Lily rubbed her eyes, wondering vaguely why she had woken up. ‘Oh, I must have rolled over onto my tail’ she thought. Lily lay back down, ready to go back to sleep, when she sat straight up. ‘Wait a minute. My TAIL!’ “JAMES HAROLD POTTER!!!!!!!!!!!” Lily ran straight down to the common room, where, as she had guessed, James was waiting for her.
Lounging back in a chair by the dying fire, he lazily glanced up at her, a cocky smirk on his face. “Jeez, Evans. What took you so long? I’ve been waiting for you to realize the… changes an hour ago.”
“Well, maybe I would have noticed if I routinely woke up to see if parts of my body were… were abnormally disfigured!” Needless to say, Lily was getting quite hysterical. “Wait a minute. Are these CLAWS!” She held up her hands. Well, they should have been hands. Instead, there were furred paws ending at her elbows with long, sharp nails extending at least two inches.
“Why, yes Evans, I believe they are,” James said, his smirk deepening.
“What did you do, partially transfigure me into a CAT?!”
“Not just any cat. It’s a lion, Evans. A lion. You know, our house mascot? I just thought we could all use a boost in our house spirit if we’re going to beat Slytherin for the House Cup this year.”
“Oh, and I just happen to be the guinea pig? Why don’t you use Sirius to test these spells on?”
“Because. What if the spell went wrong? YOU are a prefect, which means it’s your duty to protect innocent students, who might have been harmed as the object of the spell.”
“Then why not use Remus? HE is a prefect too.”
“I can’t very well prank a fellow Marauder, can I?”
Lily fumed. “Well, the spell worked. Now take it OFF ME!”
James squinted at her. “Actually, I rather like the effect. It’s much more attractive than before. I’ll just leave you like that.”
Lily reached up, and before James could react, she slapped him across the face, leaving three deep cuts where the nails had hit him. “Oh no you won’t!”
“And why not?” James challenged, holding a hand up to his cheek.
“Because, if you won’t, I’ll tell Professor McGonagall that you were in the girls dormitory. You had to have been close in order to cast the spell in the first place.”
James sighed. “All right, all right. Have it your way.” He muttered the counter- spell, and Lily instantly felt her nails retract and fur pull back into her skin.
“Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed, Potter. Oh, and detention tomorrow night. I don’t think I need to tell you why.” She turned, and felt her eyes grow wide in shock. The rest of the house was piled on the foot of the dormitory steps, watching one of the famous Evans versus Potter displays. Lily glared at them. “What are all of you doing out of bed at this hour? Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
It was Frank who answered for them all. “Well, I’m pretty sure it was because of that scream earlier. I came down to see what happened.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Well, you’ve all had your fun.” Lily snapped. “Now get to bed before Professor McGonagall comes in to see what all this noise is about.” She marched towards her dorm, the crowd parting to get out of her way like the Red Sea. Slowly, a trickle of students followed her, with the exception of the Marauders.
Sirius walked up to James, shaking his head slowly. “James, James, James. When will you ever learn?”
James frowned. “Learn what?”
Remus stepped up, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Really, James. I thought you would have known better by now.”
James, starting to get annoyed, hissed, “Know WHAT?”
Peter walked up next to Sirius. “I honestly thought you wouldn’t be this stupid. ANYONE would have seen the little flaw in your plans. Even I would have done better.”
“WILL ONE OF YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT I DID, BEFORE I START HEXING YOU?”
Sirius gripped James’ shoulders. “Everyone knows of Evans’s fondness for slapping you. So why, in Merlin’s name, did you give her LONG, SHARP NAILS?”
James opened his mouth, looked confused, and shut it again. He grimaced, and let out a small “Oops.”
Shaking their heads sadly, the Marauders led James back into their dorm room.