It was a beautiful, sunny morning in May. The students chatted and ate, the teachers watched from the high table, and the owls fluttered around with messages and packages for their owners. All was normal. That is, all was normal until two of the infamous Gryffindor Marauders walked in.

Immediately heads started to turn, astonished laughter broke out, and more than one student choked on their breakfast. This was because one of the boys was dressed as a pink flamingo. A very realistic looking pink flamingo.

“I’m going to kill James for this!” Remus Lupin muttered under his breath to his companion.

“Never bet James Potter that he won’t be able to hijack a broomstick from the Slytherin Quidditch team, fly around the Great Hall, and throw water balloons at everyone while screaming madly. He will. He will also somehow manage to talk his way out of trouble, as he has every time he pulls off a prank. His only regret is that he can’t be here to see you today.” Sirius Black grinned. “Some annoying Head Boy and Girl meeting in Dumbledore’s office.”

“But why should I have to do something crazy too? He takes suggestions for Friday’s weekly prank every night in the common room and never takes revenge on any of those people.”

“Well, you did refuse to let him copy your Herbology paper last Wednesday, but it’s really Lily’s fault. She did give James the idea.”

“You’re right,” Remus fumed. “I’m going to kill Lily for this.”

“You can never tell with Lily,” continued Sirius. “Sometimes she just laughs things off; sometimes she glares at you; sometimes she takes revenge because she’s mad; sometimes she comes up with what would be the most embarrassing thing in the world to you, just because she can. She has a talent for it.”

By the time this speech was over, the youth and bird had reached the Gryffindor table and taken seats. Sirius immediately struck up the Gryffindors’ favorite topic: reliving their personal favorite of the weekly pranks. They had started the first Friday after the Easter holidays. It was James Potter’s way of sending out his last term at Hogwarts with style. Memories of the caretaker’s cat painted green, the Slytherins panicking as James transformed their goblets into rats, and fifty rabbits set loose in the Great Hall with James chasing them around on the groundskeeper’s huge potbelly pig soon filled the air, along with a lot of laughter.

Remus wasn’t listening. He was off in another world, planning his revenge on Lily Evans. If any of the other Gryffindors had been watching him, they would have known the exact moment when the brilliant idea struck him. His eyes lit up and his mouth stretched into an evil grin.

“Hey, Sirius!”

“What?” Sirius was obviously reluctant to come away from the crowded table where he had been entertaining a group of three very attractive Gryffindor girls with tales of his heroic bravery that summer holiday, where he had apparently battled a mountain troll singlehandedly.

“I’ve got the perfect plan of revenge for Lily!”

“Great, have fun with it.” Sirius tried to go back to the female trio.

“No, listen to me.” He began to relay his brilliant brainchild to Sirius in hushed whispers. The dark haired seventh-year sat back and looked at Remus.

“Hey, you never hold with any kind of pranks. You never helped me and James plan any of ours, and you would only participate when we forced you to. Now Lily embarrasses you once and you immediately come up with this brilliant prank! Where has this side of you been all these years?”

“She made me dress like a pink flamingo.” Remus said, as if this explained everything.

“Well, whatever makes you come up with brilliant idea like this, I want some of it. Now, let’s work out the details so we can put it into action as soon as possible.”

The duo put their heads together. If anyone had been standing behind them, they would have overheard things like: “Adrianne… ring…Three Broomsticks…Sleeping Draught…“

Finally the two separated, smiling knowingly at each other.
“All right, you talk to Adrianne about the plan after Charms,” instructed Remus. “I’ll get to work on our potion needs in class this afternoon. Professor Slughorn is letting us do whatever we want as long as it’s complex, so the Sleeping Draught should be acceptable.”

“Excellent. Adrianne’s a good sport who loves a good laugh, so I’m sure she’ll be game.” Sirius looked at Remus with marveling eyes. “Moony,” he said, “you should have gotten into the prank business with me and James years ago!”

Remus ignored him. “One other thing. Do we let Peter in on our brilliant ‘revenge on Lily’ plot?”

Sirius made a face. “Nah. Wormtail will give it away within two hours, probably sooner. Anyway, I’ll bet you a Galleon that he can’t figure it what’s going on once we get it started.”

