I found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you
I found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you
-Hoobastank, The Reason

Chapter One: The Switch

"Potter, go away!"

Seventeen year old Lily Evans was in Care of Magical Creatures, trying to pay attention to Professor Kettleburn talk and talk about Grindylows. But with James Potter and his crew right behind her, that was humanly impossible.

"Go out with me and I will." James hissed, poking Lily in the back. Lily scowled.

"I will not!" Lily yelled, stomping her foot.

"Miss Evans, is something wrong?" Professor Kettleburn asked sternly. Lily turned a light pink color and muttered,

"No, professor." James and Sirius snickered behind the reddening Lily. When Professor Kettleburn turned back to his lesson, Lily turned around and stepped on James's foot. Hard. Really hard.

"OUCH!" James said in a loud whisper, clutching his foot. Sirius just snickered even louder. Lily turned back to the lesson, her arms crossed and a death glare on her face.

*

"James Potter is so immature." Lily mumbled grumpily in the common room. Her best friend, Hazel Parsley, was next to her, scribbling away loudly on piece of parchment. "Probably writing more love notes to Black." Lily thought. She giggled at the thought of this. Hazel, along with many other girls at Hogwarts, was head over heels in love with Sirius Black. She had been writing mysterious love notes for him ever since the fifth year, leaving them on his desk in Transfiguration every Friday. He would read them, pass them on to James, and they would both have a good laugh.

"What was that you said, Lily?" Hazel asked, looking up from her almost-full parchment.

"James Potter is so immature." Lily repeated a bit louder. Hazel rolled her eyes. Lily had been saying that ever since James starting bothering her in their first year. Every night in the common room, it was "Potter makes me sick," or "He deserves to eat frog droppings." Today, it was "James Potter is so immature."

"Do you think Sirius likes spaghetti?" Hazel asked absent-mindedly a few moments later. It was Lily's turn to roll her eyes.

"What do you think? Everytime we have a meal, him and his double stuff their faces with whatever is at arm's length." Lily said coolly. Hazel frowned. She hated it when Lily insulted Sirius. Lily just fixed her Head Girl badge and looked down at her pile of homework.

Lily was Head Girl, a dream she had ever since her first year. But her dream had been turned into a nightmare when none other than James Potter had been picked as Head Boy.

"I'm going to bed." Lily said simply, getting up from the cushy common room chair and stretching. She was going to bed early since they had a full day ahead. Double potions (groan), double History of Magic (zzzzzzzz), double Care of Magical Creatures (mosquito!), and double Transfiguration (oof!). She sauntered up to her dormitory and threw herself on her bed.

*

"Hey, Sirius, look at that! Hes-ko-lo- Es-ko-mo." James read slowly. He was flipping through a spell book he bought at Hogsmeade: Spells Your Friends will Never Forget.

"What does it do?" Sirius asked. He, James, Remus, and Peter were in the boy's dormitory, getting ready for bed.

"Supposedly, it turns their hair white." James said, glancing down at the page. That's when he noticed another spell there.

"Nabakza Ressoral." James muttered. "The jealousy spell. It makes the target jealous of the spell caster in every way."

James Potter grinned devilishly. "Lily Evans, you're mine." He thought excitedly. He began to laugh, laugh evilly, menacingly, maniacally, until--

"James, mate, why are you laughing maniacally?" Sirius inquired, looking up from his four-poster bed. James immediately stopped laughing like a lunatic.

"No reason." he said shortly. Sirius nodded to show he understood.

*

"Turn to page 624 and complete the potion on the page. I'm pairing you up." Professor Salandar snapped. He was the potions master of the school. "Black and Snape."

Sirius's eyes bugged out and he groaned, "Professor, please, I'll wash the toilets, just don't put me through that kind of punishment!"

"Go to your partner, Black." Professor Salandar said shortly and sternly. Sirius scowled and scooted over a couple of seats, next to a greasy haired Severus Snape. Hazel frowned. She, of course, had been hoping she could be partners with Sirius. Professor Salandar continued,

"Parsley and Longbottom." Hazel's reaction was somewhat like Sirius's, except she didn't offer to clean the toilets. She sighed and sat down next to Frank Longbottom and took out her potions supplies.

"Abbott and Trombas." Ronald Abbott and Derek Trombas scooted next to each other. Derek looked revolted at the idea of pairing up with a Gryffindor, seeing as he was a slytherin. "Lupin and Pettigrew." Professor Salandar continued. Remus and Peter grinned and didn't move, since they were already sitting next to each other. This continued until what Lily was dreading and what James was hoping for came up,

"Potter and Evans." Professor Salandar said smoothly. James smirked, Lily scowled, and Sirius chuckled. Lily didn't want to protest, knowing the horrible things Professor Salandar could do to students. James opened his mouth to say something to Lily, but she cut him off.

"Shut it, Potter." she said coldly. She took out her supplies and she and James got to work.

"Hey, Evans," James started. Lily let out air through her nose. She hated it when James called her Evans.

"What?" she said shortly.

"What's that?" James pointed to nothing on the wall, but Lily looked up.

"Where?" she asked dumbly. James swiftly whipped out his wand and whispered,

"Nabakza Ressoral."

The world seemed to stop. Lily's eyes froze like green ice and James couldn't move. There was no sound around them. No one seemed to be there. There was violent flash of pink light, a flash of blue light, and the world moved on. But James and Lily weren't moving.

They had fainted.

Sirius was the first to notice. He slipped over to his best friend's table, pretending to wash his hands because of Snape's greasiness, and poked James in the back. When James did nothing, he poked Lily and got the same. He looked at them both with a confused expression and whipped out his wand.

"Ennervate." he whispered, pointing to the two of them. When he was sure their eyes were open, he ran back to his seat.

Lily Evans opened her eyes to find herself looking at herself.

"Wha--?" she said sleepily. She sat up. She was in potions class. Yes, she remembered that. She was paired up with Potter. Oh, yes, she remembered that all right. But James wasn't there. She was there. But if that was her, what was she?

James Potter opened his eyes, expecting to see Lily Evans there, glaring at him as usual while they were doing their potion, but found himself to be looking at...him. He was looking at him.

"Bloody hell!" he said. "That's not my voice!" he thought anxiously, "That's Lily's voice! The spell-- what happened?"

"Potter?" Lily asked, looking uncertainly at her body. "Whoa!" she thought, "That was so not my voice!"

"It didn't work!" James exclaimed. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"How is it YOU actually understand something before I do? What is going on?!" Lily questioned angrily.

"NO TALKING!" Professor Salandar roared, "Five points from Gryffindor, Potter."

Lily looked at James, eyebrows still raised. He shook his head and wrote on a piece of scrap parchment, "I'll explain in Binn's class."

As soon as they were out of the classroom, Lily rounded on James.

"WHAT is going on?!" Lily hissed as she and James hurried to Binn's class.

"Well, I found this spell in this book to make people jealous of others, and I wanted to make you jealous of me and I guess, I dunno, something went wrong." James said quickly. Lily stared at him in awe.

"So what now? I don't want to be you! I don't know HOW to be you!" Lily said madly.

"Well, I know how to be you. I just have to be perfect." James said rather shyly. Lily scowled.

"First you get me into this mess, and then you try to flirt with me? You're worse than I thought!" she said exasperatedly. "As soon as class is over, I'm going to Professor Dumbledore's office and you're coming with me!"

James nodded obediently.

In Professor Binn's class........

"James, what were you and Lily taking about? Did she finally give in?" Sirius said softly as they took their seats. Lily had to sit with Sirius, Remus, and Peter while James sat with Hazel, and Lily's other friend, Molly.

"We were uh-- talking about our potion." Lily said shortly.

"Well, it's good to see you're finally taking your studies seriously." Remus commented happily. Lily nodded and lay her head down on her desk, trying her best to not have to talk to James's friends.

Over with James.....

"Now, you guys, we have to get out of class as soon as it ends and up to the castle right after Care of Magical Creatures class so I can leave the notes on Sirius's desk before he gets there." Hazel whispered. James had to keep himself from laughing. "So Parsley is the one who has been leaving those notes on Sirius's desk! Wait till he hears this!" he thought evilly.

Red-haired Molly rolled her eyes. James settled his head on his desk and started to drift off to sleep, just as he had done every class before then. But--

"Lily, what are you doing? You've got to take your notes!" Molly said, poking James in the back. He or her or however you want to say it lifted his head up and groaned groggily. He scowled as he retrieved one of Lily's quills and opened her half filled notebook. He noticed a little heart in the front with someone's name in it. This of course interested him. He looked at it, trying to read the messy writing. "She must've written this years ago, her handwriting is terrible." James said mentally, squinting at the paper. When he couldn't figure it out for another ten minutes, he gave up and starting scribbling down notes.

Back with Lily....

As usual, Lily was taking notes in even the dullest class. She opened James's backpack and retrieved a folder filled with parchment. This folder had writing all over it. Little snitches and hearts with her name in it decorated it. She could feel herself turning red looking at it.

"Now, does anyone know how the goblin war began?" Professor Binns asked in his monotone voice. "Ms. Evans?"

James lifted his head at the sound of Lily's name.

"Ms. Evans?" Professor Binns repeated. James just seemed to realize that Professor Binns thought he was Lily and he answered,

"Uh, well.. this um, this goblin, he uh, he was mean. And he, uh---he---" James looked over at the real Lily for help. She was hiding her head. "In embarresment." James thought, angry with himself.

"I don't know, professor." he finished lamely. Professor Binns frowned and finished his lesson. As soon as class was over, Lily detached herself from Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"Nice going." Lily said coldly. James frowned.

"I tried. Just 'cause we switched places doesn't mean I have your brains." James retaliated. Lily just crossed her arms and stormed ahead of James. She bumped right into Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"What's wrong with you?" Peter asked, noticing the way Lily had a scowl on her face. Lily was about to say "Potter problems." as she had done so many times to her friends, but that annoying little voice in her head told her everyone thought she was James.

"Lily." Lily said shortly. Sirius sighed.

"Will you get over her? Read between the lines, Prongs. She hates you." Sirius said wisely.

"No, she doesn't!" Lily said without thinking. Did I just say that I didn't hate James---no! Let me rephrase that: Did I just say I didn't hate Potter? Lily thought anxiously.

"Where's this attitude coming from? You're always sulking about how Lily hates you soooo much." Remus said, with emphasis on the word 'hate'.

"I am?" Lily asked. Sirius looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"What's with you?" he asked. Lily just shrugged.

Back to James....

"Lily what's wrong?" Hazel asked, giving James a concerned look. James just shook his head and thought "What have I gotten her into?"

"Potter problems?" Her and Molly said together. James raised her eyebrows. He realized they were waiting for an answer and he nodded.

"You should just make it loud and clear: you don't want to go out with him." Molly said. James frowned, shrugged and turned to Professor Kettleburn. Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily had just arrived. James longed to go and sit next to his friends, but he was in Lily's body. He knew it was out of the question.

"Now, today we will be learning about the Lobalug...." Professor Kettleburn droned on and on as James dreamt of Lily. Her face, her hands, her eyes...

"C'mon let's go!" Hazel's voice broke James's trail of thoughts.

"Yes, Lily?" James said absent-mindedly. Hazel and Molly looked at her oddly.

"Umm day dreams." James said, trying to cover up. Hazel and Molly just rolled their eyes and dragged James up to Transfiguration. They were the first ones there and Hazel casually glided past Sirius's desk and dropped a wad of parchment on his desk. James snickered silently.

He settled himself in Lily's seat and waited for the class to begin.


"Hey look, your secret admirer struck again." Remus said, nodding to the wad of papers on Sirius's desk. As he, Sirius, Peter, and Lily took their seats, Lily feeling odd in the back of the room, Sirius opened the parchment. He chuckled and handed it to Lily.

Sirius,
I love you so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much! Your dazzling smiling, silky smooth black hair, your ---" Lily didn't get to read on. Professor McGonagal consficated the note. Lily watched helplessly as Hazel's face turned the color of Molly's hair. Professor McGonagal glanced at the note and turned to Hazel.

"Ms. Parsley, this is your writing. Take this note and I never want to see it again." Professor McGonagal said. Hazel, if possible, turned even more red, and muttered a, "Yes, professor." as McGonagal handed her the note. Sirius also turned a light shade of pink.

"Hazel Parsley?" he said disbelievingly under his breath. James laughed inside, seeing his big tough-guy best friend turn pink.

To both James's and Lily's relief, Transfiguration ended soon. But Professor McGonagal told them to stay after for a minute.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you both before dinner. He's going to introduce you both to the Head Dorms where you both will be sleeping. The password to his office is Berties Botts." Professor McGonagal said. Lily sulked. "Sharing a common room with Potter is tough enough..." she thought to herself. James nodded and they both walked to Dumbledore's office in silence. James tried many times to talk to Lily, but backed out each time he tried. They finally reached the office after several minutes of unbearable silence.

"Bertie Botts." Lily said grudgingly. When in professor Dumbledore's office, James immediately sat down in an armchair and Lily followed suit. They started to argue about what happened in Transfiguration and Hazel's note. They were so busy arguing (James smirked slyly the entire time) that they didn't notice Professor Dumbledore enter. He sat in his chair silently and not until Lily looked up and noticed him standing there and stomped on James's foot did they cease.

"Now, you have come to discuss your new dorms, I presume." Dumbledore said. Lily and James nodded. "Well, there is no reason to discuss it. It's right next to the Gryffindor common room. It has a common room of it's own and two bedrooms and a bathroom for you both. The password is Hunky-dory. Now, I suggest you both hurry down to dinner. Unless," he eyed the two of them carefully, "you have anything else to discuss?"

Lily nodded vigorously and said,

"Professor, James over here did a spell that went wrong on me and now I'm stuck in his body." she said in a rush. Professor Dumbledore's mouth twitched into a smile.

"I see. Mr. Potter, what exactly did you say?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Exactly what the book said: Nabakza Ressoral!" James said defensively.

"Is that exactly how you said it?" Dumbledore asked calmly. James nodded and Dumbledore laughed.

"Apparently, you didn't read the fine print. You are supposed to trill your r's or else you're saying a completely different spell." Dumbledore said, chuckling. Lily gave James the worst glare yet.

"How do we reverse it, professor?" Lily asked, trying her best not to kick and scream like a five year old.

"On a full moon, come to my office at midnight. It will only take a few minutes." Dumbledore explained. James's mind went right to Remus.

"A full moon? I won't be able-- I--" but one look from Lily made him shut up and Dumbledore dismissed them.

They sauntered out of the office and Lily paused.

"Aren't you coming to dinner?" James asked. Lily shook her head.

"I'm going to the dorm. I'm not hungry." she said shortly. She turned around and walked away silently.

James couldn't help but wish he could go along with her.

If I could find you now things would get better
We could leave this town and run forever
I know somewhere, somehow we'll be together
Let your waves crash down and on me
And take me away
-Yellowcard, Ocean Avenue

Chapter Two: I didn't mean to do that!

"Are you going to talk to me?"

It was Saturday morning and James and Lily were in the Head's common room, Lily on one side of the room, James on the other.

"I have to. We have to work out the prefect's shifts. So get your lazy butt over here and let's start." Lily said simply. James happily walked over to Lily and sat down in the chair next to her.

"Now, Mitchell and Selsbury should be able to take over shift three, since they won't have any classes then and they're not on the Quiddich team." Lily said, scribbling down Mitchell and Selsbury under Shift 3 on a chart McGonagal had given them. She let her hand rest on the table as she studied the list of prefects. James couldn't help it. He rested his hand on top of Lily's. She looked like at him like he was crazy and scolded him.

"James, we're going to be living together and---" Lily was cut off.

"You just called me James instead of Potter!" James said in awe. Lily turned a light red color.

"Well, like I said, we're going to be living together, so we might as well get along with no romance involved." Lily said as her cheeks turned back to normal. James looked down at his hand and waited a few minutes to speak again.

"Wisteria and Enilejna can do shift one."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was raining out, and the students were forced to stay inside that day. James and Lily stayed in their dorm all day. Lily sat on the couch, reading a spell book. James was on the other side, staring at Lily, barely blinking.

"Lily, could we please talk?" James asked for maybe the hundreth time. Lily finally put down her book and gave a disgruntled,

"Fine." James walked over to her and sat in the chair next to her's and began talking,

"Do you know what it's like to be rejected?"

Lily opened her mouth to say something, but closed it after thinking about the question. She had never been the dating type. She shook her head and James nodded his.

"I'm sure you haven't. Well, take it from someone who gets rejected by a certain special someone everyday," he gave her an odd look at this, "It's not fun."

Lily, for the first time, looked at James's eyes with something other than hatred. Pity and guilt.

"James, I don't know what to say." she said lamely.

"You don't have to say anything. I just want you to think about that." James said reluctantly. "I'll leave you to your book."

He turned to go back to his original chair.

"James, wait." Lily said quickly. James spun around and raised his eyebrows. Lily had no idea what she was about to do until she did it.

She kissed James Potter. That immature James Potter who made her sick and deserved to eat frog's droppings. When she pulled away, realizing what she and done, James looked at her with wide eyes.

"I-- I didn't mean to do that!" Lily squeaked. But James's face had just broke out into a grin.

"You like me." he said playfully, batting his eyelashes.

"Don't get cocky, Potter, I didn't mean to kiss you!" Lily said grudgingly.

"But you did." James said slyly. Lily turned red and snapped,

"Just when I thought we could be friends, you had to go and get all vain and cocky again!" She scowled at James and ran up to her dorm.

James leaned back on his chair, thought about what just happened, and said under his breath,

"Damn, I'm an idiot."

James sighed, mentally hit himself on the head and sulked all the way up to his dorm. He quickly wrote a letter to Sirius, knowing he couldn't talk to him in this, er, "form". He sent it with Niddy, his owl and anxiously waited for a response.

Over with Sirius...

"Sirius, you got a letter." Remus said, looking up as a brown owl with a white line down it's chest swooped in and a letter was dropped off next to Sirius.

"That's James's owl." he muttered as the owl flew out. He opened up the letter and read it through slowly, not believing it's content, Remus looking over his shoulder, Peter not paying attention.

