This idea sprung into my head completely against my will and wouldn't leave until I wrote it down. I'll probably abandon this as soon as the concept leaves me alone, but for now I'm going to foist it upon the rest of you unlucky sods.
This is AU, and I'm not, and will unfortunately never be J.K.
Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise.
Chapter One.
Lily Evans, temporary teacher of Charms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, flopped back over her chair, her neck bending backwards as she stared up at the hugely arched stone ceilings.
Flitwick had been out with a cold.
As this was the same cold that he'd been out with for the past six months, Lily was starting to get the nasty suspicion that he didn't have a cold at all.
She was sat at the desk of classroom 2E, and because the back of the chair was too tall to tolerate leaning back in, she'd positioned herself with her legs hanging over one arm-rest and her head hanging over the other.
Her robes draped open and down the sides of the chair.
This was her special, self-pitying posture.
She wasn't a whole week into her Auror training, fresh out of Hogwarts before she'd been called back.
She loved Hogwarts, and if she'd been left a little longer outside of it, she'd probably start to miss it.
But she had been dragged back with coercion, bribery and emotional manipulation, and now wished that she was quite literally anywhere else.
She was kept here, rotting in her old high school while everyone else that she knew was moving on and doing things.
It made her feel like a child.
Granted, a child that was teaching her favourite class instead of sitting through it.
There was a knock against the wooden door, which had swung all the way open without her even noticing.
She had a class that started in fifteen minutes, sixth years, the year that she most dreaded.
She dreaded it the most because it contained Remus Lupin, the one and only student left that she regarded as a friend.
She had acquaintances here still, yes, people that greeted her in the hallways and treated her with more friendliness than they extended their usual teacher, but Remus Lupin was her last equal.
This would not have bothered her in the slightest if it hadn't meant tolerating his friends as well.
They were a group of smarmy pricks, and if it weren't for Remus, they'd be in a perpetual detention, hung upside down by that new over-enthusiastic caretaker that they seemed to love tormenting.
Instead of turning to address whoever had knocked on the door at her, she tried to remember what the caretakers name was.
Was it Milch? Mulch? Filch, she decided was probably it.
Her head rolled to the side to look at the entrance to the classroom, it was too early for even the most enthusiastic of N.E.W.T.s students to show up, but there, leaning against the opened doorway as if he owned it, was James Potter.
She wouldn't lie to herself, he was good looking, and she was attracted to him. Or at least she decided that she would be when he was a few years older.
She didn't bother moving, she didn't care if James Potter saw her being unprofessional, staring at the ceiling and moping.
"What do you want?" She asked, no trace of leniency or kindness in her voice.
She wanted him to go away.
She was meant to have ten more minutes of privacy.
His smile was cocky and wide, like he was pleased with himself for annoying her.
"Just thought I'd stop in and say hi." He said, hazel eyes glinting with amusement under his glasses.
"Hi."She said, turning back to look up at the ceiling. "Now fuck off."
Her neck was starting to ache, but the ache was better than having to look at a beautiful and obnoxious seventeen year old.
"Language," he warned, admonishing her as if he was having fun.
"What do you want, Potter?" She asked with a sigh, reaching up to rub her eyes.
James Potter walked toward her, close enough to perch himself up on her desk. He looked down at her in a fond sort of amused way that made her a little uncomfortable.
He was tall, she realised. Much too tall.
Quite a distance taller than she was.
Handsome, too, with a thick smattering of black stubble peeking through the skin over his jaw.
Seventeen year olds weren't meant to have real stubble, were they?
And his eyes were so incredibly pretty, molten gold, downcast liquid cinnamon, and he was so incredibly close, his breath coming out in short little puffs, one of his teeth peeking out to create a divot, a little dimple in his lower lip.
She tried not to let herself be distracted by him.
But she was.
And when she looked up to see his eyes had drifted down the front of her shirt, she realised that he was a little distracted, too.
"Watch where you put your eyes, Potter."
His answering grin was huge and shameless.
"I'm here only for the pleasure of your company."
"Sure you are. What do you want."
"Would you believe me if I said that I wanted you?"
"Not even a little bit, kid." This was a lie.
She was still staring at the ceiling, so she didn't see the way he flinched when she called him 'kid.'
