Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Have a nice day!” Professor Weatherly called, opening his classroom’s door for the sixth years to leave, “And, as it’s your first day in my class this term, there won’t be any homework tonight.”

Lily Evans smiled as she picked up her books and prepared to leave for lunch. No homework meant more time to catch up with her friends, whom she had missed a lot over the summer. Let’s just say Petunia wasn’t great company, and she didn’t want to even think about talking to Snape after their encounter last spring. Besides, Slughorn's annual welcome home party was tonight, so there really wasn't time for homework anyway. Perfect.

She stood up and exited the classroom, lost in her thoughts and completely unaware that a boy was following her until his hand grabbed her from behind, pulling her into an empty classroom.

Lily’s reflexes snapped in immediately. The second the door was shut she had her wand out and against her kidnapper’s throat.

“Woah, Evans, no need for that.” The boy smiled and flipped his hair while stepping back from Lily’s wand.

“Potter, what the hell?” She sighed, realizing who it was that grabbed her. "Look, I have to get to lunch. And in the future, don't pull me into empty classrooms."

James stepped in front of her, blocking the door and, running his hand through his hair, said, “I was just wondering if you wanted to have dinner together sometime.”

Lily stepped around him, snapping, “We’re in the same house. We have dinner together every night.”

“No, Evans, just you and me, like a date. Please?”

“Goodbye, Potter” She turned to go, done with the conversation.

“Evans, wait. Is that a no?”

Lily stopped, straightened her hair, and turned to face James once more, “Of course it’s a no. It’s always been a no and will always be a no. When will you understand that I will never ever go out with you? Please just leave me alone, Potter!”

“Evans, you’ve got to work with me here. Come on. One date. Just one.”

His persistence had stopped being charming in the middle of third year. “I’ve turned you down, what? fifty times? When will you understand that I just don’t want to?”

“At least you counted.” James smirked, ignoring Lily’s increasingly annoyed tone.

Lily shook her head in disbelief. “You are suchan arrogant prat!”

James's brown eyes suddenly grew cold. He didn’t like insults. Especially when they were true. “Oh yeah, well at least I’m a likable arrogant prat. You have one friend. Alice? And even she has a boyfriend. You have no one, Evans, so you might as well just say yes to me.” He was no longer talking with his “inside voice”.

And neither was she. “Oh, you’re going to insult me, now, Potter? This is really working in your favor. I may only have one good friend, but I guarantee none of those girls you hang out with actually like you for you. Even your stupid ‘marauder’ best friends could surely do better. Except wait. They’re just as bad as you aren’t they? ”

“Don’t you dare talk about my friends like that.”

“I’ll say whatever I want. I bet they don’t even like you. I know I wouldn’t.”

“Oh we all know how much you don’t like me.”

“But you do like me, so clearly I’m not all that bad.”

“Would you shut up, Evans?! You’re the most annoying girl, no person, I’ve ever had the discomfort of talking to!”

“You started the conversation! In fact, you started the conversation by asking me out.”

“Well I regret it now.”

“Oh do you? Cause I bet you’ll do it again. Probably tomorrow!”

Both were now so absorbed in the argument that neither noticed a third person slip into the room and behind a desk. By the time James became aware of other eyes on him, the girl had already yelled “expelliarmus” and quickly followed up with body binding charms.

The intruder then skipped over to stand above them, “I was hoping to run into you two! But, you know, I bet I never would have found you if you hadn’t been so terribly loud.” Bellatrix Black cackled, unfolding what looked like a page from a text book, “Dear Severus has been up to his old tricks again, you know, making new spells and whatnot, so I nicked this one out of his book in mid-June, and I’ve been just dying to test it. I wasn’t sure what two people to use it on, but, after some consideration and a summer of jealous ranting from Sevey, I found the perfect couple. I can’t wait to see what it does. Hmmmm, let me see ‘duoseptimanasimilemauiny’” She smiled, returning her gaze from the paper to the pair in front of her.

But to her immense disappointment, they appeared unchanged, except both had their eyes closed and were breathing heavily. Definitely unconscious. After waiting a good ten minutes, Bellatrix began to realize that nothing else would happen and left for her next class. “Stupid spell” She muttered, "if I wanted them unconscious I would have just hit them."

*

By the time the two woke up, lunch was long over, and they had each missed plenty of classes. However, that was far from their minds, well James’s at least, when they realized what had happened.

Both woke at the same time, eyes flying open. Lily’s first thought was to wonder why she was on the floor. Her second thought was to wonder why she was looking at herself. She blinked, then blinked again. And she was still looking at a real, 3d version of herself, who appeared equally confused. But the facial expression on its face was not one of her's.

As the realization of what was actually happening hit her, she screamed, loudly and bloodcurdling, and the scream came out in a much deeper, rougher voice than it should have.

James, on the other hand, didn’t say anything. He just slowly raised his hands to touch his ponytail. Yep, it was the long red hair he so often doodled on the side of his notes. He was definitely in Lily Evans’s body. Ok.

He lowered his hand and returned to looking into his own face, which was frozen in horror.

Both fell silent.

For a long time.

Until Lily eventually found something to say. “I think we should visit Dumbledore.”

“Hold on,” James said slowly, standing up next to her, testing his new voice and legs, “Bellatrix said it was Snivellus’s spell, right? Dumbledore wouldn’t know anything about it. I think we should go to Snape first.”

“And you know where to find Snape?” Lily asked, seeming to agree that his idea was probably best.

“Yeah, but, um, I'll need to go by my dorm first”

*

A short ten minutes later had James rushing down the common room steps exclaiming, “He’s in the hospital wing! I had forgotten that Sirius set him on fire this morning!” He didn’t spare Lily a glance as he strode out the portrait.

Lily sighed and jogged after him, appreciating her new athletic body. “You guys set him on fireagain?”

“Yeah, he was being annoying.”

“Well I’ll talk to him, then, seeing as how he likes me a lot more than you, especially in a time like this.” Lily stated.

“Yeah, but you look like me, so I’ll do all the talking.” James smiled, realizing all the advantages that came with being Lily. While James was much more loved by the school, Lily was the more respected of the two.

“Okay, but after we explain that our bodies have switched, and he realizes who he’s talking to, I’ll take over.” Lily explained, as she opened the door to the hospital wing.

Fortunately, Snape was the only one in the room, lying on a cot in the far end. James, approaching him, snapped, “Snape, you had better start talking. And I mean now!”

Snape, lost in thought, quickly returned to reality, “Lily?” he gasped, sounding hopeful, despite James’s mean tone, “Um, what do you mean?”

Lily sighed and pushed James out of the way, deciding to give it to Snape straightforward, “Severus, I’m Lily, and he’s James. Bellatrix used one of your new spells on us, and we woke up in each other’s bodies. Now how do we fix it?”

Snape froze, and then slowly tried to form words, “My spell?” he asked, “but how did Bellatrix…I…shit. The body swap charm, it wasn’t…I…”

“Severus. We need answers”

His face fell, “Right, um, sorry. Well, I never tested it, but, um, in theory, it should, um, well…I designed it so that each person that knows about it, other than the victims and the caster, would add a week to the length of the curse. So, because you told me, you have a week from the day you were cursed for it to wear off…I think…” He trailed off, not liking the looks on their faces, “other than that, it should be unfixable. At least that was my goal. All it does is move one person’s consciousness into the other person’s head and vice versa.”

“Wait a second, a week?!” James exclaimed, “This week?! This is practically the most important week of the term, and Lily is stuck in my body the entire time?!”

“Um, yes?” Snape replied, hating the look on Lily’s (James’s) face, “but it probably won’t be the full 168 hours, only about 156. You’ll most likely wake up next Monday as yourselves.”

“This cannot be happening,” Lily began, “I have a life. I have school. I can’t just put it on hold because I’m in someone else’s body!”

“Well what can we do, Evans?” James asked.

“You.” She turned on him, “This is yourfault. You pulled me into that classroom!”

James’s face shifted from helpless to offended, “Oh, I beg to differ. Bellatrix said she was looking for us! She would have found us one way or another, and, you know what, it was you who started the argument in the first place.”

“Would you please-” She stopped, turning to Severus, “Hang on, if we hadn’t told you, how long would the curse have lasted?”

Snape blanched, which was very hard to do considering how pale he already was, “Um, you would probably be turning back now. It was only supposed to last an hour from the time you woke up…”

James turned around and walked out of the room, long red hair swishing behind him.

*

When Lily found James again, he had a calendar in front of him, and his head in his hands. Alice, her best friend, was trying to comfort him, completely oblivious to the fact that he was not Lily.

“Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone.” She asked James.

“Leave her alone, James. Can’t you tell she’s really stressed right now?” Alice responded for him, being the best friend she always was. In any other circumstance, Lily would have hugged her. But this was not any other circumstance.

“I was talking to Lily, Alice. Let her answer.” She tried to sound as calm (and as Potter-like) as possible.

Alice snorted, “Lily? Do you really think calling her by her first name will help your case?”

“It’s okay, Alice. Really. I actually do need to talk to Ja- Potter” James stood up, sighing. “Let’s go for a walk.”

*

“So, um, you haven’t talked to my friends yet, have you?” James inquired hesitantly, rounding a turn in the garden.

“No, but I see you’ve talked to mine. And let me tell you, Alice is the best person you will ever meet. Do not bother her, do not insult her, and don’t ask her about me. I don’t want you to know any of my personal information unless I specifically tell you about it.”

“Don’t worry, Evans. I’m already in your body. I think I can get much more personal with you in other ways.” He smirked.

Lily did not. “Potter! No. We are setting up boundaries, right now. You will not look, you will not touch, you will not do anything at all that involves my body, and I’ll give you the same respect. ”

“Fine, but I mean, I’ve still got to shower and stuff, unless you want the whole school talking about how bad you smell.”

“Ugh. Do what you need to and nothing more.” Lily ordered, cringing just thinking about it, “And I’ll do the same”.

“Well now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I need to talk to you about my friends. We’re stuck like this until next Monday, just to confirm, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well, my friends, and I have many…secrets, I guess, that they will expect you to know about and, well, most of the time I’d advise you to remain quiet. You know what? Can we just go ahead and stay like this for a month so I can tell the rest of the marauders?”

“Potter. No.”

“Please. It’s actually really important that they know. Could we maybe just tell Sirius and get one more week?”

“Potter, I will not be stuck in your body one second longer than I have to be, much less a week longer and absolutely not three. You are telling no one. And I mean it.”

“Fine,” he sighed, knowing it never would have worked. “I just ask that you don’t report us to the ministry or Dumbledore at the very least…”

Lily turned to look at him. “What the hell are you boys doing that requires the ministry’s attention?!” She accused, looking him straight in her dark green eyes.

“Um, well, I’ll tell you Thursday, as you’ll need to know Thursday night, but I’m not telling you before then ‘cause I still have hope that we’ll be turned back.”

Lily could only stare at him and hope for more answers.

“And um, other than that, it’s just minor stuff. This week, we’ll be planning all of our major welcome back pranks on the other three houses, which, yes, you will have to participate in. You’ll also have to help out in a Hogsmeade run to get supplies for the rest of the year. Um, we often invade the kitchens and sneak out late at night using a map that Peter currently has and my cloak…which turns the wearer invisible and is under my bed. Don’t tell anyone about either of them, please. We’re not exactly supposed to have them. I mean, the cloak is mine, but it’s complicated.” He trailed off, unsure as to whether he covered everything. They did a lot of illegalish activity, now that he thought about it.