Dear Sirius,

You won't believe what happened! Lily Evans kissed me! But then, I got all cocky and she hates me AGAIN! What should I do? What should I say? I have no idea what to do! Everytime I talk to her, my stomach does this big flip-flop and I feel ready to throw up! If you want to come talk to me, the password is Hunkydory.

James

"JAMES AND LILY KISSED?" Remus exclaimed. Hazel and Molly spun around in a millisecond.

"JAMES AND LILY KISSED?" they cried in unsion. Sirius scowled.

"Smooth move, Remus." he said sarcasticly. "Well, I'm going to go talk to him."

"I'll go to. I NEED to talk to Lily about this!" Hazel said anxoiusly. The two of them walked out of the common room together, an awkward silence between them.

"So, Parsley, you're the one who's been sending me those love notes?" Sirius said slyly. Hazel turned scarlet.

"Uh, he he, yeah." she said nervously.

"Sorry to make you uncomfortable. Friends?" Sirius put out his hand to shake. Hazel grasped it and said brightly,

"Friends."

"Here it is." Hazel said, coming to a painting of a butler with a balding head.

"Password?" he said tonelessly.

"Hunkydory." Sirius said quickly. The painting swung open and the two walked in.

Hazel walked briskly into the room with a plaque that said Lily, and Sirius in the one that said James.

With Sirius..........

"Lily? What are you doing in James's room?" he asked uncertainly. This was definitely James's room: it had Quiddich posters all over and a snitch was floating lazily near the ceiling. But Lily's body was there, not his best friend's.

"Sirius, let me explain. I'm James. Lily and I kind of... switched places." James said slowly. Sirius laughed gaily.

"You switched places? Let me guess, and it's all your fault?" Sirius said slyly. James turned red.

"Yes." he said. He was kind of annoyed: having Lily mad at him was enough, now his best friend had to reminind him it was his fault Lily and him switched.

"So, where's Lily now?" Sirius asked, sitting down on James's bed. James stared blankly out his window and answered,

"In her room."

"So, it looks like you've gotten yourself into a load of trouble, hmm?" Sirius asked, studying James's face expression.

"I've waited six years for this, Sirius! And now she despises me.. again." he said tonelessly.

"Don't worry, we'll get you through this, Prongs. I will, and so will Moony and Wormtail."

Over with Hazel.....

Hazel took the whole 'James and Lily switched places' thing a little different.

"You SWTICHED PLACES? OMG!" she exclaimed. Lily looked up at her with puffy eyes.

"Please don't make a big deal out of it, Hazel." she said pleadingly.

"Ok, sorry. So, you and James kissed?" she asked excitedly. Lily nodded shyly.

"Awww! You guys are such a cute couple!" Hazel said, a glint in her eye.

"We're not a couple! Potter got all cocky and now we're back to square one." Lily said shortly and sternly.

"C'mon, Lil, give him a chance! He's been trying to get you to like him for six years! He hasn't dated a single girl because he's waiting for you!" Hazel pointed out. This made Lily think. "That is true.... but I'm not going out with him!" she said to herself. She shook her head.

"I am not going out with him. Now could we please change the subject?" Lily asked, eyebrows raised. Hazel sighed and nodded.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next full moon was not for another five days. Five long days.... five long, unbearable days.... five long, unbearable, wierd-- okay, I'll stop. Lily and James were cut off from their friends during classes, James was deprived of his sleep during History of Magic, and Lily was forced to go to Quiddich practice.

Day 1-

"Here is your new schedule, Potter." Lily said briskly the next morning in the Head's Room. She handed James a chart with all of her classes for the next five days. James looked over the schedule quickly.

"Ancient runes? You take ancient runes? I can't decipher all of those symbol things!" James complained. Lily glared at him icily.

"Shut up, Potter. If you fail any one of my classes, I swear, I'll never forgive you!" Lily said angrily. She picked up James's bag and stormed out the portrait hole.

"Oo, guilt bomb..." he mumbled, following her out of the room.

James and Lily still couldn't sit with their friends. So, James walked over to Hazel and Molly grumpily.

"Hello, ahem--Lily." Molly said, glancing up at him. Molly, Remus, and Peter had all been notified about the switch and were sworn to secrecy.

"Good morning." Hazel said briskly. She was looking around the hallways, most likely trying to get an eyefull of Sirius.

"What's so good about it?" James grumbled. Molly frowned.

"What's up with you?" she asked. James scowled and shook his head.

"Well, anyways, we have divination first." Holly said brightly as they entered the Great Hall. The three of them sat with Sirius, Lily, Remus, and Peter so they could all be with their rightful friends. It looked as if James would sit next to Lily, but he was ushered by Sirius to sit next to him instead.

"So, you have to take Ancient Runes?" Remus asked, with a mouthful of porridge. James nodded grumpily.

"C'mon, Prongs, smile!" Sirius said, thumping James on the back as he took a sip of orange juice. James coughed, glared, and said,

"I don't feel like it."

Sirius rolled his eyes and started stuffing his face. Toast, bagels, porridge, waffles, you name it, he ate it. Hazel gazed at him for a few moments before Molly poked her and James in the back and told them to get moving or they'll be late for divination.

"See you guys in charms!" Hazel exclaimed. James sulked off with Hazel and Molly off to divination.

"Now," boomed the Divination teacher, Professor Armani, "This is your seventh and last year at Hogwarts. We all know what this means! N.E.W.T.'s. I am going to work you to the bone! I am going to make sure that each and every one of you has a fully developed inner eye! Now, turn to 609 and do the exercise on that page."

James reached into Lily's lavender backpack and fished out her divination book. It was over flowing with notes. He flipped to page 609 and was soon looking at a page filled with pictures of different hand designs.

"Okay, James, give me your hand." Molly said briskly. James thrust out her hand at her and she traced over the creases in his palm with her finger. She closed her eyes.

"I sense... love in your future. Love and---" James cut her off and glared at her.

"Don't tease me like that, Molly." he said coldly. Molly snapped open her eyes.

"Number one, you ruined my train of thought and number two, I was not teasing you! Now, give me back your hand or Lily is going to fail and she will never talk to you again!" Molly hissed. James scowled and gave her back his hand.

"As I was saying, I sense love and danger. Great danger that will change your life forever." Molly said wisely. James couldn't help but think, "What bull."

James was very happy when Charms came after divination. He was very eager to see his friends even though he couldn't sit with them.

Lily scribbled down on a piece of paper, "How did he do in divination?" and sent it to Molly. Molly opened it, nudged Hazel and Hazel peeked over her shoulder to read it. There was a bit of a smirk on Molly's face as she wrote, "He did pretty good. We were doing palm reading." She sent it back to Lily, who was about to reply, asking what she saw in his palm when she saw Professor Flitwick eyeing her carefully and decided to wait. That question went over and over in her head: what did his palm say? It wasn't like it was a question deciding life or death. But knowing that she couldn't know made her want to know more. She was twitching a bit when Sirius asked her if she was okay.

"I'm, uh.. I'm just peachy." Lily said in a fake cheery voice.

"Okay, everybody, this is the Jealousy charm." Professor Flitwick started. Lily and James sat bolt up in their chairs, "It is Nabakza Ressorrrral," he said this with a bit of an accent, trilling his 'r', "Now, notice I trilled the 'r'. If you don't trill it, you're saying a completly different spell."

"Been there, done that," James thought, smiling to himself a bit.

"Now, I am going to pair everyone up. Uh, let's see... Black and Parsley," Hazel turned bright red as Professor Flitwick said this. She and Sirius scooted over to each other, "Potter and Lupin." James smiled. He was about to get up and sit next to his good friend when he remembered Proffesor Salsa thought Lily was him, "Abbott and Longbottom," Ronald Abbott and Frank Longbottom grinned at each other, "Evans," James's stomach did a backflip, "and Pettigrew," James and Peter scooted next to eachother happily. This went on for a minute or so and Molly ended up with Arthur Weasly.

"Okay, Remus, I've had horrible --ahem-- expieriances with this spell, so I was hoping you'd do it first." Lily said, smiling. Remus chuckled. Professor Salsa warned them again about trilling the 'r's and let them begin.

"Ready?" Remus asked. Lily smiled, nodded, and closed her eyes. Remus got out his wand and pointed it at Lily.

"Nabakza Ressorrrral." he said clearly. There was a flash of green light (no, she's not dieing!) and Lily opened her eyes. Green flashes were going on all around her and suddenly,

"Remus, how come YOU get to skip days with a full moon?"

"Well, I--"

"And how come YOU get to be a boy?"

"You see--"

"Why do YOU go to the bathroom by---"

"HOW DO I REVERSE THIS, PROFESSOR?!" Remus exploded, not wanting to hear anymore. James looked over with interest.

Professor Flitwick came over to the two of them.

"Did it work, Mr. Lupin?" he questioned.

"Why did YOU get twenty two O.W.L.'s and I only got nineteen?" Lily said enviously.

"I see." Flitwick said shortly, "Okay, everybody! To reverse it, you must point to yourself and say Conceitnef."

Remus fumbled with his wand for a moment, eager to take this spell off Lily and muttered, pointing to himself, "Conceitnef."

Lily stopped babbling and Remus let out a sigh of relief.

Most of the other classes went by without trouble, since they seven of them had the rest of the classes together. When James and Lily got to the Head's Room, Lily could finally ask him what Molly saw in his hand.

"Well, she said she saw danger and uh," he avoided Lily's eyes as he said," and um, love."

Lily turned a light shade of pink but only for a moment.

"So, what was it like being insanely jealous of Remus?" James asked casually.

"Well, I don't very much remember. Though I do remember asking him why he should be able to go to the bathroom a--ahem-- different way." Lily said, smiling a bit. James laughed.

"Oh, speaking of the bathroom, I really need to go!" Lily continued.

"So? If you got to go, you got to go." James said simply. Lily looked at him like he had a third eye.

"I can't go in this-- body!" Lily whined. Suddenly, James got it.

"Ohhhh. Er, maybe you could-- close your eyes?" he said lamely.

"I'll just hold it in.. for another four days." Lily said thoughtfully.

"There must be a spell.." James mumbled.

"You know what? You're probally right. C'mon, let's go down to the library." Lily said, pulling on James's arm. His knees quivered for a second when his own hand touched him, but followed her out the portrait hole. Suddenly, her grip got tighter and it was aware to James why a moment later. "Snivellus" was walking down the hall, eyeing the two of them carefully. Lily sucked in her breath and muttered so only James could hear her,

"Don't do anything."

James had to clench his teeth, grip his wand until his hands sweated, and keep his legs as rigid as a piece of wood to not pounce on him at that very moment. Lily on the other hand, forced a smile.

"Good evening, Snape." she said in a calm voice. Snape looked at her oddly.

"Evening, er, Potter." he looked over at James, "Evening, mudblood."

Lily's grip instantly increased by three on James's arm. Snape smirked and walked off, muttering to himself, his greasy black hair covering his face.

"Why didn't you let me punch him?" James said haughtily. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Number one, it'll look like it's ME getting into a fight and number two, Snape isn't worth it!" Lily scolded. James looked at her with wide eyes.

"But you heard what he called you!" James cried. Lily looked at him sympathetically.

"I appreciate you wanting to stick up for me, but next time try using words, not wands or fists." she said wisely. James scowled as they entered the library. Lily still hadn't released her grip on his arm. Hazel and Sirius were down there. Hazel nudged Sirius and he looked up. She pointed to James and Lily, Lily still gripping James's arm tightly. Hazel giggled and Sirius smirked. Lily and James noticed their friends over there and Lily instantly released her grip. They walked to the shelf labeled "Housecare Spellbooks".

James looked around dumbly. He didn't go to the library as much as Lily, but Lily found a book with a spell to, er, "empty her bladder" in about seven or eight minutes. The quickly whipped out her wand and muttered a spell, pointing to herself, and gave a sigh of relief. James chuckled. In another book, titled What to Wear? told them how to change clothes without actually doing so. They checked out the books and Lily put them in her bag. They smiled at their friends and sat down at their table. Sirius smiled slyly at James, who looked clueless as ever. Lily glanced up at James to see him staring at her. James turned red and back in a flash and started a conversation with Sirius. Hazel giggled.

James and Lily soon had to leave to watch the halls. That was one of their duties as Head Boy and Girl.

They had survived a day and half as each other.

But they still have four more.



A/N Please review, it would mean so much to me! Thanks

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm getting older, ya'll people gets colder
Most of us only care about money making
Selfishness got us following our own direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Whatever happened to the values of humanity?
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality?
Instead of spreading love, we're spreading animosity
A lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
-Black Eyed Peas feat. Justin Timberlake, Where is the Love?

Chapter Three: Wormtail is a Rat

Day 2-

Peter Pettigrew was laying on his bed, lonely as usual. James was too busy trying to catch up with Lily's classes, Sirius had been either spending time with Hazel or out on the Quiddich field, and Remus was caught up in the N.E.W.T.'s craze, studying like mad.

He decided he wouln't just sit here and slowly get fat from not moving. He walked briskly down to the Quiddich field to watch the Gryffindors practice. James, of course, was seeker, but since everyone thought he was Lily, Lily was going to have to do practices. Sirius was the school's best beater. When asked how he mustered tthe strengh to hit the bludger so hard, he simply answered, "I just pretend it's Snivellus's face."

When he arrived, James was watching from the stand anxiously, watching Lily like a hawk. Peter didn't feel very much like sitting next to him. He knew James would just babble on about "Lily this" or "Lily that". So, Peter sat on the other side of the stands, where the Ravenclaws usually sat. He watched without interest as Lily tried time after time to catch the snitch, coming close, but not getting it. She looked mighty frustrated out there.

"C'mon, James! What's with you today?" shouted Frank Longbottom, the keeper. Lily sighed and James frowned.

Peter sat up in the cold, metal stands and started to quiz himself on transfiguration, which was not his best subject.

"Pettigrew." came a icy voice. Peter spun around to see Severus Snape standing there, hair as greasy as ever.

"Snape? What do you want?" Peter said slowly. Snape smirked and looked out onto the field as Lily, once again, failed to catch the snitch.

"Pretty horrible practice, hmm?" Snape said slyly. Peter had to admit: the team was not at it's best without the real James there. He nodded.

"Quiddich has always seemed to be such a silly sport, do you agree?" Snape asked casually. Peter nodded vigorously. He always felt so left out when Sirius and James would get into discussions about Quiddich, for he felt Quiddich was pointless. He, of course, never told his friends this. They'd never forgive him for turning on Quiddich!

"Us Slytherins have our own kind of sport. We call it M.J." Snape said, still gazing at the players on the field. "It stands for Muggle Jinxing. You could join if you'd like."

Peter didn't even think about it before agreeing. Something to do sounded wonderful to him at the moment.

"We have an initiation. Usually, you have to jinx a muggle, but since we are living in a magical castle with no muggles, you must jinx a mudblood. There is a certain jinx you are required to perform. You have a week to do it." Snape explained. Peter nodded, his head flapping back and forth.

"Who do I have to jinx?" he asked excitedly.

"Lily Evans." Snape said simply.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Lily was trying her best out on the field to look and act like James. She smirked inside as she ruffled the jet black hair that grew from her head as James always did and mounted her broom again. She glanced around for the snitch. It was floating around one of the beaters, Salvator Newra. "I can do this." she thought to herself. She raced over to the snitch, her eyes not noticing anything else.

It happened in an instant. A nearby bludger the beaters had been practicing with had escaped and hit Lily square in the back and she plummeted to the ground. James watched in slow motion as Lily fell off the broomstick and into the mud below. He was very close to yelling out "Lily!" but didn't want to make an idiot of himself, seeing as everyone thought he WAS Lily. But nonetheless, he raced out of the stands and over to Lily's limp body. The rest of the team gathered around her. Sirius had gone pale white.

"Well don't just sit around and gawk at him! Get him to the hospital wing!" James said anxiously. Sirius and Frank lifted Lily off the ground and followed closely by James, they brought her to Madame Pomfrey.

"Broken backbone." she said, studying Lily's oddly bent back. She was not moving. She had passed out, but James was worried it was something worse.

Frank soon left to finish running the team's practice and James and Sirius were left with Lily. James grasped her hand tightly, just as she had done to restrain him from Snape the day before.

"James, I am so sorry. If I had been watching that bludger more closely.." Sirius said sincerely. James shook his head.

"No, Sirius. I shouldn't of made her go through with it. She didn't want to, but I couldn't do that to the team..." James said sadly. "It's all my fault."

"Don't go too hard on yourself, Prongs. Madame Pomfrey will be able to fix her as soon as she wakes up." Sirius pointed out. James grasped Lily's hand even tighter still and said,

"What if she doesn't wake up?"

"You've got to be kidding! She just got hit by a bludger! We've both been hit by a bludger about six times each and we're fine!" Sirius said exasperately. James couldn't help but agree.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was horribly lonely in the Head's Room that night for James. He sat on the couch, flipping through Lily's Ancient Runes book, ruffling his --or Lily's rather-- auburn hair every once in a while. Suddenly, the potrait hole swung open and James was sure he would see his own body walk in, with Lily inside, but it was just Sirius. He smiled weakly at his best friend as Sirius sat down.

"How're you feeling?" Sirius asked, looking bemused at all the books James was flipping through.

"Lousy." James said moodily. Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and said,

"Snivellus is just downstairs. You wanna go make bubbles come out of his ears?"

James was about to jump up and tell Sirius he'd love to, but he remembered what Lily said to him the other night: "Number one, it'll look like it's ME getting into a fight and number two, Snape isn't worth it!" and "I appreciate you wanting to stick up for me, but next time try using words, not wands or fists." James shook his head pathetically. Sirius frowned.

"Lily told me not to pick on Snape in her body and that he isn't worth it. And she said to next time use words, not wands or fists." James said tonelessly.

Sirius shook his head sympathetically.

"I guess I'll see you around?" he said slowly. James nodded and Sirius walked out of the Heads Room, a bit annoyed.

Day Three-

James walked into Ancient Runes and was determined to make Lily proud. He had studied for four full hours the night before, trying to memorize all of the, ahem, "symbol things". Professor Vector gave them a test he claimed that would prepare them for N.E.W.T's. James found the first couple of questions very easy, but they got harder as it went on. Some of the stuff they asked for wasn't in the books Lily left them. He was sure he got the last seven wrong and bit his lip when Professor Vector passed them back ten minutes later. A big 'A' for Acceptable was printed on the top and James felt he had done pretty well.