"Well then, I was wondering whether you'd help me with a charm."
"That's exactly what I'm here for." She said, slowly lifting her legs from the arm rest and straightening herself back up with a stretch and a low moan.
His hand gripped the edge of her desk.
"Well, this charm is a little extra-curricular," he said with a wicked grin.
She sighed heavily.
"Sirius hasn't tried to use an engorgio on a certain choice part of his body again, has he?"
James laughed.
"If only. No I was thinking something more along the lines of what they've got up in the Great Halls ceiling. Smaller scale, of course, but same basic principle."
"If you already know what you want to do, why are you talking to me? You could be in the library telling absolutely no members of authority about what I'm sure is a very nasty plan."
He took a slow breath in through his nose, like he was smelling the air. His smile was lazy and just a little predatory.
"Ambiance. The charms classroom is prettier to look at. That and the library's dead boring. Now help me would you, Evans?"
"No." She said, opening her desk drawer and pulling out a single stick of muggle chewing gum, which she tossed in her mouth. "And call me Professor."
He was trying to be charming, she could tell.
It wasn't going to work, or at least that was what she was trying to tell herself.
"If that's what gets you going."
He was interested in her.
She wasn't stupid and he wasn't subtle, he was interested in her in the same way most of the sixth years were.
She was young enough to look pretty, but old enough to have grown out of adolescent awkwardness, making her a great target for teenage fantasies.
It didn't mean she had to encourage or even acknowledge them.
Suddenly, a group of puffing teenage boys burst through the doorway and into the classroom.
"Prongs, shut up, she's a Professor." said a voice that she recognised as belonging to Sirius Black. "No offence, Evans." He tacked on the end.
"None taken, Black. And look, all of you are here on time for once." She said as Peter rounded the doorway, face red and puffing harder than the other two. It looked as if they'd left him behind once again.
Remus gave her a tiny, sheepishly embarrassed look accompanied by a small shrug.
Next to him, Sirius grinned hugely. The effect was a bit blinding.
"We wanted to get here early. Showing off in front of our fittest teacher." Said Potter with a wink.
Sirius gasped melodramatically "What about McGonagall?"
People had started filing into the classroom, now, turning the 'Marauders' banter into a spectator sport as usual.
"Shut up and go sit at your desk, Potter."
"I will if you stop calling me Potter."
"No." she rejected, pulling her lesson plan from her desk drawer, the class was on its way to being full of sixth year Gryffindors.
She didn't need to make a spectacle of herself in front of an audience.
"Why?" He demanded, his eyes darkening.
"Maybe I like your last name." She said without thinking about it.
"You can have it if you want it."
And the room went silent.
James Potter looked at Lily Evans, and Lily Evans looked at him right back.
Sirius cuffed his friend on the shoulder and forced a laugh. It did not make the situation any less awkward.
"Take your seat, Potter." She ordered.
He turned around and walked down the row to his seat at the back.
He didn't laugh with Sirius. He didn't even smile.
The two of them bent their heads over their desks and started scribbling viciously at a piece of parchment, putting too much enthusiasm into the paper to be paying attention to what she was actually about to teach.
Lily Evans found this good. This way the two of them wouldn't be distracting everyone else the way that they usually did.
Remus, at least was paying apologetically strong attention, as if to tell her that he was sorry for his friends' actions and a little embarrassed on their behalf.
She liked him for that, even if she did get more annoyed every time James and Sirius shoved the note between themselves.
Peter, who was sat on the other side of James, passed his own notes to his friend, trying to join in.
Peter's notes lay ignored at the top of James' desk.
Class ended and Sirius scrunched the note up and threw it in the bin as he dragged James out of the room.
Remus came up to hand in their homework for them.
"I'm going to start giving them detention." She warned him.
He gave her a little smile.
"They deserve it." He told her conspiratorially.
"They're going to be N.E.W.T.s students, they don't need detentions."
"They already get plenty of them, never you mind."
And with that he turned and left.
Once the classroom was emptied, Lily walked over to the side of the room and retrieved the note Sirius and Potter had been passing during class.
She flattened it out
Did you just propose? Creepy, mate. Around her for ten minutes and you turn into a sexual predator, every single time.
