James Potter was sound asleep.
If you didn't know better, one might think that he was reading. He had his head propped up just at the right angle, so that the book covered his face for the most part and seemed to be at eye level. He wasn't snoring, his head wasn't bobbing, and he wasn't drooling.
In fact, the only way Lily knew that James was asleep was that he had actually been quiet for more than a few minutes. Normally, he would interrupt her every time she was tutoring, cutting her off every few minutes to add a sarcastic comment in.
Lily sighed and shook her head. She could tolerate James this year, and had even learned to work with him because he was the Head Boy, but it was times like this that reminded her of why she had spent so long hating him. He didn't even have to be awake to be annoying.
She knew Remus Lupin had made himself comfortable on the couch across the study table, and that he had a smug and amused look on his face, but she continued to try to slap and prod James awake.
Finally, after more than a few minutes of trying to wake James up, Lily turned irritated viridian eyes on Remus.
"Stop laughing at me." Remus hadn't been laughing before, but this alone was enough to make his smile
widen.
"Why would I be laughing? I'm usually the one that has to wake him and Sirius up during lessons, and I know how tricky it can be." Lily barely curved her lips and accepted the peace offering.
"Well, how do you normally wake him up?" She asked, scowling at the sleeping boy slouched over a book in front of her.
Remus' smile grew, if possible, even wider, and slightly sinister. "I'm pretty sure he won't like me doing it in front of you, but oh…the look on his face will be worth all the yelling I'll have to put up with later for it." Still grinning, Remus leaned over the table and simply said, "James, Evans wants to talk to you."
To her surprise, James's head shot straight up. "What? Where? Remus! Every time you do that-"
Remus tried and failed to look completely innocent of any wrongdoing. "But this time Lily really does want to talk to you! See? She's right here, waiting for you to wake up." James's face when from bright red with anger and embarrassment to pale white as he realized that his friend was actually telling the truth.
"Oh…er, it's really getting late, I guess this tutoring session should be over tonight, I'm going to bed, night!" The words were so soft and rushed that Lily could barely understand them, but as James raced off towards the boys dorm, Lily turned back to a smug and amused Remus.
"That's all it took? I pinched him, and slapped him, and yelled at him, and all I had to do to wake him up was tell him that it was me?" Lily asked, unsure of whether to be exasperated or amused.
"Yup."
"I'm not sure whether that's annoying or funny." Lily muttered, gathering her Charms books up.
Remus frowned at her slightly, and Lily wondered what she had said wrong. "It shouldn't be either…well, okay, I can see how it might be funny," he consented, but continued, "but you really should be flattered by it."
Lily shifted uncomfortably, feeling her face heat up. She hadn't even considered feeling embarrassed until Remus had mentioned it. "But he was completely out of it!" She insisted, trying to get her mind away from Remus Lupin's last comment.
"Well, yeah, but sometimes it takes different methods to get through to James and Sirius. Both of them do better with hands-on work than they'll ever do with theory. I'm not really sure why, but it seems like if James understands how to do it, then he can't actually learn it. And Sirius…well, I haven't come close to figuring him out. I gave up years ago." Remus casually stood and slung his bag over his shoulder, heading towards the boys dorm. "Night, Lily."
"Night." Lily followed his example and went to bed shortly after, but she couldn't help thinking over what Remus had said most of that night.
Flitwick taught in theory, and if that was what James had trouble with, then it made sense that he'd have trouble in Charms. She'd been trying to help him with it for half of their final year at Hogwarts, to prepare him for the NEWT's, and still seemed to have barely effected his poor grade.
But maybe she'd been going about it the wrong way. Lily had always learned things by reading about them, and then doing exactly what the book told her to do. If James learned everything through experience, then maybe that was how he should be learning charms too.
When she suggested this to James, he merely rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, I can see how some charms can be useful, but honestly, what are you going to you a glitter charm for?"
James walked away from that conversation covered in glitter that earned him many teasing comments that questioned his sexuality and clung to him for the rest of the day.
This was probably part of the reason he showed up the next day for his tutoring with a scowl on his face. His hair still had glitter resting in it. "All right, Evans. Why are we outside in the freezing cold after sunset?"
"Because the charms we're working on tonight will make more sense out here." Lily replied primly. "And just think, the sooner you get them the sooner we can both go back inside."
Potter scowled, but nodded his head.
"Now, we're going to work on all of those basic charms that you never bothered to try learning." Lily announced. "Starting with the gathering charm."