James, Hazel, and Molly walked out onto the grounds for Care of Magical Creatures, Molly and Hazel chatting all the way. James wasn't very much listening. Sometimes, he would hear snippets of their conversation, such as "--and he said 'no way'!--" or "--the Sirius said that I could do the jealousy spell on him--". He was relieved when they got to Care of Magical Creatures. His friends would be sitting behind him. Sirius poked him in the back as Professor Kettleburn started talking and whispered,

"Full moon is coming up!"

James grinned, turning around at Sirius, when he remembered what Dumbledore told them.

"Padfoot, I'm going to be a bit late. At midnight, Lily and I will be able to switch back." he said quickly. Sirius looked a bit perplexed for a moment, but then nodded.

"Ms. Evans, turn around. We all know Mr. Black is good looking, but now is not the time to talk to boys!" Professor Kettleburn snapped. James turned red, Sirius pretended to look bored, and Remus was stiffling great puffs of laughter. James turned straight around in his chair and smiled and embarressed smile at the students that had turned to look at him.

"Nice job, Potter! You know what's going to happen now?" Hazel asked exasperately on their way to class. James shook his head.

"Well, now that old Professor Kettleburn said that crack about you flirting with Sirius, rumours are going to start about Lily going out with Sirius." Hazel said in a tone that said, "Isn't it obvious?"

James rolled his eyes and told Hazel and Molly that that would never happen. Hazel shook her head to herself and muttered,

"Just wait and see."

The rest of Day 3 was increasingly boring, that is until Potions class. Professor Salandar was pairing them up again, this time for a different potion.

"Longbottom and Weasly," Professor Salander said sternly, "Parsley and Jones," Hazel and Molly smiled at each other, "Evans and Black,"

The entire class chorused together, "Oooooooooh!" as James and Sirius moved next to each other. Hazel was right. Everyone thought the same thing: Sirius Black and Lily Evans were going out. James scowled and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Quiet!" Professor Salandar said strictly and he continued to read off names.

"Lily is going to kill you, Prongs." Sirius said, shaking his head. He dropped some finely cut locusts into their potion. James raised his eyebrows.

"What did I do now?" he asked cluelessly.

"Are you that thick? Everyone thinks I'm going out with her." Sirius pointed out. James rolled his eyes.

"She'll get over it."

Day 4-

Lily woke up that day. James was extatic when she walked in the Head's Room on the fourth morning. He explained what she had missed: how he had gotten an acceptable on her Ancient Runes test and how he had studied for four full hours.

"Oh, yeah, and everyone thinks you and Sirius are going out." he added hastily. Before she could reply, he zoomed out the door and down to breakfast. But she caught up to him before he could get to the Great Hall. She grabbed his arm and exclaimed,

"They think WHAT?!"

"OK, let me explain, Lily," James started, his stomach flip-flopping again, "I was talking to Sirius and Professor Kettleburn--"

"I don't care! I'm unconcsious for one day and you have to go and get some dumb rumour started? I can't believe you!" Lily cried.

"No, but, it wasn't my fault, Professor Kettleburn had--"

"I don't want to hear it! Go away!" Lily said in a snobbish tone. She let go of James's arm and rushed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"You don't look happy." Molly said, glancing up at Lily's distraught face. Lily looked down at James's watch.

"And the reason why should arrive in 3..2..1." as she said this, James came running into the Great Hall, panting slightly and sat next to Lily.

"OK, now let me explain." he said, turning to a fuming Lily. She bit into her bagel and said grudgingly,

"I'm listening."

"Well, I was talking to Sirius in Care of Magical Creatures class and Kettleburn goes, 'I know Mr. Black is good looking but now is not the time to talk to boys!' Then at Salandar's class, he paired Sirius and I up and everyone went 'oooooooooh!' and well, that's how it happened." James said in a bit of a rush.

Lily's mouth twitched like she was going to smile, but seemed determined not to do so.

"Whatever." she said shortly.

"Am I forgiven?"

"Fine." Lily said, shrugging. James breathed out a sigh of relief.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Pettigrew, your time is running out." Snape hissed. They were in potions and Peter and Snape were partners.

"I know, I'm waiting until after the full moon." Peter said. Why was he waiting? If he jinxed Lily now, it would look like he had jinxed James.

"Well, hurry up! The rest of us are growing impatient!" Snape said angrily.

"No, you're not supposed to put that in!" Lily snapped. Her and James had been paired up, again, in potions and Lily was getting easily aggrivated by James.

"Yes, it says right here: four crushed cockroaches!" James said, pointing to a couple of words on the page.

"You moron, that's the wrong potion!" Lily said exasperately. James turned red.

"Oh." he muttered. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Evans, how come your not with your boyfriend?" A Slytherin girl, Sara Ablad, behind them asked sneakily. Lily fumed. James, on the other hand, stayed calm.

"I am." he said shortly. Sara raised her eyebrows and fluffed her blonde hair.

"That's not Sirius Black." she said, giving Lily a look of disgust.

"I know. James Potter is my boyfriend." James said slyly. Lily looked at him with wide, angry eyes.

"James Potter? So Sirius Black isn't taken?" Sara asked hopefully. James nodded. Sara turned around and grinned to herself.

Lily gave James a look that said, "You will die."

In the Head's Room....

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" Lily screamed. James didn't answer, he just sat there and smirked.

"Don't you smirk at me!" Lily snapped.

"Well, it seemed to be the only way to get everyone to believe you and Sirius weren't going out." James said, shrugging.

"Sara Ablad has the biggest mouth of all the Seventh Years!" Lily said angrily.

"It just kind of.. slipped." James said defensively. Lily looked at him with disgust.

"I can't believe you! I won't believe you! I--I--- GRrRrRr!" Lily said, losing her usual calm, soft voiced self and exploded at James.

"Listen, Evans, I just wanted to---"

"Wanted to what, Potter?! You wanted to make everyone think we're an item! That's what you've wanted, that's what you've always wanted and that's what you'll never get!" she screamed. She grabbed her books and stormed up to her room. James just leaned back in his seat and thought to himself,

"She's perfect for me."

Dinner was awkward for Lily. She was still mad at James when she got there, was still mad at him while she told Hazel and Molly why she was mad at him, and was mad at him when Sirius pulled her into the hallway.

"Listen, Lily--" Sirius was cut off.

"Sirius, if your here to try to get me to forgive James--" Lily was cut off this time,

"Yes, that is precisely why I'm here and I want you to consider it." Sirius started. Lily was about to open her mouth to say something, but Sirius continued, "Now, James has been trying to get you to like him ever since he laid eyes on you. Can't you tell how miserable he is when you blow up at him like that?"

"Guilt bomb.." Lily mumbled.

"You know, when you were hit by that bludger, James stayed in the Hospital Wing by your bed for two hours and held your hand. And then he stayed up for another four hours for that Ancient Runes test of yours. And then there are all of those uncountable times he stood up for you when Snape called you a, well, you know." Sirius went on.

"You sure know how to make someone feel bad.." Lily muttered.

"And there was that time James got you out of that trap in out fifth year where someone put a picture of Snivellus in your Charms book where he was wearing a tho--"

"ENOUGH SAID! I'll go talk to him." Lily said before Sirius could finish his sentence. "I knew that one would work!" he thought evilly to himself. He went in to the Great Hall and Lily followed. Walking down the Gryffindor house table, many girls burst into tears as she walked by them. "Potter's Fanclub" as she called them. They were all the girls hoping to be James's girlfriend.

"Get up, Potter, we need to talk." she said calmly.

James obediantly got up and the two of them walked in silence. Lily led him to the Room of Requirement. All that was there was two chairs next to each other and a fire crackling merrily.

"Yes, Evans?" James asked as they sat down. Lily frowned.

"First of all, don't call me Evans and I won't call you Potter." she said shortly. James sighed and nodded his head.

"Now, Sirius told me to talk to you because he said you were miserable." Lily said in a gentle tone.

"He said that? I'll murder him!" James said angrily. He was not one to let his feelings be known. Well, except his feeling of love towards Lily. But most definitely not his misery without Lily.

"Well, after thinking about the stuff he said, I decided by myself that we should talk after all." Lily continued.

"Ev--I mean, Lily, I have a question. Why do you hate me like this so much? Why do you put me down all the time?" James questioned seriously.

"I don't hate you, I just.. dislike you. It's just that sometimes you get a bit vain and you brag--"

"To impress you." James said suddenly. He bit his lip, wishing he hadn't said that. Lily turned a bit red. James cringed.

"What?" Lily said aprehensively.

"I hate seeing myself turn red." he said quickly. His eyes and her eyes met and they both laughed.

"So? Any other reasons you--uh-- dislike me?" James asked attentivelly.

"Well, you attack people every chance you get. Like when Snape calls me names you blast his head off." Lily pointed out.

"That's only to protect you." he said defensively.

"Yeah, but James, I can protect myself. Maybe I needed help when I was 11 or 12, but I'm older now. I'm 17." said Lily. James sighed.

"It's just that every time someone says stuff like that to you, this little bell rings in my mind, telling me to go stick up for you." James said sadly. Lily turned red again.

"Jeez, Lily, I've never seen you turn red so many times before!" James said, laughing a bit. Lily soon joined in with the laughter.

"Anything else you dislike?" James said after a few moments of laughter.

"Yeah. The fact that you act like you care so much. I don't know, James. It seems like you only want to go out with me because I don't give in easily. Like I'm just some sort of challenge you're determined to win." Lily said slowly, choosing her words carefully. James winced.

"Lily, you've said some pretty hurtfull things to me over the years, but I'd have to say that that hurt the most. Act like I care? I do care, Lil! I care a lot! All those things I've said that sounded vain in front of you, all those times I jinxed Snape when he made fun of you was just to impress you!" James cried. For the third time that night, Lily turned red.

"Okay, I think that about wraps up our conversation, see you tomorrow, erm, James." Lily said uncertainly. She gave him a quick smile and raced to her room.

Day 5-

They had McGonagal for a double period: 2 entire hours, the next day. She gave them the oddest assignment.

"Today, you will all be taking a look at what your life would be like if you had not gone to Hogwarts. If you had lived your life as a Muggle." McGonagal announced. Sirius and James looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"First, we have Abbott, Ronald." she continued, conjuring up a Muggle projector. Ronald Abbott's face came up on the screen. I'm not going to go through what his showed, because Ronald Abbott is a boring, unimportant character. (A/N actually, it's because I'm lazy).

"Black, Sirius."

The class watched with interest as 11 year old Sirius played football with a dark skinned, foul mouthed boy who he called "Kanard". 12 year old Sirius was sitting in the movie theatre, watching E.T. (A/N if that isn't out yet, just go along with it, I don't know any other old movies!) and putting his arm around a blushing blondie. 13 year old Sirius was in an alleyway, beating up a nine year old with Kanard. The real life Sirius flinched. 14 year old Sirius was out on the streets, his clothes tattered and a grim look to his face. 15 year old Sirius was being arrested by Muggle policemen for abusing school property. 16 year old Sirius was in a hospital room with the same blushing blonde who was in labor. 17 year old Sirius was living in a box. The real Sirius watched with wide eyes and couldn't help but think, "Thank you lord for Hogwarts!"

"Evans, Lily." James's and Lily's eyes met for a split second but soon traveled to the projector screen.

11 year old Lily Evans was all dressed up with a long, slender instrument in her hands--a flute. She and Hazel were performing a band concert. 12 year old Lily Evans was talking to a blonde boy-- Derek Trombas! James glared. 13 year old Lily was up on stage again, performing in a play that sounded like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. 14 year old Lily was talking with a girl whose name was apparently Madison. They were talking about their favorite book, The Hobbit. 15 year old Lily was walking the halls of an exclusive High School, holding hands with a boy with light brown hair and blue eyes. James frowned. 16 year old Lily was babysitting a short ten year old with tall, black hair. Apparently, his name was Bernardo. Lastly, 17 year old Lily writing up an application to attend Yale. Lily beamed at the projector; James glared at seeing Lily with that High School boy.

Now, I'm not going to discuss the minor character's possible pasts such as Frank Longbottom or Molly or those types of people. So skip them.

"Lupin, Remus."

Remus was terrified this would show him being bitten by the werewolf and his secret would leak out everywhere, but McGonagal seemed to realize what he was thinking and said they would have to skip him because she can't find his possible past.

"Pettigrew, Peter."

11 year old Peter Pettigrew sat talking to an elf-like boy. The boy had pointy ears and dark brown hair and scaly skin. They were both sharing answers for a test. 12 year old Peter was in chess club and losing horribly. 13 year old Peter was staring absentmindedly at a black haired boy. 14 year old Peter was conducting a school report with the same boy, whose name was Keith. (get ready for this, readers!!) 15 year old Peter was in the library with the same boy, this time, er, holding hands with him (author shudders as she types this). Yes, Peter had turned gay. The real life Peter had hid his head, trying to ignore the great puffs of laughter going on around him. 16 year old Peter was being teased by none other than Kanard from Sirius's possible past. 17 year old Peter sat in his boring bedroom, weeping his beady little eyes out.

"Potter, James." James's and Lily's eyes met again and looked up at the projector screen.

11 year old James was setting up a trap with a dirty blonde boy that would supposedly make syrup fall on the first person to step through the doorway. "How old." the real James thought to himself. 12 year old James was being passed back a paper he had gotten a 93 on. 13 year old James was hitting on a brunette girl with fiery orangish eyes. Lily looked at it oddly, not sure what to think. 14 year old James was defacing school property by scratching into a desk "J was here". 15 year old James was in P.E. playing dodgeball. He was quite athletic. 16 year old James was grinning evilly as a small, helpless looking boy tripped on a banana peel. (A/N I couldn't think of an original prank!) 17 year old James had a depressed look to him. He was in a hospital room, speaking to an old man who apparently had a concussion.

James frowned. He liked the life he had now much more than what he saw on the screen.

McGonagal went on reading off names that I am much to lazy to mention where various odd and (in Peter's case) humiliating things happened. They left the class discussing the various things they saw on the screen. Hazel was in a state of shock. She had ended up with none other than Derek Trombas at age 17 and was gaping through all of the other ones.

"I can't believe how horrible mine was!" Sirius exclaimed as they walked down to Care of Magical Creatures, "I was out on the streets at age 14?"

Sirius shook his head in disgust.

"I dunno. Mine was pretty okay, though I prefer my life as a witch so much better." Lily said thoughtfully.

"I know I do!" Peter squeaked. They all laughed merrily.

"I definitly prefer my Hogwarts life. I never would have met Arthur if I didn't come here!" Molly said anxiously. Arthur Weasly was her boyfriend.

"Well, mine was unbearably boring." James said, glancing over at his friends.

"Who was the guy at the end with the concussion?" Peter asked.

James shrugged. "I guess my grandfather."

His friends could see it was a touchy subject and dropped the subject.

It was freezing outside, seeing as it was nearing Christmas. Lily and Hazel shivered but Molly was covered in extra cloaks, the only one with enough sense to wear extra clothes. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter just tried to ignore the winter wind pinching their faces.

"By the way, James, Dumbledore wants us to meet him in his office before lunch." Lily said as they trotted down to Care of Magical Creatures class. James nodded, yawning a bit.

"I'm ready to fall asleep right now.. I didn't get any sleep last night." James said, rubbing his eyes. Great bags were forming beneath them

"Me neither! Peter wouldn't stop snoring!" Sirius said exasperately. Peter laughed.

"I was having these horrible nightmares. Voldemort was there and Lily was there. There was a whole lot of green light." James uncomfortably. Molly looked up at him with a worried expression.

"Do you think that was the great danger I foresaw?" she asked. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Come of it, Molly, it was a dream." he said, sighing deeply. Molly scowled at him and they reached the edge of the forest where Care of Magical Creatures took place.

Professor Kettleburn had already started ranting on about N.E.W.T.'s by the time they got there. "Blah blah blah exams blah blah blah remember blah blah." is all James really heard. Lily, Hazel, and Molly took their notes in their neat handwriting as usual, though Lily's mind often wandered. It wandered to the discussion she and James had last night and what Dumbledore wanted to talk to them about. Sirius was off in girl dreamland, listing all the girls he had not yet gone out with. Remus was feeling exhausted as tonight was *bump bump buuump* the full moon. Peter was thinking hard about how he would jinx Lily without James finding out it was him doing it and beat the magic out of him. Snivellus had been bothering him about it for a while. Hazel's mind was on Sirius and Molly's was thinking about food. She hadn't eaten that much that morning, since she had been talking with Arthur Weasly.

The next class went without much worry and when it was time for lunch, Lily and James left for Dumbledore's office.

"Bertie Botts." Lily said briskly and the gargoyle sprang to life. They walking into Dumbledore's office for the second time that year. The elderly man was at his desk, reading a muggle book called The Silmarillion. He put down the book as they walked in.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans, welcome." Dumbledore said. The two of the sat in their usual squishy arm chairs.

"I've called you here because of the younger students. We all know of the fact that Voldemort is slowly gaining power. I get the feeling that some of our younger students aren't feeling safe here at Hogwarts. As Head Girl and Boy, I was hoping you could come up with some thing to add a little cheer to our younger students. Any ideas?" Dumbledore gazed at Lily and James as he waited for a response.

"A dance, perhaps?" James suggested. He sent Lily a quick look, but turned to look at Dumbledore. Dumbledore smiled.

"That is a spectacular idea, Mr. Potter. That is, if you both can handle planning it on top of studying and preparing for N.E.W.T.'s." Dumbledore said, casting them a concerned look through his half-moon spectacles.

"We can do it, right James?" Lily said, turning her head to look at James.

"Absolutely." James concured.

A/N Please Please Please review!

Everytime I try to fly, I fall without my wings
I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams, I see your face
You're haunting me
I guess I need you baby
-Britney Spears, Everytime

Chapter Four: It Just Felt Right

It was 11 'o clock on the fifth night. Very soon, Lily and I would be switching back to our normal bodies. I paced back and forth through the Head's Room as Lily slept quietly in an arn chair. Right now, Sirius and Remus and Peter were off in animagus form, looking for mischief. I could barely wait to join them.

