"Lily..." I heard a voice say from behind my chair which almost made me jump out of my skin. It was quite late and I was the only one in the Gryffindor common room so I really wasn't expecting to hear a voice behind me. It had been a week since the holidays had ended and I'd promised myself no slacking on revision. However, I'd spent most of the day catching up with the girls by the lake and was now desperately trying to compensate for the revision I hadn't done.

"Hello?" I said, holding my transfiguration textbook in front of me as a shield. I wasn't that surprised to see the four marauders appear out of thin air and quickly remembered that they owned an invisibility cloak, "What are you guys doing down here? It's late."

"You're still down here." James pointed out with a grin.

"I'm revising not creeping up on people with an invisibility cloak!" I said.

"This wasn't my idea!" Peter said quickly, "Padfoot said it would be funny and I went along with it!"

"Wormtail, don't snitch!" Sirius exclaimed, "We actually had a reason to be here. James told us about how you talked about helping us steal the map on your head boy and girl patrol and ever since then, we've been planning."

"That was months ago, you remembered that?" I said.

"It was a great idea, how could I forget." James said, "Anyway, we thought we should do it tonight."

"Guys, I have to revise, couldn't you have warned me in advance?" I asked, slightly annoyed that they hadn't told me about this before. I would have been more up for it but I didn't want to fail transfiguration for a map, no matter how cool it was.

"We didn't know we were going to do it tonight but Peter overheard someone saying that the teachers were having some meeting tonight so they wouldn't be roaming around the corridors. Plus, when we saw you in the common room so late, it was meant to be!" James protested.

"I'm not saying I'll do it but tell me the plan anyway."

"It's good, I helped come up with it." Remus said looking proud of himself which was unusual for him, he was usually very humble, "So, you and James pretend to be patrolling, if anyone asks they'll believe it's true as you're there and find Filch - "

"How will we know where Filch is?" I asked, "Wouldn't we need the map for that?"

"You forget, we had the map for years and Filch isn't that smart. Today's a Saturday and he usually just stays near his office, Prongs knows. You can always attract him to your location by getting one of us to laugh loudly or shout." Sirius said.

"Okay... I'm still listening, keep going." I was actually intrigued by the plan now, they had put more thought into it than I'd expected. I always forgot that James and Sirius were actually just as smart as Remus when they put their minds to it.

"Anyway, once you find him, you tell him that you've found some first years near his office on his patrol and you're worried they may have left something there as they looked a bit shifty and kept looking at the wall nervously. I know, what you're thinking Lily, why wouldn't me and James have just dealt with it? Why alert Filch?" Sirius said.

"I was actually about to say that, well done." I said.

"... well, on your patrols, you're only meant to send students to bed, disposing of pranks and stuff is Filch's job. So, you tell him that and when he goes to the office, he'll find a box of stink bombs there, left by me, which are unopened.... or so he thinks." Sirius whispered dramatically and Peter gave a little squeak of excitement.

"This is my part!" He said, grinning excitedly.

"Inside the box is Wormtail as a rat. Filch will probably confiscate it and put it on a shelf, unknowingly bringing Peter into his office. Now, at this point, me and Moony, under the cloak, will be near the office and make some noises of some kind to get Filch out of there. Wormtail will grab the map and leave. You and James stand guard... you have to actually stand guard, not sneak off to the prefect's bathroom..."

I could feel my ears burning and I shot James a look. He looked away sheepishly and I made a note to find out how much he'd been telling Sirius.

"We won't this time." James said with a grin, "Tonight we're focused on the map, don't worry."

"Great, so Wormtail will come and meet me and Moony and we'll pick him up so we can go back to the common room under the cloak. You and Prongs continue your 'patrol' and head back to the common room. Any questions before we start?" Sirius said looking round.

"I haven't actually agreed yet..." I pointed out.

"Are you going to do it?" Remus asked.

"Well... yes..." I replied before Sirius cut in.

"Great, anyone else?" Sirius said firmly.

"Um... what if Mrs. Norris gets me?" Peter asked quietly.

"Then you become a human again." James said.

"What if Filch is there?" Peter asked.

"Then you get creative!" Sirius said as if it was obvious, "You can deal with a few injuries, just don't die!"

"Okay..." Peter said, biting his nails nervously. I did feel a bit sorry for him but I was sure he could do it, he was Gryffindor after all, he could be brave.

"Then let's do this," Sirius said dramatically.

"Welcome to the Marauders, Lily." James said with a grin, "I hope you can handle it."

"I'm not worried, I just hope you can keep up." I replied confidently, flicking my hair as the five of we watched Peter shrink down into a rat and scurry into the box which Remus quickly resealed.

