Disclaimer: Is anyone really stupid enough to believe, even for a split second, that this story was written by J.K. Rowling? Seriously? Well, then you all are stupider than I thought. No, really. I'm just your regular nerdy teenager, not the freakishly amazing billionaire-that's-richer-than-the-Queen to whom we're all so eternally grateful. Duh!

Hi everyone! This is just a little experiment of mine... something I worked on when I lost the vibe for my main story, "The Core of Power: Soul Connection". As those of you who have read that story will know, I got the vibe for it back recently and updated. That's still my main fanfiction priority; this is just an aside. Just a warning, it may not be updated regularly or anything. But I thought someone might like to read it anyway, so I decided to post it so it didn't just loiter pointlessly around in my Microsoft Word files, devoid of any purpose.

And for those of you who have no idea what that little rant about some story you've never heard of - those of you who stumbled across this story under the James/Lily pairing and think I'm an idiot for wasting space with this bold print and just want to get on with the story, go ahead. Be m guest. Read on, my happy little... uh, readers.

Prologue

Lily Evans paced out the front of the secret entrance to the Room of Requirement; back and forth three times, all the while focusing on what kind of a Room she wanted. Quite unusually, she had nothing to do. It was only the beginning of the year, so she didn't want to study too much just yet. It would do her no good if her brain exploded before the year was half-over, would it? All her homework was done, all her Head duties taken care of, and she was bored out of her brain.

A nondescript brown door popped into existence; Lily stepped forward and opened it quickly after checking once again that no-one was around. The Room she entered wasn't quite what she had been expecting. She'd asked for something interesting to do, and had anticipated some sort of device that would fulfill that desire, like, say, a wizarding stereo. She'd even expected a Muggle TV and VCR; it would have been nice to watch a video again, like Grease. She liked that movie.

Instead, she found herself facing disappointment. The Room before her contained an armchair, a fireplace and a small, round coffee table. The room was very small, and the only sign of anything time-consuming were the seven books stacked upon the coffee table.

Great, she thought. The magical world seems to be rather behind-the-times, doesn't it? I ask for something to do, and they provide me with books. Books! And I bet they aren't even good books! Haven't wizards ever heard of fiction? She used to like reading as a child. Reading was brilliant; it could take you to so many different worlds, catapulting you into lives more interesting than your own. But reading in the magical world wasn't nearly as appealing. When Lily had scoped out the Hogwarts Library as a first-year, she had first been quite excited at the library's sheer size, and her appetite for a good book to devour was swiftly whetted. But she had been sorely disappointed, for there wasn't a fiction novel in sight. All the books focused on spells ranging in complexity and deciphering the meaning of magic and even the so-called "abnormal" Muggle world and all the ways they got by without magic. None of these things interested Lily. She had never liked science, the study of what is. She much preferred looking at what could be.

Nevertheless, Lily was so bored that she at least wanted to see why exactly the Room had deemed these books as something that may interest her. So she walked over to the stack of books, picked up the first one, and settled onto the armchair.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was emblazoned across the book's thin cover. The name of the author – "J.K. Rowling" – was written below it, in smaller writing. The picture was of a boy standing beside the Hogwarts Express, and the boy, despite being only a juvenile drawing, looked so much like James Potter that Lily's heart skipped a beat.

James Potter was quite the character; a roguish prankster, he was full of charm, quick wit, and borderline foolish bravery… not to mention arrogance. He'd also doggedly stalked Lily for the past four years, asking her out every time she wasn't screaming at him and sometimes even when she was. She'd been one of the main targets of his ridiculous pranks for a long, long time and it never failed to irritate her to no end.

The fact that Lily had had a nagging crush on him since before he'd started this stupid behavior only fuelled Lily's anger. She hated the fact that she couldn't help her attraction to him even while he was being downright cruel to her and others through his notorious pranks. She was angry at herself for being so helpless, and that anger at herself translated into anger at James.

