"Welcome! Welcome!"

The large man's bushy moustache appeared to dance around the room in excitement while the nervous first years poured into the room in twos and threes.

"Come now, come now, no need to be so shy! Take a seat; I'm not going to bite!"

As the last pupil sat down on their wooden bench, their heavy teacher pirouetted to the front of the classroom.

There he stood, looking out at the class, beaming. "Welcome to your very first Potions class! Many of you may already know me of course, as Puddlemere United's Supporter of the Month last February, and as a firm friend of our former Minister for Magic, Nobby Leach. For those of you who do not…" At this point he looked pityingly around the room. "My name is Horace Edmund Fussington Slughorn and I shall be your Potions teacher during your stay at this wonderful establishment."

~~~

"Fussington?" Sirius whispered. "I didn't realise Father Christmas had shaved his beard, gone insane and got employed at Hogwarts." James let out a snort of laughter before he could stop himself.

"And who do we have here?" asked Slughorn, clapping his eyes on James. "Is this a Potter I spy?"

"Blimey, he plays I Spy, too," Sirius muttered. James elbowed his friend in the ribs before he answered.

"Uh, yeah. I'm James Potter."

Slughorn's moustache started twitching again. "I see! I was at school at the same time as your father, you know. How is old Steven? I hear he runs a rather successful Quidditch supplies chain now. Bludgers and Brooms, is it?"

"Um, Dad retired last year," admitted James.

Slughorn's moustache became uncharacteristically flat. "Ah. Pity." Losing all interest in James at once, he turned instead to the register.

James sat there, mouth slightly agape, wondering what he'd done. Sirius shrugged.

At that moment, James noticed a pretty girl three rows ahead who had turned around to watch his exchange with Slughorn. She was still looking in his direction. When she saw him looking, she smiled sweetly before turning back to her desk. Lily. Her name was Lily.

~~~

"What's the matter?" asked Severus. Lily appeared slightly flustered as she turned around.

"Oh nothing," she sang. She didn't want to talk about the boy - James, she remembered - with Sev. She didn't think he would appreciate her trying to find new friends. "Just a bit nervous about my first lesson, I suppose."

"I know what you mean," he murmured in agreement. Severus appeared to be itching to open Magical Drafts and Potions.

This Professor Slughorn was a very strange man indeed, Lily thought. As he read the roll, he called out some names absently, while at others he became very excited, his big brown moustache almost jumping off his face as he rushed to ask the unfortunate pupil about their parents and
relatives. She held her breath as he came to her name; but luckily he passed it without comment.

At the end of the roll call, Slughorn looked up, beaming once again. "Wonderful; just wonderful! Well, I suppose we should get started, shouldn't we?

"Potions. What a subject. What a wonderful, intriguing, heart-stopping subject it is! For some of you, the idea of magical potions will be as normal as breathing air. For others, it will be completely foreign as...well, the Chudley Cannons winning anything this century." Here, Slughorn paused for effect, chuckling quietly to himself. As the vacant stares of the room testified to, he was the only one who found it funny.

"Yes, well, where was I? Ah, yes, Potions. Although you may currently have varying degrees of knowledge on the subject, I promise you now that no one is at a disadvantage here. Even the Muggle-borns here," on the word "Muggle-borns" he gave a chuckle, and Lily's brows contracted confusedly, "will have little trouble if they keep up with their homework! Over the course of the years, we will be brewing and studying many different types of potions, from hair growth tonics to healing serums and all the way to truth potions."

Noticing Lily's rapidly raising eyebrows, Slughorn smiled kindly. "Don't worry now, my dear, don't worry! I won't be throwing any of you in the deep end just yet! We'll start with something nice and simple. For your first lesson, I've picked out a nice, easy potion. Nobody should have too much trouble with my boil-cure potion; not if I have anything to do with it!" he said, snorting with laughter.

