The weeks of October rolled peacefully by, with nothing much out of the ordinary to disrupt the flow of school life. There had been that one Tuesday when, just after lunch, half of the fifth floor corridor had been transfigured into a forest whose leaves matched the bright autumn hues of the trees outside the castle walls. Filch, the ever-irritable caretaker, had been incensed. His anger had been shared, though to a lesser degree, by the teachers whose classroom doors were now blocked by enormous, moss-covered tree trunks and whose students had decided to spend their afternoon frolicking in the forest instead of sitting at their desks. The first year Hufflepuffs had even begun a very exciting game of tag that had ended abruptly when Professor McGonagall had arrived on the scene and, less than ten minutes later, waved her wand and returned the corridor to its original state. No culprit had officially been found, although the entire school knew who had done it. Privately, Lily shared their suspicion - she had noticed James and the boys' absence during lunch that day - but she was disinclined to mention any of this to anyone. This was partly because she did not want to deal with the hassle of reporting evidence, but also because she had been impressed by the difficult piece of magic they had managed to perform. And, really, this prank was absolutely harmless compared to those of earlier years. No one had been hurt or embarrassed, and everyone (except Filch) had had a good laugh.
Aside from this minor disturbance, life at Hogwarts continued as usual. The weather outside the castle walls grew stormier and colder, and the rooms and corridors of Hogwarts seemed cozier and warmer by contrast. Golden flames now crackled constantly in the Gryffindor Common Room and in fireplaces throughout the castle. As October drew to a close, excitement began to rustle through the student body once more. Tonight would be the Halloween Feast, which meant copious amounts of sweets and hilarious antics by the castle ghosts. Tomorrow it would be November, which meant the beginning of the Quidditch season. Already, students had begun sporting their house colors more frequently in a preemptive show of team solidarity.
For the seventh year Potions students, today was doubly exciting. Last Friday, Professor Slughorn had informed them that the Veritaserum on which they had been studiously working the entire month of October would be completed today. Thus far in their academic careers, this was the longest they had ever spent on one potion, and all of them were anxious to know how four weeks of toil had turned out. Their gratification, however, would have to be delayed another hour and a half by first period Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Fortunately, Professor Killeborne had chosen to make today a practicum rather than a lecture. Once his students had settled into their desks, he addressed the class, "Books away, everyone, and wands out. Today we'll be practicing all the nonverbal spell work I've been lecturing you on."
There was a scramble of books and chairs scraping as twenty students hurried to shove their textbooks back in their bags and get out their wands. Killeborne waited for the noise to die down, then held up a sheet of parchment in his hand as he continued, "I've divided you into pairs to practice the techniques we've been learning. Listen carefully, please. I don't want to have to read this more than once."
At this instruction, the majority of the students stopped whispering to one another and turned their attention to the front of the classroom. Lily was among them, although she continued surreptitiously passing notes with Marlene, who was seated beside her. She listened intently for her own name, idly wondering who she'd be paired with in this class. When the words "Black and Evans" fell from the professor's mouth, she got her answer. Mildly surprised, she turned around in her seat to search out her new partner's location.
Sirius was, as she'd suspected, in the back row of the class, seated between James and Remus. His back was turned on the rest of the class, and he was barely paying attention to the proceedings, as he was too busy recounting some humorous story to James. He did, however, hear his name being called along with the Head Girl's, and this was sufficient incentive for him to leave off his story telling and participate in class.
"Bad luck, Prongs," he teased, smirking at the poorly concealed disappointment on his best mate's face. "I'll try not to be too hard on her."
This last jibe earned him a glare from James, but Sirius laughed it off and sauntered over to the seat beside Lily that Marlene had just vacated.
"'Lo Evans," he said, flashing a charming smile.
"Hey yourself," she responded, regarding him curiously out of the corner of her eye while she listened to Professor Killeborne instructing the class that they would only be practicing nonverbal disarming and shield spells right now. Over the course of the past month as she and James had become better friends, Lily had, by sheer necessity, struck up an acquaintance with Sirius as well. This would be the first time she'd ever spent any time alone with him, though, and she was curious to see how it would turn out. Her musings were cut short as the class, at Killeborne's request, stood up and began moving the desks to the sides of the room.
