Remus walked alongside Lily towards the back of the train "Lily, are you okay?" He asked quietly, leaning his body slightly towards her.

Lily looked at him and smiled, "Yeah, I'm fine". She had always loved Remus as a friend, never anything romantic, they had both formed a mutual friendship in the first year, when forced to work together in potions, he had always been a little bit strange, but Lily didn't care, she wasn't the sort of person to do that, to care about people's flaws; Remus always told her that she had an amazing knack to look past imperfections and see people's inner beauty, even if they couldn't see it themselves.

"I hope you are, don't let James and Snape get you down" Remus said softly.

"Oh, Remus, it wasn't Potter, just Sev" Lily said sweetly, dropping her tone slightly at the mention of Severus.

"Well that's a first" Remus laughed, making Lily smile and giggle, "Just, don't let anyone get you down Lil" Remus restated.

"Thanks" Lily smiled, glad she at least had a handful of friends, all of which cared about her, 'more than Severus ever would' Lily thought, quickly rejecting that thought because it had something to do with him.

They had reached the end of the train, and the room in which the prefects were meeting, they slid the door open and found a spot around the large table, the Head Boy and Girl sat at the head of the table, along with a few teachers, all preparing to instruct the prefects where they needed to patrol the train and their general duties for the coming year.

***

Marlene slid back into her friends' compartment, "Well that was a total flop" Marlene said, plopping down on the seat, closest to the door "Well, except for Pettigrew finding a vomit flavoured bean and gagging on it, that was funny" Marlene smiled slightly to herself as she said this.

"Why did Remus want you?" Mary asked inquisitively, she had always disliked being left out of things.

"Oh, don't worry, he just needed help with something" Marlene tried to sidestep what had actually happened, and not tell the girls absolutely everything.

"It has to do with Lily, doesn't it?" Alice asked softly, she had always cared about other people, and if they were okay, no matter who they were, if she knew them or their predicament she always tried to be aware of what had happened.

"A bit, yeah" Marlene shrugged, "but don't worry about it, she is fine, and it's been sorted out" she paused "anyway, is there anything interesting happening here?" Marlene sat up slightly.

Dorcas giggled and Alice was suppressing a grin. Marlene looked at both of them, slightly confused, Dorcas then looked to Alice for permission to let Marlene know, she was granted it with a nod of the head. "Frank asked Alice out when you left" she rushed to say, moulding most of her words into one big one.

Marlene grinned at Alice, "Told you" Was all Marlene said; she crossed her arms across her chest and stuck her nose up in the air, a smug and triumphant look on her face.

***

Lily and Remus' prefect meeting had concluded, they were both scheduled to patrol the third carriage from the front of the train, a fair distance from their friends. Lily and Remus both walked out of the small compartment, which had housed the prefects from fifth year to seventh year and the Head Boy and Girl just moments before, they were now all spilling out into the end carriage and beginning to make their way to their designated area. Lily and Remus began to make their way the carriage they had to patrol. As they walked past the 'Marauder Compartment', James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew slipped out behind them, armed with a large bag filled with the worst possible thing for a long train ride: dung bombs

"Do not make it obvious" James whispered "We start at the carriage closest to the engine, and move our way down"

"Prongs, it's sort of obvious, I mean, look at my bag" Sirius shrugged holding up his large brown sack, he almost looked like a knock-off Santa Claus. Sirius walked beside James, and Peter took up the rear, walking furiously to keep up with his friends' long strides. "Where's the cloak?" he asked

A dawning of realisation hit James, "Forgot it, it's in my trunk" he said, this earned a roll of the eyes from Sirius. "But don't worry mate" James said, patting Sirius' shoulder "people aren't very good at noticing what's right under their noses" he said, acting as if he knew everything there was to know.

"Muggles, James" Sirius said matter of factly, "That's Muggles and magic" he rolled his eyes again,

"Who cares Padfoot, same difference" he shrugged relaxedly, "as long as we don't act like suspicious crooks, we'll be fine" James said to Sirius with a wave of his arm. James never had a care in the world, both he and Sirius had been in trouble so many times that they had memorised the teacher's lectures, often mouthing them at the same time.

The three boys made their way to the front of the train, James and Sirius both flirted the whole way there, Peter marvelled at his friends. They passed the prefects meant to be patrolling the corridors, all of which chatted away in various compartments, blissfully unaware of the chaos that was about to be released. Eventually the boys reached the very end of the compartment, they crouched next to the wall, around the bag.

"Okay, so on my call, Sirius, you'll place a few of the dung bombs in your bag at intervals along the corridor; Pete, you need to be in front, and have the compartment door open for Padfoot and I'll take up the rear, I'll trigger the bombs, and when I get to the door, I'll close it and lock it, then we repeat that for each compartment" James said, "got it?"

"Gotcha Jamesie" Sirius smirked

"Wait, what do I do again?" Peter asked

"Ugh" James sighed "You keep the door open for Padfoot and I, do that each time, got it?"

"I think so" Peter said, he had never been the brains of the group and had always been one to follow the pack

"Oh, I nearly forgot, don't look flustered or excited when we get into the next carriage, just act like nothing happened" James said, he gave them all a look that asked 'understand?', the boys nodded, and stood up.

