17Lily went into her room checked her self in the mirror then grabbed her favorite bag (it was a gray
teddy with blue eyes and a zip down its back where you opened the bag, the straps were completely
covered by strings of badges that Lily had collected over time and pined there, everything from hippy
statements like
'give piece a chance' and
'I want to grow up not blow up' to badges with statements like
'chaos, confusion and destruction - my work here is done' and
'how can I miss you if you wont go away?')
There wasn't much room in it and it didn't exactly go with the tough army chick look but she wore it
any way, she grabbed her bank card out of the pocket of her jeans from last night and made for the
door.
She met James and Sirius in the hallway and they followed her. Lily flew out of the door to the Leaky
Cauldron and into muggle London; she made it to the nearest cash machine in record time and put in
her card. Just as she was typing in her pin code James asked
"What *is* that and what *are* you doing with it?
"Its kind of like a muggle bank" Lily explained,
"and I am drawing out all my muggle money to change into wizarding money and then I will open a
vault at Gringots and put it in there."
They nodded, it made since after all, and watched fascinated as Lily entered her pin number and drew
out her entire savings from birthdays and Christmases over the years (she had a building society
account that her parents had set up and paid into for her but she couldn't touch that until she was
eighteen) Lily's parents thought money was the answer to everything, that it could replace tactual
parenting, and they owned their own company do they had plenty of it, consequently Lily had nearly
£600.00 in her account (A/N: don't know what that is in $'s) she had £20.00 left that she had grabbed
from home and still had her mothers pin number so she drew out £30.00 from there leaving her with
her life savings of £650.00 hoping it would be enough Lily put it into her bag and made for the Leakey
Cauldron once more thinking that she would have to get her parents to pay her £25.00 a month
allowance into her back account by switch, so that when she needed money she could get what she
had saved that way.
Feeling satisfied Lily, James and Sirius got back to their rooms just in time to hear Mrs. Black call
"James, Sirius, Lily, come down please" and they did.
The entire group would go to Gringots first and split up after so with a wave to Tom they stepped out
of a side door and ended up facing a brick wall. Clearly unperturbed by this Mrs. Black stepped
forward and tapped her wand against a certain brick, and before the eyes of every one there a large
opening grew in the wall leading onto a busy street packed with shops children owls and adults, which
Lily guessed to be Diagonally.
Stepping through Mrs. Black led the way towards a magnificent white stone building, followed by
Mary then the Potter twins and Lily, James and Sirius brought up the rear. (Lucy had been confined to
her room at the Leaky Cauldron as part punishment for her behavior towards Lily)
They entered Gringots and were ussured through two sets of doors by a pair of quite intimidating
goblins with long nobly fingers hooked noses and beady suspicious eyes. Standing in the large marble
room on the other side of these doors Mrs. black gathered the children around them and began to give
out orders
"Right then, Mary and Sirius you stay with me and we'll visit our vault, James Skye and Blaze will
obviously have to go to their vault together and" she glanced at Lily and then decided "Lily dear you
come with us as well" so the two groups parted and Lily followed Mrs. Black towards a table behind
which a Goblin stopped taking notes in his ledger and looked up squeaking
"Yes?"
"I need to visit vault 276 and Lily hear has some muggle money she needs exchanging and putting in a
vault" Lily gaped at Mrs. black - 'how had she known?' but Mrs. black only smiled and continued
"then she needs to see if she has a family vault" Having nearly forgotten about this possibility the small
red head jumped, but remained silent, waiting.
"Very well" said the goblin, turning to Lily
"where is your muggle money?" Fishing in her teddy bear bag Lily produced the wad of cash she had
withdrawn earlier. The goblin took it and turned to a smaller goblin behind him, snapped some orders
they couldn't hear and turned back to them,
"your vault number is 314" and with that he handed Lily a small golden key,
"next," it continued briskly,
"to find out if you have a family trust vault step this way" the group followed the goblin as he took them
into a small marble anti chamber and instructed Lily to stand in front of a blank wall and state her full
name clearly.