“You’re on! If he hasn’t figured it out by the time that Lily does, I’ll pay up. What about James?”

“He can’t know either, at least not yet. He might think it’s a great idea, but it’s more likely that he’ll forcibly restrain us from ever pranking his beloved Lily.”

“That’s true,” Remus laughed, as he pulled out his pocket-watch. After glancing at it, he announced, ‘I have to go or I’ll be late for Arthimancy. I’ll report my progress to you at dinner tonight if you will too.”

He then stood up from the table. This was no easy feat, since his large pink wings kept getting in the way.

“Sure thing, mate. I’ll charm Adrianne into our plan so quick you’ll think she had been hit with the Imperious Curse. Oh, by the way, be sure to tell anyone you meet and everyone who asks that the costume came from an all-nighter of excellent magic by James Potter and Sirius Black, who can duplicate it if the price is right.” He grinned cheekily and waved. “Bye bye.”

Remus scowled.

Chapter Two: Preparations

Remus Lupin sighed as he stared in frustration at the open textbook in front of him. Although the brilliant idea he had come up with this morning had virtually erased all his embarrassment at being dressed as a giant pink flamingo, it still had its limitations. For one thing, the Sleeping Draught required very exact amounts of diced beetle wings. And every time he tried to measure the cursed things his huge wings got in the way. As much as he wanted to start on the difficult potion today, he had to accept that it was impossible dressed like this.

“All right class, you are dismissed until Monday, so enjoy your weekend,” Professor Slughorn’s booming voice announced.

Immediately the classroom was full of students grabbing up books, chairs being pushed back, and the general bustle of pupils exiting the last class on a Friday. Remus rushed for the classroom door, only to have his giant wings lodge in the door frame. But he after several tugs he finally managed to join the river of students flowing toward the Great Hall.

The mood was jubilant at the Gryffindor table full of Gryffindors making their plans for the coming weekend. Remus looked around for Sirius but couldn’t find him until his new partner in pranks called to him.

“Oy! Flamingo Man! Over here!” Sirius was sitting at the back end of the table with his arm around a pretty black haired girl wearing Ravenclaw robes.

“Hi, Remus.”

“Hello, Adrianne. I suppose that this means Sirius talked to you about our plan?”

Adrianne smiled. “Yes he did and I think it’s an excellent idea. It should be pretty easy for me to set up Lily, and you can take it from there.”

“Great! I need to finish the Sleeping Draught, which will probably take me another six days. How about you set it up for next Friday night?”

“No problem. Now I’d better be getting back to my own table. I’ll see you tonight Sirius.” She smiled at Sirius, then rose and turned toward the Ravenclaw table. Sirius watched her with admiration on his face.

“What a girl. Well, I told you it wouldn’t be a problem to get her on our side. How did your potion go?”

“Not all that well, to tell you the truth. This idiotic costume makes it impossible to get anything done.” Remus attempted to get a spoonful of soup to his mouth but finally gave it up.

“Brilliant, isn’t it? I do love being successful, and I’m sure my friends wouldn’t blame me for having that simple happiness.”

‘Ha ha. What are you doing with Adrianne tonight, planning more details of the prank?”

“Hardly. It seems that Adrianne is as attracted to me as I am to her. We’re going out tonight.”

“Well enjoy yourself. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go up to bed. I can’t do anything with this absurd flamingo suit on, and I can’t take it off till tomorrow, so I might as well get some sleep.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, mate.”

***********************************************************************************
The next morning couldn’t have come too soon for Remus. As soon as he awoke and perceived that the sun was up, he was up, out of his ridiculous costume and into his normal robes. He was halfway down the stairs to the Potions dungeon when he met James coming up.

“Moony! So sorry I missed the show yesterday, did it go well?”

“Of course, I was humiliated beyond my wildest dreams, you are an utter genius, and I will never forget that you aren’t afraid to do anything.” Remus shamelessly uttered anything he could think of that would satisfy James and let him get to his Sleeping Draught.

“Glad you enjoyed it. If only that stupid Head Boy meeting could have waited for one more day, then I could have enjoyed it myself.”

“Yeah, well, too bad. Anyway I’ve got to run, so I’ll see you later.” Remus tried to quickly exit the scene but James grabbed his arm.

