"What are you hiding, Lil?" James asked as they walked. Lily sighed. She had hoped that he wouldn't ask her: they had managed to walk all the way to the seventh-floor corridor which housed the Fat Lady's portrait without any awkward questions.

"Hm?" she answered, pretending (very badly, she knew) that she hadn't heard him.

"What are you hiding, Lily?" James repeated patiently, catching her round the waist and halting.

Lily stepped backwards, trying to look puzzled. "What?"

"Forte says you're hiding something."

Lily smiled. "Oh, so her word's more valuable than mine now, is it?"

"That's not what I said," James said, looking serious. "Now stop avoiding the question."

"I'm not avoiding the question," Lily said, straight-faced. It was almost true, she told herself. "I just don't have anything to tell you that you don't already know."

"Sure."

"I don't!"

"Well, aside from the things I really don't want to know, there must be something."

"How so?"

"Forte says so."

"She's a fraud."

"You think?"

"Yes, I think," Lily said firmly, avoiding James's gaze. "They're all frauds. Divination is bollocks."

"You're only saying that because she found you out."

"I've been saying that for years."

"No you haven't."

"I have."

"The wall agrees with me."

"No it doesn't."

"It does so. It says you can't get enough of Divination, especially when Chrissy tells you you're about to meet a tall handsome stranger called Matthew Kiedis."

Lily was genuinely taken aback. "I'm sure Chrissy's never talked about Matt in Divination."

James shrugged. Lily looked at him, confused. He slumped against the wall, and she joined him. "What's up?"

"There's something you're not telling me."

"There isn't!"

"If you say so."

"Why would I hide anything from you?"

James shrugged again, looking sulky. "Beats me."

"Potter, there is nothing you don't know about me that you a) would want to know or b) would find remotely interesting."

"Oh, fine. How's Kiedis?"

"Hm?"

"Kiedis. How's the situation?"

It was Lily's turn to shrug. James was the last person she wanted to talk to about Matt. "We're okay. It's at a bit of a standstill, to be honest."

"How come?"

"I dunno." Lily paused for thought, staring absent-mindedly at a spider travelling up the wall opposite her and James. Nearly Headless Nick floated past after a moment, giving the two of them a curious look but not stopping to chat. "It's a bit of a stalemate, actually."

James snorted. "In other words, he doesn't like you as much as you like him."

"What was that for?"

"What was what for?"

"That was a bit uncalled for."

"Oh." James looked a bit perturbed. "I wasn't trying to be harsh."

Lily knew she shouldn't be annoyed, but that didn't stop her. "Oh, whatever. Try thinking before you speak, and people might not get so pissed off with you."

"I wasn't aware that most people had a problem with me."

"Well you wouldn't be, would you," Lily muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter." Lily stood up, and said, "Why are we standing out here like pilocks anyway? We should be at dinner."

"Oh." James pulled a face. "That's true. Off we go then." He started walking off, and Lily had to rush to catch up with him.

"Now who's being stressy?"

x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x

"Oh, hey guys. What took you so long?" Chrissy said, chopping her Yorkshire pudding in half.

"Forte," James said, and Remus nodded.

"How many detentions did you get?"

"None," Lily said, surprised.

Remus looked shocked. "Potter asked to stay behind by a teacher and not given a single detention? I must be dreaming. Pinch me." Sirius leaned over the table, elbowing Chrissy's pumpkin juice on the way, and pinched Remus. "Ow! I was being metaphorical!"

"Metawhatical?"

"I'll give you metawhatical, you complete idiot!" Chrissy yelled, whacking Sirius across the back of the head. "Look at my plate!"

They all dutifully looked at Chrissy's aforementioned plate, which now held a messy orange pulp which, presumably, was the remains of her Yorkshire pudding. Lily sighed. Things were about to get messy.

x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x

After dinner, the fifth-years waited behind in the Great Hall for the announcement they had been informed about. There was much speculation as to what the subject would be: a telling-off, thought Peter; a school trip to see the Quidditch World Cup, suggested by Sirius; Carrie thought there might be a new lesson or club; and Chrissy was hoping for some kind of school treat. Many people, it seemed, were going for Carrie's idea. Duelling clubs stopped and started, but there were too many accidents for any teacher to want to be responsible for one. Lily hadn't made up her mind what she thought, but enjoyed joining in the discussions anyway.

