The Black List

This is another FanFiction from the German "Harrypotter-Xperts" site which I would like to bring to you because I think it is too good to be kept to the German speaking world alone. Heidi, the author of this great story, gave me permission to translate it and I would like to thank her very much for this honour. You can access all of her stories here: http://www.harrypotter-xperts.de/fanfiction?author=11876&sid=5d0031c3f1d085d2ba5972cc0f5c3fef

Disclaimer: All characters you recognise belong to Mrs. Rowling who created the wonderful Harry Potter universe, giving us room for our imagination.

A/N: Many thanks to my beta, coley21, who always has a hard job correcting all my false punctuation!

2. The Black List

Lily spent the last week of the summer holidays at her friend Jackie's house. In this magical household, all things were magic – even the mirror Lily used early in the morning.

She was a bit grumpy as the night had not been better than the previous ones. As the only change, she did not contemplate the Marauders in general any more – only one, certain, black haired guy with hazel eyes crept into her mind and kept her from sleeping.

Lily gazed into the mirror, which immediately berated her in a shrill voice, "Wherever your thoughts are, girl, a spot of make-up would do you much good." She moaned irritably and padded back into her friend's room on bare feet.

Jackie was still in bed, her gaze locked on the ceiling, a smile on her face.

Lily rolled her eyes and waved her hand in front of Jackie's face. "Earth to Jackie!" she laughed.

Jackie rolled over and moaned, "Hey, I was having a wonderful daydream."

Lily snorted. "Oh yes, and I even know about whom. Black Beauty, right?"

"Stop calling him that," Jackie grumbled, looking a little sad.

Lily sighed and sat on Jackie's bed. She looked into her best friend's face and asked cautiously, "That bad?"

Jacky gave a painful sigh. "Even worse. I start panicking at the thought that I'll meet him again tomorrow."

Lily shook her head. "I don't understand you, Jackie. You've always been the tough one. Why does it have to be Mr. oh-look-how-handsome-I-am Black Beauty? This guy is going to break your heart for sure. You'll be yet another name on a very long list. Do you understand me?"

Lily pitied her friend. Jackie was in love for the first time, and of all people, it had to be a boy who was known as Mr. Heartbreaker Number One.

"Yes, I know," Jackie growled. She closed her eyes and started philosophising, "What would be so bad about being one among many others? At least once in a lifetime I want to be able to say I have kissed Sirius Black."

Lily snorted derisively. "One thing's for sure, Jackie, with Black, there won't be just a kiss. This guy wants to do more than just hold your hand."

Jackie gave her friend an indignant gaze until she saw a smile dart over Lily's face, who said conspiratorially, "You won't get very far unless you use a completely different approach than those pining geese that keep whining at his feet all the time."

Jackie raised an eyebrow and asked suspiciously, "You mean I ought to give him the cold shoulder until he is at my feet?"

Lily nodded with a grin. "That's it. You'll have to be a challenge for him and keep him on tenterhooks."

Jackie sighed. "I don't know if I can manage that. He's just so sweet."

Lily lifted her arms in a theatrical gesture and exclaimed, "Merlin help me, my friend has fallen in love with Black Beauty and is about to lose her mind!"

Jackie pressed her hand on Lily's mouth and hissed, "Shut it, Lily, or I will tell all and sundry that you are dreaming about James."

Lily snorted. "I don't dream about James, and I will frighten the life out of him this year. He will be relieved when he can leave the castle at the end of the school year."

Jackie shook her head and grabbed some parchment and quill, saying, "Okay, fire away – do you have any ideas for pranks we could play this year? I will make a neat list, and we will be able to tick off the things we have accomplished."

Lily's face lightened up and she said, "Well, first there's the pink underpants. Of course, we will have to hex their trousers so everyone can see the nice colour."

Jackie protested, "That goes too far, Lily. That's below the belt, literally."

Lily shrugged coolly. "They exposed Snape's underpants, didn't they?"