As I paced back and forth.. and back and forth.... and back and forth... and back and forth, I wondered if Lily was mad at me. She had to endure a whole lot of crap from the other girls. Well, not exactly. I had to endure and she had to endure watching me endure it. Many of the girls went up to me and told me that I should be going out with them and not Lily. Pretending to be Lily, I just shrugged them all off. I'm planning on letting her fix it in her own way when she gets back to her own body.

Knowing me, I'd end up making everyone think she's going out with Lucious Malfoy!

At quarter to twelve, I decided to wake Lily up and we could get on our way to Dumbledore's office. I poked her in the back, but she just turned her head away from me and grunted. I gave her a slight push but she just stirred slightly and went on sleeping. So, I leaned down and whispered in her ear,

"Lils, it's me, Snape!"

Her eyes fluttered open and she gave a short scream. When she discovered it was me, not Snape, she laughed.

"Is it time to go to Dumbledore?" she asked, a bit short of breath. I nodded silently and we set off to go to the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore was wide awake when we arrived, compared to Lily who looked ready to doze off at random times. He said nothing to us, just brought us over to his open window. Moonlight was pouring through and I could see the faint outline of Sirius in dog's form and I smiled inside. He put us so our sides were facing the moonlight. I looked into Lily's eyes--or actually, my eyes-- with concern. She looked mighty tired.

Dumbledore raised his long wand and pointed it our way. He began to speak in some foreign language I didn't recognize. But soon, moonlight turned pink, and then blue and then I passed out. I awoke in the corridor. It was still dark. I looked down at my watch-- my watch! not Lily's!-- and saw it was only 12:11. I looked over and saw Lily stirring. Yes, I saw Lily! Not me! We were back in our normal bodies! I stood up and so did she. Lily took one look at me and pounced. I was caught in a hug that was cutting off my circulation.

"I'm back to my old body!" she squeaked, hugging me tighter.

"Was being me that bad?" I choked. She giggled. There was a sudden burst of footsteps.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" came a sly voice. Lily and I instantly pulled apart. Hazel Parsley was there, smirking at us both. Lily turned red and squealed,

"Hazel, this is definitely NOT what it looks like!"

Hazel just continued smirking at us.

"Okay, I won't say anything." she said in a fake voice.

"What are you doing down here at such a late time anyways?" I asked.

"I'm on Prefect duties." Hazel said. "Why are you here?"

"Well, Dumbledore just switched us back!" Lily exclaimed happily. Hazel grinned.

"Well, I need to go meet Sirius, Remus, and Peter." I said in a rush. I was very eager to join my friends.

"G'night." Lily and Hazel said together. I took one last look at Lily's brilliant emerald green eyes and said good night.

As soon as the cold night air reached me, I transformed into a stag. I caught up to the large black dog, werewolf, and rat. Sirius barked at my arrival. Remus was grooming himself with his paw and Peter was squeaking like the idiot he is. We began to wrestle around, just for play, when I noticed someone by the old oak tree next to the lake. I signaled to my friends that I would be right back and galloped over to inspect.

Lily was out there. She was watching the still lake water and shivering as she watched. She looked up, startled, when I arrived but was soon looking at me with a look of love.

"Aren't you just the most beautiful stag?" she said gently, patting me on the head. She began to talk to me about random topics that were on her mind and I listened in rapt attention when she mentioned me.

"Then there is the Potter problem. I dunno, sometimes James is so polite and fun-loving and you really want to be around him. But other times, he's arrogant and loud mouthed and he ticks me off. He's by far the most difficult person I've ever met. And I think that's why I enjoy being around him so much."
she said slowly. I beamed. She didn't hate my guts!

There was a bark from far off. Sirius was calling for me to get back. I let her give me one more pat on the head and galloped off. My best friends and I trottted back to the castle, where we transformed in our usual place.

"James, mate, what took forever? What was over at the lake?" Sirius asked. I sighed.

"Only the most beautiful creature ever." I said dreamily.

"So what did Lily say?" Remus asked, knowing exactly who I was refering to. I smiled goofily.

"Well, she told me about the things that were bothering her. She told me that sometimes I'm fun loving and she wants to be around me and that other times I'm the most difficult person she has ever met." I said as we creeped up the stairs, "She also said that that is why she enjoys being around me so much."

"OoOoOoOoOoh!" Sirius, Remus, and Peter chorused in a whisper. I turned red and was relieved when we reached the Head's Room. Lily was already there, sitting on the couch, obviously thinking about something hard.

"Still up, Lils?" I asked, yawning. She turned to me and nodded. I could feel her powerful emerald eyes watching me as I travelled across the room. I blessed the darkness around me. It was just dark enough so she could not notice me turning red. I stood at the foot of my stairs and turned, noticing she had not yet moved.

"Aren't you going to bed? You looked ready to nod off right at Dumbledore's office." I said, looking straight at her. She shook her head.

"I'm wide awake now. I think I'll just head to bed in a little while." Lily said slowly.

"OK. Well, uh, g'night." I said, my stomch doing a back flip.

"Good night, James Potter." she said slowly.

I walked slowly into my Gryffindor colored room and threw myself onto my bed with a warm, fuzzy feeling surging through my entire body.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I woke up in the Head's common room. I had fallen asleep, thinking about all that had happened the previous night. James and I had finally switched back and I had a long conversation with the most amazing stray stag. The stag seemed annoyingly familiar and I had stayed up for atleast another hour, trying to figure out who it reminded me of.

I was happy to wake up in my own body with my own hair and my own responsibilities. I was happy to finally put earings back into my ears. My friend Mounika had given them to me when I left for Hogwarts and she left for Beauxebatons. They were pink flowers, "especially for me" as she said. It came along with a matching bracelet, necklace, and ring. I hadn't worn them at all this year, but that morning I wore the entire set. I dressed my best and got out all the knots James hadn't brushed out.

I walked into the Head's Room, unbearably hungry, to see James there waiting for me. He smiled at me and I smiled back, hardly believing how much things changed this year.

"Good morning, sunshine." Sirius said to James as we sat down at the table.

"Morning everyone." James said. Hazel looked over at James and I and giggled. I turned red, but James didn't notice.

First class was potions with Professor Salandar. James and I were paired up with each other and everyone giggled. Probally because of what James said to Sara Ablad. I decided to ignore it. At least I knew the truth and so did James. Hazel probally wouldn't believe me because of last night but I didn't mind.

"Now, you sure you're looking at the right potion this time, James?" I asked. James grinned at me.

"Yes, I know what I'm doing this time." he said sincerely.

"Okay, pass me some rewolf, James." I said, glancing at the instructions. He handed me the greenish-yellowish plant and I chopped it up and added it to the boiling cauldren. It sizzled for a second.

"Next is dragon's blood." I said, looking at the page again. He handed me a small jar of a reddish-purple liquid.

"That's chimaera blood." I pointed out.

"Whoops."

It went on like this for the entire class. I would ask for an ingredient, once in a while James would give me the wrong one and have to exchange it. But I'd have to say he did pretty well. Hazel, Molly, and I were due for Divination next while the boys went to Muggle Studies. We were interperting dreams and Hazel and I paired up together as usual while Molly went with Stephanie Browning.

"So, what was your latest dream, grasshopper?" Hazel asked, sounding very much like the Divination teacher herself, Professor Armani.

"Well, there was this beautiful stag that talked to me. It was telling me to take a chance. When I went to pat it, it disappeared and I woke up." I said, recalling the dream I had just last night. Hazel flipped through the pages.

"It says here that the stag represents love. It was telling you to take a chance? So, it says here that it means you are not taking enough risks. The last part means you have to hurry, before it goes away. So put it together and you have this: You should take a risk with love before it disappears." Hazel said wisely. I raised my eyebrows. Take a risk with love before it disappears?

Hmm...

"Really, Lils? I'd say it means take a risk and go out with James before the year is over and you guys never see each other again." Hazel said flatly. I turned red. Again. Jeez, she's making me blush every ten minutes!

"We'll just see about that. What was your last dream?" I asked, trying to get off the subject.

"Well, I was eating this humongous hotdog. This hotdog had ketchup and mustard and relish and a toasted bun. I also ate these huge soccer ball sized potato chips and washed it down with some freshly sqeezed orange juice." Hazel said, her eyes going into a dream-like state. I had to stiffle laughs as I flipped throught the pages.

"So? What's it mean?" she asked impatiently.

"Indigestion." I said simply.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

James and Lily spent their free time in the library, planning the dance that they had planned to be on Valentine's Day. James would occasionally just glance up at Lily while she rambled on about decorations or music. They had a huge bash planned with The Witches Three, a new rock band and so much more. They got a well deserved break that Sunday after they switched back. It was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year.

"You coming, Wormtail?" Sirius asked in the Gryffindor common room. Lily and James came to meet up with their friends so they could all leave together. Well, at least, most of them could leave together. Molly was leaving with Arthur Weasly.

"I, uh, can't. I didn't do my Transfiguration homework." Peter lied. Sirius and James nodded, but Remus wasn't yet sure.

"Why don't you do it after?" he asked suspiciously.

"I won't have much time after and as you all know, Transfiguration isn't my best subject." Peter explained.

"Oh, O.K." Remus said simply. The five of them, James, Sirius, Remus, Lily, and Hazel, walked out of the portrait hole and onto the grounds.

"Where would you guys like to go first?" James asked when they reached the village of Hogsmeade.

"3 Zondukes!"

That's what happens when put together 3 Broomsticks, Zonko's, and Honeydukes.

"Wow, that's helpful." James said lamely.

"Well, I'm going to Zonko's." Sirius said. James nodded in agreement.

"Me too." he concured.

"I'll go with them." Remus agreed.

"Well, we'll go to Honeydukes and meet at the 3 Broomsticks." Lily said.

When in Honeydukes....

"Hey, Lily, guess what? Pigs have tails! Guess what else? Horsies say moo! And you know-- ooh! Look at the purty colors, Lils! Ooh, guess what? I have a wand! I can make everything go purple! Or maybe blue!" Hazel exclaimed insanely. In the past seventeen minutes, Hazel had consumed approximately 27.9 pounds of sugar and it had all entered her bloodstream. In simpler terms, Hazel was officially high on sugar. Lily imeadiately snatched the blob of butterscotch in Hazel's hand and gave her a "no more sweets for you" look.

"Hazel, we're in public!" Lily hissed, flustered. Hazel went crossed-eyed.

"Public? What's that? Ooh, look at the pink fluff!" Hazel said excitedly.

Lily moaned. Seventeen minutes and Hazel was flowing with energy and sugar!

"C'mon, Haz, we're leaving! No, put down the candy floss! Hazel, we can visit the lolipops next time, let's GO!" Lily said, trying to ignore the odd looks she and Hazel were getting. She dragged Hazel out of the sweet store. Hazel was giggling like mad, the 27.9 pounds of sugar flooding through her like venom.

Lily dragged her over to the 3 Broomsticks and got a table for five. She tried her best to get water into Hazel's system and calm her down, but Hazel demanded something sweeter. Lily was about to scream her lungs out in frustration when three boys walked in: James, Sirius, and Remus, and she calmed down a bit. James easily spotted Lily's red-auburn hair and led his friends over to them. They sat down as Hazel started to ramble on about "Candy floss this" or "Sugar Quills that". The three boys gave Hazel a concerned look.

"Lily, what in the name of Merlin is up with her?" James asked quietly. Lily sighed.

"Sugar. 27.9 pounds of it." she said flatly. Sirius threw his head back and laughed.

"You let her eat 27.9 pounds of sugar?" he asked between laughs.

"Well, she just kind of started to rampage around the store, buying everything sweet in sight and threw it down her throat." Lily said uncertainly. James was trying his best not to laugh like Sirius and Remus was watching Hazel with interest and a smirk on his face as she rambled on about cows that say "meow" and all that jazz.

"You let her eat 27.9 pounds of sugar?" Sirius repeated in a disbelieving tone.

"Aww, shut up, Sirius." Lily said. She was very annoyed at this point and wasn't prone to showing it. Sirius gave one last chuckle, but stopped for Lily's sake. Lily poked her fork into the doughnut she ordered, but didn't eat it. She just stared at it, trying to ignore the fidgeting and grunting of Hazel next to her. James looked at Lily and down at the plate where the stabbed doughnut lay.

"It's dead, you can eat, Lil." he said, refering to the doughnut. Lily let out air through her nose and took a bite of her doughnut.

Hazel was inches away from a sugar coma as the five of them walked out of the store. Lots of students were scouting the streets. There were couples window shopping, groups of girls giggling their heads off, and groups of boys crowding around Zonko's.

"Where do you guys want to go?" Remus asked after a few moments of silence.

"Maybe we should--Lily are you okay?" James asked worriedly. His two friends turned to look at Lily; Hazel was still off in Sugar Land. Lily on the other hand, had started to cough and clutch her face. Great green blotches were forming on her face. She could barely breathe, she was coughing so much.

"What the hell--?" Sirius started dumbly. James grabbed Lily's shoulders and said in a rush,

"C'mon, we need to get her to the hospital wing.. again."

And as the five of them rushed back to Hogwarts, Hazel being dragged by Sirius and Remus and Lily still hacking her brains out, behind them in the clutter stood Severus Snape and Peter Pettigrew. Snape had his arms crossed and was smirking from ear to ear. Peter was smiling on the outside, but his stomach was in knots on the inside.

"Welcome to the group, Pettigrew." Snape said slyly.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By the time the five of them reached Hogwarts, Lily had passed out and Hazel had stopped five times along the way to gaze at the "pretty sky thingy".

"Back again Mr. Black, Mr. Potter. My gosh! What happened to Ms. Evans?" Madame Pomfrey shrieked. Remus soon followed them in, dragging Hazel along with him.

"We don't know, she just started hacking and she has all of these green blotches all over her face and eventually she passed out." James said in a rush. He lay Lily down on a hospital bed and squeezed her hand, just as he had done before.

"There's a soft heartbeat." Madame Pomfrey said, leaning close to Lily's heart. As she bustled around, searching for a medicine, she asked,

"And what is wrong with the other one? Ms. Parsley?"

"Uhh... 27.9 pounds of sugar." Sirius explained. Madame Pomfrey sighed and told them to put Hazel down on one of the beds. She finally found what she was looking for: a pinkish-reddish liquid in a clear, small bottle.

"Give Ms. Evans a drop of this while I find something to calm Ms. Parsley." Madame Pomfrey said, handing James the small bottle. James quickly forced open Lily's mouth and screwed off the top of the bottle. He poured in a drop and held his breath, waiting for a reaction. Lily's eyelids fluttered, revealing those emeralds for eyes James had grown to love. She licked her lips and spat,

"What did I just eat?"

James lifted up the little bottle of the pinkish-reddish liquid so she could see it clearly.

"What happened? Where's Hazel?" Lily questoned rapidly.

"Well, you had this sort of coughing fit--"

"And we brought you here and Madame Pomfrey told us to give you this--"

"You also got these green bumps on your face, see?" Sirius handed her a small mirror as he said this. Lily took the mirror and gaped at the reflection. She lifted her hand to touch the bumps she saw in the mirror. Yes, they were, and Lily was not very happy about it.

"Oh my god." she said slowly. She turned to look into James's hazel (A/N I just noticed, I named one of the characters after James's eyes!) eyes. It was a look of confusion, a look of worry, and dominating over them all, a look of stress.

She sighed and fell back on her pillow, gazing up at the ceiling blankly. James looked at her with pity, Remus looked just plain confused, and Sirius was still chuckling inside, watching Hazel continue to ramble.

"Then in this script, it said 'La La La La Banana, banana.' Oooh! There was this time when I ate a christmas tree and broke out in hives..."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Madame Pomfrey had given Lily a face cream to get rid of those green blotches ("It'll clear up in five to seven days, don't worry." she had said), and had calmed Hazel down with a simple spell. Molly found this entire ordeal very amusing as Lily walked into the Great Hall, hiding her face so no one could see the green blotches as much and Hazel walked beside her looking totally wiped. James looked at Lily sympathetically as she sat down next to him and hid her head under the table. Molly was trying her best to not giggle as she glanced at Lily during her usual conversation with Arthur during dinner.

"Aren't you going to eat some dessert, Lily?" James asked exasperately.

"In order to eat, I'd have to show my head, which I don't plan on doing for five to seven days. I'll bring some food back to the Head's Room." came Lily's muffled voice from under the table. James sighed.

"How about you, Hazel? You haven't eaten any dessert yet." Sirius pointed out. Hazel put her hand over her mouth and shook her head.

"If I eat another sweet as long as I live, it will be too soon." she declared.

"That'll last a day or two." Molly joked. Hazel glared. Remus, who hadn't spoken for a while, suddenly piped up,

"Has anyone seen Peter? He's not here."

"He's not on the south side of the table." Sirius said.

"Or the north." James said.

"He's not under the table." Lily said. Hazel rolled her eyes.

"He's probally still doing his Transfiguration homework." she said, not very much believing herself. Remus just shrugged, still looking around the Great Hall for Peter.

James held the food Lily was going to eat in the Head's Room while she hid her head as they walked to the Head's Room. James gripped her arm, guiding her along the way. With her hands over her head, she could hardly see where she was going.

"Are we there yet?" Lily asked.

"Nope."

"Are we there yet?"

"Nope."

"Are we there yet?"

"Nope."

"Are we there yet?"

"Yup."

They had finally reached the Portrait of the balding butler.

"Password?" he drawled.

"Hunkydory." Lily said in a muffled voice. The portrait hole swung open and Lily was finally able to breathe properly again, as she had uncovered her face. James handed her the chicken leg, bread, and treacle tart in his hands and Lily began to eat it up. Chew, chew, chew, chew, swallow. Chew, chew, chew, chew, swallow. This went on for a while until Lily spoke.

"I resent whoever did this to my face." she said through mouthfuls of treacle tart.

"How do you know it wasn't just something you ate?" James inquired.

"This is a side effect of a jinx we learned in fifth year. Don't you remember?" Lily asked. She wouldn't stop touching the bumps on her face.

"Nope." James said simply.

"So someone did this to Lily? I bet Snivellus did it! I'll kill him!" James thought angrily.

"Well, you just have five to seven days left." James said in a fake cheerful voice.

