Author's Note: quitesirius (who by the way is really amazing so go visit her) reminded me that when I switched our heroes from fifth to fourth year, I forgot to change the age in Chap. 1. Just to clarify, they are 14 and in fourth year. That was awfully brief for me, maybe I should babble on some more? No? All right, here ya go.

Disclaimer: Elizabeth Graydon, Professor Norkins, and Humble Serum belong to me, so if you steal them I will leave you scorching flames. Not that you wanted to, but just had to put that out there. J.K. Rowling and whoever she's sold them too owns all the important stuff.



Lily bent over the steaming cauldron in front of her. "Uh, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth Graydon, a Ravenclaw and Lily's cauldron partner, looked up from her mortar and pestle. "Yeah?"

"I couldn't help but notice that everyone else's potion is purple."

"So?"

"Ours is orange."

"Oh."

James, stirring a potion across from the two girls, couldn't help but feel smug. There seemed to be no question who the day's honors would go to in this class.

Lily caught his smirk, but she only laughed. "Wipe that look off your face, Potter. There's still fifteen minutes left, which is plenty of time to transform this marmalade into a Humble Serum strong enough for even you."

Sirius, who was James' partner, grinned. "Not at the rate you girls are going. Can I give you a hint?" Deftly snatching the powder Lily had been sprinkling in, he replaced it with his own. "Try ground eye of salamander, not ear."

Liz giggled sheepishly. "Sorry, Lil. Guess you'll want to be fetching the ingredients next time?"

Lily's green eyes twinkled. "Well, it's not every day you meet an illiterate Ravenclaw." She ducked her friend's marble pestle just in time.

Across from them, James glared at Sirius. "It took me half the class to grind those eyes!"

"Calm down, James," Sirius replied evenly. "I'm just trying make sure you two play fair. After all, Lily always gives you hints in Charms."

James sullenly chopped his tadpole tails into quarter centimeters. Lily seemed to have caught on to James' new competitiveness, but it only seemed to delight her. And it was true that in Charms, her best subject, she would help James along to keep things even. It was extremely irritating.

By the time Professor Norkins returned to his class for testing, Lily and Elizabeth's potion was perfectly purple. After inspecting them all carefully for any dangerous mistakes, he instructed each student to fill a vial with the potion and feed it to the person directly across from them. Professor Norkins' philosophy was that if students experienced the effects of various potions firsthand, they would be more likely to take the class seriously.

Grinning saucily, Lily approached James with her vial. Jokingly holding his chin (James' jaw dropped automatically at her touch), she pretended to force-feed him the potion. "Drink up, Potter."

All the Gryffindors slept soundly through double History of Magic. Even James couldn't muster up enough pride to challenge Lily to a factoid duel.

By dinner, the fourth years were back to normal. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat at the far end of the table, talking in earnest whispers.

"This is going to be the most amazing thing we've ever done!" Peter said excitedly. "I guess we should all be glad that James has the hots for Lily."

James sputtered incomprehensively.

"Why's that?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Otherwise, he'd never have been paying attention in Care of Magical Creatures and we wouldn't even have known about Llanmaes."

James calmed down a bit. "You guys do owe me one."

Several seats down, another conversation was going on, also concerning Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Yes!" Lily was elatedly examining her schedule. "We've got Double CMC tomorrow!"

The other fourth years sighed blissfully. "Two whole hours of staring at Professor Hugley," Clarissa said dreamily. Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait, we don't have it with the Hufflepuffs, do we?"

"Nope, just Gryffindors."

"Oh good." Clarissa was relieved. "That stupid Melinda Burkins always tries to flirt with Hugley, it's so sickening."

Her friends couldn't help laughing. "Clarissa Donnelly, you are every bit as bad! You just can't stand the competition of having more than one flirt in the class," Kasey joked.

"Besides," Lily added slyly. "after all that talk last night about you and Black being 'made for each other', I'm not sure you should be thinking about another man like that!"

Clarissa snorted and tossed her head. "Lily, sweetheart, there is nothing wrong with admiring a beautiful man, even if you have found your soulmate."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but Clariss, sometimes it helps if your soulmate has also found you."

"Oh, he will," the pretty blonde answered evenly, taking a bite of chicken. "Just give him time."

Lily felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned around. "What do you want, Pettigrew?"

Peter smiled sheepishly and held out a glass of orange liquid. "Sirius sends you this pumpkin juice. He said he noticed you had run out."

Lily snorted in disbelief. "Black, you bludgered moron!" she called down to him. "Just how stupid do you think I am?"

"It's clean, Lil, I swear!" Sirius shouted back. His face was a mask of innocence, but the bright mischief in his eyes betrayed him. While Lily was thus engaged, James quickly stepped up from where he'd been standing in the shadows and emptied a small packet into her own glass. Smiling triumphantly, he and Peter returned to their seats.

Remus looked apprehensively at his watch. "Right. I'd better go. And guys? Please be careful." His friends nodded solemnly.