Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling, Bloomburg, Scholastic, and Warner Brothers.

Author's Note: Not a super long chapter, but I like it. Not sure what's going to happen in the next chapter so I figured I might as well tie off this one and post it, rather than delaying things more. I'd really liked to get this story wrapped up so I can focus on Fortress of Shadows and Can I Keep Him? and of course Harry Potter 6. But I'm going to try not to rush it and make it turn out weird or anything. I feel so much more relieved now that The Fashion Choices of Miss Evans is finished. A general note on people saying James has been acting "gay" with the make up and hair and skin product, please don't stereotype. He's just a little more in touch with his hygienic side than a lot of teenage guys, which I thought would be a pretty good twist.

Replies:

Animerocksjapanrocks—Thanks!

EternalKnight—Thanks! I love switching stories too!

Annmarie Aspasia—Thanks. I'm not sure what's going to happen with the Quidditch match yet. I don't know whether she's going to win or lose. Maybe the team will win, but she'll be useless. Or maybe James will play in her place at the last minute. Or maybe I'll call the game off altogether. Probably not that one. Sorry, I'm babbling.

Movielvr—Thanks so much!

ApsychonamedRachel—Thanks. I really had fun with Peter in that chapter. I've seen it written both ways actually, as selkie and silkie. The book I got the idea out of (Gordon R. Dickson's The Dragon Knight) it was spelled silkie.

Blink182Rox—Thanks

Siriusforeva—Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it!

Starreader1—Thanks. I try not to make Peter into too much a bad guy. At some point he was the Potters' friend and they trusted him enough to be the secret-keeper. Glad you like it!

DOJ—Thanks. I like developing him. He's an interesting guy. I think this is my favorite back story for him so far. I might use this mindset in writing his sorting.

Briana Marie—Thanks. Don't give Lily too much credit yet. Hehe. I can't make her too smart. But soon, soon she'll know everything and James will have nowhere to hide! Okay, sounds like it's time to bring out the evil laughter. I definitely like Peter as a more developed character like this. It gets on my nerves too when people just write him off as an evil nobody.

Elladora D. Jobberknoll—Hehe. I love Alice. I think she's such a fun character. Yes, Jamesie sewed those stitches himself. I just don't know why yet. Probably something else for Lily to bring up with James later. Hehe, as if James is normal? I like in-depth Peter personally. Voldemort's a half-blood too though. Peter didn't like being picked on. By joining the guys that were doing the picking on, he could avoid it. Protection. Exactly. Hehe. Not boring. I like hearing everybody's point of view. You should join my discussion forum. I put the link in my profile but it's pitiful. We have 5 members and 3 of them are me.

Glaz—Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. I was a little nervous about how everyone would react to me deep Peter scene.

Luvsirius—Thanks.

J.E.A.R.K.Potter—Thanks. Glad that scene did its job to make Peter seem more human and less of just an embodiment of evil.

Lunatic Pandora1—That's part of I why I put it there. :-)

ThessalyD—It is indeed the worst! Friday's always seem so long. I can't stand gym. I love my dance class that I'm taking this year (which is more work than gym) but I couldn't stand my gym class for the past 2 years. Thanks!

Gwendolyn James—Thanks! Glad you liked how things went with Peter. Lily may be smart but she doesn't know everything. Not yet. Hehe.

Chapter 19: In the Boys' Dorm

Remus woke up to the sound of shower water and a horrendous racket. Sirius was singing again. He'd have to remember to put a mute charm on the bathroom. He looked over and saw that Frank was up and nearly dressed. Frank also had cotton jammed in his ears.

Frank turned to Remus. "If doesn't shut-up in there I am going to personally pay for singing lessons for him until his voice is passable. That racket is going to ruin my eardrums!" He pounded on the bathroom door, then finished buttoning up his robes and left.

Remus saw that Peter must have already left for breakfast before Remus himself had woken up. The only other person left in the room was James. Or rather, Lily, he hastily reminded himself. The guy in the bed on the left was not James Potter, he was Lily Evans. Or would that make him a she now? So confusing. He heard Lily starting to sit up and get out of bed. Remus grinned; a wicked idea was being born.

