AN: As it's my first HP fic (or first fic at all) there might be some mistakes so I apologise in advance and hope you'll enjoy it anyway! Plus I don't own Harry Potter or anything from Hogwarts universe you recognise! It's all J.K. Rowling's!
CHAPTER 1. OPERATION LIMES
It was a warm September afternoon at Hogwarts and all of the students, taking advantage of the break between classes, were out on the school grounds, catching one of the last sunny days this autumn. Well, almost all of the students. Because Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were currently sitting in the girls bathroom on the second floor, the one nobody visited because of the Moaning Myrtle's ghost, listening to the Sirius's genius plan. Or at least Sirius claimed that his plan was genius, however, he still didn't explain it to the other Marauders (even though they had been sitting in the bathroom for fifteen minutes straight). He was only rambling on how important said plan was.
"I tell you! This plan will change the life of our beloved James once and for all" he shouted, slamming his hand on the stone floor for better effect.
"Undoubtedly" Remus commented dryly. "But could you please explain already what genius plan do you have in mind and why exactly have we been sitting in the girls bathroom for at least twenty minutes now?"
"Oh, Moonykins" Sirius sighed dramatically. "What has this innocent bathroom ever done to you?"
"Well" Remus sat straighter as he always did when he was about to give his fellow Marauders a scolding. "We are breaking the school rules…"
"Blah blah blah, the prefect thing, I know" Sirius interrupted him. "But what can I do? This bathroom is a perfect place for secret meetings!"
Remus moaned in exasperation and rolled his eyes.
"Whatever. Just stop calling me Moonykins and explain the damn plan already!"
Sirius was definitely beginning to make him lose his patience. After all, the fact that people rarely used this bathroom didn't mean that somebody couldn't walk in any second and see them. And they wouldn't have much to say in self-defence.
"Okay, okay, don't release your inner werewolf on me" Sirius raised his hands in surrender and cleared his throat theatrically for better effect (or at least he thought it had a better effect). "So, my dear friends, we have a problem. It's Prongs. He is ill. Very, very ill. He lost the will to do anything which doesn't involve Quidditch these days. Yesterday he even told me that he doesn't feel like pranking Snivellus! How can you not feel like pranking Snivellus?! Therefore I announce that Prongs has lost his will to live…"
He paused dramatically and glanced at him friends. Both of them were staring at him, Peter in confusion mixed with slight fear and Remus shaking his head in disbelief.
"You're doing the exaggeration thing again, Sirius!"
"No, I am not" he crossed his arms defensively.
"Just go on" Remus urged him, glancing nervously at the door.
"So, I decided that we need to find James something else to focus on. More specifically, someone else to focus on."
Peter clapped his hands enthusiastically.
"We're getting James a pet, aren't we? I love pets!"
"I think that Sirius rather meant a girlfriend" Remus corrected him.
"Exactly, Moonykins, exactly! How did you know?"
"Let's just say I knew that snogging was somehow involved"
"Of course, snogging is always involved. It's the answer to everything" Sirius exclaimed.
Remus decided to leave this particular statement without a comment. Any argument with Sirius on the matter was just pointless.
"So.. do you have any specific girl in mind?"
"Of course I do!" Sirius announced with excitement. "Lily Evans"
The only thing that answered him was silence as the two Marauders were too shocked to respond. The only thing they could do was stare.
"It won't work. She hates him" Peter remarked.
"And he hates her" Remus added.
"Oh please they don't hate each other. They love each other. They just don't know about it yet. Well, at least Lily doesn't know because it seems that Prongs has just forgotten about this. Which is why we have to make them realise it."
"And how exactly are you going to achieve that?" asked Remus.
Sirius looked hurt at such a lack of support from his werewolf friend and was about to start complaining again but decided against it. He could always do it later. Right now the most important thing was James's love life (or lack of love life).
"The first thing we do is break into Flitwick's room and changing a couple of things" he said, rubbing his hands together like all of those villains from Muggle comic books which he once stole from Remus.
"And why is that?"
"I'm about to explain. This morning, when I was running late to the History of Magic and wondering what to do about our Prongs problem, I overheard a very interesting conversation between Flitwick and our beloved professor McGonagall. Speaking of McGonagall, don't you think that she is quite a hot chic. Who knows what she hides under that robe…"
Peter's eyes widened in fear.
"Please, Padfoot, spare us the details!"
