The past couple of weeks weren't Harry's greatest. For one, strange things kept on happening to him. There was the cereal incident (his cereal exploded), the boxer incident (his pants ripped in the Charms corridor and revealed his boxers to everybody in it), the stairs incident (they had suddenly turned in to a slide and he wasn't trying to get up the girl's staircase at the time either), the itching powder incident (he found out far too late that his socks, pants, and pockets were filled with itching powder), the slime incident (he was in Potions when his Potion exploded by a Fillbuster Firework), the shoes incident (every pair of shoes he had mysteriously disappeared and replaced with a pair of extremely smelly old boots).

There was also the time he found himself falling asleep in Gryffindor tower and waking up outside the portrait of the Fat Lady, there was the time that a Fillbuster firework had somehow found its way in to one of the pocket's of Harry's robes, his comb had been charmed to change his hair different colors (such as pink and purple), he would suddenly find himself tripping, he'd break out in to hives and boils, and he even had to go up to the hospital wing for a curious out break in tentacles all over his body.

After the first couple days of this, Harry had a pretty good idea of who had been doing it all. The Marauder's all looked especially happy after one of the jokes they played on Harry. But their mood seemed to turn sour again and they pulled a prank on him again the very next day.

The only friend Harry seemed to have in this time was his mother, Lily, but even she seemed to be acting weird. Harry noticed that she seemed to turn as red as her hair whenever Harry entered the room. She also stammered a fair bit and on several occasions knocked over her inkbottle. Harry was thinking about this during Transfiguration while he and a Hufflepuff were trying to transfigure their desk in to a pig. Why was Lily asking like this? Was there a reason? Had Harry done something? Should he be worried?

"Your attention, please," McGonagall called to the room, snapping Harry from his train of thoughts. McGonagall walked quickly around the room and changed all of the desks back to their original forms, getting rid of the ears, snouts, and curly tails they had emitted.

"Next weekend will be a Hogsmeade weekend," McGonagall told the room. Harry was only half-listening. Lily was reminding him of somebody, Harry was sure of that now. "Same rules apply. Behave yourselves, you are representing Hogwarts." The bell rang and Lily walked from the room, wobbling slightly in her step. As she passed Harry's desk she made sure to flip her hair over her shoulder and smile widely at Harry. He felt his stomach give a jolt. His mother reminded him of Ginny when she liked him.

No, Harry told himself. Absolutely not. That would be really weird and awkward and-MY MOTHER CAN'T LIKE ME! No, I am being paranoid.

Even though Harry told himself he was being paranoid he made sure to avoid not only the Marauder's but Lily as well. He was worried that a Hogsmeade weekend plus the possibility of his mother having feelings for him would be trouble. This was getting difficult. With Harry's luck, he was going to be stuck in this time forever.

On break periods and after dinner, Harry took to carefully going around the castle with the Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map. This was the only way he could deal with everybody at once. As long as he was unseen, it was fine.

Unfortunately, the Marauder's were still trying to pursue him constantly. Harry had to constantly dive through secret passages so the Marauder's didn't come his way and notice with their own map that Harry was standing in an Invisibility Cloak that when removed, happened to look like James'. This was getting way too complicated for poor Harry.

On the Tuesday afternoon before Hogsmeade, Harry risked leaving the dormitory with no cloak and no map to get to the library. This was one of his worst ideas for several reasons. For one, Madam Pince always seemed to want to keep a close eye on any Potter that entered her library. Harry was scared to even get the book he wanted for fear she would screech at him.

Also, his mother happened to be in the library at the time.

"Hey, Harry!" she called out from a table. Harry stopped in his tracks and looked over at his mother. "Did you understand the Transfiguration homework?" she asked curiously, waving a hand at the many pieces of parchment and many open books spread out on the table in front of her.

"Er," Harry said looking around and thinking quickly. "to tell you the truth, no I didn't. But…" Harry spotted the one person that might be able to help him out of this horrible situation and he may be taking one step closer to getting out of this time. "James knows all about it. He can help you!" James, who had been passing by at that time, looked up.

"Did one of you say my name?" James confusedly asked. Harry spoke hurriedly before his mother could.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Lily needs help with Transfiguration. You want to help her?" Harry jerked his head ever so slightly so James would get the hint. James narrowed his eyes at Harry for a second then turned to Lily and shrugged.