This year, however, he was different. He was the Head Boy whilst she was the head Girl, and he was actually being quite nice to her. Add to that the lack of cruelty in his pranking, and his behavior was actually quite bewildering.

Pushing these thoughts out of her mind, Lily flipped this odd book over in her hands. A white-bearded wizard with a suspicious likeness to Dumbledore stood next to a small blurb:

Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy – until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The Reason: HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!

Well, that was odd. This Harry Potter must be Muggle-born, and the book would have to be Muggle to act as though being a wizard wasn't ordinary. The reviews for the book, written underneath the blurb, were also all from Muggle newspapers. But if that were the case, then how did Harry Potter look so much like a wizard of the same last name? And how did a Muggle author know anything about the wizarding world? He or she had mentioned Hogwarts, and Quidditch! Or if they were a wizard, which would explain a lot, then how did they release such a potentially dangerous book without the Ministry finding out? It would break the Statute of Secrecy!

Lily wondered how old this book was. If it had been published recently, wouldn't she have heard of it by now? If nothing else, her parents would have let her know if they'd seen a book about someone from their daughter's world… wouldn't they? But if it was old, then surely the Ministry would have heard about it by now. She decided to check the publication date.

She began flicking through the pages at the start of the book. You'd think one title page would be enough, she grumbled to herself. She felt a prickle of unease as she saw the picture on the title pages; Hogwarts' crest.

And there it was, a couple of pages in. The publication date was written clear as day, but Lily still couldn't believe her eyes. First published in Great Britain in 1997.

WHAT?! No. No, no, no. This wasn't possible… was it? Just how powerful was the Room of Requirement? But it was right. A book from the future was much more interesting than a boring TV!

Heart pounding, Lily snatched up the next book in the stack; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The cover featured an airborne blue car, inside which sat that boy who looked so much like James and another boy, this one with hair that, much like her own, was shockingly red. Between the two boys sat a regal-looking white owl with its wings spread. The back cover sported a picture of Hogwarts.

The next book was much the same; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sported a Hippogriff, upon which sat this "Harry Potter" person and a scared-looking brunette girl. And on the back… was that a Grim?

The three books slid from Lily's shaking hands and fell to the floor with a thunk that rang with finality. Lily pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. What was going on?

Before she could talk herself out of it, Lily scooped up the first book from the floor, hastily rifling to the first page. And again, she found herself shocked. Hell, the first four words of the chapter nearly gave her a heart attack.

Dursley? What were her sister and brother-in-law doing in a book that involved magic? They'd made it quite clear that they wanted nothing to do with Lily and her kind.

She snapped the book shut. There was something fishy going on here, and she wanted to find out what. No, she was going to find out what.

So before her common sense stopped her, before considering the consequences, hell… before even thinking about anything… she set off to find James.

* * *

She found the object of her search – and her affections – laughing boisterously by the fire with two of his three closest friends in the Gryffindor common room. Swallowing hard, she clutched the bright red book she was holding to her small chest and walked forward slowly. She wasn't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing.

James' best friend, Sirius Black, saw her approaching first. "Ah, Evans," he announced jovially. "What brings you to this part of the common room?" Unlike James, Sirius did not seem to have outgrown the stage of calling her by her last name – or being an idiot in general.

Lily rolled her eyes. Remus Lupin, another one of James' closest friends, stifled a snort at her gesture with obvious difficulty. Of all James' friends, Remus was the only one other than the newly reformed James himself that Lily could tolerate. He had been her fellow Gryffindor Prefect in fifth and sixth year, and continued on as the seventh-year Prefect this year. Away from his friends, he was actually fairly good company, and unlike them, he could hold his own in intelligent conversation – this was more than she could say for Sirius and James' other friend, Peter Pettigrew.