Lily still hadn’t stopped staring at him, though. She slowly opened her mouth to speak, and the words that came out were not exactly said in a positive tone. “So you are telling me that, one, I’ll have to help play illegal pranks on other houses which McGonagall has told you time and time again you have to stop, meaning I will also have to serve detention for you? Two, I have to sneak down to Hogsmeade, which I firmly believe is impossible as you’d have to get through the front gates which are always locked and then steal supplies for you and your friends, ‘cause I hardly doubt Hogwarts students could go to the register and not be noticed. Three, steal more food from the kitchens whose location is unknown. And four, use some kind of illegal map and illegal cloak. Plus some mysterious- probably cultish- thing happening Thursday night?! What in Merlin’s name are you boys thinking?”

“That we want to have fun…?” Potter responded, causing Lily to stomp on his foot. “Ow! You’re hurting yourself, you know.”

“Shut up! What time is it?”

“5:03” James checked his watch, a muggle item his father had bought him on a business trip. “Dinner’s in an hour.”

“Okay, I’m trying to think of anything I need to tell you.”

“I don’t think there’s going to be much, considering you don’t really have a life.”

“I do too have a life, you toe rag! I will have you know that I’m actually attending Professor Slughorn’s welcome home party tonight! I guess you wouldn’t know about that, since you don’t do too well in potions.” Lily snapped, refusing to think about how the situation would now affect her potion’s grade.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’d want to go to Sluggy’s party anyway, though I bet it’s super-duper fun! You and all the other nerds get together to talk about how awesome it is to mix potions! I wouldn’t want to miss that!” His voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.

“Well I’m glad because you’re going tonight, whether you like it or not. And you will not speak except when you have to and, when you do, try and sound like me. I know you’re not intelligent or any-”

“I will have you know I made O’s on all of my exams last year. Every single one. So watch who you’re calling unintelligent.” James cut her off.

“Then act like it, for the love of God. I will not have my professors thinking I’m starting the school year by slacking off! I’m really trying to get head girl next year, and you cannot lose this for me!” She massaged her temples, “Why don’t we try and trade homework every night, so that we actually do all the work. The only thing we really have to worry about, I guess, is tests.”

“Evans, I just told you, I made O’s on all of my exams. I’ll do fine on your tests.”

“Great. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go talk to all your teachers about the classes you missed today, and I highly, highly recommend you do the same. Unless you want to keep bragging about your one and only achievement?”

“The O’s are not my one and only achievement! I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain this year for the second year in a row!”

Lily paused and turned around, “I have to fly?!” She looked panicked. Writing an essay she could do; flying on a broom, not so much.

“You have nothing to worry about. The first game isn’t until October and practices don’t start until next Monday night, I’ve decided. In fact, the only thing you have to do is…dammit…tryouts are Saturday. Do you know how to fly?” He dared to ask, already trying to figure out how to make tryouts work.

“Of course. I took flying first year!”

“And how many times have you flown since then?”

“Um. None?”

“None?! Not even in the summers?”

“I’m a muggleborn. Summer is the least likely time for me to fly. I don’t even own a broom.”

“This is unbelievable. You have to be able to fly on Saturday. You’re the bloody captain!” James sighed and looked pointedly at the ground. When he looked up again, he had a hint of determination in his (well, Lily’s) eyes, “I’m going to teach you. Every morning starting tomorrow at 5 am. The rest of the boys won’t be up until 7:30 for their classes. They’ll never know.”

“Woah, woah, woah. 5 am? No way in hell am I waking up that early for you.”

James actually looked hurt, “Lily. Please. Sirius is going to expect you to hang out with him and fly sometime in the next week. It’s a tradition. You’ve got to learn, and you have to be fantastic. That’s what he’ll expect from me.”

“At least you’re modest.” Lily mumbled. “Fine, I’ll do it. If only to help you’re little bromance with Black.”

“Hey!”

“Anyway, don’t forget Slughorn at 8 tonight. I’m going to get ready for dinner, since I now have no time to talk with teachers.”

“You’re a guy now. You don’t ‘get ready’ for dinner’”

“Fine, then I’m going to hang out with your friends for thirty minutes.” Lily spun on her heel and walked off, not listening to anything James sputtered after her.

*

“Hey, guys” Lily said, walking into her new dorm, which, as would be expected, was already littered with every kind of trash imaginable.

“Prongs! Where have you been all day?” Sirius exclaimed, hopping off his bed and rushing over to Lily.

“Yeah, we couldn’t find you at lunch.” Remus piped in. “Peter here just about had a nervous breakdown.”

“Well, yeah.” Peter retorted, “You said you were going to ask Lily out and then you disappeared for half a day. We had no idea what to think. I was a bit scared you offed yourself after she said no, again.”

“Oh. Um. Well, she did say no, but, I wasn’t too upset by it. I just had to stop by Dumbledore’s office to, um, talk about my new…Quidditch Captain duties…” Lily trailed off. She had never been a good liar.

“The most unbelievable part of that story is that you weren’t at all upset by it. James, you’re always devastated when she says no. No way you’re fine this time.” Remus snorted. “Where were you really?”

Ignoring the fact that her refusals upset James, she repeated, “With Dumbledore. Really.”

“Sure, and I spent the day with that super-hot seventh year Ravenclaw girl.” Sirius dramatically flipped his hair.

“Padfoot,” Peter replied, “You did spend the day with the super-hot seventh year Ravenclaw girl.”

“Oh, did I already tell you that? It was a really great day!”

“Yes, you told us. Twice.” Remus sat up “Though I guess Prongs didn’t know, since he was ‘with Dumbledore’ all afternoon.” He still looked suspicious.

Lily figured it was safe to assume that James, for whatever reason, was “Prongs”. She drastically tried to change the subject, pulling out something James told her earlier, “So, first week pranks. Any ideas?” Her plan worked. Quite well actually.

“Only a million!” Sirius laughed, jumping back onto his bed. “But here’s the one I want to do tonight. James already knows this, but I found a spell over the summer that is basically like an Avada Kadavra for locks. A more powerful alohomora. No matter how sealed it is, it will open. And, thanks to our lovely map, we know exactly where the Slytherin Quidditch Locker Rooms are.”

“Okay, liking it so far. Continue.” Remus prompted.

“Well, let’s say 11 pm tonight, we go on down there and have a look around. Before I moved in with James this summer, I got to hear quite a lot about some plans and supplies that the Slytherins were stockpiling there. I say we put a curse on the locker room that makes everything inside it burn when touched. Any better ideas? James?”

Lily hesitated, so shocked that James let Sirius live with him that she almost missed the question, “Um, no. Sounds awesome.” She hoped that was something James would say.

“No, it does not!” Sirius laughed, “Burning is so cliché. There has got to be something better. Come on, James. Think.”

“Um, we could make everything they touch turn into…a bouquet of flowers?” She cringed, aware of how terrible her idea was.

“Still got Lily on your mind? Though, really, I do like it. Very…unexpected…”

“Yeah, I like it too. Operation is a go?” Peter asked.

“I say yeah. James, you wanna be in charge?”

“Um, no thanks. I’m not really feeling up to it tonight.”

The other three paused, turning to look at James, until Sirius spoke, “Ok, then. I guess I’ll lead tonight. Um, Moony, since you’re so good with transformations, I’ll let you search for spells.”

“Haha, very funny.” Remus deadpanned. “On it, though.” Lily was so out of the loop.

“Wormtail, I’ll leave you to taking care of the technical stuff, like watching the map and scouting out the place beforehand. After dinner, perhaps?”

“Sure thing.”

“Prongs, you can go cry in the bathroom about Evans, and I’ll make sure everything runs smoothly.”

Lily laughed, “I do not cry about Evans.” She said with confidence.

“Yeah, you definitely weren’t in the bathrooms sobbing for a full hour last spring.” Remus replied, piling his first night’s homework on his bed, "The Great Rejection of Fifth Year: Part Seven."

“Wait, I cried over her?!” Lily gasped, before catching her mistake, “I mean, yeah…I cried over her…you know…that one time…”

“More like once a term at the very least. You sure you're okay? You know we're always here for you. We can go to Hogsmeade tonight if you need to.”

"Um, that's alright. The prank'll probably help me get in the right mindset..." She was shocked.

“I hate to interrupt this conversation about James’s love life, but it’s time for dinner, lads. Actually, it’s five minutes past time for dinner. The school will be waiting for an appearance from the marauders.” Sirius stood up, checking a watch that matched James’s.

Had Lily been in her own body, she would have laughed at the implication that the school would be waiting for the marauders. Unfortunately, whether she laughed or not, the statement would still be true. They were kind of big deals around campus. To use a horribly overused phrase, girls wanted them, and boys wanted to be them. It was another reason Lily hated them.

*

Meanwhile, in the dining hall, James was sitting next to Alice as she yammered on about Frank and how terrible it would be after he graduated this year but how much fun the year would be and how great her classes were and just about everything else under the sun. Alice liked to talk, which was good because James wasn’t feeling up to it.

So instead of listening, like he should have been, James had his eyes glued to the door, waiting for Lily to walk in with his best friends. When the food appeared on the table, and they still weren’t there, he began to fear the worst. Every second felt like a year. What could they be talking about? What if they told her something? What if they found out, and he had to spend a whole month in Lily’s gorgeous body (which would actually not be so terrible)? But what if Lily had to stay a month in his?

Nine and a half minutes after the food appeared, the marauders finally showed up, the doors flying open as they walked in. And, low and behold, the entire great hall did, in fact, turn to watch their entrance. It wasn’t just anybody who could get away with being late to dinner. Even the professors did nothing but watch the four boys swagger over to the Gryffindor table.

“Hey, can we sit with Lil-Evans and Alice, tonight?” Lily asked, hopefully. That way she would be able to keep up with their conversation.

“You want to sit with the girl who turned you down earlier today?” Sirius was skeptical.

“I rebound quickly?”

“You’ve got that right.”

*

“Hey, guys” Lily said, sliding into the seat across from James.

“Lily, Alice.” Remus nodded.

Sirius stared at James, wondering what had gotten into him, but, realizing that he would just have to bug James about it later, he turned to the more pressing matter at hand: who they were sitting with. Unfortunately, James had a claim on Lily, and Alice was already dating Frank, so there wasn’t much to work with. “Hello, ladies,” he began and could have sworn that Lily rolled her eyes. “How are you both doing tonight? You look lovely, as usual.” He grinned.

James had never been on the receiving end of Sirius’s charm before and found the whole exchange very amusing. “Why thank you, Sirius. You look rather handsome.” He could get used to this. Being a girl was fun. Some of the fun stopped, though, when he saw Lily’s glare at him. Right, flirting with Sirius was a very un-Evans thing to do. “For you, I mean, which is not actually handsome.” He quickly added. However, the boy had never been good at holding his tongue. “James, though. Now, James. You are h.o.t. hot. Have I ever mentioned that? I mean smokin’ and the way you ride that broom…wow. I mean, the talent that you possess is extro-”

“Thank you Evans, that is quite enough!” Lily demanded. Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Alice exchanged looks. That was very, very un-Evans like. And Un-James like as well.

