Author's Note: This is probably my most quickly updated fanfic…

Title: Role Reversal

Rating: PG

Spoilers: There aren't too many spoilers in chapters 1-12. The whole story has some spoilers, but how else do you write a fanfic? The chapter with major spoilers is "Old Friends".

Summary: James and Lily make a bet. Lily has to pull a bunch of pranks and James can't do any.

Disclaimer: I, of course, do not own Harry Potter or its characters. If you're reading this, you should already know whom it belongs to anyway.

Setting: This story is set in MWPP years. If you don't know what that means, you probably shouldn't be reading this fanfic.

!!! = setting change

italics = emphasis

italics = thoughts

-Caught in the Act-

Lily had decided to keep a closer eye on James. He might be more tempted to play a prank the longer he wasn't allowed to. If he did and she didn't find out, that would mean that he would win his part of the bet. I'm not going to have that happen anytime soon.

James had become increasingly bored—and boring—to the Marauders, anyway—since the start of the bet. He kept watching Lily all the time to see what she was going to do next, and then wishing he could do that stuff.

She never gets caught, he observed as he witnessed the redhead's prank of the day. Sirius, Remus, Peter and I usually get caught. Of course, that's half the fun. Besides, Sirius is trying to break the school detention record. It was Monday, and Lily had just put a magical "Kick Me" sign on a Slytherin girl's back on her way to Gryffindor Tower after lunch. Anyone who saw the sign gave the girl a kick whether or not they wanted to. It didn't hurt too much, but the girl got fed up and tried to take off the sign when someone pointed it out to her, only to discover that it wouldn't come off. When she went to change her robes later, she would find that all of her clothes had the same signs on them.

She makes sure that whatever she does doesn't really hurt anyone. Her tricks are temporary. Hmm…

That was true, even though Snape's mutant stuffed animal was still following him around. Lily had decided to make it a three-day spell.

Lily noticed James staring at her and said, "Potter, what do you want? Is there a 'Kick Me' sign on my back too?"

He snapped out of his "observing mode" and answered, "No. I was just watching your technique."

"Oh. Why?"

"Well, since I can't pull any pranks of my own…"

"Ah. I see."

"Yeah."

"You're actually pretty good at this, Evans." Whoa, there's a sentence I never thought I'd say, James thought.

"Thanks. I didn't think you could go one day without pulling a prank, but you've proved me wrong."

"Hey! I did go one day without pulling a prank… once… I think…"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Where are the others? I thought you Marauders were stuck together tighter than glue."

"Actually, where are they? I don't know what happened to them. They've been doing other stuff since this bet started. Last I heard, Sirius was with Sarah, Remus was with Veronica, and Peter was going to the kitchens."

"Oh."

"Yep."

The two reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Password?" she inquired.

"Acrylic."

They climbed inside to find an empty common room. Well, nearly empty. Sarah and Sirius were there—and they were kissing!

Lily put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from giggling. James took off his glasses to clean them, then put them back on to see if he was seeing right.

James whispered, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Lily nodded. "On the count of three. One, two, three."

"Ahem!" they both said loudly.

Sarah jumped a foot in the air and Sirius turned to look at the intruders. He groaned when he found out who they were.

"So… This is what you've been up to, Padfoot," James said. "Tsk, tsk. In such a public area too."

Peter chose that moment to come in. "What's going on?" he asked. He was loaded down with food from his visit to the kitchens after lunch.

"Nothing, Wormtail. Say, is that cake?" Sirius went over to Peter and "helped" him eat the food.

"Nice save, Padfoot," James said, rolling his eyes.

Lily looked at Sarah, who was trying to get out of the common room. "We have to talk. Later," she said, looking at her watch, "Right now, we have to get to class."

!!!

Sarah walked—well, ran—into Potions class and sat down next to Veronica to avoid Lily. She almost knocked her chair over in her rush. Sirius sat behind her, next to Remus. Peter was next to the Slytherin girl with the sign on her back—he gave her a kick before sitting down. Lily and James came in last and had to sit together at the last available desk behind Peter and the Slytherin.

