Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story.
Author's Note: Hey…I'll let you get right into it. As you'll see, I'm not thrilled with this chapter, though there are some parts I really like and some parts that I just kind of sped through for lack of any idea of what to write there. However, there's some stuff coming up soon (seeing as they switch back Sunday night and it's already Saturday) that I'm really looking forward to writing. Thanks to LilyEvans4life, books4me, Elephant Wings, fille-chica143, lizziee, glaz, gosnogatree, Leha, Gwendolyn James, Briana Marie, Miss Lady Marauder, siriusforeva, luv-nave, certified-weirdo, Augurey Song, xRazberryGurlx, Lauren, Some12, aison, PhoenixPlume, Lunatic Pandora1, J.E.A.R.K.Potter, DOJ, fanglessphysco, kc gryffy, Zesuit, MysticMadness, Victoria87, meenyrocks, and Shading in Grey. This chapter covered more than I initially planned, but I really like it. Oh, and I've got most of the song choreographed! It might not all make it into the story, but if it doesn't it'll be at the end of that chapter.
Chapter 25: The Match and Beyond
Lily groaned. Somebody was poking her. It was far too early in the morning to get up. "G'way," she mumbled.
"Rise and shine, James!" she heard her own voice say cheerfully.
She groped around for a pillow and found one behind her head. She hit where she thought the voice was coming from and her aim was true.
"Ow! Watch it. You've got a Quidditch match in less than two hours and people are starting to come into the common room."
She groggily forced herself to sit up and wake up a little more.
She saw James, in her body, standing there in yesterday's robes, still covered in grass stains and dirt. Remus was nearby, urging her to go upstairs and get ready as he carefully folded the invisibility cloak up inside his blanket so no one else would see it.
"Do I have to? I'm still sore from yesterday's practice."
"Yes, you have to. Get upstairs, or is it that you want to spend all day in the common room?" James said, glaring at her with angry green eyes.
Lily groggily sat up, and, forgetting she was wearing only boxers, walked up the boys' staircase, ignoring the growing number of people in the common room and on the stairs.
James felt his face starting to go red. Did she have no decency? It was midmorning and she just walked away practically naked. He wondered if she honestly forgot her state of dress or whether she was inflicting some sort of subconscious revenge on him for the long practice last night. Or for walking in when she was still in the Prefects' bathtub. Lily wouldn't stoop so low as that sort of revenge, would she? No, of course not. Or maybe she would, since nobody knew it was her. After the shepherd's pie incident earlier in the week and his embarrassment at having to walk into class with wet hair he'd come up with a revenge plan. But did he dare act it out? They'd been getting along so well that he'd considered not doing it. But after that little display there was no way he was going to skip it. He would have his revenge.
Lily only realized how almost naked she was once she got back to the dormitory and Sirius and Peter demanded to know where she'd been.
"I was out flying last night and I fell asleep in the common room," she said, rummaging around for the right clothes.
"Then why aren't you wearing anything but your boxers?" Peter asked suspiciously.
Lily looked down and realized they were right. She'd left the robes, and cloak, and James's broom down in the common room. "That's because when I came up here for a pillow and blanket you attacked me and stripped me."
"We did not," Sirius said decisively. He was almost dressed.
"Yes, you did," she insisted.
"No we didn't."
"Yes you did."
Peter snickered. "You know he never remembers half of what he does when he has too much caffeine."
Remus came in a moment later. He'd dressed himself in pajamas before settling on the couch the night before. He came in with his arms laden with three blankets, three pillows, a set of robes, a broom, and an invisibility cloak. He dropped everything on James's bed. "We can sort this out later. Everybody ought to get dressed."
"Speak for yourself, Moony. Wormtail and I are ready."
Lily and Remus got dressed as quickly as they could and followed Peter and Sirius back into the common room.
Lily whispered to Remus, "Where's James?"
"He said he'd meet you outside the locker room. Said he had to shower."