Feeling slightly silly Lily stepped up to the wall and said
"Lily Flower Evens" and to her amazement a small golden key and a card flew out of a draw that
blended so perfectly with the wall no one could tell it was there.
The goblin caught the card in his long fingered hand and glanced at it and Lily caught the key, which
was very similar to that of her other vault.
"Do you have your key?" he questioned the blacks and Mrs. black nodded,
"this way please," said the goblin and they were off again.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
The rickety cart flew down a labyrinth of underground passages so fast every ones hair flew back from
their heads and streamed behind them, it was cold this far underground and the air was clammy, just as
it seemed their dizzying journey would never end the cart jolted to an abrupt halt outside a vault labeled
276 and they all stepped out. Taking a key from her purse Mrs. Black handed it to the goblin who
unlocked the door.
Inside were large piles of gold coins, the size of the ring made between the thumb and fore-finger of an
adult hand making the 'ok' sign, huge towers of silver coins as big as a fifty pence piece and tall mounds
of bronze coins about the size of shirt buttons, Lily gasped awed at the sight as Mrs. Black brusquely
filled two money bags with coins giving the larger one to Sirius as he would have a lot of things to by
to start his first year and then they all climbed back into the goblins cart and it sped off down the tracks.
The next stop was a vault labled 'family vault 87' and again they all piled out the goblin with them
looked expectantly at Lily and Sirius nudged her and whispered
"Give him your key"
"Oh yes right" she said and handed it over.
For the second time a vault door swung open and Lily saw mounds of coins, not as many or as tall as
the ones in the Black vault, 'but then she thought, that is all their money, and all mom and dads wages
and stuff go into a muggle bank account so its no wonder they have more' pleased with her self for this
deduction Lily looked back to the fair amount of money sitting in the open safe and looked helplessly at
the coins, as always Mrs. Black was in complete control of the situation and she stepped forward with
a third money bag and scooped some of the gold coins into it then she added a handful of silver and
the same of the bronze then gave the almost full bag to Lily who put it inside her teddy,
"You can leave the key to your other vault in here if you want Lily dear" advised Mrs. Black gently,
"Oh, yes, thankyou" said Lily and put the other small gold key next to a pile of large god coins, the
goblin made a few notes on the card that had flown out with the key and then pocketed both card and
key and went back to the cart.
It was a relief to be back up in the warm summer air and on firm ground not the rattling cart and here
Lily Sirius Mrs. Black and Mary met up with the potters
"Right then" said Mrs. black getting their attention
"Skye and Blaze I suppose you two will want to go shopping together, so just don't spend to much
and be back by six" the potter boys nodded grinning and left the bank, next the older woman turned to
the three soon-to-be-first-years and said Mary and I will go together do any of you want to join us?"
"No thankyou" they chorused
"I thought so, well don't get into any trouble and stay together and be back by six thirty, as you will
have more to get"
"Bye" they called as they hurried out of the back followed by Mrs. Black and Mary.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
"So where do you want to go first?" asked James when they got out into the bright sunshine again
"Don't look at me," Lily said
"Lets get the boring stuff first, so I say we go to madam Malkins and get our school robes"
This sounded like a good idea so they all set off in the direction of a shop with a large gold pair of
scissors above the door.
Soon all three were standing side by side on stools with people fussing around them, pinning up their
robes and making sure they fit.
"Ow!" exclaimed James as he got a pin stuck in his ankle
"Don't wriggle!" advised the kind faced lady working on his robes, and the others laughed.
"So after here lets go to 'Flourish and Blots' to get our books that way we can get all the heavy things
and dump them in our rooms before doing the rest." This was Sirius most sensible comment of the day
and he beamed in pride as they agreed with him.