"Ahem. So, without further ado, find a partner, and let us embark together on the great adventure that is the study of potions." He winked, a twinkle in his eye. "Hopefully, you will all come to love the subject as I do.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Partners, my dear children; find yourself a partner!"

~~~

At once, the seemingly immobile class sprung to life; some people clinging to their neighbour for dear life, others casting around the room desperately for another lost soul to latch onto.

At the mention of the word "partner", Sirius had immediately bagged Remus for himself. Despite having known the tall, bookish, rather tired looking boy for less than two days, it was clear that he was much more likely than James to actually work in a lesson.

Remus stared at Sirius, mouth agape, clearly amazed at being chosen. "Are you sure, Sirius? Of course, if James would prefer, then -"

"Nope, you're going to help me today," confirmed Sirius.

James shrugged. "That's all right, Remus. Peter and I can -"

"Nope, you can go and pair up with the red-head over there," instructed Sirius.

James felt his stomach lurch. "Wha - Lily, you mean?"

"Yeah, she was looking over here, wasn't she? Maybe she
wants to be your friend," Sirius smirked.

Beside him, Remus gave an embarrassed cough.

James stood up hesitantly, still in two minds about asking her.

"No, no, I can't just ask her to be my partner, can I?"

Sirius pulled a face. "Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, what would I say?"

Sirius grinned, the mischievous glint he was famous for sparkling in his eye. "Only one way to find out, isn't there?"

With that he gave his friend an almighty push in the direction of Lily's table.

~~~

The black haired boy, James, stopped himself just before he crashed into Lily's desk.

"Oh, hello," she said, surprised by the sudden unexpected interruption.

"Uh, hi," mumbled James, playing absentmindedly with his hair, without looking her in the eye.

"Um, I was just wondering if you... want to be partners?"

"Oh. Okay, sure!" she said, flattered to be asked, careful not to let Severus see her delighted expression.

James grinned. "Really?" he said, more enthusiastically than planned.

"Uh, Lily?" This is what Lily had been waiting for.

"What is it, Sev?" she asked, in an unnaturally sweet tone of voice.

Severus stared down at his hands, which had suddenly tensed up into fists "Well, I thought we would be partners-"

"Oh, well, you can always pair up with Peter over there," Lily interjected quickly.

Over beside Remus, Peter Pettigrew jumped with fright at the mention of his name.

"Well, I'm not really sure -" Severus began, but at the sight of Lily's stubborn and determined glare, he went quiet.

Without another word he stood up, and snatching up his copy of Magical Drafts and Potions he stalked over to the vacant seat beside Peter. Plunking himself down angrily, he opened his book and began reading, without so much as a nod of recognition to his new partner.

The two of them made a strange pair to look at - Severus stared nowhere except at the pages of his book, which were as white as his pale face. He appeared to be simmering just beneath the skin. On the other hand, Peter, with his bowl-like eyes flicking nervously from Severus to his friends, begging them silently to come rescue him, looked rather green, as if he could throw up at any moment.

Lily grinned sheepishly at James. "That's my friend Severus. He's -"

"A Slytherin, I know."

"Well, yes, he is," she conceded "But he's also very nice. Once you get to know him," she added for good measure.

"Mm." James didn't appear too keen on the subject of Sev, so she didn't push it.

~~~

Slughorn zoomed past them on his way around the classroom. "Come now, come now, you two. Enough fraternizing; get out the ingredients you need," he trilled.
There were sniggers from behind them.

James gritted his teeth. He was not fraternizing. He didn't even know what that meant.

Beside him, Lily looked faintly pink. "Uh, well, we should probably get started. We need," she continued, her eyes scanning the blackboard, "dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, and porcupine quills."

"All right, do you want to get them? I'll set up the cauldron and things," suggested James.

"Um, okay," she said uncertainly.

Less than half a minute later she was back.

"Uh, James?" she whispered covertly.

He looked up from the set of bronze scales he was setting. "Hm?"

"What do - what do crushed snake fangs look like?"

"Wh- you mean you don't know?" James stared at her.

"Uh- huh." She shook her head apologetically. "I'm... eh, I'm Muggle-born."

"Oh." James sat there, mouth slightly agape.

He'd never met a Muggle-born his age. His parents had Muggle-born friends over to dinner, but he'd never imagined them as eleven-year-olds, fresh from the Muggle world.

He'd never imagined they'd be so pretty, either.

He suddenly realised he was staring and closed his mouth. "Don't worry; I'll show you."

As he led the way to the ingredients desk, James felt a swell somewhere in his chest that he'd never felt before.
He had never been in a position to, well, rescue anyone before. The sensation continued as he proudly showed Lily the different types of stewed slugs and the best porcupine quills to use.

He would later rue the fact that he had confided in Sirius with this information, and vowed to never tell anyone again how he felt when a girl was involved.

