"Can you believe it? We're Seventh Years now! Last year of Hogwarts. It feels like yesterday we met on the Hogwarts express when we were eleven," Rita reminisced, smiling as she looked around the Great Hall.

   Three of the four girls were sitting at the Gryffindor table, one week into their last year, waiting for breakfast and recounting their adventures over the last six years.

"Pfft, we weren't as titchy as those first years, were we? Look at 'em, they're tiny!" Pitch laughed, sizing up one of the first years at the end of the table with her fingers. Artemis suddenly sat down between Pitch and one of the other Gryffindors, leaning in close and speaking softly so nobody but her three friends would overhear.

"It's done. All the food except for Gryffindor's table is affected. In five minutes, operation 'House Pride' will take effect," she grinned cheekily.

"That's what you named it? Really? So original, Arty," Lily sniggered, covering her mouth to hide her laughter.

"Oi, let me tell you something, you little-" Artemis began, standing up and pointing at Lily, but she was cut off abruptly by Pitch yanking her back down into her seat.

"Shut the hell up, Arty, and watch. The food has arrived," Pitch chuckled, her lips spread into a cheeky grin.

   The girls dished up some breakfast for themselves and started eating, watching the other House tables and teacher's table carefully.

   There was a sudden cry of shock from the other end of the Hall, and one of the Slytherin students stood up quickly. His skin seemed to mimick the Gryffindor House tie, having turned a vivid shade of maroon with golden stripes.

"What's happening to me?!" a Ravenclaw shouted, their skin slowly changing maroon and gold as well, and soon, everyone was being affected.

"-My skin!-"

"-It's happening to me too!-"

"-What's going on?-"

   Even the teachers looked like they were Gryffindor's number one fans. The only ones not affected were the students sitting at Gryffindor table, though they were all crying with laughter.

   Tears of mirth stained the faces of the four friends, and Lily took a quick photograph of the enraged students, hiding the camera when Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the Great Hall.

"SILENCE!" she roared, her voice slicing through the laughter like a knife. "Who is responsible for this... this atrocious act?"

   The stern professor was staring straight at Sirius Black and James Potter, expecting them to own up, but a look of confusion crossed her face when Artemis stood on her seat.

"It was me, Professor! Just ,eaving the mark of the Miscreants, that's all," she announced proudly, grinning at the furious students who'd been affected.

"Miss Wolfe, I-" Professor McGonagall began, but she trailed off when Rita stood on her seat as well.

"Me too, Professor McGonagall," she said softly, her voice just audible. McGonagall's eyebrows raised slightly and she looked at the blue-eyed girl.

"You too Miss Charmsbrooke? Well I-" she started, but again the stern witch was interrupted.

"Don't forget me! GRYFFINDOR FOREVER!" Pitch yelled, jumping up and throwing a fist in the air. The Gryffindor table erupted in cheers before being silenced again by McGonagall.

"While I appreciate the pride in your House, Miss Pitch, I must insist-" the witch spluttered, getting frustrated with the constant interruptions, but it wasn't over yet.

"I was a part of it too, Professor," Lily stated with an innocent smile. Down the table, James Potter's jaw dropped open at her statement, and he looked incredulously between McGonagall and Lily, disbelief plastered across his face.

   The same look was mirrored on Professor McGonagall's face at Lily's announcement, and she'd gone quite pale.

"Miss... Miss Evans? What on Earth... Merlin's beard I... what..." the stern witch stammered, quite lost for words. Professor Dumbledore took this as a cue to step in, the red and gold of his skin clashing horribly with his purple robes.

"Miss Wolfe, Miss Charmsbrooke, Miss Pitch, and Miss Evans," he spoke calmly, and the girls looked up at him.

"I admire your creativity and your blatant, unwavering support of your House, and for that I award you 10 points each to Gryffindor," the Headmaster smiled, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

  The Gryffindor table erupted in cheers, and loud protests sounded from the other tables. McGonagall gave Dumbledore a disbelieving look, though he simply smiled at her. Once the noise had died down, he spoke again.

"However... though your actions were brave and noble, you still broke Hogwarts rules and disrupted your peers. For this, 10 points will be deducted from Gryffindor, and you four will serve an evening's detention," he stated.

"10 points each?" Artemis enquired incredulously. "But we just got that!"

   Dumbledore gave her a knowing smile. "Not each, Miss Wolfe, 10 points in total. That still leaves you with 30 points," he said. The Headmaster then turned to the rest of the students.

"Those who have been affected by this colour change, please remain in your seats, and a teacher will be there to reverse the spell shortly. The rest of you are dismissed. Enjoy your day," he said, a cheerful tone to his voice, and the Gryffindors made their way to their tower.