“Lily…” Alice was the first one to speak up. “Are you okay…? I’m pretty sure you don’t like Potter. No offense meant, by the way.” She turned to look at Lily.

James winced at that comment and replied, “Eh, I think I’m coming around to the guy. One of these days, I may just give him a chance.” He looked up into his own face and couldn’t suppress a laugh when he saw the degree to which his eyes were bulging. “You okay, Potter?” he asked, winking.

“May I talk to you? Privately” Lily inquired.

“No. Anything you need to say to me you can say in front of Alice and your amazing friends.”

“Fine.” She hesitated, trying to think of anything to say. “Guys, um, today I sorta hexed Evans, and it didn't work like I thought it would. She’ll be fine, though, just saying some out of character things from time to time.” Lily improvised. Oh how she wished she was a better liar.

“You did what to her?!” Remus gasped, pulling James closer to him so that he could whisper, “James, I know you like the girl, but this is a step too far. You can’t just hex people to like you when they don’t.”

“I know, I know. It was a mistake, and it won’t happen again. I promise.”

Sirius leaned forward to join the whispered conversation, “Mate, how long does this last? Evans is going to murder you once it’s over. You may want to start running now.”

“Yeah…” Lily trailed off, thinking about her reaction if that truly had happened. Potter would most likely not be able to ride a broom when she was done with him. “Um, it’s really temporary. In fact, I can’t believe it’s lasted this long…” Though she hated James, she still didn’t want him to be in too much trouble with him friends.

“If you say so…” Remus sighed.

Alice still hadn’t said anything.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, enjoying the first non-banquet dinner of the year. Dessert was especially amazing, and Sirius made a mental note to run down to the kitchens later to get the leftovers. It wasn’t every day you could have the legendary Hogwarts pudding.

“As much as I hate to interrupt the silence, which I know is rare for you boys, I have to ask, have any of you done the transfiguration homework yet? I was working on it earlier, and I can’t seem to figure out question twelve, the one about the mouse and the broomstick.” Alice spoke up, igniting a new conversation.

When they left the dining hall that night, James and Lily lagged behind their friends. “Don’t forget Slughorn’s party. Please please behave yourself!” Lily hissed, watching the others to make sure no one was listening.

“I didn’t forget already!” James protested, “And you had better meet me on the quidditch pitch tomorrow morning. 5 am sharp.”

“Are you guys talking?” Peter asked, turning around to see what was going on behind him.

“No.” they both replied. One calmly, the other not quite so calm.

“Oh they were.” Sirius remarked, grinning.

James put on his best snobby face and remarked, “I would never talk to that beast in a million years.”

“Oh really, Evans” Lily replied, “Well, I…” she hesitated, “well I want you to go to Hogsmeade with me!”

“Never!” James cackled, enjoying his new role before realizing that he should have said yes. Damn.

“Are they okay...?” Peter whispered, mostly to himself.

Remus, however, heard the remark and answered, “I don’t know, but I think it would be best if we just keep walking.”

*

When they got back to the common room, James settled down in a comfy chair, only to be reminded by Alice that he had to go get ready for Slughorn’s gathering. He wasn’t exactly sure what getting ready entailed, as he always went to everything looking like he already did, but he heeded her advice all the same.

There were five 6^thyear girls in Gryffindor and, thankfully, all were decent human beings. The group included Alice, Mary, Jessica, Lily, and Amelia, and, as James prepared to head into his new dormitory, he was able to locate all of them in the common room. He would have the dorm alone.

After making it up the girls’ stairs successfully for the first time ever (he and Sirius had often tried), James found the sixth year rooms and cautiously entered. The first thing he noticed was that it was much bigger than his own room and that was definitely not okay. Sure they had one more person, but he was a marauder. He would have to have a word with Dumbledore after this was all over (though he didn’t know how he would be able to explain knowing the size of the girls’ room).

The second thing he noticed was how bloody clean the whole place was. It was absolutely spotless, and, undoubtedly, Lily’s doing. The red-head’s bunk was easy to find and, after a quick search of her possessions, he felt he could locate anything in a moment’s notice.

Flipping through her pictures, he discovered that a) rumors were true and muggle pictures do not move and b) Lily had a sister. It was surprising, really, how little he knew about her life.

Actually, the only thing he did know was that she was best friends with Alice and extremely uptight about everything, but he lovedtolerated her just the same. James figured he would have to ask Lily about herself on their flying date (because it definitely was a date no matter what Lily said) the next morning.

James decided to stay in his Hogwarts robes because, had he still been a guy, he would have gone in his Hogwarts robes, and, believe it or not, he would feel a little guilty undressing Lily’s body when it wasn’t completely necessary. He did have some morals. However, he did try to put on some makeup before failing horribly. Getting ready was something he found he did not enjoy.

The one thing he could do, though, was brush her hair. Not surprisingly, James Potter had little experience with brushes, so, the fact that he found brushing Lily’s hair enjoyable came as a big shock. But he had always loved her hair and had often longed to run his fingers through it, as creepy as that sounds. Now it was all his, and he could feel it as much as he wanted. Sirius would have laughed himself to death had he seen how devoted James was to it.

Speaking of Sirius, he and the rest of the marauders (including Lily) were in their dormitory frantically preparing for their prank later that night. Three of them had textbooks open, searching for the best spells. Sirius, never having opened a textbook in his life and never planning to, had a hand drawn map and notes in front of him, where he was sketching the details of the plan.

Though Lily hated mischief of any kind, she did have to admit that it was slightly fun planning to do something like this. For her, there were no consequences; the marauders never got caught, and if they did, they always got away with an easy punishment. Besides, any punishment they did receive would go onto James’s record. And, it wasn’t like she could just not participate. She had to do it to keep the secret, she told herself. Looking down at her watch, she noticed that it was already 7:50.

*

James made his way through the winding stairwells, determined to only stay at Sluggy’s party for as long as he had to in order to make Evans look good.

When he got there, he decided to be most unlike himself, and Lily for that matter, and hang out in the back of the room, only speaking if he had to. After all, it would be better for people to think Lily was behaving strangely than for people to figure out that he was not Lily at all; if all of Slughorn’s twenty or so favorites found out, he would be stuck in her body for a looooong time.

“Lily!” Slughorn exclaimed when he finally laid eyes on James, “So great to see you! I just got word that you were taking Advanced Potions, and I couldn’t believe it! Well actually I could!”

“Hi Slug-Professor.” James caught himself, wondering when Lily had potions. Needless to say, he did not excel in that particular class, “Um, how was your summer?”

“Marvelous! I attended seven Quidditch matches, though I spent most of my time in Asia, visiting some of my previous students who live there now. It’s a very interesting place. You should go sometime. There were these rock formations in a little village quite unlike anything I had ever seen before. I even tested them, and you would not believe it: not a single potion eroded the rock away. Not one! Really you must come with me next time!” Slughorn continued, directing James and other students over to the table.

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.” James stated, moving over to the seat marked “Lily Evans” while hoping that Slughorn would not seek him out again.

*

“Got it!” Remus declared, only half an hour into their search. “A spell to turn anything into flowers. You can even pick the kind you want.”

“Fantastic!” Sirius applauded, “I believe we’ll have to do lilies, just for James.” He grinned

“Oh, you really don’t…” Lily began

“Yes we do!” Sirius laughed, “You got rejected again today and hexed the poor girl. We must. Think of it as a sort of pay back for all the times I've had to hear about her, since I live with you now.”

“We all live with him now.” Remus pointed out, “But I see your point. Sorry, James, but I second the vote. Lilies it is.”

Sirius nodded, smiling, “Right, then. If you’ve got the spell, I’ve got the plan. Wormtail, how’d it look when you checked it out?”

“It was all clear, should be a pretty easy job.” Peter reported, having arrived back five minutes earlier.

“James, do you seriously have nothing to add?”

Lily froze, cursing James for being so involved with his friends, “Um, no?”

“You’re not going to even make a joke about me using the word seriously?”

“…No?”

Now Remus joined in, “Mate, who are you? I think our Prongs must have been killed by Lily earlier today…”

Before she could stop herself, Lily responded, "Ha! Lily wouldn't.”

Sirius laughed, “Well that got a reaction out of him!” at the same time that Remus exclaimed, “Lily?! She’s Lily now?!”

“Sorry, um, Evans. I meant to say that, uh, she’s a...cold-hearted monster, but, like, she wouldn’t kill me…” She was a failure. A complete and utter failure.

Now Peter spoke up, “Now you sound even less like yourself. You only ever call Lily those things to her face...”

This time Lily was truly left speechless. Today she had found out that a) James cried about her, b) he talked about her all the time, and c) he didn’t actually criticize her behind her back. Literally what?!

While Lily was lost in these thoughts, Remus went to go confer with Sirius about other possible curses to use on the Slytherins’ possessions. He had found several great ideas in one of his textbooks.

*

“Lily, we haven’t heard much from you tonight! How was your summer vacation?”

James hesitated. "It was fine." It probably was.

"Come on, we need more than that!"

James, silently cursing both Slughorn and Lily, began to form a web of lies about Lily’s summer. “Well, um, I spent the first few weeks hanging out with my sister who I don’t get to see very much. She’s a muggle, so she’s always very interested in Hogwarts. Then we went on a vacation to the French countryside for the next week and a half where we went horseback riding and swam and other muggle activities that I don’t want to bore you with. After that, my sister and I attended a camp in the north where…” He continued, hoping he was getting at least some aspects right. It was how he had imagined Lily’s summer, at least.

When the story was done, he answered countless questions all while trying to memorize every response he gave so that Lily could defend this story later. He knew he could forge pictures if need be. By the time the conversation moved onto a Hufflepuff talking about her visit with the Minister of Magic, the dessert was out.

James glanced around, relieved to find that only Snape was staring at him. And Snape knew what was happening, so all was well. Good.

*

Thirty minutes later, it was time for them to leave. James said what he hoped sounded like a sorrowful goodbye and practically ran all the way back to Gryffindor tower, trying to avoid conversations with any other Gryffindors in Slughorn’s group.

When he reached the common room, it was going on 10:00, which meant curfew. Everyone was making their way back to their dorms, completely exhausted from the first full day. Either that or they wanted to catch up with their roommates. James wished he could catch up with his (though they hadn’t actually been apart for very long). He decided that after he was back in his own body, he’d have to tell the rest of the marauders all about how they completely thought Lily was him for a full week. It would all be hilarious, he was sure.

As he made his way up to his room, James fully realized what curfew meant. Time to shower and change for bed. Damn.

When he entered the room, Mary was already changing clothes, and he couldn’t help but stare, causing Amelia to ask if he was alright. He was being a teenage boy, which was bad. He had to think like a teenage girl. Better thoughts. Okay. Be good. Yes.

“Oh, um, I’m fine. Totally fine. Just, um, Slughorn bored me to death. I’m so tired I can’t see straight. Was I staring? Sorry.” Lame.

“No biggie.” Mary replied, “I know how you hate Slughorn’s get-togethers.”

Evans hated Slughorn’s get-togethers? James thought. How interesting. She always bragged about them.

“Yeah, right.” Pause. “Is the shower open?”

“Go for it.” Alice answered. “I’m going to bed.”

