"So, are you and James going to go public with your relationship or is it going to be a secret?" Mary asked.

"Well, I sort of wonder how long James would actually be able to keep his mouth shut, but we haven't really talked about it, considering how many Head duties we've had to deal with this year," she said placing her book in the leaf-covered grass.

Lily had finally gotten around to reading Pride and Prejudice, the book Remus had recommended to her earlier that year during their summer. She was quite enjoying it and she was intrigued by Mr. Darcy's character since Remus said she was Elizabeth and James was Mr. Darcy.

"Speaking about me, I hear?" The one and only James Potter swung down from an above tree branch just as a monkey would in a jungle.

"Eavesdropping, I see?" Lily countered when he sat, putting his head in her lap.

Lily and James had had extremely busy days with prefects coming up to them just to ask nonsense questions they had just answered in the latest prefect meeting, professors assigning them ridiculously long essays, and losing multiple objects (for James that included his glasses and Lily her wand.) Yet, the day had not even finished because their last class of the day, Potions, had yet to start.

"Lovebirds, we have ten minutes before class starts. I'm leaving with or without you," Mary said, getting up with her own flower crown almost falling off her head.

"Actually, Sirius wanted me to meet up with him before class started to discuss something important,"  James got up with a smirk while Lily turned a blind eye.

"Remember, if I don't hear about it, I don't know about it. So, for Sirius's sake, I would keep your trap shut!" Lily said with an amused tone.

"Yes ma'am!" James ran off towards the castle, saluting Mary on his way past.

"I still can't believe you're dating him."

"Neither can I."

...

At Hogwarts, sometimes the unexpected happened, in which you must adapt or watch the smarter students and staff adapt around you. The Marauders had become masters at adapting so quickly you would not even be able to list one-sixth of their detentions.

The Marauders happened to be late to Potions class, but were pleasantly surprised to see Professor Slughorn was not in the room.

James traipsed to the back of the classroom where Lily was sitting with Marlene discussing something clearly not school-related as their facial expressions gave them away. He crept up behind Lily and stole her flower crown, placing it on his own head.

"Does anyone know where Sluggie happens to be?" James asked Marlene and Lily while the latter just narrowed her eyes at him for his previous crime.

"Nope and there seems to be no substitute either," Marlene said rolling her quill between two fingers.

"Brilliant!" James said and stalked off to find where Sirius and Remus were fighting over some potion ingredient.

"Why is that brilliant?" Marlene asked in a quiet voice.

"I have no clue, but I think it might mean the Marauders have just gotten a prank idea."

The girls sat and watched as the four Marauders deliberated, voted, and finally convinced Remus whatever it was happened to be a good idea. While watching, Lily wondered if she should shut down whatever it was, but James looked far too happy and the wink he gave her as he walked to the front of the room almost made her swoon.

"Well, here we go," Marlene muttered as Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed James.

The four boys settled with grins on their faces in the front of the classroom, making everyone in the room silent, almost as quickly as Euphemia did when she was angry.

"Welcome to your first Potions lesson with your professors, Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew. We would like to be addressed as such because we are your superiors," James spoke as if he was serious, but his dimples gave him away.

"Why would anyone ever make you our superiors?" Snape scoffed earning a laugh from Mulciber.

"If I could please remind you, Snape, that Professor Potter is indeed your superior because he is your head boy," Remus spoke with a hint of underlying venom.

Lily would have to say that she was quite enjoying the show the Marauders had introduced to the class and would be lying if she said her efforts of concealing her laugh under a cough were futile.

Sirius pressed his palms together and entertwined his fingers as he surveyed the classroom, and he smirked as he realized his target had already spoken up and made it clear there was still mutual hate between them.

"Professor Potter, what happens when you mix grease and a bad attitude together?" Sirius said making eye contact with Snape as he spoke, the latter just rolling his eyes.

"Well, Professor Black, you get Severus Snape," he said lazily.