"Is Peter going to be okay in there?" I whispered as the four of snuck out.

"Yeah, he should be, we put in air holes this time." Sirius said with a shrug.

"Okay, me and Sirius will go the office and meet you there, okay?" Remus said, pulling the cloak over him and Sirius. I heard their footsteps echo as they walked further and further away until we couldn't hear them anymore.

"This plan is crazy." I said with a slight laugh of disbelief that I was actually doing this.

"They always are," James said, "You should have seen our plans in first year, they were even worse and much less well thought out."

"I remember a few of them, you got caught a lot more, right?"

"We did get caught more, that's true, but we did learnt fast," James's grinned slightly, "Plus, we could fake cry. That worked a lot of the time."

My heart was racing with excitement and nerves, I'd never broken the rules like this and it was kind of exhilarating. I pushed the thought of getting caught to the back of my head as it still brought butterflies to my stomach.

Filch was relatively easy to find: as predicted, he was lurking in the corridors near his office, Mrs Norris by his side. Filch always look on edge, like he could snap at any seconds although considering he'd had to deal with years and years of pranksters like James and Sirius, it was unsurprising. I'd never been the target of any Marauder pranks luckily and I still found them exhausting, I could only imagine what Filch must have gone through.

"Um... Filch..." I said nervously.

"The key is confidence if you want him to believe you." James said.

"He'll believe me no matter what." I whispered, "Filch."

"Yes?" He snapped, whipping his head round to me.

"Um... well, just now me and James were patrolling by your office and we found some second years out of bed and I think they may have left a prank or something as they looked a bit shifty. Anyway, we sent them back to bed with a warning but I thought we should alert you."

"Damn secon' years... never leavin' me alone." Filch muttered before turning away from us and walking away from us towards his office.

"Well, that was a bit rude, he didn't even say thank you." I said as we cautiously followed behind him.

"I don't think Filch particularly cares about manners." James said, peering around the corner to see if Filch had found the stink bombs yet.

"Stink bombs! They never change... damn secon' years, thinkin' they got the better than me... well, I'll show them..." We heard Filch mutter as he picked up the stink bombs and carried them into his office.

"He's really not that smart, is he." I whispered.

"I guess your presence reassured him. If it was just me, he would have checked it a LOT more thoroughly, I bet."

"So, what now?" I whispered.

"I guess we wait." James said, sitting down against the wall, "You spend a lot of these sort of pranks waiting, it's a joint effort and we'll just have to wait until Sirius and Remus make some noise."

"Okay, how long do you think they'll - " We suddenly heard a loud, echoing crash from a few corridors away, "I guess that's them." James stood up quickly and looked around the corner before jumping back quickly.

"Filch opened his door..." He mouth and I stood against the wall, trying to be as silent as possible. I heard Filch curse but then to my horror, it sounded like the door closed. James peered around slowly and then turned to me, an anxious look on his face.

"What's happened?" I asked and he shook his head.

"Not good news," James turned around dramatically in a very Sirius like way, "He didn't leave his office, he's still there..."

"What do we do?" I whispered, "Peter's still there!"

"I don't know..." James whispered, "Let's got and find Padfoot and Moony - "

"Or maybe Padfoot and Moony will find you." A voice whispered behind James's ear which startled us both. James jumped back into my arms as the heads of Sirius and Remus appeared.

"Is Filch out of his office yet?" Remus asked.

"No and Peter's still in there." I said, "What do we do?"

"I guess as long as Filch is in there, we're safe..." Sirius said, "But on the other hand Peter will be stuck in a box and the map will still be in the office."

"Well, Filch is human... probably, so he's got to go and sleep at some point so maybe we can sneak in then and get it?" I suggested.

"We could, he won't be asleep for a few hours thought so in the mean time we could stop by the kitchens for a snack - " Sirius said.

"No, we're not doing that!" Remus said, slapping Sirius's arm, "We've got to get Wormtail out and you know that Filch locks the door."

"I'm sure a night in there wouldn't be too bad..." Sirius said.

"He'd be hungry," James said, "He's always hungry."

"Okay, so we have to get him out and the map if we have time." Remus said firmly and we all nodded.

"Okay, how about we - " James began when we suddenly heard a loud scream of "Rat!" from Filch's office. Sirius and Remus pulled the cloak back over themselves as me and James ran towards the door.

"I'm going in." James said.

"Wait, James, we should - " I began but Filch suddenly slammed the door open, hitting James in the face.

"OW!" James fell against the wall holding his glasses. Filch didn't seem to notice the injury he'd just caused, he was too focused on the small, brown rat that had just ran out of his office clutching a piece of paper between it's teeth.