"Mmm…Lily, Lily, c'm 'ere. So beautiful…Lily…I love you. Kiss me…Lily. Lily…Lily," he kept muttering various things of the sort, pretending to still be asleep.

Lily was just waking up and she heard her name. Odd. No one knew she was here. To all appearances, she was James Potter. She sat up and looked around. Remus was the one saying her name. But he was still asleep…

"Kiss me, Lily…Lily…"

Lily was finding this increasingly disturbing. She decided it'd be best if she woke him up before hearing anything else his subconscious might decide to say. She threw off the covers and went over to his bed, shaking him awake. "Remus. Hey, buddy. Wake up. Remus!" She winced, hearing the sound of Sirius's singing through the wall.

Remus decided that if he could pull this off, he deserved some sort of acting award. Maybe even an Oscar. He fluttered his eyes open and put a goofy grin on his face. "What? Where'd Lily go?"

"Just you and me here, Remus. What do you mean 'Where did Lily go?'"

"She was just here…"

"No. Just you and me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Oh…"

"It must have been a dream. Why were you dreaming about Lily Evans?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"I don't know. It was the weirdest thing. In this dream, Lily and I were out by the lake. Looking at the stars, and the moon, and she started kissing me." Remus brought back his goofy grin.

"But then never really happened, right?" Lily asked.

Remus shrugged and grinned. "What is reality anyway? Maybe this is a dream, and that was reality."

"Well, in whatever dimension this is you didn't kiss Lily Evans, right?"

Remus didn't answer.

"Right? Remus, what happened last night?" she asked urgently, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Lily and I met out by the lake, looked at the stars, and talked."

"And that's all?"

"No."

"No," she found herself dreading whatever Remus was going to say next. What had James left out of his report to her?

"Lily sat really close to me and…wanna know what she said?"

"Tell me!"

"She told me the truth, Lily."

"What?" Wait, had he just called her Lily?

"She told me about the switch. Or should I say 'he'?" Remus couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing so hard that he collapsed backwards on the bed.

Lily was not pleased at all. She did the first thing she could think of. She punched him square in the jaw.

His laughter was abruptly cut short and he felt dizzy. There was a throbbing pain in his jaw. I probably deserved that…

"I can't believe you! You traitor!" She looked for something less fatal than her fists and grabbed on of Remus's shoes from under the bed. Every other word, she thumped him hard somewhere. "You put…me through…all this…drama…on purpose! Didn't you?"

"Yes!" gasped Remus, trying to protect his stomach. "Ow! Oof! I'm sorry!"

"Not sorry enough!"

Remus rolled to the side as another blow tried to rain down on him. When Lily's arm went up again to hit him (compensating for the extra foot he'd moved over), he rolled again, falling off the bed between the bed itself and the curtain. He hit the floor with a loud crash. "OW!"

"I'm so sorry, Remus, are you okay?" she asked, realizing that he might be seriously hurt. She dove sideways across the bed, arms, head, and shoulders sticking out passed the curtain to see him on the floor.

"I suppose I deserved that," he said, wincing as he got up gingerly.

"I'm so sorry, Re. Really. I was just so mad. How could just sit there and make all that stuff up?"

"How could you switch places with James Potter and not tell me about it?" he challenged.

"I can't believe he just told you," she said glumly, sitting next to him on the bed again.

"He didn't just tell me. I figured it out and tricked him into telling."

"Why, Remus Lupin! I didn't think you had it in you."

"Come on, Lillers. You know who my friends are. You should have realized that almost nothing is beyond me."

"You've got a point. Not that I could ever figure out why they're your friends. You could do better."

"No, I couldn't. Lillers, a best friend sticks with you through thick and thin. No matter what happens. I know James, Sirius, and Peter: they're my best friends. They're there for me and I'm there for them. They were there for me before they found out about my condition, and they've still been there since they found out. They've even done everything in their power to try and make things better."

"They tried to come up with a cure?"

"No. I can't explain it. I'm sorry. If they want to tell you, that's their business."

"Oh."

The bathroom door opened with a bang. "Bathroom's free!" sang Sirius.

"Took you long enough," retorted Remus. "You wanna go first, James?" he asked, without skipping a beat.

"Sure. Why not?" She went back to the trunk and picked up the robes she'd grabbed earlier when she'd talked with Peter, and went into the bathroom.

