Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Lily and James or any other characters you may recognize throughout this story. I also don't own the wizarding world or basically anything else you recognize from the Harry Potter series. That all belongs to the wonderful goddess of writing, J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me!
A/N: *Clears throat* This story is dedicated to Courtney AKA chprincess, who figured out one of my 'spot the character challenges' over in my other story *shameless plug alert* "Growing Up Flower Twins." The plot bunny she came up with couldn't really be used in my story, so here it is. The characters in this story are all how they are in "Flower Twins" except for three small changes, there is no Petunia, Lily is a muggleborn like in the original stories, and Snape is more canon, i.e. he's a big meanie! But here's a basic rundown of the characters and relationships. Oh this takes place sometime early on in their fifth year.
Lily Evans: All around nice girl, but has a bad temper. Can't really stand James Potter (but actually likes him, she just doesn't know it) and Sirius Black. Tolerates Peter Pettigrew, and likes (not in that way) Remus Lupin. Best friends with Alice Johnson and Amelia Bones. Gryffindor.
James Potter: Nice guy, but kind of arrogant. Has a crush on Lily. Best friends with Sirius. Close friends with Remus and Peter. Hates Severus Snape. Gryffindor.
Sirius Black: Nice guy; big trouble maker. Possibly hates Severus more than James does. Best friends with James, close friends with Remus and Peter. Gryffindor.
Remus Lupin: Very nice guy, more of the serious type, and doesn't like breaking the rules. Likes Amelia Johnson. Werewolf. Friends with James, Sirius, and Peter. Gryffindor.
Peter Pettigrew: Kind of childish, but nice guy (he wasn't always evil people!). Looks up to his friends James, Sirius, and Remus. Gryffindor.
Alice Johnson: Very sweet and caring girl, always happy. Best friends with Lily and Amelia. Is dating Frank Longbottom (who is two years older and therefore not on this trip.) Gryffindor.
Amelia Bones: Kind of serious, but ultimately nice girl. A rule-follower. Kind of boy crazy. Is dating Mundungus Fletcher, but likes Remus Lupin, and has liked in the past Joey Stebbins (who is in my other story but was eliminated from this one because he creates an odd number). Gryffindor.
Severus Snape: While not as sweet as he is in my other story, isn't quite as mean as in canon. He's in a transition period. Hates James and Sirius. Not a big fan of Remus and Peter. Is sometimes nice to Lily. Slytherin
Rabastan Lestrange: Big, big meanie. Future death eater and all around bad guy. Slytherin.
Mundungus Fletcher: Thief. Parents died at the hands of the death eaters. Dating Amelia Bones. Funny, but is definitely a rule breaker. Hufflepuff.
So there are obviously more students in the fifth year of Hogwarts than this, but these are the ones that have been mentioned in my story, and they are all canon. Even Stebbins, he's mentioned briefly in book 5, look it up! :p
Anyway, the challenge issued to me was to send all of the students in this year on a camping trip and have them do "get to know each other" games and to pair Lily and James together. Well, you should learn to never give me a challenge like this, because now I'm making a whole little mini-series out of it. There will be a chapter dedicated to each pair, after this introductory chapter! Mwa ha ha ha ha! Never issue me a challenge, NEVER! Okay, I'm better now. Oh and I apologize for not having any Ravenclaws. There ARE Ravenclaws in my story, just not this year.
Anyway, now that the insanely long author notes and introduction is out of the way. Let the story begin.
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Chapter 1: Character Introductions and Pairing Up
Professor Dumbledore stood up in front of his students and cleared his throat. The students gazed up at him with somber expressions. It broke his heart to see them all so sad. Voldemort had swept through the school like a plague. Many students had lost loved ones, and those who hadn't still had friends who had. The students rarely smiled anymore and all the older wizard wanted was to see joy in his students' expressions again.
This is why he had come up with one of is world-renowned brilliant ideas.
"Students. It is my great pleasure to announce that Hogwarts will be having camping trips for the next seven weekends to promote school unity and to just give the students something fun to do. Each weekend a different year of students will go. And if Professor McGonagall would be so kind as to bring the . . . " Professor Dumbledore trailed off looking at the Transfiguration professor.
She jumped up and exited a small door to the right of the professors' table. She then returned with a small wooden cup, which was dancing with blue-white flames. All of the students stared at it, amazed by it's beauty.
"There are seven pieces of paper in this cup, each with a year on it, and any moment now it will spit out our first weekend's participants . . . " Dumbledore was interrupted by a piece of paper flying out of the goblet, which the old professor caught in his hands. He smiled and said, "This weekend, the fifth year students will be going on the trip."
