YAY! I got AWESOME reviews for the last chapter and for that I want to give a huge virtual hug to my reviewers. You guys ROCK :)

I want to point something out before you start reading though. A lot of people had said that they liked how James and Lily's personalities are switched - but I want to acknowledge that this idea, sadly, does not belong entirely to me. I built up on it, certainly, but the original idea belongs to a friend of mine here on fanfiction and in real life, too - she came up with it when she suggested that we write a fanfiction together. She wanted to make James a complete nerd, though, while I stuck to making him a likeable, timid little guy. Also, I had planned to bring out Lily's mean side in this, like she originally planned, but I haven't, really.

But please note that here I am still talking about the idea of swapping their personalities. The rest of the plot belongs to me.

I still want to dedicate this chapter to her, though, and let her know that this wouldn't have been possible without her genuis. The reviews were for her as much as they were for me. I love you and I miss you so much! Hope you come down to Dubai soon :)

Okay, so on with chapter 7.


7

[THURSDAY]

I woke up very early feeling refreshed and elated for the first time in what seemed like ages.

The first thing I remembered was that Lily and I were now friends. I leapt out of bed in my boxers and did a little dance, my hair flying in all directions. The loud music blaring in my now ache-free head was interrupted suddenly by Sirius coming out of nowhere and yelling, "JAMES!" right in my face.

I stopped dancing immediately and looked around frantically. "Whatwhatwhat?"

"I was just trying to get you to stop already," Sirius said, grinning. "What happened yesterday at the hospital wing?"

I smiled blissfully and sighed. "I tell you, Sirius, I have captured that girl's heart. Pretty soon she's going to be falling all over me."

"Seriously? God, I've never seen you so happy," he said, laughing. All animosity between us seemed to have dissipated; we were talking as if nothing had ever happened.

"Okay, so maybe I haven't quite captured her heart," I corrected myself. But then I winked and added, "Yet. She's agreed to be my friend. We talked so much, it was great. And" – I was practically gushing now – "Sirius, I made her laugh!" I spun around with my arms outstretched, almost whacking Sirius's head off his shoulders, and then stopped and strummed at an invisible electric guitar, laughing all the time. "Oh yeah!"

"Wow, James, that's great. That's really great." He clapped me on the shoulder. "Good for you, mate."

"Yeah," I sighed again. "It's so weird, though, because the other day I bumped into her in the corridor and she didn't know me and she helped me with my things but not a word, Sirius, not a word – and then yesterday we were talking so much, it was so –"

"James." He said it so seriously that I stopped babbling and looked at him.

"What? What's up?"

"I've got to talk to you. About yesterday."

So much for talking as if nothing happened. "But I thought you told me everything at the hospital wing."

"Yeah, I told you everything. But due to your unfortunate inability to speak" – I smirked; this was his way of apologizing to me for breaking my nose – "you didn't tell me anything."

"First enlighten me, Sirius," I said cheerfully, flopping down on the bed and folding my hands behind my head on the pillow, "what exactly do I need to tell you?"

He sat gingerly on the edge of the bed and wrinkled his nose. "Take a shower, you pig," he laughed. "You stink."

"Smell of victory, mate," I replied irritably without missing a beat. "Victory at having finally taken Lily captive under my spell. Now tell me what the heck you're talking about."

He sighed. "I wanted to talk about Mr. Popular," he confessed in a rush, ripping the band-aid off quickly.

I didn't reply for a moment. Finally, I said slowly, "Look, just forget about that."

"I just think you need to realize you're not the complete loser you seem to think you are. You're a decent guy, I know that, the others know that, and Lily knows that, so who cares what anyone else –"

"Sirius," I intervened. "Drop it."

He did. Thanks for ruining my morning, I wanted to say.

Without looking at him I set my feet on the carpet again, strode to the open bathroom door and shut it loudly behind me. Once inside, I hung a deep red towel on the rack behind the tub and took a quick shower. As I rubbed shampoo into my hair, I tried to appreciate the fact that he had brought that issue up, instead of the part where I accused him of sleeping with every girl he ever came across. But I couldn't do it.

Once I was out with the towel around my waist and my hair sopping wet, there was no sign of Sirius. As I threw on a pair of jeans, a faded T-shirt and my school robes over them, I realized why he must have left. I was going to be late again. I decided to skip breakfast and head straight for Transfiguration.