“Thanks.”

“Enjoy.” Amelia nodded, climbing into her bed and drawing her curtains.

“Yeah, good night.” Jessica muttered, doing the same.

The other two mimicked their actions, leaving only James standing in the room. He sighed and creeped over to their unfairly large bathroom. He really would have to talk to Dumbledore about this sizing issue. He closed and locked the door behind him before turning the water on. Taking a breath, he flung off his robes, had a bit of trouble getting the bra off, and stepped into the shower, looking anywhere but down. He would not do this to Evans. He had promised.

And he didn’t look or feel or do anything of that nature. Not at all. He was a perfect gentleman. But even the most perfect gentleman in that situation couldn’t help but notice how pretty Evans was, he thought. She really was beautiful. But no. He wouldn’t stare, he wouldn’t look, and he wouldn’t touch. NO. HE HAD SELF CONTROL.

And with those thoughts in mind, he quickly washed his hair, ran a bar of soap (his hands never touched) over the rest of her, jumped out of the shower, and tried to dress himself.

Once dressed, he really was proud of himself; everything he had ever fantasized about was within his arms reach, literally, and he completely resisted the temptation. Gryffindor deserved at least fifty points for that.

*

Meanwhile, across the tower, Sirius stood up. “It’s half past ten. Everyone should be in their rooms by now. Get your cloak, James, and, Peter, the map. Let’s move.”

The other three boys stood up at once, and Peter produced a piece of paper from his pocket. They waited expectantly by the door, looking at James. “Oh, right. The cloak. One sec.” Lily realized, reaching under the bed. After only a short time of feeling around on the ground, her fingers stumbled upon something that felt vaguely like cloth. She pulled it out and couldn’t contain a gasp. This cloak was the real deal.

Before she could turn around to announce her find, Peter began to talk, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” Lily wasn’t sure what he meant, but, when she turned around, the piece of paper was unfolding, revealing a map. A map of Hogwarts. A complete map of Hogwarts. A complete map of Hogwarts that showed where every single student in the building was currently located. Lily was stunned. To say the least.

“Let’s go.” Sirius said, gesturing for the cloak.

“Right,” Lily muttered, stepping closer and throwing the cloak over herself and the other three boys except... Peter was....no longer a boy. In his place stood a rat.

She screamed. Oops.

“Woah, mate! What’s the problem?” Sirius asked frantically, while Remus tried to calm her down.

“He’s…he’s…a…he’s a…” she sputtered. Holy shit.

“Yeah?” Remus asked cautiously, not quite sure what was wrong with James. He decided to spell it out for him. “You know he has to go into this form when we use the cloak. It isn’t big enough for four of us." He picked up Peter and placed him in his breast pocket.

Lily still stood shocked, unable to believe that Peter had turned into a rat. He must have done animagus transformation illegally, which, to be honest, was extremely impressive. She took a deep breath, calming herself down, “Sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I think it, um, must be sleep deprivation. Sorry.” Another horrible lie.

“Deprivation? That’s a big word, especially for someone who screams at rats.” Sirius smiled, trying to move towards the door. He now held the map, struggling to fit it under the cloak. “Coast is clear in the common room.”

*

Ten minutes later they made it to the Slytherin quidditch locker room hidden in a wall of the pitch. They had successfully avoided everyone as they snuck down and, for the time being, the coast around the locker rooms was clear as well. Remus was the first to step out of the cloak, putting Peter down as he did so. Peter quickly became a human again, completely unfazed by his transformation. Sirius followed and, finally, Lily too came out from under the cloak and looked around, unable to believe what she was doing.

Quickly striding over to the door, Sirius hissed a spell and, with a flick of his wand, they were in.

*

Thirty minutes later, they were out. The whole place had been charmed from top to bottom. Most items had been charmed to become lilies whenever they were touched. Some, though, had special charms. Take Bellatrix’s broom for example: when touched, it would give the toucher greenish pimples all over their body. It was Lily’s personal comeback to the situation Bellatrix had put her in. After all, Severus had designed that spell too.

Surprisingly, the actual act of committing the crime had been relatively easy in comparison to the research beforehand. Though, needless to say, the marauders were incredibly proud of their handiwork.

As they walked back to the common room underneath the cloak, Remus whispered, “I call first shower” reminding Lily of her impending doom: the showers.

When Remus walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, Lily quickly walked in, having spent the past few minutes pointedly avoiding looking at Sirius as he walked around their room without a stitch of clothing on. She looked around the bathroom and noticed that it was a tad smaller (but really very close to the same size) than hers and contained quite a lot of hair products labeled as “Property of Sirius. DO NOT TOUCH.”

Sighing, Lily started the shower and began to get undressed. She did just as good a job as James at avoiding looking or touching or anything else. Yes, she admitted to only herself and no one else ever, Potter was incredibly good looking, but so were plenty of boys and looks was all Potter had in her book, though the page about Potter was quickly evolving.

An hour after James went to sleep, Lily emerged from the shower, ready to get some sleep of her own.

*

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.” James’s charmed alarm clock whispered into Lily’s ear. She sat up with a start and looked around, remembering where she was. The other three boys were asleep and the alarm clock read 4:35. Damn Potter for making her wake up this early.

Always punctual, Lily arrived at the practice fields at exactly 5 am, using the invisibility cloak as assurance that she wouldn’t get stopped by any teachers. James was already there waiting for her.

“Good morning.” He said brightly.

“Peter’s a rat.” She replied.

The smile dropped off his face. “Oh. That.”

“Yes, bloody that. What the hell are you boys doing? You have the cloak and the map, you practice all kinds of untaught spells, and, on top of all that, I had to break into Slytherin’s quidditch locker room to help play a prank. You had better have some good explanations for this.”

“I missed that prank?! Shit! I was really looking forward to it! What exactly did you do?” James didn’t even care about her accusations.

“We cursed their stuff to turn into lilies every time they touch it, but that isn’t the point! The point is that you all seem to have no problem going around Hogwarts rules and Wizarding laws like they aren’t even there!”

“Damn, that’s a good one. I’m sorry I missed it. You ought to know that the second one of the term will be coming up, and that’ll be a really showy one. We always use it to attract attention.”

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?! Peter is an illegal animagus!”

“Keep your voice down.” James sighed, realizing he could no longer avoid the problem at hand. “Look, it was a matter of convenience. Peter’s a good guy. Please just let it go and don’t tell anyone.” He decided that he wouldn’t tell Evans everything until Thursday, when she really needed to know. It was better to let her get used to a quarter of the problem first before dumping the whole thing on her.

“Fine.” Lily huffed, still not entirely convinced. “Now are we going to do some flying or what?”

James held up two brooms in the place of a response.

Lily reached over and grabbed hers, attempting to mount it. James sighed and put out his hand to steady her, trying to ignore his pounding heart. “You want to get on slowly. Focus on your balance. Yeah, just like that. Now think of yourself as weightless and let yourself slowly rise. Don’t be afraid of flying or the broom will know.” he coached her as she began to get on it.

And in as little as twenty minutes later, Lily was sort of in the air.

James turned to his own Nimbus 500 and hopped on in one smooth motion. “Ok, so keep rising and when you think you’re high enough, try moving forward by leaning very, very gently. A little more. Yes, like that.”

The lessons went on for nearly another hour, with Lily eventually being able to fly to heights as great as twenty feet, almost halfway to the first row of the stands.

“Oh, I almost forgot to ask,” Lily said as they made their way back up to the castle together, “how was Slughorn’s party?”

“Miserable! Hated the whole thing. But, lucky for you, I am an excellent liar, and I wrote down everything I said about you so you could repeat it later.” James pulled out a folded piece of paper from what Lily hoped was not his (rather her) bra. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Lily muttered, glad that he had done what he was supposed to for once, skimming it. “Oh, thank goodness no close friends were there. You literally know nothing about my life, do you?”

“Hey, I thought I did a pretty good job! And it’s not my fault I don’t know about you!”

“‘My sister was waiting for me at the train station and couldn’t wait to hear about every detail of my year’????”

“What’s wrong with that?!”

“My sister hates me! And she hates Hogwarts and the wizarding world far more than me!”

“Now I know that’s bullshit. I saw those pictures of you. You guys don’t hate each other.”

“You were looking through my stuff?!” Lily’s face (technically James’s face) was bright red with a variety of emotions, “And I’ll have you know that it is very easy to smile for a single picture together and then continue to pretend like you’re an only child for the rest of the time! I would know; I’ve done it since I was eleven”

Silence.

“Goodbye Potter." She stormed ahead to the common room, angry that she lost her temper in front of him, especially over her family, something she rarely mentioned.

Glancing at her watch as she made her way to the boys’ rooms, she saw that it was 6:12, giving her plenty of time to shower and get ready before the others would wake up. And she was right; only once she finished her shower, got dressed, and began brushing James’s hair did Remus slowly sit up, rubbing his eyes.

“You brushin' your hair?” He asked, in awe of what he was seeing. “I must still be asleep.”

Lily paused, setting the comb down. “Um, no. I mean, I was wondering if it would make any difference. I prefer my hair all natural, though. Yeah...”

“Of course.” Remus smiled. There was a reason why he was Lily’s favorite marauder. “I guess it’s time to wake up the others. Why are you up this early?”

“I guess I’m just excited for school. I want to see the Slytherins’ reaction to that prank.”

“Ah, they probably won’t notice until they next go to fly. It’ll be a little while.” Remus stood up and moved over to Sirius’s bed, muttering a spell that shot water at him.

“Ahhhh! What the hell, mate?” Sirius growled, water cascading off his head.

Remus smiled, chanted “Morning,” and moved on to Peter.

Maybe James’s friends weren’t so bad.

*

Meanwhile, James was doing about the same thing. He had showered, dressed, and now considered himself ready to go. When the clock struck 7:00, he started waking up his roommates, assuming that was usually Evans’s job. It always seemed to go to the most responsible of the roommates. And the second the girls started criticizing him for letting them sleep in too late, he discovered he was right.

“We have an hour until classes?! This is going to be the fastest breakfast ever!” Jessica looked appalled.

“Never mind the non-morning person, even I’m going to be late! Liiiily!!” Mary complained.

He knew they weren’t really mad- it was all sarcasm-but he still felt bad. He hadn’t done his job, and he didn’t do what Evans expected of him. But instead of showing all this, James shrugged and mumbled something about heading to breakfast.

*

James ate breakfast alone, realizing that all of Lily’s friends were still panicking about the hour they had with four people needing to shower before class. Sitting there, watching Lily with his own friends at the other end of the table, he thought about what she had told him.

He knew he and his friends were trouble, and, hell, he was proud of that. Her acknowledging it just made him prouder. But Peter. That was a problem. He knew she would find out Thursday night, but he still had this far off hope that they would change back by then. She absolutely could not know about their secret. It was bad enough Snape knew. At this rate, the whole school would find out.

And then the other thing she told him. Who knew perfect Evans had a troubled family. Her sister seemed like a real bitch. He desperately wanted to meet her- he knew some truly awesomeawful spells. But, seriously, that kind of environment was not okay for Lily and, if he was anything, it was protective. He wondered what the odds of his parents taking in another child were. Probably not good, but maybe he would ask. Or he could always just marry her.

God, what had this girl done to him.

