"C'mon, Evans, tell me! How'd you do it?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty ple—"

"No."

"Pretty pretty please?"

"Well, since you said 'pretty' twice..."

"Really?"

"No!"

James huffed out a sigh and crossed his arms, glaring at the smirking redhead in front of him. It was quite a change to see James with the look of annoyance and Lily the one who was sporting a smirk, but their roles seemed to have reversed a lot ever since Lily's prank.

It had only been a day since then and James was rapidly becoming obsessed with how she had done it. After James had incessantly badgered her into admitting that the prank was her doing, she had yielded, admitting it had been her; but that had seemed pretty obvious from the beginning.

According to her, however, the only reason she had actually admitted to it was because it had been such a great prank that she didn't want others to take credit for it. Though Alice and Marlene had helped, it had been Lily who had worked out every detail.

Lily Evans, the clever, sweet, sometimes goody-two-shoes Gryffindor prefect, had pulled a prank... and the thought only seemed to make James giddy with excitement. If anything, James's hopeless crush on Lily—which she had probably been hoping to shake off—had gotten ten times worse ever since he had discovered that she had pranking skills worthy of the Marauders.

He hadn't been too bothered by the prank itself, nor the fact that he had been covered in hair in all the wrong places. The main thing that bothered James was that he had no idea how Lily had done any of it.

James had taken the liberty of sitting in the seat across from Lily that either Alice or Marlene usually sat in, and for some reason Lily's friends were nowhere to be found that morning. Sirius, Remus, Peter and I sat nearby at the Gryffindor table, watching the two eagerly, waiting to see who would crack.

"Either James is going to give up and stop demanding explanations from Lily... or he'll bother her until she hexes him," I said thoughtfully.

I exchanged knowing glances with the three boys before we all said at once, "Second one."

"There is a third option, though," said Sirius, wiggling his eyebrows. "The third option happens to end with them snogging."

I gave him an exasperated look. "Sure, Sirius," I said facetiously. "That definitely sounds like Lily, especially since she hates him. Gosh, how thick are you?"

"I am not thick!" he yelped. "I am highly intelligent and I'm just hopeful for my best mate! Look at them: it's completely plausible for us to find them in a broom cupboard later."

He gestured towards James and Lily, who didn't look at all like they were about to snog. I wondered for a moment how they would be as a couple, and I could almost see them together. The thought was a strange one. Maybe not for now, but perhaps someday...

"Well, all I've learned from this prank is that Sirius should never grow a beard," said Peter, shrugging.

"Hurtful!" Sirius replied, turning to him with a hand placed over his heart. "I don't know what you're talking about, I looked gorgeous as always."

"You looked positively horrid," Remus added, grimacing. "Although it really didn't help that you had hair growing from your eyelids."

Sirius's facial expression brightened suddenly and he snorted. "Ha! Pawsitively."

"Oh dear Lord," I said, ramming my forehead onto the table several times.

Sirius and Peter were the only ones laughing at Sirius's pun.

"Peter, stop laughing, you're encouraging Sirius and his awful puns," I groaned.

"Er... Bianca? Remus?" a soft voice spoke, causing the four of us to turn around, only to find Isla standing in front of us. She was holding two scrolls out; one to Remus and the other to me. "Professor Slugfern... Slugburn... Slug... Oh my gosh, I forgot his name! See? Like I said, I'm really bad with names!"

"You mean Slughorn," Sirius stated.

"Oh! Right. Yes, Professor Slughorn told me to deliver these to you two," she said, finally handing us the scrolls. "He didn't tell me what it was for... sorry. Hope you aren't in trouble or something."

Without even needing to unroll our scrolls, Remus and I exchanged a bemused glance, knowing exactly what it was for.

"What is it?" Peter asked.

"Hm... I dunno, Pete, what do you think it is?" said Remus, rolling his eyes.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking!" said Peter, propping his elbows upon the table in the Great Hall.

"Slug Club meeting, obviously," I said, groaning. "I don't even get why I'm in it. I'm not even that nice to Slughorn, but he's just riding on my coat tails in case I become successful... Ugh, I was hoping Slughorn had perhaps gone a bit senile and forgotten that he had a Slug Club in the first place."

"Wishful thinking," said Sirius, a smile tugging at his lips. "I feel bad for you two, truly."

I gasped as I got an idea. "I know what I'll do! I'll ask James to schedule a Quidditch practice that day," I said.

"What about me?" Remus said, offended. "I don't want to go, either. Are you really going to leave me all alone? What's my excuse?"

"Erm... I don't know, go get a detention or something. That shouldn't be too hard for you, Remus."

"Are you saying detention's better than going to a Slug Club meeting?" Remus asked.

