Disclaimer: No, I don't own it. Thankfully, most of this chapter was actually written by me.

Chapter 22: Coursework

Previously: 'You know, um,' she said, blushing, 'It wasn't… just a New Year's kiss?'

Dear lord, I actually used Caroline's line. How sad is that?

'I should hope not,' replied James, and he kissed her again, and Lily knew that now they were definitely dating.

The news that James Potter had finally snagged Lily Evans was all over the school by the time the rest of the students were back. Several people were disappointed, having lost their bets that he'd never manage it, but most people were pleased – it was just so sweet. James and Lily were bombarded with comments; most were nice, congratulatory or just of the 'Aaw, how cute' type, although some, mainly from Slytherins, were more cynical and, in some cases, bitchy. However, they were both too happy to care, and, once people realised that their comments had no effect, the buzz died down.

Time went by, and although they had been dating for a few weeks, James and Lily were still as happy as they had been at the very beginning. The days of their love-hate relationship were long gone, as were the days of The Girls and The Boys: the eight did everything together now, or as four pairs. Sarah and Remus were considered a couple in those situations, although they still fiercely denied any romantic involvement. Lily didn't understand what either of them was gaining by remaining strictly friends, but it was their choice, however frustrating it was to watch them dancing around each other.

Soon it was Valentine's Day – all of the seventh years had received cards, though both Sarah and Remus swore blind that they had no idea who theirs were from. The day and rest of the month passed in a happy blur of laughing, working, and waking up every morning with the sun creeping just a little further into the dorm. March passed without note – Lily's surprise birthday party had been planned by Caroline, so it was as raucous a party as could be imagined, but no-one seemed to suffer any lasting consequences, even if Lily's resolution earlier that school year had been smashed to smithereens. Before they knew it, April was upon them, bringing with it light sunshine, new shoots in Lily's window-garden, and an astonishing amount of coursework.

'No, don't moan, Mr. Black. I know you're eighteen now, but you are still a student at Hogwarts, and, as such, you must work to fulfil your desired grades. Especially if you wish to become an Auror – is that understood?'

It was a Transfiguration lesson on the second week of April, and Professor McGonagall had just set them their third major piece of coursework: an essay (Explain The Need For A Significant Perturbulatory Factor In The Tri-Polar Walcott Reverse-Dismutation Effect), a practical experiment, (Create Your Own Transfiguration Spell And Use It), and a write-up of the same (Explain How It Could Be Improved Upon).

Sirius' groans and look of utter disgust were mirrored on the faces of most of the rest of the class, but no-one else was sitting quite so close as he was to the professor, and no-one else had muttered 'bloody useless subject anyway' while writing it all down. Their homework for the day was to start the essay, as they had just been working on the Tri-Polar Walcott Reverse-Dismutation Effect. It was obvious that they would not be moving off it soon, as the entire class had been hoping and praying after the first month of it.

'Mr Potter, Miss Evans, could you please wait behind after the end of the class?' Professor McGonagall called out as everyone started to pack their bags to leave. Lily and James looked at each other, worried.

'Did you do anything inappropriate?' asked James, who Lily could tell was perturbed by being kept behind, having kept a clean record all year.

'As if I would! It's probably just Head Duties or something similar,' she said, more light-heartedly than she actually felt.

'Just as long as it's no more homework!' grinned James, as their friends went to wait outside the door. 'I've been muttering the incantation for Walcott's bloody Tri-Polar effect in my sleep!'

'Ah, Mr Potter, Miss Evans,' said Professor McGonagall as soon as everyone had left. 'I'm so glad that I can speak to you, because I have a matter of secrecy to discuss with you. Please, before I start, I need to be sure that you will keep this secret, and not tell your friends, or even the Prefects. This concerns only you.'

Once both James and Lily had murmured their assent, Professor McGonagall continued, 'Professor Dumbledore has decided that at the end of the year, there will be a seventh-year leaving "disco", due to the popularity of balls in years gone by, and dancing in the modern culture. It will be a surprise to the seventh year, and they will find out when it has all been arranged and settled, two weeks before the event, so that they may find "dates" and arrange their outfits.'

Lily looked at her in surprise. She liked arranging things; it was fun, and at the end you had a sense of a job well done. If it had been done well, of course.

'Yes, Miss Evans,' replied McGonagall to Lily's unasked question, 'the reason I want to speak to you is so that you can arrange this disco. I know it is a long way off, but it's always nice to know in advance about these things, don't you agree?'

