Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Chapter 17: Complications

Life at Hogwarts really falls into the school year routine as October breezes in, crisp and golden, and I barely have time to feel guilty about demoting 'James my friend' to 'Potter my professional acquaintance'.

For one, none of our professors will let us forget this is our final year of school and that our NEWTs at the end of the year will have a huge effect on our professional aspirations after Hogwarts.

"If any of you wish to amount to anything in your next few years, you will have to step up your effort!" McGonagall lectures us one Friday after a particularly disastrous week of trying to learn Self-disguising Spells.

They – the professors, that is – also seem to be on the same page about class projects. Slughorn pairs Sev and I together to research and present on the pros and cons of Memory Potions. Meanwhile, Alice and I are entrenched in our lengthy Ancient Runes project with Angela Stoker, and Em informs us that Professor Vector has been hinting heavily they have something big coming in Arithmancy too.

When I'm not in class, doing homework, or meeting with my study groups, I'm wrapped up in Head duties – prefect meetings, evening rounds, tallying points, tutoring Timothy. I don't forget my and Potter's additional hush-hush assignment from Dumbledore to keep an eye out for trouble, but I'm so busy I don't have time to go racing across the school grounds to track down Rosier and Lestrange, and I haven't seen anyone else acting Dark. Plus, Sev and I finally feel like friends again since we're spending time together outside of class working on our Potions project, and I feel confident he'd let me know if there was something going on I should know about. We have the same free period at the end of the day Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and we've taken to spending it the Great Hall, working and talking and congratulating ourselves on always being the first to dinner.

Meanwhile, in tutoring, Potter bravely agrees to take on human Transfiguration with me. But while Severus and I are getting along better than ever, mine and Potter's friendship has stalled. We get our tutoring sessions in and are model Head students, but not much beyond that. I'm sticking to my resolve that nothing more is going to happen between Potter and me, and to be sure of that, I keep things very professional between us: no excessive laughing, no teasing, no heart-to-heart talks, nothing. I used our first tutoring session of October to set this new tone. I'd arrived in the library right on time, per usual, sat down in my seat across from him, taking out my wand and leaving my textbook in my bag. "Teach me human Transfiguration," I'd said. That was the day McGonagall had told us we'd be starting disguises the next week and I knew I was at a woefully poor skill level to begin.

"And what do I get for subjecting myself to that immense of a task?" Potter teased. "I might come out of this permanently disfigured. I don't think my Quidditch career could take it if I lost an arm."

I swallowed the impulse to tease right back that I didn't think anyone would be able to tell the difference (or, Merlin forbid, let slip that, one-armed or worse, I'm sure he'd still be very handsome), and just said, all business-like, "Please, Potter, this is a skill I need to learn."

His smile slipped just a little, and he nodded. "Okay."

We worked hard for the next hour and a half, but at 9:30 pm sharp, I stood. "Thanks for the help, Potter, but I have some schoolwork I really need to work on."

"Oh," he said, clearly taken aback by my abrupt end to the lesson. Then he recovered, stood too, slinging his schoolbag over his shoulder and smiling. "Me too. I'll walk with you back to Gryffindor tower."

But I'd anticipated this. "Thanks, but I have a couple books to check out." I smile at him, all innocence and politeness. "You don't need to wait up for me." Sorry, Potter.