Of Secrets and Stags

"James…" Lily panted as she stumbled into the Common Room. "James… Potter…" 'Maybe running wasn't such a good idea…' she thought to herself ruefully as she walked over to his spot on the couch, in front of the fireplace.

Noting how tired and already hot she looked, he said, "How about we go talk over there…? You'll probably feel better after having a Butterbeer," he offered.

"Butterbeer? How'd you…? Never mind. That doesn't… matter," Lily said, still slightly out of breath. She followed him to the other side of the room, next to the slightly open window, which felt much cooler. She drank down the Butterbeer in a few gulps and sighed.

"James… This is… hard for me to say… but, we need a truce," Lily started off easily enough.

"A… truce?" James asked, slightly confused. She just ran in here that quickly for a truce?

"Yeah… a truce," Lily said.

"Wait. I've just noticed something. When did my name go from Potter to James?" James asked with a laugh.

Lily shrugged and smirked. "Since I deemed you worthy of being called James," Lily said, mocking his usual arrogant tone.

"And… what did I do to deserve as such?" James asked curiously.

"You… grew up, I guess, is a good term," Lily said after thinking it over for a moment.

"Ahh… And we're just noticing this now?" James asked with a laugh.

Lily cringed slightly and admitted, "I'm… a girl of habit, I guess. I was so used to hating your guts I forgot to give you a chance. Really, you're a whole lot nicer than you appear to be, whether others realize it or not."

"That's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me," James said with a wide-eyed expression.

"Wow. I think I've also said the meanest things to you, though," Lily said with a laugh.

"No, that was Snape," James said seriously.

Lily laughed and sighed. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow… We've got Potions again."

"How long d'ya reckon Slughorn will keep us paired up before realizing we were just fine all along?" James asked.

Lily thought about it for a moment before replying, "I'm not sure… He's rather slow on those sort of things."

----

Lily rubbed her eyes furiously before sitting up and groaning at the offensive light that was hurting her eyes. This, however, wasn't the worst part of her morning.

"Lily! I'm soooooooooooo proud of you!" Alice squealed as she threw her arms around the half-dead Lily Evans, nearly giving her a heart attack. That was the worst part of the morning.

Lily groaned and glared at her friend. "What are you TALKING about?" Lily demanded.

"Last night! You and James' truce turned into a full-blown peace treaty between the Marauders and the…" Alice paused and thought for a moment. "Well, a peace treaty between us and the Marauders," Alice decided before shrugging.

"I… see. So, you're dumping Frank for Peter or something?" Lily asked, still waking up and slightly aggravated at her friend.

"No. Never. Not in a thousand years. But we don't have to worry about pranks and such," Alice said with a victorious laugh.

"Right, right… I'll get dressed and go to breakfast," Lily muttered.

"I wouldn't worry about that. Get dressed and rush to Potions before Slughorn gives you a detention," Alice said "generously".

"Bloody hell!" Lily cried out as she sprinted out of bed and towards her wardrobe, rushing to pull out a new set of robes.

"Ladies shouldn't curse!" Alice said in a singsong voice. "Well, I'm off!" she exclaimed before skipping down the steps and heading towards Potions.

"What a nice BLOODY friend," Lily called out, emphasizing the bloody to get on her nerves.

Lily then dashed down the stairs, two at a time, heading towards the Potions classroom. She ran down the dark corridors of the dungeon and threw open the Potions classroom door.

"Ms. Evans! Are you feeling all right? You're… early!" Slughorn exclaimed. Lily glanced up at the clock and groaned.

"I'm fine, but Alice won't be for long…" Lily grumbled. "I'll just…" Lily said and turned towards the door.

"Lily! What did you want to talk to me about?" James asked with his head turned to the side.

"… Alice?" Lily asked.

"No. Sirius sent me. Why?" James asked with a confused tone to his voice.

"Then the masterminds are both of them. They tricked us into coming here," Lily said with a sigh.

"Why?" James asked, completely oblivious.

"They… probably wanted us to talk or something," Lily said with a shrug. "Anyways, it's too late for Breakfast now…" Lily said with a sigh.

"You didn't get Breakfast? Oh, gosh, Alice is evil," James said with a laugh.

"Yeah… I'll survive unless we're doing a food potion. If we're doing a really, really gross one, then it'll probably be better that I haven't eaten," Lily said with a laugh.

