Author's note: Something annoying happened with the little "" things (if that doesn't appear, well, it's no surprise), so it may be hard to tell where a new scene is happening. Sorry! I'm trying to fix it! And the spacing, too, is messed up. Very frustrating. I apologize.

Magic Spells, a Prince in Disguise

"Well, it's my favorite! Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!"

"Lily. Lily. Lily!" cried Esedora.

Asper sleepily propped herself up on an elbow. "That approach'll never work," she told Esedora gravely. "Lily sleeps like the dead. You've gotta go like – this!" Cackling, Asper snatched Lily's pillow out from under her head and thumped her soundly with it.

Lily groaned. "C'mon, guys, I got back at 3 in the morning."

"Oh, we know," said Esedora with a slightly evil grin. "With Potter."

"And we're assuming you either have a very good story or an earful for us. So go on. We've got all morning," continued Asper with the air of someone for whom being patient was very difficult.

"…We do?"

"Yeah," shrugged Asper, "morning classes were canceled owing to some students' late-night adventures."

"What time is it?" Lily mumbled blearily.

"Nine," said Esedora, "so, really, we gave you plenty of time to sleep in."

Lily glared at her. "Sure, for Miss Early-Riser."

"Miss Oh-I-Just-LOVE-Mornings!" chimed in Asper, who certainly had no intention of telling Lily that she had slept just as late.

"They're so beautiful!" said Lily dreamily, twirling imaginary long brown hair.

"I'm glad I provide such entertainment," said Esedora huffily as her two friends broke into laughter. "Right then. You're awake. So?"

Asper promptly stopped laughing at looked at Lily expectantly, who was still giggling in a diminished sort of way.

"Where's Morena?" she asked absently.

"Who cares?" said Asper and Esedora together.

Lily rubbed her eyes. "What exactly are you after?"

"We just want to know what happened."

"Wait," said Lily suddenly, "what happened with you two?"

"Sirius and I spend most of our time in Zonko's," said Asper quickly, hoping to set an example of how questions were supposed to be answered. "Then we got Butterbeers and drank them on the way back to the castle. What about you, Esedora?" Asper was grinning and plainly knew, but was asking for Lily's benefit.

Lily looked at her curiously. "What is it?"

"I had a good time, is all," said Esedora, turning pink. "We walked around. Looked at stuff." And she refused to say anything more.

"Well, we did sort of the same thing," said Lily grudgingly. "We were way by the end of the lane when we realized that it was storming pretty hard. Went back to the Three Broomsticks and got stuck there."

Asper raised an eyebrow. "Scandalous."

"Oh, shut up," said Lily, throwing the offending pillow at her. "You know I don't like him."

Esedora looked at her sideways. "You used to say you hated him."

"Well, maybe I've just grown up a bit," said Lily grumpily.

"Or maybe," Asper whispered loudly, "you're secretly, madly in love with him and don't even know it!" She threw herself across the bed dramatically, hands over her heart.

"That's ridiculous," said Lily with as much dignity as she could manage under the circumstances. "If you're in love with someone, you know it."

"Right," said Esedora, and flushed an even deeper pink.

"So," said Sirius. "So, so, so."

"So what?" asked James, his voice muffled by the pillow he had pulled over his head.

"Spent all night with the Lilster, huh?"

"The Lilster?" repeated James, attempting to laugh but failing miserably; he had a severe headache.

"Yeah. You know. Red hair, green eyes…"

"I know who you mean," snapped James, sitting up in bed.

"Did you score?" asked Sirius abruptly.

James shoved him as hard as he could across the room, where he hit his head on the solid wall. "Dammit, Potter," Sirius said angrily, rubbing his head. "What was that for?" But James pulled on his robes and stalked from the dormitory without another word.

The next Saturday found three bedraggled figures rushing across the lawn.

"Come on, you guys, we're going to be late!" cried Lily, running past the lake to the Quidditch pitch, her friends hurrying along behind her.

"What's the big rush?" asked Asper in some annoyance; Lily had not permitted her to finish her toast. ("Well, you were taking forever!")

Lily slowed down. "I just…want to be able to…see," she said.

Esedora and Asper shot bewildered glances at each other. "If you say so," muttered Esedora. They reached the stands and began to climb, Asper still somewhat out of breath.

