Disclaimer: I don't own this. You know that. I know that.

Author's Note: Wow! Long chapter! Eight whole pages. I'm very excited here. I hope you like this chapter. In the interest of speeding up the updating process I'm once again skipping the replies. I don't know how people feel about my replies. If you'd rather I skip writing the replies so everybody can get on with the story, I'll keep doing that, otherwise I'll start doing the replies again.

Chapter 24: Working Things Out

James looked at Lily, flying next to him, hardly believing she was there. This wasn't the sort of thing she normally did. He couldn't imagine her flying out a window and coming and getting him like that. True, Remus seemed to be in charge, but Lily was there, and that was certainly something.

As they landed in the Quidditch stadium, James had to wonder why she was there. Did she really care that much about protecting his image at the Quidditch match? Or was she trying to make up for overreacting in the kitchen?

"Let's get started," Lily said. "What do I need to know for tomorrow's game against Hufflepuff?"

James and Remus looked at each other. "This could take a while. Let's go inside."

They led Lily into the locker room where they could go over rulebooks, playbooks, and player stats. By the time they were through, Lily's head was swimming with information. She couldn't ever remember studying so much in so short a time. With the O.W.L.s and final exams, she'd always had an organized, well spread out study schedule to absorb the information over a period of time. After all, for that sort of thing it was just a compilation of everything she'd already learned. This stuff was all fresh and new to her.

"So you're clear on how you're allowed to pass, which way is the proper way to catch, and on which times it's okay to throw the Quaffle to a Beater, right?" James asked anxiously, pulling random information.

"James, we've been doing this for two hours!" she said, almost in a whine. "I didn't almost break my neck flying out that window to just sit here in the locker room."

"Do you think you're ready to work on some of these plays?" he asked seriously.

"If I'm not now, I'm never going to be," she said, aching to get up and stretch her legs. She'd sat on the hard wooden bench in the locker room for the last two hours while James and Remus poured through playbooks and diagrams with her.

"Good. This was the hard stuff. Your brain didn't know any of it. But my body knows all of these moves. The muscle memory has all of them. It's just like when you were exhausted after we practiced. Physically the body you're in knows how to take that the way your regular one doesn't. But mentally you didn't know how to handle it and push through the pain and appreciate it. I think you're going to be okay tomorrow. Let's get working outside." He took a step toward the door. Then he added, as if an after thought, "And what's this about you almost breaking your neck?"

"Don't ask," she said, starting toward the door herself.

"Could you grab the Quaffle, Moony?" James asked.

"I'm on it," Remus said, heading for the broom shed as the three of them left the locker rooms.

Their practice went on for another two hours and it was nearing midnight when they finally called it quits.

Remus was slightly disappointed that Lily and James hadn't tried to get away and talk to each other alone. He thought they might have tried to discuss things when he went to get the Quaffle, but it didn't seem so.

"Not bad, Evans," James said approvingly. "With more training and practice you could have made the team this year."

Lily grinned. She ached all over. All she wanted right now was to take a nice steamy bubble bath. She wondered if sneaking off to the Prefects bathroom this time of night for a bubble bath would be worth the trouble she might get in. Sneaking off? She was getting as bad as J—er, Potter and his friends.

Remus went and put the Quaffle away. This had certainly been a long night. He hoped it would pay off.

"We should probably be heading back," James said stretching his arms.

"Yeah. We probably should," Lily agreed.

Neither of them made a move to get back on their brooms.

"You should both probably stretch your legs a bit before you go back inside. That way they don't cramp up. I think my legs are alright," Remus said. He was going out on a limb.

"Yeah. I think mine are a little stiff from all that flying," Lily said. "I'm not really used to it."

James nodded. "We'll see you in the common room, Remus."

"I'll be waiting. Don't stay out too long," Remus said, winking at them. Remus kicked off from the ground before they could respond.

They just watched him leave.

"He's not the bad sort," James said.

"No. He's a nice guy," Lily agreed.

They stood there awkwardly.

