Author's Note: I don't really have much to say…
Title: Partners in Love
Rating: PG
Spoilers: As always, Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, but just a little bit.
Summary: In Transfiguration class, Lily gets paired with James for the whole year and, well, you can guess what happens…
Disclaimer: Nope! Not me! I don't own anything except for… the non-famous stuff.
Setting: This story is set in Lily and James's days at Hogwarts. It starts out in 5th year.
*** = setting change
italics = emphasis
italics = thoughts
~What Was That?~
Thursday night of the next week, the sixth years were studying for their next Transfiguration exam.
"McGonagall's getting harder on us this year," James mused.
"Yeah," Alyssa agreed.
"What do you do when you want to change a flower into a hamster?" Danielle asked.
"I miss Tara," Sirius said.
"Sirius," everyone said.
"What? I do."
Remus replied, "You're going to break up with her in two days, Padfoot. You know it, I know it—"
"But does she know it?" Lily asked.
Danielle said, "Sirius, I can't believe you. How can you keep doing this to so many girls?"
Victoria answered, "Dani, you're just upset because Sirius dumped you fourth year."
"Shut up."
Sirius chuckled. "Well, Danielle, I'm sorry if I've hurt you. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused you," he said, bowing and making extravagant gestures.
"I accept your apology," she replied, very seriously. Then she broke out laughing.
The others started laughing with her.
Lawrence Parker came down the stairs of the boys' dormitory.
"Hi, Lawrence," Victoria said when she saw him.
"Hello," he replied. "Lyssa, did you get Mum's letter?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Well, I'm off to the library." Lawrence walked out of the common room.
Alyssa looked at her friend, somewhat amused. "Obvious much, Vicky?"
"Hmm?"
Lily shook her head. "Honestly, Victoria, you are hopeless."
***
The next morning, the Gryffindor sixth years were asleep in the common room.
Kendall woke up and found that the others were still sleeping. He checked his watch. 5:30. It was still early. He closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
About an hour later, Sirius awoke to find Melanie dozing on his shoulder. He tried not to disturb her as he got into a more comfortable position.
I never noticed before, Sirius thought. Melanie's really pretty. He looked across the circle of furniture they had made. Lily and James were asleep on the couch, and James's arms had somehow found their way around Lily's waist.
Sirius grinned. Boy, was he going to have fun with this.
***
Alyssa opened her eyes. Sirius was looking at her. He gestured toward Lily and James. Alyssa put a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughing.
Pretty soon, all of them except James and Lily were awake. The girls all started giggling. The Marauders grinned at each other. Kendall smiled a little.
"Hey," Remus said, shaking the two of them. "Wake up."
"Huh?"
"What?"
James opened his eyes, saw the position he had been in, and jumped up, dumping Lily on the floor in the process.
Lily shrieked as she hit the ground. Then she got up, punched James, and yelled, "What was that about, Potter?!"
"It's not my fault! Don't yell at me!"
Lily turned on Sirius, who had been snickering in the background. "What is so funny?"
Sirius struggled to keep a straight face. "Nothing, Lily, absolutely nothing."
"Whatever. I'm going to my room!"
Lily stormed up the stairs, her face turning as red as her hair with embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Sirius was giving James significant looks.
James finally noticed and asked, "What, Padfoot?"
"Nothing, Prongs. I was just wondering…"
"Wondering what?" he said suspiciously.
"I was just wondering why you had your arms around her waist while you were sleeping."
"How am I supposed to know? It just happened. It's not like I did it on purpose!"
"Sure…"
"Sirius Black, do not push me right now," James growled.
"Fine, James Potter."
***
"No!"
"You go!"
"No, you go!"
"Stop pushing me!"
"You go!"
"Wait, you guys—ah!"
Danielle, Alyssa, and Victoria pushed Melanie into the girls' dorm room, causing her to almost fall on her face. The girls had figured that Melanie was the least threatening-looking one of them, so she was the best choice to send in to talk to Lily, who was in a bad mood, based on what they had seen downstairs in the common room. Melanie looked back at them with a semi-panicked look on her face.
She adjusted her robes and slowly approached Lily, whose back was to her. "Um… Lily?"
"Hi, Mel," Lily replied, glancing at her from her place on her bed.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Fine. I'm just perfect," she said sarcastically.
Melanie didn't say anything for a moment. She stood there, looking curiously at her friend. "I guess you don't want to talk."
"Not right now."
"Okay. We're going to breakfast… Are you coming?"
"Maybe. I'm not very hungry at the moment." Lily turned around as Melanie reached the door. "Hey, Mel?"
"Hmm?"
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
Melanie walked down the stairs.
***
Kendall walked behind Remus and Peter as they made their way to breakfast. The girls (minus Lily) were ahead of them. Sirius was poking fun at James in front of the girls.
"So," Sirius began, "how come you were in such a compromising position, Prongs?"
"Sirius, shut up."
"Oh, no. This is way too good."
Danielle giggled.
***
That day in Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall made an announcement that greatly pleased the Marauders.
"Class, today we will begin study on Animagi, much more in depth than we have in your previous years here." She assigned the first lesson for them to read in their books and left them to take notes on it for the rest of the period.
Lily immediately began reading and taking notes. Her partner, on the other hand, didn't even have his book open. James was just sitting there, staring at nothing in particular.
"Aren't you going to start reading?" Lily asked. "My marks are partly based on yours, and if you don't do well on these lessons, I will kill you."
"Don't worry about it. I'll do fine."
"Uh-huh. Whatever," she replied, turning back to her book so she wouldn't have to see the smirk he had on his face.
***
Melanie was taking notes as well, but she seemed to have gotten confused. She read the section again, then looked at her notes and tried to figure out where she had gone wrong.
Sirius, like James, did not seem very interested in beginning the work. He glanced at Melanie, who kept moving her eyes from the book to her parchment looking increasingly more bewildered. "Is something wrong?"
"Hmm?" Melanie said absently, pushing her hair out of her eyes.
"You look very confused."
"Well, I don't understand what this is saying. I'm not that good at this."
"Oh, that's okay. What are you not sure about?"
She pointed out the paragraph that she had been looking at.
Sirius scooted his chair closer to her so he could see it. "Oh, that. First you have to do this, then—"
***
Alyssa glanced up from her notes to see Sirius moving closer to Melanie from his seat in the front row. She smiled softly and tried to keep from laughing.
Remus, who had his book open, but wasn't really paying attention to it, looked at her curiously. "What is it?"
"Just—nothing."
"Come on, what is it?"
She pointed two rows in front of her. Then she turned around in her seat to say something to Danielle. "Dani, look at Sirius and Mel," she whispered.
Danielle looked. "That's different."
"What do you want to bet that he asks her out?"
"Melanie? No way. I mean, Sirius is running out of girls to ask, but Melanie? She's so shy and… she doesn't seem to be his type…"
"As I recall, you weren't his type either, Danielle," Victoria said from behind her.
"Shut up, Vicky. Alyssa, time limit?"
"One month."
"Two weeks."
"Three."
"Fine. Ten Galleons."
"Deal." The two girls shook hands.
Victoria spoke up quietly from behind them, "Can I get in on this? I bet Sirius asks Mel, but she doesn't accept."
"I bet she does. Sirius does seem to be rather charming to every other girl in school," Alyssa replied.
"Okay, then. Ten Galleons."
"All right."
The girls turned back to their assignment.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author's Note: Ooh… Sirius and Melanie, huh? *grin* You don't have to review if you don't want to, but I'd greatly appreciate it.