~~~

It wasn't long until Lily was busy with her cauldron, slicing and measuring with an ease she had never expected before. Every now and then she would remember to ask James' opinion on what to do next. He seemed very proud of himself as the "Wizard behind the Operation" and somehow she couldn't take that away from him.

"Excellent, just excellent!" Slughorn had sailed over to see their progress. "Oho!" he said, stopping dead at Lily and James's cauldron. "Oho! What do we have here? The perfect shade of crimson! Quite excellent, Mr. Potter!"

James shrugged. "Lily did most of it."

Slughorn chuckled. "I see, Mr. Potter. Very chivalrous, very chivalrous indeed! And your name, Miss Lily...?"

"Evans," she mumbled, staring into the depths of the cauldron. She didn't need the whole class's eyes on her on her first day.

"Evans, hmm...I'm afraid I don't know the name..."

"Well, I'm Muggle-born..."

"Muggle-born, you say? Are you quite sure?" Slughorn muttered "Muggle-born" under his breath again, clearly mystified.

She nodded, moving her head as little as possible.

"Well, I'm gobsmacked! You've stopped me straight in my tracks, Miss Evans! I don't know what to say!"

How Lily wished this was true.

"The two of you make quite a pair! I've never seen such excellent work from a Muggle-born in their first class! I think we have our winner!"

Lily heard an irregular thud behind her. Severus, who was dicing up his nettles, had nearly sliced through his own fingers.

Slughorn presented the two of them with an enourmous box of Crystallized Pineapple, which he seemed to have pulled out of thin air. Actually, considering where they were, he probably did, thought Lily.

"Oh, and Miss Evans? Perhaps I could have a chat with you, after class..."

"Sure," she said absently, keen to get Slughorn off her back. She wasn't sure if it was the all the attention she was getting that had her cheeks burning, or the stare of the boy next to her.

~~~

The class filed out, far less orderly than they had come in.

"Nice one, mate," said Sirius quietly, coming over to James who was clearing up. "'The two of you make quite a pair!' If Slughorn said it, it must be true," he laughed.

James flared up at once. "It was because of you I had to partner with-" But he stopped when he realized Sirius was laughing at Slughorn, not him.

"Heh, yeah, that was pretty funny."

"Yeah, and you should have seen what that weirdo Slytherin guy did when Peter dropped his stewed horned slug on his lap! Now that was funny."

James "hm'd" and "oh'd" as Sirius continued, not really listening. He was too busy thinking about the lesson. He hadn't said anything rude towards her, had he? Or done anything offensive?

He watched her as she said goodbye to Slughorn and set off for the door, her red ponytail bobbing up and down playfully, and made his decision.

~~~

Lily left the classroom, still very confused. She had listened absentmindedly as Professor Slughorn told her about some kind of "slug club" (She very much hoped it had nothing to do with smashing slugs with clubs. The blood would go everywhere.), too busy thinking about the lesson. She hadn't done anything too... Muggle to him, had she?

Severus appeared to have gone on without her. Fine. She would have to worry about that later.

"Uh, Lily?"

She turned around to see James, messing up his hair again.

"Um, I was just wondering... want to be partners again tomorrow?"