Sirius rose as well and began pushing aside both their desks to clear them some space.
"We can practice over here, I s'pose," he said.
"Sure," Lily responded, reaching over to pick up her wand from where she'd left it in the pencil groove of the desk. "So do you want to go first?"
He shrugged.
"Nah. Ladies first, of course." Pulling his wand from the pocket of his robes, he raised his wand arm and smirked confidently at her, "Go on, Red. Hit me with your best shot."
Smiling wryly, she countered, "I didn't know you were such a gentleman, Black." She leveled her own wand at him and took up a rather stiff, contrived "fighting stance," feeling rather silly as she stared at him and thought, Expelliarmus! As Lily had absolutely no experience with dueling outside of class, she felt generally awkward about the whole exercise and wasn't exactly sure how to proceed.
Her partner, who had considerably more experience with dueling, was amused by the bizarre pose she had just taken, but he kindly refrained from mentioning this and waited instead for her spell to hit him. Sirius knew from previous experience that, in a duel, it is more important to watch your opponent's face than her wand, and so he was able to think, Protego! just as the jet of red light erupted from Lily's wand and thus prevent his wand from flying out of his hand.
Lily was slightly disappointed when her disarming spell bounced harmlessly off Sirius' shield, but she hadn't expected anything else, as his reputation as a dueler was well-known among the students of their year. She relaxed for a moment and asked the more experienced lad in front of her, "Don't you feel kind of... silly just standing here thinking at each other?"
He, however, had taken advantage of her lapse in concentration to mentally disarm her, and he grinned as her wand flew out of her hand and landed a few feet away.
"Not unless it works," he answered. "But I do think this practice with disarming only is silly and useless." Really. This class exercise was child's play. He and James had mastered this stuff a year ago. Even Peter could nonverbally disarm someone by now.
"Hey!" Lily exclaimed as her wand was magically ripped from her hand. She glared at Sirius for what she viewed as a cheap shot, realizing at the same time that if he was going to be sneaky about this, she'd have to play along. She stalked over to retrieve her wand, then turned and faced him again with a very determined expression on her face. Lily was not usually a very competitive person, but she had just decided that she would like nothing better than to best Sirius Black at his own game and wipe that smug smirk off his face by the end of the class period.
"On your guard, Red," Sirius teased, either ignoring or oblivious to the ire he had just incited. "If you want, we can make this a little more entertaining instead of just using stupid defense spells."
She hesitated a moment and glanced towards the back corner of the classroom where James and Remus were obviously throwing more than just "Expelliarmus" and "Protego" spells at one another. Whatever they were doing, Professor Killeborne had not yet noticed, and it would get boring quickly if she and Sirius kept throwing the same two spells at one another.
"All right then," she agreed. "And since when did I become 'Red'?" Without waiting for a response, she walked back over to their corner, flicking her wand as she went and sending a Jelly Legs Jinx his way.
This time, it was Sirius' turn to be caught off-guard.
"Oy!" he exclaimed as he fell to the ground. Jumping to his feet, he jerked his wand in her direction and sent a hair-coloring jinx at her. "You can be blue if you like."
Lily threw up a shield charm just in time and watched him stumble to his feet with a smirk on her face.
"No thanks. I actually like red," she answered.
As soon as he was standing again, she sent another disarming spell at him, but Sirius was ready for this one. He blocked it easily, grinning all the while. He hadn't expected to so easily persuade the Head Girl, who he considered rather uptight, to flout a professor's instructions. Now that he'd succeeded, he was enjoying himself immensely, although he was being careful to throw only light jinxes at Lily, as he knew James was probably watching them out of the corner of his eye. He didn't need his besotted best friend storming over and ruining their duel out of some chivalrous concern for Lily's safety. Sirius' suspicion was, of course, correct. James' attention was divided between his own duel with Remus and the one going on between Sirius and Lily, and Remus had the upper hand because of it.
"Well I like Red too. It's a compliment," Sirius said, circling her as soon as his balance was regained and sending a Rictusempra jinx flying towards her.