*

After breakfast, the sixth year Gryffindors had History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs. Being unlike himself, but very much like Lily, James got to class twenty minutes early.

“Welcome, Lily,” Professor Binns greeted, “How are you this year?”

“Oh, hi.” Why was everyone on such good terms with her? “I’m doing great. How are you?”

“Oh, the same. I can’t wait for class this year. We’ll be doing magic from 1790, where your class left off last year, to 1930. It’s a very busy period of history. Domestication of dragons is a huge topic.”

“Fascinating.” It was not.

*

Five minutes before the class began, the rest of the students slowly started showing up, saving James from the torture that was Binns’s unofficial lectures. Who knew the redesign of the quill in 1792 led to the beheading of some powerful muggle named Louis? James knew. Now.

“Welcome, students.” Professor Binns began, launching immediately into his official lecture, which, to be honest, wasn’t much better than the unofficial one.

A few minutes in, Remus leaned over to Sirius, “Hey, do you notice something going on with James?”

“Um,” Sirius hesitated, “Oh, God, he’s taking notes.”

“Yeah. Something’s been really off with him.” Remus whispered back. “He was odd last night, too.”

Sirius looked around the room, wondering what could possibly compel his friend to take notes for the first time in the five years that they'd had this class, “Oh shit, look at Evans. She’s not taking notes! Do you think they made some kind of deal?”

“That must be it. Maybe she agreed to date him if he took notes for her? No, that can’t be right… It could possibly be payback for the hex?”

“Huh”

*

The rest of the day went by rather smoothly, with James accidentally blowing up a cauldron in potions (“How unlike yourself!” Slughorn exclaimed), walking into the boy’s bathrooms (“Hey, honey, what’s up?”), and greeting Sirius (“You okay, Evans?”).

By dinner, he was doing well. “So, Alice, how was Care of Magical Creatures?” Lily didn’t take the class, thank god.

“Oh, pretty good, actually. Professor Snootflank just got back from a project in North America, where she worked with some new species they recently found. It was very interesting, for once. In fact-”

“You little shits!” A voice from down the table bellowed, completely interrupting the conversation.

Upon turning, James found that it was a fifth year Slytherin, a boy on their quidditch team whose name he couldn’t remember (not remembering the Slytherins’ names was something he prided himself on). He watched as Sirius smirked and stood up, “Oh, angry are we?” Oh how he wanted to be by Sirius’s side.

“Don’t look so smug. I will go to Dumbledore, and if he doesn’t make you leave the school, my parents will.” The boy growled, strutting away. Bellatrix could be seen in the background, looking slightly green.

Sirius turned around and received high fives from all the other marauders, including Lily, while the rest of the house roared with laughter. They were unworried about the boy's threat.

“It seems they found our prank.” Remus laughed, “But I doubt he even knows the full extent of it. The next few days in the lives of the Slytherin Quidditch team will be interesting ones.”

James slowly turned back to his conversation with Alice, knowing he could do nothing to help his friends.

*

“Okay, so operation SQLR, Slytherin quidditch locker room, was a great success that will only continue to get better, despite our impending detention notices. I say we now start planning our yearly prank #2, the attention bringer. Now, we need something showy, something that will make all the other students and faculty recognize our superiority. James had a great plan the other week. James?”

“Huh?” Lily asked in a panic.

“What is with you? You usually lead these meetings, now you’re not even paying attention?” Peter gasped and when Peter notices the unusual, something is definitely up.

“Ummmm, that’s because I really have to go to the bathroom. Be back in a moment.” Lily stood up and walked out of the great hall, hitting James on the back as she walked by, hoping he knew to follow her.

When she reached the hallway outside the great hall, she stopped and turned around, happy to see that James was standing up from his table and heading her way.

“Hey, what was your ‘brilliant’ plan concerning the showy prank? Sirius wants to use it.” She said when he approached.

“Oh!” James laughed, very, very glad to be of service, “to be honest it wasn’t even that brilliant. I just said we should go down to the kitchens and put red and gold colored food dye in all the food and drinks. I also said we needed to incorporate our names somehow, but I wasn’t exactly sure. My theory was that we could get a big cake commissioned for the teachers that read, “Yours, Peter, James, Remus, Sirius.”

“Thanks. Gotta go.” Lily said, spinning around on her heel and marching back into the great hall.

“Evans, wait!” James whisper-shouted after her. Needless to say, she did not stop. Of course she didn’t want to talk, he thought. Why would bodyswapping have changed that?

*

The marauders accepted the plan immediately and set the wheels turning to have it ready by dinner the following day, Wednesday.

After dinner, Remus ran by the kitchens to ask the house elves if they’d do it. “How may I help you, sir?”

Remus grinned, loving the house elves, “Hey, Envly, Dumbledore wanted me to tell you that tomorrow’s dinner needs to be all red and gold. Can you do that?”

“Of course, Master Remus. Anything else?”

“Yes, if that’s okay. He’d like a cake for the staff table reading ‘Yours, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter’ – do you need me to write that down?-also in red with gold frosting around it. Dumbledore wants it to be a big surprise, so if you could keep this between the house elves, it would be great. Actually, don’t even mention it to Dumbledore. He really, really wants to keep it a secret.” Somewhat of a magical creature himself, Remus hated abusing the house elves, but this was for his house and his friends, and it really didn’t put too much of a burden on them. In fact, as the elves had told him on many occasions, the more they had to do, the happier they were.

“Of course, sir. Thank you, sir” Envly walked away, not taking him up on his suggestion of writing the words down for the cake.

Remus sighed with relief, knowing the house elves would follow through, and headed back out through the pear portrait and to the library, eager to start on his Muggle Studies homework.

The rest of the night, for both students, was fairly normal. Homework was done, gossip was shared, and subtle appreciation for their counterpart grew.

*

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.” James’s alarm clock chanted once more. Sighing, Lily slowly climbed out of bed, wondering why oh why she let Potter talk her into these early morning practices. She slipped his quidditch robes on and began to walk to the pitch.

However, she did not have to walk far alone, “What the hellare you wearing?!” Lily nearly ran into James in the common room as he also prepared to walk down to the pitch.

“Oh, I found this in your clothes drawer. The girls' regular school robes were awful yesterday and, for some reason, you don’t own any quidditch robes, so I resorted to muggle clothes.” He stood proudly in a sports bra and athletic shorts.

“You couldn’t put on a shirt?!”

“I mean, I couldhave, but that’s no fun. Then I wouldn’t get to see your angry face. Besides, Evans, you’re pretty hot dressed in this.” He spun around, showing off every angle.

Lily’s face turned the color of her usual hair, “If anyone sees you in that, they’ll know immediately that it’s not me!”

“But no one’s going to see us. This is Hogwarts; who’s up before 6:30?”

“Um, most of the girls. We get up a bit earlier than you lazy twats”

“Language, language. Fine, we’ll be done earlier. I’m sure the girls have seen you in bras all the time. It’ll be fine.”

Lily huffed and turned to exit the common room with James trailing behind her.

*

“Ok, now swing a bit to the side. Yes, like that. A little smoother. Hmm, sit up a bit straighter. Lean forward. Annnnd, go!” James shouted, watching Lily take off straight for the stands. “Slow a bit and curve up. You’re getting it!” he cheered.

Truth be told, James had decided that he loved these practices with Lily. It was only the second one, but it was already the highlight of his day. Lily was so determined but so bad at flying that it really was an interesting hour. Her facial expressions alone were enough to make him fall for her over and over again. If he wasn’t sure of his feelings before, watching her slowly learn how to do his favorite thing in the world confirmed them. Ugh.

Turning around, Lily saw his smile and smiled herself. She was still very bumpy but was getting the hang of it, “You’re a better teacher than Blygh!” She called, referring to their first year flying teacher, Professor Blyghtly.

James smiled wider, trying not to show how much he appreciated the compliment, “No, I’m not; You’re just a good student.” He quickly flew over to join her. She had only needed five minutes to get in the air today.

“Race you?” she asked.

“To the Hufflepuff stands?”

“You’re on!” Lily took off laughing, barely moving fast at all. Potter was actually an okay guy, she thought.

“Hey, no fair. You got a head start!”

“Yeah and you got a five year head start!” Lily was still only about fifteen feet in front of him but quickly gaining speed and distance.

“With your body!” James had already caught up.

“Good point.” Lily leaned forward trying to keep the lead, despite her lack of flying talent.

There was mutual silence the rest of the flight, each glancing at the other to figure out how to proceed. Lily kept trying to maneuver ahead, occasionally losing her balance, but every time she did, James would fly up to join her and stay side by side, keeping her safe and not allowing her the advantage. For this exact reason, it ended in a tie.

“Why didn’t you just win?” Lily asked when they were back on the ground, “I’m not so stupid as to believe that you actually couldn’t have passed me within the first minute, Potter.”

James stood for a moment, thinking, “It was more fun that way. I guess I like working better with you more than competing with you.”

“Let me guess, this isn’t just about quidditch?”

“Nope. We should be friends, Lily.” Blunt.

“Call me Evans. And I just don’t think that would work.”

“It’s working right now, is it not?”

“Look, I have to shower before your friends wake up, and you have to get out of that sports bra…No not like that, Potter!” He had reached to take it off.

“Relax. And my friends aren’t going to wake up any time soon, that I can assure you, but if you want more time to drool over my gorgeous body in the shower, be my guest.” James smiled.

“You are such an asshole, Potter.” But Lily was smiling. She turned and walked to the castle, leaving James behind her.

“Fuck.” he muttered, leaning over to pick up both brooms. If only Lily actually liked him back.

*

“Hey, so if all goes well with the food prank, do you guys want to have a party in the kitchens tonight?” Sirius asked, always one for the party, even at breakfast. “None of us has even gone down there yet this year, besides Remus.”

“We haven’t gone down there yet because it’s the third day of the term.” Peter answered.

“No excuses!” Sirius was quick to reply.

“I can’t go.” Remus stated, matter-of-factly, “I've got prefect patrol tonight”

“Oh, with Evans, right?” Sirius asked, “Hey, James, maybe you should tag along.”

“Actually that is one great idea!” Lily stated, realizing that she could not let James be alone with Remus. She had entirely forgotten about the patrol.

Remus laughed, “Sorry, James, but I don’t think that would work. It’s from 9:30 to 10:30, so you’ll have to obey curfew. It’s not like you have anything to worry about, though.”

“Oh, I know that! I’d just like to see Evans again. Never mind, though.” She said in a rush.

“So I guess no party, then.” Sirius sighed.

*

After astronomy that day, Lily pulled James aside, “You have prefect duties tonight. You and Remus have to patrol from 9:30 to 10:30. He’ll know what to do, so just follow along. And do not give anything away!”

“Prefect duties? Seriously?” He had the audacity to roll his eyes.

“Yes, prefect duties! It’s an honor! And it’s not like you’d be doing anything else with that time anyway.”

“Oh, contraire. I have had so much fun talking about myself with your friends. I’ve learned so much about you.” He smiled happily, reflecting on what he had actually learned of Lily’s behaviors around her friends.

“Just be in the common room at 9:30” Lily turned away, trying not to laugh at James. He was really cute when he tried to be funny. Wait. Hold up. James? Cute? No. Especially not in her body. It must be more his personality then. Wait. That’s even worse. Potter was ugly. She was trapped in his horribly ugly body, and his horribly ugly self was in hers. That’s how it was. Lily walked away, determined to think mean thoughts.