"How would I know? I've never had detention! But it should be better than the meeting if you get it with the right teacher... I say try to get one with either Professor Flitwick or Professor Atkins. That can't be too bad, right?"

"What's a Slug Club?" Isla interjected curiously, scrunching her nose up in disgust.

"Nothing to do with real slugs, don't worry," said Sirius. "It's just a group of Professor Slughorn's favourite stuck-up, nerdy students."

"Well, I'll never be part of that," Isla scoffed. "Hey, by the way, I'm supposed to give a third one to a girl named Lily... Do you know who that is?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a third scroll.

"Lily Evans?" I asked, almost immediately realizing it was a stupid question. "Oh, wait, why am I even asking that? She's the only Lily in the Slug Club, of course it's her," I added, shaking my head. "That's her right there—the redhead who is arguing with James." I pointed her out to Isla before calling, "Lily!"

Lily whipped towards me abruptly, tearing herself away from her argument with James. "Yeah?" she asked.

"Slug Club," was all I said, holding up my scroll.

She nodded and took the scroll addressed to her from Isla, thanking the first-year girl politely.

"Just wondering... do you remember my name, kid?" Sirius asked Isla. "I know you said you're bad with names and all, but you have to remember it. How could you forget me?"

"Trust me, I'm surprised I remembered their names," Isla replied, pointing at me and then at Remus. "But I might remember it..." She scrunched her lips under her nose as though thinking extremely hard. "I remember it was something weird... Wasn't it, like, Curious or something?"

Remus, Peter and I burst out laughing.

"Huh... you weren't too far off," said Sirius. "My name is Sirius."

Isla shrugged, turning a little red. "Yeah, I knew it was one of those emotions."

"Well, technically," Sirius began, his voice automatically assuming his usual arrogant tone, "it's not that type of serious. It's S-I-R-I-U-S. See, I was named after the brightest star ever because, well, you can see why..." He gestured to himself.

"Bleh, Isla, you don't have to listen to him," I told her, rolling my eyes.

"Yes, let's veer the conversation away from how amazing you think you are, Sirius... You're putting her off," Remus said. He then turned to Isla. "Oh, Isla, by the way, how's Muriel doing?" he asked her quietly.

"She's a lot better now," Isla answered, smiling and nodding enthusiastically as though she was glad for the subject change. She looked down the table to see Muriel talking happily to some other first-years. Then she turned back to us, finally sliding into a seat near us. "She's really thankful to you guys and I think she's a little less scared of you all now! It's great! Anyway, Professor McGonagall talked to us and told us that they were going to punish those... those mean Slither-somethings or whatever they're called..."

"Slytherins," Peter corrected.

"Yeah, those things... I should really learn the house names by now... Anyway, Professor McGonagall told us that she gave them detention and she said that she's going to make sure what they did won't happen again. Sir Nicholas told me the same thing, actually, but in a much more threatening way." She smirked proudly.

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "I didn't know Nick was violent."

"You didn't think a man with a head that's half cut off was violent?" Sirius said to me incredulously. "Come on, he had to have been quite a violent man in his youth to have made someone that angry."

"I didn't think of that, I'm stupid. But still, he doesn't seem like that," I answered, frowning.

"Yeah, but Nick and I are best friends now," said Isla. "He's really cool. I told him about what happened with those older students and he got really angry. Watch this: hey! Nick! NICK! NICKY-NICKS!"

Sirius snorted and whispered to me, "Well I can't see him being happy with that nickname..."

Nearly Headless Nick, who had been floating around overhead near the ceiling of the Great Hall, addressing everyone, swooped down towards Isla upon hearing his name being called.

"Hello Isla, how are you today?" the ghost asked her politely, smiling.

"I'm good, how are you?" she responded.

"I'm fine, relatively the same every day, except for the fact that I have been refused from joining the Headless Hunt once again," he said, making a face.

"They still won't take you, huh?" Peter said.

"I don't get why," said Isla. "I mean, you are headless! Your head is cut off! And you're also much more intimidating than the other ghosts with no heads. They've got everything out in the open and it's obvious they're headless, whereas when people look at you they aren't expecting you to be able to take your head off. It's much more unexpected."

"Thank you!" said Nearly Headless Nick sincerely, not appearing the least bit bothered by Isla's bluntness as he had been a few weeks ago by Sirius's.

"How exactly do headless ghosts know where they're going?" Sirius pondered aloud, taking his chin. "Is there another way that they can see? Also, do their heads automatically appear with the ghosts of their bodies, or does that part of them not become—" He let out a yell when Remus nudged him in the side, telling him to shut up.

"Have those Slytherins given you and Muriel any more trouble?" Nick asked Isla, gazing over at the Slytherin table.