"Perfect," said Esedora, settling on a bench. Asper gave a slight cough and pointed out three heads – one black, one brown, and one mousy - to Lily, then nodded at Esedora.

"Ah," said Lily, suppressing a grin. "Very perfect spots."

The match had already started, and they hurriedly tried to catch up with what was happening. Lily wrapped her cloak around her head to keep warm. Gryffindor was in the lead over Slytherin, 70-20. James was circling the pitch, searching for a glimmer of gold.

The girl a few seats ahead of Asper sighed. "Isn't he wonderful?" she said to her friend in a very audible whisper.

"He's a good player," said her friend, scrutinizing him as he flew. "But," she continued, dropping her voice, "Quidditch isn't the only thing he plays."

"Really? What?" breathed the girl, unaware that all the people around them were listening in.

Her friend smirked. "You know, he was out all night with that Lily Evans girl."
"Oh, I head about that," agreed the girl, nodding sadly. "And I always thought of her as a pillar of moral fortitude."

Her friend stared. "A pillar of what?"

"Moral fortitude," muttered the girl, going red. "It's in those books my mum reads."

Her friend giggled. "Just saying, don't get attached. He'll use you."

Lily had been listening so hard to this conversation that she failed to realize that the score was now 80-50 - Slytherin was catching up. She felt her cheeks flame as she realized what everyone at Hogwarts must think. Then she caught sight of someone stirring on her other side.

"James is a decent guy," said Sirius, standing up and addressing himself to the girls, "and I've got the lump on my head to prove it." Everyone stared as he resumed his seat, rubbing his forehead and frowning.

"Thanks," Lily muttered to Sirius, who looked surprised to see her.

"And it's 80-60, Gryffindor in the lead," boomed the commentator, "but Slytherin seems to be getting into its stride. The Gryffindors had better get their act together soon." Everyone turned their attention back to the game. Wild cheers were heard from the Slytherin end as their Chaser scored. Sirius groaned.

Ten more nail-biting minutes later, Slytherin led by ten points.

"Oh, hurry up," moaned Asper, chewing a finger and staring at James, as if by the sheer force of her will she could make him spot the Snitch. They saw James whip his head over to the right. He darted upward, hand outstretched. The Slytherin Seeker was at the other end of the pitch – he would never make it –

"Yes!" cried the commentator. "And James Potter gets the Snitch and a win for Gryffindor! They are now in the lead for the house cup!"

"I hate Potions," growled Asper in frustration.

"It's not that bad," said Esedora absentmindedly as she paged through her notes.

Asper slammed her quill down in frustration. "Maybe not for you, Miss Perfect-Potion," she said indignantly. "But other people have better things to do than memorize all the uses of wolfsbane."

"Er," said Lily, "I think I'll head down to the library. Need to look up a few things."

"Mmhmm," said Asper indifferently, her light blond hair now standing on end from running her fingers through it.

Lily had settled herself at a desk behind a long row of books when she heard a large crowd come in. The shelves prevented her from seeing who it was, but she was about to leave when she heard a familiar voice.

"It was nothing," the voice was saying. "I mean, ok, it was something, but not much. It was right there, I should've seen it earlier than I did. Especially since our Beaters were so incredible; I didn't have to worry about a Bludger all game."

Lines creased Lily's forehead as she tiptoed away, in search of a quieter place to study.

"All right," she muttered to herself, rubbing her eyes. "Muggle Studies, and then I'm done." She flipped to the assigned chapter, which was on justice systems.

In America she read, the verdict of most crimes is determined by a james, though the number of members in the james can vary.

She shook her head. Determined by a what?

She blushed. A jury. She knew that. She was tired, was all.

Still, even as she left the library, she had a nagging feeling that she'd forgotten something, something important.

She returned to her dormitory to discover a miniature soap opera unfolding.

"You said no?" said Esedora, thunderstruck.

"To what?" asked Lily, closing the door firmly behind her.

"I told Sirius I wouldn't go out with him," said Asper, with an air of perfect indifference.

Lily stared at her. "But you've liked him for ages!" she exclaimed.

Asper shrugged. "I don't want to be one of those girls," she said.