"Whoopee." Lily said sarcasticly, rolling her eyes.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Ms. Evans, lift your head from under that chair!" Professor Salandar snapped. Lily bit her lip and lifted her-- how shall I describe this?-- green face from under her desk in Potions. The Slytherins laughed cruelly. The Gryffindors looked like that wanted to laugh very badly, but wouldn't embarras Lily like that. All except James.

"Now that you have joined us, Ms. Evans, you can go over with Mr. Snape and start your potion." Professor Salandar said icily. James glared at Professor Salandar. Lily squinted at the old, orangitang-ish teacher, counted to ten, and walked over to the seat next to Snivellus.

"Let's get this over with, Snape." Lily said grudgingly. She glared at him, glared at the cauldren in front of her, and glared at Professor Salandar.

"Aren't you just a little bowl of sunshine?" Snape said, giving her a look of resent. "I guess ever since Pettigrew put that little jinx on you, you've been this grouchy?"

Lily stopped reading through the instructions.

"What? Peter did this to me?" she asked, looking into Snape's cold, gray eyes.

"Who else?" he said harshly. "Of course, you don't have to believe ME, I'm sure detective Potter over there will figure it out eventually."

Lily decided not to say anything, knowing it would just lead to bigger consequences. She would wait until after class and CALMLY tell James how Snape said it MIGHT be Peter who jinxed her. She didn't want to jump to conclusions. She listed several ways to tell him as she and Snape worked silently on their potion, which turned out to be pretty good. She decided on,

"So, James. I was talking to Snape and he kind of tipped me off about who might've put the jinx on me." Lily started carefully. James looked over to her with interest.

"Well, who did he say? We don't have all day, we're due for Transfiguration in ten minutes, Lil." he said impatiently.

"Well, he said it MIGHT have been Peter, but I don't think--"

"Peter? PETER?! I'll kill him!" James spat, racing ahead of Lily to catch up with stout Peter Pettigrew, who was ahead of them both, talking to Snape.

"Wormtail, you scum! I can't believe you!" James said, coming between the two. Peter looked up at him with confused eyes.

"What?" he asked dumbly. But then, those little words he had muttered yesterday came into his mind. "Lefaerous." he had said.

"YOU did that to Lily? I knew something was going on! Impedmenta!"Jame said irately, pointing his wand at Peter. Peter was pushed back seven feet and started to sweat.

"James, let me explain!" Peter croaked. Lily had finally caught up to James, who was pointing his wand, still, at Peter.

"Now, James, don't do anything irrational." she whispered in his ear.

"Stay out of this, Lily, this is between me and Wormtail." James said coldly.

"This is between no one!" came a shrill voice. Professor McGonagal stepped into the scene. "It's time for class!"

James glared at Peter and walked into class, closely followed by Lily. They went to their normal seats, James breathing hard through his nose.

"What was that about?" Sirius hissed in class.

"Wormtail was the one who jinxed Lily." James said shortly. Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"He did?" James nodded his head feverently. Sirius let out a low whistle.

"Wonder what made him do it.." he muttered, shaking his head in disgust.

The day seemed to drag on and on. This was because it was the day before vacation started. After their Christmas vacation, their Defense Against the Dark Arts classes would start. Dumbledore couldn't find a new teacher until now. Peter didn't feel safe in the hallways, knowing that James could come up to him at any time to release all of that frustration. But he didn't. Lily and Sirius kept a firm hand on James so he wouldn't go and knock Peter silly. Lily had even stopped hiding her slowly recovering face of green bumps to restrain him.

Lily's classes after transfiguration were Divination and Ancient Runes while the boys went off to double Muggle Studies. She and Hazel paired up to read each other's future through crystal balls.

"Back again, young one?" Hazel said in her fake, Professor Armani-like voice. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Okay, down to buissness." Hazel said in her normal voice. She set her foggy crystal ball down on the desk and rested her eyes on it.

"I see... I see an outline of a person... a boy.... a boy with messy, black hair, it's James! There's James and you, and some big green thing.. and.. oh! I lost it!" Hazel said slowly. Hazel averted her eyes from the crystal ball to Lily.

"Your turn." she said, pushing the ball towards Lily. Lily looked up at Hazel and back down to the crystal ball and a faint image appeared on it.

"Hmm, hard to tell... it looks like a.. a big black dog... but not the Grim, it's licking your face... the dog is changing... it's turning into something much larger, I think a human... It's getting really foggy... I can't tell what's happening now, it's gone." Lily said carefully.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hazel and Peter were going home for Christmas. Lily and James were staying at Hogwarts so they could plan the dance and Sirius was staying because James was staying. Remus was staying for sentimental reasons, saying that this would be his last Christmas at Hogwarts. Christmas Eve was fairly interesting for James and Sirius. They had a snowball fight out on the grounds (Sirius won by a hair) and stuffed their faces without as much people giving them disgusted looks at dinner. Lily had spent all of Christmas Eve in the Head's Room. She was studying hard, pouring over about five books at once. James, noticing how hard she was working, decided to give her a little surprise...

Lily had fallen asleep in the Head's Common Room on Christmas Eve, sprawled over the books she had been flipping through. James woke up early on Christmas morning to complete the rest of Lily's surprise. He crept silently over to Lily and prodded her. She showed no sign of awaking. "Here we go again..." James thought to himself.

"Lils, it's me, Severus Snape!"

Lily's eyes snapped open and she looked over, shocked. James grinned at her.

"Ha ha." she said sarcasticly. She got up to stretch but was stunned by the transformation of the Head's Room.

James had decorated it overnight. Strands of white, gold, red, and green ribbon were covering the walls and gold candles were lit, hovering about seven feet off the ground. A small Christmas tree was in the corner with all of James's and Lily's gifts underneath. The room seemed to sparkle as Lily gazed around it with her emerald green eyes. She also noticed, with a smirk, that there was a piece of mistletoe hanging in the doorway.

"James, this is.. amazing." Lily said, lost for words. James smiled inside as his stomach did a backflip. James silently pointed his wand to the corner where the Christmas tree was and a Christmas carol began to play. It was Lily's favorite, Silver Bells. James held out his hand.

"May I have this dance?" he asked smoothly. Lily smiled at him and took his hand.

James was not a very good dancer. He stepped on Lily's feet, moved the wrong way, but Lily didn't mind. She was lost in a world of bliss. James would mostly follow Lily's lead, since she was definitely the more graceful dancer. The song ended after a few minutes of laughter as James stepped on Lily's feet and moved in the wrong direction. James hurried over to the Christmas tree and pulled out a small, pink box from beneath it.

"Merry Christmas, Lily." he said, holding it up. Lily turned slightly red.

"James, you didn't have to buy me something..." she muttered. But she opened the little box nonetheless.

Inside were a pair of solid gold earings. They took the shape of lilies, each with a small pink crystal heart in the center of each delicate flower.

"Especially for you." James said happily. Lily opened her mouth silently, lost for words.

"They're beautiful, James..." she murmered, soaking in the beauty of the golden earings.

"So are you." James said, gazing at Lily as if seeing her for the first time. Lily could feel herself moving closer to James and without realizing it and was pulled into a kiss like no other. She looked down at her feet when they pulled away.

"James, we said we would just be friends.." Lily muttered. James shrugged.

"It just felt right." he said slowly. Lily looked up into his hazel eyes, embracing the way his face looked.

"Yeah, it did feel right." she agreed.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lily and James walked into the Great Hall, holding hands, Lily wearing her new lily earings. Sirius looked up merrily at them and his eyes imeadiatly moved to their laced hands. James noticed and turned a bit red, but nothing more.

"Merry Christmas, Prongs, Lily." Sirius said cheerfully. Lily and James sat down next to each other and started to eat their breakfast. Not many students had stayed for the holidays. There was a large group of slytherins, a few prefects from the other houses and mostly older students. It felt rather lonely for Lily, but in James's and Sirius's eyes, it was just more food for them.

"If you guys eat any more, you won't be able to eat a single thing during the feast!" Lily said, giggling a bit as she watched James and Sirius eat their waffles rather messily.

"Yeah right." Sirius said between mouthfuls. Lily sighed and ate a spoonful of cornflakes. She hummed Silver Bells to herself as she waited for James and Sirius to finish devouring the food in front of them. Remus was talking to Alice Horde about their N.E.W.T.'s and Lily felt rather bored. James looked over at her nervously a couple of times before saying,

"Lily will you come outside with me for a sec?"

Lily smiled at him warmly and nodded. Remus and Sirius watched with interest as James and Lily got up from their seats, holding hands, and walked out of the castle. It was absolutely freezing outside, but neither of them cared. They sat at the edge of the frozen lake just looking around for a moment.

"Lily, I have to tell you something.." James started, thinking hard about how he would word this. "I think I'm in love."

Lily gaped at him. James turned a bit red. He hadn't expected her to react like that.

"Why did you kiss me if you're in love with someone else?" she questioned, looking away from his deep hazel eyes.

"No, I don't think you got what I meant. Lily, I'm in love with you." James said quickly. Lily turned to look at him. Her face was flushed (and still a bit green) and her hair was a bit frizzy because of the cold, but James felt she had never looked more beautiful.

"Y-you do?" she stammered. James chewed the inside of his mouth and wondered anxiously if that Lily didn't want to hear what he just said.

"Yeah, I do." he managed to say. To James's surprise Lily smiled at him.

"You know what, James Potter? I think I love you too." Lily said sweetly, leaning her head against his chest.

They spent a while out there like that, James stroking Lily's vivid red hair gently as the frost bit them, making their ears go numb. And they both silently agreed that they just experianced the most blissful day of their lives yet.

A/N Again, please review!

I can't figure it out- why I'm so Caught up
Got me feeling it- caught up
I don't know what it is, but it seems she's got me twisted
I'm so caught up
Got me feeling it- caught up
I'm losing control, this girl's got her hold on me
Let me go, baby
-Caught Up, Usher

Chapter Five: Padfoot's Grim Surprise

The Christmas break seemed to fly by in a flash. James and Lily were together most of the time. Sirius was off thinking a spectacular prank to try on Snivellus at the end of the year and Remus was getting his sleep as full moon was approaching. But soon, the rest of the school returned and their classes picked up where they left off. That is except for Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, which were about to start. New schedules were being passed around so that DADA could be fitted in.

"I wonder who the new teacher is.." Hazel said, cranning her neck, trying to get a glimpse of the Staff Table. Unfortunately, so were about two hundred other students, making it impossible to figure out who the new face was.

"Well, we'll soon find out. We have Defense Against the Dark Arts fourth period." Lily said, peering over James's shoulder to read his schedule, as her's had not yet been passed down to her. She rested her head on his shoulder as she continued to eat her cinnamon toast. Hazel smirked at the sight. She had said over and over again "I told you so!" to Lily when she told her that she and James were together.

"Fourth period? I'm dying to know who it is!" Sirius and Hazel cried together. Remus rolled his eyes. He looked around the tables.

"I don't believe it, Peter isn't here again!" he said disbelievingly. James grimaced.

"Who cares?" he said through gritted teeth, remembering how mad he was at Wormtail for turning Lily's face green ( which, by the way, returned to normal).

"James, come off it. He's your friend." Lily said, a bit annoyed.

"You even said yourself you resent whoever did that to your face." James pointed out. Lily sighed heavily.

"Yeah, but if it's a Gryffindor, I wouldn't!" Lily protested. James rolled his eyes.

"And you said I'M the most difficult person.." he muttered. Lily stared up at him in shock.

"What did you just say?" she said, startled.

James cussed under his breath and shot a questioning look at Sirius and Remus.

"Go on, James. I think you can tell her." Remus said wisely. Lily looked completely confused as James brought her into the corridor.

"James, what is going on?" Lily asked reproachfully.

"Lily, there is something very important I need to tell you.." James said slowly, not sure where to place his words, "Whatever I tell you stays between us. Hazel can't know, not Molly or Alice or any of your secret hungry buddies."

Lily looked into James's hazel eyes that held the truth to her curiousities, and she nodded.

"Remus is a werewolf." James started. Lily's green emerald eyes seemed to pop completely out of her head.

"Remus Lupin? A-- a--" she glanced around the corridor uneasily and found no one was there, so she whispered the last word, "Werewolf?"

James nodded solemnly.

"That's not the end of it. In our fifth year, the rest of the Marauders, that is Sirius, Peter, and I, finally finished what we had worked on for three years. We became unregistered animagi." James whispered urgently. Lily's jaw dropped slightly as she comprehended everything that seemed to fit together, completing the puzzle of James Potter.

"James? You're not-- James, are you the stag?" Lily said quietly. James nodded and Lily gasped.

"Unbelievable! James Potter, animagi!" she muttered, laughing a bit.

"You swear not to tell a soul?"

"Don't worry. Your secret-- and Remus, Peter, and Sirius's-- is safe with me."

James smiled at Lily, wondering what he had done to deserve to actually love Lily Evans and have her love him back. It certainly hadn't been like that before.

~fLaShBaCk!~

"Potter, get the hell out of my face!"

James sighed as Sirius rolled his eyes.

"We're partners Evans, whether you like it or not, and you have to work with me. You don't want to FAIL do you?" James said slyly. Lily frowned. She gazed around the dungeon uncertainly, as if hoping some angel would swoop down and save her from being forced to work side by side with James Potter. Professor Salandar must hate me for putting me with Potter, 13-year-old Lily thought angrily to herself.

"Let's just get this over with." Lily snapped. James smirked smugly at Lily.

"Don't look at me with that tone of voice, James Potter!" Lily spat. She smirked inside, remembering how many times her Band Director said that to her and her firends. Mr. Nalpak was one of the nicest people she met and also the goofiest. James paused for a moment, trying to work his youthful mind into deciphering Lily's words. After about ten seconds of stressing his brain, he gave up.

"You know, you look really pretty when you're mad at me.." James said absent mindedly. Lily rolled her eyes and thought to herself, "What a wonderful way to start off my third year at Hogwarts. . ."

~EnD oF fLaShBaCk!~

"Is it fourth period yet?"

"No, Sirius." Remus sighed.

One minute later...

"Now?"

"No, Sirius."

Thirty seconds later....

"Now?"

"NO, SIRIUS!"

The five of them were in History of Magic. Normally, Lily would be sitting with Hazel and Molly, but she decided to sit with the Marauders this time. Since James told her their big secret, she felt closer to them, and was even growing fond of Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Okay, so she was a bit cross with Peter for the whole 'green face' thing, but kept it inside herself for James's sake. It took a lot of convincing to get James to forgive Peter.

"Now?"

"Yes, Sirius, it is fourth period." Remus lied. Sirius jumped out of seat, to the surprise of many around him.

"What are you guys waiting for? It's fourth period!" Sirius exclaimed. A couple of the students stiffled giggles.

"Sirius, mate, it's second period." James said, rolling his eyes. His arm was around Lily, who was one of the students trying her best not to laugh.

"But, but Remus you said--"

"Mr. Black, PLEASE sit down. I'm trying to teach a lesson." Professor Binns snapped. Sirius glared at Remus and took his seat,

He didn't ask if it was fourth period all through the rest of the class.

Third period was Charms with Professor Flitwick. Until recently, Professor Flitwick had been the DADA teacher, but when their old Charms teacher, Professor Salsa, retired, he was moved. His aging beard and hair bounced merrily as he came into the classroom and instructed them to pair up with their previous partners. Lily and Remus scooted next to each other, to the dismay of James, Sirius was joined by Hazel and Peter and James sat next to each other awkwardly.

"Today, we're going to be learning a spell that will most likely be on your N.E.W.T.'s. so I advise you to pay close attention. It is much heavier, more difficult magic and isn't to be taken lightly. We are going to learn the Imperslew curse. This curse is not taught to you so you can go around hexing each other," Flitwick eyed James carefully, "It is for self defense. To those oblivious of the magical community around you, which I hope is none of you, the threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is increasing and you have to be prepared for the worst."

The students began to fidget and shuffle uneasily in their seats. James felt Lily shudder at the sheer thought of Voldemort.

"The Imperslew curse can do interesting things to people. It does various things, depending on the characteristics of the caster. It could turn the target into a three eyed toad, it could make them walk into walls repeatedly. I suggest you do it only when your well being is in jeopardy. I do NOT expect you to go around hexing anyone who punches you or sends a couple of sparks at you. I'm talking about the real thing. The real, actual, solid thing. There are people out there who wouldn't mind performing an Unforgivable curse on any one of you. Those are the people you use this spell against, not the guy in your dormitory that won't stop snoring." the class laughed nervously at this.

"We're going to have to do this one by one so I can reverse it very soon after, so no damage is done. Who would like to go first-- Miss Evans, Mr. Lupin, come up, will you?" Professor Flitwick said randomly. Lily and Remus nodded shortly and walked to the front of the room.

"Go ahead, Ms. Evans. Point your wand at Mr, Lupin, yes, just like that, and say the words: Imperslewia." Professor Flitwick said clearly.

"Imperslewia!" Lily said softly. Remus's face turned from calm and curious to a look of sheer pain. He was getting smaller and smaller until he became a tiny little snidget. The class giggled as the new Remus Lupin floated around the room, the size of your palm, in the form of a snidget.

"Incorpsulus!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, pointing his wand at Remus, who happened to be flapping away teasingly above Sirius's head. He landed with a thump, on top of Sirius, in human form.

"REMUS!" Sirius yelled, his voice muffled, "YOU'RE ON MY B--"

"That is enough! Come back up here, Mr. Lupin, it's your turn." Flitwick said, cutting in. Remus rolled off atop Sirius and walked, rather slowly and weakly, to the front of the room. He faced Lily and James looked up intently, with lots of interest.

"Imperslewia!"

Lily's smiling face seemed to deteriorate into something horrible, something monstrous... something furry. Many girls screamed as Lily Evans the werewolf faced them stealthily. She growled deeply and started to walk among the isles, sniffing the students. A powerful wave of emotion passed over her. She wanted BLOOD. HUMAN blood. (A/N I just noticed how dumb that must sound, seeing as Lily never wanted any other kind of blood before (I think. . I hope) so human blood really shouldn't make a difference)

"Incorpsulus!"

Lily screeched horribly as she transformed back into Lily Evans. She licked her lips and suddenly wanted to wash her mouth out to get that desire for human blood that she just experianced out of her mouth. She and Remus awkwardly took their seats.