Lily winked saucily at him, "Aw gee thanks. I suppose I could get- whoops!" She was interrupted mid-sentence as she dove out of the way of the swirling jet of yellow light coming at her from Sirius' wand. Stumbling, she flicked her wand over her shoulder and flung a trip jinx in his' direction as she stood back up and resumed her fighting stance. Then, just for good measure, she cast a shield charm on herself.
Not noticing the shield charm she'd cast on herself, he blocked her trip jinx, countered with a leg locker curse, and had to jump aside when it bounced off her shield.
"Oh ho! Tricky little bird, aren't you?" he asked, impressed. Evans was getting the hang of this quicker than he'd expected.
"You know what they say. It's always the sweet, innocent looking ones you have to watch out for," Lily responded, beginning to enjoy herself as well.
"Hardly sweet and innocent," Sirius countered with a roll of his eyes. "We all know how much fire you can pack."
In response, she swished her wand upwards and imagined Sirius spinning round and round like a top as she cast her next jinx, having found that it was very helpful to imagine the jinx hitting him when she cast it.
The spinning jinx hit Sirius squarely on the chest, and he spun until he fell on his bum, looking dizzily around.
"Oh that was mean," he informed her, casting a shield charm while he waited for his head to stop spinning.
Pleasantly surprised that her jinx had worked, Lily burst into giggles as she watched him whirl around.
"Oh how the mighty have fallen..," she teased.
Sirius scowled. So she didn't want to play nice then? Fine by him. His head was still spinning, but he managed to stand up and fire a pair of spells at her. First another trip jinx and then a Levicorpus.
She cast a shield for the first jinx, but didn't expect it to be followed immediately by another. A shocked gasp flew from her lips as she was hoisted into the air by an ankle.
"SIRIUS!" she exclaimed, feeling all the blood rush to her head. Thankfully, it was cold enough today for her to be wearing tights, otherwise the entire class would have discovered she had chosen a pair of lacy blue knickers to wear this morning.
"HA! Hanging out Evans?" Sirius asked, grinning in triumph as he held her there. In the next instant, he spied James glaring furiously at him, and, rather than risk James' wrath, Sirius flicked his wand again to let the redhead down.
Lily, however, had not been expecting to be let down any more than she had expected to be lifted into the air, and she tumbled to the floor with an "oof." Righteously indignant at the treatment she had just received, she did not bother getting up and immediately threw a Tarantallegra hex at Sirius. Two seconds later, she shot another spinning jinx at him, hoping that one of the two would catch him unawares.
Sirius managed to jump aside of the first jinx, but the second hit him and he lost his balance again as he spun around like a top.
"I hate those!" he exclaimed, angry himself now. "Okay no more Mr. Nice Guy." Jumping to his feet again, he raised his wand and began firing random jinxes in rapid succession, trying to force her on the defensive.
"Oh you know how to be nice, do you?" Lily asked, but the smirk was wiped off her face as he began shooting jinx after jinx at her, and she was forced to start dodging and backing away from him, casting one shield charm after another.
By this point, over half the class had stopped to watch their battle of wands, including Remus and James, who was on the verge of interfering on Lily's behalf. Before he could raise his wand, however, Professor Killeborne finally noticed what was going on in the back of his classroom. He raced forward, pulling out his own wand to disarm both students, and barked, "I SAID DISARMING AND SHIELD SPELLS ONLY, SIRIUS BLACK! STOP THIS INSTANT!"
Sirius was jolted out of the "fight" portion of his fight or flight mentality by the sensation of his wand flying out of his hand. He came to his senses to find Killeborne frowning sternly down at him and quickly slipped a penitent mask over his handsome features.
"Aw come on, Professor. I wouldn't hurt her."
"Five points from Gryffindor," was Killeborne's response as he handed their wands back. Lily frowned as she reached for her wand; she was much more used to earning house points than losing them.
Returning to the front of the classroom, Killeborne addressed his students again, "While they may have gotten a
bit carried away, Evans and Black have just given us an excellent demonstration of how useful a nonverbal spell can be
in a duel. And how tricky they are to block. There are, however, a few tricks you ought to know about discerning what
sort of spell is about to be thrown at you. If you'll all take your seats again, we'll try to get through all
of them before the bell rings."
