Spring had begun a mere three days ago and Hogwarts had never looked more beautiful. Flowers bloomed everywhere and the feel of magic in the air kept the whole place feeling alive. This was the exact type of weather in which Lily Evans shined. Unfortunately, something else was plaguing her mind on this day.

"I just don't know what to do," The sadness in her tone was infectious and Severus could not help but feel bad for his best friend.

"She'll turn around," Severus offered. "I'm sure she will write soon."

"I highly doubt that. She hates me now."

"She doesn't hate you, Lily, she's just jealous."

"But I don't know how to fix that, Sev! How am I supposed to have fun here while Tuney is back home upset with me"

"I am sure, with time, Petunia will get over it eventually. You're just going to have to give her some time."

Lily sighed but nodded regardless. "I suppose you're right." They continued their walk until Severus stopped dead in his tracks.

"Look!" Severus said pointing towards a field ahead of them. "It's daisies!"

"Oh, Severus!" Lily said sweetly. "Do you remember the first time you showed me your magic? After I made that daisy bloom in my palm," her eyes shone as she stared into the field of flowers remembering that day.

"As soon as I saw that I knew you were like me. I remember how amazed you were when I told you about the wizarding world. And then you were so happy when you were finally able to understand your magic. I only wish I had noticed before you showed your sister," Severus trailed off, perhaps regretting mentioning Petunia, but Lily chose not to comment on that.

"Come on, Sev!" Lily shouted, pulling his arm to lead him towards the daisies. Somewhat reluctantly, Snape allowed himself to be pulled into the field and he sat down next to Lily.

"I miss the summer," Lily sighed. "It was so lovely hanging out in the meadow and by the old tree. It feels like just yesterday we enchanted all of those leaves by the pond."

"It was pretty amazing how you could do that"

"Oh please, Sev, you cannot give me that much credit." She paused as she pulled a daisy out of the ground.

"Lily you're brilliant, who else could I give the credit to?" Lily shrugged so Severus continued. "You are top of the class in nearly everything."

"That's not true!" Lily said blushing. "You're ahead of me in Potions, Remus is ahead in Defence Against the Dark Arts, James"

"Ugh, I do not want to talk about James. He's such a pompous arse."

"Trust me, Sev, I know, but you cannot deny he's exceptional in Transfiguration. Even McGonagall admits that and I'm sure she cannot stand him."

"With all the pranks they pull," Severus said. "I'm surprised they're even still here."

"They almost got expelled last week," Lily's tone was slightly too nonchalant given the subject matter. "Remus told me the day after it happened"

"Can't imagine he was too happy about it,"

"Actually, he wasn't involved."

"Really?" Severus mused, "I know he hates the pranks and all, but he usually takes the fall with the rest of those idiots."

"It was a bit more complicated than that," Lily grabbed another daisy to add to the flower crown she was making. "It was a bit tense between them, that's why Rem sat with me for most of last week."

"I assume they've all made up by now," Severus pressed.

"Oh of course," Lily said, slightly shocked that Severus even felt the need to ask that. "I mean after a few days, when Sirius and James were properly calmed down, they all talked it out. Now they're back to normal, except the rest of them are still working off their detentions and..." Lily trailed off as her focus was diverted towards the flower crown she had now finished. "Here!" She handed the delicate flower crown to Severus.

"You should wear it, Lily. You made it after all."

"Oh please," Lily placed the crown on his head. "I'll make another one," she said, pulling another daisy out of the ground. "I want to keep talking."

"Don't you have flying lessons?" Severus said, not wanting Lily to get in trouble.

"I'll tell Madame Hooch, I am not feeling well." Severus did not look convinced. "It'll be fine, Sev," Lily reassured.

"If you say so," Severus laughed easily, feeling slightly relieved that he could continue talking to Lily. "You know this kind of reminds me of the one night when you absolutely refused to go home for dinner. I thought your mother was going to kill me when I finally brought you back."