“And what’s so urgent? I’ve never known you to leave your books and homework before nine thirty.”

“If you must know I’m going to meet a girl and I don’t want to be late.” Remus had never been a good liar and only hoped that James would accept the story and not look at his face.

“Oh ho! Who is it then?”

“You wouldn’t know her, she’s in Hufflepuff and she’s only a sixth year.” Remus desperately wrenched his arm away and dashed down the stairs. James watched in amusement.

“Strange chap, isn’t he?” Sirius had been at the top of the stairs long enough to watch Remus’s escape.

“You never know with the bookworms. Who would have ever thought that Remus would care about girls?”

“Oh, I’m sure that she is a fellow homework lover. That’s the only kind Moony would ever go for. And by the way, I apologize for not being there when you got back last night, but I had an appointment with a lady and a broom cupboard. How was the meeting?”

James grimaced at him. “How is any meeting?”

“I thought you would have loved it. After all, Evans was there, wasn’t she?” Sirius grinned at James.

“Oh shut up.”

At this moment Peter Pettigrew appeared out of the dormitory, his eyes full of sleep and his clothes tousled.

“I thought I heard your voice James!” Peter was obviously excited to have his hero back where he could follow him around like a little lost puppy.

“Yep, here I am. Listen, I’ve just got back from Quidditch practice so I’m starved. Let’s go grab some breakfast and then we have the whole day to do whatever we want.”

Sirius, James, and Peter started down the stairs, with Peter badgering James to tell him exactly what happened at the meeting yesterday.

“Well Wormtail, I would have told you last night but when I came in at the late hour of 8:00 you were already snoring like a baby.”

“I was tired. You shouldn’t be mean to me just because I don’t stay up till three in the morning like you,” Peter whined. “Tell me, James, tell me what happened.”

James rolled his eyes at Sirius over Peter’s head. Sirius grinned and then began skipping several stairs at a time since he obviously had no interest whatsoever in the contents of James’s meetings.

****************************************************************************
The dungeon was deserted when Remus arrived. He put his cauldron on the fire, found his place in the Advanced Potions textbook, gathered up the necessary ingredients, and started what was to be a three hour long session of potion brewing.

As he watched the potion start to bubble slowly, he couldn’t resist a little evil laughter.
“Soon, Lily Evans, you will not mock me and force me to wear ridiculous costumes. No, when I am done you will give Remus Lupin the respect that he deserves!”

The only thing missing from this mad scientist scene was thunder and lightening.

*************************************************************************************************
“Lily, I have a big favor to ask you,” Adrianne began, somewhat nervously. The two witches were sitting outside by the lake, lazily doing their homework.

“Let me guess, you want to look over my Transfiguration. I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be the smart ones.” Lily sounded bored.

“No…it’s not exactly help with homework I need. But if it was, there’s no one better to ask than the Head Girl. It’s just that I have this date for Friday night in Hogsmeade and I’d really feel a lot more comfortable if you came with a partner of your own.”

“And who am I supposed to go with?” Lily trailed her fingers through the water. “As you remind me every other day, I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Well the guy said that he had a friend who could take you out, so I think that everything would just be perfect if you’ll say yes.”

“Who is the guy, and who is his friend?”

“It’s a blind date. I’ve never actually formally met the guy. My friend who set it up has been our messenger, but he sounds really nice, so I’m sure his friend will be great.” Adrianne looked pleadingly at Lily, putting on her infamous puppy dog eyes.

The red haired witch heaved a great sigh. “I suppose so. But just this once, and I’ll never let you talk me into it again.”

“Yes!” Adrianne happily went back to her homework. “Don’t worry, you will love it. I’ll bet this date will be in your memory forever!”

***************************************************************************
Remus Lupin smiled evilly as he added the poured the last drops of the green potion into the bottle he was holding. After a week of laboring in the potions room as soon as the final class let out, he had finished the tricky Sleeping Draught. Not a moment too soon either. The date was set for tomorrow evening, and Remus and Sirius would need all the time left to get the other details set up. He hoped that Sirius had remembered what he was supposed to get done, because Remus wouldn’t have any spare time him.

