your own, Prongs." Sirius was seething at James. He couldn't take it anymore; he stood up and stalked upstairs to the dormitories, where he slammed the door.

Remus looked up grumpily from his textbook and snapped, "You guys need to learn that girls don't like complete psycho stalkers! They like sweet, caring guys, ones who can listen, like me."

Sirius arched an eyebrow at his roommate.

"Really? And how many women have you happened to have chased?" Remus scowled and chucked his textbook, it hit Peter's bed, harmlessly.

"Nice aim, Moony old pal. What are you doing upstairs? Reading?" Sirius pretended to be confused.

"I happen to be very concerned about my education."

Sirius scoffed. Peter stalked in nursing a sore arm and glaring at Sirius. "Why did you leave me with that maniac? He's absolutely ignoring the fact that I support him totally. Unlike you guys."

"I somewhat support him. He's just overly obsessed with Evans," Sirius grumbled.

"He just needs to remember that there are other things to focus on besides girls," Remus said.

Sirius scoffed. "Are you kidding? There's ABSOLUTELY nothing more important than girls!"

Just then a large, white stag entered the dormitory.

"Hullo, Prongs," Peter said. Prongs just stared at Sirius incredulously. There was an awkward silence. Remus cleared his throat trying to speak over everyone, but it was a useless attempt. Quickly giving up on trying to correct things that were meant to settle down in peace, an idea occurred to him.

"Oi, Sirius, Peter, come here," Remus said, standing up. He left the Common Room with the pair, giving them occasional glances. When they reached a deserted corridor they quickly huddled together.

"Guys, we need to keep James from going crazy. He's just going to need a shove in the right direction."

"The Flying Cow?"

"The Flying Cow."

"Is that safe?" Peter's eyes were wide with anticipation. They had always wanted to use the Flying Cow but had never actually discussed it.

"Wormtail, my friend, do you think that I would use the Flying Cow without a proper idea of how safe or not safe it is?" Remus replied while swinging his arm around.

Remus scowled, "Well, anyway, we are doing that certain prank tomorrow."

"Really?" Sirius asked Remus. "And where does one find the exact spell to conjure the You-Know-What?"

"I already found the incantation in this book from the Restricted Section. It's Prodo Vaccam Volucer, but you won't like the wand motion. It's kind of... "

"What?" Peter said, eyes the size of doughnuts.

"Well, it's kinda... disgusting. You have to dance around naked."

A stunned silence followed this bit.

"Okay," Sirius said.

"I am NOT dancing naked!" Peter yelled, looking very uncomfortable.

"Fine, Sirius will have to cast the spell, but... Peter, you will be the one guarding the entrance to the Common Room. Do you think you could distract all the Gryffindors for some time?" Remus asked Peter, uncertain if he would be up to the task.

"As I am the designated heart-throb, how are we gonna worship me?" Sirius asked, bored.

"Worship you? Is that supposed to be funny? 'Cause it's not. We are on a mission. We've got to find a way to get James less depressed about Evans, and worshipping you is not the way to accomplish that."

"What sort of mission goes without worshipping the gang leader?"

"What sort of leader are you? All you do is flirt with anything with legs!" Remus snapped.

"Well... let's just get started planning, shall we?" said Sirius, clearly annoyed that Remus had to snap. Wishing to get back to the prank.

"So, Peter, would you like to do the distraction part?" Remus asked.

"Yes, if I'm allowed to," Peter replied. He was, for once, going to help out with the duller side of the mission. Just as the group was about to go out and return to the common room, Lily Evans came out of a classroom.

The three of them stopped in their tracks.

"Hey Remus, Black, Pettigrew. Hey, where's Potter?" Lily asked.

"Why do you care? Do you loooove him? Huh? Do ya? Huh, huh?" Sirius cocked an eyebrow.

"Shut up, Black!" Lily growled. "Now, where's Potter?"

