A Sense of Ease

"James, look who that is." Peter recognized Snape, who occupied the top spot on James's blacklist, at a glance. James turned and saw Snape with a few familiar-looking Slytherins.

At that, James immediately turned, a teasing smile flashing in his eyes. "Well, would you look at that. What a coincidence." With that, he and Sirius nimbly slipped behind a huge holly tree.

"Remus." James held out a hand behind him without looking back. Lupin was already used to the routine and silently pulled a round Dungbomb from his pocket and handed it over. Sirius asked for one too. The four aimed at Snape, Avery, and Mulciber, who were chatting nearby, and prepared to strike.

Snape wrinkled his nose. He had caught a whiff of something that made him feel physically sick: the disgusting Marauders.

The saying that your enemies often knew you best was absolutely right, and Snape was a perfect example. An almost instinctive warning had saved him.

He looked around, trying to locate the four idiot lions, and quickly retreated. "Severus, where are you going?" Avery watched Snape zigzag away from them at top speed.

Before he had finished speaking, four bright yellow Dungbombs came hurtling through the air and struck the exact spot in the snow where they had just been standing. "Boom!"

Thick, yellowish-brown filth exploded in an instant, splattering everywhere.

It had missed Snape by half a step. Looking at the mess, he was relieved it hadn't hit him. He silently moved farther away from Avery.

"Let's go. Too bad we didn't hit Snivellus." James looked at the yellow filth splattered across the ground and clicked his tongue in mild regret. The four quickly wiped the smiles from their faces and, under cover of the trees, fled the scene in a flash.

Just as the Marauders made their getaway, Lily came down. She had just rounded the corner when she saw Snape sprinting toward her.

"Severus, why are you running so fast?" Lily instinctively reached out and grabbed Snape's sleeve. He quickly pulled it free. "Look at what those idiots Potter and the others did." He hurried farther away from that bunch of disreputable friends.

Lily looked at the shit-yellow mess all over the ground. With a Seeker's extraordinary eyesight, she could even see the poop covering Avery's trouser leg. A foul stench hit her, and she recoiled in alarm as quickly as Snape had just done, covering her nose with her sleeve. Good heavens, she could also see an unidentified yellow substance dripping down his trouser leg. Did Pure-bloods all play this wild?

"Y-y-you, your butthole is way too relaxed." Lily stared in disgust at the great expanse of yellowish-brown in the snow.

"Ugh, ugh, ugh." This was far too disgusting. It had utterly ruined her perfectly good mood for playing in the snow.

"Ugh, ugh, what's that smell?" In moments, the young witches and wizards wandering nearby caught a whiff of the pungent stench. The crowd quickly scattered, leaving a huge, eerie empty space in the snow.

Avery, Mulciber, and the others stood in the middle, wishing they could dig a hole and crawl into it. Looking at the brownish-yellow mess beneath his feet, well, he probably didn't have the courage to dig through that stuff.

The mere thought of the scene made Lily want to retch. The Marauders really had hurt their friends almost as much as their enemies. For the next few days, rumors spread throughout the castle that Slytherins played wild among themselves and were so relaxed at such a young age that they couldn't even hold their poop in.

Even the delicious food in the Great Hall no longer seemed appetizing to Lily. When she saw Peter crushing potatoes into mash and adding gravy, in particular, she began to feel physically sick again. It was all her own fault for asking for trouble by going outside the castle to play.

"Lily, you're very pale. Are you feeling unwell?" Petunia saw how awful Lily looked. "You've barely eaten anything these past few days. You've been living almost entirely on potions."

Lily forced an ugly smile. "It's all because of that last Hogsmeade weekend. I just had to go outside the castle to play in the snow."

"And then? What does playing in the snow have to do with you not eating?" Petunia still hadn't connected the incident everyone was talking about with Lily's inability to eat.

"It's because of that poop incident. I was there, less than fifty meters away." Lily looked as though she had nothing left to live for.

"That's rough." Petunia pictured the scene. If she had seen it, she might have reacted even more strongly than Lily. The culprits from that day hadn't been found, but everyone knew perfectly well who had done it. The four Marauders had been a little too well-behaved lately, which was obviously not their style.

Lily's appetite only gradually returned as the Christmas holidays drew near. "Hey, Lily, why have you been going out of your way to avoid me whenever you see me lately?" James stopped Lily around a corner in the corridor near the Potions Classroom. Mary winked at Lily and silently mouthed what looked like "Good luck," then ran off in a flash.

"I'm not avoiding anyone." Lily had no grounds to argue, but she was just as defiant anyway. "You don't own the road. I'll walk however I want."

"All right, then, even if you weren't avoiding me," he conceded, then continued earnestly, "would you like to come over to my house this Christmas? My mum and dad really want to meet you."

"That probably won't work. I have to go see some relatives with Mum and Dad this year." She had actually made it up. As if she could go to Potter Manor—what would she go as?

"Oh, all right, then. I'll invite you again whenever you're free." James wasn't discouraged by failing to get the answer he wanted. He was practically an unkillable cockroach. Lily sometimes admired him for being so persistent. Every now and then, she would be moved by him, only for his stupid behavior to bring her right back to where she started.

"James, she turned you down again..." The other three Marauders emerged from another corner. Sirius leaned on Lupin's shoulder and looked teasingly at his good friend, who at that moment was like a dog whose advances had been rejected. "It's all right. I can invite her nine hundred and ninety-nine times. Maybe she'll accept my invitation on the thousandth."

"Good on you, James. You really are persistent. Persistence means victory. I'm sure you and Lily will end up together."

Sirius punched James in the chest. "Ow, why did you hit me so hard? Don't go! I'm punching you back." Furious, James raced after Sirius, leaving Lupin and Peter chasing hard behind them.

The corridor fell quiet again. Lily shook her head and turned back to her dormitory.

"Lily, have you finished your holiday homework?" Since the professors had assigned it a week in advance, Petunia had finished hers early. "I'm almost done. I still have one Potions Class essay."

Lily looked through her other homework. That was right, she had finished it all. She would finish the Potions Class essay later and hand it to Professor Slughorn in person. It was advanced work Slughorn had assigned specifically to her and Snape: an in-depth discussion of "The pharmacological system of Felix Felicis, difficulties in its preparation, and risk management."