Remus carefully tucked the dark green bottle under his robes and started out of the dungeon, anxious to get the precious liquid hidden before any harm could come to it. As he climbed the flights of stairs to his dormitory, he reviewed in his head what he would need to get done before tomorrow night. First, he would have to finish and mail his letter to The Three Broomsticks, then study the complicated enchantment that he would need to use tomorrow. And he still had to get his homework done.

He was relieved when he finally reached the seventh floor portrait hole and after giving the password, “unicorn tail,” was able to slip up to his dormitory and begin the rest of the preparations he would need to get done.

“Come on mate, when have I ever set you up with someone you haven’t liked?” Sirius looked offended. “It’s just one little date, and then it’s over. And I promise that I’ll never ask you to go on anything like this for the rest of the year.”

James sat up on his bed and looked over at Sirius. “Sirius, there’s only one girl in all of Hogwarts that I would be interested in going out with, and she thinks that I am a stuck up prat. So no, I am not interested on going on a blind date with you and your latest girlfriend. And for the record, you have never set me up with someone that I have liked.”

Sirius sighed. “This is going to sound harsh, but it’s the truth. Lily Evans is never going to come around. She is never going to realize that you are a basically nice guy. She is never going to fall in love with you. So why don’t you actually look around and notice that there are other girls in this school besides your favorite red headed witch? I think that a date would do you a world of good.”

James glared at Sirius. “Sirius, I love her. I can’t just give up on her.”

“Well, let’s look at it from a different angle. Maybe Lily will be in the Three Broomsticks too, and then she’ll become wildly jealous and fall in love with you. She just takes you for granted right now.”

“All right Padfoot,” James growled. “But if this goes wrong, or Lily gets the wrong idea from it, I’m going to hex you with the worse curse I can get Remus to teach me.”

Sirius grinned. “It’s a deal. But I can promise you that this is going to be the best date of your life.”

“If my memory serves me correctly, you’ve said that every time you’ve set me up on a date. And it’s never been the best date of my life. Have fun cooking up more diabolical schemes, I’ve got Quidditch practice.” James grabbed his broomstick from the wall next to his bed where it was propped up and left the dormitory. Sirius smirked.

‘Getting Adrianne to convince Lily to go on a date, check. Convincing Prongs to go on a date, check. Now all that I have to do is find a ring, and I know just the place to go.”
**************************************************************************

Zillah the house elf worked hard in the kitchens of Hogwarts all day, but his favorite time was at night. That was when he got to time with his collection of shiny things, which he collected in the course of three years at Hogwarts. He was a veritable mockingbird with an eye for anything that glinted in the sun. Not very many people knew about the collection. He kept it well hidden in a secret compartment behind a section of wall in the kitchen. But one boy had figured out his secret.

Zillah worked in the Gryffindor common room each night. He entered as he usually did, using floo powder to go through the fireplaces. He had barely stepped out of the fireplace when a voice called his name.

“Hey Zillah, how’s it going? I haven’t seen you for a while.” Sirius Black stuck his head over the top of the armchair where he had been waiting. “I have to talk to you.”

Zillah inwardly groaned. He had always liked the Black boy because he was constantly sneaking down to the kitchen and taking food back to his dormitory. He often told jokes to the house elves there and had made many friends. But Sirius had once discovered Zillah depositing items into his treasure trove, and though he had promised not to tell anyone, Zillah didn’t like the idea of anyone where his treasures were kept.

“Hello Master Black,” squeaked the house elf. “Is there something that I can be doing for you?”

“As a matter of fact there is. I need to borrow a ring for awhile, and one with a big diamond. Do you happen to have anything like that?”

Zillah nodded. “Yes I does. But I would not be wanting it to get lost, master Black. It is the bestest thing I have found.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. In fact, I have something to replace it for the time that I’ll need it, and I think that you’ll like it.” Sirius pulled a ruby necklace out from his robes with a flourish.

Zillah’s eyes widened. He had never seen anything so beautiful. The rubies gleamed in the firelight, twinkling like a million red stars. Without asking permission, he reached out and touched the necklace.

“You can have it if you’ll get me the ring.”

“Yes master Black. I will return shortly with the ring that you is wanting.” Zillah turned to the fire and returned to the kitchen.

