Summary: James Potter returns to Hogwarts School, this time as a teacher, and meets Lily Evans, brilliant and full of life. He falls for her and romance, comedy, and drama follow.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, anything from the brilliant mind of JK Rowling, and whatever else that isn't mine.

Chapter 4

"Sixteen?"

James sighed and looked down. "I've told you already, Padfoot. Yes, she's sixteen."

"Well, is she hot?" Peter Pettigrew asked.

James laughed. "I don't want to say yes… but yes. She's beautiful, she's brilliant, she's sweet. Oh, hell, what do I do?"

"What does she think of you?" Remus Lupin inquired, cutting his French toast. Thankfully only a few people were at The Three Broomsticks between the times of breakfast and lunch, allowing for a fairly private conversation.

"I don't know. Apparently she needs assistance with temporary mind altering spells. Says Dumbledore."

"Well, you're quite handsome, Prongsie, I'm sure she's only pretending to need help," Sirius quipped, his mouth full of scrambled eggs.

"That's what I can't figure out. She hasn't had any problems in the class so far. All of her work is brilliant. And she seemed decent at the spells she claims she needs help with, although, admittedly, not as good as she is at everything else."

"Maybe she's just an overachiever," suggested Peter.

"Maybe," agreed Sirius Black, or Padfoot as he preferred. "Or maybe she likes you and doesn't realize it."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked, chewing thoughtfully.

"Maybe she isn't that great at the spells. But she doesn't need anything but some practice if she's what Prongsie says she is. Maybe she's attracted to him subconsciously and therefore, requests tutoring. She has a little problem and her mind exaggerates it in order to help her get want she subconsciously wants – James," Sirius explained.

Sirius was an auror, but was currently stationed in the psychiatric ward of St. Mungo's, learning from psychiatrists and helping other aurors recover from some of their more traumatizing experiences. He enjoyed this and clearly believed he had some authority in the psychiatric field.

Peter was rather more simpleminded.

"That's too complicated," said Peter, sipping his butterbeer.

"Well, no one ever said girls were simple," Remus remarked. "Although I have to say, Sirius, your theory might be a bit of a stretch. Though I might not be fully convinced just because you were chewing with your mouth open as you said it."

"I think it's a brilliant theory, myself," Sirius said, proudly.

"Well of course you do," said Peter, "You're… you."

"Congrats, Peter, way to think," Remus joked.

"So what do you guys think, I mean really," James asked. "What do I do?"

"Well," Peter began, "I think if you find out that she likes you, it's okay to act. I'm sure you've got good intentions; make sure she knows you have good intentions, too, though. But if she isn't interested, you're going to come off as a creepy paedophile."

"You'd actually come across as an ephebophile, since she's an adolescent," corrected Remus, taking a swig of Madam Loretta's Lovely Lemonade.

"I don't want to be either of them," James exclaimed, dropping his head into his hands.

"Well, you wouldn't actually be," explained Sirius, finishing the last bite of his food, "Since both have to primarily or entirely attracted to children or adolescents. You're not attracted to her because of her age; you're attracted to her because of her personality and appearance, am I right? I'm sure had she been someone closer to your age you would still be attracted to her."

"Big words for Padfoot," Remus teased, ignoring the dirty look Sirius shot him.

James smiled, then nodded. "What should I do though?"

"I'd go basically with what Peter said," Sirius told him, "But perhaps you should find out a bit more about her, give her the tutoring she wants, see if she seems to like you, and maybe she'll keep asking for tutoring."

"I would agree with both of them," Remus said, "Perhaps find out about her relationships with boys, but if she has any, make sure you don't interfere with them under the influence of jealousy. And don't let any students find out. Make sure not to give her preferential treatment, but don't try to seem as though you're being harder on her than anyone else, because that might tip off the teachers, who are wiser than the students, and it might make her resentful."

"I think," Sirius said, "The biggest thing is, let her know that she can come to you if she has any problems. That'll let you to be there for her and let her get to know you, and for you to get to know her. And it wouldn't seem too unnatural, since there are no other adults besides teachers for her to go to at Hogwarts. If your feelings start to change to ones where you feel like you just want to take advantage of her as opposed to caring about her, stop before you hurt her."

James nodded, feeling better for the most part. He had told his students on the first day that they could come to him, and it was now okay to try to figure out who that blonde boy in class had been. His intentions were good, he knew that and his friends knew that. They also knew that he was human, and if his intentions changed, he would tell them and they would help him out. Nothing could go wrong.

Well, aside from about a million other things.

"So basically," James began, "This will be like anyone else I'm interested in. I'll get to know her first, if it turns out that I'm no longer interested, the easier for the both of us. If my feelings continue to evolve as they have been, I'll find out how she feels somehow. I'll just have to be more careful, especially for her sake. She's young, probably inexperienced. I want to make sure I don't hurt her. But what if this is wrong?"

Remus smiled, sagely. "James, I know people twenty years apart in age who are just as happy together as anyone else."

"What if I'm robbing her of her youth and innocence?" James asked, rather overdramatically.

"James, it's the seventies. I'm sure someone has already done that," Peter put in.

James could not help but wonder who, and seethed just a little bit.

Remus laughed. "Don't worry, James. Everything will be fine. Have faith."

James smiled. "Alright, alright."

"Good Jamesie, very good," said Sirius. "Now, that we've basically exhausted my abilities to be serious for about a week, I think I'm off to Honeyduke's."

They all laughed, then exited the shop, attempting to trip each other as they went. Nothing had really changed; they were just a little wiser now.