Pretty soon they all jumped down to from the stools and went to pay for their robes but here Lily had a
problem when she was told the amount and reached for her purse she realized she didn't know what any
of the coins were called but Sirius came to her rescue
"The large gold ones are galleons, the silver ones are sickles and the bronze ones are knuts"
Nodding gratefully and smiling at Sirius and making him blush Lily quickly paid for her robes ant they
left.
True to their word their next stop was 'Flourish and Blots' but before they got there James asked,
"Did anyone bring their school list?"
"Oh no, that would mean being organized and possessing more than half a brain cell" said Lily smiling
"I'll go get mine now" and she ran off back the way they had come.
A few minuets later she returned panting and red in the face she fanned her self with the piece of paper
she'd run to fetch as they entered the mercifully cool bookshop.
"Hogworts?" asked a passing assistant and Lily handed over the paper saying
"Yes please, three sets"
"Wait here then," said the man and he walked away.
Looking around the store there eyes lighted on a stack of novelty parchments and Sirius picked up a
role that encrypted everything you wrote and could only be read if you had the pass charm (like a pass
word bit it's a charm) otherwise it looked just like a harmless piece of home work or scrap paper.
James picked up a role that made everything you wrote disappear and could only be read by the writer,
Lily found a 'rubber' that animated what ever you wrote or drew.
Putting their finds into their baskets they continued to look around; Lily saw a book on magical
creatures called 'from hinky-punks to hippogriffs - a complete guide to everything you need to know
about magical creatures'
she opened it and as she was flicking through she found a spell to summon fairies, she read it over and
over trying to memorize it, she studied the explanation of the wrist action involved and how to
enounceate the words, the book said it was a third year spell but only because you had to be able to
cope with the creatures you could end up summoning if you get it wrong.
Sirius was looking through a book with a large black dog on the cover called 'death omens - what to do
when you know the worst is coming' and James was very interested a thick volume about animagi called
'Animagus - a transformers guide' he was having a lot of fun trying to guess what he would be if her
were to become and animagus, he thought it would either be a stag or a bear depending on whether he
would call himself 'out going and courageous' or 'fierce and brave'.
Just then the assistant came over with three stacks of books levitating behind him, he put one set of
books in each of the children's basket handed Lily back her list and smiled at the three before walking
off to help a long faced woman who's son looked to be about their age, the boy was quite tall and
fairly thin he looked tired, old before his time, his eyes were gray blue and he had a disheveled look
about him.
The children added roles of parchment, bottles of ink and quills to their already full baskets along with
the books each of them had been looking at and a bottle of exploding ink a bottle of multi color ink a
bottle of luminous flashing will-write-on-any-thing ink some edible ink in three colors/flavors and some
trick quills, some writing paper envelopes and a wax seal each. Dragging there over flowing baskets
over to the till the children eventually left with much lighter purses and much heavier hands.
"Lets go dump this lot in our rooms then get an ice cream," suggested Lily and they all nodded and
walked back towards the pub.
They were on their way to Florien Fortiscues ice cream parlor the passed 'Quality Quiditch serplys' and
it was as if the boys were magnetically attracted the window to press their face against it along with a
lot of other excited children all staring at the new 'Midnight Arrow'
(A/N: my new friend and author of an amazing fic called:
'Naturally Amazed' so I advise all of you to
READ IT')
Lily looked at the broomstick for a while, she couldn't wait to learn to fly but she had never heard of
quiditch so she decided to go in and look around.
Inside it looked a lot like a muggle sports shop, there were hangers holding 'quiditch robes' with a sign
saying 'support your teem in style - the best dressed in the stadium' and Lily assumed that this was like
buying the replica strip of your favorite football teem or something.
Glancing around some more she found some small boxes said to contain something called 'a golden
snitch' and even Lily with her limited knowledge of wizarding money realized these were *expensive*
Next to these were a lot of boxes that shook and wobbled a lot and what ever was inside them was
called a 'bludger', and after that boxes containing something called a 'quaffle'. A book on a stand by
the door called 'Quiditch Explained' caught her eye 'explains the game from the most basic game-play
to the best teems in the league and their strategies' Picking it up, she took it over to the counter to pay,
deciding that as quiditch was clearly a popular sport in the wizarding world that she would like to
understand at least something about it, next to the counter was a display table with what looked like a
lot of armored rounders bats on and a sign saying 'quality beaters bats only half price with every
quaffle you buy.
