A/N: I feel like a creep writing something so personal about one of my favourite characters, but it's pure humour. Enjoy! Warning: may experience second-hand embarrassment.

- Chapter Eleven -

~ First Shave ~

He knew it was drawing nearer and nearer: the day when he, James Potter, would become a man, i.e. the day he would start shaving. He couldn't tell if he was nervous for it or excited – all he knew was that he had wanted to start shaving and be a man from a very young age, ever since he was a child and used to sometimes watch and imitate his father shaving early in the morning before he had breakfast and headed off to work.

And now, it was his turn. He wasn't expecting it though, not today.

James sat up in bed, yawning and stretching and running a hand through his already messy dark hair. He reached towards his bedside table for his glasses and put them on clumsily before pulling back the maroon curtains of his four poster bed to see that Peter and Remus and Sirius were already awake, conversing in low tones so as not to wake him up (which was unusually considerate of them) and getting changed into their school uniform although there was no rush to get to start the school day.

''Morning,' Remus smiled at James, glancing casually at his dark-haired friend; a moment later, however, he froze, his smile nowhere in sight.

''Morning, M-M-Moony,' James replied, failing to stifle a yawn. 'What – what is it?' He hadn't failed to notice that Remus was staring oddly at his face.

Sirius turned to look at James and pulled a face. 'You've got a little … a little thing on your face.' He began rubbing his own jaw and chin with a finger and thumb.

James blinked. 'A little what?' He rubbed his face hard, thinking there was a dungbeetle on his face – or something worse.

'A little … hair,' Peter finished, joining in with Remus and Sirius and gawping at James's face.

James stroked his jaw and chin and felt how prickly it was. He sat bolt upright as though he had just been struck by lightning, all signs of tiredness gone. He threw on a pair of trousers over the boxers he had slept in and hurried to the bathroom to check out his reflection in the mirror. The same hazel eyes stared back at him from behind dark-framed spectacles, his hair was still as dark and messy as ever, if not messier; the only difference was that there, along his lower jaw and chin, were small little dark hairs … he had stubble!

James erupted with excitement although he tried to play it cool, well aware that his friends were still watching him. He hurried back into the dormitory to grab his wand. It was only then that he realised he had no idea exactly how to shave. He turned to his friends.

'How do I do this?' he asked them helplessly. 'I don't remember the hair removal spell. I'm sure we've used it on someone once but … what was it?!'

Peter and Sirius shrugged; Remus replied lightly, 'You could always use a Muggle razor …? They're handy little things. But there's a small danger in that you might cut yourself if you're not careful.'

'I … guess I could try that,' James said slowly. He trusted Remus wouldn't recommend anything if it wasn't any good.

Remus rummaged through his trunk and pulled out a bright yellow plastic packet containing strange sharp-looking metal on sticks. Could this really do the trick? Remus handed one of the sticks to James who took it cautiously.

'You haven't … used this one, have you?' James asked warily.

'No, no,' said Remus quickly with a small laugh. 'They're disposable. Go on, try it.'

James looked to Sirius to exchange glances with them as they traditionally did whenever Remus suggested a Muggle contraption as a solution to the problem, but found Sirius busying himself with packing his school bag, an expression on his face as though he was trying hard not to laugh.

Suppressing a sigh, James went back into the bathroom and looked at his reflection again. He picked up the razor and slowly began running it along his jaw. He saw the effects instantly; the part he had shaved was clean and hairless in comparison to the part he hadn't. But where did the hair go? Muggles had weird ways of doing things.

Feeling more confident than before, James ran the razor down his chin repeatedly, trying to remove all the hair that was there. It wasn't that he didn't think the stubble made him look even more gorgeous, it was more the fact that the razor in his hand made him feel a weird sense of power and superiority: he was finally a man.

He continued shaving when, suddenly, a split second of pain made him drop the razor in the sink. 'Ow!' he exclaimed.

'What happened?' Peter asked from the dormitory.

James surveyed his reflection before saying, 'Nothing. I think I nearly cut myself.'

'Whoa,' came Remus's voice, 'that was a close shave.'

In the reflection of the bathroom mirror, James saw a large, mouldy hardback book, most likely Sirius's, fly across the room and hit Remus hard on the head.

'Sirius!' Remus yelped, massaging the part of his head the book hit. 'That hurt!'

'Stop with the puns,' Sirius ordered, taking the book back to pack in his bag. 'There's a time and place for puns: never and nowhere.'

'Oh, you want me to cut it out?'

This time, James saw a book and two pillows fly across the room and hit Remus, who fell to the floor.

'Peter, not you too!' Remus groaned, picking himself up.

'That was a terrible one,' said Peter, shaking his head.

'You could almost say –'

'STOP!' Peter and Sirius roared in unison.

James chortled in the bathroom, putting his razor down on the sink in case he almost cut himself again. He looked down and saw little hairs all over the sink – so that was where all the hair went. When he was done, James washed the sink and began getting ready for the school day, listening to his friends bicker about how awful Remus's puns were. Secretly, he appreciated them, but he wasn't going to admit that to any of them, least of all in Sirius's presence.

It took James a little over fifteen minutes to get ready, and the four set off down the spiral staircase to the common room, James in the lead. He noticed as he walked over to the portrait hole that he was turning more heads than usual. Basking in his newfound manliness, James grinned back at everyone and ruffled his hair more than he usually would have.

'Why is everyone staring at you?' Peter whispered from behind.

James shrugged, enjoying all the attention nonetheless. As they reached the portrait hole, he noticed Lily, surrounded by a gaggle of girls, was also looking his way and bursting into laughter along with her friends. James was beginning to feel slightly put off. He walked up to them, faking confidence, and demanded to know what was so funny.

All of the girls fell silent, although they all still wore stupid grins.

Lily, who was leaning against the wall, eventually decided to put him out of his misery and said, 'Did you try shaving today, Potter? You have some … blood running down your chin.'

'What?' James said quickly, his face quickly turning red.

One of the girls took out a compact mirror which James was quick to snatch. And sure enough when he looked into it, he saw quite a frightful amount of blood for one little cut running down his chin. He hastily wiped it away with his sleeve and returned the mirror to the girl before going back to his friends who were waiting by the portrait hole.

'Why didn't any of you tell me I cut my chin shaving?!' James questioned angrily.

Sirius shrugged and replied, 'Didn't notice, mate.'

'I'm never shaving the Muggle way again,' said James bitterly, climbing through the portrait hole and leaving behind the crowds of people who witnessed first-hand the mistake he made shaving. 'I take back everything I said about how cool being grown-up will be. I want out.'

'Tough luck,' said Sirius, clapping a hand on his shoulder and walking ahead of him.

'I guess you're just not cut out to be an adult just yet,' Remus sighed, shaking his head sympathetically.

Sirius slipped his bag off his shoulder and whacked Remus around the back with it. 'The next shaving pun you make will get you worse than that,' he said darkly, slipping the strap of his bag over his shoulder again.

Remus bit back a laugh, rubbing his back and pretending it hurt him. James ruffled his friend's hair while pondering on how accurate his words were: maybe he, James Potter, was too much of a boy to be a man at this point in time. But he'd get there eventually. Every boy did.