Author's Note: The second chapter! Enjoy & don't forget to drop a word! If you find any mistakes, do let me know. I'm trying to write mistake-free chapters...

Chapter Two

James Potter entered the Transfiguration classroom, smiling broadly, although there was a look of alarm and trouble in his eyes. Sirius Black, James Potter's best mate, seeing him enter, immediately waved him over.

"James! Nice of you to join us!" Sirius cried brightly as James took a seat beside him. Peter glanced over at the newly seated boy.

"How'd it go with the Headmaster?" inquired Peter, cocking his brow. "Did he hand out more detentions?"

"Nah," James shrugged as he pulled out his Transfiguration things from his bag. "Just made some batty jokes. I think he was getting tired of me being in his office all the time."

"Maybe he's finally going mad after being the Headmaster for such a long time," pondered Sirius, tapping his chin.

"Maybe." James glanced up curiously at his mates. "Wait, where's Remus? I thought he said he would be back by Transfiguration."

Sirius sighed, leaning back in his chair. "So he said. You know you can never really trust you-know-whats."

"True," shrugged James, leaning back in his own chair, following Sirius' suit. "How did you do on your potion? Not a complete failure?"

Peter laughed. "A complete failure. I think we've invented a new grading term."

"Really? What?"

"Troll," Sirius answered before bursting out in laughter. "You should've seen Slughorn's face when he was scribbling down our grades! It was priceless!"

James cracked a smile, but couldn't help but feel slightly worried with what Dumbledore had said to him and Lily. The Headmaster hadn't been known to joke... But it had to be a joke, right? I mean, such spells couldn't be legal? Or real. He'd certainly never heard of such a thing. But then again, he said it was an ancient spell...

"Ugh, my head," complained James, clutching his head painfully as questions wracked his brain.

"Troubles, Mister Potter?"

James looked up and found that class had already begun and he had spoken out loud. He grinned innocently and shook his head. "No, nothing, professor. I'm quite well."

"Then please keep silent," McGonagall sniffed, returning to her lecture.

Keep silent, my arse, he complained before leaning on one arm and glancing half-heartedly towards McGonagall. He attempted to tune in to the lesson, but instead found his mind turning to his adventure in Dumbledore's office...

"Wha- What is it?" Lily had inquired, wringing her hands nervously. The Headmaster turned to her with a grave look.

"It's a spell that will cause your bodies to be switched," Professor Dumbledore explained in a calm manner. "So you will be in Mister Potter's body while he will be in yours."

Lily and James stared back at the professor, stunned with the explanation. He had to be joking, right?

"B- But Professor," Lily stammered, her face white as a sheet. "Is that legal?"

"Quite, Miss Evans," he answered.

"Professor, you can't be serious!" James protested, his face a shade of a sickly green. Professor Dumbledore's blue eyes turned to him.

"You and Miss Evans are having disagreements that will not be resolved until you understand why each of you do things a certain way. I believe this is only a method that will assist you in understanding."

"We can learn in another way!" Lily interrupted desperately. "We could spend time together and try to learn and be mates–"

"Miss Evans, I know you do not enjoy spending time with Mister Potter," said Professor Dumbledore with a hint of a smile. "This spell won't be permanent and it will be beneficial to both of you. It's only an experiment and if events begin to be too tough, then I will comply to switch to another way to deal with your arguments."

"But professor, I like my life!" cried James. "I don't want to live like a girl, even if it's Lily, for even just a few days!"

"Mister Potter, it is not as if I'm asking you to live in Miss Evans' body for the rest of your lifetime. You will soon understand the pattern of Miss Evans' lifestyle and I'm sure you might be able to understand her much better after this week."

"A week?" Lily shrieked, looking aghast. "For a whole week?"

"A week is not a long time," dismissed Dumbledore. "And it is an excellent way to learn to tolerate Mister Potter's behaviors."

"There has to be another way!" cried James, looking like he would pull out his hair. "Community service or detentions together or something–"

"Hagrid did mention wanting help with a certain breeding process," began the Professor, stroking his chin. "It's to last for the rest of the school year if you would rather take that offer."

"Which- Which animals?" stammered James, looking hopeful.

"I believe he said manticores and fire crabs," the Headmaster replied thoughtfully, raising his eyebrows. "Would you rather–"

"Bloody hell, absolutely not," Lily said immediately, looking thoroughly disgusted, probably asking herself why Hagrid would do breed such dangerous creatures.