Putting 'Quiditch Explained' in her bag she walked out of the shop and went looking for James and
Sirius.
Having eventually dragged them away from the window for fear their noses would go flat Lily sat with
James and Sirius at Florin Fortiscues eating an ice cream Sunday,
"I can't wait to try out for the quiditch teem in my second year, shame first years aren't allowed,"
said James for the third time and Sirius nodded excitedly (Quiditch had been the main…well the *only*
topic of conversation since they had left 'quality quiditch serplys')
"What about you Lil? Do you want to try out?" Sirius asked her
"I don't really know anything about quiditch and I have never flown a broom before in my life"
this admission turned out to be a *BIG* mistake, Lily regretted saying that almost a soon as the words
were out of her mouth, the boys launched into a tumult of flying tips and quiditch rules and Lily hoped
they weren't going to tell her *everything* about the game after all 'Quiditch Explained' was quite thick
and she had a feeling that it would take a *long* time. It didn't help of course that the two boys kept
going off at a tangent and arguing about Ronald the Tornado or Fredric the Bulldozer would be more
useful on a teem if they were playing against the French seeker Piers De Natalmont.
After that topic was *finally* exhausted and there ice creams were finished they decided to go and get
their wands.
On their way to Olivanders they met the Potter twins who, for want of anything better to do, decided to
come along too, on there way into the shop they saw Mary and Mrs. Black and they decided to join
them as well, so understandably it was fairly crowded inside the dusty wand shop. Mr. Olivander
greeted them all and recited the type of wand that each of them had bought from him then turned to the
three children
"Ok, who's first, ahh another Potter" he turned to James "come here please" nervously James stepped
forward and Mr. Olivander took a very strange set of measurements then bustled off into the stacks to
find a wand, the first one he waved did nothing and nether did the second or third but the forth one
gave them all a surprise, James gave it a half hearted flick in the general direction of a discarded wand
box and to everyone's surprise where the wand box had been was now a perfect tiny replica of the
Midnight Arrow (A/N: remember people, READ HER FIC!) every one clapped and James looked
stunned Mr. Olivander said
"Most can only make sparks but you seem to have a particular talent for transfiguration"
"And obsession for quiditch" muttered Lily under her breath as Mr. Olivander put James's wand into a
new box and turned to Sirius.
Sirius definatly made sparks! On his second attempt green sparks rocketed from the end of his wand
directly at the miniature floating broomstick and it turned completely lime green, *luminous* lime green
and gold writing appeared on the opposite side to where it said 'Midnight Arrow' which read 'Property
of James H. Potter' again everyone clapped and Mr. Olivander boxed up the wand. Lily was very
nerves, she was sure that she wouldn't even be able to make a puff of smoke let alone change a box
into a broom stick or turn something lime green, but then she remembered the summoning charm in her
book on magical creatures from 'Flourish and Blots' and decided she *Would* learn how to call fairies
to her, and with that thought in mind she stepped bravely up and for a third time the measuring tape
took its strange set of measurements then as Mr. Olivander disappeared into the stacks again,
Lily thought furiously: she knew summoning wasn't turning something into something else so it wasn't
transfiguration and she didn't think fairies were dark creatures so it probably wasn't Defense against
the dark arts and it obviously wasn't potions or history of magic and it could be care of magical
creatures but she thought that was more hands-on so probably didn't evolve much wand work so she
guessed it must be charms, she wanted a wand that was good at charms.