Blatantly ignoring Sirius and acknowledging Remus with a polite nod, Lily turned to James. The mixture of attentiveness and curiosity that showed on his face made Lily's heart accelerate and her throat go dry. Why did he have this effect over her? Why? Surely it wasn't fair… had she been horrible in a past life or something?

"James," she said, struggling to keep her voice even as she fought the urge to throw herself at him and kiss him madly. "Can I talk to you about something?" Her throat still felt impossibly dry; she swallowed discreetly in a futile attempt to moisten it.

James' brow creased. "Shoot." He looked to be at a loss for what she'd want to talk to him about, but smiled at her nevertheless. The hands that clutched onto that stupid little red book like a lifeline went clammy, and Lily swallowed again.

"Not here," she said exasperatedly. She hadn't intended to sound so patronizing; it was clearly not his fault that he didn't know that she wanted to talk to him in private. Nevertheless, her exasperation at herself for being so helpless shone through in her voice. She could have kicked herself, it was so ridiculous. "In… in private." It sounded sort of lame… and pathetic. Oh, well, it was too late to take back her words now.

"Is it about Head duties?" James seemed to have no idea what she would have to discuss with him, which was perfectly understandable. "I thought we'd sorted everything out at the Prefect meeting last night."

"We did," Lily said, sighing. "This isn't about Head duties." Her voice was strained, and she sounded stressed. She probably looked it too. "Look… can you just come with me for a second?"

James looked no less bewildered than he had five seconds ago; in fact, he was probably more bewildered. Despite that, he shrugged and rose to his feet. "Alright, then." He started walking in the direction of the portrait hole, but then stopped and swiveled around to look back at Sirius and Remus. "What about those guys? Can they come?"

Lily frowned. Could she tell them? They were James' best friends, after all, and no doubt he'd tell them anyway. It was friendships like that that made Lily ache for a best friend, or close friends; ones to which she could divulge anything and everything. As it was, the closest friend she had was Alice Nightingale – now Longbottom. She had graduated from Hogwarts the previous year, and was small but stocky and very blonde. She, too, didn't have any other close girlfriends, but that hardly mattered for a girl who knew who she was going to marry from the word go. Alice and Frank Longbottom – now a married couple – had been inseparable since first meeting on the Hogwarts Express as little firsties, and had married straight out of Hogwarts. Lily still kept up a fairly regular correspondence with the little blonde and her husband, but their letters were awkward and strained at best.

Marlene McKinnon was another friend of Lily's though she was probably more acquaintance than friend. The sixth-year Ravenclaw Prefect had close friends of her own, and the difference in both year and house made it rare for the two to see each other all that often. Associating with people from different houses was something that was heavily downtrodden upon by both the students and most of the staff. Lily frowned upon this; not only was it completely without reason, but the lack of inter-house unity at Hogwarts was downright dangerous now of all times, with Voldemort on the rise. Lily frowned again… hadn't Snape been her friend once? Her very best friend? But the Slytherins were estranged greatly by the rest of the student population, and this had resulted in Snape and Lily slowly drifting apart. The influence of some of Snape's housemates had eventually caused Snape to 'accidentally' call her a Mudblood. He'd apologized later, but that had cemented it for her. He wasn't the same boy she'd met seven years ago, the mostly sweet and somewhat shy boy who had first introduced Lily to the world of magic. She couldn't be friends with the new Severus Snape. He was too cruel, crueler even than James and his friends had been in the years before this one.

Lily was pulled abruptly from her funk of reminiscence by James' soft utterance of her name. She blinked, shook her head a few times to clear it and then James' face came back into view, his warm brown eyes gazing concernedly at her from behind those familiar, black-rimmed circular glasses. Her heart gave a huge sputter, and she cursed it vehemently in her head.

"Um…" she murmured. "Yeah, I guess so, just… can I show you something first?"

James' brow furrowed. "Uh, I guess so," he said. Turning back to his friends, he said, "I'll see you guys later." Then he turned back and continued walking in the direction of the portrait hole.