Before he returned to his seat, Sirius turned to Lily and asked, "Any jinxes still on you?"
Mildly surprised that he was being considerate enough to ask, Lily shook her head. "Nope. You?"
"Nah. Good practice though," he responded, giving her a friendly smile and heading back to his usual seat
between Remus and James.
"Wipe that look off your face, Potter, she's fine."
"I think it's the points you lost that are getting to him," Remus teased, amused.
In truth, James could care less about losing five house points. He had hardly even noticed they had been lost, as he
was still getting over the chilling sensation of watching Lily being hoisted helplessly into the air.
"Levicorpus, Padfoot?" he hissed, "I thought we reserved that one for Snivellus and his slimy
housemates."
"She spun me!" Sirius protested, unable to see what the big deal was. "I was running out of ideas okay? That one I can do without even thinking, I've done it so much. Besides, she's not mad."
"I don't think reserving them..," Remus began, then sighed and returned to taking notes on the lecture. "I'm not even going to bother."
James ignored Remus' comment and continued berating his best mate for his serious breach of etiquette.
"Ooooh she spun you. What are you, a pansy?" he muttered.
Sirius rolled his eyes. He was not the sort of bloke to get all noble and protective of women. As far as he was
concerned, whether you wore skirts or pants, you were fair game if you decided to duel with him.
"Oh get over yourself. I wouldn't have hurt her, Merlin. She's a lot more powerful than you give her
credit for. Could have held her own just fine without you whining about it from the side lines."
"Yeah but you know a hell of a lot more jinxes than she does," James countered.
"And I didn't use any of those. For a reason."
"Can you two stop arguing like a married couple?" Remus interrupted. "I'm trying to listen." Both boys looked mildly ashamed by this comment and immediately fell silent and began scribbling notes of their own.
"I thought it was cool at the end. She blocks really good," Peter commented while scrawling away at his own lecture notes, and James, now that he had had time to cool down a bit, found himself agreeing with his friend's assessment.
Just as Sirius had claimed, Lily was not mad at all about the rather intense duel in which she had just participated.
Instead, she was enjoying a hushed congratulatory discussion with Marlene while both girls took notes on the rest of
the lecture. When the bell rang, she bid the blonde farewell in the corridor and waited beside the door for James and
his friends to leave the classroom.
"Ready to finish that potion of ours?" she asked James, falling into step beside him as he and Sirius walked
through the doorway. Since they were headed in the same direction and would be sharing the same cauldron for the next
hour and a half, it had become something of a habit over the past few weeks for Lily to walk to Potions with James.
"Long as Slughorn's not planning to give all that Veritaserum to Filch for student interrogations, then yeah," he answered, feeling that familiar thrill race down his spine as the object of his undying affections began walking down the corridor at his side. He had been over the moon the first time Lily had deigned to accompany him to Potions. The only way this new habit of hers could get any better was if he could hold her hand as they walked, but James realized that, for the moment at least, he would have to be content with just her conversation.
"Say, Evans," Sirius said, eager to change the topic to anything not involving Filch, "I think that dye jinx might actually have hit you. Your hair's starting to look kinda purple."
"What?" she exclaimed, pulling a lock of hair over her shoulder to inspect it. Seeing that her hair was still its usual copper color, she realized with relief that he was merely joking. Leaning around James to look at Sirius, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "Need me to spin some manners into you, Black?"
For half a second, he looked mildly nervous, as Lily's hand had begun to stray in the direction of her robes
pocket, but he quickly recovered himself.
"Now, now, Miss Evans, you wouldn't attack me with the Head Boy standing right there."
"Hate to break it to you, Padfoot," James interjected, grinning, "But the Head Boy wouldn't care. He'd actually rather like to see you fall on your arse again."
Lily began to giggle, and Sirius glared at his so-called best mate.
"Humph. You wouldn't be laughing about it if she'd tried it on you. Bloody nasty that one is. Where'd
you learn to jinx like that, Red? Have you been sneaking around hexing Slytherins all this time?"