Finally the wand shop owner came out holding a box from which he took a wand saying
"9 inches, swishy, good for charms work"
'Charms' Lily thought desperately this *had* to be the wand for her, the wand that would help her
summon fairies, she took it and without thinking flicked her wrist in the exact action described in the
book she had bought and to her shock tiny fairies flew out of the end of her wand streaming up and
out lining the sealing and landing on peoples heads. Lily didn't understand how this could have
happened after all she hadn't said the spell for the summoning and she had expected them to fly in not
come out the end of her wand, but then she realized that her fairies were ice cold to the touch and
popping like bubbles when they touched things and diapering as they flew out of the door, they were
illusions, illusions that looked like fairies because that's what she had been so concentrated on, she
laughed out loud as her new wand continued to spew beautiful shimmering 'fairies' in all the colors of
the rainbow people were stopping in the street to stare in through the window at the amazing cascade of
color.
Finally Mrs. Black took out her wand and said
"Finite incentartem' and the fairies disappeared.
"No prizes for guessing what Lily was thinking about" quipped Sirius as they paid for their wands
"Yeah" said Lily laughing
"but if James was thinking about quiditch and transfigured a broomstick and I was thinking about fairies
and made illusions of them come out of my wand what where you thinking about when you got sparks
that could turn stuff lime green?"
"Ahh" replied Sirius in his best 'misty all-seeing' voice
"that is one of the mysteries of the grate unknown"
"I sometimes think *you* are one of the mysteries of the grate unknown Sirius!" Said his mother
walking up behind them
"its nearly six any way where have you got left to go?"
"On wards ever upward mother!" cried Sirius earning himself some strange looks from a passing
group of elderly witches
"there is always some where else to go"
"Very profound!" said Lily dryly but I think she ment where else do we need to go to get our school
things" Sirius looked ready to give another 'patented Sirius answer' when James cut in
"Just the apothecary and maybe the magical menagerie and that's it"
"Ok well the rest of us are finished so don't be to long will you?"
"No, we wont" they all said and set off in the direction of the apothecary.
"I am glad we left this place till nearly last I would hate to carry this stuff around all day" said James
glancing at the disgusting smelling ingredients the long faced assistant was ladling out, indeed the stink
rising pickled frogs liver in brine was making them all feel quite queasy. Once they had paid for their
potion ingredients (which were thankfully wrapped up in a smell-proof bag) and bought a standard size
one puter cauldron and set of potions tools each they stepped out of the shop and headed towards the
magical menagerie,
"Maybe I shouldn't have bought that new set of gob stones" wondered Sirius "I really want an owl but
I don't know if I have enough left" he was looking through his nearly empty money bag
"Yeah" agreed Lily "I am beginning to think that wizards chess set wasn't such a good idea either"
"Mm" nodded James "possibly buying those exploding quills was a mistake"
"Its getting dark and we defiantly don't have time to go back to Gringots now" groaned Lily.
It appeared that all of them wanted a pet and non seemed to have much money.
They stepped into the menagerie and found they probably would have just about enough money maybe.
They each bought an owl, Lily got a small white one, James got a black and brown one and Sirius got a
handsome tawny eagle owl, but just as Lily was paying foe her owl a tiny black kitten only big enough
to curl up in the palm of even Lily's exceptionally small hand, she could only have been a week old,
wobbled unsteadily across the stained counter top. Lily fell in love with the tiny black and white
creature at once and turned to the owner of the shop, a tall woman who looked to be in her mid
twenties with sun streaked mousy brown hair and laughing eyes, and said
"How much is she?" and the woman saw Lily sorting through the few knuts she had left and asked
"How much do you have?" counting Lily replied
"One sickle and 7 knuts"
"Well you can have her for that," the lady said kindly and was rewarded as Lily's jade eyes lit up with a
dazzling smile and she impulsively ran over and hugged the lady.
"Oh *thank you* Lily cried almost crying in happiness
"She doesn't have any magical abilities mind," warned the lady blushing
"What is your name?" asked Lily of the lady who replied
"Olive Night" in a baffled voice as though she couldn't work out what difference it made
"Night!" She exclamed looking down at the kitten which was gently nudging her hand
"That's perfect. I will call her Night!"