James groaned. "If I'm going to pack my trunk to go anywhere, I can pack it by hand. I don't really care how much quicker it is using a gathering charm. Besides, I can do a gathering charm well enough."
Lily grinned slightly. "Yes, your gathering charm even brings the things you want to pack within twenty feet of you." The sarcasm in her statement was evident. "Besides, it can be used for more than just packing."
Skeptical, James asked, "Like what?"
To answer his question, Lily muttered the gathering charm and grinned as a small amount of snow packed itself together neatly in her right hand. Moments later the snow was dripping down James's face. "Like that." Lily answered cheerfully, perfectly aware that James was glaring at her.
Slowly, James raised a hand and wiped off his face with his sleeve. Scowling, he too tried to gather a small amount of snow into his hand, and jumped about a foot in the air when a large amount of snow lifted itself from the ground around his feet, and flew past his outstretched hand and onto his head.
It took a while, but eventually James had a semblance of a snowball to throw back at Lily, and a mini snowball fight followed.
When McGonagall asked them why they were returning to the castle soaking wet and breathless, Lily's reply had been, "Oh, I was tutoring Potter in Charms." McGonagall wasn't sure she wanted to know.
The next night, James and Lily once again met outside, wrapped in scarves and layers of clothing. "What're we working on tonight?" James asked, smiling. Lily couldn't help but notice that he was actually paying attention this time when she explained the cushioning charm, especially after she pointed out that it would probably help since they would be ice-skating on the frozen lake.
Every night for the weeks that followed was similar, each night covering a new charm and ensuring that Lily and James would return cold and laughing. Their conversations eventually no longer revolved solely around Head duties and Charms, and now sometimes were actually personal conversations.
One night, as they were heading back to the castle, James turned a different way, heading away from the Gryffindor dorms. "Hey, wait! Where are you going?" Lily called after him, stopping mid-stride.
"The kitchens. I'm freezing, and hot chocolate sounds really good right about now." James replied casually, still not turning around. Lily scowled, and considered not following him, but curiosity and the thought of a mug of hot chocolate outweighed her desire to irritate James Potter, and soon she had caught up with him and was walking silently beside him towards the kitchens.
That night, for he first time, Lily and James had a conversation that actually didn't revolve around school, although it started out that way.
"Why don't you understand theory?" Lily asked, voicing the question that had been in her mind ever since Remus had brought it up. "I mean, it's quite simple, really. You just read the book and do as it says."
James frowned. "Why does each charm have a different wand movement?"
"Well..er…"
"Why are only some charms in Latin, while others aren't even Latin-based?"
"Uhhh…"
"Exactly." At Lily's blank look, James elaborated. "Even you don't know why you're doing what you're doing, you're just doing it."
"Well, I'm doing it to get better grades and to be able to perform the charm." Lily answered, not understand what his point was.
James merely shrugged and took another sip of hot chocolate. "I suppose it's like cussing." He answered after thinking it over for a moment. "Some people use the words `bloody' and `bollocks' in every sentence, in places that they don't even make sense. I never really saw a point in it." At Lily's surprised look, he hastened to say, "Oh, sure, I cuss. But only when I really want to make a point. It's like I only talk when I have something to say. Sirius talks just to keep the noise going, but unless I have a good reason to talk, I usually don't."
Lily thought this over for a moment and decided that maybe that made sense.
By spring, James Potter's theory work had improved tremendously, as had Lily Evans's practical work. McGonagall didn't bother to ask them what they were up to anymore when they were found laughing in the corridors late at night, because the answer was always, "Oh, just working on our lessons" or "Oh, just working on the practical portion of tonight's homework".
By the end of the year, James Potter seemed more levelheaded, and Lily Evans seemed more alive. Honestly, it made McGonagall wonder who had been tutoring who. James may have learned how to cast charms, but Lily had learned how to live. She laughed more in those months than she had laughed in years.
After the first two years or so of having James and Lily's son at Hogwarts, Minerva had learned something herself. There was much more to magic, she realized, than the theory of it. The practical part was just as, if not more, important as the theory of how it should be done.
And when she saw Harry Potter and Hermione Granger come in wet and cold in their final year at school, after the war had ended and peace had been restored to Hogwarts, Minerva merely smiled and watched as they walked by, still grinning and wringing out their cloaks. She wouldn't disturb their tutoring sessions.
After all, if Harry was anything like his parents had been, he was learning a lot more than theory. He was learning how to laugh, live, and love, and Minerva couldn't help noticing that Hermione Granger seemed to learning with him.
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