Jackie intervened, "That was a completely different thing, Lily."

Lily dismissed her and pointed to the parchment. "Write what I tell you."

With a pained sigh, Jackie started scribbling:

• Exploding trunks (dungbombs)

• Lacy bedcovers (light pink)

• New hairstyle

• Flood of letters (owls)

• Girls' attack (love potions)

• Pink underpants

• Hex brooms

• Make homework invisible

• Several small things: make bag strap rip, set Peeves on them, water bombs, hex quills, tie shoelaces...

Lily rattled all of these things off so quickly that Jackie could not keep up with her and exclaimed, "Stop, that's enough! If you come up with more, we will have to stay at Hogwarts for five more years to work through all of it."

Lily sighed. "I hope that my Head Girl duties will leave me enough time for all the nice things we intend to do besides school."

Lily's voice sounded a little anguished, but Jackie said with a grin, "Plus, you have to reserve some time for the Head Boy. You are going to cooperate very closely, you know." She ended with a devilish grin that was supposed to coax Lily out of her shell, but Lily waved her aside and snorted. "James Potter will not have time to stalk me because he will certainly be trying to find out who is pulling all those pranks on him."

However, Jackie kept smiling smugly. She knew that Lily would admit her feelings for James Potter some day. Those feelings that Lily probably knew about deep down inside and were the certain cause of her idea to conduct a campaign against the Marauders. Jackie could not wait to see what their last year at Hogwarts would bring. She was curious whether James Potter's prediction that Lily would finally give in to him would come true.

---

Meanwhile, at the Potters' house...

"Hey Prongs, have you seen my cloaks somewhere?" Sirius exclaimed hysterically while crossing a large, sun-bathed room. He whipped his black, shoulder-length hair out of his face with an irritated gesture and gazed at his friend, who was lying on the bed and staring into space.

"Check the pile over there," James growled and pointed to a huge heap of clothes in the middle of the room.

Sirius almost pounced on it, but then he stopped in mid-stride and said in a calm, almost fatherly tone, "Oh, Prongs, we will go back to Hogwarts tomorrow and you will see your little red-haired witch then. You will even move into the Head Boy and Girl quarters with her."

James breathed out noisily and sat up. He sat on the edge of his bed, his shoulders were slumped and his raven hair stood out at odd angles. He looked quite temerarious, but his eyes lacked the usual gleam. "Pad, I don't know whether I did the right thing, writing her that letter. Evans will consider me a narcissistic fool more than ever now. I mean, I told her that we would be together by the end of the school year! She said she hates me!" His voice sounded desperate, and he fell down on the bed with a huge sigh.

Sirius sat next to his best friend and murmured, "Hey, that doesn't sound like you at all! Just leave her alone for a while and consider her a friend, or a fellow Head, in your case. Evans is a girl you won't win with your charms alone. Give her the cold shoulder. She will come to you all by herself..."

"But she hates me," James interrupted, desperate.

Sirius snorted, "Listen to me, Prongs, if somebody waylaid me in front of the bathroom, spouting on at me like you did, I would probably lose it just the same."

"Thank you, Padfoot, thank you very much for your words of encouragement," James answered sarcastically.

Sirius waved him aside and said dryly, "It didn't come out of my own head, you know. That's how Moony explained Evans' outburst to me." Sirius looked at his best friend, who was now lying in bed with his eyes shut.

James had been after Evans for two years already, although he never wasted an opportunity. Since James' latest snubbing, Sirius knew that his friend was dead serious this time. He had never seen James hurt like that. James had withdrawn into his shell for days, not participated in any pranks, and hardly talked to anybody. Only during Quidditch training would he be different. He would set the shots, and the team would follow.

Sirius said, "You have a lot on your plate this year, Prongs. What with Quidditch, schoolwork, Head Boy duties and pranks to play. Many things to reconcile... I guess the Head Boy duties will do you in – I've heard that there's quite a lot of things involved."