It seemed to suite the small kitten and it mewed softly in agreement.
The woman blushed again and waved them out of the shop.
They returned to the leaky cauldron and put their owls and the rest of their packages in their rooms and
were all sitting in the room James and Sirius shared when Mrs. Black walked in
"How much money have you got left?" she asked them
"None" said James and the other two nodded
"And what about money you will need at school? Or on the train ride there?" the children's faces fell,
they hadn't thought of that, but strangely enough Mrs. Black was still smiling and seeing them look
confused reached into a pocket and drew out three more money bags and tossed one to each of the
children,
"I got these from your vaults after Blaze and Skye did exactly that same thing and had to go back to
Gringots themselves"
The next instant all three leapt at her and hugged her tightly chorusing there relived thankyou's.
Mrs. Black laughed softly and said
"Well best get ready now, dinner will be in five minuets" and she left.
Leaving everything in their rooms (except Night who stayed in Lily's pocket) they all went down stairs.
Sitting around the table they discussed their day and Lily noticed that Lucy was still confined to her
room and must be eating there. When they had finished Mrs. Black said
"Now don't be up late tonight all of you we have to be out early tomorrow remember, your train leaved
at nine!"
There were assurances from each of them that they would be ready on time the next day and they all
hurried back to their rooms
"So what about this detention competition?" asked James, all three were settled in the boys room,
Lily was flicking through her new charms book and practicing wand movements and Sirius and James
were playing gob stones
"What?"
asked Lily dreamily; the tone of her voice told them she wasn't really listening so, in an attempt to liven
her up, picking up a loosing gob stone James threw it at Lily just as it squirted the disgusting smelling
liquid it always did when some one lost a point
"Eugh!" screamed Lily as she began to chase him around the room they trod on things and knocked
things over and only stopped when Sirius in a rare sensible moment pulled them apart.
Once they were settled down again and glaring daggers at each other Sirius said
"The detention competition! You know? Where you try and get as many detentions as possible in a
year?"
"Oh yeah" Lily said, "I remember, what about it"
"Well" said James "me and Sirius want in too, so we figured we ought to draw up some rules"
"Ok," said Lily "firstly only detentions got through pulling pranks count"
"Fair enough" said James "but we should have two tallies, one for as a group, coz, lets face it that *is*
when we are going to get most, and then one for detentions got separately or in pairs"
"Ok, agreed" Sirius said
"but we need a name!" Seeing their blank faces he said,
"you know? If we are getting detentions as a group don't we need a collective name?"
"Alright what about …um…mischief makers anonymous" suggested Lily and James laughed out loud
"fine then! She snapped if your so clever *you* think of a name"
"Ok what about…um Pranksters incorporated" this time Lily laughed but then Sirius cried
"Flower power!"
"*WHAT*?!" exclaimed the other two but Sirius just shrugged, after that they tried everything
from
'the Hogworts three' to
'only joking' and back again but disregarded them all.
They still had no idea what they were going to be called when Mrs. Black stuck her head around the
door and said
"Come on now, time for bed" then stepping into the room she looked around at the after effects of Lily
and James's little scrap and exclaimed
"Heavens to goodness! She exclaimed throwing her hands in the air it looks like a heard of rhinoceros
have been marauding through here!"
The children looked at each other, it was as if a light had come on behind each of their eyes; they stood
for a moment staring joyfully at each other then:
"THE MAROUDERS!"
they yelled together grinning triumphantly.
And so the first steps to forming the greatest prankster organization in the history of Hogworts were
taken and they went to bed knowing that tomorrow was another prank filled day.
(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
"Oh, Lily?" called James after her retreating form "have you cut your hair?"
Rolling her eyes and pretending not to here Lily unlocked her door and walked into her room,
"*Boys*" she muttered shaking her head.
_
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