The Marauders sat in the common room, huddled around the chess board where James was destroying Sirius.

"Come on, Pads, just move. You've already lost, and I've got to go soon. I promised Emma I'd work on the project tonight."

"Bad luck, that, man. Having to work with one of the Ice Queen's cronies."

James shrugged. He had secretly been thrilled when Flitwick had assigned him Emma as his partner. Where Emma was, her friends were bound to be, and that made figuring them out all the easier. "Queen to E5. Checkmate. Its not that bad. She's smart, knows what she's talking about, and Flitwick loves her. Guaranteed O on this. I've got to go. See you gents later."

He stood up and rushed off to the library, where he found Emma seated by herself at the back of the library. He almost didn't see her at first; she was hidden behind several stacks of books that she must have used spells to compile. They were too tall for her to reach the top of.

She smiled at him, just slightly, and nodded. "Hello. I've gotten started. Would you look over my notes and then we'll decide together where to go next."

James was startled by her friendlyness, and could do nothing but nod. She handed them several roles of parchment, and then went back to the book she was reading. He stared at what she had given him. It must have take her hours. He hadn't done anything.
"Emma…you did all this… this must have taken ages…I-"

She cut him off. "Oh, Lily did a lot of it a long time ago when we were working on- well, she had it already, so I didn't see any reason not to use it. You don't think that's dishonest, do you?" Another secret. They were doing research on the formation of the Crucio spell. He couldn't think of any reason why these girls would need that. There was a mocking look in Emma's eyes, as if daring him, of all people, to be offended by using someone else's work. He blushed, and realized she must know about all the times he'd taken notes from Remus or let someone else write his essay for him for a snog.

"No, no. It's fine. Quite alright, I just haven't really done anything, and you shouldn't do the whole project yourself."

She laughed. It was a deep, mellow laugh, not like the immature giggles he usually heard from girls. "Don't worry, Potter, I'll make sure you do plenty of work. I do have other stuff to do with my life, as much as you may not realize it. Just read that, and then we'll talk." She turned back to her book, and he bent over the parchment. The notes were through and detailed; he could tell that just by skimming them. They must have taken hours.

"How…How long did these take?" His voice seemed intrusive in the silence. Emma just gave him an odd look.

"Not that long. Lily's really good at that sorta thing, you know. Research and all. Plus she already knew a lot of it. She's rather useful like that."

"How am I useful?" Lily was standing there above the two of them, peering over the scrolls, a hint of amusement in her eyes.

Emma smiled. "Research, knowing stuff, just being brilliant. What's up?"

Lily glanced at James, then whispered to Emma, "We're on for tonight."

Emma's eyes widened is shock. "But I have-"

Lily cut her off, holding up a hand. "No but's. You know the rules. You'll have to ditch it all."

"Who called it."

"Jane."

"Oh. You'd better make sure she doesn't forget anything. I don't have time."

"I will. Normal time. Normal place. See you there." Lily turned and walked off, ignoring the eyes that followed her out of the room. Emma just looked back at her book without a word of explanation, then turned to James. "Do you think we should include this stuff about the history of the spell, or just how it's performed?"