"I have to agree" Remus said sternly. "We will not discuss your strange infatuation with a certain Head of House now"
"Don't get so fed up. I was only joking! Anyway, Flitwick plans some kind of a long-term project for Gryffindors and he is assigning the partners for us himself. And you know how absent-minded he can be. If we change something in his arraignment he won't even notice."
"And you want us to change it so that James and Lily would work together?" Remus guessed.
"I knew that you would eventually get to it" Sirius bellowed happily, patting Remus on the back in a friendly manner.
The poor boy wasn't expecting it at all and stumbled forward but after a moment regained his balance. He grimaced, still not very optimistic about this whole plan. He was sure that James wouldn't be so happy if he knew that they were meddling in his personal life, especially playing matchmakers for him and Lily. But on the other hand Sirius was right – James really seemed miserable and out of character these days.
"You know that we have ten minutes left till the lesson starts?" he asked Sirius, checking the hour on his watch.
"Crap, I didn't know it was so late. Well, let's go then. It's now or never!"
He jumped from the floor and sprinted through the bathroom door. Remus and Peter followed him at a much slower pace, having the common sense to make sure that there wasn't anyone in the corridor. Fortunately for their operation it was empty.
Finding the right place took them five minutes. When they finally got there, Sirius immediately reached for the doorknob.
"No!" Remus shouted and immediately looked around to make sure no one's heard before lowering his voice to a conspirational whisper. "Maybe let's agree on some kind of a plan first"
Two remaining Marauders stared at him blankly. Remus just sighed.
"Do you ever plan anything?"
They shook their heads which just made Remus sigh again.
"Take the Map and make sure that nobody is walking in our direction" he instructed Peter before turning to Sirius who has already managed to push the door open.
They sneaked into the room. It was rather small and very cluttered. Stacks of books and different instruments whose purpose they didn't know were laying on both the shelves and the floor. However, the Marauders knew exactly where they needed to look. They headed straight for the desk and started going through all the drawers. It was Sirius who eventually found the piece of parchment they were looking for. Judging by the number of doodles, crossings and arrows, the professor had quite a huge problem dividing them into pairs which meant that he wouldn't notice the changes they made anyway. Aware of how little time they had, Sirius and Remus started both scanning the parchment until they found the right names.
"Got it" Sirius shouted triumphantly, making Remus flinch and hope that Peter did his job as a guard well. "Lily Evans and Alice Prewett. James Potter and Frank Longbottom. Wait, what? Longbottom? Why didn't he pair Prongs up with me? We're the best match ever!"
"I seriously hope that you didn't mean it in the way it sounded" Remus said dryly. "Besides I think that he tried to match the troublemakers with the neat students who would somehow control their behaviour"
"Oh, Moony, if Flitwick thinks that you can control me he is so mistaken" Sirius added matter-of-factly as he noticed that their names figured on the parchment next to each other. "I'm the one who wears trousers in this relationship"
Remus was on the verge of losing his temper and he certainly didn't like Sirius implying that they were in any kind of relationship. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
"Just. Hurry. Up. Sirius."
Sirius just shrugged and with a wave of his wand changed the order of the names on Flitwick's list before putting the precious parchment back in the drawer. Urged by Remus, he quickly left the room and the three of them run in the direction of the Charms classroom. When they finally got there Sirius looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone eavesdropping.
"We did it!" he exclaimed, punching the air in front of him triumphantly.
"Indeed we did." Remus agreed although lacking Sirius's enthusiasm.
"You know what" Peter chimed in, wanting to be involved in the conversation. "We should name this operation"
Sirius looked at him with both pride and slight confusion as if he didn't believe that such an intelligent idea could come out of Peter's mouth. Not that he was the one to talk.
"This is the real Marauder spirit" he praised his friend. "I like that, Wormy, I like that! And about the name… Maybe Operation Get Lily and James together."
Remus rolled his eyes.
"Yes, because absolutely no one is going to guess what we're trying to do"
"Of course they won't. I'm genius after all" said Sirius who apparently had problems with understanding sarcasm.
"Sirius, we're not naming our operation that" Remus cut him off.
"Okay, what about… Limes?"
And then he burst out laughing as if he just told the best joke ever. Remus and Peter could only stare at him at confusion, not understanding what he was blabbering about.
"Can you explain what exactly limes have to do with our operation?"
Sirius scoffed as if his friends were total idiots.
"Limes. Lily and James. Limes. It's a blend of their names" he explained in a tone which clearly suggested that it was obvious.