   In the boys' dormitory that evening, a livid messy-haired boy in glasses named James Potter was pacing furiously along the maroon carpet, his friend attempting to calm him down.

"How come we didn't think of that?!" James exclaimed angrily, turning around and pacing back, before repeating the action.

"Mate, you're going to walk a trench into that carpet," his friend Sirius Black responded with a sigh.

   James had been ranting and raving about those girls playing that prank earlier, which Sirius had to admit, it was a pretty cool idea. What confused Sirius though was that Goody-Two-Shoes Evans, James' crush, had been apart of it.

"Lilyflower was part of it all too... she must've been the brains behind it... but still! We should have come up with that first!" James shouted, running his fingers through his unruly hair.

"Prongs, mate, calm down. We can do something better," Sirius said reassuringly, attempting to stop James from pacing.

   It didn't work.

"This... this means war. I declare a prank war in those insufferable girls... and Evans. Those... those troublemakers are going down," he said, still pacing as if his life depended on it. Sirius sighed, shaking his head slowly, before turning to their other friend.

"Moony, please talk some sense into Prongs, he won't stop pacing" he begged, appealing to the more reasonable one of the group. Remus Lupin looked up from the book that he was reading with a small groan. He could never read in peace around these two.

"James, you need to calm down. You will have an anxiety attack if you keep stressing and pacing like you are. Besides, you won't prank Lily, you care about her too much," he said, standing up and walking up to Sirius and James. Still the bespectacled boy paced.

"I can't take this anymore," Sirius groaned loudly, before turning into a great black dog and pouncing on the pacing Prongs.

"Padfoot, no! Get off of me," James grunted in annoyance, trying to push the dog -Sirius- off of him. Sirius changed back into a human and sat on James' chest, choking woth laughter. Even Remus cracked a smile.

"Aww, come on Jamie-bear, you know you like it," Sirius said cheekily, wiggling his eyebrows and kissing James on the forehead.

   He got punched for that. Hard.

"No, I don't like it, so get off me. Your dick is closer to my face than it should be, and it's weird. And do not call me Jamie-bear!" Prongs shouted, thrashing and trying to push Sirius away.

   Padfoot chuckled, jumping off of James' chest and running down into the common room.

"Come on, Jamie-bear, and Remmie-poo. Get Peter-pie and come down to dinner!" he yelled gleefully, before bolting out of the Gryffindor tower, closely followed by James, then Remus, and finally a porky kid by the name of Peter Pettigrew.

   Sirius raced to the Great Hall, being chased by his three angry best mates. Just another typical Marauders day.

   Lily, Pitch, Artemis and Rita were already seated in the Great Hall, chatting away like friends do.

   Pitch watched Black run in and sit down, laughing at his angry friends. She assumed he'd done something really bad, because even Pettigrew was fuming. She casually sauntered past, her mouth spreading into a mischievous grin.

"So, big boy Black. What have you finally done to piss off your mates?" she asked, plonking down next to Lupin. Before he could answer, Lily jumped in with a question. Directed at Pitch.

"So, why did you hex Patricia Peacehaven again?" she asked, sitting down next to Pettigrew and looking at Pitch with a stern look, not unlike Professor McGonagall. Pitch smirked, dishing herself a large plate of food and taking a bite from a chicken leg.

"Why not? Do I need a reason to hex her?" she chuckled, earning herself weird looks from Remus, Peter and James. She looked at all three of them and shrugged under their gazes.

"What's with the weird looks? Fatty Patty Peacehaven is an evil attention-seeking bitch!" Pitch exclaimed, a light blush dusting her pale cheeks. Remus just shook his head, the corners of his mouth lifting into the tiniest of smiles.

"We're looking at you weirdly because you reminded us a bit of Sirius," he explained, James and Peter nodding in agreement of his words. Pitch scowled down at her food, muttering so they could hear.

"I am nothing like that narcissistic, self-righteous, insensitive moron," she growled. Sirius dramatically placed his hand on his chest and feigned shock at her words.

"Hey, I am right here you know... no need to be so mean," he said, pretending to be hurt by her statement. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't hold back his mirth for long, and he burst out laughing soon after.

"God, you're going to have to try harder than that to insult me, sweetheart," he added after his laughter had died down, now replaced with a smirk. Pitch looked up and gave him a smirk of her own.

"If you understood any of the words I used, sweetheart, then you would be insulted. But what can I expect from you? You have the intelligence of a teaspoon," she retorted harshly, earning a loud chuckle from the three girls. Even James and Remus held back a snigger.

