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-xAndromedaBlackx-

Tap, tap, tap.

Lily chewed on a strand of her long red hair and frowned down at her paper. Transfiguration was usually her second-best subject, but this quiz was rather hard, even for her own standards.

She sighed and blinked down again at the question about Human Transfiguration: What had Professor McGonagall said again about that particular subject?

Lily racked her mind for an answer, but none came.

Tap, tap, tap.

Lily turned and glared irritably at Lu, who was mindlessly tapping her quill on her desk. Lu looked up and gave Lily a cheeky grin so reminiscent of James Potter that it was actually quite scary.

Speaking of James Potter, Lily turned to look at the spawn of Satan himself. Potter was scribbling down answers on his parchment, an intent, studious expression on his face.

Lily scowled to herself. She was the second-best student in Transfiguration, but why did James bloody Potter have to be the first? He was a Marauder, for goodness sake!

Remus Lupin was writing down answers, too. He paused and frowned slightly at his paper.

Sirius Black didn't seem to really care much. He was staring out the window, and occasionally he turned back to his paper to write something down.

Peter Pettigrew was scribbling frantically onto his paper. Sometimes he glanced up and tried to sneak a peek at his neighbor's paper.

Lily sighed to herself and glanced over at her friends. Lu was tapping her quill on the desk again (Tap, tap, tap). It was extremely irritating.

Marlene and Alice were both thinking. It was quite obvious they were, anyway. Bethie was chewing nervously at the tip of her quill, clearly fishing through her mind for answers.

Lily sighed again and glanced back down at the question, deciding just to skip this one. She didn't understand the concept of the question, anyway. Why was it asking about Human Transfiguration when the whole—

Tap, tap, tap.

Lily felt her nerves begin to fray. Why couldn't Lu stop that ridiculous, completely unnecessary tapping, for Merlin's sake?

Tap, tap, tap.

Lily began chewing at the tip of her quill like Bethie was, trying to block out the sound. She couldn't concentrate.

Tap, tap, tap.

Lily glanced back down at her paper. The next question ("Why is Human Transfiguration risky?") was easy. She scribbled down the answer—Human Transfiguration is risky because if it goes wrong, you may not be able to get yourself back to the way you first were, and if say you turn yourself into an animal, if there is no one around who witnessed you doing this and they don't understand animals, you won't be able to turn yourself back into a human—and moved on to the next one.

Tap, tap, tap.

"Lu! Stop it!"

The class blinked, startled out of their stupor. Lu shot up in her seat so fast it reminded Lily of a jack-in-the-box.

"Miss Evans, Miss Baker, what is the problem?" Professor McGonagall asked irritably, coming over from her desk. Her gray hair was pulled in a tight bun as usual, and her face was marred with frown lines.

"Can you please ask Lu not to tap her quill on her desk?" Lily asked, gritting her teeth.

"Miss Baker, please do not tap your quill on your desk. It may be distracting to other students," Professor McGonagall ordered, before turning back to her desk.

Lu stuck her tongue out at Lily, who glared back. Honestly…

She turned back to her paper and frowned. Now there was no sound to distract her from the horror of this extremely hard Transfiguration quiz. She didn't understand the next problem, nor the next one, and the one after that… well, she simply hadn't studied that part well enough.

Lily racked her brain for instances of Human Transfiguration in the textbook and her notes that she had taken in class, but came up empty. She could barely remember anything.

She was usually good at Transfiguration. What was wrong with her?

"Five more minutes," Professor McGonagall called from the front of the room.

Lily shot up in her seat, not unlike the way Lu had when Lily had called her out. Five minutes! She still had six problems to do, and four of them she didn't understand!

Frantically, Lily began scribbling down whatever came to mind about Human Transfiguration—maybe Professor McGonagall would give her partial credit?

At least she understood the last question. That one wasn't hard.

"Time is up. Please pass your papers to the front of the class," Professor McGonagall said.

Lily swallowed hard and put her quill down, willing herself not to cry. Why hadn't she understood this material? She was going to fail, she was sure of it!

"Pass your paper up," the boy sitting in front of Lily snapped at her. Numbly, she handed the paper over.

"Class dismissed," Professor McGonagall called over the ruckus that usually followed the silence of test/quiz-taking time.

Lily gathered up her things and tossed them in her bag, not caring if her books got stained with ink. She was going to fail Transfiguration and be kicked out, anyway, so who cared?

"That quiz was actually quite hard," Marlene commented as the five friends (Lily, Lu, Marlene, Bethie, and Alice) walked out of the classroom. "I didn't understand the last two problems."

"It was hard," Bethie admitted. "It took me forever to find the right answers."