Lily half-skipped after him, lengthening her strides so as to keep up and not fall behind. James slowed down a bit once they exited the common room, and when they were out of earshot of any passersby, he pulled her into a little stone alcove. "Okay, what's up?" he asked, curiosity emanating through his deep baritone voice. Even his voice is sexy, Lily thought to herself. Huh? Where did that come from? In her mind, James was certainly quite beautiful, but she had never thought of him as sexy before… though, in truth, it was surprising that she hadn't. He wasn't tall, exactly, though in comparison to Lily's own diminutive height, he was a giant. His shoulders were broad, his body defined and muscular – this baffled Lily, as she couldn't quite see how sitting on a broom and manoeuvering it around could develop many muscles. His warm brown eyes were mesmerizing behind those memorable round glasses – which, now she thought about it, were identical to those worn by that Harry Potter kid from the freaky future books. His hair was jet black and notoriously messy even when he wasn't indulging in his habit of running his fingers through it flirtatiously. His skin was still pale despite the fact that his near-constant exposure to sunlight should rightfully have rewarded him with a spectacular tan… the fact that Lily had always been attracted to dark-haired, fair-skinned men must merely have been coincidence… His features, like nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, etc., would have been unremarkable to other girls but were particularly good-looking to Lily… the reason for this had Lily stumped.

"Lily?" Again, James roused her from her funk by softly saying her name. She blinked. "Oh… um, there was something I wanted to show you somewhere else…" she muttered lamely. "C'mon. Follow me." He did so willingly as she turned abruptly and started to walk in the direction of the seventh-floor corridor. Several paces behind her, James trailed along, clearly perplexed but trusting her nevertheless.

Finally, Lily's wayward path led the unlikely coupling to that particular stretch of wall of which she was so fond. She crossed its path, back and forth, once; turning on her heel, she did so again, and then pivoted for the third crossing. All the while, she chanted the mantra I need a room that has something in it to keep me entertained over and over within the recesses of her mind. A small brown door materialized in front of them, and Lily stepped forward to twist the doorknob. Swinging the door open, she stepped inside and then turned to beckon James in behind her.

James didn't seem to surprised; in fact, the only thing that gave him away was his quiet mutter, "How come we hadn't found this yet?"

"Didn't you know this was here?" she asked, the smile present in her voice. She restrained the urge to giggle. Well, well, well. The great James Potter and his friends haven't already discovered every nook and cranny in this castle after all.

"Nope. But it's not as if it's that special. It's just a hidden room." He said this defensively, seeming embarrassed that Lily had heard the mutter intended solely for himself.

This time Lily really did laugh. Oh, the poor, naïve soul, she thought to herself. Out loud, she said, "Ah, but that's where you're wrong. The Room of Requirement is as far from ordinary as you can get. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say it is… extraordinary." Her voice sounded both imperious and mysterious – an effect which had been unintentional but was still highly appropriate. She grinned. "It'd be one of the Seven Wonders of Hogwarts."

The joke was, of course, lost on a pureblood wizard. "Really? Then what does it do?" he challenged.

"The Room of Requirement, as its name suggests, is a room which changes according to what you require. For example, if you were in dire need of a bathroom – " James snorted with laughter " – or you wanted a room filled with practice dummies and spellbooks if you wanted to practice dueling. There are also endless other uses…" she trailed off. James was staring at her as if she were some sort of deity, and while it was flattering, it also made her a little uneasy. She frowned and continued. "It has its limits, of course. So far I've been able to discern that it can't create food. And it can imitate people, but they wouldn't be the real thing, obviously."

James finally managed to find his voice. "How did you find it?" he gasped, nearly reverent.

"I was angry at something in fifth year, and I was pacing. It's a nervous habit of mine… and I found this place. To use it, you see, you have to pace in front of that wall out there three times over, all the while thinking of what kind of room you want. Coincidentally, I was pacing outside that particular stretch of wall. Funny, huh?" She hoped that would be a sufficient enough explanation, and that he wouldn't enquire about what it was that had made her angry. She didn't want that can of worms to be opened up again.

