A Clever Plot Gone Wrong

Chapter 1

It was Christmas time, castle and grounds deeply covered in snow, the lake frozen, and everybody instinctively lowered their voices, talking in whispers –everybody exept James Potter and Sirius Black, who were having a furious snowball-fight and making one hell of noise: shouting, whooping, yelling, cursing and laughing. Remus Lupin, who knew better than to get himself into that, was leaning against a tree and watching the commotion from a save distance. He shook his head at the behaviour of his friends, smiling nonetheless. They were such childs, those two!

Suddenly, Remus' amused smile grew into a expectant grin, as he saw yet another figure crossing the grounds at speed, heading in their direction. There was no mistaking the newcomers identity: Slim frame, flaming red hair, blazing emerald eyes …

"POTTER!" Add 'impressive volume' to the list, and whom do you get? Yep: Lily Evans.

As Remus had predicted (well, no great achievement there, anybody could have), James spun around instantly and, dropping his snow-ball, his hand flew to his hair. "Yes, my Lily-flower?" he answered, faking sweet innocence.

Of course, that was a mistake. Not because he had used Lily's pet-name (which she happened to hate), for he was used to her death glare by now and left completely unperturbed, but because he'd let his guard down, which is never a good thing when dealing with a Black. And this particular Black sized his opportunity without a second's hesitation: His snowball hit James squarely in the back of the head and, catching him by surprise, send him head first into the snow. A second snowball, thrown only a moment later, was aimed at Lily. Remus had barely time to think that Sirius really shouldn't have – but Lily had her wand out in an instant. She whipped it, the snowball reversed direction, gathered speed, multiplied on the way, and fore mentioned Black, yelping in shock, was hit into the chest by about a dozen snowballs and, by the sheer force of impact, thrown flat on his back.

Remus had to hold on to the tree to remain standing, he was howling with laughter – as was James, who fell back to the ground, unable to get up. Even Lily couldn't suppress a satisfied smile at the sight of Sirius Black struggling to get himself into a sitting position. He had a slightly dazed expression on his face, was rubbing his chest were the snowballs had hit him, but he grinned broadly and his eyes sparkled: "Wow, Evans!" he said, obviously impressed.

"Didn't know you had it in you … Show me that spell, will you?"

Lily's smile was gone at once. "No, I certainly won't, Black!" she snapped. "You're unbearable already, and you would only use it on Sev- on innocent poeple!" she corrected herself, blushing angrily.

"On Snivellus?" Sirius' smile became evil. "That's an idea … thanks, Evans. Now, what was the spell again?" Lily turned away from him. "O come on! Even you must have realized by now that he's nothing more than a git!"

"I think he's got a point there." James murmured, half to himself.

"And why should I give a damn on that you think, Potter?"

James was taken aback. He hadn't expected such a sharp reply – they were mostly getting along well these days: Lily only yelled at him one or twice a day and he would refrain from asking her out more than four or five times … and sometimes their fights were almost playful, as if … "You all right?" he asked concerned. "Why are you in such a bad mood?"

The angry fire in Lily's eyes ceased a little and a subtle change in her expression seemed to indicate the possibility of her actually considering to answer instead of yelling at him (what would have been nice, for a change), when Sirius interjected: "PMS, obviously."

There was a flash of light an a deafening bang, and next second Lily was hoisted in the air by an ankle, her wand falling to the ground an her robes hanging down over her upper body, revealing – nothing more than a pair of pink trousers, thank god. Wait a second – Lily? Everything had happened so fast that Remus needed a second to catch on: It seemed that Lily had shot a spell an Sirius, who had managed to block it (Remus couldn't help to admire the swiftness of his friend's wandwork, for he himself had barely seen a thing). The spell had rebounded from his shield-charm, it had hit Lily – and the effect was to be seen.

"Never thought I'd see you use this spell!" Sirius voiced the thoughts of every Marauder. "Full of surprises today, you are!"

"Let me down, you bastard!" shrieked Lily. "Let me down NOW!"

"Language, Evans", Sirius retorted lazily, "or I might just decide to leave you dangling there for some time. It would increase the blood supply of your brain, you know, and maybe …" But James new better than to go there. "Let her down, Padfoot", he ordered wearily. "Relax, Lily, I'm gonna catch you!"

"I – don't – WANT – you – to – catch – me!" she screamed at the top of her voice, sounding quite deranged. "I – don't – WANT –"

Crash! In her fury and frustration Lily had started to wriggle and kick out, unable to see anything because of her robes, and James, who had approached her to be in position when Sirius would remove the spell, hadn't got out of the way quick enough … Now he was on the ground once again, clenching his nose and cursing violently through the freely flowing blood. And while Sirius rushed to his aid, it was up to Remus to release Lily. She almost landed on top of James, but, without another word or even so much as a glance in his direction, got up and stormed away, up to the castle. All three boys looked after her, then at each other, and it was James who spoke this time: "What the hell is gone into her today?"