Deception and Disguise

Flour and Dough

Disclaimer – Any character you recognize is JK Rowling's. But the plot and idea completely and truly belong to me.

As the merciless rays of the sun glared down at the sleeping figure of James Potter, a frown creased his dark eyebrows. With an irritated groan, he draped his arm across his eyes, trying to block out the light that was visible from even behind his eyelids. Just as a relaxed sigh escaped his lips and he started to fall back into the clutches of slumber, a toe nudged his side.

Cursing in annoyance, James tried to bat away the prodding leg only to have snickers sound from above him. "Leave me alone," he grumbled, trying in vain to ignore the now boisterous laughter.

"Sirius, I told you to let him be," Remus sighed exasperatedly, throwing a tired look at his companion, who was too busy trying out a new tactic of waking up James. Much to Remus's mortification, it involved Sirius sitting on top of the hazel-eyed Marauder.

"Oh, come on, Remus, this is so much fun. I don't even remember the last time when James woke up after me. You don't seriously expect me to pass up the opportunity, do you?" Sirius pouted, trying to maintain his balance as the figure underneath him wriggled and shifted in an effort to throw him off.

"Yes!" Remus and James exclaimed at the same time, the latter finally raising himself up to a sitting position as he pushed Sirius off, glaring at his fallen figure for good measure. Much to James's chagrin, Sirius simply smirked.

"So, James, why have you and Liz suddenly changed positions?" He asked, the growing smirk and the mischievous glint in his eyes ruining his supposed 'casual' demeanor. Remus rolled his eyes at his friend's weird way of posing a question.

"What?" James asked, looking genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"

"It's unbelievable! Did the sun rise in the west today?" Sirius continued gleefully, easily ignoring the impatient expression on his friend's face. James was almost ready to push him off the roof if he continued in this manner. Remus, on the other hand, felt the beginnings of a migraine forming; Sirius had repeated the exact same thing to Liz downstairs. And he was honestly getting tired of rolling his eyes. To top it off, the blazing sun wasn't helping either.

"Sirius," James gritted out threateningly.

"Liz is already awake, and has been for quite some time too. You, on the other hand, James, have slept for an unnaturally long time, mate. We were just wondering why that was." Remus hastily spoke up as he noticed Sirius opening his mouth to pour out some form of rubbish yet again. The grey-eyed Marauder looked distinctly put out that he was not able to continue his ribbing.

"She's awake? What time is it?" James shot up from his position on the mattress with a jolt. He could not have overslept…

"Almost noon."

…that much.

But how is that even possible? James asked himself. He hadn't overslept in years, and after talking to Liz last night, he had imagined that sleep would barely come to him. Oh, but apparently it had, and in a large quantity at that. And try as he might, James knew deep inside that his conversation with the green-eyed girl had given him a weird sort of calming, soothing feeling. A feeling he wasn't sure he had ever felt before. It was nice.

He hated himself for thinking that.

"…to ask her. Are you even listening? Oi, James!" Sirius snapped his fingers in front of his best-mate's face, successfully bringing him out of his musings. James warily glanced at the giddy smirk that broke out on Sirius's face. "What?" he asked hesitantly.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" He asked in way that left James with no doubt that his response was not required anyway. Sirius knew.

"About whom?" It never hurt to pretend.

"Why, our dear Liz of, course." Sirius countered, his smirk growing.

"That's absurd! Of course I wasn't thinking about her," James replied defensively, though he could tell that not one soul on the terrace – including himself – believed a single word. "Why would I think about her? I was just wondering why you didn't wake me up sooner." He covered up lamely.

"Yeah, we're sure that's exactly what you were thinking, mate." Sirius, not to be deterred, put in.

"I really–" James stared in annoyance, before he was cut off.

"It's okay, James." Remus said before the situation could escalate further, throwing a meaningful glare at Sirius as he did so. Honestly, his friend knew exactly how to get on someone's nerves sometimes. Remus sighed inwardly when all he got in return was a repent-less grin from the grey-eyed man. Sirius Black, he thought fondly, was one of a kind.

"C'mon, let's go downstairs. Liz must be wondering what's taking us so long." He said finally, walking towards the threshold after making sure that the other two were following. Sirius, with a bounce in his step, threw his arm over Remus's shoulder and they made their way down the stairs, James trailing behind, lost in his own thoughts yet again.

He was distinctly worried over how he would react to seeing her again. He had never…well, never had any female friends, to be exact. And to be quite honest, James knew that he and Liz were far off from being actual friends, and that they shared a very different type of – er, relationship – than the one she shared with Sirius. Or Remus even. What exactly was he supposed to say to her? He couldn't very well continue to show aloofness or indifference now, could he? And he couldn't – he just couldn't – treat her the same way he did Sirius and Remus.

They were treading on a weird ground, and James Potter had no idea how to deal with it.

Damn, this woman was driving him crazy.