Her cheeks flushed slightly at the praise and the insinuation, and Lily gave a little toss of her head as she replied, "Maybe I'm just naturally talented like that."
In light of what had just occurred in the Defense classroom, Sirius could not exactly deny this suggestion. He was
saved from having to invent a retort by their arrival at the door of the Potions classroom.
"Maybe," was all he said as he hurried over to the very pretty and also rather clever Ravenclaw witch who was
his current Potions partner.
"Poor Sirius doesn't know what to say," James commented as he and Lily took their seats behind their cauldron. "He's not used to losing duels."
"He didn't exactly lose. It was more of a draw," she countered.
"Well still," he asserted, smiling over at her. "It was pretty impressive. Really."
Lily leaned over to unpack her schoolbag in attempt to hide her blush.
"Thanks," she said, "It was kinda fun."
Since her back was turned to him, James took this brief opportunity to observe the endearing flush on her cheeks. Before she could turn around and catch him staring, he began setting out their scales and ingredients and asked, "So we're on... step fifty-one today, was it?" He fumbled in his bag for his Potions textbook, but Lily beat him to the punch.
"Yes. And there are only fifty-four steps in the whole thing," she said, scanning the appropriate page of her own book. "Oh but these last steps are kind of... complex."
Scooting closer on the bench to read over her shoulder, James flashed her a debonair grin.
"Nothing we can't handle."
"True," she agreed and set the open textbook on their worktable. "So! Let's begin. Step fifty-one
says to stir clockwise until the potion turns mint green and then, while still stirring, add exactly two point six
centigrams of Jabberknoll feather fluff."
Then, because James had bent down to light the fire underneath their cauldron, she added quickly, "Oh and!
We're supposed to complete this step while the potion is still cool."
He immediately stood up, grimacing apologetically.
"Right. Sorry. Are we keeping it cool the rest of the way?"
"Erm... Let's see," Lily responded, flipping the page to read the instructions for the remaining three steps. "We light it again for the last two steps."
James nodded and moved to the worktable to begin stripping their pile of Jabberknoll feathers of their fluff.
"D'you want to stir while I weight out the fluff and pour it in?"
"Sure," she said, picking up the long-handled wooden spoon from the table and stepping over to the cauldron, whose contents were currently a muddy brown color. For the next forty minutes, Lily and James worked in tandem. By the time the class period was halfway through, the contents of their cauldron had achieved the trademark odorless, colorless state of true Veritaserum.
"The last step's to add a dash of bicorn horn," James said. He fiddled through his potions kit to
retrieve the little vial of pearly blue powder and held it out to her.
"I'll let you do the honors."
Smiling, Lily took the vial from his hand and poured a little pile of the powder into the palm of her hand. With the
grace of an expert chef salting his soup, she held her hand over the cauldron and flicked the required dash of bicorn
horn into the potion. The contents fizzed and steamed for a few moments as the powder dissolved, then returned to their
former clear state. Lily leaned over the cauldron and sniffed experimentally, then her face broke into a proud
grin.
"We did it!" she said, beaming at James. Her eyes began to glimmer mischievously as she suggested, "Why
don't you swallow a sip of it, and we'll see if we really did it right."
"I didn't know you were so keen on learning all my deepest, darkest secrets, Lily," he said, smirking down at her.
She blushed prettily, but retorted, "Oh it's not for me. I merely thought Professor McGonagall might like to know where you were last Tuesday at lunch when that corridor suddenly became a forest."
James had the grace to look slightly ashamed, but his hazel eyes were twinkling as he shot back, "So you noticed my absence, did you? I'm touched."
At this point, their conversation was ended by the arrival of Professor Slughorn, who had begun making the rounds of
all the cauldrons in the classroom to inspect his students' progress. As usual, he began with his favorite student,
but this time there was an odd mixture of excitement and apprehension on his face as he strolled over to Lily and
James' cauldron. The Potions Master was facing something of a conundrum, as he would simultaneously have to inspect
the work of his favorite and least favorite students. His propensity to find fault with James was warring with his
instinct to praise James' partner. However, when he reached their cauldron, he was so delighted to find their
potion already finished (and looking and smelling as though it were perfectly brewed) that he forgot the minor grudge
he bore.