Lily rolled her eyes. James must have an obsessive compulsive showering problem like her friend Sandy had had in her Muggle neighborhood.
She found she didn't have much of an appetite for breakfast, but she ate anyway, knowing that skipping breakfast would be a bad idea.
The whole table was excited about the game even if it was "only against Hufflepuff." Lily started getting more nervous the more she heard everyone talk about what an easy match it was going to be.
She followed to the team to the locker room to put on her Quidditch robes. When everyone was dressed, they still waited around as though expecting something further. Remus elbowed her in the ribs. "Give them a pep talk," he muttered.
"Well, we…we've trained really hard and I think we're going to be the Hufflepuffs so let's get out there and do our best," she said. She wasn't particularly good with spur of the moment public speaking.
"Say something about destroying them," muttered Remus.
"What?"
"Just do it," he said.
"I know we can get out there and destroy the Hufflepuffs. We can pulverize them. We've been training hard and we're ready to take anything they throw at us, so let's get out there and win it!" Lily said, trying her best to sound confident.
Sirius gave a sort of battle cry and the others followed suit as they all followed Lily out of the Gryffindor locker room.
James pulled her aside. "Go out there and win. I know you can do it," he said.
She was so nervous she didn't ask why he was wearing a large overcoat. "I don't want to do this."
"You'll be fine. Go and shake the captain's hand, all right? When the ref blows the whistle, kick off. You'll be fine," he ran off, back to the stands as she turned back to where the team was calling her.
"Captains, shake hands."
Lily shook hands with the good-looking blonde boy who was the Hufflepuff captain. She couldn't remember what his name was.
"On the whistle. Three…two…one!"
And the game started.
Peter Pettigrew was running the commentary, closely supervised by Professor McGonagall. "Sirius Black has the Quaffle, he passes to James Potter, and Potter barely catches it and passes it Remus Lupin. Wait, why'd he pass it to Lupin? He had a clear shot. Oh well, Lupin shoots and makes it! 10 points for Gryffindor! No sign of the Snitch yet. The Prewettes are doing an admirable job keeping the Bludgers away from the Gryffindor team. Ouch! That had to hurt. Fabian Prewette just hit Hufflepuff Chaser Amos Diggory on the arm with the Bludger. That's got to smart, folks." Peter had a keen eye for details and his commentary covered everything.
Lily didn't do a great job, but she did a pretty good job, even managing to score a couple of goals.
In the end, she was quite grateful when Toby caught the Snitch and ended the game 230 to 20. The Hufflepuffs were pretty good, but it was never easy when a team had to play with a reserve player (Trevor) instead of one of their regulars.
It was only after Peter proclaimed the game over that Lily looked around for James in the stands. It wasn't hard to find him. He was wearing his red hair down and curled and wearing a spaghetti strap top, bright green of all colors, and little black running shorts. Lily was sure she'd never seen the outfit in her life.
She landed her broom and went to go find him, ignoring the cheers of the crowd. She tried to ignore the cheers of the crowd, but she had to admit that it certainly felt better to have people cheer for you after winning a match than moaning because you gave them detention.
It didn't take long. James was surrounded by half a dozen boys. Lily said the first thing she could think of to make them go away, making her voice gruff and pushing people out of the way with her broom. "Get away from my girl, you bloody prats." She shoved a few more of them aside and grabbed James's arm. "C'mon let's go celebrate in Hogsmeade." She started yanking him away through the crowd. "What were you thinking?" she whispered violently.
"You don't like my outfit?" he asked innocently.
"Where did you even get that?"
"Borrowed it. There was a pink top I would have worn but I know how pink clashes on redheads."
Lily looked back over her shoulder.
"Are they still staring?" grinned James.
"They look severely disappointed."
"I sure look good, don't I?" he said cheekily.
Lily glared at him. They were nearing Hogwarts. "First of all, may I remind you that that's not your body you're parading around?"
"Maybe not, but you never made it look this good."