James growled, "I did not fight for the job, you know. To be honest, I don't really like the idea of sharing these quarters with Evans."

Sirius laughed, "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you are scared silly about being alone with her."

James sighed. "You could express it like that, yeah."

---

On the next morning, there was a nervous hustle and bustle on Platform 9 ^3/4. The impressive red engine of the Hogwarts Express filled the air with clouds of steam. As James would ride in the Head Boy and Girl's compartment this year, Sirius had quickly occupied the one next to it so they could be together anyway. Sirius and James were standing on the platform, looking for Remus and Peter.

Lily and Jackie pushed their luggage trolleys along the platform through the groups of people. Lily saw Black Beauty and Potter from a distance; they were standing next to one of the carriages, casually leaning their shoulders on it and observing the other students. Jackie stopped suddenly and stammered, "Erm, Lily... I will get on the train here and sit with Alice."

Lily followed Jackie's gaze and rolled her eyes. "Get a grip on yourself, Jackie. Black Beauty is standing at least three carriages away and you already start panicking."

But Jackie hoisted her trunk into the train with a bright red face and left Lily standing on the platform. Lily took a deep breath and made a beeline for Sirius and James. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius pushing James with an elbow while he nodded in her direction.

Lily stood in front of them, wiped her hair aside like she always did when she was nervous, and gave them both a cool smile. Sirius looked at her coolly, but James asked with a gallant smile, "May I help you with your luggage, Lily?"

Lily swallowed hard. When had Potter turned into a polite young man? She stared at him for a moment, which must have been a little too long, because Sirius started smiling knowingly. Then she said, "I think I'll manage, James." She took care to draw his name out mockingly.

James shrugged. "Your loss," he said and turned away.

Sirius did not fail to notice the disappointment in his friend's voice.

Lily, on the other hand, pushed her trolley right next to them, heaved her heavy Hogwarts trunk off it and let it fall onto James' foot with a loud thud. "Oops," she said with an innocent expression.

James had closed his eyes in pain, but Sirius saw the devilish glare in Lily's eyes. Without further ado, Sirius took Lily's trunk and hoisted it into the carriage. "To prevent further damage," he said with a grin.

With a small simile, Lily whispered to him, "Thanks, Black."

Sirius gave her a piercing look. When he saw that she seemed to be serious, he said, "My pleasure, Miss Evans. Although James would have been glad to help you just as much."

She could not help but notice the mischievous glint in his eyes. James snorted disdainfully and gave his friend that certain "we'll discuss this later" glare.

In the meantime, Lily dragged her trunk into the Head Boy/Girl compartment, left it in the middle of the corridor and slumped into one of the seats.

The platform emptied gradually, and after a while, the train started moving with a little jolt. Lily sighed and looked out of the window. She would have loved to spend her last trip to Hogwarts with her friends instead of working through Head Girl duties with Potter. With another sigh, she grabbed a file that was lying on one of the seats and opened it. She was just skimming through the directions when James entered the compartment and immediately stumbled across Lily's trunk, falling to her feet spread-eagled.

The colour of his face resembled Lily's hair very much at that moment. Lily turned away discreetly and pressed her lips together hard while James struggled to his feet with a groan. He cursed silently while he heaved Lily's and his own trunk into the luggage compartment. Then he slumped into a seat across from Lily and snarled, "Okay, Evans, tell me about our duties."

Lily did not hear the wavering undertone in his voice. She handed him the file without a single word. James snatched it from her hands irritably, and their fingers touched for one very short moment. Lily quickly tore her hand away and stared out of the window. James was more than astonished about this reaction and could not help but smile while he gazed at the instructions. As was his custom, he treaded his fingers through his tousled black hair, completely lost in thought.

Lily observed him from the corner of an eye. She usually did not like this macho gesture at all, but today she did not find it macho at all, which worried her a little. She closed her eyes to ban this absurd thought from her mind.

