Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Mischief and Friendship

Author's Note: Read [bracketed] text as struck through!

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The castle seems suspiciously normal the next morning. I did not stay up to see when (if) the Marauders came back last night. I was very determined to keep myself as separated from their mischief as possible and not give Professor McGonagall any excuse to doubt me more than she already does.

But on our way down to breakfast it's immediately apparent what they'd gotten up to the night before. At first I think my eyes are playing tricks on me when I start down the stairs, but no, one of the steps is indeed missing. I skip it, but Marlene, not paying attention, sinks her leg deep into the gap.

"Where the bloody hell did the stairs go?" she grumps as Alice and I yank her out.

"Who can really say?" James says. He and the other three boys have caught up to us and they all leap over the Vanished stair without missing a beat. He winks at me as they pass, and Peter snickers. "Total mystery..."

"Oh no," Alice says, staring after their retreating backs. She looks at me. "It's going to be a morning, isn't it?"

I shrug but can't help a tiny apologetic smile.

"Brilliant," Marlene says, grinning and apparently already over her mishap. "I can't wait to see what breakfast is like."

As she predicts, the stair isn't the only oddity of the morning. All over the castle, floor tiles and stones in the walls randomly wink in and out of existence. Or maybe not so random; the disappearances have a bit of a comedic timing. A Ravenclaw trips over the entryway as the tile under him vanishes, and Sirius Black himself just manages to catch himself when the section of bench he'd been about to sit on disappears clean away. The rest of the Marauders roar with laughter. I keep my head down and focus on eating my eggs without a knowing smile. I am innocent, I remind myself. Nothing to do with this.

During Potions, Professor Slughhorn waves his wand to put the day's instructions on the blackboard. No one is surprised that instead of filling with text, it vanishes. Well, no one except Professor Slughorn, who stutters to a halt mid-lecture, staring at the empty space his board had been the moment before.

Severus looks at me in exasperation as, one table over, James fights to keep a straight face, stifling his laugh behind his hand.

"I know nothing about this," I defend myself automatically. Severus raises his eyebrows.

"Fine," I say. "I know like... the bare minimum about this."

"Potter and his friends?" he mutters.

"Potter and his friends," I confirm, and he frowns deeper.

At the front of the classroom, Slughorn waddles over to where his board was, apologizing for his apparent mistake and waving his wand experimentally to get the blackboard to rematerialize. It takes a few tries but finally it's back and filled with Slughorn's instructions, looking like it never left.

I catch James's eye as Slughorn carries on with the lesson, only the tiniest bit flustered, and shake my head at him. But I must not manage to school my expression into a stern enough one, because one side of his mouth pulls up in a smug grin.

Not everyone's so amused, though. Severus sits in disgruntled silence as Slughorn wraps up his lecture, but I'm far more concerned by the looks Rosier and Mulciber send my way. I think about how they were out in the corridors last night during my detention and shiver, wondering what might have happened if James and the rest of them hadn't been there, too.