'Uh… yes. Thank you, Professor McGonagall. It will be great fun, I imagine.'

Professor McGonagall smiled. 'You're welcome, Miss Evans. We will be asking you to arrange nearly everything. It sounds like hard work, but really, it's not. Food will be provided by the… Yes, Miss Evans?'

'Are you sure that it won't affect our NEWT revision, Professor?'

'I am certain. This will only affect your time during Hogsmeade weekends, I promise. Well. Food will be provided by the school, but we would like you to arrange the decorations, set-up of the room, and the music. That will be all.' So saying, the Professor left the room, presumably to prepare for her next class.

As Lily returned to packing her bag, and finding her quills, one of which she had turned into a chipmunk halfway through the lesson, when she had misheard the instructions for the wand motions, she asked jokily, 'So, James, who are you going to take to the disco?'

'Well, I thought I'd take one of you girls. At first I thought Caroline, but I suspect Padfoot would object. Then I thought Suzie, but I suspect Wormtail would object. We all know how much you detest me, so I think I'll take Sarah.'

Lily gasped in mock outrage. 'But what about me? You've been trying to get me to go out with you for three years and as soon as I succumb to your charms, you go off me and decide that you'd rather take Sarah, my ex-best friend, to the disco!' Weeping loudly and completely unconvincingly, she let herself fall backwards onto one of the desks, one hand flying out behind her, the other going into her face, as if to cover it. 'Ouch.'

'Oh, are you alright?' asked James, worried.

Lily picked herself up and sat on the desk, rubbing her face. 'Yes, I'm alright, I just hit myself in the mouth, is all.'

'Poor Lilikins. Shall I kiss it better?'

Before Lily could protest with 'No, not when McGonagall could just come back in' or 'No, not when you just called me Lilikins', he was kissing her, so she only had time for, 'Nph… mmm…'

'What d'you reckon they're doing in there?' asked Sirius after a while.

'Probably being given extra homework,' said Sarah despondently.

'Or Head duties,' put in Remus.

'Maybe they're being told off about something,' said Suzie worriedly.

'Or maybe she needs to speak to them about Walcott's effect – Lily did turn one of her quills into a chipmunk, and that's really not supposed to happen,' said Peter, trying to listen at the door by pressing his head up to it as far as it would go.

'Nah, they probably got told something, and now they're kissing,' said Caroline, with the air of someone who knows what they are talking about.

'Yeah, here they come now,' said Peter, taking his ear away from the door. Sure enough, a second later, James and Lily stepped out of the empty classroom, holding hands and looking slightly flushed. As soon as they saw the others, Lily blushed even more, and James grinned.

'So, what did McGonagall want to tell you, then?' asked Sarah, tactfully not mentioning Lily's blush.

'Oh… she… um… wanted to talk to us… about…' said James, trying to think of something.

'Me turning that quill into a chipmunk. I explained that it was just because I did a bit too much flick and not enough turn.'

The others seemed to be satisfied with this explanation, as they didn't press the matter. Lily looked at her watch.

'We have a free period now, don't we? Why don't we go and start that essay – you know, to get it out of the way. Then we can go down to lunch.'

The others made general noises of agreement, so they all traipsed off to Gryffindor tower to start the essay.

All of the seventh-years were sitting in the common room, trying to do the essay. Remus and Lily had made the most headway with it – they were both the most motivated, wanting to get good grades whatever the cost. Lily was slightly further ahead than Remus, however, as whenever it got remotely close to exam-time Lily did any work with a fervour that was actually frightening, and snapped at anyone who disturbed her. Sarah, Peter and Suzie were working on it, but anyone could tell that they'd rather be doing just about anything else – having worked for three months on Walcott's Effect did not make it an appealing essay topic. James, Sirius and Caroline were just not making an effort. Instead of working, they were merely sitting down and talking.

'You know, James,' commented Sirius, 'it's actually quite sweet that you and Lily got together because of jelly.'

'What?' asked James, confused, 'We didn't get together because of jelly.'

'You did, actually,' pointed out Caroline. 'Lily used to be all stroppy and stuff. Still is, when it comes to exams. But then that jelly hit her in the face, at that party, remember? After that, she realised that it wasn't silly, it was fun. And then she got all drunk and tried to get together with her love, Jamesie.'

'Well, I suppose…' said James, ignoring the nickname, 'but there was the song and everything, too.'