"No, not really. I'd throw up, and you'd be watching," James said with a laugh.

"What makes you think I'd watch?"

"Because, no one can look away, no matter how squeamish they are. They stand there and watch, and then they throw up, too," James said with a laugh.

"Have you studied this, or are you a throw up expert?"

"PhD!" James exclaimed, which made Lily laugh.

"Did you take Muggle Studies or something?" Lily asked, genuinely interested. Most Pureblood wizards had no knowledge of PhDs, and it was shocking that James did.

"No, but Sirius did, and I helped him study a couple of times. He took it for a year before quitting, talking about how boring they were. It was rather funny," James said with a laugh.

"Really? You helped him with it?" Lily asked, amazed that he could figure Muggle things out in such a manner.

"Yeah," he paused and laughed before continuing, "I probably could've taken it better than him."

"Settle down, class! Hurry up and get your cauldrons out—today you'll be working on a Mind-Switching Draught. Can anyone tell me what it's effects are and why it's so unpopular?" Slughorn asked.

Many people raised their hands, but Slughorn decided on Lily. "The Mind-Switching Draught allows the person who takes the blue portion of the potion to switch bodies with the person who takes the corresponding yellow potion. The ingredients are hard to find, and very expensive, so few people use it."

Slughorn nodded and replied, "10 points to Gryffindor. Now, we're not brewing it today—I got a limited amount of supplies and I don't want you to waste them—but you will be trying it with the person you're sitting next to. Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans, could you distribute the potions?"

They both nodded and complied, Lily passing out the blue potions and James passing out the yellow potions. "Oh, and before any of you get any ideas, no one's going to the bathroom!" Slughorn exclaimed. At that comment, the boys who were switching with girls all groaned, the girls giggled, and the remaining guys laughed at their friends who were switching with girls.

"Okay, take the potions!" Slughorn exclaimed. Everyone slowly sipped at the potions, all of them nervous and scared at switching minds with the person they were sitting next to.

Lily gulped the potion down with her eyes shut tightly, still nervous and scared stiff, but wanting to get it over with. James took the potion at the same time Lily did, hoping Lily wouldn't be able to dig around in his mind and figure out about his true feelings for her.

Lily blinked a few times, surprised that she was staring at herself, who was doing the same. Lily lifted her hands, opening and closing them slowly. The "Lily" sitting across from her was holding her hair as if asking "What in bloody hell is this doing here?"

Lily laughed at James' antics involving her hair. "What do you do with this stuff?"

"Well, I could hack it all off, but… I rather like my hair," Lily said with a laugh.

"True. I like it, too… Just not on me. Nope, I'll stick to the short hairstyle, thanks," James said with a laugh.

"Hmm, you're right. Sirius would look better with long hair, if he took care of it," Lily said after thinking about it.

"How do you stand this stuff!" Sirius exclaimed from across the room, having had to pair with Jana Nott, who had long, raven hair.

"Okay… maybe not…" Lily muttered with a laugh.

----

"Okay, class! Next Monday will be the last class before the Christmas holidays, so look forward to a fun class!" Slughorn yelled, informally dismissing his students.

'That's right… With all that's been going on, I lost track of time… And this weekend is Hogsmeade, too… I wonder who all else will be staying here?' Lily thought to herself as she began packing. "Hey, how many of the Marauders are staying?"

"All of them. It's sort of a tradition," James said with a shrug before asking, "And you and Alice?"

"I'm staying, but Alice isn't. She and Frank are both going to be gone. She's spending half of the break at Frank's place, and then they are going back to her place for the remainder of the break… It's so they can get to know the other's parents," Lily said with a small smile.

"So this means you're hanging out with the Marauders all break, huh?" James asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, I guess so," Lily said with a laugh. 'We'll put James to the test, then…' Lily thought maliciously as she shouldered her bag.

'Thank God. I was afraid I'd be missing Lily all break…' James thought with an inward sigh of relief.

A/N: Hehe, I couldn't do a story like this without writing Christmas and Christmas break chapters. I'll be doing an Alice/Frank one, which is the significance of explaining their break here, and I'll be doing a full one on Christmas for all of them, and probably another about Lily hanging out with the Marauders all break… And, a few chapters after that, I'll probably be ending the story. Now you guys have a general overview of what is to come in the story. Man, it's going to be weird writing about Christmas during July… Now I feel like I've made a bad pun. Oh, well. Review, please!