Sirius set the necklace that he had stolen from his mother on the chair beside him and sat back with a satisfied smile. “Getting a ring, check.” He checked his pocket watch and was glad to see that it was now two o’clock on Friday morning. In seventeen hours, the first phase of their plan would be getting started. He couldn’t wait.

Chapter Three: The Date

Lily Evans stood impatiently outside the Great Hall waiting for Adrianne to appear. Knowing that it could be another ten minutes, as her Ravenclaw friends was infamous for taking an eternity to get ready, she decided to try and figure out who was going to be her date. It couldn’t be a Slytherin because Adrianne hated them. But it couldn’t be a Ravenclaw either, because they needed messengers, which wouldn’t be required if they were in the same house. Gryffindor was out too, because surely any Gryffindor guy could just ask Lily out himself and not deal with all the secrecy.

It had to be a Hufflepuff…but who did Lily actually know from Hufflepuff? There weren’t many people coming to mind. Amos Diggory, but he was sort of pompous and loved to brag. Lily gave up, criticizing herself for not giving more effort to meeting people from other houses.

“Lily! Over here!”

Lily looked up with a start to see her friend waving at her. Adrianne looked good wearing her blue robes with a silver necklace. Her hair was casual, but looked great. Lily stood up and walked over to the entrance.

“Wow. You look great.” Lily tried to smile.

“Thanks. You do too. Are you ready to go?” Adrianne was obviously much happier than Lily. “I just know you are going to love this, even though you don’t think so.”

“Let’s just get this over with, all right?” Lily started walking toward the doors, with Adrianne tagging along behind her.
***************************************************

James looked around The Three Broomsticks, nervously running his fingers through his hair.

“Sirius, are you sure this was a good idea? I mean, what if Lily hears that I’m going out with someone else?”

Sirius smiled broadly and leaned back in his chair.

“Look, mate, you’re not her boyfriend or something. You have absolutely no commitment to her. If she hears about this, more power to you. Now stop worrying about Lily and just relax and enjoy the evening.”

James sighed and tried to copy Sirius’ relaxed pose. It was going to be a long night.
********************************

The cloaked figure approached the bar of The Three Broomsticks and started discussing something in hushed tones with the lady behind it. She nodded after he showed her a piece of parchment and ushered him into the back rooms.

****************************************************************
“Well, there it is. The Three Broomsticks.”

Adrianne and Lily stood staring at the large sign in front. Lily’s voice took on a tour guide quality.

“Yes indeed. The Three Broomsticks. The Three Broomsticks is a wonderful place to get butterbeer. It is only allowed to those third years and older and many find that it is the most popular place in Hogsmeade on weekends. Except for perhaps Zonko’s Joke Shop, or-“

Adrianne playfully grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her toward the door.

“Thank you for the wonderful narration, but I think that I know where we are. Now let’s go meet our dates.”

“Oh boy. I can hardly contain my excitement.”
***********************************************************

A bell tinkled at the front of the shop. Sirius turned in his seat and grinned.

“James, my boy, our dates are here. Let’s get cracking!” He rose with a flourish and strode up to a pair of girls who were standing in the door and looking around the shop. As Sirius escorted them back to the table, James recognized one. And immediately stopped breathing.

“James, this is my date, Adrianne.” Sirius gestured to a black haired Ravenclaw, who smiled. He smoothly pulled out her chair for her and sat down next to her. “And I believe you know Miss Evans?” He smirked at James as Lily faced showed that she had just realized that she was going to have to sit next to him.

As the red haired witch gingerly sat as far on the edge of her chair as she possibly could without falling off, she was having trouble forming coherent thoughts. She was too busy being furious.

“I can’t believe that Adrianne would do this to me!!! I’ll bet that she knew all along. This is just another of her plots to get me a boyfriend. She hatched it all up with Sirius Black- who must love seeing me with Potter. Potter……this is probably the happiest moment of his life….stupid arrogant Quidditch playing jerk!”
************************************************************

James Potter was also having trouble thinking clearly.

“What is Lily doing here? Did she know that it was going to be me when she agreed to come? Does that mean that she likes me now? But she sure isn’t acting like she does….”