James nodded and, to Lily's relief, seemed to accept the explanation. "Hang on…" he said, and Lily's heart sank. Please don't ask why I was angry… please don't ask why I was angry… please don't ask why I was angry… "If you found this place in fifth year, how come you're only showing it to me now?" Relieved, Lily opened her mouth to answer, but James hastily continued speaking. "I mean, I know we weren't friends back then, but you could have told me about it any time this year now that we are friends. And what had you so worked up? How come Sirius and Remus couldn't come see? How – " Lily cut across him before he could ask any more irrelevant questions.

"That wasn't what I was going to show you," she said quietly. Meanwhile, her mind – not to mention her heart – was racing.

Friends. James couldn't know how much that careless comment could mean to Lily. To finally be referred to as a friend by someone other than Alice or – Lily didn't let herself think the name of her former best friend again – it was an amazing feeling. And the fact that it was James who had said it made the feeling all the more special.

"Lily?" For the third time in less than an hour, James had to call Lily out of a distracted reverie

"Oh! Sorry, I'm not really with it today, as you can probably see…" Her voice was highly strung and about an octave higher than usual. She hoped James wouldn't notice. "No, no, the Room wasn't what I was going to show you."

"What were you going to show me then?" Lily was surprised by his enduring patience. If she were in James' place right now, her fiery temper would have gotten the best of her long before this.

"This," Lily said, holding out the little red book. James gave her an odd look, as if to say, 'Why couldn't you have shown me this back in the alcove?', and took the book from her hands. His fingers brushed hers, sending an electric current through her at the contact.

"Hey!" James said. "Potter! That's my last name!"

"No shit, Sherlock," Lily said, rolling her eyes. James gave her another odd look. Oh, right. That's a Muggle expression.

"And the kid looks like me too," James mused under his breath. "'Cept he's got green eyes. I like green eyes, they're pretty."

He likes green eyes? Lily thought. I have green eyes! She tried to ignore the thrill of pleasure that went through her when she realized that James might think her eyes were pretty. It was ridiculous – he'd been chasing after her, flirting frivolously with her everywhere she turned and experimenting with dodgy pick-up lines whenever he got the opportunity – he'd been doing all these things for years and she still felt delighted at him saying in a roundabout way that he liked her eyes? She shook her head. Did he have to mock her like that? Although… this sneaky little comment about her eyes had seemed more genuine than anything else he'd said. And by the looks of it, he hadn't even intended for her to hear…

She glanced over at him. He was staring intently at the front cover of the book, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Read the blurb," she suggested.

James nodded absently, flipping the book over… "Hey! That looks like Dumbledore!" was his first reaction, upon his first glimpse of the back cover. He then proceeded to read the blurb. The furrow in his brow deepened, and he looked up at her. "Huh?" You could practically see the cogs turning in his brain as he worked through it the same way Lily had.

"Now look at the publication date," Lily said.

"Good idea," James muttered, flicking through the first few pages of the book. He read something, and his jaw dropped. Lily knew he'd saw it.

"Shit!" James gasped. "A book from the future?" Lily nodded.

"I was bored, so I asked the Room to provide me with something entertaining. This is what it came up with." Lily shrugged. "I don't know any more than you do. But can you see why I got you to come over here now?"

James nodded. "Yeah… coz that dude looks like me. And he has the same last name."

"Yeah," Lily said. "That's kind of freaky. You don't have any nephews named Harry, do you?"

"Nope," James said. "I'm an only child… so were both my parents." He frowned, then grinned. "Hey, he could be like my future son or something! I do like the name Harry."

So do I, Lily thought. "Could be. But then why would the book act as though being a wizard wasn't ordinary. He'd have to have been raised like a Muggle in that case," she theorized.