"There are reasons for that," she said tartly.
"Name one."
"You didn't see those boys flocking around you like a piece of meat?"
"So? Girls usually flock around me like a piece of meat."
Lily shook her heard. "Let's get back to the tower, get you changed, and go to Hogsmeade. We've got to pick costumes and get working on our number."
"Who said I'm changing? I like the attention."
"You always like the attention," she muttered.
They bickered about whether or not James would change clothes all the way up to the tower. Finally, Lily gave in. "But I don't say I didn't warn you; you're gonna be miserable."
Lily went to the boys' dormitory and changed into jeans and a t-shirt, buried in the bottom of James's trunk. Digging a little further she found another pair of jeans (older, with a tear in the knee), a belt, and another t-shirt. She packed the extra clothes into a book bag. She had a feeling that once they got into Hogsmeade James might change his mind about wanting more clothing on. She put her copy of their song into the bag too, as well as spare writing materials.
She went down to the common room, hoping to find James already changed. Instead, he had simply put a long jacket on over his shorts and top.
They were nearly back at the castle entrance when Dumbledore found them. He was waiting there.
Lily was glad she'd managed to talk James out of sneaking into Hogsmeade. He said she wasn't getting the full James Potter experience if she didn't sneak off to Hogsmeade with him, but she pointed out that they had express permission from Dumbledore to go and no need to sneak out.
"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, I'm glad I caught you. Here are official letters, stating that you have my permission to be in Hogsmeade today, should anyone question you. This is the address of the friend I was telling you about in case you care to practice at her house, otherwise you're welcome to use one of the spare classrooms here." He handed over the letters and a bag off money.
Lily looked questioningly at the bag.
"As you'll be missing lunch and possibly dinner, I thought it best to send you with money for food. There's also some money for your costumes for Monday's little show." There was a distinct twinkle to his eye with the last comment.
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore. We won't be out late," promised Lily.
"Enjoy yourselves. You've earned some time off. Feel free to take the Knight Bus back here and the driver will bill the school."
Lily and James went outside and found a horseless carriage waiting for them. They got in and Lily said, "At least we won't have to walk all the way there."
"Yeah. You did a great job in the game, by the way. I mean, I saw mistakes, but this was nothing like how you were flying earlier this week."
Lily grinned. James sounded proud of her. She never thought him being proud of her would be something to smile about.
Before long they found themselves in Hogsmeade.
"Where should we go first?"
"The Three Broomsticks. We can look at the music and start writing the choreography."
"I want to get costumes first," whined James.
"No, we really should get to work first. When we get sick of that we can start planning costumes," Lily said logically, steering James toward the Three Broomsticks. He didn't protest very much. He was always up for a Butterbeer.
They went inside, immediately catching an odd look from Rosmerta. It was understandable. "Lily" had never accompanied James Potter here before. It was always he and his friends. Lily Evans was a by-the-rules girl. Perhaps even more shocking than Lily's presence with James was what she was wearing, Rosmerta thought.
Lily started to approach the counter to show her Dumbledore's letter.
James put a hand on her arm and stopped her. "She'll think this is some kind of joke if you go up. I'll handle this." He took the letter out of Lily's hand and approached the bar.
Lily hissed, "Don't flirt with her!" as he walked by.
"Hey, Madam Rosmerta."
"Hello, what can I do for you?"
"Two Butterbeers."
Rosmerta reached behind her for the bottles of Butterbeer. "If you don't mind my asking, are there more Hogwarts students coming? I wasn't aware this was a weekend for the students to come here."
"It's not. I don't think there's anyone else coming. You see, James and I have to perform a song for the whole school on Monday. We both said something a little rash the other day and now Dumbledore's making us eat our own words." He hoped that was a satisfactory, Lily-ish reply. "If you'd like, you can see the letter Dumbledore gave me," he offered, holding it up for her to see.
"James was in here with Remus Lupin just yesterday. They said then that they were shopping for costumes."
