Disclaimer: I own only the plot. And Trevor. But Trevor isn't in this chapter so that's a moot point.

Author's Note: I know it's been awhile and I'm sorry. I didn't know exactly what was going on. This is NOT the last chapter. This was going to be a couple of chapters, but I couldn't think of what to do to extend it. There will either be one more chapter or two more chapters depending on how I write the next chapter. Thanks you to everybody who has read and everybody who has reviewed. You've helped keep me motivated. Unfortuantely individual replies to reviews have been banned. If anybody has a specific question I'll try to answer it though. Thanks again for all your support!

Chapter 31: Discussions

Lily woke up and, stretched her arms. When she opened her eyes she realized she couldn't see a thing. She grinned. She was home, back in her own body again. She reached over and fumbled for her glasses at the nightstand.

She crept out of her bed and over to Alice's. She silently counted to three, yanked back the curtains, and jumped on the bed.

There was a groan. "If you're not really Lily Evans, I'm going up the boys' dormitory and cutting off your—" Alice started.

"It's really me, Alice."

Rubbing her eyes, Alice sat up and studied the intruder. This person looked exactly how "Lily" had looked all week. And the week before that, and every other week that they'd known each other. "Prove it."

"I know you keep a Valentine under your pillow. A Valentine that you got from Frank, back in second year," Lily said teasingly.

"Okay, I believe you," Alice said hastily, looking around to make sure no one else was awake yet.

Lily smiled at her.

"So, is it good to be back, or are you gonna actually miss being James Potter?" asked Alice.

"It's good to be back, but there were advantages to being a guy. Not having to deal with a period or a bra were definitely good things."

Alice laughed. "With the make up and hair he kept doing I think James might have made a better girl than you, if he'd had a little longer to practice."

Lily heard the sounds of one of her roommates starting to get up. "Alice, I'm not going to class today. James and I have to work on our song and dance for tonight. I need you to cover for me."

"Lily, this doesn't sound like you. I think you left part of your brain in Potter's body. Or maybe he left part of his brain in yours."

"I'm serious, Alice. Everybody else will be waking up soon. I need you to cover for me. Even without the practice we've got to do, James and I have a lot of things to talk about today. Please?"

"Oh, all right," Alice agreed. "But if you're caught, I officially know nothing."

"Thanks, Alice. McGonagall would never suspect me of any wrongdoing. When you go downstairs to the common room, would you tell James to meet me up here once everybody is gone?"

"You expect him to be able to come up here?" Alice asked.

"He'll manage. I'll leave the window open for him," Lily said. She gave Alice a quick smile of thanks and raced back to her own bed to crawl under the covers just before the rest of their roommates woke up. She sniffed her pillowcase. It didn't smell like James. Maybe she could steal one of his pillowcases.

When the others were awake, Alice pretended to wake Lily and found out she was "sick;" Lily silently thanked her. Now if any of the teachers asked, her other roommates could confirm that wasn't feeling well enough for class.

Everyone else got ready and left for breakfast, but Lily waited patiently. When she was sure no one was going to come back for forgotten quills or homework, she sprang out of bed and went for a quick shower.

James woke up to find Peter and Sirius sitting at the foot of his bed.

"What are you idiots doing here?" James asked, sitting up groggily. He sniffed the air. They really needed to air out this dorm; it was beginning to reek of old socks.

"We want an explanation," Sirius said.

"We want an explanation now," Peter clarified.

"Not now. I ate too much last night. Tell McGonagall and Flitwick and the rest that I'm not going to class today."

"What do you want us to tell them?"

"Make something up. You're a world-class liar," James said, ruffling his hair. Nice hair. So wonderfully short compared to Lily's mane.

"We're not covering for you, unless you explain what was going on," Sirius said, arms folded across his chest.

"I promise that I'll explain everything later," James said.

"We just need to know if we're crazy or not," whined Peter.

"Of course you're both crazy. Whether you're right or wrong about something is an entirely different matter," Remus said, joining them and finding a place on the bed.

"I need you three to cover for me. Please?"

"Why?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"Just do it," ordered James.

"Not unless you tell us," Peter said.