"VERY nice job, Mr. Lupin, Ms. Evans." Flitwick said brightly, beaming at the two of them. They forced a smile back. It hadn't been very fun to transform like that. Lily wondered if Remus went through that pain every full moon.

"Hmm... How about Mr. Black and Ms. Parsely."

Sirius and Hazel got up and walked briskly to the front of the room.

"Mr. Black, go ahead." Flitwick said, nodding to Sirius. Sirius raised his wand at Hazel, who had gone rather pale.

"Imperslewia!"

No one had expected what happened next.

There was no Hazel Parsely across from Sirius. Instead, their was a blob of a black the shade of James's hair liquid-ish thing.

Hazel had been turned into a puddle of grease. The class burst into laughter as two eyes appeared on the blob and blinked. The blob slithered forward a step. The blob of grease was MOVING! Sirius watched with amusement as it glided closer to him and his expression totally changed as the blob of grease wrapped itself around Sirius's leg and let out a sound that sounded unmistakably like,

"Mama."

Sirius watched with a horror struck expression as the entire class of 7th year Gryffindors fell over with laughter. James was on the edge of seat, his face red from laughing so much and Lily was clutching to his shirt to stop herself from falling off the seat completely. Remus was laughing heartily, his breathing heavy and Peter looked ready to wet himself. Even Professor Flitwick looked like it was taking all of his magic to supress the chuckle crawling up his throat.

"Incorpsulus!"

Hazel transformed back to herself in an instant and looked very confused to find herself hugging Sirius Black's left leg and the class in hysterics around her. She got up stiffly and brushed off the dirt from her skirt. (A/N Dirt and skirt rythme!)

"Imperslewia!" Hazel cried, pointing to Sirius.

WARNING: IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH, SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH

Sirius did not transform into anything. He instead shrieked with pain as the class watched with disgust as his elbow was twisted in the oddest direction and one of the bones came through his skin and stuck out oddly. Hazel looked at it with wide eyes and ran to the back of the room where the trash barrel was and vomited into it. Professor Flitwick bit his lip and muttered the countercurse and Sirius was rushed to the Hospital Wing by his partner.

"Um, Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew, you're up."

Lily watched James intently as he and Peter stood up and trudged up to the front of the room.

"Mr. Pettigrew, go ahead." Flitwick said, eyeing them closely. Peter raised his wand and said quietly,

"Imperslewia!"

James felt something large, slimy and squishy pop out of his rear end. He turned around in circles, trying to figure it out. Then he realized what happened as his classmates started to giggle.

He had a tail.

James was very much relieved when Flitwick removed the tail. It had started to itch. James grinned evily as he raised his wand to Peter.

"Imperslewia!"

Peter Pettigrew shrank smaller and smaller. Then, suddenly, he grew longer and longer. In front of James was Peter Pettigrew the snake. Peter hissed at the class, but none screamed. Peter's fangs were missing and there was no way he could bite anyone. His long, green tail coiled together and he rested his triangular head on the floor. Two seconds later, Peter had fallen asleep.

It was during Alice and Frank's performance did Sirius and Hazel return. Sirius had a sling around his arm and Hazel was a pale, even a bit green. When the class ended and Frank had been turned back from being large, vulture hat, Sirius jumped around with joy, despite the sling.

"It's fourth period!" he exclaimed. Then he paused and eyed them carefully, "It is, right?"

"Yes, Sirius," Remus said wearily, "It's fourth period."

"YIPEE!"

The five of them walked to DADA, James and Lily lagging behind a bit because they were holding hands and whispering to each other, with high expectations on finding out who their new teacher would be.

Quite the disappointment awaited them behind the doors of that Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

"Welcome class, I'm your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lestrange." announced the new professor as the class settled into their seats. Sirius blinked dumbly at the "teacher" in front of him.

"You? Bella?" Sirius choked. James looked up at the teacher with disgust. He, Remus, and Peter had heard horrible things about this girl, but Lily was completely oblivious to the fact the four--maybe only three.. *cough*cough*peter*cough-- people around her detested this woman before them.

"She looks nice." Lily whispered in James's ear. James shook his head in disgust.

"She's Sirius's cousin. A lot of us think she's on Voldemort's side." James said quietly. Sirius and Professor Lestrange had started arguing very loudly.

"That's ridiculus, Dumbledore would NEVER hire anyone accosiated with You-Know-Who, even if it's not definite." Lily said defensively. James sighed as Professor Lestrange docked off twenty points from Gryffindor for "excessive yelling and no respect for the teacher".

"Evil little b**ch." Sirius muttered angrily. "Only taking off points because of what I did when I was eleven..."

~fLaShBaCk!~

"We will always beeeeeeeee one, baby. Cuz you're the other half of my waaaaand."

Young 13-year-old Bellatrix Black was in the guest room of her Aunt and Uncle's mansion, singing a song she made up about a boy at Hogwarts in her high-pitched, scratchy voice.

"And you'll always beeeeeeeeee mine, baby. You better correct me if I wroooooong."

Sirius sniggered. He was hiding in Bella's closet, with a muggle tape recorder in his hands.

"Everytime you talk to meeeeee I know we're meant to beeeeee."

It was very dark in the closet for Sirius. It smelled horribly like his Aunt Ida and his great grandfather's feet, but he knew it was worth it. This would make him the King of the Pranks.

"Boy, you've put a speeeeeeell on me!"

There was a large "boom!" from outside the closet and Sirius figured Bella had just started to dance around to her song and knocked something over. "Either that or she looked in the mirror and it fell off the wall..." Sirius thought evilly to himself.

"Are you that blind? Do you hear me sigh? You're the treasure I need to find."

Sirius wondered impatiently about when this song would end. He had a feeling Bellas voice had popped one of his eardrums.

"Boy you've put a speeeeeeeeeell on MEEEEEE!"

Bella took a deep breath for the big finish,

"Oooooon MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Sirius let out a sigh of relief as the song ended and Bella skipped out of the room to find something to eat and Sirius was finally able to laugh out loud hysterically and he followed her out of the room some time afterwards, wondering where to go with the prank.

A couple of days later....

Bella and Sirius were outside the Hogwarts Express anxiously, Sirius being crushed by both his and Bella's belongings. It was when they got on the train did things start to get peculiar for Bella.

"Hey, Bella! You've put a speeeeeeeell on MEEE!" sang a girl with bright blonde hair and sneer on her face. Sirius and Bella both new this girl very well, as ot was Narcissa Black. Bella's pale face went a ghostly white.

"E-excuse me?" Bella stammered. Narcissa just laughed cruelly. The next person to come up to her made her go from ghostly white up a bunch of shades to a light pink. Rudolphus Lestrange came up to her and sang in a mock high pitched, scratchy voice,

"Everytime you talk to meeeee I know we're meant to beeeeee!"

Bella turned to her younger cousin stiffly and looked at him coldly.

"Go. I know what you did. Go. Now." she said shortly. Sirius laughed hysterically and wandered off to find a compartment.

It had turned out that Sirius had made about one hundred copies of that tape and sent them out to all of the third and fourth year students. And now, Bellatrix Black wanted revenge.

~EnD oF fLaShBaCk!~

Their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson was mostly lectures on N.E.W.T.'s and how this was their last year of education at Hogwarts and blah blah blah. Bella and Sirius would often make eye contact and glare at each other furiously. Sirius said nothing through the class. His eyes were locked on Bellatrix and were not going to move.

"I disagree you guys, Professor Lestrange seems like a pleasant person." Lily said at dinner. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"And I thought you were SMART." he said. Lily glared at him.

"I am, it's just maybe you got on the bad side of her. I'm sure if you had been nicer to her, she'd be nicer to you." Lily said forcefully. Sirius sighed and started eating the great amount of food on his plate. Remus, who was looking rather peaky as the full moon was approaching in a couple of days, spoke up for the first time in about an hour and a half.

"I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't hire someone who's a death eater."

"That's what Lily said, but maybe Dumbledore didn't know. Or maybe he knows she's not a death eater." James said skepticly. Sirius didn't say anything about James's guess, just kept eating his food grudgingly. Up at the staff table, "Professor" Lestrange was thinking hard and long about how to lay out her plans. Her thoughts were interupted as Professor Vector offered her some steak tips.

"Oh, uh, no thanks." Bella said in the best honey and sugar voice she could muster. She watched carefully as the half-breed, a.k.a Remus Lupin, looked up and down the Gryffindor table and she wondered if he could be any help to her plan. She then glanced at her watch and realized she should be in the Slytherin common room.

"I don't believe it!" Remus was saying, "Peter isn't here again!"

"He's been acting rather dodgy lately." Sirius said uncertainly.

As the entirely dedicated aouthor of this fanfic, I'm not sure if it would have been good or bad if they glanced over at the Slytherin table. But if they had, they would've noticed that quite a few of the older ones weren't at their usual places either.

Peter shivered slightly as he was led into the dungeons and down a long, dark hallway. Snape was leading him deeper and deeper into the corridor when finally they reached the end.

"Snake snout." Snape said quickly. The dead end in front of them suddenly had a wide hole in it, wide enough for them to crawl into. Snape pushed Peter forward roughly and he entered the Slytherin common room. A group of about seventeen of them were down there, many of them Peter recognized. There was Lucius Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, Evan Rosier, Augustus Rookwood, and, to his surprise, the DADA teacher, Bellatrix Lestrange. There were many others he didn't recognize, but they intimidated him all the same.

"Here we have," Bellatrix declared, her dark hair bouncing as she stepped to the middle of the circle of Slytherins and Peter, "the followers of the one and only Dark Lord that reside in Hogwarts."

Peter's eyes bugged out and his eyebrows flew up to his hair in surprise. "What have I gotten myself into?" he thought miserably.

"He asked me to come here to unleash our plan. My--ahem--pet," the people around Bella laughed, except for Peter, who did not understand the joke, "Is getting very impatient. He's been begging me for life and I plan on letting him loose very soon."

"We're not going to have a lot of time to discuss this. I still have my teaching duties and the meeting cannot go on without me. So disperse, rebels, and we'll continue with this in two days." Bellatrix snapped.

"Snape, you never said anything about me joining the dark side!" Peter hissed as Snape led him back to the Great Hall.

"I guess it's just a bonus." Snape said slyly. Peter looked at him and shock.

"So I'll be seeing you at the next meeting?" Snape asked as they neared the doors of the Great Hall where everyone was having dessert.

"No!" The word came out of Peter's mouth before he had time to think about them, "I am not going to become a death eater!"

Snape glared at him.

"You may see it that way now, but you'll be crawling back to us soon, Pettigrew. Just watch." Snape spat, rushing into the Great Hall. Peter sighed and walked in after him. He found his friends and plopped down next to Sirius.

"Where have you been, Wormtail?" Remus asked immeadiately.

"Snape held me up before dinner and that delayed me. We got into a duel and I had to go to Madame Pomfrey to get the pig snout he gave me removed." Peter lied. Remus nodded symapethically. Peter started to eat most of the desserts laid in front of him, having missed the main meal.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day was one of those rare days that the 7th years didn't get much homework. (Stressing the word R-A-R-E) So, James and Lily decided to put the finishing touches on the dance. The sat in the Head's Room with plans all over the floors and looking up rules in a Hogwarts rule book Dumbledore lent them to find out what they could and could not do. They recieved a letter of confirmation from the Witches Three, saying that they would perform that night. They had worked out the menu with the House Elves down in the kitchen and talked to Filch (though James detested doing so) about where they should hang up the decorations. Dumbledore announced to the school two days after all of this that the dance is going to be held on February 14th. It was now January 17th, which also happened to be the full moon.

Remus wasn't very much like himself that day, as he was every full moon. He kept quiet through all the classes, not even raising his hand to answer a question. He appeared to be lost in thought all that day.

"Fifteen points from Gryffindor, Black, for not cooperating." Professor Lestrange snapped in DADA.

"How is not knowing the answer not cooperating?" Sirius asked, glaring at her icily.

"You know the answer, Mr. Black, you are just unwilling to give it. That will be another five points for back talk." Lestrange said, not even looking up from her papers. "Now, students, get back to your work or you're all getting D's."

The students didn't make a single noise or comment during the rest of the class, not even Sirius.

Now, seeing as it was late into January, the 7th year's N.E.W.T.'s were approaching sooner than they realized. Their first test was in May, only about four months away. Okay, so this seemed like a decade to James and Sirius, but the rest of the 7th years were begining to get a bit stressed...

"Sirius could you get me that quill?" Hazel asked, looking up from her parchment. The 7th year Gryffindors were in the common room, all sixteen of them, working on an essay from Professor Salandar they dubbed the most difficult essay ever assigned.

"I just got comfortable, do I have to?" Sirius moaned. Hazel's hand quivered slightly.

"JUST GET ME THE FREAKING QUILL, SIRIUS!" Hazel screamed, her face turning red. Sirius sighed and lifted himself off the armchair to retrieve the quill laying on a desk across the room.

As you can see, the 7th years were not exactly themselves. A certain Frank Longbottom proved so in Transfiguration class...

"Mr. Longbottom, could you get me that stack of papers in the back?" Professor McGonagal asked politely. The rest of the class was silently working on a writing assignment she just gave them. Frank sighed and quickly brought the stack of second year's papers up to the teacher's desk. She glanced at the first one and said,

"Not, those ones, the ones next to them."

Frank heaved another sigh and trudged back to the back of the class again, and exchanged the second year's papers for the fourth year's papers.

"No, Mr. Longbottom, the ones on the right, not the left. If you would kindly go and exchange them--"

"NO! I REFUSE! I DECLINE! I GIVE UP! NO! NADA! I JUST WANT TO DO MY PAPER!" Frank yelled wildly, taking his seat and throwing the fourth year's papers all around the room.

Frank ended up getting detention that day. But that was nothing compared to what happened down in the dungeons...

Professor Salandar was walking up and down the rows, checking the 7th year Gryffindor and Slytherin's cauldrens to see if they concocted them correcly.

"Good." he said shortly to Lily.

"Good." he said to Remus.

"Good." he said to James.

This went on until...

"Green?" Professor Salandar looked at a paling Peter with disgust, "Your potion is green, Pettigrew. It is supposed to be red. Red, Pettigrew, not green."

And as Salandar continued onto the other students, poor Peter burst into tears.

And as if the pressure from the teachers to study every waking moment of their present life was not enough, everyone was just plain grouchy. This includes one of the main characters of the fanfic, Ms. Lily Evans.

"So, Lily, you want to take a stroll around the lake? There was something I wanted to discuss about the dance." James said casually during dinner. Lily, like many of the other 7th years, had her nose in a book. She put it down stiffly and looked at James in shock.

"You expect me to give up time from studying to just TAKE A WALK? You've got to be kidding! I'm under enough pressure as it is, James, and the dance is all set, I can't even imagine having something else to worry about!" Lily yelled. James was not only shocked at her words, but also her appearance. Her bright green eyes were usually teeming with life. Now, they had large bags forming beneath them and were even a bit swollen. Lily hadn't bothered to do her makeup that morning. Her lips were colorless and her usually rosy cheeks were pale and limp. She was so stressed that she and James moved out of the Head's Room and back into their dormitories. There, they could exchange notes with the other 7th years.

"Lils, it would only take a minute--"

"I don't HAVE a minute, James! Take a look around! All of the 7th years are under this pressure! If I don't study, I'll fail the N.E.W.T.'s, I'll never get a job, my family will disown me, and I'll end up living in a cardboard box!" Lily cried shrilly. James watched with disappointment and a tad of fear as Lily glared at him and returned to her book. He turned to Sirius, who had heard all of the conversation and was laughing to himself.

"Can you believe that? She's so wrapped up in these damn N.E.W.T.'s that she doesn't even have time for me!" James hissed. Sirius collected himself long enough to say,

"Don't worry, it'll be over in.. four months. Beside, we have a Quiddich game tonight! Us versus Ravenclaw."

James sighed happily. If his second love was too wrapped up in homework right now, he could always turn to his first love, Quiddich. But he soon found out even Quiddich dissapointed him.

As James, Sirius, and five other scarlet cloaked students walked onto the field to face seven blue cloaked players, he immeadiately noticed that the entire group of seventh years, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, were missing. Even with everyone's various classes, they had all been assigned about five to seven papers that night and were, no doubt, sacrificing watching the game to make sure they were composed perfectly. James glared at the crowd that consisted of only years one through six. Madame Hooch soon blew her whistle and fifteen brooms rose into the air.

James's heart wasn't very much in it as he scouted the pitch for the snitch. (A/N another rythme! Pitch and snitch!) Just knowing that Lily wasn't out there watching him, not even Remus or Peter, dampened his already low spirits. The oppisite seeker, Carl Chestler, seemed so much more alert than James was. "That's only because he's a sixth year..." James thought miserably.

I'm sad to say Gryffindor lost that match, 150-90. That brought them down from first place to second, only behind Slytherin. James and Sirius trudged back up to the Gryffindor common room, muddy, depressed, and grumpy. They were joined by a disgruntled Frank Longbottom and they entered the common room to thirteen 7th years sprawled on the floor, the couches or a desk. A couple of fifth years were down there, but most of the younger students cleared out of the common room and worked in the library, very much afraid of the seventeen year olds' wrath and grumpiness. No one looked up as the three muddy Quiddich players entered the common room to the scratching of Quills and the frequent sound of papers being tossed around. In fact, there was about a hundred pieces of parchment all over the place, mixed in together. No one even passed a simple glance as the three of them crept to their dormitory and changed into their normal robes, came back down, and started the truck load of homework ahead of them.

"Lily, love, are you done with that History of Magic book Binns wants us to read?" James asked cautiously. Lily stared up at him with red, swollen eyes.

"Take it." she said shortly. James smiled gratefully at her and snatched the book from a pile the 7th years made. It was a bit like a mini-library, you could say. Lily soon returned to her essay on how Saturn effects the wizarding community if it is in the 5th house and if it is in the 6th house.

Days went by without trouble. The 7th years yelled at anyone who made peep while they were trying to study, the teachers gave them a ton of homework, and Sirius continued to get more and more points taken from Gryffindor at Bellatrix's classes.

"Today is a very important class," Professor Lestrange announced, "It will surely be on your N.E.W.T.'s."

Every student suddenly perked up, hungry for information on the N.E.W.T.'s.