'Yes, but both of you needed an attitude change before anything could happen, and the jelly gave Lily hers.'

'Caroline! James! Sirius!' snapped Lily, looking up from her essay. 'Get to work!'

'Speak of the devil…' muttered Caroline.

'What have you written, Caroline?' asked Lily waspishly. She then snatched Caroline's parchment away from her. 'Not quite the title. I see. Write,' she ordered, and flung the parchment back at Caroline.

There was silence for a while as they all wrote, the scratching of quills the only noise, until Caroline suddenly piped up,

'Hey, Sirius. You know "Hey", as in "Hey you, unhand that potato"?'

'Yes. I do know the word "Hey"'.

'Did you know that in Latin, it's,' she sniggered, 'Heus.'

'No. No, it can't be. Seriously?'

'It is! I swear it is. Heus, as in "Heus youus, unhandus thatus potatus."'

'That Latin for "you, unhand that potato" is not youus, unhandus thatus potatus,' said Lily distractedly, not looking up from her essay.

'Possibly true, but beside the point,' said Caroline, turning down to her own essay.

Lily put her quill down and rested her cheek on her hand, drumming her fingers slowly as she looked over the essay she had just written. She moved her hand onto her forehead and rubbed it, thinking. Sirius chose this exact moment to look up.

'Lily, you've got ink on your face,' he said helpfully, 'here,' he pointed to his cheek, 'here,' he pointed to his temple, 'and here.' He pointed to his forehead.

Lily looked down to her ink-stained fingers and sighed, exasperated. 'Thanks a lot, Sirius Black!' she snapped, unreasonably.

Sirius turned back to his essay, muttering something about just trying to help. 'Must be that time of the month…' he said, loud enough for Lily to hear. Lily snarled, turned to him, and punched him in the gut.

'Ooh!' he said in surprise, but not in real pain – Lily had been angry enough to punch, but not enough to hurt.

'Now look here, Lily,' said Caroline, whose initial anger faded to mock-anger as she saw tears welling up in her friend's eyes. 'That's my boyfriend's gut you just punched. I don't want my boyfriend seriously beaten up by you; all black and blue – that's my job.' She grinned. 'I prefer him simply Siriusly Black.' Everyone groaned in exasperation, with Sarah going one step further and hitting Caroline. Everyone then laughed, including Lily, as Sirius kissed Caroline, the essay forgotten.

'Come on, Silly Billy Lily,' said James' voice in Lily's ear. 'It's not that bad, is it?'

'S'pose not. I just … want to do well.'

'You will, my Lily Flower. Promise.' James put his hands on her shoulders, twisted her round, and kissed her. 'I promise.'

Credit to Lamia for the essay title, and credit to Hepsa for the first two paragraphs.

Review replies:

Yourheartsdesire: Hmm, interesting. I have a notebook for everything too! Seriously, I mean it. I have one which I write this in, I have one which I write Harry Potter or Fanfiction-related stuff in, I have, um, six which I write random stuff in, and I think that's the lot. I know what you mean – I'm always kicking myself if I don't have a notebook on me, usually because I have something terribly important to write down! I'm glad you liked the story, it's actually the only one I've ever written by myself, and it's my baby, so I'm very pleased about how it has created a whole new universe (possibly only in our three heads, but a universe). So yes.

Pyrotechnic: How do you know I'm not left-handed? feeling hurt I'm not, by the way, my brother is, but I type both-handed, so it would slow down the updating process quite considerably. By the way, is pyrotechnic even remotely like pyromaniac, or do they just both have something to do with fire? Because I know what a pyromaniac is – someone who is obsessed with fire, ie, me.

Werewolvesrule282: Yay! Lily and James together! I know – it's been bugging me (get together already, guys!) since about the second chapter, which was written coming on for three years ago. Caroline was telling Sarah and Remus that it was all a plot to get Lily and James to kiss. That was what Caroline and Sirius were talking to Suzie and Peter about as well. Oh, and in reply to your comment on Acid Pops Are Good, It is sixth year, just after their exams, which would be AS exams in the Muggle modern world, but then again, they don't have such qualifications, so… yes, I'm rambling. Basically, yes; it's sixth year.

Please review, anyone, because otherwise I will be so unhappy that no-one likes my fic that I won't be able to update. And you don't want that, I'm sure.

Review topic: Music Theory. Doesn't it just make you want to puke?

Larka :)