"And we mean the truth, not that garbage about you having a stomachache," Sirius said sternly.

The word "stomachache" made James think about the stomachache he'd had when he was still Lily. Oh, it was so good to be a guy again! "Look, Lily and I have got to practice that song for tonight. I'll explain everything later. I'm not coming to class today."

Sirius took a moment to consider whether or not this was a good enough reason.

At that moment, Frank came out of the bathroom, hair still wet from his shower, but already dressed. He shot a glare at James. "Are you you or aren't you you?" he asked.

"I'm me," James said simply. "I'm me for good now."

Frank gave a curt nod. "Good." He departed, not acknowledging the others.

James returned his attention to getting Sirius to agree to lie for him without having to explain anything just yet. He'd save that for later. It was going to be a long story. He turned to Sirius with big, innocent eyes. "Pwease, Paddy?"

"That's not gonna work this time, Prongs," Sirius started to say.

James did his best to continue to look sweet and innocent. It was an award winning performance.

"Oh, fine. It will," he snapped, irritated at himself for giving up. "We'll cover and tell McGonagall anything you bloody well please for now, but we want the whole story later, got it?"

"Of course," James said cheerfully. Later was much better than sooner. "If Dumbledore happens to ask any questions, tell him that Lily and I'll be alive and well for our little performance tonight."

"I'll be there, camera in hand," Sirius warned.

"Me too," Remus added gleefully.

"Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to shower," James said, starting to get up.

Sirius stood up and pushed him back on the bed. "No way. If you're not going to class, then you get the last of the hot water." That said, he raced into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

James sighed. He didn't care if he had to wait, it was going to be good to finally give his hair a proper washing.

Alice was down in the common room, waiting for James. She checked her watch. If he didn't come downstairs soon, she was going to either have to go into the boys' dormitories to talk to him or miss breakfast entirely. Frank, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had all come downstairs already and now there was almost no one in the common room even.

She glanced up at the stairs, and then at the common room again. Checking around the common room discreetly one last time, she started up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Halfway to the seventh year dorm, she bumped into a first year who had overslept. The first year was momentarily startled, but Alice kept going anyway. Stopping at the seventh year door, she pounded on it. "Are you decent?" she called.

"Who wants to know?" James's muffled voice replied, in a smart-alecky tone.

"I've got a message from Lily."

"Come in then."

Alice entered cautiously and was relieved that James was sitting on his bed, dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt.

"What's the message?"

"Lily wants you to meet her in our dorm once everybody is gone for breakfast," Alice explained. She looked around the room. Boys were absolute pigs.

"How is it looking?" James asked. He bent over the side of the bed, reaching underneath for his shoes.

"The common room is nearly empty, and the dormitory is empty except for Lily." She pursed her lips. "I really don't approve, you know."

"Of what?" James asked. His face was still under the bed, but he tossed up one of his shoes. Alice caught it.

"Take your pick. For starters, the entire situation of you two switching bodies. Or how about that now you're about to go into the girl dormitory? And here I am in the boys' dormitory. Or that Lily is missing class today on account of you? I bet anything it was your idea."

He swung himself back into a sitting position, second shoe in hand. "You'd better be happy I'm not taking you up on that bet, because it just so happens that you are dead wrong. It was her idea for both of us to skip class to practice our song for tonight. I agreed that we needed the practice, but it was her idea. You can ask her yourself if you don't believe me." He put the shoe on and tied it.

Alice was a little miffed. "You've changed her, you know that?"

James shrugged. "That's not necessarily a bad thing."

Alice threw the shoe at him, hitting him square in the stomach.

"Oof," James said, feeling the air go out of him.

"I've got to go or I'll be late for class. Lily left the window open for you," Alice said over her shoulder as she left, slamming the door behind her.

"I think that girl gets weirder every time I talk to her," James mused thoughtfully. He put his other shoe on and started to look for his broom. When he found it, he opened the window, straddled the broom, and jumped. He flew cautiously toward Lily's window, hoping not to be seen by anyone else. Lily's window was open, just as Alice said it would be. James flew in, landing with ease.

Lily was sitting in bed and looked up at his arrival. She was showered, dressed, and looking over their choreography notes.

