Authors Note: Hello to all who have decided to read this story. It starts out kind of slow, but will eventually be Lily/James. It's rated PG for now, I'm not sure if it actually should be that. Maybe not in this chapter, but in others, because of James' dirty mouth and lewd jokes.

I'm reposting this chapter (next one is almost done, I think, and should be out soon. 12 pages! I've never written that much) because I'm trying to get the italics and stuff to work. Even if I have no faithful readers, if you were waiting for the next chapter, I'm writing kinda slow. extreme writers block. Ideas are welcome (So are reviews *grins*). And I have myself a (kinda) job. Yay me!

Disclaimer: I don't possess the creative genius to have come up with Harry Potter. In short, I don't own it.

The Transfiguration Class

Chapter 1

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I, Lily Evans, think it all started about halfway through my fourth year, in Transfiguration (Double with the Hufflepuffs). I'm not exactly sure why it happened, but it did, and it annoyed me.

I never really spoke out in class, but rather kept to the lesson and my only friend in my class, Claire, who sat on one side of me.

The girls sitting on my other side, Tammy and Belle, talked constantly (between themselves, or sometimes letting their other friend Kelly, who sat next to Belle, into the conversation), and they talked loud. Since they were always laughing their rather irritating, high-pitched laugh and disrespecting the teacher constantly, I kept as far away as possible without bumping my chair into Claire's.

Sitting across from me (The chairs were arranged in a box shape, with one side open, for the teacher to walk in and teach) were the Marauders: James directly across from me, Sirius across from Claire, Remus across from another girl named Moira, then Peter in the corner, no one across from him.

Sometimes they would whisper amongst themselves, or, when Professor Hudson glared at them, they would pay attention.

Other times they would flirt with the group of girls sitting behind them (Me and Claire called them their "Fan Club", because they spent the whole class time staring at the back of the heads of the guys they liked and giggling. Rather pathetic, if you ask me).

I never really paid them much attention, except when they were acting exceptionally stupid. Or when Sirius waved at me. At the beginning of the year we had become friends, after we had found out that we both loved playing wizard chess. At lunch we would sit together and talk, but I saw less and less of him after about three months. Our friendship was now only a really huge wave from Sirius whenever I caught his eye.

This day was shaping up to be like every other: Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to class. It was almost lunchtime now and I was getting hungry.

Professor Hudson had given us a project to do (The different steps to transfiguring an object into an animal with examples), and everyone had split into groups to work on it.

The Marauders were sitting at their desks, working at their own leisurely pace (or, in other words, real slowly). Their fan club was sitting at their desks, still immersed in the task of staring at the back of the Marauders heads while giggling. Lacey and Maria were attached to James, Vicky to Sirius, and Alianna to Remus. Peter didn't have anyone in our class staring at him, but he did have a girlfriend in the third year, a Hufflepuff, Nancy. To all the fourth years it was a joke, that Peter had a girlfriend. Most of us suspected that she only went out with him because he was in a higher year, so she thought it made her look cool.

In another corner sat the rest of the guys in our class, not exactly popular, but well known. Dave was arguing with Christian, while Greg tried to write down what they were saying. Alex was petting the cat they had transfigured from a rock. Why was beyond me, because it had no fur, and was hard as, well, a rock.

Claire, Moira, and I were sitting at our row of desks, trying to decide what we wanted to turn our rock into.

"I think we should make it a wolf." I said, "Because they're the cutest animals out there."

Moira disagreed. "Kittens are."

"But they're already making a cat!" I pointed out, gesturing toward Alex, who was still petting the hairless cat.

Claire giggled when she saw Alex. "How about a bear?"

"Those things are huge! We'd never be able to transfigure it properly... The rock's not big enough. Besides, Transfiguration isn't exactly my strong point. Or yours." I exclaimed.

Moira nodded in agreement. "She's right. Erm... how about a bird of some sort?"

"I think that sounds right... not to easy, but where we can still manage to make it." Claire put in.

"Okay. We'll make a bird. Now, question is, what kind?"

Moira and Claire already had an idea in mind.

"A raven!" from Moira and "An owl." from Claire.

I shook my head. "How about a parrot? They're brightly colored and I think we can make that."

Claire and Moira sat pondering this idea, and while they did, I took the opportunity to look around our classroom.