James cleared his throat and said with a grin, "Hey, Evans, no sleeping! We have to go to the Prefects' compartment first." He had a hard time, speaking to her in that manner, but he did not want to reveal too much of his inner turmoil. He feared that she would humble and hurt him again and preferred to hide behind his harsh words.

Lily hissed, "I was not sleeping, Potter. There's no need for us both to visit the Prefects. I'll go and tell them what to do while you do the passwords." She pointed to a list on which they were supposed to set the passwords for the houses.

To James, this sounded more like an order than a request, and he snorted. "Why don't you set the passwords while I care about the Prefects?"

Lily planted herself in front of him, placed her hands on her hips and looked down on him. James swallowed hard. His eyes were level with her chest now, which she realised at once.

Her eyes became slits, and she scolded, "When you are through staring at my breasts, you'd better care about the passwords! As far as I know you, you'd never come back from your meeting with the Prefects but disappear in your crazy friends' compartment and leave me alone with all this stuff."

She shut the compartment door with a bang and James covered his face in his hands. He had failed miserably in the first half an hour already, and he hoped that he could at least convince Lily of his hidden qualities through his handling of the Head Boy duties.

Lily, on the other hand, stood in the corridor with an angry red face. She breathed heavily and ranted, "He is such an arrogant, egocentric, macho prat! I guess it's time for my first prank, Mr. Cool Potter."

Instructing the Prefects did not take too long, and soon, Lily was on her way looking for Jackie. She found her rather quickly in a compartment with other Gryffindor seventh-year girls, quickly said hello and pulled her friend out into the corridor. There, she hissed, "We will start our mission 'exploding trunks' now."

Jackie looked around in a panic and whispered, "How do you plan to get the dungbombs into the trunks?"

Lily grinned. "Let me take care of that. All you have to do is cause a little mayhem in the train, and I will prepare those freaks' trunks. Potter's cronies are in the compartment next to ours – what a coincidence!"

Jackie stepped from one leg to the other and giggled, "Oh, I am looking forward to seeing their faces. But be careful, Lily. They must not catch you."

Lily gave her a dismissive gesture and got back to the Head Girl/Boy compartment. She took a deep breath and opened the door with a sugary sweet smile, but it was empty. "Potter," she hissed angrily, and her gaze locked on the parchment with the passwords. He had set the passwords for all houses, the Prefects' bathroom and the Head Boy's rooms and left only the password for her rooms open. She looked at the list and curiously searched for the password to his rooms. With a grin, she saw that his password was 'Snitch'. He had been more original with all the others; only his own password reflected his love for Quidditch once more.

Lily quickly opened the lid of her trunk and grabbed a small black bag. She opened the door and looked to both sides of the corridor, but there was nobody. Then she hastily closed the door and the curtains before she took a golf ball sized, red sphere out. Then she opened James' trunk with a wink of her wand and threw the ball inside. After another hex that would make the ball explode upon the next opening of the trunk, she closed it again. As James already wore his school uniform, he would probably open it in his room in the evening.

Lily opened the curtains again and waited for Jackie's sign. She did not have to wait long. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the corridor. There was a little smoke and all compartment doors were opened.

Lily opened her door just a little and heard James' voice from next door, "Come – I'm Head Boy and you'd better help me get rid of that mess." Then she heard Sirius' complaint, "Why don't you let Evans help?" But Lily saw that James had already grabbed his best friend by the arm and dragged him out of the compartment, followed by Remus and Peter.

This was her opportunity to slip into the next compartment and take care of the other Marauders' trunks. She started to feel guilty about Remus and left his trunk untouched, but Peter and Sirius would not escape.

Her adrenaline level soared and she felt extremely happy. After the deed was done, she slumped into a seat in the Head Boy/Girl compartment and closed her eyes with a sigh. She was looking forward to the look on the Marauders' faces, her first evening at Hogwarts, and the results of her first prank.