"Why not?" protested James, looking miffed. "I think anything's better than switching bodies."

"You realize the manticore is rated XXXXX on the Ministry of Magic's Dangerous Beasts scale?" Lily snapped without her usual venomous bite since she was much too frightened and dismayed with the aspect of the punishment. "And even if the fire crab rates only XXX, do you think it'll be fun to try to breed these creatures?"

James paled considerably, but turned to Dumbledore with a frown. "I believe you're trying to threaten us into this ancient spell."

"Perhaps," smiled the Headmaster, folding his hands together on his desk. "So have you made your decision?"

"Reluctantly," grumbled James. "But we'll take your bloody spell, professor."

Ignoring the rude word, Professor Dumbledore smiled softly, probably mighty pleased to have them switch bodies willingly even though they were grumbling, and began a series of complicated wand movements. James tried to follow so he could attempt to discover a counter spell, but found it very confusing after the third swish of the wand. Soon, after the strange waving, the professor pointed his wand at James and Lily and muttered the spell quietly, so quiet that Lily had to strain to hear him.

"Vicissious."

Suddenly, a glow of blue light sprouted out from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand, beginning to circle the two very confused and disagreeable students. Gradually, the brilliance of the light began to increase, so much so that Dumbledore couldn't continue on staring in that direction. With a strange whir, unlike the mechanisms in the Headmaster's office, the light that had started with a humble glow and eventually erupted into a large ball of luminance that had covered the two, suddenly exploded, the light fragments shooting across the room like shards of deadly glass. Soon, the blinding light began to diminish and soon Dumbledore was restored sight on the two youngsters. They looked dazed and Lily rubbed her eyes, probably due to the bright lights.

"Professor?" James, or the person in James' body, began slowly. "I- I don't feel any different. I don't think the spell worked..."

"Um, yeah, professor," stammered Lily, looking mightily confused, but rather reassured. "I'm still... me."

"Or so it seems," the Headmaster commented mysteriously. "You may go to your next class, I'm sorry for keeping you so long."

"Er, it's alright," James answered, a bit shaken with the events of the day. "But you were joking, weren't you?"

Dumbledore only smiled in that knowing way of his, his eyes sparkling with a smile in place. Lily, having lost the reassurance, returned to the thought of dread as she rose from her seat and made her way out the door along with James. She turned to him.

"You don't really think that he was serious, do you?"

James gave her a look. "I don't know what I know anymore, but I just have a terrible feeling about this."

"Me too," Lily gulped as they walked down the staircase and entered the corridor, the gargoyle replacing its spot once again. "No offense, Potter, but I really don't want to be in your body."

"I want to be in your body, if you know what I mean," winked James audaciously. Lily immediately reddened and snarled.

"Potter!" she shrieked, pulling out a quill from her bag and chucking it at him mercilessly. "How dare you!"

He laughed and ran away towards the direction of the Transfiguration classroom before she could throw any more dangerously sharp quills at him. Lily fumed, threatening to erase the possibility of him having any future generations, and stomped away towards the Charms classroom, muttering about "stupid, arrogant, disgusting, ugly, disagreeable, unwanted messy-haired idiots in the school" and how they should just "go mate with a manticore just to relieve the human generation of its stupidity".

– – – – –

"That was the most excellent raid of the kitchen we've had in a very long time," remarked Sirius as his stuffed his mouth. "Don't you agree?"

"Most definitely," answered Peter with a nod. "Look at all the food we got. We could probably stay in our dormitory for the rest of the month with all this."

The four boys, dubbed the Marauders (who's idea it was, no one could remember), were walking back to the Gryffindor boys' dormitories after their visit to the kitchens, holding bags of food and stuffing their faces. They were more than content.

"This drumstick is the most excellent," remarked Remus who had returned from his visit to his mum. His return from the two-day long trip was the whole point of the four's travels to the kitchens since they thought a celebration was in order.

"I know," Peter agreed, nodding. "You know, the house elves are most lenient. They would probably give you the sacks they're wearing if you asked them to."

"Merlin, Peter, do you have to talk about naked house elves?" Sirius said, flinching. "To imagine Kreacher– Oh, bloody hell, that is just– Ugh."

Remus glanced over at Sirius and wrinkled his nose. "Sirius, do you have to eat like that? You're such a pig!"