"I'll help if you really need it," James decided. Harry grinned as James sat down and pulled one of the pieces of parchment closer to him to examine it.

"Great, I'll see you two later." Harry ran out of the library and all the way back to the Gryffindor tower. "Frog spawn!" he said cheerily to the napping Fat Lady. She cracked an eye open.

"Somebody's happy," she yawned before swinging open. Harry scrambled through the portrait hole and up the stairs to the dormitory where he sat down on his bed and happily flipped open the book he had gotten from the library: Quidditch Through the Ages. Harry smiled and started to read. An hour later, when he had gone halfway through the book, a very happy James, closely followed by a very confused-looking Sirius and Remus, burst in to the room.

"That was bloody brilliant!" James cried, running over to Harry. "Okay, Lily seemed a little unhappy at first that I was helping her with Transfiguration instead of you, but she was pleasant to me, I was pleasant to her, patient, nice, and she even laughed at this rhyme I made up to help me remember something with the homework!" James was grinning widely and was literally bouncing with excitement on the spot. "She even asked me to study with her during break periods and after dinner and maybe a little during patrol duty so she's ready for the Transfiguration test on Friday!" Harry broke out in to a grin too. He thought he saw Sirius pull out a small notebook, cross something out, and put it back in to his bag.

The rest of the week seemed to pass by in a happy sort of haze for Harry. The most he remembered is that the Marauders were his friends again, the tricks played on Harry "mysteriously" stopped, and his mother seemed to be coming closer to James. It felt as if an enormous weight was lifted off of Harry's chest.

That Friday Lily seemed extremely nervous about the Transfiguration test. Apparently, McGonagall had told her this was her last chance. Get a passing grade or get out of the class. James kept trying to calm her and go over some notes with her. It worked to some extent, but by the time they had reached the Transfiguration classroom, Lily was extremely pale and shaky. When McGonagall started to pass out the tests, Harry swore that Lily looked as if she was about to retch. McGonagall must've spotted this too because she muttered something quietly to her. Whatever she said to her, Lily shook her head in response. Everybody finished the test at different times. When the bell rang and they could all go to lunch, Lily was the only one left behind to work on her test.

"You guys go ahead," James told them when they walked out the door. "I'm going to wait and see how Lily did." So Harry, Remus, and Sirius left James outside the door to the Transfiguration classroom for lunch. They were halfway through their third helpings when James entered the Great Hall, looking extremely happy, closely followed by Lily. She also looked happy and was for some reason, red up to the roots of her hair.

"Hello," James greeted when he sat down. He was grinning widely as he eagerly scooped some food on to his plate. "Lovely day." Something was a tad bit wrong with James' cheery attitude.

"Prongs, you alright?" Sirius asked, eyeing his best friend curiously. James nodded, seeming only half-aware of what his friend asked.

"Did Lily pass?" Remus asked. James looked suddenly alert when Remus mentioned Lily he tried to hide this by shoveling some food in to his mouth and saying, "Yeff."

"Did she get an 'A'?" Harry asked. James shook his head.

"Did she get an 'E'?" Remus asked. James nodded his head.

"Did you ask her to go with you to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah," James replied. Harry and Remus gasped at this news, Sirius let out a triumphant laugh, and James grew wide-eyed, suddenly realizing what he had just said. "I-you-you tricked me in to telling!" he declared, pointing at Sirius. Sirius merely shrugged and grinned.

"I had to do it, mate," he replied casually, smiling to himself. James glared.

"You had to trick me in to telling you something that I would've told you eventually?" James inquired. Sirius' smile faltered a little.

"We'll stay out of your way tomorrow," Remus told James. Harry agreed and so did Sirius after being elbowed rather hard in the stomach by Remus. Finally, James was going to go on a date with Lily. Something finally went right for Harry.

Author's Note: Yeah, this chapter was shorter than I would've liked. I'm sorry! I'm going to wrap this story up soon (sad). Now for a special note to some of my readers and reviewers: A few of you read my first fanfiction James Potter and the Forging of the Order. I'm in the planning stages for the revision. So expect to see that after this story is done.

--opungo