Lily wrote something on a piece of parchment. She passed it to Peter and whispered, "It's for Sarah." Peter passed the note to Remus, who passed it to Veronica, who handed it to Sarah.

Sarah unfolded the message under her desk. It had nine words on it: "We are going to have a long talk tonight."

The blonde slipped the note into her bag before Professor Brewer (AN: He's in another of my fanfics that I'm working on right now. Do you get why I put Brewer? Potions, brews. You know? Okay, lame, but it works.) could see it. Veronica gave her a questioning look before opening her Potions book to, of all things, Veritaserum, the truth potion.

!!!

"Black? Sirius Black?" Lily said. She was standing in the sixth year girls' dormitory with her hands on her hips, facing Sarah.

Sarah, who was sitting cross-legged on her bed, sighed. "Oh, come on, Lily. You know I like him."

"But… Black? Sirius Black?"

Veronica was sitting on her bed, watching Lily and Sarah's discussion. "What's going on?"

"Miss Johnson here was caught kissing Mr. Black today," Lily informed her.

"Oh. Is that all?" Veronica said mildly.

"Is that all? He's a Marauder."

"Lily, I think you're being silly again."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry, Sarah. I was just surprised. I mean, I knew you liked him, but I didn't expect to see… that."

"Okay," Sarah replied. "But you're one to talk," she continued. "I mean, you're the one who's hanging out with a Marauder by the name of James Potter."

Lily exploded. "What?! I am not 'hanging out' with him. We just have to see who's winning the bet, that's all. And I'm only stuck with Potter because you're swapping spit with Black!"

"Lily, calm down," Veronica said. "And I know we haven't been hanging out as much, but we don't want to be your next prank victims. Because of this bet, you're spending all your time plotting one trick after another." She turned to Sarah. "You were kissing Sirius Black?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes," Sarah answered in a small voice.

Veronica said thoughtfully, "Well, I suppose that was to be expected. I mean after all the flirting you did on the Hogwarts Express…"

"Hey!" Sarah exclaimed, indignant.

Lily and Veronica laughed.

"And speaking of flirting," Sarah said, with a wicked grin on her face, "Lily flirts with James all the time." She ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

Veronica had to hold Lily back as she lunged in her friend's direction. "I'll break down the door!" the redhead screamed.

!!!

Meanwhile, the boys were having a similar conversation over in their dorm.

"You were kissing Sarah Johnson?"

"Yes, Wormtail."

"So, are you going to get tired of her after a week or two, or do you think she'll be around for a while?" Remus asked.

Sirius sat down on his bed. "I'd have to say the latter. I like Sarah. A lot. More than any other girl I know."

"Oh, is Padfoot going soft?" James teased.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You're one to talk, Prongs. You know you have a thing for Lily Evans."

James resisted the urge to throttle his best friend and said, "I do not have a thing for her. You guys haven't done any pranks lately and since I can't do them myself, watching them is the next best thing."

Peter put in, "But what about what happened on the train on our first day back?"

Sirius grinned. "Yeah… Prongs, you looked a little too comfortable with Lily on your lap."

"Hey, I just did that to annoy her, okay?"

"Sure, mate. Sure."

"Shut up."

"You know you like her, James. Don't deny it."

"Moony, what's going on with you?" James asked, turning to Remus.

Sirius exclaimed, "Stop trying to change the subject! Just admit it and I'll leave you alone."

"I'm not admitting anything because there's nothing to admit. And Remus? Uh, you're just staring off into space there. What's up?"

"Nothing," Remus replied. "Nothing at all."

"Uh-huh. Come on, I know when you're lying. Oh, wait. Would this 'nothing' have something to do with Miss Veronica Kent?"

Remus blushed. "No," he said unconvincingly.

"Ooh… Looks like Moony has a crush," Sirius teased.

"Goodnight," Remus said, pulling his covers over him.

"I'm just kidding."

"Goodnight."

"Fine. Night."

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: Okay, this chapter had a lot of Misses and Misters in it and full names were used so much… Oh, well. Anyway, um… yeah.