His footsteps echoed in the classroom as he entered and he felt old as he looked at the students even though he had only graduated last year. He grinned at the Marauders, they grinned back, and he beckoned them over to him.

"Jordan! Long time no see!" Sirius said as they greeted each other.

"Is that really the best you got? I expected you guys to tear Snape into shreads," Rodger Jordan said.

Just a year ago, Rodger Jordan was the quidditch commentator. As a Gryffindor himself, he favored James and Sirius while speaking into the microphone, which is why he gained a liking from the Marauders.

"We figured we should give him a break for the time being. Last week, we hit him with a bunch of dung bombs," James replied.

"Which backfired on us since the smell did not wash away for days afterwards," Peter said crinkling his nose simutaneously with the other three boys.

"Well, get your asses in your seats because apparently part of this internship is filling in for teachers when they're sick."

"Why isn't Slughorn here?" Remus asked, serious for the first time in awhile.

"Because he's tired of you four, I'll tell you that! Now, get in your seats!"

James sat down directly in front of Lily as if he could taunt her with the flower crown upon his head that had been previously worn by her.

"I don't think daisies are your flower, James," she said her eyes sparkling with happiness fueled by the joy of the Marauders' last prank.

"But you are, Lily."

...

Euphoric feelings filled the air as the eight teenagers walked into the Gryffindor common room, which continued upon seeing Julia and Annie playing a carefree game of Wizard's Chess.

"How've you been, Annie?" Lily said sitting on the couch next to her.

"Brilliant, my term is going great." She replied focusing on the chess game at hand because she wanted to win.

Annie had only introduced Wizard's Chess to Julia a few weeks ago, but they had made it a habit to procrasinate their homework while playing a game of chess. Julia, she found, was great at strategy, while Annie focused on what was happening now, not really thinking about what would happen later on.

"Julia's the best flyer in her class!" Annie said like it was a topic she had teased Julia with many times before. Spoiler Alert, she defintely had.

"I am not!" Julia protested with flushed cheeks.

"Uh huh, I went and watched yesterday and she out flew everyone there. She's just being modest," Annie boasted for Julia. Julia rolled her eyes at Annie's statement.

"I didn't go half as fast as Hennesee Walter did!"

The eight of them watched the two girls argue back and forth before Mary finally intervened, with a smooth change of the subject.

"How're you fairing in your studies?" She asked her sister, bumping shoulders with her in the process of sitting next to her.

"Professor Sprout gave me fifteen points in a lesson yesterday about mandrakes," she said casually.

"Checkmate! I win!" Annie yelled.

"Bloody hell, she's nothing like me!" Mary said into Alice's ear, standing back up.

"I've found that many siblings are unique in their own ways. You haven't met Michelle, but we're not exactly carbon copies of each other." Alice responded watching James and Lily start and participate in yet another argument about wearing socks to bed.

"Take Petunia and Lily for example, Lily is one of my favorite human beings ever to have lived, Petunia, not so much," Marlene chimed in which earned a laugh from the other two girls.

"Lily wears socks to bed like a psychopath!" James yelled while laughing.

"How would you know that?" Annie challenged.

"Because we share a damn common room!" James said laughing even harder.

"And we happened to get in this same arguement a few days ago," Lily said laughing along with the rest of them.

Laughter was the key to many different things, a good day perhaps was the biggest one, which was part of the reason the Marauders pranked so often, to get people to have a better day. Maybe laughter couldn't cure hatred that fueled some people's lives, but it helped others, who were under direct impact of said hate.

...

Author's Note:

Hey y'all! Back with another chapter that I hope made you laugh at least once!

I usually don't start out a chapter with dialogue, but I did not like what I had planned, so this is now the final product. And for clarification, this chapter took place around October 15.

There is scheduled to be some Jily fluff in the next chapter, so just get ready for that as well as preparing for it to be a shorter chapter.

I'm off to do some stupid biology work...

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy💙

(blue heart because of the election)