At the Gryffindor table Lily Evans groaned to her friend Alice Johnson, "We would have to go first. Honestly, school unity? Like I want to be united with people like him."
Alice looked to see her friend jerking her head towards James Potter, who seemed to be in a similar conversation with Sirius Black, only they were both looking towards the Slytherin table, at Severus Snape whom they loathed. They also seemed to be glaring at Rabastan Lestrange, who, in Lily's opinion, was far worse than Severus.
"Oh, it doesn't seem so bad Lily. It's always nice to have a chance to make new friends. I'll just be sad to be away from Frank for a whole weekend," Alice said sweetly, smiling at her boyfriend Frank.
Amelia Bones tried her best not to gag. "Honestly Alice. It's two days. You won't die."
"Easy for you to say, your boyfriend is coming along," Alice said nodding in Mundungus Fletcher's direction over at the Hufflepuff table.
"Not to mention another certain someone," Lily grinned slyly, glancing down their table at Remus Lupin who was laughing with Peter Pettigrew.
Amelia blushed and said, "Honestly Lily, I don't like him anymore. He's a sweet guy, but he always sends mixed signals."
"Yeah, well I'm just glad I don't have to deal with guys. I won't have to worry about leaving boyfriends behind or dealing with current boyfriends and crushes, because I am crush and boyfriend free," Lily said proudly, drawing herself up to her full, seated, height.
"Yeah, sure, Lily. We believe that," Alice said, snickering with Amelia.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily said glaring at her friends.
"It means, you so like James, you'll just never admit it," Amelia said, ducking instinctively as Lily threw her spoon at her.
"I do NOT like him," Lily said a little too loudly as the rest of the Gryffindor table turned to look at her.
"You don't like who Evans?" James called from down the table, smiling while running his hand through his hair.
"No one Potter, mind your own business!" Lily said, this time keeping her voice at a more acceptable level.
James shrugged and went back to eating his meal.
Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes. She turned to her friends and said, "Well hopefully we'll be doing a lot of large group activities and I won't have to deal with him."
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"Lily Evans and James Potter. You two will be partners for the weekend," Professor McGonagall called out drawing two more pieces of paper out of the goblet of fire.
Lily stood open-mouthed, staring at her Professor.
"But . . . but . . . you can't be serious Professor!" Lily said, trying her best to keep her bag steady on her shoulder.
"Well I am serious Ms. Evans, now will you please find your partner and move to the side."
Lily glared at her professor as soon as she turned her back and struggled with her bag trying to find James.
When McGonagall had brought out the goblet and said it would be magically pairing students up, she had prayed that she wouldn't be paired with James. Apparently the higher beings had a sense of humor.
She listened as Peter and Mundungus were paired together and began to snicker. Peter was a favorite target for Dung's thievery, because he never seemed to realize he was being robbed.
Lily spotted James talking to Remus and started making her way over to him. She could not believe how many students were in her way. It had never seemed like there were that many people in her year before.
Professor McGonagall called out another two names pairing Remus and Amelia together, and she couldn't help but smile at the grin that appeared on Remus' face. Though she couldn't imagine Dung would be very happy with the pairing.
James finally noticed Lily and began making his way towards her as Alice and Rabastan were paired together. Lily cringed. She couldn't imagine Alice, one of the sweetest girls in the world, being paired with that jerk.
"So I guess we're paired together, huh Evans?" James said as he reached Lily.
"Yeah," Lily said with her lips pursed tightly, "I can't imagine a more unlucky pairing."
"Oh I don't know," James said, suddenly helping Lily with her bag which she had been struggling with, much to her surprise, "Things could be worse."
"How?" Lily said as McGonagall called out Sirius' and Severus' names, which was met by very loud shouts of protest.
"We could be them," James said grinning.
Lily looked over at the two dark haired boys and couldn't decide who looked angrier.
"True, very true," Lily said, laughing.
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A/N: Well? Now normally I don't write stories like this. You know, wizards and witches doing muggle things, but a challenge is a challenge and this sounded like fun. Plus I kind of could imagine Dumbledore coming up with something strange like this to promote unity. Anyway, if you haven't figured it out, I'm going to have a chapter for each pair. I haven't decided if I want to just do James and Lily first or save them for last. So in your reviews tell me which pair you'd like to see first. Anyway, I hope you all like this. It's a nice little break from my other story, which don't worry, I am still working on!