"He's got something... the rat... He stole something from my office!" Filch said in horror to me, pointing at Peter who had Mrs. Norris hot on his tail.

"The Map..." I whispered under his breath, forced to think quickly of a way to save Peter from becoming cat food, "Don't worry, Mr Filch... um, I'll get him for you..."

I ran away from them, following Mrs Norris who had just turned the corner. I wasn't as in shape as James who probably could have caught up a lot quicker but I eventually managed to catch up to Peter and Mrs Norris who'd gone a surprisingly far distance given that they were such small animals.

Mrs Norris had managed to corner Peter against the wall and I feared for the worst so without thinking I grabbed Mrs Norris who became to scratch at me.

"Peter... help me... become big!" I said through the struggles, unsure if Peter could hear me in rat form. Luckily he understood and I watched as he slowly become human again and helped me restrain the struggling Mrs Norris. Now that the rat had gone, Mrs Norris seemed to calm down and lose interest, slinking off back to Filch the moment we put her down.

"Thank you..." Peter said breathlessly.

"Come on, we should probably find the others..." I said as we leisurely turned the corner... right into the triumphant Filch who was standing there with Mrs Norris slinking around his ankle.

"Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans... gotcha." He said with a snarl, "I believe you have somethin' of mine. McGonagall's not going to be happy when she sees this.. you're head girl."

I looked over at Peter, as my face became pale and my breathing got faster. Filch may be stupid but he was right, Professor McGonagall would not be happy at all, she would be so disappointed. I looked over at Peter, desperately as my brain seemed to have frozen with fear. I spotted James at the end of the corridor, walking towards us and I really hoped he had a plan.

"I'm sorry, sir..." Peter said suddenly, "Lily had just caught me and was bringing me to you, she wasn't with me."

"Peter, what...?" I whispered so Filch couldn't hear.

"Go with it..." Peter said, "I knew you took the map from us a while back and James's birthday had just been so I thought it would be a good gift..."

"But... how did you get it... the rat..."

"That's my pet... he's um... very well trained..." Peter mumbled, looking convincingly guilty.

"Peter," James said walking up to us behind Filch, "That's very sweet of you to try and steal it for me but it was breaking the rules and I don't think you should have done that for me."

I almost laughed at James, that was the least James Potter thing I'd heard him say in a while but I managed to hold it.

"I'm very sorry." Peter said solemnly.

"... We'll take him back to the dorm for you." I said, pulling Peter away by his arm, hoping Filch wouldn't notice the map but we weren't so lucky.

"That piece of paper... it's mine, give it back." Filch said, his eyes fixed on Peter's hand where the paper was dangling. The three of us exchanged looks and Peter reluctantly handed it back, "Don't let me catch you out of bed again."

With that, Filch slunk off back to his corridor, the map triumphantly clasped between his fingers.

"Come on, let's get back to the common room." James said, putting his arms around me and Peter.

We bumped into Remus and Sirius on the way back who seemed a little disappointed with the outcome but impressed by how the three of us had managed to get away empty handed.

"I'm impressed by your quick thinking, Wormtail." Sirius said as we climbed through the portrait. The Fat lady seemed a little confused about why we were out so late but let us in anyway.

"Thanks!" Peter squeaked, clearly very happy with himself.

"Also, I was thinking that now that Lily is a Marauders accomplice, she should have a nickname." Sirius said, "How about Prongsette."

"No, I don't like it, I'm my own girl!" I complained.

"But you and Prongs come as a matching set, you're both deer. It's honorary anyway." Sirius said.

"Fine, but I don't want it being a thing." I said, "Wait, why is Remus Moony? Is your animagus a wolf?" Remus shrunk back into this chair.

"You still haven't told her..." Sirius said, looking between me and Remus, slightly confused.

"You guys are the only ones who know..." Remus said, "Lily, if I tell you then you can't tell anyone, not Mary, not Marlene. I know you won't but please."

"Obviously not, Remus." I said.

"Well... there's a reason the other three are animagus... it's me." Remus said, "I'm... well, I'm a... werewolf." Remus said quickly, his face going red as he looked down almost as if he was ashamed.

"That's why the four of us disappears every full moon, that's what Snivellus saw when Prongs saved his life." Sirius said.

"I remember that..." I trailed off, it made so much sense. Severus always used to go on and on about but I never really believed but I guess it was true, "Don't worry, Remus, you're secret is safe with me." I said giving his hand a squeeze.

"Thanks." Remus said with a small smile.

"Forget, honorary, now that you know about Remus, you're in the club!" James said.

"Which means you do need a nickname... I still like Prongsette!"

"How about Pot-girl!"

"No!" Me and James said in time. I think I was going to enjoy being one of the Marauder's accomplices.