"That's rather clever for you" Remus murmured but Sirius either didn't hear the comment or decided to simply ignore it.
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Therefore I announce that the first phase of Operation Limes has just begun"
James Potter was going to Charms class in a good mood (or at least the best mood you can have while going to class). During the break he took a walk around school grounds and amused himself with pranking Slytherins by the lake. It was a bit boring alone but all of his friends were busy which was quite strange as he thought about but he didn't question their motives. Sirius had a meeting with some girl which we totally normal considering he was the biggest womanizer to ever walk the Hogwarts grounds. Remus said that he had to go to the library. Well, he literally lived there, it was his second home. Asked if he wants to accompany him, Peter murmured something about the Kitchens.
That was exactly why James was going to Charms alone but he didn't complain. He was too engrossed in his thoughts anyway. He was wondering whether the weather will worsen before the evening when they had Quidditch practice. He hoped not. He had a few new things to show to his team. Worried, he glanced out of the window. He didn't even notice when he bumped into someone, however, this someone did notice and apparently didn't like being bumped into.
"Maybe you would be as kind to look where you walk, Potter" hissed Lily Evans because unfortunately it was her.
"And maybe you would be as kind to be a little more careful" he mimicked her but his mind was still focused on Quidditch.
The comment seemed to only further enrage the redhead in front of him.
"Do I have to remind what it was you who ran into me, Potter?"
"You could have bypassed me" he pointed out.
"I don't see any reason why I should be the one to bypass the mighty James Potter only because he suddenly decided to daydream in the middle of the corridor"
"If you don't see the reason to bypass me, it's technically your fault so you can't bear any grudges against me"
"Oh, really?!"
And so on the argument continued and only stopped when the go to the Charms classroom. James sighed heavily. The redhead Evans was really getting on his nerves recently. Their arguments started back at the end of their Fifth Year at Hogwarts and continued after the summer break. Needless to say, it was so annoying many preferred when James was head over heels for Lily.
Professor Flitwick showed up the exact moment they got to the classroom. He opened the door with a quick spell (he was too short to reach the doorknob) and headed straight for his desk. Students started flowing into the classroom, sitting at their desks, talking, shuffling the chairs and taking out books. It was only after a few minutes that they finally fell silent. Flitwick patiently waited before starting his speech.
"In this semester I would like to start with a project about spells used by Healers. There are many of those and we never discussed them on the lessons before so you will need to do some research on your own. But don't worry, we will devote a few lessons to them as well. You will be working in pairs. The deadline will be somewhere at the end of October. Any questions?"
There were no hands raised so Flitwick took a piece of parchment out of the pocket of his robe and cleared his throat.
"Now I will read the pairs in which you will be working and I want you to sit together"
Then he started reading out the names. Frank Longbottom was supposed to work with Alice Prewett which seemed to elicit a great deal of excitement from the boy and a smile from the girl. Sirius and Remus had to work together. And then James stopped caring about anything around him as the professor read:
"James Potter and Lily Evans"
"WHAT?!"
He didn't even register than he shouted. He barely noticed the fact that everyone was staring at him with confusion as well. All of his attention was focused on Flitwick, hoping that it was all a big mistake. It must have been. He would cope with anyone but Evans.
The professor himself was a little taken aback as well. He didn't remember this particular pair. Nor did he understand why he chose Evans and Potter to work together since it was a well-known fact that they hated each other. But on the other hand, it wasn't more than an hour ago that he could swear that the piece of parchment with the names of students on it was in the left drawer of his desk when in fact he put it in the right one. He had a tendency to forget things. And if it was clearly stated on the parchment that Lily Evans and James Potter should work together, he definitely had a good reason to decide so.
"Is there a problem, Mr. Potter?" he asked.
James just ignored him, busy praying for it all to turn out to be just another nightmare. He even considered asking Sirius, who was sitting next to him with a fake sympathetic expression on his face, to pinch him.
"Is there a problem?" Flitwick repeated his question, now a little more impatiently. "Miss Evans?"
James glanced at Lily who was sitting at the desk on his right with one of her friends. She looked just as displeased with the arrangement as he was. However, she put herself together quickly and a stern expression appeared on her face.
"No sir" she said. "There's no problem at all"
Then she got up from her seat and collected all her books, quills and pieces of parchment. And then she walked to his desk, the stares of the whole class fixed on her, and sat on the empty chair next to him. Slamming her books on the desk hard.