On my way there, there were several people passing through the corridors on their way to breakfast. I supposed I was still pretty early, but I decided to keep going – I wasn't that hungry anyway. I got looks from most of the people I recognized as Gryffindors, probably because of last night's events, but I ignored them until I reached McGonagall's class.

Naturally, the classroom was empty. I went straight to the back of the room, sat down and began piling my things onto the desk. For a while I sat in silence and out of boredom rearranged my books and wand so that they were neat in the corner. When still no one entered the class, not even McGonagall, I opened my notebook and tore out a piece of paper. I was about to open my bag and rummage around for a quill – I had been planning to doodle for a bit – when I noticed two scraps of parchment lying on top of the page I had just ripped out. It seemed they had once been one piece, but had been pressed into the notebook and torn into two along with the page.

They were pink.

Not again. It had been two days since the last note and with everything that had happened with Lily, I had completely forgotten about the daily letters I had been receiving. I still had no clue who they were from, or any evidence to point me in the right direction. All I could do for now was read them and hope my secret admirer – if there really was one, and this wasn't someone's idea of a joke, as I was beginning to think – would show up and introduce herself (or, God forbid, himself).

I peeled the pink paper off the page and some of the dye came off with it, but the message was still readable when the two pieces came together.

And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

I hadn't kept the other pieces of the poem – because I was now sure that was exactly what it was – and I remembered them vaguely, but I recalled enough to realize that this was going exactly the way Professor Burbage said William Shakespeare had intended. It seemed to be describing someone and comparing them to a summer day, as was obvious from the very first line. These two most recent lines made it clear what was coming next in the poem: At some point in time, beautiful people and things lose their beauty, by chance or by nature's inevitable course – but if you have children…

I heard footsteps and hastily shoved the pieces of parchment into my bag. I looked up to see Lily coming towards me. Her hair was tied in a ponytail that fell to her shoulders, the dark circles were gone, and her eyes were bright green – and mercifully dry. I couldn't help but smile as she slid into the seat beside me and set her bag on the table. Maybe today was looking up after all.

"Hey," I said, my smile widening. "How've you been?"

"I've been better," she replied, but she was smiling as well, and I had never seen her better. "I hate mornings."

"I know, me too. But somehow I manage to get out of them alive."

She laughed and my heart swelled at the sound. "You're smiling," I pointed out. "That's good."

"Yeah, I figured you were right. I should smile a lot more. You know, my dad once told me that even if you're having a miserable day, you should go through it with a smile – because smiling actually makes you happier. I never thought it would work, but when I tried it out, I was amazed with the results."

I stretched luxuriously and grunted, "Your dad sounds like a genius, and I completely agree with him. But in the mornings I just can't seem to help frowning instead."

"Uhuh," she said, looking down at her lap. "He was –"

Just then, Briony burst into the room and ran towards us, slipping a little on her high heels as she came to a stop.

Oh, I had been so wrong. Today was not looking up. At all.

"Jimmy! How are you feeling?" she squealed, and ignored my flinch at the nickname as she made a little jump and just barely managed not to fall on her face on landing. When she regained her balance she seemed to notice Lily there for the first time.

"Lily!" she added enthusiastically. "I hope you're not trying to steal my boyfriend," she said jokingly. I didn't find anything funny about it. "You know, we've been going out for" – here she paused and thought for a moment, as if it had been an incredibly long stretch of time – "four days now!" She grinned, showing perfect white teeth. Her blue eyes glinted as she came around the seats to join us on the other side of me and slung an arm around my shoulders. "Hey, it's our pentaversary!" she said, laughing.

It took me a while to figure out that she meant the fifth day we were together. I stared at her in shock for a moment. Penta…pentaversary. It took some enormous willpower not to burst out laughing.

"Aw, look at that," she said, bundling up the neck of my robes in her small fist and pulling my face closer to hers. "He's just begging me to kiss him. Come here; let me make it all better." She brought me closer so that our lips were nearly touching, but I moved so that I ended up pecking her cheek instead.

I withdrew and turned my head to look at Lily, who was still staring awkwardly at her lap. Her smile had vanished. "Lily –" I began, almost apologetically.