That was certainly true. Lily was doing an excellent job of ignoring him, sitting erectly on her chair while sending death glares to Adrianne, who was sitting across from her.

“What do I say to her? I can’t sound happy, or she’ll probably curse me! I can’t sound disappointed, because she might think I don’t want to go out with her! But I’ve got to say something!”

James blurted out the first thing that he thought of.

“So, Evans, how far do you think the Chudley Cannons will go this year?” James immediately knew that he had made a big mistake. Lily’s death glares had switched targets from Adrianne to him. Her mouth was working angrily, and James had the feeling that what she was about to say didn’t have anything to do with the Cannons.

“James Potter, you-“

Luckily for James, someone interrupted Lily before James could find out exactly what Lily thought he was.

“What can I get you?” The blonde waitress was obviously bored and had no interest whatsoever in finding out what she could get them.

“Let’s see, I think we’ll have four glasses of butterbeer,” said Sirius.

As the waitress went back for their drinks Sirius and Adrianne tried to make cheerful conversation while ignoring the death glares Lily was sending them. James wasn’t adding much to the conversation either after his first disastrous attempt, obviously afraid that it would just make Lily angrier, if that was even possible.

The red headed witch was obviously furious. Lily suddenly got to her feet and stormed off to the bathrooms. As soon as she was out of sight James turned to Sirius with happiness on his face.

“Sirius, I can’t believe it! Lily Evans is on a date with me! Me! But now she’ll think that I was in on this and I wasn’t! What if she gets even more determined not to go out with me now because she thinks I tricked her into going on this one?” James started to look nervous.

“Relax, Prongs. This is your dearest wish, isn’t it? So sit back and enjoy it!” Sirius counseled him.

The waitress returned with four glasses of butterbeer. She looked around the table to see who was sitting where, then carefully placed the first glass at Lily’s vacated seat. After that she quickly handed out the others and left the table.

Sirius smiled widely at the glass sitting in front of the empty chair. James noticed it and curiously asked, “What?”

“Oh, nothing,” Sirius grinned.

Lily soon returned from the bathroom to see the others sipping their butterbeers. She angrily sat down, ignoring all others at the table, and took a drink of her own. A few seconds passed, and then Lily slumped down at the table, completely out.

“What did you do to her, Sirius?” James frantically asked, trying to shake Lily awake.

Sirius ignored him. “Where are you, Moony? Come on, come on, this potion won’t last forever.” As if on cue a cloaked figure hurried toward them, taking off the hood of his cloak as he came. It was Remus Lupin.

“How long have we got, Remus?” Adrianne asked.

“Not too long, as I didn’t put much of the potion into her drink,” Remus answered.

“Well, we’d better get going then.” Sirius pulled out a diamond ring from his pocket. Remus took it from him.

“I just hope that this actually works. I practiced for a while on different things, but this is a pretty tricky spell.” Remus took a deep breath and pointed his wand and the ring. “ Planto memoria..” A jet of silver light shot toward the ring.

“Well, did it work?” Sirius asked impatiently.

“Um, I can’t tell yet. What should happen when Lily wakes up is that the first thing we tell her will become a memory in her mind when she looks at the ring. So we’ll have to make sure we’re the first people talking to her.”

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?” James shouted at them.

“Nothing harmful, James,” Remus reassured him. “Now get back, she should be waking up anytime.” He pushed James away from the table.

James looked absolutely bewildered. He turned to Sirius. “Explain this to me, Padfoot. Why is this happening?”

“Lily gave you the idea to make him wear a pink flamingo suit,” Sirius said as if that explained everything. “Now be quiet and let Moony have his revenge.”

It really was a good thing that no one stopped to check in with the inhabitants of the center back table of the Three Broomsticks that afternoon. Who knows what they would have thought. If they had, though, they would have seen:

1. A black haired girl doing her best to look as though she had no one idea why the witch sitting next to her was passed out. She wasn’t really succeeding.

2. The said passed-out-witch: a mass of red hair facedown on the table. It was doubtful that she would have been recognized as Hogwarts’ Head Girl, Lily Evans in her present condition.

3. The duo that any Hogwarts student could easily identify as Sirius Black and James Potter, two of the most popular boys in school, who always seemed to stir up the most trouble as well.