"Yeah, I guess so," James said. "Way to burst my bubble!"

Lily bristled, but then realized he was only teasing. "Hey, you never know," she said. "The blurb did say he was 'rescued'. Maybe you went crazy and were Obliviated or something, and so you thought you were a Muggle and raised him accordingly. But you're crazy, so he's 'rescued' from you at age eleven, never to see you again." James laughed. "Or maybe he was kidnapped…"

"No way!" James said. "If my son was kidnapped I'd fight tooth and nail to get him back. The kidnapper wouldn't know what hit him. It must be the first one…" They both laughed together.

"Hey, I reckon we should read it," James said. "See if your theory is right or not."

Lily laughed. "Alright then," she said. "Let's sit down." She turned to the armchair and frowned.. "Stupid armchair," she grumbled. Frowning, she closed her eyes and willed the Room to widen the armchair. When she opened her eyes, a two-seater sofa sat in its place.

"Aw, shucks," James said. "There goes my plan to get you to sit on my lap."

"Hey!" Lily said, but this time she recognized it as teasing straight away. She flopped onto the sofa and patted the cushion beside her. James sat, narrowly missing squashing her hand. He didn't seem to notice.

"Okay," he said flipping through the pages to the first page of the story. "Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived. Should you read it out, or should I?"

"I'll read," Lily said. Taking the book from his hands, she held it so they could both see and cleared her throat. "Alright. Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived."

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. At this, James snorted and muttered, "Normal is boring." Lily shook her head, giggled, and continued reading. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

James snorted again. "Like I said, boring."

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.

"What are drills?" James asked.

Lily sighed. "Muggle devices. They use them instead of spells like Permanent Sticking Charms."

"Oh," James said. "I can't imagine that as a fun job."

"No, it wouldn't be," Lily agreed. "But from what we've seen, the Dursleys wouldn't exactly be concerned with anything being fun. They seem quite the opposite of fun people.

"Boring!" James declared.

He was a big beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

"Nice descriptive language, Mr. Author," James laughed. Lily laughed too, but inside she squirmed with unease. This Mr. and Mrs. Dursley… her brother-in-law and sister were also Mr. and Mrs. Dursley and the descriptions of them featured in this book rang true with the real people so much that it was scary. Pushing this aside, Lily continued to read.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Lily and James shared a look over the top of the book, but didn't say anything. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.

Lily's gut twisted and squirmed with unease. She swallowed hard. The real Mrs. Dursley only had one sister… no. In denial, Lily pushed the thoughts from her head and continued to read.

The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son too, but they had never seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.

James scoffed. "Stupid bastards… insulting my son and my wife like that…" Lily stiffened at the word 'wife'… James' wife was Mrs. Dursley's sister… No. Don't think about it.

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on that dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work ("See! Even the author agrees with me!") and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his highchair.

"Nice kid," James muttered sarcastically.

None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half-past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. ("Nice kid," James said again). 'Little tyke,' chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house.

"Little tyke!" James gasped. "Little tyke! The kid's a bloody weirdo!"

Lily giggled and waited for James' tirade about the 'stupid Dursleys' to finish, but her gut remained twisted uncomfortably. Dursleys…

As Lily continued to read, a prickle of unease raced constantly up and down her spine. James didn't notice, and continued to chortle jovially at various funny things in the book, like when Dumbledore said that Madam Pomfrey admired his earmuffs. Lily continued to worry but her denial stood strong, even as it was announced that Mrs. Dursley's first name was Petunia. But then…

'What they're saying,' she pressed on, 'is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter – "

With a choked sob, the little, cursed red book slid from Lily's shaking hands and tumbled to the floor. She lurched to her feet and, without a second thought, bolted out the door of the Room of Requirement and out into the deserted corridor beyond.

Ooh, dramatic! I hope you enjoyed it... and if you did (or even if you didn't and just want to scream at me via caps lock, which I hope you don't) then please review! Adios...