Firstly, she hadn’t gotten to sleep until nearly dawn. She had tossed and turned, worrying about what the new day would bring. Secondly, she was not gently shaken awake by Alice as she usually was, but sat on by someone rather heavy. She opened one hazel eye to look at her captor. It was Sirius. She closed her eyes, wondering what on earth he was doing sitting on top of her. He was talking about something, vaguely mentioning the words “breakfast” and “late.”
Sirius, seeing that Lily was in no way inclined to rise, decided to try a new tactic. He ripped the nice warm cover off the bed. “Get up, Prongs, breakfast started twenty minutes ago.” Sirius looked at Lily, taking in her appearance. “What are you still doing in your school robes anyway? And for that matter where were you last night? Last I heard you went dashing off to find Lily. Then, when I came up here at nine o’clock.” He emphasised the word nine as though it was ridiculous time to think of bed. “You were fast asleep.”
Lily groaned. Why was he sitting on her? Why was he babbling at Godric knows whatever the time it was? And for that matter, why wasn’t he wearing a shirt?
Deciding that it was best to just give in to his demands, Lily sat up reaching for her now mandatory glasses.
Nodding at Lily’s actions, Sirius also rose to his feet. Then he whipped off the scant towel that was covering his waist and began to get changed. Right in front of Lily.
Swearing, Lily grabbed the curtains of James four poster bed and pulled them across just in time. That was close. Too close. What the hell had Sirius been doing? Didn’t he get changed in his own bed behind the curtains? Cursing boys and malfunctioning potions, she sighed to herself. There were some things she couldn’t handle in the morning.
Lily sat down with James’ friends at breakfast, just in time to see herself come in; except she looked different. Instead of having her hair in a ponytail, it was out, falling in unruly waves down her back. Her robes were pushed up at the sleeves and she was walking in an odd way.
She wasn’t walking at all. She was strutting.
James had somehow dishevelled her normally neat appearance. She scowled at him as he sat down at the breakfast table opposite her.
“Hey, sexy, can you pass the cereal. I’m absolutely starving.” He shot her a flirty wink and flipped his hair.
Sirius and Peter stared open mouthed at the pair of them. Remus, who was eating fruit salad, began to choke on a grape. Peter, regaining his composure, thumped him on the back. The grape then soured across the table towards Sirius, who, leaning back on his chair, was still staring at the pair of them. The grape hit Sirius in the eye, catching him off balance and causing him to topple to the ground.
This went unnoticed by Lily, who was glaring mutinously at James.
“You don’t usually call me that, Lily,” she spat out, emphasising the last word. He just smiled, clearly enjoying himself far too much.
“You don’t think you are sexy?" he asked, still smiling smugly. "I don’t know about that, you are the best looking boy at the table. In fact, the only better looking person in Gryffindor is me.” James pouted and began playing with his hair.
“Well, you are definitely more attractive than me,” she returned, anger welling up inside her. “But you are also a nice person which is more then I can say for me. In fact, I have been wasting my life mucking around, when I should have made more of an effort to be like you.”
James nodded his head, pretending to consider it. Then slowly, turning his head to make sure she was watching, he smelled his hair.
“Mmm,” he murmured, breathing in the scent. “There is nothing like this smell. It must be the shampoo.” He shrugged, a devilish gleam entering his green eyes.
“Washing my hair this morning was especially good for some unknown reason. It was the most fun I’ve had in a shower in a long time.”
The three other Marauders, now fully recovered from the grape incident, were watching the word-play like Muggles at a tennis match. Their heads darted from Lily to James, then back to Lily. Clearly, there was something they were missing.
Lily, however, had gone bright red. He had a shower? In her body? He was going to pay. He was going to pay big-time.
“Oh, look, Lily flower,” she said, imitating his style as best she could. “It’s your boyfriend.” She pointed over at the Hufflepuff table to a lanky boy who was eating toast. “He’ll be coming over for a kiss soon, I’m very jealous of him. I hope you have as much fun as you did in the shower.” Lily flashed a shocked James a smile. “I’m going to get ready for class.”
She got up to leave, but James grabbed her arm.
“I have a boyfriend?” For the first time that morning James looked truly worried. It was one thing to be stuck in Lily’s body, something that had its advantages, but having a run in with her boyfriend could be very bad.
“Oh, yes, his name is Rodger. You have been seeing him in secret, but you were going to go out with it in the open.” Lily paused as though trying to remember something.
“In fact, you told me he said he was going to come up and kiss you in front of everyone; today at breakfast. All you had to do was send him a message.”
The Hufflepuff boy caught James staring at him and sent a flirtatious wink. He then stood up and started making his way over to the Gryffindor table. Lily pulled free of James' grip and strode out of the room. She really had planned on warning James about Rodger, but seeing him so confident in her body made her snap. If she was going to suffer, then she was bringing him down with her. Smiling properly for the first time that day, she exited the Great Hall.
Everything had been going well, until breakfast.
After Lily had left him in the dungeon the previous evening, James had slowly made his way up to Gryffindor tower. No teachers had stopped him to ask what he was doing and no girls had tried to gain his attention. He had reached the common room in time to see Lily slide down the girl’s staircase in his body, looking mortified.
It had been hilarious.