"We probably should stretch our legs." He leaned Sirius's broom against the wall and Lily followed suit. They started walking around the pitch.

"I might have, sort have, maybe, almost…overreacted earlier," Lily said. "After all, you weren't throwing food around by yourself. You had a little help."

"Just a little." He smiled. "What was that about you almost breaking your neck earlier?"

"I jumped out the window on the broom. I didn't pull up fast enough." She shivered at the memory.

"I'm so sorry," he said, eyes widening.

"It's not your fault."

James felt guilty anyway; they'd come looking for him after all. "This week hasn't exactly been easy for me either. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to manage this much hair? It's gorgeous, but it's a lot of work."

"Then just put it in a bun everyday like I do. It's easy." She ignored the part about him saying her hair was gorgeous.

"Really, it's worth it though. You ought to do something with your hair once in a while."

She didn't respond.

"The stars are pretty though."

"Yeah." She looked up at the dark sky, dotted with bright stars. They were nearly back where they started. "Let's head back inside. I can't wait to take a nice steaming bubble bath."

"Can I come?" he asked, utter innocence in his voice.

"No you cannot come!" she said, wondering if he knew just how absurd that sounded.

"Why not? It's my body; I know what I look like. And this is your body; you know what it looks like."

She contorted her face in disgust. "Not in a hundred years, James Potter. It'd just be wrong."

"Can't blame me for trying."

"Who says I can't?"

"The universe."

"Then tell the universe I'd like to have a word with it," she said, snorting.

"Oh, all right. My stomach hurts anyway. I must be hungry. We can get the cloak out and walk to the Prefect's bathroom together under it. I'll leave you there and go down to the kitchen. When I'm done with my snack I'll pick you up from the Prefect's bathroom and we can go back to the Tower under the cloak. Simple."

"But what if I'm not done when you come back?"

"I'll be sure to take a long time eating."

She hesitated. "Knock on the door before you come in."

"I thought we already went through this?"

"Just do it."

"Fine, if it'll make you happy," he said, mock sighing. "You know we ought to talk about the upcoming performance of that song," he said, getting on Sirius's broom.

"You're right. We can talk about it in the common room with Remus."

"Maybe he'll have some idea of what to do for costumes."

Lily got on James's broom. "Where are we flying to?"

"I guess back to your window. Your roommates are less likely to be up at this hour than mine, though we don't have the Map to check."

They couldn't talk much as they were flying, so they silently winged their way up to Gryffindor Tower. James found the window with an ease that Lily found suspicious. He opened the window with his wand and went in with a quiet landing.

Lily was not so fortunate. Her landing made a little noise and she winced. One of her roommates was a light sleeper.

"Who was that?" asked the light sleeper.

James covered for Lily. "I was jus' getting up ta close the window and got tangled up in my sheets. I tripped. Go back to sleep," James said, making his words sound sleepy.

The roommate in question went back to sleep.

Silently, James stood and closed the window. Motioning Lily to be quiet they went passed the bed, brooms in hand.

They opened the door and went to the staircase. James had only gone down about three steps when Lily got on the first step. The stairs disappeared underneath them and turned into a slide. They landed in a heap at the bottom of the staircase in the common room.

"Well, that was interesting," James said. "I'd forgotten about the staircase trick." They stayed there in a moment of silence. "You have to wear a dress, you know. For the song."

"I don't want to wear a dress."

"You have to, or it won't look right."

"If I'm wearing a dress, then what are you going to wear?"

"I don't know yet. I haven't got a clue."

"Maybe we could just match…"

"If I know one thing, it's that you have to wear a dress."

"James, I don't want to wear a dress," Lily complained.

"Look, Lily, ask Remus. He'll tell you I'm right. We'll find you a good dress."

"I'm not wearing any dress you pick out for me."

"What about one you pick out for yourself?"

She paused. "I'll think about it."

"Hey, Remus, give us a hand here. I can't get up."

"Gladly," said a voice. It wasn't Remus's voice. "Excuse me, Lily, Potter, you have some explaining to do," Alice said, in an all too sweet tone of voice.