4. The lesser known friend of Black and Potter, Remus Lupin, standing and holding a diamond ring.

However, the last member of the group might not even have been recognized, as he looked quite different from his usual reserved self. Remus wasn’t known for being a trickster. If he hadn’t been the friend of James and Sirius, he probably would have been the victim of their cahoots. He was known for his good study habits and being a nice, if quiet, person. But this Remus had a large and evil grin plastered on his face and appeared to be having the time of his life. But just what was causing him so much happiness was anyone’s guess.

James also appeared out of sorts, as his expression was not a smile, which hardly ever happened. Quite the opposite, he appeared to be in a kind of panic, his face pale. By the looks of it, Sirius, the only one who seemed to be normal, was having a difficult time stifling his laughter as James rhythmically thumped the table he stood by with his fist, a word for every beat.

“When. Will. She. Wake. Up. Make. Her. Wake. Up. When. Will. She. Wake. Up. Make. Her-”

Lily suddenly regained consciousness, sat bolt upright and looked around in confusion.

“Where am I? What‘s going on? Why was I on the table?”

Remus didn’t waste a single moment. Sliding into the chair across from her, he held out his open palm with a sparkling diamond ring in it. Lily’s bright green eyes instinctively went to it.

“You don’t remember? Lily, I’m surprised at you! James asks you to marry him, you accept, he presents you with this very ring, you then pass out from excitement, and now you act like you don’t remember? Can you believe that, Sirius?”

James suddenly emitted a strangled sound and made frantic motions for Remus to shut up. Lily’s face clearly showed that she was having trouble comprehending what was going on.

“I’ll tell you, mate, I’ve never heard anything like it.” Sirius said happily. “Women are supposed to be the one’s who never forget anything.”

“Lupin, what on earth are you going on about?” Lily questioned with a scowl.

Sirius chuckled. “Oh, you’ve gotten on her bad side. She called you Lupin.”

James tried again to communicate, but no discernible words were coming out of his mouth.

“Your engagement to James, of course!” replied Remus in an unnaturally cheerful voice, ignoring both Sirius and James.

Lily tried to rise from her chair. That didn’t work out so well, as she still wasn’t recovered from being unconscious. She swayed and then sat back down before responding.

“I’m NOT engaged to Potter! Not now, not EVER!” Lily pronounced in a strained voice. “Adrianne, I TOLD you this was a horrible idea. Let’s go.”

Adrianne merely shook her head. “No, I don’t think that we should yet.”

In a voice that would normally be used on extremely small children, Remus said, “What do you remember happening, then?”

Lily’s brow furrowed. While unconscious, she remembered that she had been having visions of Professor Dumbledore wearing a pink boa and dancing the YMCA while Hagrid and Slughorn sang the background vocals. She shivered and tried to think father back. The waitress had brought drinks, she had drunk some of her butterbeer….and then…..

“OH MERLIN PLEASE SAY I DIDN’T DO THAT!”

“Isn’t it wonderful!” Adrianne gushed. “I always knew that you had a soft spot for James hidden somewhere! I just didn’t know it was this strong!”

“This is just a horrible nightmare. Come on, Lily, you‘ll wake up any minute now...” Lily scrunched her eyes closed and loudly chanted “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” Opening them again, she was disappointed to see that her surroundings had not changed.

In a high voice, James managed to say, “Lily, I-”

This was a mistake, as it turned Lily’s attention to him. Eyes full of sharp daggers, she leaned across the table towards him.

“James Potter, if you’re ANY kind of a human being you’ll just let me leave and we’ll pretend this never happened.”

It wasn’t often that James was lost for words, but this was one of those times. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He tried again with the same result. Lily clenched her fists. “I’m warning you, Potter…”

Adrianne laughed. “You know, James, Lily certainly isn’t being a very loving fiancée.”

“If looks could kill, poor Prongs would be in immediate need of a coffin,” Sirius said under his breath to Remus. “Think we ought to save him from her?” Remus laughed and nodded. Adrianne took her cue and stood up.

“Excuse me, everyone! EXCUSE ME!” The buzzing crowd fell quiet and all eyes turned towards Adrianne. “If I could have your attention, my friend Remus Lupin has an announcement to make!”