"This is a very difficult procedere, so I suggesst you pay attention." Professor Lestrange looked directly at Sirius as she said this. Maybe she looked at him because she knew he would not pay attention. Either that or because Sirius was testing out a toy wand he created while everyone else was studying...

"This is the Patronus charm. You use this charm against what is called a dementor. Dementors are lethal, rotten creatures that can do much worse than kill you. When a dementor gets near enough, it can suck the soul right out of your mouth and you'll become one of them. The incantation is Expecto Patronum. But it takes a lot more than just saying a few silly words. You have to think of the happiest memory of your life and THEN say the words. Just to make sure you guys can defend yourselves correctly, I've brought a little something for you all to practice on." the professor said slyly. With the flick of her wand, she conjured up a rattling trunk. There appeared to be something trapped inside it, hungry to get out.

"Raise your wands and start trying to think of your happiest memory." Professor Lestrange demanded. Sixteen wands rose into the air and Professor Lestrange opened the trunk with the flick of her wand. . .

The students were shocked to see what came out of the trunk. A tall, hooded creature glided out and raised it's scabbed, thin hands. It breathed in and out and a cold breeze swept over the students. It was growning colder and colder and poor Molly fainted from fright. The dementor continued to take deep, rattling breaths as it slowly glided towards the students. Different thoughts ran to through the heads of the students, thoughts and memories that were long forgotten.

"Go on! Say the words!" Professor Lestrange instructed. But it seemed everyone was lost for words and only James could whisper the words,

"Ex-expecto patronum."

A light silver mist came out of James's wand and took the shape of a phoenix. The phoenix, however soon disappeared before it could reach the approaching dementor.

"C'MON! SAY THE WORDS!" Professor Lestrange yelled. James glanced over at Lily, who had gone as pale as a ghost. But when he glanced over at his best friend, Sirius looked set and ready.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" James and Sirius yelled together. A stronger phoenix came out of James's wand this time, and a hippogriff came out of Sirius's wand. They charged through the dementor and it fled, out of the classroom, and to their surprise, out into the Forbidden Forest.

"Nice job, boys. 5 points to Gryffindor." Professor Lestrange said this as if she wished she wasn't. The boys took their seats and glanced around the classroom. Arthur was trying to awake an unconsious Molly, Lily and Hazel were huddled together in a corner, shuddering and twitching, Remus was taking deep, steady breaths, and it looked like Peter had burst into tears. A few girls had also cried and the rest of the boys looked very shaken. It seemed like only James and Sirius were completely sane at the moment.

"Class dismissed. Anyone who needs to go down to the Hospital Wing for treatment may do so." Professor Lestrange snapped. The sixteen of them filed out of the classroom. Arthur helped Molly down to the hospital wing, and was followed by Frank and Alice. Alice was shivering and twitching and looked like she just faced 1,000 dementors and not just one. Hazel, who looked like an escaped lunatic, twitching and muttered to herself, soon followed.

"You feeling alright enough to make it through the next class?" James asked Lily, whose left eye was still a bit twitchy.

"I'll b-be f-fine." Lily stuttered.

"Did you guys hear the voices?" Peter questioned, sniffling through the sentence. The other four nodded feverently.

"I heard when my mum and I got into that horrible row when I said I wanted to leave the family." Sirius said, shuddering.

"I had to relive that memory when I was bitten.." Remus said quietly.

"What did you guys hear?" Remus asked Lily and James.

"It was the oddest thing, because I wasn't seeing the past, I was seeing the future kind of. I was a bit older, maybe somewhere in my late twenties and Voldemort was at my door and I was yelling something, but I couldn't tell what. Then, there was a whole lot of green light." James said uncertainly.

"R-really? My w-was something l-like that, t-too. I was older and I w-was y-yelling at You-Know-Who a-and I was st-standing over s-something in a b-bundle. It l-looked like it m-may have been a b-baby." Lily stammered. They turned to Peter, as if questioning him.

"I saw, um.." Peter wasn't sure if he wanted to tell what he saw. What he saw was the Slytherin common room with all of those death eaters. "Well, I can't very much remember, you know how I have those memory problems." Peter lied.

Remus nodded to show he understood and the five of them reached the Hogwarts gounds for Care of Magical Creatures class.

CoMC class was quite a bore. Lectures, lectures, N.E.W.T.'s, lectures, lectures, healer, lectures, lectures was all Professor Kettleburn talked about. Alice, Frank, Molly, Hazel, and Arthur returned half way through the class. Hazel, looking much more refreshed and less twitchy, stood next to Lily and they conversed in whispers about what went on through their heads during the dementor attack. Frankly, neither of them felt safe on the Hogwarts grounds, knowing the dementor was lurking somewhere in the forest.

Rachy52493 and __Marauder__Girl__, I want to thank you both so much for your constant reviews. You've made me feel on top of the world today!

I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
To see for certain, what I thought I knew
Far far away, someone was weeping
But the World was sleeping
Any dream will do
May I return to the beginning
The light is dimming
And the dream is too
The world and I
We are still waiting
Still hesitating
Any dream will do
-Excerpts of Any Dream Will Do by Tim Rice from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Jeez, I love that play

Chapter Six: Any Dream Will Do

January passed with more bickering between the over-stressed 7th years, more studying was done, and a well deserved break was approaching. The dance was the next night and they entire class was very anxoius to have it. Of course, most of the 7th years were trying to fit in as much studying as possible the night before to make up for the time lost at the dance.

James and Lily, being Head Boy and Girl, helped decorate the Great Hall with pink and white streamers, red and black candles floating about ten feet from the ground and to add elegance, about six or seven teensy faries floating lazily in the air. The tablecloths were made of lace and Dumbledore had conjured up a stage for the Witches Three. The classes seemed to fly by, and the dance was finally here.

Lily, Hazel, and Molly spent three hours in the Girl's Dormitory. Molly came down first, in navy blue dress robes that sparkled like the summer sky, her bright red hair tied back into a bun. She and Arthur left for the Great Hall and Hazel came down to meet her date. (which happened to be Sirius *wink* hahaha) Hazel was wearing hazel dress robes, pun intended, and her light brown hair was down and straight, flowing gracefully down to halfway down her back.

Lily was the last to walk out of the dorm. She was wearing brilliant emerald dress robes that brought out her already amazing eyes and had her auburn hair pulled back into a bun and a flower sticking out of it. James noticed, with pleasure, that she was wearing the lily earings he had gotten her. Lily stepped over to James rather nervously and their eyes locked together.

"You look stunning." James whispered. Lily giggled and murmered,

"Thanks."

They started to walk down into the Great Hall when, suddenly, James paused.

"I got you a present." he blurted out. Lily turned a light pink.

"You did?" she asked sweetly. James nodded and reached into the pocket of his robes. He pulled out a small white box and handed it to Lily. Lily smiled at him and opened it up to find a snowglobe with a heart in it and snow falling down upon it.

"You have my heart." The card read. Lily looked at it lovingly and said,

"James, this is wonderful. I got you a present." she added. She, too, pulled out a small box. This one was smaller than James's and was red and gold. James took it awkwardly and found a ring inside. The ring was gold and had a silver engraving. The words read, "James and Lily, A&F".

"A & F?" James questioned, fingering the ring in his right hand.

"Always and forever." Lily said quietly. James smiled to himself as his spirit was lifted ten thousand feet and klonked into his spine. Okay, that made no sense, never mind. Anywho..

James put the ring on slowly and embraced Lily.

"It's amazing, Lily, just like you." he said sweetly in her ear.

They arrived at the dance later than everyone else because of this. Did they care? What do you think, reader?

Lily smirked to herself, watching Hazel and Sirius dancing. She could only dream of what was going through her best friend's mind at that very moment...

"Omigosh, is my breath okay?" Hazel thought anxiously, "Are we dancing to the same rythme?"

The Witches Three was playing a very fast song when they entered and neither of them felt like moving their bodies back and forth at a fast pace and decided to have something to eat first. The menu was the normal Hogwarts meal, but the desserts were something special. Heart shaped pastries with red and pink icing covered the tables along with some sort of pinkish-red punch. Lily put some steak on her plate and James dug into everything at arms lengh. not really caring enough to see what it was.

"How do possibly choke down all of that food?" Lily questioned him, looking at the food mixed together with a slightly disgusted look.

"It's easy." James said. He gestured to the food, brought his fork to his mashed potatoes, put a blob bigger than his fist on it and down it went. Lily squinted oddly at the food and decided not to comment. When a slower song came on, but not too slow, they walked onto the "dance floor" and started to, well, dance. Lily rested her head on James's shoulder as they gently rocked back and forth to the beat of the music. Suddenly, James laughed.

"What?" Lily inquired, looking up at James.

"McGonagal and Dumbledore are dancing." James said, gesturing to Professors McGonagal and Dumbledore who were, indeed, dancing slowly to the music. Lily's eyes suddenly went to a glassy state.

"Professor McGonagal. She told us to read chapter 37 in Advanced Transfiguration from pages 834 to 912 and to highlight on page 864--" Lily was cut off by James kissing her. Let me tell you, that didn't shut her up.

"--paragraph 4, section C." she finished. James sighed.

"You're studying way too much, Lily." he said edgily. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Maybe you're just studying too little. I told you before, if I don't pass these tests, my life is over! Done! Caput! Finito!" Lily said wildly.

"Lils, everyone is like that. If any if us fail them, our lives are over." James said soothingly, but still, Lily shook her head.

"People like you could become a national Quiddich star, but I can't. Hell, the last time I was on a broom was never! I skipped those classes! But anyways, like I said, you have something to fall back on. All I have are my hopes to become an auror." Lily said glumly.

"Yeah, but Lily, you're smart. You must be the smartest witch of 7th years! You'll do fine without always having your nose in some book about Divination or Charms for the next four mon--" James was cut off by a gasp by Lily. She looked down at her watch and groaned.

"Charms! I need to study charms today, and then Divination and then--- oh, I'm sorry, James, I can't stay." Lily said miserably.

"You're leaving? We've only been here for about an hour!" James protested.

"I know, but I really need to go study, I'll see you later, love you, bye!" Lily said in a rush, giving James a kiss on the cheek. She let go of her hand and dashed out of the Great Hall. James sighed and trudged over to the table where Sirius and Hazel were sitting.

"Hey, Prongs." Sirius said, glancing at James as he took a seat, "Where's Lily?"

"She just left to go study Charms." James said grumpily. Hazel suddenly jumped up from her seat.

"Is it time already? I have to go, too, sorry." she said sincerely, looking straight at Sirius. Sirius sighed, but decided not to say anything about it.

"Well, bye." Hazel said nervously. She took a deep breath, leaned in and kissed Sirius on the cheek. She smiled at him and darted out the door.

"N.E.W.T.'s suck." Sirius said shortly, returning to the chicken soup he had been eating. James nodded in agreement. He didn't feel very hungry. He noticed with a pang of annoyance that none of the 7th years were there except for the slackers. Most had gone to either snog their dates or study.

"Well, I'm not going to stick around here looking like an idiot without a date. I'm going back to the common room, you coming?" James said after a few moments where the only sound was Sirius slurping away at his soup.

"Sure." Sirius said after taking one last slurp. The two annoyed mauraders got up from their table and trudged up to the common room. Again, no one looked up as they entered the common room. It looked like all the 7th year Gryffindors were working on the twelve page essay on the bezoar Professor Kettleurn assigned them that night.

"Yeah, but if you do find the stone in it's stomach, it dies, doesn't it?" Frank was saying. Lily shook her head.

"It depends on how you take it ou--ouch!" Lily turned around as someone poked her in the back. "Oh, hi, James!"

She leaned in and kissed James, oblivious of the people around her.

"Hey, lover girl, we're still waiting for the answer." Hazel said exasperately. Lily didn't turn red (for once). She just pulled away from James and continued talking like nothing happened.

"If you take it out through it's anus, it doesn't die. But if you extract it from it's throat, then and only then, it dies." she finished.

It was a long night in the common room. A twelve page essay is a lot, I'm sure we all understand that. But enough to forget to go up to your dormitory and fall asleep in the common room? I think not.

But that's what happened. All 16 of them fell asleep in the common room.

Not a good idea, ladies and gentlemen.

Hazel was the first to wake up. She gazed around the common room. Lily fell asleep on James's shoulder, Molly and Alice were both sprawled out on the ground, Remus had curled up in the corner, and so on. She glanced at her watch. 9:34 blinked back at her.

"WAKE THE HELL UP!" she roared. The other fifteen of her classmates stirred and glared at her for her rude awakining. "WE'RE LATE, YOU IMBICILES!"

The whole common room suddenly more alert.

"For what class?" Sirius asked calmly. Lily winced.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts." she said, biting her lip.

The 7th years wasted no more time. They quickly changed from their dress robes into normal robes, didn't even brush their teeth, the girls didn't get to brush their hair, and Peter forgot to put on a second sock. The sixteen of them filed into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom anxiously.

"Late. That's what you are. Late. Let's see, it is now 9:40 and there are sixteen of you. I think I'll do 16x4 which is 64 so that will be 69 points off Gryffindor." Professor Lestrange said simply.

"Why 69?" Peter piped up.

"I took off another five points because Mr. Black is eating candy."

"No I'm not!" Sirius protested.

"Shut up, Black."

"Today," Professor Lestrange said slowly, "Is, lucky for you, a double period. So we still have about fifty minutes left. We're going out onto the grounds and I'm sending a few of you into the forest. Pettigrew, detention."

Peter looked up with wide eyes.

"He didn't do anything!" Sirius said forcefully. Professor Lestrange just shrugged. Next, she brought the 16 of them outside to the edge of the forest where a Care of Magical Creatures lesson was being taught to the sixth years. Lucius Malfoy watched with interest from the group of 6th years as Professor Lestrange led them to where the trees began.

"Potter, Black, Evans, and Lupin go into the forest and bring me back the dementor I released last class." Professor Lestrange demanded. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"How?" she said faintly.

"That's for you to figure out. Everyone else is going to have different jobs, and this is yours. If any of you fail to do this, you automatically fail your N.E.W.T.'s and no re-takes are available. Now, go."

A pale Lily and three Mauraders walked into the forest and could hear Professor Lestrange's voice instructing other students to enter the east side of the forest and bring back some herb.

"How the hell are we going to bring back a dementor?" James asked disbelievingly. Remus hung his head, for everyone turned to look at him for the answer.

"Don't look at me, I'm a werewolf, not a dementor. I'd say we trap it in a circle, do the Patronus charm and go on from there." Remus said lamely. They walked in silence for three minutes when suddenly Lily gave off a shrill scream.

"Something just crawled up my leg!" she sqeaked. "Lumos!"

A small light appeared at the end of her wand and fell across the forest floor. There, on the ground, was the most disgusting sight any of them had ever seen. About 100 or so roaches were squirming around through the dirt and over their shoes. They had to be the biggest roaches ever! Their lengh was about the lengh of a full grown male's middle finger. Lily's eyes bugged out and she turned around. She didn't scream, she just groaned and out came last night's dinner...

"Oh great, I forgot she's sqeamish.." James moaned. He grabbed Lily's hand. It was cold and shivering. "Just do it for the N.E.W.T.'s."

Lily nodded, turned to face the roaches. her face had a greenish tint to it, as it normally does after you vomit. They carried on, Lily stepping ever so carefully, as to not step on a roach and hear that horrible, disgusting crunching sound *author, who is terribly afraid of bugs of all kind, shudders and hugs pooh bear in fright*. When they passed that large, repulsive super insects, they were forced to face something even worse.

And it wasn't the dementor, folks.

Something large and dark moved in the shadows of the trees ahead of them. There was a scream from somewhere else in the forest from the other students.

"Just what I was looking for." came a sly, snake-like hiss.

These poor seventeen year olds, with no amount of studying, prepared them for what came next. They were soon face-to-face with the darkest wizard the face of the Earth has seen.

Voldemort's face was screwed into a sneer. His eyes, two red slits, glowed with the intensity of the sun. Scars littered his ghostly white face. He was wearing dark velvet robes that were torn around the edges. His hands were hidden in matching gloves. In an instant, he pulled out his wand. It was long and thin and shined in the darkness that was drowning them.

"Jamessss Potter." Voldemort's "s"es came out as a low hiss, as if part of a snake resided in his mouth, speaking for him.

There was a flash of lightning from above the ceiling of leaves that covered the forest. James felt a throbbing pain in his forehead and blinked, dazed. He was not in the Forbidden Forest, as he had been just a few moments ago--or was it a few moments ago?--. He was in a dungeon of Hogwarts not even he and Sirius found on the Maurader's Map. Huge statues of snakes were perfectly alligned along the sides. An odd, greenish gloom hovered around the wide room. James looked over to his side and saw no one there.

"Welcome, Mr. Potter."

James jumped up, making his head ache even more. He, once again, was in front of Voldemort. Voldemort's mouth was screwed into a triumphant smile.

"I hope you enjoyed your seventeen years of life, Potter, because this is where it all ends." Voldemort said menacingly.

Those words spread through James's mind like venom. "He's going to kill me," he thought fearfully, "He's going to kill me and I'm going to die."

Voldemort raised his wand and suddenly, voices ran through James's head.

"Lily, take Harry and run! He's here!"

James was dragged down to Earth as Voldemort's icy voice echoed of the walls of this hidden chamber.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

James had no idea what he was doing untill he did it. He leapt aside as a beam of green light the shade of Lily's eyes flew past him, right to where he had been standing. "Lily..." he thought suddenly, "There's no way I'm losing this battle!"

He stood up obstinately. Voldemort smirked at him and a James felt a surge of hatred towards him that he could not explain.

"So wee little Potter wants to play games?" Voldemort hissed. He threw his head back and laughed. James stayed silent and raised his wand. Voldemort noticed out of the corner of his eye and stopped laughing.

"Think you're going to kill me, hmm?" he said tauntingly. He seemed very calm about this all and James was trying his best to act the same way.

Still, James said nothing with his wand raised. He had no idea what spell he was going to use against the darkest wizard ever, when suddenly Flitwick's words popped into his mind.

"It is for self defense. To those oblivious of the magical community around you, which I hope is none of you, the threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is increasing and you have to be prepared for the worst."