They looked up at her, horrified. She had the look on her face of someone who knew entirely too much.

"How long have you been there?" asked Lily, knowing her question was pointless. Alice must have been in the common room since before they'd gotten back to the girls' dormitory.

"Long enough, Lily," Alice said pointedly.

"Did Remus tell you? If he did, I'll…" James tried to think of something suitably horrible to do to Remus. If Alice remembered what she'd been wearing this morning when she yelled at him she would murder him on the spot.

"What'll you do to me?" asked Remus, walking over from the other side of the couch. "Alice and I were just having a nice little chat. Oh, she had her suspicions, but she didn't know what was going on until the two of you told her yourselves, just now."

James slapped his forehead, feeling like such an idiot.

"Help us up," Lily ordered, feeling tired.

Remus and Alice came over and helped their friends to their feet. Alice pulled the real Lily aside. "You and I are going to talk in the morning for a very long time."

"I've got a Quidditch game in the morning," she said weakly.

Alice didn't look any happier.

"James and I have got some things to discuss with Remus, Alice. Then I'm taking a bath."

"This isn't like you, Lily. Since when have you started calling him James? He's always been Potter or Porcupine. You come out of our dormitory with him and a couple of broomsticks. I thought I saw you jumping out the window, or rather him. The next thing I know you're going to tell me you're going to sneak out to the Prefect's bathroom for your bath."

"Would that be so horrible?" she asked."I'm exhausted. My muscles are killing me."

"It's almost one in the morning. Lily, you aren't acting like yourself."

"Look at this body, Alice. I'm not myself this week."

"I want the whole story."

"Well, I'm not in the mood to tell it. We can talk tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?" Alice asked in disbelief, following Lily to where she was going to the couch.

"Yes, tomorrow night. I have to go over game plays in the morning, then I have a game I'm scared to death to play, and after that I've got to go costume shopping in Hogsmeade with James. Yes, James, I'm using his first name."

"What? Are you and he going to sneak out?" Alice asked, scathingly.

"No, for your information Dumbledore is making us go out and get costumes. Leave me alone, Alice," she said, feeling exhausted. She didn't want to be arguing with her best friend.

"Fine. We'll talk tomorrow," she said, her voice like lead. She left, back up the stairs without so much as a goodnight.

James sighed. "I'm not going to be welcomed back up there. She'll probably wait up just to tell me off. We should get going. I've got to eat. My stomach is killing me."

Lily blushed. Food was probably not the reason for James's stomachache tonight.

Remus noticed the look on her face. "Is he…?" he didn't finish the sentence.

Lily nodded, blushing harder than ever and wishing she could find a rock to crawl under.

"Yikes," Remus said.

"How did you guess?" asked Lily, in a small voice.

"My cousin Irma doesn't really watch what she says. She's rather vocal about anything and everything that goes on in her life," Remus said.

"James didn't know what was going on before," Lily said.

Remus laughed. "He doesn't have any sisters or cousins."

"Why are you two talking like I'm not here? Get the cloak Remus, my stomach is killing me."

"Er, James, has Lily fully explained to you the pains of, er, womanhood?" asked Remus, trying to phrase the question delicately.

"Most of it. I think. Why?"

"Unless I'm mistaken, you've got cramps."

"Like when I ate that live frog after losing the bet to Sirius in first year?" he asked. He remembered his stomach hurting so bad that he had no choice but to go to the infirmary and explain what happened.

"More like, cramps because of Lily's, er, monthly friend."

James looked horrified. "You mean they aren't going to go away just by eating a bowl of ice cream?"

"Not really."

James got a stubborn look on his face. "I'm going to try it anyway. Where's the cloak?"

"In your trunk," Remus answered.

Without further hesitation, James strode boldly up the boys' staircase and went into the seventh year boys' dormitory. He opened the door and stepped in.

Sirius was standing on his bed, in his boxers, playing the air guitar and singing very off-key. Peter wasn't singing, but was standing on the nightstand, playing the drums on the water pitcher. Frank was lying in bed with a pillow pulled tight over his face, trying to drown out the sound.