She recognised Black's handwriting.
I can't help it.
You've only got two more years to go, then you can be as creepy as your heart desires.
I can't wait two years.
Yes you can, you tactless turd. In fact it's probably for the best that you stay away from her for the rest of these next two years as it is, otherwise she'll never see you as anything other than that one idiot kid she had to teach.
She won't see me that way. We both know I'm irresistible.
You're quite resistible, friend. And Evans seems to be doing quite the job of resisting you. You should stay away from her before you slip the truth. We both know if she finds out what you did, she'll hate you for the rest of your miserable little life.
She thinks I'm stunning, I can tell. She also likes my hair.
Lily Evans laughed aloud at this; she rather thought his hair was stupid. She felt a little guilty about snooping, but was much too curious to stop at this point. That and she wanted to know what he'd done that was so bad she'd hate him for it.
And unless you tell her, she's never going to find out what I did, so shut up you mighty twat.
Just get over her for the time being. Date that Maud bird. She just about drools every time you walk past, its right funny. I could do with seeing her arse more often too, I reckon she must do fifty squats a day.
Her arse isn't that nice.
Slander. Her arse is almost as nice as mine.
It can't be that nice if I've never noticed it.
Have you ever noticed my arse?
No, Padfoot. I have not.
Case and point, bud. You don't notice anyone's arse but hers.
Do you think Evans charms her hair to sit that way? Look at it.
Probably. I don't care, we were talking about arses, don't skip off into the land of Lily Evans and her hair and her 'Beautiful Green Eyes that may Hold a Screen of Lies'
You shut up about my poetry.
I will when you stop writing trash. Bad poetry hurts us all.
You don't have to read it, you know.
Oh, but I do. It's much too funny to ignore. Me and the lads give dramatic reading on Wednesdays when you're in Binns' 6:30 detention.
Moony'd never stand for that.
Oh he usually stands for readings. Sometimes even on a table for all of the common room to hear.
You're lying.
Sometimes I really wish I was.
She scrunched the note back up and tossed it back in the trash, amused, but with her curiosity amplified and then left completely unfulfilled.
She gathered her things and made her way through the castle to her room.
It was much smaller than the Gryffindor girls dorm that she was used to, but she had this one to herself.
There was a bedroom (bedecked in familiar red and gold) a small lounging area with a comfortable couch and a fireplace (also bedecked in familiar red and gold) and a large bathroom (which wasn't at all bedecked in red and gold, but had a shower with fantastic water pressure instead to make up for it.) The room even had a large cabinet next to the fireplace where she could keep all of her miscellaneous potions and charmed objects.
It was standing in front of this cabinet that she found Benjy Fenwick, who was examining a tiny bottle of veritaserum that she was aging for use on any of the Marauders should they try to lie.
It wasn't technically allowed for use on students, but she remembered at one ball she and Marlene McKinnon had spiked the punchbowl with a rather large dose and it had made for a very fun evening.
She figured that it wouldn't be too difficult to convince another student to do the same.
Benjy, apparently hadn't heard her enter.
He was meant to be back with Marlene- training to be an auror-
She saw him, and dropped her bag.
Benjy's face broke out into a huge, friendly grin.
Benjy had always been good at huge friendly grins, he had an easy sort of nature that made him very easy to like.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, very pleased to see him.
"I came for a visit, now come over here and give me a hug you silly sod."
She did as he asked, and the hug made her feel quite a bit better about just about everything.
"How are you enjoying teaching?" He asked the top of her head.
"It's rubbish. How are you enjoying training?"
He sighed a bit too dramatically.
"It's not all it's cracked up to be, Evans."
"You're lying to make me feel better, aren't you." She said.
"Just a bit, yeah."
With that, she sighed and let go of him.
"How did you get in here, anyway?"
"My special Auror training has given me the skills necessary to-"
"You guessed my password, didn't you?"
"It's your own fault, you always use the same one. Let's go down to the hall for lunch, I'm famished."
"Alright, tell me what you're doing here on the way down." She said, picking up her back to dump it on her already over-cluttered desk.
She made a mental note to change her password to something very long and difficult next time she had the chance.
"So. Why is it that you're here?" She asked as they started down the staircases.