"Merlin's beard, I think you've done it!" he exclaimed. With a flick of his wand, he produced a ladle
out of thin air and dipped it into the cauldron so that he might better inspect its contents. Lifting the now-full
ladle to his nose, he sniffed it carefully and concluded, "Odorless and colorless, just as it should be. Of course
we can't actually test its quality, unless any of you want to start spilling your secrets to all your
classmates-" He paused and glanced around the room but, as he'd suspected, none of the seventh years
volunteered for the task. "-At any rate, this looks like a fine specimen of Veritaserum. Excellent work Miss
Evans, Mr. Potter. Full marks for both of you."
And as he turned to inspect the next cauldron, Slughorn smiled at Lily and James in turn, much to the latter's surprise. This unusual display of approval did not go unnoticed by Lily either. Once Slughorn was out of hearing distance, she leaned over to whisper in James' ear, "Looks like he doesn't hate you after all. Maybe you ought to partner with me every time. He can't seem to dislike you when you're in my vicinity."
ÒMaybe I should stick around, then,Ó he whispered back, a little thrill jolting through his stomach at the feeling of her breath on his ear.
To his delight, Lily shrugged in response and said, "Fine by me. I didn't know you were this good around a cauldron, and you're not nearly as bossy as Severus was."
James nearly fainted with joy. However, he managed to pull himself together, bolstered by the fact that she had just,
for the first time in his memory, favorably compared him to Snape. He shot her a grin, his eyes crinkling at the
corners.
"You've got it, then," he said. "Potter and Evans, the newest unstoppable Potions duo."
She laughed in appreciation of his verbal antics and stood up to begin packing away their supplies.
The pair of them continued chatting quietly and amiably throughout the rest of the lesson, as Professor Slughorn finished his rounds of the room. He then assumed his usual position behind his desk, and smoothed a tuft of his mustache that had grown unruly thanks to the copious amounts of steam drifting through the dungeon. Clearing his throat and lacing his fingers across his belly, he addressed the class.
"You all have received your marks based on the progress made in the last month. As this is a very complicated potion to brew, I expect you are all feeling quite capable as potioneers. But it's not enough to be able to simply dothe thing- you've got to understand the basic principles behind the act of potion-making. Any fool with a basic knowledge of how to read can follow an ingredients list, but it takes a real master to grasp how and why the different elements blend together. And so, in order to check that the lot of you, as my N.E.W.T. students, fully comprehend the complexities of that which you have just accomplished, I'd like you to write an essay for me. Two rolls of parchment, due on my desk on Monday, about the properties- both magical and mundane- of all the ingredients of Veritaserum, their application in this Potion, possible improper outcomes of incorrectly measured ingredients or a mismanaged process, and the advantages and disadvantages of the use of the potion itself."
A few in the class let out a groan. Professor Slughorn shook his head, undeterred by the lack of enthusiasm. "Now, see here!" he exclaimed. "As seventh years, you must embrace the oft-overwhelming nature of academia. I trust you all will accomplish this assignment with the professionalism and panache befitting Hogwart's finest. Now, off you go!"
Even Lily, who usually enjoyed Potions assignments, found two rolls of parchment to be a bit excessive, and she sighed
heavily as she and James left the classroom together.
"Two rolls of parchment, and we only get a week?" she protested, sagging against the corridor wall while they
waited for Sirius to join them. "I guess I know where I'll be tonight."
"The library?" James guessed, and she nodded in response.
"Surely you're not missing the feast," said Sirius, who had joined them in time to hear the tail end of the conversation.
"Oh.. well no," she answered, "But honestly, I think Muggles have a much better way of celebrating than Hogwarts does."
Sirius grimaced.
"What, the costumes thing? We saw pictures of that in Muggle Studies, Prongs and I. Don't see why your Muggle
blokes have to run round in tights and capes even if its just one night of the year."