With a soft smile on her face, Lily moved about the kitchen, humming to herself. It was a song she remembered her mother singing to her when she was child. "Sweet and slow…rushing in the snow…mmhmm…a kiss of the sea," she sang under her breath, filling in the lines with a few words that had remained in her memory. A slight frown creased her eyebrows when she glanced at the staircase.

What was taking them so long?

It had been quite a few minutes ago that Sirius and Remus had strolled up to the terrace, muttering under their breaths about something or the other. Lily distinctly remembered hearing, 'strange', 'never', 'switched places', and a lot of mention of their third counterpart. Unable to contain her curiosity, when Lily had asked what was going on, Sirius had simply smirked and replied that the sun had risen from the west today.

Whatever that meant.

However, Remus had been kind enough to explain to her in simple words that they were going to the terrace to wake James up. Sirius had looked positively thrilled at the idea, though the princess could not for the life of her figure out why. What was so interesting about waking James Potter up? Surely they did this all the time?

She finally gave up trying to answer her questions. Besides, Lily was in too good of a mood to be bothered just then.

"–you know you love me, Remus. And so does everyone. Tell him I'm right, Liz." Sirius's voice drifted down the staircase, and Lily looked up from where she had been – trying – to knead some dough for bread. As she inconspicuously pushed her pathetic attempt away from the view of the men, she noticed that James was looking strangely lost in thought.

Very mortifyingly, a blush graced her cheeks at the mere sight of him, and she suddenly felt jittery. Nevertheless, Lily greeted them with a cheery smile.

"Of course, Sirius. I am sure everyone loves you," she agreed instantly, much to the delight of the Marauder in question. He smirked, satisfied.

"Oh no, Liz. What've you done?! Now he's not gonna stop smirking for the entire day!" Remus groaned with a look of devastation on his face. The princess looked on amusedly as he collapsed into a chair and rubbed his temple. "I'm already fed up with him."

"Oh please, no one could ever have enough of Sirius Black–"

Lily chuckled to herself as the pair continued to banter nonsensically. Thinking nothing of it, she pulled out the dough from where she had hidden it behind her and looked down at the grotesque, water-laden thing with a grimace. God, she really shouldn't even bother with it. The princess sighed softly.

"Bit too dry, don't you think?" Lily immediately jumped up at the voice, almost dropping the glob of dough in her surprise. Her face burned red when she looked up to find a pair of hazel eyes regarding her with no little amount of amusement in them. The princess had an inexplicable urge to whack the mass of dough into James Potter's face when he started to chuckle.

Oh, the nerve of him.

James smirked as he watched the girl in front of him flush scarlet and her eyes dart around, looking anywhere but at him. Liz's cheeks, apart from the blush, were lightly dusted with flour and her fingers were coated with a layer of dough – or more like gooey dough. But despite her embarrassed expression, her big eyes were sparkling brightly and the flour on her face actually made her look – James realized with a jolt – quite attractive.

Thankfully, his mind was diverted from that thought by the sound of her stuttering response. "I-I just – I am not very good at cooking," Lily admitted with a sigh, wondering if she could possibly be more embarrassed.

"I gathered that," James chuckled again, pleasantly relieved that pulling along a conversation with Liz was not at all as awkward as he had expected it to be. "Do-do you want some help?" he found himself asking hesitantly as he moved to stand beside her. A hand immediately jumped to his unruly hair as Liz swiveled around to face him with a shocked expression.

"You-you want to help m-me?" Lily managed to get out, feeling nothing short of astounded.

"Um, yeah, I mean if you want me to. I'm just offering."

"You can–" she gestured wildly with her sticky hands at the mess in front of her, "–help me with this? You know how to cook?"

"Hm, I manage." James shrugged, feeling a bit more at ease when he noticed her relieved expression. Clearly, this was just not her cup of tea.

He tried to hold in his laughter when Liz sighed and swiped her forehead with the back of her hand, still somehow managing to get more flour on her face. "Yes, please, I will be really grateful." She replied with a grin, stepping aside to make more room for James. "I just don't know what to do with this!" she exclaimed pitifully, prodding the mixture, which squelched disgustingly at the contact.

"There's just too much water." James laughed, finding the entire ordeal quite amusing. "We need more flour."

"More flour. Right." The princess nodded her head dutifully before turning around and scooping up some of the powder in her hand. With a proud grin, she deposited it on top of the gloop and looked to James for further instructions.

"Uh, more," he said, eyeing the far-from-enough mound of flour that was able to fit in Liz's palm. "That'll only manage to make it less liquid and more semi-liquid."

"Oh, okay." Lily nodded again, her bright grin slipping a little. After repeating her actions and adding another fistful of flour to the bowl, she turned to look at James expectantly once more. But he merely sighed and repeated, "More."

This time around, the smile all but disappeared from the princess's face as she gathered yet another handful and thrust it on the top of the now slightly growing heap of flour. Her face showing her quickly running out patience, she asked, "Is that enough?"

A thoughtful pause. And then,

"Nope, some more."