"One of what girls?" cried Lily and Esedora together.

Asper sighed and tried to explain, as though to a class of five-year-olds. "He goes out with a different girl practically every week. And I don't want to be one of them."

"Well, it's your decision," said Lily, shrugging. She turned to Esedora. "Anything new in your love life?"

"Well, he hasn't actually asked me out," she said, throwing a dirty look at Asper, "but we've been spending a lot of time together, and I think he will." She smiled a self-satisfied sort of smile.

"I see," said Lily, with a smile of her own. "Well, all the best to you. Remus is a great guy."

"No need to tell her that," Asper pointed out. Esedora began pulling on her pajamas in a dreamlike state. "Besides," Asper continued, "why don't you ask him out yourself? This isn't the Dark Ages, you know."

Esedora stared at her. "I couldn't!" she said in a very scandalized voice.

"Why ever not?" asked Lily, pulling off her socks.

She couldn't come up with anything.

The next morning, with furtive looks from her friends, she casually meandered towards Remus's general end of the table.

"Could I talk to you a second?"

"Sure," he said genially and following her a few paces away. "What is it?"

Esedora took a deep breath. "I was wondering –"

"I can't," be blurted, having realized what she was about to ask. "I'm sorry," he added miserably.

Esedora blinked as she processed what he said. "But…why?" she asked finally. "I thought we were getting along..."

"We were," said Remus, looking more despondent still. "That's the problem."

She looked at him, then trudged back to her friends, giving her head a tiny shake as she stared down at her bacon.

"I'm sorry," whispered Asper, patting her hand. Lily didn't say anything, as she knew exactly why Esedora had been rejected, and she was kicking herself for not thinking of it earlier. Remus was very, very wary of forming relationships. You had to be, when you were a werewolf.

A highly annoying little voice had begun to make its presence known inside of Lily's head. She heard it first when she found herself staring absently at the back of James's head during Charms.

Don't you wonder why? the little voice said. Isn't it obvious?

Lily mentally kicked the voice and resumed listening to Professor Flitwick.

However, the voice did not go away. It followed her into her next class, which was Muggle Studies.

Jury, Lily, said the voice mockingly. Not James. Why were you thinking about James, huh? Huh? I know why, the voice continued. Lily raised her hand and asked a question she already knew the answer to in order to avoid hearing what she knew the voice was going to say.

But it just kept going. All through a prefects' meeting, the voice was poking her, prodding her brain, daring her to think the words. She refused. As the prefects packed up, she had a short conversation with James about whether one of the prefects was abusing her power.

You like him, danced the little voice in her head, you like him, you like him, you like him, you like –

"Shut up!" Lily cried, and then found herself with the interesting situation of trying to explain her outburst to James himself. "Sorry," she muttered, going nearly as red as her hair. "I didn't mean you."

"Hearing voices nobody else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world, Evans," said James with an amused edge to his voice. He left her with the distinctly unsettled feeling that he had looked inside her mind. In fact, it felt like he had visited her brain, roamed around a bit, and decided he liked it where he was and sat down right there.

"Get out," Lily muttered, thumping the side of her head. A passing third year paused, but apparently decided it was better not to ask.

You know you do, said the voice that night as she lay in bed. Just think it.

I will not.

But you do, it said in an annoyingly sing-song fashion. You do.

So? Lily asked it ferociously.

So admit it already.

Lily clenched her fists. Fine. Maybe I might, er, like him a little.

That's more like it, said the voice, cackling with glee. Told you.

Yes, yes, you told me, thought Lily irritably. Now will you go away? She heard, to her great delight, no reply. Apparently voices in one's head only have one mission. Suddenly realizing what she had just admitted to herself, Lily groaned and put a hand to her head. I can't believe this. I feel so stupid. I'm a Pottergirl! I thought I knew myself better than to fall for someone like him! How could I have changed like this? Wait, she thought slowly. Maybe I'm not the one who changed.

Maybe he did.

Author's Note: There were a tragic lack of reviews last chapter. However, I soldiered on, and cling to the hope that this chapter's reviews may make up for it. (Hint, hint.)

Also, since I start school tomorrow, there may not be many updates in the near future. Pre-Calc and AP Chem, man.