***

Lily and Remus had made it to the carriage they needed to patrol, Lily hadn't been looking when the three trouble-makers slipped past; Remus had noticed them, but decided against telling Lily, he didn't think that she would be particularly pleased, and besides, she was happy right now, he didn't want her mood to change. She would probably frighten the living daylights out of the poor first year students if she saw James sneaking around like he was.

It was quite relaxed, there were a couple of seats at the end of the carriage, so Lily and Remus could sit down, Lily spent most of her down-time reading.

***

James had placed a jinx on the dung bombs so they wouldn't smell until he un-jinxed them.

"Ready Padfoot? Ready Wormtail?" James asked the two, as if they were about to risk their lives on a perilous mission, which they essentially were, however their life was substituted for roughly 50 points from their house. Each.

"Born ready Prongs" Sirius replied, a smirk plastered onto his handsome face.

"As ready as I'll ever be" Peter replied, a grin on his face, he was glad he had such awesome friends.

"Peter, you go get the door" James instructed, "Sirius, I'll be right behind you."

Peter made his way to the carriage door, Sirius then began to walk casually down the corridor, and James walked next to him. Sirius occasionally dropped a dung bomb on the floor, making sure he didn't look suspicious. When the two reached the end of the carriage, James leant on the frame of the door and mumbled something under his breath. The whole compartment instantly began to smell like nothing ever could.

James quickly closed the door and muttered 'Colloportus', instantly locking the door. He had managed to master a few spells without a wand, mainly ones that aided the Marauders, but he did have a habit of muttering the spell, instead of it being completely silent.

As soon as the door locked Sirius let out a laugh, "James you really need to work on your silent incantations"

"Oh shut up Padfoot, I'm better than you at it" James retaliated, playfully pushing Sirius away.

"Touché" Sirius shrugged "Wormy, go get the next door" He ordered, Peter obediently ran off to the end of the carriage and held open the door, always keen to impress his friends.

They repeated their actions for the next carriage. Peter waiting at the door, Sirius subtly placing stink bombs along the corridor, and James providing a cover and distraction for what Sirius was doing, neither of them needed any protection from the smell yet.

As soon as James and Sirius reached the door and 'activated' the stink bombs, they were faced with a new challenge: Lily Evans was patrolling this carriage. James knew that Lily would instantly catch Sirius dropping the charmed stink bombs on the floor; it had happened before; 2nd year, James was attempting to drop a dung bomb next to Severus Snape, Lily had caught him in the act and made it known to both Snape and Professor Slughorn his intentions, James promptly lost 10 house points due to the failed prank; 3rd year, James was once again aiming his cruel pranks towards Severus, he was attempting to bombard him with stink pellets, he was midway through levitating a bucket full of the vile smelling pellets in the direction of Snape, when Lily interrupted him and caused him to dump the bucket on himself, he didn't lose house points for that one, but he did have to walk around for nearly a week smelling like putrid vomit, no matter how much he showered, the smell wouldn't leave him.

"Sirius; Evans is on this carriage" James said cautiously. Sirius knew Lily's streak of catching them in the act, the fact that she was patrolling a carriage when they were attempting to stink the whole place out wasn't a good thought, if they didn't find a way to conceal what they were doing, they would never leave alive.

"How about a disillusionment charm?" Peter suggested "On the dung bombs" he added

"Wormtail, that's genius" Sirius patted Peter on the back "James, you can do the honours" Sirius said, presenting the opening to James. James decided to cast a disillusionment charm on the whole contents of the bag, and then the bag too, he muttered the charm several times before stepping back and looking satisfied.

"Padfoot, I'm going to cast a disillusionment spell on you too, just so it doesn't look too dodgy" James said getting ready to cast the spell on his friend.

"Alright" Sirius said begrudgingly. The charm felt like a cold egg was being cracked over the top of his head, the sensation gradually oozed down to his toes. He wasn't invisible, but more like a chameleon, he just blended into his surroundings, the charm gave off the effect of him being invisible though, it tricked the eyes into thinking there wasn't anything there.

"Peter, this time, walk with me, don't worry about the door, we have bigger issues; and guys?" James paused "don't worry about going slow for this one" The three boys agreed and begun on their way, Sirius walked behind James and Peter, for an extra little bit of protection, dropping the now camouflaged and charmed dung bombs on the floor softly.

Soon they approached Lily, she gave the two visible boys a scowl "Why do you feel the need to be here Potter?" She asked harshly, she also squinted slightly, as if she was trying to see past something behind them, but soon dismissed it.

"It just so happens that our good friend Remus is in this carriage" James said matter-of-factly

"And where is that slob Sirius?" She continued to interrogate him

James had to come up with a speedy reason as to why his right-hand-man wasn't at his side "He's..." James thought for a moment "tied up at the moment" James chose to be vague.

"Yeah doing what?" Lily continued to pepper him with questions

"Look Evans," James leant in slightly closer "I don't think Sirius would appreciate us gossiping about him behind his back now would we?" James paused "but, Evans, if you so dearly love talking to me, maybe we could chat over a cup of Butterbeer at the three broomsticks, what do you say?" James grinned cheekily

"Get lost Potter" Lily said exasperatedly, he was constantly slipping in subtle invitations for her to spend time alone with him. She turned away from him and walked in the direction the three had just come.

The friends finally made it to the end of the carriage, once they closed the door and lifted the charms off of the dung bombs, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. The train pulled twelve carriages, they had conquered three of them.