"I'm right here," said a voice. Lily turned to face the speaking voice. She raised her head to meet the dark eyes of James Potter.

"Potter, I just wanted to tell you to... well, that I - you're late for... a meeting with McGonagall. She's getting pretty impatient, so I'd hurry to see her." Lily seemed to be looking everywhere but at James' eyes.

"Okay," James mumbled. He started off down the corridor towards McGonagall's office, followed by Lily and the other Marauders.

"Why are you following me?" James asked the Marauders pointedly. Sirius, Remus, and Peter shrugged.

"We stick by your side," Remus said, raising his eyes. Then looking at Lily he said, "Even when you're on the teacher's side."

"Am I ever going to get a moment of peace with you guys around?"

Sirius laughed. "Evans, who would want to deprive you of your peace?"

"The Marauders seem to like that," she muttered.

Sirius shook his head. "Like it? We don't like it, we love it!"

Sirius was hit by a textbook Lily Conjured.

"What is going on out there?" asked McGonagall.

The Marauders and Lily froze in their tracks.

"Well?"

"You wanted to see me, Professor?" James mumbled.

"What?" asked McGonagall sharply. "I never said that!"

The Marauders all looked at Lily.

"Er... sorry, Professor," Lily mumbled. "I guess I misunderstood you."

"I didn't even say anything at all," McGonagall seemed quite surprised at Lily. "We haven't spoken since... well quite a while, Lily."

By now, Lily had turned red. James stared at her with interest. Sirius, his lack of intelligence showing, just stared at Lily blankly.

"Shall I dare ask what is going on?" McGonagall asked.

"Nothing," Lily said unconvincingly.

"Would you like to go back to the Common Room with me?" McGonagall asked them.

"Sure. Okay, whatever," James replied, still staring at Lily. The six of them started along the corridor.

"Lily, what the hell was that?" Sirius asked his eyes questioning.

"Nothing, Black," Lily said, getting away from them. They arrived at the entrance to the Common Room and stepped inside. The Professor closed the door, leaving the Marauders and Lily alone. Lily's eyes seemed to burn with anger.

"You gits!" Lily screamed. "You made the biggest mistake ever! I was just about to ask James out and..." she gasped as she realised what she had said. James's mouth was open so wide he resembled a fish out of water.

"Alright, alright! I was... going to ask- ask James if... he wanted to... that maybe we could go out and..." she mumbled. She looked up eagerly, to see James' reaction.

He looked quite dazed and looked like he could not take it all. The waited with hesitant breath.

"Lily, can... we talk er... Now?" James beckoned Lily to the corner of the Common Room. "Lily are you on... I dunno... are you on drugs?"

Lily sighed. "Look James, I always liked you... honestly I just denied my true feelings."

"So, you do like me! I knew it!" James yelled.

"Yes, James, I do," Lily sighed. "And you obviously like me. So that's well, good, I guess." Lily said.

"OI! EVERYONE! LILY ASKED OUT JAMES!" Sirius shouted to the entire Common Room.

"BLACK!" Lily shouted. "YOU IDIOT!"

"Yeah mate! Shut up!" James exclaimed, slightly embarrassed at Sirius's declaration to the
Gryffindors of Lily's sudden interest to James.

"What?" asked Sirius turning to James and Lily.

"Sirius," James began to say, "You can't leave us alone, can you?" he said exasperatedly.

"Come on, Sirius, let's leave the lovely couple alone," Peter snickered.

"Yeah, Sirius, let's go," Remus said, and Peter and Sirius followed him out of the Common Room.

"What did I do to deserve that kind of... of... Bloody Hell!"James exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Er... Nothing..." James said, trying to change the subject. "So, how 'bout we... uhh... will you go - WHOA!" He couldn't believe it.

"What's going on?" came from behind.

McGonagall, dressed in a nightgown asked.

"What is going on in here?" She could not have been any louder. Her hair was wild and eyes flashing.