"I told you I should have just walked back alone."

"It was dark, Lily!" Severus exclaimed. "I could not just let you walk all the way home alone."

"Walking from the meadow home is not that bad of a walk, I've done it nearly a thousand times."

"It's a matter of principle."

"Wow," Lily joked. "What a gentleman, and yet you refused to come over for dinner when I invited you."

"I didn't think your family would like me. I know your sister wouldn't,"

"Please my parents would have loved you, just promise you'll visit during the summer?" Lily held out her pinky for Severus to shake, and he did so happily.

"Promise."

"Now you've got to keep the promise, Severus."

"I'm not the one who has trouble keeping promises," Severus laughed. "As I recall you are the one who went and got sorted into Gryffindor."

"It's not like I asked for it, Sev, but in all honesty, I like it in Gryffindor. I just wish you could be here with me."

"Me? In Gryffindor? It's bad enough Sirius was sorted there."

"What's so bad about Sirius being in Gryffindor?" Lily was genuinely curious, she still did not know much about the wizarding world.

"Well, Sirius' family is pureblood. Everyone in his family tree was in Slytherin, so it was quite the scandal when he was sorted into Gryffindor."

"Why does it matter though, just because his parents are both wizards."

"You just don't understand, Lily" Severus sighed. "Blood purity is pretty important in our magical history."

"Well, it shouldn't!" Lily was getting angry. "That seems so pointless, Gryffindor is just as good as Slytherin is."

"It's a little bit more complicated than that." The conversation trailed off and they sat in silence until Lily finished her own flower crown.

"Finished!" She said with a smile. "Oh gosh, what time is it?"

"I dunno, but I think it's about time we head up for dinner."

"Yeah, I'm probably going to skip out on dinner tonight. Besides I am supposed to be sick, right?"

"You should still eat something," Severus insisted.

"I'll meet you in the kitchen later then, how about midnight?"

"Perfect"

In usual Marauder fashion, they had already made up from their previous fight. Additionally, James, Sirius, and Peter had already worked off their punishments and the points they lost were nearly gained back, largely in thanks to Lily Evans' exceptional in-class skills. The only disappointment to come out of the whole fight was the announcement Dumbledore made the next day at dinner.

"In light of recent events, no first-year students will be permitted to bring a broom to school, effective at the start of next term," Professor Dumbledore had said. Luckily, no one knew for sure that the Marauders were behind this new rule, but they were fairly certain that everyone suspected them.

With their past prank well past them, the Marauders' focus shifted towards April Fools' Day. This was the third day in a row they had been holed up in the library working. The ever-present John Stebbins kept a watchful eye on them, but the boys continuously denied his help.

As they grabbed book after book and sketched hundreds of diagrams, the plan was very slowly coming together, but things were not working out as well as they had hoped. Perhaps it was just their stubbornness, but the boys refused to stop researching until they had figured everything out; never exiting the library, unless they had a class or it was a curfew.

Peter took to going from the Great Hall to the library delivering food to keep the boys satiated. It was a way for him to feel helpful, as he was not very proficient in pranking and the boys were extremely thankful to Peter for this. It seemed, however, those trips to collect food also put some suspicion on the boys.

"What are you up to in here?" Professor McGonagall inquired. Scrambling to cover the most incriminating graphs and diagrams, the boys were flustered.

"Professor McGonagall!" Sirius said, a little too loud for the library. "We were just- um..."

"Studying," John Stebbins finished the sentence and dropped some books on the table.

"Yeah, we– what?" James stared at John in confusion.

"They were... studying," the Professor was trying to piece together the situation. "What subject, pray tell?"

"Herbology," John said with confidence, holding up a book on plants to solidify the lie.

"We have a big test next week," Remus said, going along with the lie.

"Yes!" James agreed. "And Stebbins here has been helping us prepare for it."

