Author's Note: Uh… well, this story is turning out different from how I thought it would. Hehe. I didn't expect to get so many ideas and suggestions from people.

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

-Explanations a.k.a. Déjà Vu-

James pushed open the door to the sixth year girls' dorm. "Lily?"

The stunned girl asked, "What are you doing here? This isn't allowed."

"So I've heard. Lily, what's the matter with you? Everyone's worried about you. You won't eat, you're listless, you don't talk unless necessary… There are people down there who care about you and want you to get back to normal. And so do I."

Lily didn't meet James'ss gaze. "Look, Potter, just go away. I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, you are going to talk about it because I won't leave until you do."

She shook her head. "No."

"Lily. Please. I just want to help you."

"Why? Three weeks ago you wouldn't have cared."

"That was three weeks ago. This is now."

"Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because I care about you and I want to make this better. But I can't do that if you won't tell me what's wrong."

"How do I know you really care?" she said quietly.

James went over to Lily, who was sitting on her bed, and put his hands on her shoulders. She tried to shrug him off, but he held on.

"Lily, look at me."

She shook her head.

"Look at me!"

"Stop it!"

"No. I won't stop until you look at me."

She paused for a moment, then slowly moved her head and shifted her gaze to meet his. "Happy now?"

He ignored her comment and said, "Look at me. Do I look like someone who doesn't care?"

She looked into his eyes and shook her head no.

"Now can you tell me what's wrong?"

Lily took a deep breath. "Fine. Do you remember that dream I had last week?"

"Yeah. Lily, I thought you were okay with that."

"Well, I was. Until I remembered something."

"What?"

"I remembered who the familiar person was."

"Well, who was it then?"

"James, it was… it was you."

"Me?" James said, his brow furrowed.

"Yes."

"So… I died," he said slowly.

Lily nodded. "I remember the whole dream now. We… we were… married. Voldemort—that's who the evil person was—was after us. We were in hiding, but somehow he found out where we were."

"Voldemort."

"Yes. Voldemort. The Dark Lord. You-Know-Who. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"He sure has a lot of names for someone who must not be named," James said, trying to inject some humor into the moment.

"James."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry," James said, "Go on."

"Harry, the baby… he was ours. He looked just like you, but with my eyes. Voldemort killed you right after you told me to take Harry and run. I got in his way as he tried to kill Harry. There was a bright flash and then I was dead. Merlin, do you realize how scary that is? To see yourself die?"

"I can't say that I do."

"And it's all real. It's going to happen. I know it."

"How do you know that? Predicting the future is very hard to do."

"It's not that. I just have a feeling… I don't know what it is. I just know this is going to happen." She started to cry. "I don't want to die. I don't want you to die."

"Lily. Lily, please don't cry… No, Lily. I said stop crying, not cry more. Oh, just come here," he said, pulling her into his arms. "Hey, you stopped calling me Potter."

Lily looked up at James and managed a weak smile. "Yeah," she said softly.

The two of them just stayed like that for a while, not realizing that their friends downstairs were impatiently waiting for James to come back with an answer for Lily's behavior. (AN: Oy, mushiness again. This part wasn't written that well, but you get the picture right? Yeah?)

!!!

"Do you think she killed him?"

"Sirius!"

"What? It's plausible. I mean, he hasn't come down yet and we haven't heard anything from up there for a while."

"Well, I don't think they're fighting."

"Yeah, we haven't seen James being thrown down the stairs. There haven't been any explosions. And if they were arguing, we'd hear them."

"Well, what do you think they're up to?"

"Do you think we should go up there?"

"No, you guys stay here. Veronica and I will go and see what's going on. We'll come back in a bit."

(AN: Yeah, if you were confused about who's saying what, don't worry, I am too. You can figure some out based on what they're saying.)

!!!

Veronica and Sarah gently pushed open the door to their room. No mess or anything. Everything seems to be fine, Sarah thought. Oh, my God. She had caught sight of her friends. Lily was sitting on her bed with her head on James's chest. James was smoothing her hair. They didn't notice the two girls standing in the doorway.

Veronica reacted the same way her friend did. What's going on? She and Sarah looked at each other, then closed the door and tiptoed away.

"What was that about?" Sarah whispered.

"I'm not sure, but it'll make for an interesting conversation topic."

!!!

"Do you feel better now?" James asked after a few minutes.

"A little."

"Good. Now do you think you can talk to your friends instead of ignoring them?"

Lily grinned. "Yeah."