James almost swore. "They didn't find anything yesterday. That's why I am here today to look for something suitable." He left the money on the counter and took the drinks. "Could I get a couple of orders of fish and chips too?"
"Certainly. I'll be over to the table in a few minutes."
James paid the additional money and went back to the table that Lily was sitting at. He took his seat and slid one of the Butterbeer's across to her. "Let's get started, shall we?"
Lily grinned, taking a swig of her drink. She put her book bag on the table and took out a bottle of ink, parchment, a quill, and the song lyrics. "Let's go through this line by line."
"I don't know this song," James said sheepishly. "I've never heard it before."
"Great. Here, I'll sing each stanza and we can work on it from there." She sang the first four lines. "Now, what if you did a hip thing?"
"A hip thing?"
"Like a bounce. The first line, hip right; second line, hip left. Then in the third line, just look from left to right."
"Then in the fourth line I can spin you around," he said brightly.
"How?" she asked dubiously.
"Nothing you said mentioned my hands, and I was thinking—"
"I figured you'd start with one hand up and the other on your hip."
"No, that'd look ridiculous, my idea is better."
"Alright, hotshot, what's your idea?"
James grinned and replied in a singsong voice, "You called me hot."
"No, I called you a showoff. What's your idea?"
"Hot is hot. My idea was that you stand behind me while I do what you said in the first three lines. I've got one hand behind my back, and it's holding your hand. For the fourth line, I bring you out from behind me, spinning."
After a little discussion, during which their food arrived, they figured out the more minor details and agreed on this for their opening. Lily jotted down what they were going to do on the margins of the paper.
"Okay, so when I spin next to you, I end up on your right. Then, you can take a step forward with your left—"
"And I can face you and do a kind of hip thing—"
"While shaking your finger at me," Lily said, grinning.
"And you can mirror me."
This process continued, with interruptions to argue or eat, for almost two hours. At last, they had a satisfied dance number. The only problem was that it was going to be difficult or impossible to work on it in their current state. It wouldn't do them much good unless they practiced their own parts, and they couldn't practice their own parts in their current bodies. They'd be going into the performance on Monday with very little actual practicing under their belts.
More than a little exhausted, they made their way to the robe shop not far away. It took some time to convey to the owner what exactly they were looking for in regards to the outfit for their male lead, but eventually the shopkeeper seemed to see what they were getting at and said she'd have no trouble getting it.
Next, Lily explained what they were looking for as shoes for that costume.
When the shopkeeper said that wouldn't be a problem, James added that he (or rather Lily) needed a pair like those, but in feminine heels.
"Excuse me a moment," Lily said to shopkeeper, pulling James aside. "What are you thinking? There's no way I can dance in heels. I hate high heeled shoes."
"You'll look precious," James said, grinning. "Now all we have to worry about is your dress."
"What? I told you I don't want a dress. I don't like dresses."
"You'll look great in it," James said, winking. He went to go explain to the women what he was looking for in a dress.
The shopkeeper nodded, saying it was easy enough to cut some dress robes down to look like what they wanted to for the dress. Then she asked when they needed all this by.
"Monday morning. Our show is Monday night."
"That'll be tricky, but I think I can get it all done. Will you be needing anything else?"
"No, that should be all," Lily said.
"Alright, then let me get your measurements and take the gold and you can be on your way." She disappeared to another part of the shop and got out two tape measurers. She set one up measuring Lily, and the other measuring James. It reminded Lily of being measured for her wand, only this time there was a quill writing all the measurements down on a piece of parchment on the floor next to her.
They paid for the costumes (which took about all that was left in the bag of gold) and the shopkeeper promised to have them Owled to Lily Evans and James Potter by Monday morning at the latest, though they likely wouldn't get there any earlier. They thanked her and left the shop.
As they were walking down the street (James decided that after all their hard work they deserved some chocolate from Honeydukes) a man came up to James. James had unbuttoned his jacket and was of course still wearing the little black shorts and green top. Lily had stopped at the window of another shop, admiring a new eagle-feather quill.