"Hiya, Lily. How are ya today?" James said, in his usual high spirits.

"I'm ready to get to work, but I need breakfast first."

"Same here. I was thinking we could go down to the kitchen under my invisibility cloak and then find a spare classroom to work in. The dormitories are just too cramped."

Lily nodded in agreement.

"Are you ready to go?" James asked, noticing her hair. She had it pulled into a ponytail rather than up in a bun. Maybe she wasn't finished yet.

"Yeah. I'm ready. We just need your cloak. Would you fly back to your dorm and get it?" she asked.

"Why? All I have to do is slide down the stairs," James said, truly puzzled.

"Your window is open anyway, isn't it? And just in case people are still in the common room, I don't want anybody to see you coming out of here."

"Alice said that the common room was nearly empty."

"Please?" Lily said, attempting to look sweet—a trick she'd picked up from James Potter himself.

With those big green eyes looking up at him, James couldn't say no. "Alright. You win." He looked once more around the dormitory, figuring he wasn't likely to see it again, and exited via the window.

Lily got up and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, taking her hair out of its scrunchy. Maybe having her hair down like this wasn't so bad. After a few seconds she put her hair back into a ponytail again. She gathered up her papers and went to meet James in the common room.

They both arrived in the empty common room at about the same time, and were startled by a tapping at the window.

Lily and James rushed over to see one owl doing the tapping, half a dozen owls carrying a brown wrapped package, and two other owls each carrying smaller packages. Lily opened the window to let them all in.

"It's our costumes," she said, half-alarmed and half-relieved. Part of her was glad that the costumes came when they were supposed to, but the other half had hoped that maybe the costumes wouldn't come and they wouldn't have to do the song at all.

James started untying the owls' legs from their parcels and spread the packages on the ground as the owls flew out. He sat cross-legged and looked at the packages. He motioned for Lily to join him. "Feels like Christmas. I love opening packages and finding out what's inside."

Lily laughed. He sounded like a little boy. "You already know what's in them. Where's the fun in that?"

"Correction, I know what's supposed to be in them. She might have mixed up the orders, or misunderstood what we wanted."

"At any rate, the packages are all addressed to us," Lily said, looking them over and joining him. "The two smaller packages are probably our shoes," she reasoned.

"And I guess that means our clothes are in the big package?"

"I would guess so."

"We should probably go down and eat before the house-elves clean up," Lily said, just to torture him.

James looked at the packages longingly.

"I guess we could open them first," she said, sitting back down.

They each grabbed on of the smaller packages and took the paper off. James tore his paper off, but Lily was a little more careful. The shoes were lovely Gladrags boxes—the boxes were purple with gold writing.

James yanked off the top of the box and looked inside. "Heels! I can't walk in these, Lily. No way, no how." He crossed his arms childishly.

She laughed. "You twit. You know these are mine. I'm the one who's going to be stuck trying to walk in these things." They switched boxes.

"They're a nice material though, aren't they?"

"Yeah. So soft."

They admired the shoes for a moment longer before James gave in to temptation and ripped the brown paper off of their costumes.

James handed Lily her dress, while he studied his own outfit.

Lily stood up, holding the dress to her shoulders. "James, I can't wear this in front of people! Look how short it is! It goes four inches above my knees. I can't wear it, let alone dance in it." She looked at the dress's skinny straps and scooped neck. It wasn't slutty or trashy looking, but it wasn't going to cover her the way she liked to be covered. She preferred to have clothing that went pretty much up to her neck. Not to mention, it also looked like it was going to be tighter than the clothing she normally wore. She loved how formless her robes always were; this was definitely not formless. And it was glittery. Powder blue and glittery. She hated glitter. "I can't wear this, James. No way, no how."

James said, "Look." He took his costume out and held it up to his shoulders. "If I can wear this then you can wear that. It's pretty."

Lily gave him a look, as if to ask if he'd taken leave of his senses.

"I meant yours is pretty, not mine," he explained, eyes rolling.

"I know," she said. She sighed. "Let's get this stuff out of sight and into our respective rooms before anybody comes up here looking for a lost book."

"You're making too big a deal out of all of this, Lily."

"Maybe so, but I don't care."