He had then enjoyed sitting in the common room, listening to conversations he usually didn’t pick up on. People trusted Lily in a way they didn’t trust him and they would say anything in front of her.
Lying in Lily’s bed, late at night, he pondered his situation. The coming month could be a lot of fun. He was definitely going to enjoy it. With that final thought, he had slipped into pleasant dreams.
By breakfast, he had been in a fantastic mood. He had been gently awoken by Alice, who was, in James opinion, better to see in the morning than Sirius. After getting up, he had a long shower and finally let Lily’s hair free in a way she never wore it. Taking his time, he had spent a good thirty minutes getting dressed, carefully in front of the mirror.
During breakfast he had been quite pleased to note that Lily looked quite dishevelled. She didn’t even look as though she had changed from the night before. He had a great time at breakfast vexing her and confusing his friends until she had dropped that bombshell.
She had a boyfriend and he was coming this way.
As though watching a train crash about to happen, time slowed for James. A countdown began in his head.
Twenty seconds until impact.
James recognised the boy as a member of the Hufflepuff Quiddich team. He looked stupid. Well, maybe not stupid but not particularly bright. What did Lily see in him anyway? James didn’t know if he was more jealous or more scared.
Ten seconds until impact.
James briefly considered fleeing. Then the boy might see it as a game and chase him. And he definitely didn’t want to be alone with the boy.
Five seconds until impact.
Could he hex the boy from here? It would probably look too suspicions.
One second until impact.
James looked around for Lily. She had gone, leaving him to fend for himself. He wondered if she would jump in and save him at the last minute. She didn’t look like she was going to. She was a dead girl.
“Lily.” The boy wrapped his arms around James, breathing into his neck. James swore under his breath. This was not good. The boy turned James around in his arms so they were face to face.
“I’ve wanted to show everyone this for so long.” The boy’s voice was way too husky for James’ liking. He pulled James into a tight hug, beginning to move his hands to the middle of his back then…
Where on earth were his hands going? The occupants of the Great Hall watched as James took a step away from Rodger. Unfortunately, the step was not big enough and the boy’s arms remained around James.
Taking this the total wrong way, the boy leaned in slowly for a kiss. Brief thoughts of where he would rather be drifted through James’ mind: the Forbidden Forest, the bottom of the lake, Bulgaria and standing stark naked in a field were just a few options that briefly featured in his mind.
James panicked and just before their lips met he reached for his wand. Whatever happened next, he told himself, he was not responsible for his actions.
Twenty minutes later, James brushed passed Lily on the way to Transfiguration. Standing on tip-toes, he whispered something into her ear.
“I don’t think your relationship worked out.”
Lily was suspicious of James. The moment he had walked into the classroom, people had started whispering and pointing. Something had obviously happened in the Great Hall and it probably meant bad news for Lily. She moved to follow James in order to decipher his cryptic comment, but Sirius grabbed her and steered her to the back of the classroom.
“I can’t believe you left the Great Hall!” Sirius gushed as soon as Lily sat down. “It was absolutely hilarious!”
That couldn’t mean anything good. Ignoring Professor McGonagall’s angry stare, Lily motioned for him to continue.
“That Ronald guy from the Hufflepuff-”
“Rodger!” Lily interrupted, dread building up inside her.
“Whatever, the Hufflepuff Keeper. He comes up to Lily and was all over her- it was actually quite disgusting, probably best you missed that- Lily was obviously a bit freaked out by all the attention, so when he goes in to kiss her she “” Sirius burst into laughter.
“She what?” Lily asked urgently. What had James done? Was Rodger even alive? Sirius, attempting to control his laughter, continued his story.
“Oh, sorry, you should have been there. Just as their lips are about to meet, Lily whips out her wand and he freezes, his lips stuck in a ridiculous kissing posture. Then, she calmly tells him that it is over and stalks off, telling no one how to remove the curse. So, all the teachers surround the guy, and it took fifteen minutes before he could move again.”
“H-She left him there?” Lily shut her eyes in anguish before giving a weak smile; Rodger would not be happy.
Sirius laughed again. “I thought you might like that,” he said, taking Lily’s smile to be one of glee. “You should have seen his face when he unfroze, he was furious. Talk about being stood up. Who would have thought it of Lily? Looks like you have rubbed off on her a bit.”
Sirius paused and stared at her. “You don’t have anything to do with this do you?” he asked sceptically. “You didn’t slip Lily a love potion last night?”
“There was no love potion involved,” Lily sniffed. “I have no idea why Lily would do something like this, to an innocent boy.”
Sirius raised a solitary eyebrow. “As though you can talk, you hexed her last boyfriend.”
“I did what?”
“Don’t play dumb, you put him into a leg-locker curse and stuffed him in the laundry, remember? I suppose that’s why this Rupert fellow didn’t want to go public with Lily at the start.” Sirius rolled his eyes at who he thought was his best friend.
“Really, James, you are way too obsessed with her.” Sirius gazed at 'Lily' who was sitting at the front. “Look, I understand why you like her, but she is not worth it, Prongs! Granted, she is rather pretty and I suppose she has a great pair of¬”
“Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, I am sick of your constant chatter. Detention for you both.” McGonagall was staring furiously at the pair of them. James turned from his position at the front to give Lily a sickly sweet smile.
Sirius just shrugged, obviously used to it. Lily groaned, wasn’t being James enough of a punishment?