A man of about 25 approached him, putting his arm his shoulders. "Hey, good lookin', how's about you and me go and have a good time? I've got a bottle of champagne with your name on it? Or maybe a good ol' bottle of Ogden's?" he said, winking flirtatiously.
"I don't think so," James said, removing the man's hand from his shoulder. The man had looked pleasant enough at first, but now he was decidedly creepy.
The man took hold of his arm, not unfriendly, but certainly too firm for James's liking. James couldn't get rid of him.
Lily had looked up from the window she was at and saw James's predicament. She knew that no good would come of him wearing that outfit. She approached James and the man cautiously. "Hey," she said casually.
"Back off. I saw her first."
"Yeah, gee, but you see, she's my girl. She doesn't deal with lowlifes like you."
The man turned his head to reply to Lily, but Lily swung her book bag straight at his face and knocked him flat; with his arm still gripping James, he brought him down with him.
Lily grabbed James by the arm as the man started to recover and they ran for it.
"I hate to say I told you so, but..."
"Yeah, I know, you told me so," James replied, as they looked for a friendly shop to run into.
They settled for Zonkos.
"The owner here knows you, right?" Lily asked James.
"Yeah," he said, panting with the effort of their run.
"Good, let's go in."
A passing drunk reached out to pinch James on the butt and James smacked his hand away. He gladly followed Lily into Zonkos.
Lily whispered, "What's the owner's name again?"
"Elmer."
"Good." Lily strode boldly to the counter. "Hey, Elmer."
"Hey, James, need a new stash of tricks already?"
"No, I'm good right now. But you see, my friend Lily over there made a stupid bet and she had to come walk around Hogsmeade dressed like that."
"Pretty good looking," Elmer commented.
"That's beside the point. I found her here and some guy was harassing her. I've got some clothes she can change into. Any chance of her using one of your storage rooms?"
"Sure, James. No problem. Right through there, first door on the left."
"Thanks," Lily said, truly grateful. She went back over to James. "He said you can change in one of his storage rooms. It's through there, the door on the left." She handed him the book bag.
"Thanks, Lily," he said, going passed her and taking the bag.
Lily made small talk with Elmer while they waited for James to come out.
James didn't look completely pleased. "These are boy clothes," he complained. "They don't fit properly."
"Well, it's better than what you were wearing before," Lily admonished him. "Thanks again, Elmer."
"G'bye, James. Nice meeting you, Lily," Elmer called after them.
They didn't get bothered again as they kept walking, though James insisted on taking Lily into Honeydukes to buy her some of her favorite chocolate (not using Dumbledore's money, but his own instead).
After that they stopped off at the Three Broomsticks for dinner. There, they ran into Trevor and the four girls from glee club.
Trevor called them over to their table. "Why don't have dinner with us if you're gonna stay awhile?" he offered.
Lily thanked him and she and James pulled up chairs to join the table. She noticed that now that James didn't have to worry about Trevor in the Quidditch match, he was being friendlier toward him as they started a conversation.
"Did Dumbledore give you two the day off as well?" Trevor asked. Then he smacked himself in the forehead. "Of course he did; you're Head Boy and Head Girl, you wouldn't be here otherwise."
"Yeah, he did. What have you been up to?"
"We just got the last of what we need for the little show on Monday. It'll be a blast. I can't wait," Trevor said, grinning.
With James's increased civility towards Trevor, he and Lily chatted with Trevor and the girls in the club for quite some time.
At last, they decided they ought to be getting back to school. It was dark when they got outside and they decided to take the Knight Bus back to Hogwarts rather than walk after such a long day. Without thinking, James and Lily sat together, Lily putting her arm around him as he yawned.
Lily looked out the window. She was certainly not looking forward to the discussion she was going to be having with Alice when they got back to school, but she knew there was no way to get out of it.