Regulus couldn't believe that she had broken up with him. Things were supposed to go the other way around! He sighed, frustrated.
So his plan hadn't worked. Severus was still hanging out with Lily. Well, at least he had annoyed Sirius a little bit… He smiled. That was something.
Harry Potter seemed like an okay bloke, if a bit slow, which was surprising when you considered who his father was. But then again, Regulus had never hated James Potter. He merely disliked him because of his association with Sirius.
Sirius… Regulus couldn't even stand to be around his brother anymore. Sirius had decided that just because Regulus was put into Sytherin, it meant he shared the same ideals as his parents did; which wasn't true at all. In fact, as Regulus got older, he found more and more flaws with their beliefs. Both brothers knew their parents had the wrong idea, but only Sirius was stupid enough to actually tell them that. He was such a Gryffindor, brave to the point of foolishness. Regulus was a Slytherin. He looked after who was important to him. Even though he knew everyone was technically important, that didn't mean they were all important to him.
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Harry ran through the common room and up to the dormitory. He felt nearly as excited as he had when he went after the Sorcerer's Stone…. "Guys!" he yelled, bursting through the door.
Peter shushed him, and the other three boys didn't even look up from the piece of parchment they were looking at. Distracted, Harry asked, "Is that the Marauder's Map?"
The boys all looked up immediately. "You know about the Map?" Remus asked.
"Of course he does," Sirius grumbled. "Chatting up Lily and my brother, were you?"
Harry stared at Sirius. He'd never realized how much of a temper his godfather had. "Do you want to hear what I have to say, or not, Sirius?" he said testily. "Because I don't have to tell you."
Sirius rolled his eyes, and plopped down on Harry's bed. "No, please, Little Prongs; continue."
Harry sighed. "So I was going to talk to Lily and apologize for yelling at her – no matter how bad of a decision she made, I shouldn't have yelled… Anyway, on my way there I crashed into Regulus. He doesn't seem that bad, you know. He was quite polite and he helped me pick up all the things I'd dropped." Sirius was looking murderous, so Harry hurriedly kept talking. "So I went over to Lily and Snape, and apologized to Lily. She said it was perfectly fine, since apparently she had just broken up with him." James yelped for joy. "She only went out with him in the first place to prank us, since you four enjoy pulling pranks so much." He glared at them. "I told her that even though Sirius isn't worth talking to – " ("Hey!") " – James can be a decent guy. She didn't believe me, but then I had an idea." Harry cleared his throat. "I think it would be best if the two of you were at least decent to each other, but that's only going to happen if James stops acting like a prat every time he sees her, and actually tells her what he really thinks. At the least, she'll look at him in a better light."
"That's not going to happen," Sirius interrupted. "You never tell a girl you like 'em; it makes you look like an idiot."
"Prongs has always been a bit of an idiot though," Peter laughed.
"James wouldn't be able to act halfway decent around Lily," Remus said, confused. "We've tried that. He just freezes up and goes into autopilot."
"I'm right here!" James said angrily.
"Exactly, Remus," Harry said, ignoring James. "But we've been learning about Human Transfiguration recently, and it's not too hard to change someone's eye color and cover up a scar…"
"You're not saying – " Sirius began, grinning.
"You'll pretend to be James?" Peter gasped. "But what if she realizes it's you?"
"If we do a good job she won't," Sirius said, getting up excitedly. "We'll just change both your eye colors and stuff, and bam! Prongs and Little Prongs switch!"
"It's not that easy," Remus protested. "Your faces are shaped a little different, and James' nose is longer."
"Lily already thinks I'm James every time she sees me!"
"Yeah, no one will notice! And it'll be fun to be Harry. Please, Moony! You're the best at little detailed spells like that!"
"But you two don't act like each other! You're completely different people! You stand different and walk different and react different! There are so many little things we'd have to watch out for!"
"We can do it," James announced. Then he grinned. "But we'd have to switch back for Quidditch."
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Harry and James spent the rest of the week watching each other closely; making sure they each knew what they needed about each other. Remus lectured them both, but they didn't even come close to changing their minds.
Finally, they decided to do it. Remus stared hard at James and Harry's faces. "Okay," he said. "I think I'm going to do James first because we have plenty of pictures of James around here that I can use for reference when we're doing Harry."
He set to work on James. He started with the shape of his face, changing the size of his jaw and his cheekbones. "This feels weird…" James murmured. He was surprised it didn't hurt.
The scar was the hardest part for Remus. He didn't do a perfect job with it, but it would be close enough. Then he did the eyes. He found it surprisingly hard to get the exact shade of green. "Wow, you have really intense eyes, Harry," Remus joked. Harry blushed.
At last, James was done. He looked completely identical to Harry. Peter gaped at them. "This is weird," he said in an awed voice.
"All right," Remus said. "Get me a picture of James. It's time for Harry."
Remus had such a hard time trying to cover up Harry's scar. Eventually, he had to use Muggle makeup. "So don't go swimming, or it'll come off," Sirius laughed.