"This is outrageous!" Lily huffed angrily, a scowl adorning her features as she forcefully buried both her hands in the sack of flour and turned around to ask him if that was enough. Unfortunately, at the same moment, James had decided to fetch the flour himself so as to not irritate her, as she already looked ready to tear out her hair. Inevitably, they slammed into each other.

The resulting collision caused Lily to gasp in surprise and drop her fistfuls of flour on the Marauder's face and down his clothes. And somehow, due to the impact, the princess found that a few of her auburn strands had conveniently gotten stuck to her sticky, dough-coated fingers. Oh, brilliant, she thought, pulling her fingers away from her hair and grimacing at the sight. However, she knew that this was not the time to be fussing over herself.

"I–I'm sorry, James Potter – I mean James. I did not realize that you were right behind me, and I didn't mean to throw the flour at your face. God, I should have been more careful. Really, I apologize. I just knew I was no good at these things. And now I have ruined so much food, and my hair and your clothes and – uh, are you all right?" Lily stopped her rambling apology, and watched in stunned silence as James laughed.

A lot.

"Your face!" Was what he said with another bark of laughter. "Oh bloody hell! You should have seen your face!"

"My face?!" Lily asked indignantly, turning a fierce shade of red. Really, he was asking for it. "You should see your face! You look like a stupid, laughing ghost, just so you know." As soon as the words left her mouth, with a gasp, the princess clamped her mouth shut. She could hardly believe she had added insult over injury. And she never made fun of anyone. Even though James did tease her first, and well, he did look kind of funny like that.

Not to mention the fact that he was laughing even harder than before at her comment…

And before she knew it, Lily found herself joining in as well. It started with a few polite giggles, which soon turned into loud, merry laughter, which unbeknownst to the princess, made James grin even wider, and made his heart beat loudly against his rib-cage.

In fact, the lively sound had even managed to bring a small smile on the faces of the other two Marauders who watched the scene with nothing short of gob-smacked expressions on their faces.

"Ar–Are they…laughing?" Sirius asked, his voice coming out as a shocked whisper. "With each other?"

"I believe they are, Sirius." Remus answered from his left. Slowly, the two of them turned to look at each other with similar expressions of disbelief etched onto their faces. Sirius shot a glare over his shoulder at his best mate and his girl best mate as they laughed joyously yet again.

"What in the name of Godric is going on with those two, eh?" He asked with a frown. Sirius Black absolutely hated it when he was left out of secrets.

"Hell if I know." Remus answered, looking – as usual, Sirius rolled his eyes – thoughtful. "But whatever happened, I guess it was for the better. They seem happy." He shrugged finally, reclining in his chair and giving his friend the impression that the conversation had ended.

But Sirius would be damned if he let this go so easily.

"What do you mean 'they seem happy'?" He frowned. "James should have told us about this. You know he should have, Remus!"

"Yes, but–"

"No buts! I'm talking to him, and asking him what the hell is going on. And you are coming with me." Sirius ordered firmly, leaving no room for argument. Remus rolled his blue eyes and watched his friend turn around to glare more comfortably at James and Liz. Within a few seconds, however, Sirius sighed resignedly and softened his gaze until he was finally smiling.

Remus did not blame him.

Watching the pair laugh and grin at each other while they dusted off the flour and baked together did after all make glaring at them quite difficult.

No, Remus Lupin did not blame him at all.

"Why are they so blind, Remus?" Sirius asked with a wry smile as he noticed James steeling glances at Liz as she kneaded the dough.

"Not blind," he shook his head of sandy-brown hair. "Too stubborn to admit the truth." He said, noticing James quickly look away when Liz lifted her head to ask him for instructions again.

"Bugger this shit! Why does everything have to be so slow? Maybe I should–"

"–No! You're not doing anything, Sirius." Remus cut in firmly. His suspicion that the grey-eyed Marauder was indeed planning to play cupid turned out to be accurate when Sirius sighed dejectedly with a pout.

"But then everything would be–"

"–Slow, I know. But they need the time, Sirius. Liz is still new, and James needs more time to trust her completely. They both need more time to get to know each other. You or me meddling in this situation is not gonna help them anyhow. It's their life; we're just here to enjoy the show." Remus smirked, hoping that he had made his point clear.

He sighed in relief when Sirius smirked too. "I guess so. But I hate it when the show takes too long to just get on with it already." He complained.

Remus chuckled lightly. "I know, mate. Don't worry, me too."

To be continued…

AN – I know it's been quite some time since I updated, but guess what? I finally turned in my Julius Caesar project. Damn, I feel good. Anyway, tell me how you guys liked this chapter, please? Leave lots of reviews so that I post the next chapter sooner. Oh, and I am writing a new fanfic just like all you lovely people out there asked me to.
It's called 'Perfecting Imperfection' – of course it's another Jily story. Take a look if you're interested and tell me how you like it. I've also added the link to my Tumblr account; you can find it on my profile page. And I'd love it if you go and take a look at that too. Any questions, posts or comments will be appreciated. As usual, love you guys.

Claudia.