Unaware of Lily’s internal conflict, James sighed and turned around, deciding to swing by the library. He had about fifteen free minutes before his next class, transfiguration.

As he walked, he became aware of someone following him, a boy by the name of Robin Huttleton, also known as the Hufflepuff quidditch captain. James stopped and swirled around, “Can I help you?” He asked not so nicely.

“Lily, hi! I was just looking for you, what a coincidence!”

A coincidence my ass, thought James, “Yeah, how are you?” He tried to sound like Lily, who was always so nice to everyone, well, everyone but him.

“I’m doing great. So, I was actually just wondering, would you like to hang out some time?”

James hesitated, knowing exactly what Robin meant, “Like a date?” he asked innocently.

“Yeah, that’s kind of what I had in mind.”

There were many things James could have said in response to that, some of which probably could have landed him in weeks’ worth of detention. His head was spinning with thoughts: How dare Huttleton ask Evans out? How dare he so much as look at Evans that way? Every boy at the school knew that Evans was his. Every boy. And Huttleton wasn’t even a good guy. Lily could do so much better than that jerk. James had heard what he had to say about his past girlfriends. What was he thinking, asking Lily Evans to ‘hang out’?!

Instead of saying all of this, or anything much worse, James simply said, “No thank you.” And walked away, trying to control himself by repeating that giving no explanation whatsoever was just as cruel as giving any other explanation.

*

At dinner that night, James sat with Lily’s friends who, of course, had heard about what happened that day. “So we heard you turned Robin down?” Jessica was the first to ask.

“Um, yeah. I don’t like him that much…” Came James’s weak response. He hated how fast news traveled at Hogwarts.

Alice smiled knowingly, “That’s ‘cause you like someone else.”

James nearly dropped his fork, “Who?!”

“Oh you know who…no, not thatyou know who! Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I meant that you know exactly who I’m talking about. Mr. *cough cough* James Potter.” Her voice was low enough that only those sitting closest could hear her.

“I like James Potter?!” James bellowed loudly, turning heads from the Ravenclaw table.

“No…you don’t. You’re supposed to protest and get angry with me? Like always?” Alice looked confused, “…the running joke?”

“Right… right. The joke. Of course I don’t like James Potter. He’s, um, a total jerk.”

“Yeah, okay.” Alice turned back to her food, occasionally glancing sideways at who she believed was Lily. It had become something of a tradition between her and Lily over the years; James would ask Lily out, Lily would say no, Alice would insist she liked him, and Lily would completely disagree. And then the cycle would repeat.

Mary, though, wasn’t done with the conversation just yet, though. “But really, if you don’t like James, why didn’t you say yes to Robin? He’s a great guy.” She asked.

James hesitated, “He’s just not the one for me, I guess.” He didn’t want to have to tell the girls how Robin really behaved around the boys.

“Sure.” Alice chimed, still convinced James was the reason.

“No, really I-”

“Welcome, students.” Dumbledore cut in, “After a full day of classes, you don’t deserve to wait a moment longer. Let dinner begin!”

Food began to materialize, and, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on what house you’re in), not just any food began to materialize. It was all of the normal dishes with one, extremely noticeable difference. Everything was red and gold on every single table: the main courses, the fruit, the drinks, the sauces-everything. And a gigantic red and gold cake appeared in the middle of the teacher table while the marauders stood and bowed.

And all the Gryffindors but one cheered loudly. The notable exception to all these cheerers was James, who was overwhelmed by a sense of homesickness, his home being with the marauders, three boys who had no idea he wasn’t with them at that very moment carrying out his plan. As everyone else began to chant Gryffindor songs, he sat silently, staring at his food. And it didn’t even look unusual. Lily never cheered at their pranks anyway.

In the end, Gryffindor only lost 20 points and the marauders only got an additional hour of detention and that was just for sneaking into the kitchens.

*

“Evans!” Uh oh. James knew that tone. He had used that tone. That tone meant bad things were coming.

“Potter, always a pleasure.” He smiled, turning to see his face glaring back at him.

“Come with me.” Lily growled, walking out of the common room. James followed, aware that he had a little less than an hour before his prefect duties began.

Lily spun to face him the second they were away from the common room, “Why did you turn down Robin? That was my choice, not yours!” She was clearly angry.

“Oh, that’s what this is about.” James paused, “Would you have even said yes?” He doubted it.

“You know, just because I say no to you doesn’t mean I’d say no to everyone. Robin is a good guy. And, though it’s none of your business, I. would. Have. Said. Yes.” Lily spelled out.

James flinched and murmured, “So what does that make me? Not a good guy?” Lily was angry, but he was just sad, not really in the mood to fight.

“Potter, I have spent nearly three days with your friends. The amount of rules you break is incredible. I have spent over five years with you. You have never once treated me like a real person. But now that you’re quite literally walking in my shoes, I thought you could change. I guess not.” She began to walk away, “The next time someone asks me out, let me know first.”

James stood there, still not regretting turning down Robin.

*

A little less than an hour later, James sat down in his favorite chair in the common room to wait on Remus, who he knew would be on time as always. “Lily.” He heard a familiar voice call, “Hey! How’re you?”

James stood up, “Um, I’m good. How’re you?” He had no idea Remus and Evans were on good terms or any terms at all, actually. He had assumed that she hated him as much as she hated Sirius and himself. But it seemed that everyone liked Lily. She must be nicer than he had ever thought possible.

“Oh, I’m doing alright. So tell me about your summer. What all did you do?”

As they walked to the common room door, James repeated the same story he told Professor Slughorn about Lily’s summer, which turned into a long conversation about wizarding politics in France and then in England, which then led to a debate on the founding of Hogwarts and the modern education system. He really loved Remus. It was good to be back with a friend. And throughout their entire patrol, there was no mention of himself or the marauders at all. James managed to keep in character and, by the end of the night, he didn’t think Remus had a clue that he wasn’t Lily. But that made sense; with the full moon the next night, Remus’s mind was probably occupied. And so was James’s, for the same reason.

*

When Lily arrived at the pitch the next morning, James was already there, pacing back and forth. She hadn’t seen him since she had yelled at him the night before, so, naturally, her first assumption was that he was nervous because of that little spat, but, as she drew closer, she could tell that wasn’t the case. Something else was troubling him. “Potter?”

“Oh, hi Evans. I didn’t see you there.”

“Yeah, so, are we ready to start?”

“Um, yeah. But we’ll have to cut the practice short today. There’s something I need to talk to you about after.” A bell went off in Lily’s head. It was Thursday. Something was supposed to happen on Thursday night.

“Um, okay.” She picked up her broom, determined not to think about whatever it was that James had to tell her. As always, she feared the worst.

*

After thirty minutes in the air with a terribly out of character James, Lily turned her broom to face the ground and slowly descended. “You clearly have something to tell me, so let’s talk.” She got off her broom and moved to face James.

Bracing himself, James took a deep breath. “Ok. So I’ve never had to tell anyone this before, and I’m not sure where to begin, but I guess I have to tell you, so you need to understand that this is a huge secret, and you cannot tell anyone, ever. It’s not even my secret to tell.” He paused.

Lily could sense his level of uncertainty, “Look, unless someone’s getting hurt, I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

James nodded and resumed, “So, um, well. I’m just going to say it. Remus is a werewolf.” Her expression changed to one of shock. He closed his eyes and continued. “The school administrators know, Dumbledore knows, everyone who needs to know knows. Just please pleasedon’t tell anyone else. Remus never did anything to deserve it, and you know how everyone would react. He deserves better and-”

Lily broke in, causing James to open his eyes. “Stop. Stop. I know Remus. I’ve been friends with him for several years, and, of course I’d never give his secret away. And it will not change the way I treat him or anything, that I can promise you. Don’t worry about a thing, James.” She hesitated, “Why did you tell me this?”

James sighed, “Because tonight’s the full moon, and, well, this is the part that no one knows about except Snape, but that’s another story. See, Remus used to have to undergo the transformation alone, and it was really, really terrible for him. A lot of pain and loneliness, and it was so horrible, you have no idea. We would watch him once a month go out into the woods and it was just... " He paused and shook his head, "So a few years ago, we, Sirius, Peter, and I that is, learned how to become animaguses, illegally of course, so that we could accompany him and not get hurt. Werewolves don’t bother other animals, only humans, which is why Peter is able to transform into a rat.” James stared at the ground, scared to see Lily’s reaction.

Lily spoke up, but she wasn’t smiling this time, “James, you could be sent to Azkaban for that! What the fuck were you thinking, Potter?! I cannot believe...”

“Now you stop.” James looked up, “He is like a brother to me, and, if this makes it only the tiniest bit better for him, it is still worth it. And as I understand it, it helps a lot, so don’t tell me that it was the wrong thing to do because I know that it was the best thing we possibly could have done, and we explored a whole lot of options.”

Lily now paused, considering, “I..I think I do understand. I really do. I just. Shock. I think. The risks…”

James nodded, leaving Lily to work out the rest.

When she spoke again, she spoke slowly, “So does this mean that tonight I have to turn into an animagus while Remus becomes a werewolf?”

James nodded again.

“How?”

“How?”

“How do I transform?” She clarified.

James sighed, not sure how to explain, “The second the sun begins to set, you and the other three will put on the cloak and go down to the womping willow. You’ll follow the tunnel that begins there into the shrieking shack. There, you’ll wait until Remus begins to transform. Then, you’ll transform into a giant stag. Basically, just picture a stag in your mind and embrace the image. The transformation isn’t painful, and your, well my, body has been transformed so that it is very capable of the change.”

“Oh, your nickname, Prongs, I get it. Would it be possible for me to try the transformation right now? Just to practice? We still have a few minutes before we need to be back inside.”

“Sure. So here’s what you do…” James was teaching her a lot this week.

*

The idea of what she was going to do preoccupied Lily’s mind all day. She had lied a bit that morning; it seemed that the truth was impacting her treatment of Remus, but only in one way: she couldn’t stop staring at him and imagining all that he went through.

“You okay?” Remus asked her more than once.

She wanted desperately to ask the same of him, but instead, she just muttered, “Yes. Fine.” each time.

She went through the entire day like that, aware of everything Remus did and nothing that she, herself, did. For instance, she walked into approximately four walls and nearly fell off two staircases.

At dinner that night, Sirius looked particularly excited, “You guys ready?” He asked, “I sure am.”

“Absolutely thrilled, Sirius.” Remus replied sarcastically

“Oh, sorry, mate. I just can’t wait to be a dog again.”

Peter looked up from his large slice of cake, “One of these days someone is going to overhear you, Padfoot.”

“No they won’t. And if they do, I can always take care of it with a simple memory charm” he waved his wand as if he wasn’t speaking about doing a highly illegal charm before he moved to sit next to a particularly attractive Hufflepuff girl.

Remus rolled his eyes and turned to James, “You haven’t said much today. In fact, you haven’t said much all week. This is more than the usual post-Lily depression. Did something happen over the summer?”

“Oh, no, the summer was fine. I guess I’m just tired.”

“You have been getting up early. What’s up, James?”