Lily and Loren Katz found themselves wandering about the grounds, waiting for Gretty to finish her flying lessons with McGonagall and the first years. She had failed the course all of five of her previous years at Hogwarts.

The girls had plans to meet up with Archie and Albert a little bit later in the day. They hadn't spent much time together this year until today, especially since they had all been busy trying to get themselves organized and used to their new schedules.

"So, Lily, how's school been going?"

"Fairly well, I think. I really like DADA this year. I feel like I'm learning a lot."

Loren laughed. "You should know, by school I really meant boys. And I still think Mr. Potter is one of the finest things with two legs."

Lily laughed. "He's not bad, it must be said."

"Do you think he'd go out with me?" Loren asked.

Lily stopped walking. "Go out with you? He's twenty-five and a teacher."

She had meant for it to come out jokingly, but she couldn't keep a strange little bit of anger out of her voice.

"I know, but I'm mature. And it's only a few years."

"Eight," Lily corrected, beginning to walk again.

Loren stopped and faced her friend.

"Lily Evans!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Lily took a step back from Loren's laughing face.

"You like him!"

"I do not; he's too old," Lily argued.

"Why are you so angry then?"

"I'm…"

"Hey," came the voice of Gretty, a couple of feet away from her two friends.

"..not," Lily finished weakly, surprised at her friend's appearance and her loss of her ability to continue the conversation in her defense.

"Sorry, did I interrupt something?" Gretty asked, confused.

Loren winked at Lily and shook her head no.

How inconspicuous, Lily thought, rolling her eyes.

"Okay. So, where are we meeting Archie and Albert?" Gretty asked.

"They want to meet at Honeyduke's in about ten minute," Loren explained.

"What!" Gretty asked. After five years of friendship, Gretty still hadn't seemed quite used to lack of rule abiding that seemed to go on.

"Honeyduke's," Lily said slowly, as though Gretty was all of three years old.

"I heard you," she began, then noticed Lily's laughter and stopped.

"Lucky for secret passageways, hm?" Loren said, heading back into the castle.

"James Potter, I swear, you eat more candy then you did when we were at school. Didn't you know you're metabolism is supposed to slow down as you age?" Sirius Black laughed.

Remus had left early under the pretense of having a date that night, and Peter had just seemed to disappear after they left The Three Broomsticks.

James laughed as well. "I happen to like candy."

"Poor Lily. You're going to become old and fat once you two marry."

"Sirius, shh!" James hissed, still smiling.

Wait. Something had moved in the corner. James froze.

"What is it, mate?" Sirius whispered.

"I just… I thought I saw someone."

"Oh, relax. Your age is getting to you, you paranoid, cantankerous old coot."

"You have no idea what cantankerous means, do you?" James asked.

"None whatsoever. You aren't going to tell me, are you, oh Great Teacher?"

James laughed. "No."

"Good. I would have to hit you."

wally4ever – If by the sexy one you mean Remus, then for sure he will be in here. I hope the way I write him is ok! And yes, dreams are so much fun. You can just go insane with them.

esther – I figured James' friends would be mostly supportive. Or at least, if they weren't they would pretend to be, yes even Peter, since we don't know he turns into a traitor while they are at this age.

Chelle-Lynn – I'm sorry if you aren't as okay with it as you could be. This chapter addresses the issues semi-seriously. I'm hoping that the fact that James is having so many conflicting thoughts but still thinks she's worth it will make it romantic enough to cancel out. I really don't think twenty-five is that old. Thanks for reading despite all of that, I really appreciate that you're giving it a chance. As for doing things and the like at a certain age, I'm not really sure how long this is going to be, so you're as much in the dark in that respect as I am.

Moony4Moony – I'll grant your wish for Lily and James action in due time, for sure. Thank you so much for the compliments. As the inspiration for my fiction, you pretty much rock. : D

Elspeth Renee – Thank you for reading. Haha, maybe I just have a weird perspective when it comes to age. And as for the dream, I figured maybe I should change that so people don't go, "WTF? No." Haha. So I sort of italicized that to make it less of a surprise.

xStillxWaitingx – Again, maybe I have a weird perspective when it comes to age. Thank you for reading, I'm glad the difference hasn't shown too badly, though it might start to now, since James is a little bit at conflict with himself.

Tearful Sins – He can now!

The Female Nerd – Alter her own mind to block feelings for James? Interesting, for sure, but she's doing a pretty good job of blocking her feelings/soon to be feelings for James by herself so far.

Erin/JEARKPotter – Haha. I'm not that crazy. :p

MrsChadmMurray11 – Ah, I'm sorry. I changed something like two or three times by reuploading it but can't figure out how to just edit it > . If you got the alert more then thrice, then I have no idea, maybe I like double clicked it and it made it send twice? I really don't know.

Thanks also to:

myrline, LarryJoeBob, complicated123, SiriusJamesRemus'sGirl, Percephone, Flame of Desire, watersprite87, all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end, Just Another Harry Potter Fan, personalitysplit, pasiely, Aznangel4eva

for all the kind words. I'm trying to cut down on the space of reviews answered, but if you have a question or comment I feel like I need to address, I'll definitely try to respond.

You can also email me at . Thanks so much kids, if I didn't mention you, I'm sorry, I try. Keep reviewing, s'il vous plait. It is so so so appreciated. I know that this chapter was semi serious and addressed concerns about the relationship, but really, this was written for fun, I want to make it fun for you guys to read and fun for me to write, but there will be some James conflict with himself, because I think it will make things interesting. Next chapter will hopefully be up soonish?