"He has?" McGonagall seemed to be at a loss for words. Her intuition told her they were up to something, but it was so clear that this was an innocent study group given the facts. "Well in that case," she finally said. "Please continue, and John?"

"Yes?"

"Keep them out of trouble, will you?"

"Of course Professor," John said, it was becoming clear that he was an exceptionally good liar. McGonagall gave a curt nod and left, leaving the boys to collectively sigh in relief.

"Merlin's beard! That was close," Sirius said, laughing a little.

"Yeah," James agreed. "You really saved our arses, Stebbins."

"Just wanted to make sure your plans weren't ruined before they even started. I'm actually very excited to see what you guys are doing for April Fools' Day"

"I told you we could trust him," Remus said quietly to the table. "We owe you one, John." It seemed Remus was the only one who preferred to call John by his forename as compared to his surname.

"It's no trouble really," John said grabbing the Herbology books he dropped on the table.

"While you're here," Sirius said with a smirk. "Want to help us a bit?"

"Yeah! We're having a bit of trouble with that charm to use for this prank" James elaborated.

"Okay, well sure." John smiled pulled a chair from a nearby table over and sat down. "What's the issue?"

"This spell is going to need to reach the entire school, but we're unsure of how to adapt it for the large scale." John's eyes swept over the notes and sketches that were in front of him.

"You're going to need all hands on deck for this one, it cannot be just one of you or you will never pull it off." He moved some papers and read the page with the incantation. "As far as adjusting the words for the large scale, you just need to change unus to omnis and it should work fine, however, I would test that before you try it because I am also a first-year student if you guys have forgotten." John laughed.

Sirius was scribbling notes down, his growing hair falling in his face. "Got it, anything else we missed? We have a bad habit of missing things. We have been staring at these plans for several days now."

"Everything else looks good," John paused for a second and lowered his volume. "You guys are barking, you know that right."

"I thought you liked our pranks, Stebbins?" James said sarcastically.

"I do, but I've never seen anyone pull off anything this bold."

"Luckily for you," Sirius said, throwing an arm around the smaller Ravenclaw boy. "This is only the beginning." He threw in a cheeky grin for extra measure before removing his arm. "Now, we better get back to work, April Fools is soon."

"He's right," James said.

"And he's never right so we should probably listen." Remus laughed.

"That's harsh, Moony. Even for you," Sirius joked back.

"Moony?" John asked, confused about the nickname.

"Oh! Of course, you wouldn't know, Stebbins," Sirius smiled. "Moony is my nickname for Remus here because his name is ridiculous. In Latin his name is basically 'Wolf McWolf' Isn't that ridiculous?"

"I guess that is pretty funny."

"Oh Merlin, don't feed his ego, John." Remus groaned.

"Don't be coy, you love my nicknames," Sirius said.

"No comment," Remus deadpanned. "Let's get back to the prank," he laughed, pulling up a sketch of the plan.

"Boys," Madame Pince said, fairly loudly. "Not only are you far too loud, but you have fifteen minutes to pack up your things and go before the library closes."

"Shit!" Sirius muttered as he gathered all of the loose parchment into a pile and collected the scattered quills to put in his bag.

"I'll go put up these books, Rem can you go check out those four." He made a stack of his books in a hurry. "Oh, and Peter!" he half-shouted to get the boy's attention. "Go bring back the platter to the kitchen, I'd hate for the house elves to have to come all the way up here."

"Sure thing!" Peter scurried off with the remnants of their snacks. John was nearly dizzy watching the boys run their separate ways, working together like a finely tuned machine. Once they had all done their tasks they regrouped in front of the library.

"Thank you for your help, Stebbins," James was sincere.

"No problem, I hope this goes well. I mean after all the work you put in, how could it not."

"I hope so too!" Peter interjected quietly, and with that, the boys left in the opposite direction of Stebbins in pursuit of Gryffindor Tower. They were in for quite the restless night as they were so excited about the prank finally coming together.