Remus took a brief moment to survey his victim. There was a look of complete and utter mortification frozen on Lily’s face as she realized that everyone in The Three Broomsticks was watching her. “Revenge is sweet,” he thought, as he took a step into the middle of the pub.

“Young love. How sweet it is. Every springtime seems to bring it. And today, it has brought it in our very midst!” Smiling like a proud father, Remus gestured to the table behind him. “Young Mr. Potter has just proposed and Miss Evans has accepted!”

If the onlookers were surprised that Lily looked as though she couldn’t decide whether to throw up, tackle Remus, or pass out again, and James didn‘t look much better, they didn’t show it. Celebratory cheers rang out. A blonde girl who looked to be around fifteen ran up the table.

“Can I take your picture!” she breathlessly inquired. “That’s sooo romantic.”

Sirius smiled charmingly. “Of course you can, love. Tell all your friends about it! Don’t forget to mention the smart handsome friend who helped bring them together!” Flashing the roguish smile that he secretly practiced in the mirror, Sirius posed with one hand on Lily’s back and the other on James’ shoulder. He looked a lot happier than either of them. The camera flashed and the girl scurried away. Sirius looked down at James in concern.

“All right there, mate?”

James shook his head slowly as if in shock. “Sirius….what’s going on? What did you do to Lily?”

Before answering, Sirius lowered his voice so Lily wouldn’t hear. “Ah, Moony wants to get Lily back for coming up with the idea of the flamingo suit. So he put this extra-hard charm and whatnot on that ring so she’d get a memory of whatever he told her to, and that’s you and her getting engaged. Lily really thinks that she said she’d marry you. But it doesn’t last forever, so you’d better enjoy it while it‘s here!”

James collapsed back into a chair. “Great. Bloody great. Now Lily’s going to hate me even more than she used too! Thanks a lot, Padfoot.” Sirius shrugged apologetically.

“When Moony comes up with something like this, it’s sort of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To waste it would be a crime against pranks.”

“I need a drink,” moaned James, reaching for the nearest glass of butterbeer and taking a swig.

“Uh, I wouldn’t do that,” Adrianne interjected sharply. But it was too late. The black haired boy collapsed onto the table just as Lily had.

The crowd gasped at this unfolding drama. Remus turned around to see what had caught their attention and easily understood what had happened.

“Wow, looks like James has had a bit too much good news today! Can’t handle it, poor chap!” Though he’d never wanted to be the center of attention before, Remus was now quite pleased to play ringmaster. “Perhaps his lovely fiancée will give him true love’s kiss to wake him up!”

Lily stood and kept her balance this time. “REMUS LUPIN, I‘M GOING TO-”

“Invite me to the wedding, and I’m so glad!” He beamed a cheeky grin infuriatingly at her. “Isn’t she cute when she’s nervous, folks? All this attention on her big day!”

Lily scowled darkly, but stopped shouting, at least for the moment. Adrianne looked nervously at her, not at all certain that she wasn’t preparing to run at and take down Remus, even with the milling audience. Sirius was looking at James with concern.

“He’s going to kill us when he wakes up, you know.”

Through clenched teeth Lily hissed, “Not if I can get to you first.”

Sirius put on a look of offended dignity. “Now, Lily, you shouldn’t be angered at us. It’s not our fault that you said yes, you know. That was your choice.”

James chose this moment to return to the world of the living. “What happened?” he groggily asked, sitting up and rubbing his head. “I remember something about Lily being mad…”

“YOU’D BETTER BELIEVE THAT-”

Adrianne calmly slipped her hand over Lily’s mouth.

Remus couldn’t believe the luck he was having today. He hadn‘t planned on this, but when presented with such an opportunity…. With a wicked smile, he held up the ring.

“Oh, you finally got up the nerve to propose to Lily, with this ring here, and she accepted, that‘s all.”

James gazed in disbelief at Lily. “Lily, you said you’d marry me?”

“Apparently. But that doesn’t mean that I-”

A look of pure, unbridled joy spread across James’ face until he looked like the victim of a euphoria charm. He abruptly jumped up onto the table, threw his arms out wide, and proclaimed to the world:

“I’M ENGAGED TO LILY EVANS!”