"I missed house elves cooking. I've no idea how they get the outside of the potatoes so crunchy, I've got to ask one of them."
"And why else are you here?" She said, running her hands along the cold railing.
"Alright, old mate McGonagall wrote Marly and me a letter telling us that you were, well, miserable. So we decided to pop down in our holiday to see you."
"Then where's Marlene?" Lily asked.
Seeing Benjy was all well and good, and she didn't mean to sound rude, but of the two of them, she missed Marlene more.
Benjy laughed.
"Well, she was supposed to be here with me, but she got so excited about seeing you that she couldn't focus on training. Mad-Eye's keeping her back a few days to finish up, but she should be here after that."
"And how long are you staying for?" She asked as they crossed the threshold of the Great Hall. The two of them walked past the table that they'd sat at every day of their education, and continued up the plaitform to the table where the Professors sat.
"For as long as you'll have me, I guess." He said, pulling up a chair to the teachers table. "Now this is weird." He said under his breath, looking over at the students from an elevated position.
"I know. It takes a bit of getting used to." She said.
"James Potter is staring at me." Said Benjy as Lily loaded her plate.
"Flip him off then, see what happens." She said, more focused on a rather nice looking bit of roast chicken.
Instead, Benjy greeted the other teachers and tried not to make a fool of himself while eating at the teachers table.
Lily looked over the students to see that Potter was still indeed glaring industriously at Benjy.
"He's still looking at you." She told her friend.
"I know," he smiled. "I think it's sweet. He's still got a crush on you." He cooed at her, taking a bite of sandwich.
"What do you mean 'still'?" She asked, nose scrunching.
"Oh don't be thick, Lily, that boy has worshipped the ground you walked on since he was a tiny little first year."
"No he hasn't," she denied.
"Oh he has. Why do you think he was always such a right little twat whenever you were around?"
"Because he's a shithead?"
"No. because he was an idiot little boy. And that's what idiot little boys do when they're in love with someone who's older than them. He was acting out because he was too short to pull your pigtails."
"You're an idiot, Fenwick."
"I know. But I'm only telling the truth as I see it."
She grinned at him.
"You think it's funny, don't you."
"Yes. But to be fair, that's only because it is. Now what do you think of the Prewetts, because they wanted to come down for a visit as well but no one would give them permission to come back on school grounds."
"Well after the stunt they pulled with the staircases, I'm not surprised. It took the teachers an age to get the antlers off."
"And even longer to get the purple out. Anyway, they're going to be down in Hogsmeade for a week and a bit if you want to go down there and get a drink with them later."
"Sounds good. I've got some detentions and papers to grade first though," Lily said around some bacon that her teeth had pulled all the way out of her sandwich.
"We'll go on Friday, that way we can get properly sloshed and you won't have to wake up to teach the next morning."
"There's a plan. Do you think Marlene will be here by then?"
"You can't just be bloody happy to see me, can you. It's just like seventh year all over again," he mocked kindly with a good natured smile.
"Oh hush. You like Marlene better than you like me as well."
"That's true." He conceded with a bit of a blush.
"Aw, you're blushing. Cute. You made a move yet?"
"No."
"You're training to be an auror, a hunter of dark wizards, but you're not brave enough to ask out a girl you fancy?"
"I'm pathetic, I already know. No need to rub it in my face." He said with an eye roll.
"Look, it's easy. Just walk up to her and say 'Hey McKinnon. We're doing dinner on Thursday.'"
"That sounds a bit rude."
"She likes forceful men, you know the sort. Beaters that've had all their brain cells killed."
He looked down at his narrow chest and made a face.
"Look, just shove her up against a wall and snog her. She'll like that."
"Lily, I can't shove her up against anything, do you know how much stronger than me she is?"
"You're making excuses, Fenwick. Do you want to shag her or not?"
"Of course I do."
"Then stop thinking about it and do it. Now I'll see you in a bit, I've got to go teach a group of Slytherins who refuse to listen to me because I'm muggle-born."
Her old friend looked at her for a long moment.
"You've gotten a bit tougher since the last time I've seen you, haven't you?" He said, a small furrow between his eyebrows.
"Nah. I've just got much less patience. It comes with having to deal with James Potter and his shit little gang."