Lily realized she was getting something no one else ever had before; something no one else would probably ever have again. She was getting an insiders view of the relationship between Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter. Already this morning she learned a lot about Peter that she hadn't known before. Not to mention that little shape-shifting trick. She wondered how she could convince, trick, or bully James into telling her what was going on.

As she scrubbed her hair she wondered just how she was going to pull off everything she'd have to do in the next few days. She would have to play in a Quidditch match tomorrow. And Monday she would have to get up in front of the whole school and sing and dance. How could she possibly handle all of this?

Maybe it wasn't too late to confess to Dumbledore after all. Maybe he had a spell to switch them back early. Or at least he could push back the date of the Quidditch match and get rid of the performance. But would he?

Even if he could, would Dumbledore help her, as she wanted to be helped? Or would he put no that Dumbledore smile of his and say, "I think it's been quite educational for you two to walk in each other's shoes. You might as well stick things through for the next couple of days. Who knows? You may grow closer in understanding." And that would be that.

No, she was best off not going to Dumbledore after all. The secret would have to stay with her and James, and now Remus.

As she took the comb to her hair, she went back to the problem of Peter as a rat. How had he done that? And what had he meant by "a couple of animals"? Maybe James wasn't an Animagus rat, but there had to be some sort of secret. Some other way for him to turn into an animal. Then again, maybe Peter had just been talking about regular transfiguration. Anyone with skill and a wand can do it, and James was the best in their year for Transfiguration.

A new thought hit her. Best their year for Transfiguration. Maybe James was an Animagus. Just not a rat. Which would explain why her tested theory didn't work. But what type of animal could James possibly be?

Maybe she could exchange information. Tell him the whole story about her and Remus in exchange for information about James's animal shape. It just might work.

She gathered up James's pajamas and went back into the dormitory.

There was something odd sticking out from Peter's bed. A tail. A long, furry, black tail. It was wagging back and forward, pounding on the ground. There was a growling noise.

Lily looked over at Remus, gathering up his clothes to get in the shower. "Remus? What's that?" she asked, pointing at the tail.

"What's it look like?" he asked.

"A tail."

"Is that Peter? I thought he was a rat."

"Nope, not Peter."

The tail disappeared under the bed and a noise came around from the other side. It looked like the animal was a big, black dog. In it's mouth was a shoe. Lily did not like dogs at all. "How'd it get in here, Re?" she asked, backing away from the animal and towards the door.

Remus shrugged, trying very hard not to smile. Lily was fine with the idea that he was a werewolf, that didn't seem to trouble her. On the other hand, she was extremely skittish around large, live and breathing dogs.

"I'm getting out of here. I'll see you at breakfast." She grabbed her books and exited as quickly as possible.

The large black dog morphed into the shape of Sirius Black, chewing on a shoe. "Yugh. I hate it when I do that. Now my shoe's gone all slobbery again. I hate that. And there's three new holes! I've got to stop losing this thing."

Remus tried not to laugh. Sirius had had to "sniff out" his missing shoe. As usual, when he'd found it, he rejoiced by chewing and slobbering all over it.

"What's the matter with Jimmy today? He seemed a little off just now."

"I have no idea." He did the best he could to keep a straight face.

Sirius shrugged and started cleaning off his shoe while Remus went into the bathroom to take his shower.

Lily shuddered. That dog gave her the creeps. She wondered if maybe it belonged to Sirius and he'd been hiding him. She didn't see how that was possible though. How could someone hide something like that? She'd been sleeping in that dorm all week. There had to be another explanation.

She decided to dwell on that at another time. She waited in the common room for James to show up. She waited and waited and he never showed up. Finally, by the time Remus came downstairs, Lily decided that she must have missed James and he'd already left for breakfast without her. "Come on, Re. Let's go eat."

They went down to the great hall for breakfast quickly, knowing that if they didn't hurry they might be late for their first class. Remus and Lily could never handle being late of course; it would tear them apart to miss even a moment of precious class time when they should be studying.

Author's Note: What Remus was pretending wasn't supposed to be especially gross in anyway. Just a regular ordinary dream about kissing Lily. I probably didn't need those last 3 paragraphs and could have used it as the start of the next chapter. Oh well. So? :::poke:::: What'd ya think?