They all stopped what they were doing when they saw that "Lily" was standing in the doorway, holding a broom.

"Longbottom, if you want to get away from this racket, I know one of the fourth years is in the hospital wing with the measles, so there's a free bed there. Here, Sirius." James tossed Sirius's broom to him and went to his trunk, picking up the invisibility cloak without their notice. He left.

"Thanks, I was looking for this!" called Sirius. Deciding that his broom would make a suitable guitar, he started singing with renewed vigor.

Frank decided to take the advice about the fourth year dormitory.

"How could you do that?" asked Lily, as soon as she saw James come back down.

"It was easy," he said.

"What if somebody had seen you? Do you have any idea what that would have done to my reputation?"

"Calm down, Lily. Nobody but my roommates saw me," James said.

"But they weren't seeing you, they saw me."

"Look, Sirius was singing and Pete was going right along with him. Longbottom's ears were in so much pain that he's not even gonna remember who told him he ought to go to the fourth year dormitory."

She glared at him.

"Do you still want your bubble bath or not?" he asked, exasperatedly. "The only way you're going down there is with this invisibility cloak."

"Fine. Let's go before I talk myself out of this. I'll talk to you in the morning, Remus."

"I'll still be awake when you come to the dormitory. Sirius and Peter aren't likely to shut up for some time. Sirius always does this before a game," Remus offered.

Settling the cloak around their shoulders and pulling the hood up, Lily and James walked silently out of Gryffindor Tower and down toward the Prefects' bathroom. When they got there, Lily slipped out of the cloak. "Remember to knock before you come in."

"Alright. I'll see you in about an hour."

"Good." She said the password and went inside.

Lily turned on the scented water gratefully and shrugged out of her clothes and into the water, pulling a towel down next to the tub. She relaxed, letting the lavender scent of the purple bubbles and the warm water take hold of her. Occasional bubble baths when she'd had a particularly stressful week was one of the few "girlish" things she actually enjoyed.

James continued on his way to the kitchen, hoping that a good ice cream sundae would help him feel better like it usually did. He went inside and found Brinnie still manning the kitchen, though it looked spotless.

"Brinnie?"

"Yes, Miss Lily Evans, ma'am? What can Brinnie do for you?"

"I'm sorry about earlier. Could I have an ice cream sundae?"

"It's very late. Students should be in bed," she said disapprovingly.

James knew that if it were he and his friends who were down asking for sundaes, she'd do it in a heartbeat. She loved them. "Please? I have a stomachache." He tried to sound pitiful.

"Probably from too many sweets," she said, but she smiled, taking pity on him and made the sundae anyway.

He took his time eating the sundae and talking with her. He figured it was almost an hour later when he started the climb back up the stairs to get Lily.

He knocked on the door but there was no answer. "Lily?" he asked softly, knocking again.

There was still no answer.

He heard footsteps and, forgetting he was invisible, duck into the nearest room: the prefects' bathroom.

Lily, hearing the noise of the door opening looked up, startled out of her almost sleep-like state. She saw James standing there and got angry. "I thought I told you to knock!"

"Ssh! I did, there's somebody out there. I knew we should have gotten the map back from Remus. Get out of there and get dressed. I don't know who's out there patrolling at this hour of the night, but they must be out looking for troublemakers."

"I told you twice already, I'm not getting dressed with you here," she said.

"One, it's my body that's naked and two, I'm not looking at you. I'm staring at this door. Just hurry up and be quiet. I'm trying to listen to make sure whoever it is out there is gone." He had his ear pressed to the door.

Feeling self-conscious anyway, Lily got out and got dressed as quickly as she could and pulled the plug to empty the bathtub. "I'm ready."

"Good, it sounds like whoever that was is gone. Let's go. Put the cloak over you."

She slid under the cloak with him. "Did the ice cream help your 'stomachache'?"

"No," he said, opening the door with a slow carefulness. Everything looked clear. "Let's go. No sound."

It seemed to take an eternity for them to get back to Gryffindor Tower, but the made it, not running into the mysterious patroller once.