But I was interrupted by Briony tugging at my collar again. I was forced to turn back and look at her now pouting face. "Kiss me properly, Jimmy," she commanded. I hesitated before, not sure why I was doing this, placing my lips on hers. And then something I did not expect happened.

She poked her tongue into my mouth.

And I, startled, did the first thing my instincts told me to do, and bit hard on the tip of her tongue with my teeth.

Briony shrieked and immediately pulled her tongue out of my mouth. "What the hell?!" she screamed furiously. "I'm bleeding!"

I started to apologize, but just then McGonagall's sharp voice met my ears. "That will be enough, Potter, Turner."

I looked around and saw her at the front of the classroom, wiping the board clean with her wand and then turning around too look at us, her hands on her hips. "If you'd like to continue, please do it elsewhere. Miss Evans," she barked, and Lily looked up in surprise. "Why are the three of you already here?"

None of us replied. She let out a sigh. "It doesn't matter. Potter, just be sure not to fall asleep this time – or actually, try to keep away from Miss Turner. I'd like to teach my class without the two of you putting on such a disgusting display."

Briony didn't need to be told twice. Holding a tissue to her mouth, she picked up her bright pink bag, slung it over her shoulder and strode angrily to the front of the classroom. She settled herself there, as far away from me as she could go without leaving.

I exhaled in relief.

*

I exited the class with Lily and Sirius, glad to be rid of Briony for a while. At the end of class, she had lingered beside her desk, as if she expected me to come over and apologize and profess my love for her – which I should have done, really, except that last part – but when I did no such thing, she stormed off to our next class without me or anyone else to accompany her.

I didn't particularly care, either, and nor did I feel guilty for not caring, as I might have done. Briony was stressing me out. I now knew what Lily had meant by relationship drama.

Burbage was already at her desk when we arrived. As we settled ourselves behind our desks and got ready for Muggle Studies, an idea struck me and I turned to Lily. She was staring at the head of the room with worry creasing her forehead.

"…still haven't recovered Sonnet 18, I'm afraid," Professor Burbage was saying. "We'll have to work on number 97 until the end of this project. Alright, first group – tell me what you made of number sixty –"

That was the least of my problems right now. I waved my hand in front of Lily's face to get her attention. She turned to me, her eyes unfocused.

I started to talk, but she still wasn't paying attention. "Lily!" I finally said, exasperated.

"Hmm, what?" she asked, seeming to snap out of her reverie.

"What was that all about?"

"Oh –" She went pink. "Nothing. Never mind. What were you saying?"

"I was kind of wondering if you could do me a favor."

She smiled. "It depends on what it is," she replied, her eyes twinkling playfully. Students began to file in and take their seats.

I half-smiled, and hesitated. "Well…you've probably noticed that Briony and I don't get along that well." I didn't want to complain about Briony to her, because I knew she was one of her best friends – even if I hadn't seen them hanging out together ever since Lily got back – so I was being cautious.

She seemed to notice this, and looked at me more fully. "James, I've been her best friend since third year. I know what a complete pain in the butt she can be." She was still smiling as she said this, so I relaxed a little.

"Yeah, that's why I need your help. Briony and I…it's complicated." I paused, and then threw caution to the winds. "Actually, it's pretty simple. She's whiny and clingy and she acts stupider than she is and I can't stand her. She's always forcing me to make out with her, and as much as I enjoy that from time to time, I can't keep doing it. It gets gross. And – and she's always laughing – she's just always doing it…"

I looked at Lily nervously. "Too much?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry. I've heard it all and more."

"Right." I took a breath. "The point is, Lily, I'm…asking you to break up with her for me." I winced at how that came out sounding and cautiously watched Lily's face for a reaction.

She looked a bit hesitant. Finally, she said slowly, "Okay, this is a hairy situation you'll be putting me in. But…I'll do it – at a price."

I was relieved. "Sure, of course. What is it?"

She pointed across the room at a blond boy sitting by the window and chatting to his friends. As I watched, his hair slowly turned black and – it could have been a trick of the sunlight filtering into the room and falling on him – it seemed like his nose was changing shape as well. "See that guy?" Lily said. "He's a Metamorphagus. And I" – she pursed her lips – "am supposed to be his girlfriend. If you break up with him for me, I'll break up with Briony for you."