“Oh, I’ve…” she decided to mix in a bit of the truth, “I’ve been practicing quidditch, gearing up for tryouts and all that.”

“But you’re captain, you don’t need to try out, and if it’s making you this tired, maybe you should lay off a bit. You aren’t acting like yourself. Honestly, I don’t think Sirius has a clue what he’s doing now that you don’t talk.”

“Oh. Um, I guess I’ll try to speak more.” She lied.

“Have you guys had this cake? It’s amazing!”

“Noted, Peter.”

“We may not have time for desert, actually.” Remus and Lily had arrived at dinner a little after Peter, “The sun’s already low in the sky. Can we hurry up and go?” Remus began to look antsy, “Sorry for making you guys do this.”

Lily stood up, taking the initiative, “You aren’t making us do anything. Let’s grab Sirius and go.” She was almost as nervous as Remus.

*

Dragging Sirius behind them, the marauders got the invisibility cloak and snuck out of the castle. The sun continued to set, meaning the moon continued to rise. They made it inside the willow and took the cloak off. “Almost there.” Remus muttered, moving quickly along the passageway.

Once they arrived at the shack, the moon was barely visible on the horizon. The four sat and talked for a few minutes until Remus suddenly stood up. “It’s beginning.” He managed to croak.

Sirius stood up and nodded, instantly becoming a large, black dog. Peter followed his lead and was quickly replaced by a rat. Lily took a deep breath and did what James had instructed her, becoming a stag almost immediately. Her practice had paid off.

The rest of the night was a blur. She had flashes of awareness and saw herself running next to the other three. James had told her that, with practice, she’d eventually remember everything she did. Part of the lack of awareness was the animal brain and the other half was exhaustion. However, the stag’s ability to go longer without sleep made some of the tiredness go away so that surviving classes the next day would be possible.

The next thing Lily truly remembered was becoming a human again at about six in the morning, when the sun began to rise. The other boys went into the castle, and she muttered something about quidditch and headed straight to the pitch, where she knew James would be waiting.

And he was, looking very nervous, “How’d it go?” he asked.

“Fine, I guess. Everything that should have gone well went well.” She looked at him and paused. “I was wrong about you. This…this thing you do for Remus…it’s really incredible. You, you are a good guy. I’m sorry for anything I said before. It was a lot to wrap my mind around.”

James laughed, “I would have told you sooner if I knew this would be your reaction!”

Lily laughed too and hit him playfully with a broom, “You risk everything for your friend. I have… so much respect for all four of you. I just, thought you should know. So, um, let’s get started.”

James nodded, completely bewildered, and hopped on his broom.

Halfway through practice, dark clouds moved in and rain began to pour, with James and Lily over a hundred feet in the air. Lily swirled her broom around, grinning wickedly, “Guess we’re going to get wet, Potter. You more so than me.” She then muttered a spell, causing the rain to slant in his direction, making him to get hit far more often with rain drops.

“Oh no you don’t.” James countered, sure that Lily must be completely out of her mind with exhaustion. But he still wanted to win, so, naturally, a tidal wave formed in midair and moved straight towards Lily.

“Did you just cast a spell without speaking?!” Lily managed to yell before being hit with the wall of water.

“You bet!”

“Oh you are on!” The water began to spurt at him in tiny jets, hitting a different place on his body each time just as a small raincloud opened up right above her.

Only fifteen minutes later, they both landed, soaking wet and laughing harder than Lily had ever laughed before. “I cannot believe you.” She managed to say.

James smiled, “Well I can’t believe you. Who knew Evans had fun?”

“Hey!” She hit his shoulder, “I have plenty of fun, just not usually with you. Though I’ll admit that this is one of the more fun things I’ve done. I almost regret having to go to class instead. We’ll have to have more rain fights.”

“Do my ears deceive me? Would that be a date?”

“With the way this is going, James, it might just be.”

James stumbled, “No way.”

“You’re a good guy, James, who has spent time helping me this week when I didn’t really deserve it. I might give you a chance.”

James was screaming on the inside.

“Race you to the castle?” Lily proposed.

“Yeah.” He managed to say.

*

“Rise and shine.” James smiled at the other girls.

“Ugh, shut up Lily.”

“It’s a beautiful day. Get up and enjoy it. I know I will!”

“Why?” Amelia muttered.

“Why do you have to get up? School of course. Why is it a good day? Oh, just because of reasons. Now get up, lazy daisies!” James smiled brightly and headed off for a shower.

Lily’s friends slowly began to rise, trying to ignore the loud singing coming from the bathroom. “What’s with her today?” Jessica asked.

Alice shrugged, as confused as everyone else.

*

“You sure are happy for a boy who got no sleep last night.” Sirius muttered as James gleefully ate his pancakes.

“I think I’ve had an epiphany.”

“About what?”

“Oh, um, Evans, actually.”

“Do tell?”

“Can’t. But you’ll see soon enough.”

“Hey do you guys mind not talking so loud?!” Apparently becoming a werewolf gives one a hangover.

Sirius looked up and muttered, “Sorry” before turning to Lily and staring her down.

But Lily was looking somewhere else. James motioned to her from across the room and, seeing this, she proclaimed, “I’m going to go sit with Lily today. Er, Evans.” and stood up and walked over, deciding to continue to get to know him better. The week had already been rather productive in that aspect.

*

For Lily, the day was as much of a blur as the previous night had been. The whole no sleep thing was really catching up to her and, before long, all she wanted to do was take a nap.

James spent the day reviewing every conversation he had ever had with Lily, wondering where he went so right. When Alice asked to borrow his notes, he didn’t even try to erase the hearts on it, along with all the “Mrs. Lily Potter”s written all over it (he liked the sound of it, though it wasn’t actually his name).

By dinner that night, James and Lily had already spoken several times throughout the day and not a single word had been hostile. Sure, they were still a long way from some married couple, but they were farther away from archrivals than they had ever been. Now they were more like coworkers. But progress was progress.

“Hey, James! Wanna sit with us?” James asked.

Sirius fake gasped, “Not Potter?!”

“We’re trying to be civil.” Lily smiled, “And sure, I’ll sit with you.” She stood up and began to walk over to her friends and James.

Peter turned to look wide eyed at the others, “That’s twice today that he’s gone to sit with her.”

Sirius smiled wickedly, “We’ll need to quiz him about it later.”

*

“Alright so talk.” Alice began, sitting on Lily’s bed.

James looked up from his textbook. “About what?”

“Don’t give me that. You know what. Or do I have to spell it out? J, A, M, E, S, P, O, T, T, E, R. That’s what. And um, you’re Mrs. Lily Potter, now, I believe if your muggle studies notes are correct?”

“Um.”

“He’s been talking to you all day, and you’ve been talking back! My predictions are finally coming true, and you say ‘um’?!”

“Um, Yeah.” James said meekly.

Alice sighed with an exasperated look on her face, “So. What did you guys talk about?”

“Oh, you know, just school and stuff. We don’t really have much in common, considering most of her favorite stuff is muggle related.”

“I’m not following you.”

“Well, Lily didn’t grow up with my background, so there’s a lot we don’t have in common.”

“But… you’re Lily.”

James paused. A long, horrible, drawn out pause. He had messed up. “Shit. I meant that that’s what he must think because of our differences. It’s just so hard to understand him, so I’ve been trying to get inside his head. Sorry. I meant to say with his pureblood background.”

“Girl, you’ve got it bad.”

*

“Hey, Prongs?” Sirius called, walking into the dorm.

“Yeah?” Lily answered, looking up from her doodle of James.

“Let’s go for a flight.”

“Um, yeah, okay.” Lily reached under her bed and picked up the broom she had put there before donning a flying robe. James had warned her that this would happen sooner or later. “Ready?”

Sirius nodded, “Get the cloak.”

Lily grabbed it, threw it around them, and, before she knew it, they were out of the castle. Jumping on the broom came almost naturally to her, and she thanked God for James’s teaching, otherwise she never would have pulled this off, “Where’re we going?”

“Oh, just around. I want to talk to you.”

“Okay, so talk.” She had to remember that this was James’s best friend. They probably told each other everything. Heck, they lived together year round, both in and out of Hogwarts. If anyone was to figure out that she wasn’t James, it would be him.

“Well, first things first, what’s been up this week? If you think I haven’t noticed your behavior, you’ve got another thing coming. This is theweek, mate! The pranks, the girls, I mean, gosh, we’re home, and what have you been doing?! I mean, you haven't even talked about the Hogsmeade run!”

“I know, I’ve been off, I just, I guess when I saw Lily again after the whole summer, it shocked me. I, um, like her so much, you know. My focus has been off.” Lily hoped she sounded like James, and she was pretty confident that she did. After all, she’d been getting to know him a lot better recently.

“Yeah, that’s the other thing: Lily. I’ve heard you talking about her for as long as I can remember. I mean, I remember you seeing her on the Hogwarts Express for the first time and announcing that you were going to marry her. And then all she’s done is hurt you since, and we’ve all told you to give her up, but you won’t, and now this? This is all you’ve ever wanted, and it’s happening, I think. So why are you so drawn in about it? We should be painting her name on the ceiling of the Great Hall, we should be sending howlers, but you’re just quiet about it. And that’s why I’m confused.”

Lily stayed quiet for a moment in disbelief, letting herself enjoy the flight, “I think it really is the shock. I just can’t begin to process that this is really happening to me after all the years of denials. It’s thrown everything off. I just need more time. Then we can do all that, but it has to fully become a reality first.” It surprised her when she realized that not everything she said had been a lie.

“Okay, I can accept that. I really can. And congratulations, mate, really. I'd hug you if we weren't on these brooms.”

“Thanks. I, uh, just really like her.”

“I know. I know. Let’s fly.”

And so they flew. Nothing further was said, and nothing further needed to be said. In those moments, Lily understood why James loved Sirius the way he did. Despite Sirius’s usual lack of (dare she say it?) seriousness, he was a good friend when she needed it, and, even though a lot of what she told him wasn’t even the truth or was but from the wrong perspective, it still helped her a lot.

When they landed, Sirius looked over at her and nodded, “I’m thinking Tuesday night we’ll go to Hogsmeade to restock. I know you usually plan our visits, but I got it this time.”

Lily smiled, knowing she would most likely not have to worry about that trip, “Thanks. And thanks for taking me flying. I needed that.”

“I know you did. Now let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow's tryouts.”

They walked up to the dorm without passing a soul, but when they got there, they realized that they weren’t alone. James was sitting by the fire, looking unsurprised to see Lily and Sirius walk in so late. “Hey, James, can I speak to you for a minute?”

“Uh, sure.” Lily replied before turning to Sirius and adding, “Don’t wait up for me.”

Sirius nodded understandingly, took James’s broom, and left for his dorm, leaving the two alone.

“Do you have the cloak with you?” James asked. Lily held it out and nodded, “Oh, good. Put it on and come with me.” Before he could think better of it, he grabbed her hand and led her down to the kitchens.

Once they got there, James hopped up on a counter top to sit and immediately started talking, “So tryouts are tomorrow, and here’s the plan: for the most part, just fly around and look hot, which shouldn’t be hard considering you look like me. Let them warm up until eight thirty or so, then divide them randomly into groups of two to practice a list of skills that I’ll give you, then assess them individually, and finally divide them into groups of seven and have them scrimmage each other for about fifteen minutes each. Then they can leave. I’ll be in the stands taking notes the whole time. It should be a piece of cake. The list of who made it will be posted in the common room sometime tomorrow afternoon.” He looked at her for confirmation.

