"Hey, Lily."

Lily looked up from her book and smiled, "Hey, Pete. I thought you'd be with the guys."

She took a while to understand Peter; even now, she didn't think she quite got him. Before getting to really know the boys, Lily always thought they pitied Peter and, because of that, included him in their little group.

She couldn't be more wrong.

The first thing she realized about him is that he's very quiet, but when he does speak, it's this brilliant punch that has you laughing until you shed tears.

"No, I'm actually doing homework for once.. And, well, it's Charms, and I'm not very good at it, so I was hoping you could help me."

"Of course! But I think you're pretty good at Charms!"

That was another thing. Peter didn't receive such high marks as the other Marauders, but that didn't mean he wasn't intelligent. His best subject was Arithmancy, and that came as a shock to her. But the thing about Peter; he was scarely patient if needed be.

And he was very good at Charms, just not at learning them. Creating them, though, that was his true talent.

He blushed,"Thanks... But this one, though, I'm not doing that well. It's the one Flitwick taught us yesterday, Narke."

Lily nodded. She could understand his having a hard time with this spell. For one, it was in greek, and not latin, which made the pronounce more difficult for everybody. And, to add to that, it was a spell that made you seem dead. You weren't, not really; you were still conscious and breathing, but to another person you looked like a corpse. To make matters worse, you had to be pretty good with wandless AND non-verbal spells to do the counter-spell yourself.

So, yes, she was pretty simpathetic to Peter right now.

"That's a tough one, that's for sure... At least the counter-spell is in latin."

He laughed "Yes, well, I'm still screwed. I don't know why Flitwick decided to teach us this one; I thought that should be of DATA."

"I was wondering about that too! I guess it's just a very complicated spell and he's better at it than Argelius." She shrugged "Are you any good with non-verbal spells?"

"Yes." That shouldn't have surprised her, but it did.

"Ok, what about wandless spells?"

"I manage."

They decided to try some of them first. The thing about wandless magic is that it comes very naturally when you're a child and don't know the rules of magic. Once you're older and you already know how it functions, is not that easy to channel your magic without your wand.

Peter wasn't the best; she herself was very good at it, and James just kicked ass, but Peter wasn't bad, either. They moved from simple spells, like Wingardium Leviosa and Lumix, to slighly more complicated ones, like Expelliarmus and Impedimenta and so on; his progress was clear.

They spent the whole afternoon practicing, until they thought he was ready to try the Narke. The thing was, she knew why he was having such a hard time: Peter was everything but confident, and that made it almost impossible to perform the spell.

"Pete, how about you do the Narke and for the first couple of times I do the Excitabunt?"

He looked a little uncertain, which hurt her a little on the inside. He didn't trust her. On the other hand, she was still a recent addition to the group, so it was natural that he should feel that way. Finally, he said:

"Ok, let's do it."

And they did.

Peter was so happy that he managed to do it that he just couldn't stop laughing. Something about it - his laugh?The look on his face? - unsettled Lily, but she quickly brushed it off. He was happy, and she was glad to have helped.

"What do you think about trying it again tomorrow?"

"Yes! Thank you! The guys will be so proud!"

Her heart almost broke with that, but again something didn't feel right; again, she brushed it off.

"I don't know about the guys, Pete, but I'm certainly proud of you!"

He beamed at her, asked if she was hungry and they were off to the kitchens, to meet the Marauders.