"We should try them on."

"Not now."

"What if they don't fit right?"

"We'll alter them with magic."

James finally gave in and ten minutes later—with their costumes and shoes stashed away—they set off for breakfast in the kitchens under the invisibility cloak.

After a light and not entirely healthy breakfast, they went up to the room of requirement to practice their dance. After about an hour and a half of working, they settled down on a couch to take a break. Lily looked around. This truly was an incredible room. She wondered what brilliant witch or wizard spelled it to be like this. A founder? A headmaster? A brilliant student? How long had it been here?

The room currently had a mirrored wall and hardwood floor that took up most of the space, though there was also a couch and small table off to one side. On the table were cold glasses of water. Lily took a sip and started to feel more refreshed immediately.

"That detention with McGonagall on Tuesday was pretty bad, wasn't it?" James asked.

"I don't know what you're complaining about. I'm the one that had to clean the Owlery without magic."

"You hit me in the nose. And on top of dealing with the nurse, I also had to deal with Alice that night," James said.

"She couldn't have been that bad," Lily protested.

"Wanna bet? She went on and on about Frank Longbottom, she put oil-based facial cream on my face, repainted my nails, and messed with my hair. Absolutely a nightmare."

Lily giggled. His reaction was just so James Potter that she couldn't help it. He was mad about the oddest things. "When did the trouble start with you and Frank?"

"Well, there was the fact that he called me by my family's pet name for me, back in first year. Jimmy. That's what my mother still calls me sometimes. I hate it, but I'd never tell her that."

"There's got to be more to it than that."

"You want the whole thing?" James asked.

Lily nodded, leaning back into the sofa cozily.

"Well, in first year Remus and I became friends on the train. After a couple of days, Sirius became our friend too. The second years he'd been hanging out with decided he wasn't that funny anymore and kicked him to the curb. Well, toward the end of our first week, the three of us were walking a long and we saw Sniv—er, Snape taunting Peter about something. I can't even remember what anymore. Well, we didn't think that was fair, and being the Gryffindors we are, we attacked him. He was a slimy git and he was messing with a Gryffindor. We felt we had to teach him a lesson and let him know that we weren't going to put up with it. You see, Sirius knew Snape before Hogwarts. Their mothers were sure they'd be the best of friends, but they didn't take a liking to one another." James sighed.

"What does Frank have to do with any of this?" Lily asked.

"Well, Longbottom came along and didn't think it was fair for three of us, four if you count Peter, to be ganging up on one person, even if they were a Slytherin. It made us mad that he was sticking up for a snake and that was kind of the end of it. We didn't count him as being a real Gryffindor and he made his way onto Sirius's list of people deserving to be taunted, teased, or tortured." James shrugged. "Things just never changed. The four of us got closer together and he got more and more distant."

Lily stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I think Frank was really brave. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to your own housemates, especially if there's more than one person and you're defending somebody nobody else likes. I don't think he gets along with Snape, but he saw he needed help and helped him. I think Frank is a real Gryffindor."

"You're probably right, but you know what? We were eleven. And stupid. Now we're seventeen and just slightly less stupid. I'll try and get the guys not to torture him so much."

"He's really a nice guy, you know," Lily said.

James gagged. "Don't go and leave me for him."

Lily laughed. "In order to leave you we'd have to have been together in the first place." Though that didn't exactly sound like a bad idea, come to think of it.

James said nothing.

"We ought to get back to work."

"Yeah."

They continued rehearsing up through the normal lunch period, taking breaks just to talk about the last seven days. James told her about the weird dream he had when he fell asleep in class, and Lily talked about how nerve-wrecking learning to land had been. They discussed pretty much everything that had gone on that week as they kept rehearsing until about five o'clock. At last, they deemed it time to call it quits.

"We really should go shower and all that before dinner," James said.

"Yeah." She was quiet for a minute. She pecked him on the cheek and started for the door.

James hurried and caught up to her. "What was that for?" he asked, surprised.

"For being really great this week." She shrugged and started blushing.

Ten minutes into their walk back to Gryffindor tower they ran into none other than Professor Dumbledore.

"Ah, I've been looking for your two," he said pleasantly.

They began to worry.