Lily was momentarily confused by his reference, then she remembered one of the more popular male Halloween costumes of
her childhood and began to giggle.
"But Sirius, you'd make such a good Batman. Are you saying you couldn't pull it off?"
"Red, you're talking to the only bloke in this school who can make a cape and tights look sexy. Or manly," he answered, his expression entirely earnest.
"Oi! 'M right here, Padfoot," James interjected, feeling that his own masculinity had been somewhat slighted by Sirius' comment.
Lily giggled again.
"You could always go as Superman, James."
"Super who?" he queried, missing the reference entirely.
"Oh I know what this is," Sirius said, smirking down at the redhead beside him. "Youuu just want to see what we look like in tights."
"Do not!" she protested immediately, a rosy flush staining her cheeks. A few beats later, she added saucily, "At least.. I don't want to see your giant bum in a pair of tights."
This joking statement produced polar opposite reactions in the boys as they accompanied her through the doors of the
Great Hall. James' eyes widened, then he smirked proudly across Lily's head at Sirius, having chosen to take
her jest as an actual compliment. Sirius, on the other hand, looked affronted.
"My arse is not fat!" he exclaimed, which caused Lily to burst into giggles again.
"I'm just teasing. Honestly, Sirius, you're as vain as a girl."
"And prettier than most of them too," he responded cheerily, turning his head to wink at her as he took a seat between Remus and Peter at the Gryffindor table.
Rather than argue with this statement, Lily merely rolled her eyes and sat across from him. James nabbed the seat beside her and helped himself to a glass of pumpkin juice while Peter looked up from his plate of cottage pie and asked, "How was Potions today?"
"Good," the Head Boy replied as he began to load his own plate with cottage pie. "We finally finished the Veritaserum."
"And James finally got a smile from Professor Slughorn," Lily added.
"He did?" asked Remus rather incredulously. "So he's finally gotten over the crystallized pineapple prank?"
"Nah," Sirius answered around the bite of bread in his mouth. "He was probably just too busy bowing at Evans' feet to even notice ol' Prongs was there."
"You're horrible," she informed him, then joined in the good-natured laughter of the little group.
Their conversation drifted from discussing classes to bemoaning their homework loads to making predictions for the upcoming Quidditch season. James was so engrossed in listing all the reasons why Gryffindor would most certainly flatten Hufflepuff this Saturday that he didn't notice a gray eagle owl soar through the open window near the ceiling of the Great Hall and wing its way towards him. In fact, he didn't notice Icarus' arrival until the owl had dropped a letter on his head. Wincing, he picked up the envelope from where it had fallen on the table beside his glass and turned it over. His expression morphed into a happy smile as he recognized his mother's handwriting, and he quickly tore open the envelope to begin reading the letter inside.
His happiness was quickly tainted by the fact that for the third time this term, James' mum had addressed him by either the wrong name or included some gravely misspelled word. James had laughed initially at his mum's calling him by his late aunt's name. And yet, as the letters continued, James noticed more and more simple errors. Though not much of a grammatical aficionado himself, it was impossible to deny that something was definitely amiss. His mother was no dunce; Marla Potter had gained a subtle notoriety as an herbalist in the town in which she lived with her husband and son. She had homeschooled James through his primary years, as no Muggle school ought to have had to deal with the borderline hyperactive little boy. James had always known his mother was extremely intelligent, so it was odd to see her make such flagrant errors.
Dearest Janie;
I hope you are having a good term. Your father and I were pleased to hear from you when you wrote us earlier this week. You said Potions class is going well? We are, of course, delighted, as that seems to have been a subject in which you struggled in years past. We are so very proud of you, and I hope you know that. I had a chance to meet with Betsy Evans for tea, and we had a lovely chat and lots of crumpets! Do pass my "hello" on to her charming daughter, won't you?
James glanced up at Lily, a smile tipping one corner of his mouth, despite the fact that he had yet again been referred to by the incorrect name. It would be a bit awkward for him to actually pass along the message. How would he phrase it in a way that didn't come off as overly obsessive? He returned to the letter, deciding he would sort that out later. They had been on especially good terms this past week- it would be a shame to muck that all up for the sake of a greeting from his mother.