"No, and I don't think they will," said Isla honestly. "They can't give me trouble when so many people are going to attack them for it. Bianca, Remus, Sirius and... those two other boys have already helped me a lot, so I don't think they'll dare go against them. But if they do, Nick, tell them what you'll do to those Slytherins!"

"I may have to pay them a visit in their dormitories and creep into their nightmares," said Nearly Headless Nick, his head wobbling slightly to put emphasis on his threats.

"This took a dark turn," Sirius chortled.

Nick shot him a look before muttering, "Nip it, Long-Haired Surfer Delinquent. Being almost headless, I have an advantage when it comes to terrifying people... I've been told a few times that I can be even more terrifying than the Bloody Baron when angered... Though I was also going to trick Peeves into going after them one day, throwing books at them. It wouldn't be too difficult to trick Peeves into doing it; I've tricked him into doing many things before. Those boys being terrorized by that idiotic poltergeist—that's a sight worth seeing!"

"Aw! I wish I could hug you, but you're not solid," said Isla, opening her arms wide.

"You'd find it to be the most unpleasant feeling to walk through a ghost," he replied to her. Evidently getting slightly bored with the conversation, Nick said to us, "Good day to you all. I'm going to have a quick word with Muriel." He turned fully towards me, Remus, Peter and Sirius. "Poor girl," he added, shaking his head as he spoke out of the corner of his mouth, "the events of the other day are no way to start off your first year at Hogwarts."

"I'll come along," said Isla happily, jumping up from her seat. She skipped away alongside Nick, who glided towards where Muriel sat at the Gryffindor table.

"Nick's so nice," I observed.

"Looks like they've become best friends, Isla and Sir Nick," said Remus.

"I never thought I'd be fond of any first-years since I hate people, but I actually like Isla," I said. "That's a change for me since I hate everyone."

"But not us, right...?" Peter asked.

I hesitated, trying to keep the smile from sliding onto my face. "Well..."

"Oh no, you hate us... Now I know how you truly feel... I think I might cry," said Sirius, pretending to wipe away a tear.

"Come on, you know I sort of like you guys," I said pointedly, grinning. "You want to know how you can tell who my favourite people are?"

Sirius propped his chin up on his fist. "How?"

"Notice next time you see me talk to someone who isn't the four of you, Ainsley or Corey," I said to him. "With the people I like, I never run out of things to say; whereas with other people, I can have little conversations with them, but then there are only awkward silences left as we run out of things to talk about."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Does that happen a lot with Lily, Alice and Marlene?"

"Er... all the time. It's weird. But usually the only time I see them is when we're in our dormitory. So when I run out of things to say, I can just start reading or pretend I'm tired and go to sleep." I shrugged. "Hey, are James and Lily still arguing?"

"He's coming over here now... He looks disgruntled, I don't think that went too well for him," Remus told us.

"Hi Prongs!" said Peter, smiling up at him as he walked over to where we sat. "Don't you just look like a bundle of joy?"

James grunted and sat down next to Peter. "This is hopeless! No matter what I say, I simply can't get it out of her! I have absolutely no idea how she did it and that's making me embarrassed enough. Since when is there something about pranks that I don't know?" James groaned and plopped down in his usual seat.

"May I suggest something?" said Remus.

"What?" James snapped.

"Stop being conceited!"

James glared at him and I patted him sympathetically on the head, flattening his hair, which stuck out all over the place.

"Poor James..." I said, pouting and sympathizing with him. "That's who he is! He's just a conceited, arrogant, self-centred—"

"OK, OK, I get it!" James sighed. "Now get on with your speech, Bianca."

"That's who he is and he can't change, but he shouldn't have to change to get a girl to like him. She should like him for who he is, as the arrogant git he is. Right, James?"

"Even though you just insulted me multiple times in three sentences, I see what you're getting at," he said to me, shrugging my hand off of his head and ruffling his hair up once again. "But I still think that I'm too handsome for her not to fall madly in love with me."

"I swear, he just keeps proving my insults right," I said to myself out loud.

"Did you ask her out again?" Sirius asked James knowingly, leaning across the table.

"Yup."

"Did she say no?"

"Yup," he sighed dejectedly.

"Does that mean you'll finally stop asking her out?" Remus asked.

"Nope," he said, tangling his fingers in his hair. "I can tell my Lily-Flower will come around eventually... I, er—I don't think she's that angry anymore about everything—everything that happened last year with Snivellus and all. I like to think we've put that behind us."

"You actually reckon she let that go?" I asked disbelievingly.

He ignored me, staring off into the distance. "In the meantime, I need to find a way to sweep her off her feet."

The four of us were all doubtful, but James seemed determined to get Lily to like him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Remus said, grabbing a piece of toast and shoving it into James's mouth to shut him up.