Once safely back in the common room, James sighed. "That was close. Probably the caretaker who was passing by."

Lily nodded.

"It's almost two in the morning," Remus said, mocking scolding them as he looked up from the book he was reading. He was all settled on one of the couches with a blanket and an extra pillow.

"Are you staying out here tonight?" asked Lily, a little surprised.

"It's better than being up there," Remus said, jerking his thumb at the staircase. "They're just missing their other guitarist," he snickered.

"Guitarist?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

James admitted, "I'm part of the little air band. It's a good luck ritual the night before any game. We all start singing and pretending to play musical instruments. Remus sticks around for a while usually, since he's out best air-trumpet player. It always drives Longbottom nuts though. Eventually he comes out here to sleep or bunks on the floor in one of the other dormitories."

"I think I'll pass and stay out here tonight. I'd rather get a decent night's sleep," Lily said.

"If I don't want to wake up dead tomorrow, I think I'd better kip out here too. That friend of yours is probably just waiting for me to come up so she can murder me."

"I'm gonna go get a blanket and a pillow off your bed, James," Lily said starting up toward the stairs.

"Will you get a blanket for me too?" asked James.

"You can take one off Frank's bed. He went to another dormitory for the night," suggested Remus.

Lily didn't say anything, but continued on her way. Sirius and Peter were still singing and playing their nonexistent instruments. Well, technically Sirius was playing a broom and Peter was playing an empty water pitcher.

"PRONGS!" screamed Sirius, "Ready to join the fun?"

"I'm tired. I'm gonna sleep out in the common room."

"Spoilsport," retorted Peter.

"What's wrong with you, Jamesie?"

"Not in the mood to jump on my bed in my boxers tonight," she said dryly.

"Tackle attack!" screamed Sirius, clearly hyper on something.

"What is wrong with you?" asked Lily, trying to breathe. Sirius and Peter had dropped the water pitcher and broom and tackled her to the ground.

They stripped her to the boxers and tied her robes around her neck like a scarf. A very heavy scarf. They found a mop in the corner of the room and gave it to her.

"Start singing!"

Knowing that nothing else would work, Lily was forced to join in the insane not-a-band for the next half an hour. Finally, begging that she needed to go get sleep she grabbed a pillow and blanket from her bed, and a pillow and blanket for another bed (she assumed it was Frank's but didn't really care at this point), and trudged back down the stairs into the common room.

James whistled when he saw her. "Hey, good lookin'," he said.

She was not amused. She threw one of the pillows at him and the blanket followed. She'd forgotten to take the robes off of where they were tied around her neck. Too exhausted to do much else but untie the robe from where it was, she let herself collapse on the nearest couch.

James had pity on her and tucked the blanket in around her.

"How long are they going to keep doing that up there?" she asked sleepily.

"Only another half an hour. They always stop by three or they won't have enough of energy left for tomorrow's game."

She stared at him. "And what sort of substance are they on exactly?"

Remus tried to sound innocent. "I didn't tell you? They had about a dozen Espressos each tonight before going up there. They came through the common room just after I got back from our Quidditch session."

Lily would have thrown her pillow at him, but that would have required too much energy. Instead she just shut her eyes and fell asleep.

James took his pillow and blanket over to another couch and closed his eyes.

Remus shut his book. "You think she can help us win tomorrow?"

"I know she can."

And with that, they drifted off to sleep.

END OF DAY 5

So, how was it? I'm trying to keep everybody as in-character as I can, though I really do think some of James's habits (like sneaking around the school after hours) could rub off on her in these situations. Sorry if the Espresso thing was weird, but I don't approve of teenage drinking, so there's no way they were going to have Firewhiskey up there; besides, they have to have at least enough sense not to want to deal with a hangover on game day. Anywhoodle, I hope you like the chapter. The next chapter will probably cover before breakfast, breakfast, and the game, though depending on how much detail I put on the game and the other stuff it might include part or all of the Hogsmeade trip too.

Review, you know you want to. The review button is just SO pretty!