"Hey, Moony. What's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane? Isn't one of them some kind shrub?"

"You need to start paying more attention to Professor Slughorn, Sirius. He told us ages ago that monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant,"

"So they're both shrubs?"

"No," sighed Remus, rolling his eyes at the incompetence of his friend. "It's aconite, basically. All three of them - "

"Shut up a second, you two! She could be here any minute!" hissed James suddenly, bending his head over his book once more to make it look like he was actually studying. Remus wasn't fooled by the show, and in his opinion, Lily Evans wouldn't be fooled either. It was a beautiful autumn day at Hogwarts, probably one of the last of the term that the students would be able to go outside and bask beside the black lake with their feet in the water. Yet the Marauders were the only four people in the library, with the sunlight streaming welcomingly through the long blue curtains framing high windows. Outside, the lake glittered tantalizingly, and a group of Hufflepuffs lounged beside it, just waiting (so it seemed to James and Sirius) to be attacked with a few boxes of Dungbombs. There was no way, thought Remus, that Lily would think James was in the library working. Not on a gorgeous day like today.

With another sigh, Remus buried his nose back into his Transfiguration essay and didn't say a word. Across the table, Peter was lazily Summoning the same black fly from the air into his hand, letting it go, watching it buzz around the room for a few seconds, and then nonchalantly Summoning it back into his waiting hand. Sirius had a blank piece of parchment in front of him that he had been staring at for over an hour, randomly asking Remus questions but then not even lifting his quill once he had an answer. James, at least, appeared to be attempting to get some work done, but in reality his parchment was covered in doodles of the Quidditch pitch, complete with diagrams of famous moves he was itching to try.

"I don't understand why we have to be here in the first place," said Sirius suddenly.

"Because, Padfoot, this is where Evans comes in her spare time," James replied, glaring at his best friend as though Sirius should know better than to ask such a stupid question.

"This is where all the rejects come in their spare time," scoffed Sirius, looking around the room as though hoping to spot a few rejects. There was no one else in the library besides them. "Honestly, I feel like a hippogriff in a homeless shelter,"

Peter giggled. The other three ignored him, as they usually did whenever he laughed at something stupid.

"Don't call Lily a reject, and don't call her a hippogriff!" said James angrily. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I didn't!"

"You did!"

"Shut it!" Remus interjected, before jinxes began to fly.

"Well lucky for you, Prongs, I've brought something with which to entertain myself," sniffed Sirius proudly, reaching for his school bag.

"What is it?" asked Peter, scooting in closer to get a better look.

Sirius smiled mischievously and pulled a Chocolate Frog from the depths of his robes. Peter watched, mouth agape in awe an curiosity, as Sirius started folding the piece of parchment he had previously been trying to do homework on into a cone-like shape. He tapped his creation once with his wand, which made it turn bright purple, and placed it carefully on the unwrapped frog's head, like a hat.

"Good evening, gentlemen . . . and gentlewerewolves," said Sirius in a ridiculous, scratchy voice, making the frog move as if it were speaking. "My name is Albus Frogledore."

Peter guffawed loudly, but Sirius (who was watching James, clearly hoping for a reaction from his best friend) didn't seem to notice. So Sirius continued, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Feet!"

"Sirius, that one wasn't even funny," said Remus, rolling his eyes.

"Mr. Lupin!" Sirius exclaimed in mock anger, still continuing the voice. "I am affronted! I mean, affrogged. I ought to turn you into a tadpole! Unfortunately I don't think my frog-magic will work on puppies . . ." He grinned. Remus frowned for the briefest moment, then let out a laugh.

"You're barking up the wrong tree, Padfoot. Ha!"

Sirius was about to make a snarky comeback, but was interrupted by James' laughter. He grinned as his best friend laughed even harder, tears of joy threatening to run down his cheeks. Mission accomplished, Sirius sat back in his chair, a smug smile on his face.

"Guys! Guys! She's here!" hissed James excitedly, stopping laughing at once. Sure enough, Lily Evans was just walking through the library door, with her nose already in a book. Looking up from the dusty page only to wish Madam Pince a good afternoon, she immediately sat down in the closest chair and continued reading.

"Wish me luck, boys," said James with a triumphant smirk. Before Remus could mock him or Sirius could do more than grin encouragingly, he was on his feet and sauntering coolly over to Lily. He slid into the chair beside her with all the smoothness of one practiced in the art of being cool. Running his fingers through his dark hair for a little extra effect, James waited patiently for Lily to look up from her book. He was waiting for the emerald eyes to meet his own, waiting for her to swoon at the sight of him, waiting for her to even just glance in his direction. When she did none of these things, James took matters into his own hands.

"Hey, Evans," he said in his silkiest voice.

She didn't acknowledge that she'd even recognized his presence. Rather, she pretended as though a speck of dust was sitting in the chair that he occupied, nothing more.