Alex had finally realized that their cat was not complete, and was trying to get Dave and Christian to quit arguing to figure out where they had gone wrong. Professor Hudson walked over to help them out, transfiguring the rock-cat back into a rock, and attempting to explain what had happened to make their cat hairless.

James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus were immersed in the discussion we had just been in.

"I don't like rats though, Peter, besides, they're too small. We need to impress Professor Hudson with as big an animal as we can manage. How about a stag?" James was saying to Sirius.

"Nah... that's too big, James. I think a dog would work."

I was just about to turn my attention to the Fan Club when I heard Claire's voice.

"Okay, I guess we could do a parrot."

"Great!" I pulled a parchment roll out of my bag and handed it to Claire. "Can you write it? You've got the best handwriting, and besides, you're sitting in the middle."

Claire nodded, and reached down to get a quill and an ink bottle out of her bag. She began writing our names, asking Moira to spell her last name. I turned my thoughts elsewhere (in the Great Hall, where the tables were laden with food) while Moira complied.

I was, unfortunately, brought back to the Transfiguration classroom when Moira poked me.

"C'mon, Lily, let's make this parrot! Can you find what we have to do?"

I opened my Intermediate Guide to Transfiguration book, and began flipping pages toward the end, searching for the Animal Transfiguration chapter.

I found it on page 351. "Okay... we need to concentrate really hard on the animal that we want to turn it into, and then say together Lamina, and then the animal we want it to turn into."

"So, Lamina Parrot?" Asked Moira.

I looked over the page, then nodded. "Yeah, I think that sounds about right."

"But do we all need to do it, or can just one person say the spell to make the animal?" Claire asked.

"I think we have to do it at the same time, because it says here that only as you get better at animal transfiguration should you try to do it with only one person."

We all got out our wands, and pointed them at the rock.

"Ready?" Asked Claire. At our nods, she said "Go."

Claire and Moira both managed to finish the incantation. Mine however, sounded more like:

"Lamina Par - arg!"

A rather heavy quill had hit me on the head, thrown from somewhere in front of me. I looked up from the rock, glaring, only to find James grinning at me.

I frowned at him, and he just laughed. "Can I have my quill back?"

That was just the beginning.

I threw it back at him, and dismissed it as something he did whenever he got too bored in class.

Then I looked back at Claire and Moira, who were staring at our... parrot.

It looked somewhat like a parrot, feathers and all, but the feathers were the grayish color of the rock. The beak was a yellow red, which looked like it would have turned into the orange color it should have been had I finished saying the spell.

The back end of the parrot was still a rock. So when the parrot began a wheezy sort of squawk, and tried to fly, it would get a couple centimeters off of the surface of the table before falling back to the table with a thud.

Claire and Moira just looked at me.

"Uh... Oops?"

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After finally having been let out of Transfiguration, parrot completed and paper written, Claire and I headed upstairs to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"So, what was with the messed up spell, Lily?" Claire asked.

I rolled my eyes. "I'll tell you when we get to our room."

Claire nodded. "Okay. Hey, where are you going?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Uh... we're at the entrance?"

"Oh, sorry. Wasn't paying attention." I grinned at her, before turning to the Fat Lady.

"Mutiny."

The painting swung inward, and me and Claire headed to the stairs, practically running up them.

When we reached our room, I dropped my book bag on the floor and jumped on my bed.

"I'm so tired!" I complained.

Claire laughed. "You always say that."

"Well, it's always true!" I got off my bed with a grunt, and began to put my afternoon books in my bag.

"What happened in Transfiguration?" Claire asked, positioning herself at the door as she waited for me to finish packing.

"Oh... James threw a quill at me. Why, I can't figure out."

"I can't think of a reason James would throw a quill at you. Maybe he'd throw one at his fan club, his method of flirting."

I looked up. "Hey!"

Claire giggled. "Just kidding. His method of telling them to shut up, how does that work?"

"Better than his way of flirting, but how can that apply to me? It's not like I ever bug him. Quite the opposite, he bugs me. And everyone else." I paused. "I think maybe he just got bored."

"Maybe. Do you think he was aiming at you?"

"I hope not."

"Why's that?"

"Would you want him to be purposefully throwing things at you?" I pointed out.

"Maybe." Claire grinned mischievously. "If that means he wants my attention."

At this, I tried looking severe, but just burst out laughing. "C'mon, let's go get something to eat."

Together, we bounded out of the room, heading for the Great Hall, still giggling.

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Review please! (Maybe. 10?)