The two now looked exactly like the other. "Wow," James whispered, staring at Harry, "It's like I'm looking in a mirror."
"This is the weirdest thing I've ever done," Harry said fervently. "And I've done some weird things."
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As the other boys sat on one of the beds, planning what Harry would say, James stared at his new face in the mirror. He knew he'd seen those eyes before, he just knew it! If he could only figure it out, then maybe he'd know who Harry's mum was…
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Lily and Annabelle lay on the floor in the common room, reading their textbooks upside down. "Remind me again why we do this?" Lily asked Annabelle conversationally as a couple of first years stared at them like they were animals in a zoo.
"I find it comforting," Annabelle answered. "I feel like I don't have a care in the world."
"Why don't we just lie down in the middle of the Great Hall?" Lily asked sarcastically. "Or, better yet, in McGonagall's class?"
"Good idea!" Annabelle praised, completely overlooking the sarcasm. Then she saw out of the corner of her eye the Marauders coming down the stairs. "Here comes the boys," she groaned.
Lily rolled her eyes as James plopped down next to her and Sirius casually down next to Annabelle. The other three boys went over to the armchairs by the fire.
"James, go away," she muttered. She didn't even care at this point. He was just so annoying…
Harry tried to ignore the butterflies in his stomach. "Lily, I need to talk to you," he said quietly.
Lily frowned. It was James, right? Not Harry? Yes, his eyes were hazel. He was being more polite and kind than usual… Sirius and Annabelle were deep in conversation, and Annabelle' voice seemed to be more and more stressed out as they continued.
"In private?" James asked. Lily nodded, hardly knowing what she was agreeing to, and the two of them walked out of the common room.
They walked a little bit away from the portrait hole, and then James turned to Lily and took a deep breath. It definitely was James, Lily decided. "Lily, I need to tell you something," James said nervously. "Erm…" he paused. Harry suddenly realized that he didn't want to do this. James needed to do this, not him. "I came here to tell you I love you," he said quietly. "But now I can't."
Lily stared at him. Was James finally over his little crush on her? Somehow, she didn't think that was a good thing.
Harry sighed and rubbed off the makeup on his forehead so that his scar became visible. "I'm Harry, not James," he whispered. "We were going to have me tell you how James feels about you because James can't do it himself… but I can't do this. It isn't right. You deserve to have James tell you. I'm sorry."
Lily was so confused. "Wait… were you trying to play a prank on me?" she asked, her voice rising.
"No!" Harry said quickly. "We were just trying to help James! Every single time he sees you, he tries to act nice and normal and himself, but he gets too nervous and freezes up and he can't. He loves you, Lily, he really does. I wouldn't have done this if he didn't."
"But why would you try to help your father get a date with someone who wasn't your mother?" Lily asked, puzzled. Harry blinked in astonishment, realizing what this must look like, and hoping against hope that Lily wouldn't figure it out…
Lily gasped. Everything fit. She was Harry's mum! It made perfect sense. That's why Harry kept trying to get her to like James. She closed her eyes. That meant… that meant she was dead.
She looked up at Harry, tears in her eyes. Harry couldn't speak. She knew. He knew this was bad. What could he do? Should he just tell her everything? "Harry," Lily said, her voice shaking, "What happens to me?"
Harry sat down on the floor slowly. What could he say? He had to tell her something or she'd think it was worse than it was… Lily sat down next to him, trying to keep calm. She was probably overreacting. She must be. "Harry, what happens to me? Why would I…"
Harry took a deep breath and began to talk. "I don't know. I don't know why you married him, I really don't. Nobody ever told me." He took in a shuttering breath. "All I know is that you did marry him. Sirius was the best man. I have pictures – you were happy. I know that. You were happy with him." Harry found this was getting easier as he continued. "But then… you guys were fighting Voldemort, and you found out he was after you. After us. I was only a baby. So you went into hiding, but he found you…."
Harry knew that he couldn't tell her about Peter. He couldn't change what happened. It wasn't right. Anyway, if he told her he could never take it back, whereas this way he could change his mind. "Dad told you to hide, and he tried to fight him, but Voldemort killed him." Harry's voice was breaking. "He found you upstairs with me, and told you to move so he could kill me, but you wouldn't. He killed you too." Harry could hardly speak. "Then he tried to kill me… and he couldn't."
Lily looked up. She had been staring at the floor, tears flowing down her face. "Why not?" she whispered.
"Dumbledore said it was because you died for me. Your love sort of… protected me I guess. I ended up with this scar, and he lost all of his powers. Nobody knows where he is…" Harry decided that was all she had to know. He shouldn't – couldn't – tell her anything else. Well, except… "I never knew you, Lily. I never knew James either. I was too young. My time here… it's been like a dream. It's the most amazing thing that ever could have happened to me."
Lily pulled him tightly into a hug. He hugged her back with all his might. Lily was still crying. She didn't really know what to do or what to think, but she did know that she loved Harry. And maybe someday she would love James too.