   Smiling victoriously when Sirius didn't respond, Pitch returned to her chicken leg, picking it up and tearing the meat off the bone with her teeth, before gnawing the bone in a dog-like manner. She ate through three plates piled with food like there was no tomorrow, and started dishing up a fourth plate that seemed to have even more food on it than the past three.

"Bloody hell! You even eat like Sirius!" James exclaimed with a loud laugh. Hearing his name, Sirius looked up from his fourth plate of food and glared at James, as did Pitch. They even locked eyes for a brief minute, but Pitch broke away and returned to her food with an angry scowl on her face.

   After polishing off three servings of key lime pie and vanilla ice - cream, Pitch stood up and brushed the crumbs from her robes.

"Well, I'm off to the Library," she announced, earning strange looks and gasps of shock from her friends.

"Pitch is going to the Library? Give her an Order of Merlin, First Class!" Artemis exclaimed teasingly, causing everyone to laugh. She winked at her dark - haired friend, who playfully rolled her eyes.

"Oh, haha, very funny guys. I'm just going to get some more Quidditch books," she explained with a small sigh, before walking away from the table. As she reached the giant doors, Pitch heard Lupin excuse himself.

"I'm pretty tired, guys. We have a big day tomorrow, and remember what's in about four days," he said, before heading out. He didn't head to the Gryffindor tower though, instead, he walked to the Library, where he found Pitch rummaging around the Quidditch section for books.

"Since when were you the book worm, huh?" he spoke, making her jump with fright. Quidditch books flew everywhere, and the Raven - haired girl swore violently.

"Merlin's beard, Lupin, clear your throat first next time. Jeez, someone should get you a bell or something," she grumbled, bending down and beginning to retrieve the books.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Here let me help. And please, call me Remus," he replied with a sheepish smile, helping her collect the fallen books. Pitch sighed, before giving Remus a grateful look.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry for yelling, I just got a fright I guess," she mumbled. It was strange, her usual confidence and attitude seemed to be gone.  She seemed upset about something.

"Hey... is everything okay? You seem a little... washed out," the sandy - haired male said as he put the books back on the shelf with a swift wave of his wand. Pitch sighed softly. She liked Remus, she actually considered him as a friend. He was definitely more tolerable than the other Marauders.

"It's just... family drama, that's all," she answered, avoiding answering the question properly. But Remus wasn't falling for it.

"Come on, talk to me," he pushed gently. "I want to help."

   Pitch groaned with mild annoyance, but she appreciated the push. She kinda needed the push to open up.

"You don't mind if I just rant, do you? I really have a lot on my mind. You don't have to listen, but I just need to vent and get it all off my shoulders," she asked. When Remus said he didn't mind, she took a deep breath before venting everything in her mind.

"Everyone here knows me as Pitch, but my full name is Gemini Ursa Pitch. My family is a long line of Slytherin pure-bloods who are against anything muggle-born and half breed. When I was Sorted into Gryffindor, I got a Howler from my mother, telling me I was a disgrace, a blood traitor, a stain on the Pitch name. My little sister, Natalia, mother's pride and joy, was Sorted into Slytherin, and every holiday they would taunt me and beat me. They gave me this," she paused, pulling her robes off and tugging her shirt aside slightly, revealing part of a big, ugly scar that actually covered her entire right shoulder and part of her shoulder blade.

"They burned me, with a cursed flame so it couldn't be healed," Pitch continued, putting her robes back on over her uniform. "They used to beat me with whips, and sometimes with thin chains, leaving long cuts that, if you look at the scars now, it looks like a beast clawed me. So when I couldn't take it anymore, I packed all of my things into my trunk and school bag, before running away. I went to live with Lily Evans. Despite her parents being muggles, they were very welcoming and treated me like their own daughter. That was last year."

   Remus' eyes were wide at the end of Pitch's rant. She seemed to have gone through a lot, though he had a feeling that what she had told him was only a small fraction of what she had been through.

"Well, you've definitely been through a lot, but the good thing is that you've pulled through in one piece, without breaking," he said, smiling reassuringly. "Don't forget, you have friends to help you through all of it."

"Thanks Remus, that means a lot," she replied with a slight grin, pulling Remus into a soft hug. The soft chime of a grandfather clock sounded in the distance, and Remus pulled away quickly.

"Merlin's beard I have to go! I told the others that I was going to bed!" he exclaimed. "I'll see you around Pitch."

"See ya, Remus. And.. thank you," she smiled gratefully.

   As he left, there was a small breeze, and Pitch glimpsed the tip of a white trainer. She sighed, her brows setting into a scowl. She could take a guess as to who it was.

"Potter, you can take off that stupid cloak, I know you're there."

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