"I... can't believe this... Why in the world is there a Flying Cow flying right there in the middle... What in... BLACK?!" shouted a shocked McGonagall.

"Bloody Hell!! What is going on?" Lily was completely unnerved at the cow zooming around the Common Room being painted fluorescent lime Green by House-Elves. "Why are there House-Elves flying around the Common Room?"

James looked around the Common Room, his eyes falling on Sirius peeking out from behind a large armchair, laughing uncontrollably.

"Sirius, what the hell did you do?"

"I was only having some fun!" Sirius said innocently.

"You call this sort of activity fun, Black?" Professor McGonagall asked. "I'm very disappointed with you. 15 points from Gryffindor for your despicable behaviour!" she said furiously at the 3 of the Marauders.

Sirius just shrugged and shook his head. The other two boys were still standing there, mouths wide open. The Flying Cow zoomed overhead, and suddenly hit McGonagall in the stomach, knocking her backwards. When it hit her, clothing began to change into a short, red, rubber dress.

She gasped. "BLACK! LUPIN! PETTIGREW!"

The Marauders looked at one another and started bursting out laughing.

"Padfoot!" James said clearly through the laughing.

"What?" asked Sirius innocently. Suddenly the Cow began to fade.

"Oh, God," Lily said. "Oh, God."

"No!" Sirius shouted jumping out from his 'shield' and started to perform the spell again. He jumped and jiggled, completely naked except for the socks covering up his hairy ankles. Dancing very enthusiastically around, he started singing in a loud voice, a song called Mamma Mia from the musical ABBA. It was horrible.

"Mamma Mia, Here I go..."

"Oh Merlin." Remus covered his eyes, James covered his eyes as well.

"BLACK, SHUT UP!" roared Lily. Sirius looked down, noticing his nakedness for the first time. Shrieking loudly, Sirius dived behind the armchair again.

"Why did Padfoot's clothes disappear?" James asked.

"I might have Charmed them off," replied Lily deviously.

"What?" James and the other Marauders gasped.

"To bring your feeble prank back to life," she said simply. "I overheard you talking about using the Flying Cow, and I decided to help since you were going to let the prank fail miserably. And you call yourselves smart!" Lily smiled smugly.

"Hey! I'm smart." Remus pretended to be insulted.

"Whatever you say..." Lily feigned her sarcasm.

"So you were behind in Transfiguration the first year because...?"

"Not the point, Sirius ," snapped Lily, red creeping up her cheeks.

"She called me stupid, too!" James whined. "ME! STUPID! AS IF!"

"Well... you kinda are... not that smart," Remus said, sniggering slightly.

"Not you too!" James replied, his anger quickly mounting.

"Whoa mate, Moony was just kidding!" Sirius was starting to get a little apprehensive at James, who was advancing on Remus. Lily decided to leave the Marauders to their... er... conversation and headed for the girls dormitory for some peace, but James quickly turned back, as if sensing she was leaving.

"Lily, wait!" he said, trying to climb the girls' staircase only to fall down the slide and hurt his neck. Lily lost control and started to fall, too. At the bottom of the slide, James was laying on his back, groaning with pain, when Lily crashed straight into him and landed on his very comfortable self.

Instead of getting up, yelling, or turning red, Lily smiled and turned to James. "Well, good night," she said as she leaned in towards James. Lily kissed James on the lips.

After she got up, the entire Common Room started to clap. A few wolf-whistles and clapping surrounded the couple, who were immersed in each other's eyes.

"So, umm, Lily? Do you wanna patrol the corridors?" James asked shyly.

"Sure. Maybe we'll even visit the broom closets," Lily replied with a wink. James couldn't believe his ears.

"Okay, Lily," he replied, looking like he just won the lottery.

Together they walked through the speechless Gryffindors in the Common Room, and leaped through the Portrait Hole and into the hallway, hand in hand.

A/N: That's all... FOR NOW!
Until next time, we kindly remind you to Save teh Bunnies!