Lily swallowed. Her friends had gotten the right answers. Why hadn't she, then?

"Oh, come on," Alice said, shrugging. "It was hard, but not that hard. N.E.W.T.s are going to be way harder."

"Speaking of N.E.W.T.s," Lu cut in, changing the subject. She turned to Lily with an accusing glare. "Why did you try to get me in trouble in class today?"

"That has nothing to do with N.E.W.T.s," Bethie pointed out.

"Whatever." Lu shrugged. "But seriously, Lily, why did you?"

"I couldn't concentrate with your annoying tapping going on," Lily muttered. "Sorry."

"Still, you could've, I don't know, passed me a note or something saying—"

"Hey, break it up," Bethie interjected. "It wasn't that important."

"I guess not," Lu relented. "So, what homework do we have today?"

"A Charms essay is due tomorrow," Marlene offered.

"And a Potions essay is due the day after tomorrow," Alice added.

"My brothers weren't kidding when they said N.E.W.T. year is hard," Lu grumbled.

Lily held her breath as Professor McGonagall walked around the room. It was three days after Lily had taken the extremely difficult Transfiguration quiz, and she was still praying for a miracle. Maybe she hadn't failed.

"I was rather disappointed with your grades," Professor McGonagall commented dryly as she began passing the papers out. "Unfortunately, only one person received full marks. The second highest grade was an A."

A for Acceptable. Lily swallowed hard. I know it's impossible, but please let it be me who got the A. Please oh please oh please, I swear I'm praying…

Professor McGonagall slapped Lily's quiz paper down on her desk. Lily chanced a glance at her professor, but she had already moved on to the next desk.

Lily flipped the paper over and swallowed hard. The paper was slashed with red marks. Slowly, her eyes traveled up to the grade at the top.

P.

She, Lily Rosita Evans, had gotten a bloody P for Poor on a quiz in her second-best subject.

What the bloody hell was wrong with her?

Professor McGonagall began lecturing about Human Transfiguration again, but Lily wasn't listening. The moment class was dismissed, Lily rushed out of the room.

"Evans! Hey, Evans!"

Lily refused to slow down. In fact, the voice just made her speed up. If James Potter seriously thought she was going to slow down to talk to him, he was dreadfully mistaken.

"Hey Evans, wait up!"

Lily ignored him. She was almost out of the classroom corridor anyway.

"Oy, woman!"

Well, that was something Lily could not ignore. She spun around, furious.

"Potter, if you sink as low as that to call me something that degrading again you will be sorry you were ever born," she threatened.

Potter didn't look sorry, embarrassed, or even a little bit scared at all. In fact, all he looked was amused. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly.

"I just wanted to say…" he hesitated.

"Spit it out, Potter!" Lily demanded.

Potter looked taken aback—for a second. Then he grinned. "I just wanted to say… I saw your quiz grade in Transfiguration."

Lily felt her face pale and her breath come out in harsh gasps. He did not just say that. James bloody Potter did not. Just. Say. That.

Apparently, he had.

"It was an accident, I swear," he added, like he wanted to confirm that it wasn't his fault (of course, nothing ever was. The Marauders were perfect—that's sarcasm, in case you didn't notice). "But I just wanted to tell you, I'm the one who got full marks on that quiz. And if you like, I could tutor you in Transfiguration. You'd pass every other test, quiz, or exam, because I'm really good at Transfiguration. And you're lucky to have me as a tutor. All the girls will be jealous." He flashed Lily a charming grin.

At least, any other girl would have found it charming. Lily, personally, found it revolting.

Her answer came instantaneously. "No, Potter."

The bottom of Potter's grin fell out. "But—"

"No buts. You seriously think you can just come strutting up to me like the arrogant prick that you are, tell me you've seen my bloody bad grade, offer to tutor me, brag about how great you are, and then act like that's not a bad thing?" Lily shook her head in disbelief. "You amaze me, Potter. You really do. And that's not a good thing. Now if you'll excuse me." Lily stomped away, still shocked at Potter's offer. Had he seriously thought she was going to say yes? After the way he had been acting?

He really needed to get his priorities set straight. Or else it would be the end of him.

Who knew, maybe the bloody prick would try to negotiate a deal with Voldemort, that creepy megalomaniac who was going around killing people for the fun of it.

As long as he got himself killed in the process, Lily wouldn't mind.

Haha. Lily is harsh. And before you flame me for Lily's overreaction to her bad grade (funny, I've never gotten a flame before in my life, I think), remember this: everything is for a reason.

Review!

-xAndromedaBlackx-

(Chapter edited October 6th, 2008.)