"Imperslewia!" James yelled suddenly. Voldemort's eyes showed emotion for the first time: shock. But soon, Voldemort disappeared. At James's feet was a lime green snake about twenty feet in lengh, fangs removed. Voldemort slithered over ot James's leg and sank his remaining teeth into James's flesh. It pinched and made him quite dizzy. He fainted without another thought.

He wokeup with another throbbing pain in his forehead. His vision was foggy and he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses. He instantly reached over to the nightstand next to him and slipped on his glasses. As everything slipped into better focus, he realized he was in the hospital wing and about six people were crowding around him.

"You're awake!" came a tearstrained voice. James found himself in the tightest hug he had ever experianced. He recognized the auburn hair immeadiately.

"Don't go and break his spine, Lily." Sirius said, though his tone sounded excited and delighted. Lily let go of James and he saw that, other than Lily and Sirius, Remus, Peter, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagal were sitting around his bed.

"What happened?" he said slowly. It ached to move any part of his head, including his jaw.

"I'm sure one of your classmates can explain, because the beginning of the story is rather fuzzy to me." Dumbledore said, motioning to Sirius.

"Okay, well, we were in the forest and Voldemort--" Peter flinched, but no one else, "--appeared and there was a flash of lightning and you were gone. We didn't see you for a week and we were starting to get worried, especially this one, " he motioned to Lily, "So we all went and told Dumbledore about it and he had a hunch of where you might be. He called it the Chamber of Secrets and it turned out he was right. As for what happened down in the chamber, we have no idea and were hoping if you could fill us in on it. But anyway, we brought you here and you were unconsious for about two weeks."

James raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wanted very much to tell them what happened in the chamber, but it killed to move his jaw. He pointed to his jaw, trying to tell them this and McGonagal nodded.

"Write it down." she said, handing him parchment and a quill. Quickly, James scribbled down all he could remember of the events that occured down in the Chamber of Secrets and passed it to Dumbledore and McGonagal. Dumbledore nodded and gave it to the other four to read.

"I see." he siad slowly, "Well, I'd say you should rest up, Mr. Potter. N.E.W.T.'s are coming soon and you want to be able to talk for the practical parts of the test."

Without another word to the students, he and Professor McGonagal got up and left the hospital wing, conversing in low whispers.

"What day is it?" James wrote down on the parchment. He passed it to Lily.

"March 8th." she said. James raised his eyebrows and scribbled down,

"I can't believe I was gone that long!"

Just then, Madame Pomfrey rushed over with a cup filled steaming grayish liquid.

"Here, Potter, drink this, it should help ease the pain in your jaw." she said swiftly, handing him the steaming cup. James smiled at him and choked down the foul liquid. He licked his lips. It tasted like...

"Squid.." he murmered.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Three days later, James was able to go back to classes. Rumours were flying everywhere.

"--I heard Potter ate a snake and the venom knocked him out--"

"--No, he made a death eater eat a snake and death eater knocked him out---"

The strangest one would have to be this one.

"--I heard You-Know-Who suffocated him with his earwax--"

James had a very hard time trying to convince everyone that he didn't eat a snake, that he didn't make a death eater eat one and most of all that Voldemort did NOT suffocate him with a great amount of earwax. The only people that really knew what happened was Lily, the Mauraders, and the staff.

"C'mon, Lily, won't you tell me?" Hazel moaned. She, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were walking to transfiguration.

"Hazel, we all know you have one of the biggest mouths Hogwarts has ever seen! We all learned that in our first year..."

~fLaShBaCk!~

"You threw up?" Hazel squeaked. Lily nodded weakly.

Lily had just come back from detention with Filch and wasn't feeling very well. Hazel, who was feeling fine, bombarded Lily with questions until her mouth was sore about what just happened.

"There were maggots in the trophy? EWWWW!"

"How many times did you puke? You still look green..."

"Is it contaigous? I hope not!"

This went on all night and Lily was almost sure Hazel would shut up the next morning.

How very wrong she was.

Hazel was paired up with Sara Ablad, a loud mouthed Slytherin, in potions class. They were instructed to concoct what Professor Salandar called a Boillarel Potion. It was supposed to cure boils.

And one of the ingredients were freshly cut maggots.

Hazel twisted around in her seat to look at Lily.

"Will you be able to go through with this?" she asked her. Sara looked at Hazel oddly.

"Why wouldn't she? Oh yes," Sara said this with fake realization, "She's mudblood, of course she can't."

Lily glared at Sara and so did Molly, her partner.

"No, because she's terrified of bugs, Ablad. She threw up when she saw them last night." Hazel said smugly. Sara raised her eyebrows and laughed. She turned to a reddening Lily.

"You threw up, Evans? Ha! Wait 'til everyone hears about this!" Sara said gleefully.

~EnD oF fLaShBaCk!~

"Oh, come on, Lily, that was just one time!" Hazel pleaded. Lily sighed.

"Go on, you can tell her." James said after a moment or two of thinking.

"Yes!" Hazel cried triumphately. Lily sighed again and told Hazel the story of what happened to James.

"No way!" she said disbelievingly as they reached McGonagal's classroom.

"That's what happened, Haz." Lily said simply.

Lily decided to sit with her friends this time, so she seperated from James and the rest of the Mauraders and she and Hazel went to sit next to Molly.

"How's lover boy doing, Lily?" Molly said slyly as they settled into their seats.

"James? He's doing great." Lily said cheerfully.

Transfiguration was just one long, lengthy, prolonged, wordy, elongated, extended, lingering, extensive, and all those other big words in the thesaurus speech about N.E.W.T.'s. James and Sirius were half asleep during the entire speech, but the students like Lily and Alice and Molly and basically all the students studying their eyes out, payed attention all the way through. Lily had put off her constant studying during the period that James was unconsious, but now that she was back to normal, she was trying her best to make up for lost time. Their first N.E.W.T.'s test was in exactly fifty two days (A/N Yes, I know, very precise) or May 2nd. March 11th, May 2nd... March 11th, May 2nd... I dunno, does that sound like a long time?

As the dedicated author of this fanfiction, I'm thrilled to say "Professor" Lestrange was fired for putting students in danger by sending them into the forest without adult supervision. Peter was extatic about this. His detention with her was terrible. She had made him clean the Slytherin common room, a place he hoped he would never have to return to. But, of course, Sirius was the most optimistic about this.

So you're probally wondering who is the DADA teacher for the rest of the year. Well, it was almost time for the N.E.W.T.'s and the O.W.L.'s, so Dumbledore was not going to cut those classes. But, he couldn't waste valuble teaching time looking around for a new professor. But as we all know, dumbledore knows how to solve problems like that.

"Welcome, 7th years to Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I am Professor Dumbledore and I will be your teacher until the end of this term." he said warmly. A lot of the students cheered. "Now, today, we're learning about dugbogs..."

Fifty two days may seem like so much to you or me, but they seemed to fly by for the Hogwarts students and everybody was becoming, if possible, the grumpiest ever. All of the 7th years were acting like they were having the worst P.M.S attack ever! Okay, not the best way to put it.

"Alice, could you--" Frank was cut off.

"No, now shut it." Alice snapped. Frank opened his mouth to say something, but a motion to shut up from James told him he probally shouldn't.

As you probally know, everybody handles stress differently. Like, take Hazel as an example.

Hazel sat in a squishy armchair, biting her nails, trying to memorize how Neptune effects how people act.

"If it's in the seventh house, people who were born as an aquarius experiance great jealousy..."

Hazel would be off in LaLa Land, trying to memorize these kinds of things, oblivious to everyone around her.

But, like I said, everyone handles it differently.

Molly would sit on the floor, chewing on muggle chewing gum. In the past week, she had gone through thirty six packs of gum with five sticks in each pack. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's 180 pieces of gum, folks.

As March melted into April and the pressure increased amazingly, even James and Sirius found themselves studying like crazy. After three months of saying that they didn't need to study like mad like the other 7th years, they found themselves with everyone else's schedules. Well, except during meals. They wouldn't give up their meals.

"That's where we draw the line." Sirius had said.

Halfway through April was the last Quiddich game of the year. If Gryffindor lost this game, they would be out of the running for the Quiddich cup. It was Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. All of the 7th year Gryffindors agreed that they deserved a break and would go and show their team their support.

James felt much better during this game than during the last. There was a large banner with huge letters reading "LiOnS 4 tHe CuP!". And as Madame Hooch blew her whistle and James and his fellow players rose into the air, he felt his spirit rise with him.

"And there is Longbottom with the quaffle, passes to Lastler--" came the voice of the commentator, Jake Jordan, a Gryffindor, "Lastler fakes left against Bones and yes! Gryffindor scores, 10-nil!"

James payed no attention to Jake, as he was scouting the pitch for the snitch (there's that rythme again!) and so was the oppisite seeker, Amos Diggory. Amos Diggory was a fifth year, but was pretty good. Of course, James thought himself to be better...

"Sema has the quaffle, Hufflepuff in possetion, Sema is against Esor and he shoots-- and Esor saves! Still 10-nil to Gryffindor!"

James squinted in the sunlight. Was that the glare of the sun or a flash of gold? James decided to take the chance and took a dive. Screams were erupting from the stands, the audience were on their feet. Diggory, noticing James had obviously seen something promising, tailed him. James, about five feet ahead of Diggory, figured he had seen wrong and pulled up from the dive. But Diggory wasn't fast enough. A sickening CRUNCH echoed through the pitch as Amos hit the ground head first.

"Ooh! That had to hurt! Looks like Diggory just got fooled by a Wronski Feint performed by Potter. And, yes, he's up again, not looking too stable, though." Jake said, squinting out onto the field.

As the Hufflepuffs and most of the rest of the school were watching Diggory twirl around aimlessly on his broomstick, some Gryffindors had risen form their seats again. James was in a break neck dive and this time, he was sure he had seen the snitch. A split second later--

"Yes! YES! POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH! 160-NIL, GRYFFINDOR JUST WON THE QUIDDICH CUP!!!" Jake yelled. A monstrous amount of noise erupted in the audience as James flew around the pitch, holding out the snitch for everyone to see. He was grinning like mad as Professor Dumbledore gave him the large, silver trophy he had dreamed of winning ever since his second year at Hogwarts when he joined the team. He was crushed as six scarlet robed figures piled on top of him.

He was still being patted on the back and congratulated in the halls two weeks later. James felt on top of the world and nothing could bother him. Not even Snivellus.

But, like I said, this was two weeks after the game.

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen! The N.E.W.T.'s!

Dun,
dun,
dun....
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Omigosh, they're here!" Lily sqealed. She, the Mauraders, and Hazel were at breakfast. The other five spun around and saw about six or seven old witches and wizard file into the Great Hall and walk up to Dumbledore in an orderly line. The seventh and fifth years went silent until the testers reached the staff table.

"I remember the one on the far left, Professor Binkely I think is his name." Hazel said, squinting up at the staff table.

They were soon passed out their schedules for the tests ahead.

"We have our Charms test this morning, practical and written." Lily said, peering at the schedule.

"Oi vay, this is going to be a looooooong day." Hazel sighed. (A/N Ignore the 'Oi vay' thing, Hazel is odd that way)

And she was right.

As the 7th years waiting impatiently outside the Great Hall doors, some so nervous they were ready to pee their pants *coughcoughpetercough*, they all quized each other on what may lay ahead.

"Now, the levitation charm is what?" Hazel asked, testing Molly.

Molly's eyes grew wide and she chewed on her tongue, since no gum was allowed.

"I don't know! I'm going to FAIL!" Molly cried fearfully. Lily sighed.

"It's Wingardium Leviosa, Molly, we learned that it first year." she said quickly.

The time that followed had to be the most nerve-wracking for the 7th years. After studying like crazy for four months, the time had come.

"1. What charm opens locked doors?" James read to himself, "Easy!" he thought and he scribbled down the answer.

"2. Those who can transform into animals are called what?" Sirius read, "I KNEW I didn't have to study!" he thought to himself.

But some were having trouble with the test..

"3. The first ever charm was performed by who?" Peter read, scanning the page, "Oh, no! I don't know the answer!"

Fifty questions later, Professor Flitwick collectedd their papers, some confident they had done well, some confident they had flunked. Next, came the practical exam.

"Abbott, Ronald; Ablad, Sara; Black, Sirius; Dolohov, Antonin." Professor Trinket called. James, Remus, and Peter wished Sirius good luck and he left to take his practical test. Sirius was supposed to test with Professor Spears. He performed them all pretty well, including the Patronus Charm.

"Evans, Lily; Jones, Molly; Lupin, Remus; Parsley, Hazel." Professor Trinket announced. Lily took a deep breath and led her friends behind the curtain. Her patronus took the form of a stag. She smiled to herself when the smoke took form. Molly's patronus was an owl. Why? No idea. Remus's patronus took the form of a werewolf, not to his surprise. Hazel's took the form of a big black dog with a kind face. The mostly did fine, except for when Molly levitated Professor Simpson's glasses off his face instead of the glass plate.

"Pettigrew, Peter; Potter, James; Rookwood, Augustus; Rosier, Evan."

Lily mouthed 'Good luck' to James as she left the testing area and he entered it. As we already know, James's patronus takes form a phoenix. But Peter's took the form of seal, to his surprise (the seal deteriorated after a couple of seconds). Rookwood's took shape as a dragon and Rosier's was an otter. James passed with flying colors. Peter had done okay. He probally would've done better if he didn't trip on his shoelace when he tried to do the charm to remove blemishes and ended up removing his tester's socks.

"One test down, ten more to go.." James moaned.

Most of their tests went smoothly after that. Lily was a nervous wreck during the divination test and couldn't focus enough to see what was going on in the crystal ball, so she faked it.

"Um, I see a a hotdog with mustard and a whole lot of.. relish." she said slowly.

After almost peeing his pants a billion times, it actually happened. During their practical potions test, Peter wet himself.

"I have never seen you turn THAT red, Wormtail." Sirius chuckled as they walked to their Muggle Studies written exams. Again, Peter turned red.

That night, the 7th years were crowding together in the common room, going over Transfiguration spells and heroes and Herbology statistics. Nothing huge happened during the Transfiguration, but Evan Rosier's hand was almost yanked off by the Devil's Snare during the herbology practical. The next day, Wednesday, was their day off. Many of them stayed out on the grounds, putting their feet in the water as they had done two years ago in their fifth year. James and Lily talked about random things, both glad to be off the subject of testing. They both found it amusing when Sirius and Hazel strolled by, Sirius's arm around Hazel.

"It's amazing how much things changed over the years." Lily said wisely. James nodded.

"I'm glad about it, though. I dunno what I'd do if I never actually got you to go out with me." he said thoughtfully. Lily smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I can't believe we're leaving Hogwarts in a month.." Lily said, gazing up at the castle with wet eyes. That's when it hit James like a bludger. They WERE leaving in a month. Only a month of Hogwarts left, only a month of all the classes, the great food.. would he ever see his friends again? Definitely Sirius, seeing as they live together, but what about Remus and Peter? What about Lily? All of this thinking was starting to make his head hurt and he decided to think about it a different time. "After testing would be nice," he said mentally.

They had two more days of testing left and four more tests to complete. Astronomy, Muggle Studies for the Mauraders, Ancient Runes for Lily, Hazel, and Molly, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Care of Magical Creatures. The next morning, half of the 7th years went to Muggle Studies while the other half trudged off to Ancient Runes. Lily was terrified she would forget some of the "symbol things" but at the end, she felt she had done pretty good. James was sure he goofed at least three of the questions on his Muggle Studies quiz. One of them was how plugs work. "Like I would remember that!" James had thought angrily. That night, everyone had the astronomy tests out on the top tower. It was freezing out, not very good for thinking, so nobody was exactly at their best. The few students who did arithmancy had to get up extra early the next morning to do those tests. Those he didn't do it were very glad about that, because the arithmancy students had to wake up at 5:30.

Care of Magical Creatures went well. Lily was VERY close to vomiting when they had to feed super sized worms to baby horklumps, but managed to keep her breakfast down. Everyone was a bit aprehensive waiting to take their last test, Defense Against the Dark Arts. They found waiting behind the curtains where they would take their practical tests, the oddest assignment.

They had to charm a pogrebin to sleep and then perform the Imperslew curse on it. Now, I am very well aware they learned that curse in Charms, but it was to be used against Voldemort's followers, therefore it falls under the Defense Against the Dark Arts category. It didn't exactly work out for Hazel though, because as we know, her's makes the bone in an elbow *shudder* stick out of the skin. But, a pogrebin, being a demon, doesn't have any bones. Go figure.

It was a great celebration that night in the common room with the 7th and 5th years. James and Sirius brought back some food from the kitchens and they all celebrated the end of their testing. The 7th years were determined to spend as much time together as humanly possible, seeing as they had only twenty days left of Hogwarts.

But, trust me, the 7th years didn't get to just party for twenty days. They had to help out with the younger kids' classes and they still had prefect duties. Lily and James helped out with the first years' potions classes.

"Five hours in the dungeons with a bunch of eleven year olds and Professor Salandar. Wha-hoo." James said sarcastically as he and Lily walked down to the dungeons.

"It can't be too bad..." Lily said optimistically.

Yeah, well, Lily was wrong. During their duties, they were sprayed with various potions, sworn at, and in James's case, bitten. They walked out every day with a bulbous nose or green hair and trudged down to the hospital wing to fix it.

So, readers, I guess this is where our story draws to an end. *author sobs sadly* Before they knew it, it was time to board the Hogwarts Express one last time. Sirius pulled his end of year prank on Snivellus, though what he did bothered Lily. A LOT.

He had taped to Snape's back a piece of parchment that said "I'm a greasy ass whole who loves Lily Evans."

"Simple, but funny. Well done, Sirius, mate." James said whole heartedly. Lily breathed out through her nose, glared at Sirius, and put her luggage on the train. She, Hazel, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter shared a compartment on the way home.

Many times during that train ride, Lily and Hazel cried. They had been sharing memories aloud and the sentimentality just finally overpowered them and they cried. James held Lily in his arms, wishing that the year wouldn't end. But wishing doesn't always fix everything.

The six of them bid eachother their sad goodbyes when they reached King's Cross Station. James left with Sirius and his parents, feeling kind of low. He and Lily made sure they would see each other soon, but he felt horrible about leaving Hogwarts. On the long ride home, he fell asleep to a familiar dream.

"Lily, take Harry and run! He's here!"

THE END *SOB*