Anyway, I was pleased to hear that training is going well. Thank you for replying so speedily to my last letter!
Your workload I can't believe you're already a sixth year-
"Hang on," James said, reading the line again.
Remus looked over, eyebrows raised. "Everything alright, mate?" he asked, reaching for his goblet of pumpkin juice.
James blinked hard and shook his head. "It's... nothing. Just, my mum's a bit off her nut, or something. She's..." he forced a laugh, though something seemed very off indeed. "She's called me a sixth year."
Remus blinked. "That's odd. Maybe she got distracted, or something," he said, unsure of how to cover for Marla's misstep.
"Well, it's not as if shes got another kid to confuse me with," James said, turning his attention back
to the letter, a sensation of unease growing in the pit of his stomach.
-And before you know it, it'll be your last term and you'll be studying for NEWTs and thinking about
post-Hogwarts placement. Keep up with your studies now, and you'll eliminate stress later on.
Do try and stay out of trouble, my dear. Although, I will admit the post's been a bit lonesome without all the disciplinary notices from school.
I already can't wait to see you at Christmas! Let my other boys know they're always welcome to come round and stay with us for the holidays.
All my love,
Mum
"Well..." James said, pocketing the letter. "You're all invited for Christmas. Means you too,
Evans," he grinned, hoping the use of her surname would highlight the fact that he was only joking. "Anyway,
I've just remembered I left my essay upstairs. See you in class!" It was a lie; James' Charms essay was
securely stowed in his schoolbag. However, he wanted a chance to read over his mother's letter once more. Perhaps,
on his own and away from all the noisy distraction of the Great Hall at lunchtime, he would discover that he had
misread. It was a funny thing, really. How could a mother of an only child forget something as simple as his year in
school? His stomach growled, and he made a mental note to pop by the Kitchens after class to pick up some of the
cottage pie that had been served in the Great Hall. It was nothing, he thought as he climbed the steps,
surely...
Back in the Great Hall, the boys watched the back of their speedily retreating best mate. James had left in such a hurry that none of them had had time for so much as a "see you later," and now they were all left staring at one another in a bit of confusion.
"He's been a bit odd about receiving letters from her lately," observed Peter, reaching for the butter for his bread and finally breaking the silence.
"Well I imagine it's a bit disconcerting to have your mum write something like that," Lily chimed in. "I guess this is just.. part of growing old?"
"How old isshe, then?" asked Sirius. "Don't think I've ever asked him. I mean, she isn't decrepit or anything."
"Sirius! What a thing to say," Lily exclaimed, looking slightly scandalized.
"Oh lighten up, Red. I didn't mean it like that," he said. And he really hadn't. Sirius was rather fond of both Marla and Charlus Potter, as they had often extended him an open invite to stay at their home when things at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place go a bit too heavy to handle, and he, too, was perplexed and a bit worried by all the weird mistakes his erstwhile mother had been making in her letters of late.
"I'm sure she's fine. Maybe she's had a lot on her mind of late," said Remus. Then, feeling a change of subject was in order, he said, "I think I'll try to stop by over the holiday. I'm assuming you'll be there the whole time, Sirius?"
The black-haired fellow nodded in response. "Of course. What about you, Pete?"
Peter's reply was quick, "Of course. At least for a couple days. You really should visit, Lily. We always have loads of fun."
"Oh er.. we'll see," was her vague reply. As new as she and James' friendship was, she found it hard to believe that his Mum had really included her in the invitation to visit over Christmas. But it was a nice gesture, despite the fact that she had no idea what on earth she would do if she actually did venture to the Potters' home.
The group of them were joined by Marlene and Mary only a few moments later, and Lily had no more time to wonder what visiting the Potters would be like. Mary had apparently walked in on an extremely heated snogging session in an corner between Greenhouses Five and Six on her way back up from Care of Magical Creatures, and soon recounted the entire dramatic affair for the table. Within a few moments, worries about James' mum had drifted to the back of everyone's mind, and the group was lost to pleasant chatting and nice food until the bell reminded them they ought to hurry off to Charms class.