"Now, now, Remus, Sirius is a growing boy. He needs his nourishment," James said in an explanatory voice, patting Sirius' black hair. The two grinned at Remus who looked quitedisgusted.

"Please don't do the whole 'Cute Sirius' act again," Remus begged, remembering a time far ago when they had the whole act planned out with speeches that would've set even the most gushy great-aunts gagging. "You know how traumatizing that was."

"As you wish, Remus," Sirius cried, letting out his bark-like laugh which began to ring through the corridors. Remus clenched his teeth.

"Why are you so loud?" he hissed. "Don't you realize we can be caught by Filch?"

"I'm not loud," complained Sirius. "I have the right amount of volume for a fifteen-year-old bloke."

Peter snorted. "Are you sure?"

"Oi, no need to use sarcasm."

"Look, let's just get to the dormitories," suggested James, wincing when the portraits began complaining loudly and as you know, most of their voices carry. "I don't want to get in trouble when I was let off so easily today."

"Say, you never explained what really happened," Sirius began, tapping his chin. "And for Remus' sake, you might want to retell the whole story."

Remus raised his eyebrows suspiciously. "You got into more trouble?"

"The fault was half Evans'," James insisted, feeling the need to protect his ego. Why did he have to be blamed as the troublesome child anyway? Just because he planned a few pranks didn't mean he was completely a bad cookie. "We were arguing in Potions so Slughorn sent us to Dumbledore's with a week's worth of detentions. But when I got to Dumbledore's, he told us that he was going to switch our bodies."

"What?" cried Sirius, coughing wildly. "Switch bodies? Is that even legal?"

"You mean he was going to put you in Lily's body and Lily in your body?" Remus repeated, scratching his head slightly. "That's just... not right."

"I know!" James cried, relieved to find people who actually agreed with him.

"So did you switch bodies with Lily?" inquired Peter, cocking his head curiously.

Sirius snorted, shaking his head. "Get real, Peter. If he'd switched bodies with Evans, we would know because he would be acting like Evans. Duh."

"Dumbledore was joking then?" Peter asked, raising his eyebrows and ignoring Sirius.

"Probably," shrugged James. "He made some strange comments, but–"

"But nothing," Sirius interrupted with a snort. "You're not going to switch bodies with Evans. That just... isn't right. And probably won't work."

Remus rolled his eyes, sighing. "It's Dumbledore we're talking about, not Amos Diggory."

"So what? Doing something like this constitutes some legal issues. Even Dumbledore wouldn't be stupid enough to try to break the law just to enforce discipline in students."

"You're right. If he was that stupid, then you would've been dead a long time ago," James commented with a laugh. Remus chortled along with Peter while Sirius merely frowned.

"Oh, that's so funny, Jamesie. You're so clever, so clever," he mocked, using a voice that was supposed to be James'. "Stupid git."

"I love you too, Sirius," winked James with a grin. "You know that– Ouch! Who the hell put a... cat in the corridor?"

"Mrs. Norris?" Peter mouthed, his eyes wide. The gray cat mewed, staring at the four boys disapprovingly with its green eyes. Sirius swallowed.

"Of all days to say, 'Screw the Invisibility Cloak!'" Remus remarked bitterly, biting his lip. "Let's slowly sneak away before she makes noise and maybe–"

"Meow!" the cat began crying loudly, loud enough to wake even the ghosts. Sirius swore under his breath with words that would even make a sailor cringe and run for cover.

"Run!" hissed James when they heard a voice cry, "Who is it, Mrs. Norris? One of the nasty students out after hours?"

The four began to carefully shuffle past the cat, trying to make their way to the Fat Lady before they were caught, when Mrs. Norris, being a foolish and troublesome cat, latched onto Sirius' pant leg, reminding one quite of one of the fangirls in the school. Sirius cursed again.

"Get off me, you stupid cat!" he snarled, shaking his leg so violently that Mrs. Norris was launched into the air. It meowed furiously, trying to grab hold of something to stabilize itself.

"Run!" Sirius cried again, dashing up the staircases to make their way to the seventh floor. Luckily, all the staircases were in place and they eventually made their way up to the top and was about to supply the Fat Lady the password when they heard a loud cry:

"Who kicked my cat? Professor Dumbledore!"

Sirius, snickering, supplied the needed password to a much complaining Fat Lady and the four entered the Gryffindor common room, praising each other for the victory of the day.