"Well, come on then." James got up and started to pull Lily towards the door.

"Wait." She pulled him back. "Can we just stay up here for a few more minutes? I need to think of what to say to them."

"Sure."

!!!

Downstairs, Sirius was asking the girls, "So? What's the verdict?"

"I'm not sure," Sarah said, shaking her head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Okay, um… this is so weird. I can't say it."

"I'll tell them, Sarah." Veronica then proceeded to tell the boys what they had seen.

"That's not what I expected," Remus said.

Sirius put in, "Ha! I knew there was something going on between those two. Prongs just couldn't admit it."

"Sure you did, Sirius."

"Hey! I did," Sirius said defensively.

"Uh-huh," Sarah replied skeptically.

Sirius started tickling his girlfriend. "Sirius! Stop! Don't!" Sarah punched him in the arm.

"Ow. You hit hard," Sirius groaned, rubbing his arm.

Sarah smiled. "Well you did say I was surprisingly strong, didn't you?"

"I did, didn't I?"

"There you have it."

Veronica said, "Have you ever seen anything so stupid?"

Her boyfriend replied, "Well, I sleep in the same room as Padfoot, so yes, I have."

She giggled.

Sarah noticed the exchange and said to Sirius, "Have you ever seen anything so stupid?"

"Well, I sleep in the same room as Moony, so yes, I have."

The teenagers started laughing at the silliness of the conversation.

!!!

"Ready now?" James asked.

"Yes. No, wait! No. Yes? Oh, I don't know…"

"Lily."

"Yeah, just a few more minutes, okay?"

"Fine. But if you're not ready in five minutes, I'm going down without you."

"All right. Sheesh."

!!!

"Lily, come on."

"Okay, okay. Don't get your knickers in a twist."

The two headed down the spiral staircase. "So what are you gonna say?" asked James.

"I have no idea."

"What? But you had at least ten minutes to think about it!"

"Well, yeah, but I couldn't think of anything."

"And you're supposed to be smart…"

"Hey!"

"Well, if you didn't think of anything to say, then how are you going to explain anything to them?"

"I'll just go with whatever comes out of my mouth."

"And if that makes no sense?"

"Then they'll send me to the nuthouse and it won't matter anymore."

(AN: Okay, now that conversation made no sense. But um… yeah. Moving on…)

!!!

Lily stopped a few stairs before the bottom. "I can't do this." She turned around and tried to go back up, but James stopped her.

"Yes you can. Just go and say whatever you're going to say."

"But I don't know what I'm going to say."

"Then go and be silent. Whatever. Just go."

!!!

Lily entered the common room. She took one look at her friends—who were looking right back at her—and tried to move backward. James pushed her from behind, moving her further into the room. She turned around and glared at him. He just nodded at the sixth years, urging her to go over to where they were sitting.

She sighed and walked to the group of sixteen-year-olds. She took the seat that James had vacated about twenty minutes earlier. "I suppose you're wondering about how I've been acting lately."

They all just gave her looks that plainly said, Duh. "Right. Well, um… I've just been having a hard time lately with… some stuff," she said. She had decided not to tell them about her dream. There was no point in worrying them about something they weren't involved in. James came to stand behind her chair.

"What stuff?" Peter asked.

"I'd rather not say. Look, the point is, I'm sorry for being so weird and everything. I just didn't realize I was neglecting you. Do you forgive me?"

Veronica looked relieved. "Sure we forgive you. We're your friends. Besides, if it weren't for you, Remus and I probably wouldn't be together," she said, taking Remus's hand.

Lily smiled. "Oh, yeah. How's that going, by the way?"

"Pretty good."

"That's great."

Sirius said, "Speaking of relationships… Anything new with you, Lily? You involved with anyone? Well, are you? Huh? Huh?"

She gave him a strange look, then slowly said, "No…"

"Uh-huh." He got this look on his face that made him look like he was planning something.

"What are you thinking, Padfoot?" James asked.

"Nothing."

"Sure. And I'm the Queen of England."

"I'm not thinking anything, Your Majesty."

"Well, that much is obvious."

"Hey, give me some credit. I do think of some pretty good pranks."

"Yeah, but what about the rest of the time?"

"The rest of the time, I'm thinking about my wonderful girlfriend, of course."

Sarah grinned and ruffled Sirius's hair. Remus made a gagging noise.

Lily smiled. Everything was back to normal. And there's only one week left to go (AN: of the bet, of course).

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: So? What'd you think?