Lily sat on a table across from him and nodded. “Okay.”

James paused, “You don’t have any comments or anything?”

“Not really.” Lily shrugged, “You know quidditch better than I do, though I think I’m really starting to get the hang of it. It sounds like it’ll be easy.”

“Okay.”

“Now you’re the one saying okay.”

“Sorry.”

“So” She began, “I talked to Sirius today. He says that I’m not contributing to conversations like I should be.”

“Funny, Professor Slughorn said practically the same thing during today’s in-class discussion.”

“Really? You’ve been slacking?”

“Woah, I hate potions. Don’t blame me.”

“Well I’ve been using me as the excuse to Sirius, so I don’t know what you can tell Slughorn.”

“You’ve been using you? What?”

“Oh you know, ‘I’m so in love with Evans I can’t focus yadayadayada’”

“Hey!” James threw an oven mitt at her.

“I mean, judging by the stories I’ve heard, it sounds reasonable.”

“And you’ve heard what exactly?”

“A lot. Really a lot” She sighed, “I…I had no idea you actually cared about me. I thought it was the whole ‘I want what I can’t have act.'”

James leaned back against the cabinets, “Lily, it’s never been that.”

“Well I know that now.”

“What else do you know now?”

“So much, James." She stood up and took a slow step towards him, "So much that I didn't know before. I really am sorry for all the pain I've caused you."

“It was worth it.”

“James...”

“Lily?”

“Excuse me, would you like anything to eat?” Envly appeared, realizing that she had visitors.

Lily and James both jumped, realizing that they were not alone. "Um, no thanks" Lily muttered, not breaking eye contact with James.

But James answered, "water please, thank you" and then sighed, turning back to Lily, "What are we doing, Evans? You know I love you, but you've always turned me down. Why now?"

“James, I’m not going to go so far as to admit that I love you, because it’s not that yet. But I don’t despise you. And when I think about you, for the first time ever, I’m happy. You’re making me happy? I don’t know what this means and what it entails, but I do know that most of what I thought about you was wrong.”

“Here’s your water, ma’am.” Envly was back.

“Thank you.” James replied, taking a sip of it. After turning over his next sentence in his head, James looked back at Lily, restoring eye contact, “Lily Evans, will you go on a date with me?”

Lily smiled, “James Potter, yes.”

And just like that, James started laughing. Laughing, cackling, wiping tears from his eyes, almost knocking over his glass. “Lily Evans. Lily Evans. I don’t know what to do with you. God, Lily Fucking Evans.”

Lily smirked, slightly confused by his reaction, “Um, you can date me, James. That’s what you can do?”

“I am going to date the heck out of you, Lily Evans. And you are going to marry me. Just wait and see.” He was still red in the face from laughing and grinning ear to ear.

“You know, I would be mad if anyone else told me that. It's awfully forward.”

“Then thank god I’m not anyone else.”

“No, James, you’re not. Come on, let’s get back to the tower. I haven’t slept in almost 48 hours.”

“Okay.”

And when he dropped her off at the door to the marauders’ dorm and muttered, “why do I like this girl so much?”, Lily pretended not to hear him. Pretended because she wanted to say something back but knew it would be a mistake. She had to be logical about this, even when her heart told her not to be. She’d hated him a few days before. What was she doing?

*

The next morning, James rolled out of bed, smiling as he remembered the night before. To put it simply, his every wish had come true. For the first time in forever, he had a chance. Evans, no-Lily, had said that he made her happy, and that was enough to make him happy. It was all he’d ever wanted.

So he stood up, brushed his hair, donned his robes, and marched into the common room, excited to see what the day would bring.

And the first thing it brought was Lily, who was already there, waiting for him. "Hi." he greeted, sitting next to her.

“Oh, hi.” She looked up from her (well his) book.

“So…”

“Do you want to go to Hogsmeade next weekend?” She asked, looking up at him, “Since we’re due to be going on a date?”

“Um, yes.” He replied, almost sarcastically. Did she think he’d say no?

“Cool.” She smiled, a real genuine smile, “Should we start setting up for quidditch?”

“Uh, yeah. Let’s go” He loved her.

*

“Ok, so I’m just going to call out these groups and watch while you take notes. That’s easy enough.” Lily repeated to herself.

“Just don’t try any hard maneuvers and refuse a demonstration. Sirius will ask for one.”

“Okay, got it. Here they come.” Lily looked anxiously toward the pitch, where the potential players were filing in.

James noticed Sirius watching Lily and whispered, “Give Sirius a thumbs up.”

She did as he said, then loudly commanded, “Lily, get out of here. We’re conducting tryouts, something I doubt you’re very interested in.”

Realizing what she was doing, James joined in, “Actually it’s a nice place to get homework done. And you don’t have the authority to make me leave,” He flipped his hair and walked towards the stand, pulling out a notebook while he did so.

Lily watched him walk away then straightened up, turning to the crowd of students, “Alright. These are the official tryouts for the Gryffindor quidditch team. If you aren’t in Gryffindor, get out of here. If you don’t play quidditch, get out of here. And if you didn’t sign up, get out of here.” She hoped she sounded intimidating, “Right. I’ve put you into partner groups, which I will call out in a minute. You and your partner will practice skills such as passing. Then you will do individual assessments, mostly on your flying abilities. And finally you’ll be put in teams, and you’ll scrimmage. The results will be posted on the Gryffindor common room bulletin board by 7 o’clock tonight. You have thirty minutes to warm up, then the first group on the list will begin. Any questions?" "Yeah, can we have a demonstration?" Fucking Sirius.

*

After tryouts, Lily jogged over to James, who was coming down the steps to the stadium. “What did you think?”

“It was a good group. I’ll have to look through my notes to make my final call, though. Wanna help?”

“Maybe later. I have my first detention ever in an hour because of the whole Slytherin locker rooms escapade.” Lily smirked.

“Oh. Sorry.” James actually looked it.

“Yeah, it’s alright, though. It’s your permanent record, and, if Peter is to be believed, detention isn’t that bad anyway.”

*

“Honestly, I’m going to have to disagree with you. Linda looked much better than John.” Lily stated, looking at the list of names. It was five in the afternoon, and the final team roster was due to be posted any minute.

“But John had much better flying technique and didn’t let in a single quaffle.” James argued before adding, “And I thought you don’t even know quidditch or care about it? Why are you helping me?”

“Eh. It’s actually not that bad of a sport. I read one of your books on it in detention, something about Quidditch through all of time? Anyway, it was very informative. I’d like to learn more.”

“Quidditch Throughout the Ages. Yeah, it’s a good book…” James was hesitant, never having seen this side of Lily.

“So anyway, we just need to decide on the keeper and then you have your team, right?”

“Hey, our team. You’re in Gryffindor, too. And yeah, this is the last decision.”

“Well I, for one, vote Linda. She has room for improvement, but she will be much more willing to improve than John, who seems to think he’s God’s gift to quidditch.”

“Well he is definitely not. Everyone knows I’m God’s gift to quidditch.”

“Arrogant ass.”

“Woah, I thought we’d moved past that?”

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t still stuck up.”

“Hey!”

“I’m just kidding, James...sort of.”

“I know.”

“So Linda or John?”

James sighed, “Linda.”

“Perfect.” Lily wrote the name down and marched over to the board, where she pinned the list and moved quickly away before the crowd trampled her.

Walking back over to James, she said, “Quidditch tryouts: check!”

“Thank goodness. I really think we could win it all this season.”

“I think so, too. I may even have to attend my first quidditch game.”

“You’re first quidditch game?! Lily where have you been?!”

“Studying?”

“Ugh, I have so much to teach you.”

“Well I do like to learn.” She smiled.

“Glad you’re looking forward to it.” They were definitely flirting. This was the best day of James's life.

*

The next morning Lily’s alarm clock went off at the normal time (when did 4:35 become normal?), despite the fact that it was Sunday. She jumped out of bed out of habit before hesitating. Was she meeting James today? Tryouts were over, so there was no reason to.

Sighing, she knew she was going to go. Grabbing James’s quidditch stuff, she hurried down to the pitch.

Low and behold, James was there too.

“Hey Lily, I didn’t know if you were going to show today.”

“Of course I would! This is our last day like this; we need to use it wisely.”

“Oh wow, I didn’t think about that. You sure I can’t tell Sirius and give us another week.” He laughed.

“No, as much as I’ve...erm, enjoyed doing this, I will look forward to being me again”

“Yeah, likewise. But I have enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, believe it or not, so have I. It’s been an…educational experience.” Lily paused, “And I’m glad that I didn’t miss the opportunity to get to know you better and see the good inside you.”

“The good inside me? Wow that sounds deep.”

Lily laughed, “Yeah, but you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“So what do we do now?”

“How about we finish that argument that we had the other day?”

James was about to ask what argument when a burst of water hit him in his face. When he could finally see again, Lily was fifty feet above him, smiling.

“Oh you had better fly!” James yelled while silently charming her broomstick, making it freeze in midair. He flew over to her.

Halfway there, he got hit with a laughing charm, making him unable to speak.

But he didn’t need words to dye Lily’s hair (which was currently on his head) bright purple.

She gasped and made his nose grow three inches longer.

Still laughing, James set a hoard of butterflies fly on her.

And so on and so forth.

By the time they landed, both had horribly disfigured themselves and were laughing so hard they were crying.

“Here let me help you with that” James instructed, shrinking his lips back to normal size.

“All the better to kiss you with, my dear.” Lily laughed.

“What?” James stepped back.

“Oh my god, you don’t know Little Red Riding Hood, do you?” She realized.

“Um, no.”

Lily shook her head and lay down on the quidditch pitch where James joined her. It was Sunday, and no one would be missing them for hours. “There once was a girl who wore a red cloak with a hood everywhere she went.” She began. It was her favorite story as a five year old.

When Lily finished telling it, they both laid in silence. “So about kissing me?” James began, teasing.

“Well your lips are looking better.” Lily countered, turning to face the mouth in question. It was closer than she had expected, only a few inches away. “Oh, um" she muttered, looking up at James. Sixteen years old, and she'd never done this before.

“Can I?” He asked slowly, not daring to believe it was actually happening. At her nod, he closed the gap between them. And what a kiss it was. She may have said that his lips were better to kiss with, but if anyone had asked James, it was the other way around. She was beautiful, and all he had ever wanted. When he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss, Lily’s hands curled in his (actually her) hair. The sensation of kissing himself was an odd one, but he never wanted to stop, if only because he knew Lily was on the receiving end.

*

The next day, when James’s own alarm clock sounded at 4:35, he jumped out of bed, prepared to grab Lily’s quidditch robes only to find that he was no longer in the dormitory he had grown accustomed to seeing. Instead it was his own, slightly smaller than what he'd become used to.

Looking around, he saw Remus, Sirius, and Peter, all deeply asleep. He grabbed his mirror, almost surprised to see himself staring back. “Wow” he muttered, grabbing his own broom and quidditch robes. Switched around or not, he had a flying date with the most amazing girl in the wizarding, no whole, world.