"You look more exquisite with every passing moment, d'you know that?" When he again got no response, he decided to just go for it. "If a hundred veela started dancing for me, but you were standing next to them, I'd—"

"You are an obnoxious little wart, Potter, and I'd never date you. Not if you were the last human being on Earth," Lily said hotly, looking up from her book at last. James took this as a good sign; at least she knew he was sitting there.

"C'mon, Evans!" James smirked and moved into a chair next to hers. "I know that secretly you can hardly resist me. I'm the most popular guy in school—"

"OY!"

"Sorry, Sirius! All right, one of the most popular guys in school, I'm easily the best Quidditch player, and did I mention that I'm cleverer than half the professors?" James continued, managing to keep a cool smirk on his face even when Sirius interrupted his spiel from across the room.

Lily was laughing. He didn't care that she was laughing at him; he loved watching her face light up like that. "You? Intelligent? Yeah, right! I'll bet there are hinkypunks out there smarter than you are, James Potter!"

"I resent that!" James remarked in a mock dramatic tone. "I am in the library on this fine afternoon studying so that I can get twelve 'Outstanding's on my N.E.W.T.s, as are the only marks I would accept for myself. I could easily be basking beside the lake, but I've decided to get a seven month head start on my revision! How is that not intelligent?"

There was a barking laugh from the only other occupied table in the library. James glared over at his friends, who were almost crying with mirth. Remus was actually shaking with silent laughter, but Sirius was unable to be so quiet. Even Peter was chuckling.

"If you get twelve 'Outstanding's I'll eat my cauldron," said Lily, looking down at her book once more. James, getting frustrated, decided that desperate times called for desperate measures.

"I happen to be a very clever young man," he said proudly, puffing out his chest slightly.
"As a matter of fact, I was supposed to be Sorted into Ravenclaw, not Gryffindor,"

"That's not even a little bit true," scoffed Lily.

"I assure you, it is. Here, let me prove it to you. I can list off the most famous goblin rebellions in wizarding history, all from memory!"

Lily gave him a skeptical look, but said nothing to stop him.

"All right. Well first there was Clark the . . . er . . . Clairvoyant. Yeah, Clark the Clairvoyant. He came from... Kent. And he was all-seeing, and all-powerful. He had a little goblin wife named Lois Lane the Lethargic, but they hated each other because Lois never cooked anything delicious for dinner for him because all she wanted to do was sleep. So Clark and Lois started fighting each other and rose up massive armies of goblins, which eventually lead to the great War of 1782, in which Flash the Fast nearly lost his life. But then in 1794 —"

"You do realize that I'm Muggle-born, don't you, Potter?" Lily interrupted before James could go any further. He was shocked to see that she was almost laughing. James had expected her to be angry to discover he was lying to her so blatantly. He couldn't see what was so amusing about the situation. "I've heard of Superman. I used to read American comic books all the time,"

James swore to himself. Through the rushing in his ears that told him his face was turning red, he could hear his friends laughing harder than even Lily was. He thought desperately for something to say, before he made a complete fool of himself.

"I definitely belong in Ravenclaw, Evans," he replied coolly. "I was just testing you on your Muggle knowledge. Look, I'm a direct descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw!"

"Let's see it, Prongsie!" called Sirius.

"Do the Ravenclaw!" Remus added.

James bowed dramatically to his friends, turned and did the same to Lily, and promptly jumped onto one of the library tables, ripped the blue curtain from the window in front of him, and tied it around one shoulder like a toga. In a ridiculous high-pitched voice that any seventeen year old boy other than James Potter would have been ashamed to admit to doing, he said, "Good day to you, Miss Evans. My name is Rowena Ravenclaw. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my dear," With that, James bent at the knee so that he was level with Lily's head and kissed her hand, batting his eyelashes in the most feminine of ways. Lily virtually fell onto the floor laughing, as did Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"James Potter, get down from there at once!"

It was Madam Pince, and she was angry. Angrier than angry. James immediately leaped from the library table and pulled off his makeshift toga. The other four tried desperately (but with little success) to suppress their laughter as the librarian loomed menacingly over James, more vulture-like than anything else.

"How dare you deface these curtains! Jumping on tables, making more noise than a pack of trolls! Detention, and twenty points from Gryffindor!" she squawked.

"Yes, ma'am,"

"Mind that it doesn't happen again. Off with you, now, before I change my mind and take more house points!"

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter ran from the library before this could happen, Lily's clear laughter still ringing in their ears. They sprinted outside to the lake to enjoy the last of the autumn sunshine, flopping down together next to the dark water and still laughing at what had just occurred.

"Good one, Prongs," said Sirius, clapping his best friend of the back triumphantly.

"Sorry to break it to you, mate, but I don't think she believes I'm a Ravenclaw,"

"No one in their right mind would ever think that," Remus chuckled.

"Shut it, Moony,"

"Too bad about the detention, though," said Peter.

At this, James actually smiled. He'd gotten Lily Evans to laugh. And not at him, at one of his jokes. She was starting to warm up to him a little! He grinned as he said "Worth it."