Fifteen minutes or so passed in this way, while the rest of the school gradually filtered out of the Great Hall. The Marauders (joined by Chrissy and Jess, to Carrie's consternation) were seen to hurry stragglers, namely a group of terrified-looking first year Hufflepuffs, out. Finally, when only the fifth-years were left, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet. Several of the other teachers remained at the top table, including Professor Van Spyk, Professor Estella, their Astronomy teacher, Madame Forte, and their much-despised Potions teacher, Professor D'Arcy. Lily only managed to get through each Potions lesson by reminding herself at sixty second intervals that she would be gone at the end of the year when Professor Slughorn returned.

"Good evening, fifth-years," the Headmaster beamed as the students in front of him fell into a hush. "It gives me great pleasure to announce to you a priveledge which your recent predecessors did not have." The eight Gryffindors looked at each other, James and Sirius with conspiritorial glances. The words "England versus Mexico" were just audible, and Lily smiled. "I take no credit, however, for the organisation of this event. I will leave further explanations to Professor Van Spyk."

Dumbledore took his seat again, and nodded to Petra. She got to her feet and gave Dumbledore a smile before looking around at her fellow teachers. She then addressed the students. "These ladies and myself thought it appropriate that we introduce something new into your curriculum." They all looked at Carrie, who smiled modestly, gesturing that they should listen. "However," she continued above the slight murmur that her words had invoked, "this will not be another lesson in the way that you are used to classes being organised. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that this will be an entirely practical subject, with sessions alternating between the four of us." She gestured to Professors D'Arcy, Estella and Forte. "More information about exactly what the first part of your course entails will be posted on boards in your Common Rooms tomorrow morning, courtesy of your heads of houses. They, however, know no more than you do about the upcoming events, so please do not inundate them with tedious questions which they will not be able to answer. Professor D'Arcy will explain further." As the Potions teacher stood, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor sat, and took a sip from her goblet. Clearly, the interesting part was over.

"Upcoming events?" Jess wondered aloud, absent-mindedly swilling her pumpkin juice in her goblet. "That sounds like something interesting."

"More lessons? How can that possibly be a good thing?" Sirius replied.

"Oh, I dunno," Remus retorted. "She said it'd be a practical thing, didn't she? Could be fun."

Sirius still didn't look convinced, so James leaned over and said, in a stage-whisper, "Plenty of pranking opportunities too...you can get Van Spyk back for that first lesson..."

Sirius perked up immediately. "You know, I'm beginning to like the sound of extra classes. What do you reckon, Wormtail?"

Peter gulped. "As long as it's not anything difficult, I think it sounds okay."

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Peter," said Carrie kindly.

"What's it all about though? I'm not doing Study of Creatures Far Too Dangerous for Normal Wizards or anything equally ridiculous," said Sirius.

"Why don't you listen then?" said Lily, who, though amused at the conversation, would have preferred to be able to hear Professor D'Arcy. After all, there might be something important left to say.

"...and this class will concentrate on general knowledge which you will all need to possess for later life."

Lily could hear Chrissy behind her, saying, "This clahss will concentrate on general spiffing knowledge, which you will need for later life, doncha know!"

James then chimed in, in a truly ridiculous (and slightly too loud for comfort) falsetto, with, "Truly fantabulous, old bean!"

Lily snorted in amusement, but carried on listening all the same. "All of you have had the option of taking Muggle Studies. However, there are some things about the Muggle world which we should regard as general knowledge. The segregation of magical and muggle communities means that not all, or even many, of us know enough about Muggle life, history or traditions to be able to live happily and harmoniously alongside Muggles." Suspecting more than a little discontent, Lily looked around at the Slytherins. Sure enough, there were scowls and narrowed eyes aplenty. Well, they were just going to have to deal with it. "Therefore, we have come up with a curriculum which will teach you about Muggle and magical history, an extraordinary amount of which intertwines; general world knowledge relating to other cultures within magical and Muggle communities; and also life skills such as financial management and First Aid."

"PSE," Lily muttered under her breath.

Chrissy turned to her and said, "What's PFD?"

"PSE," Lily repeated, "stands for Personal Social Education. They teach it in Muggle schools. My sister calls it Pretty Sodding Excrutiating."

"Is this going to be really boring then?" asked Peter, wide-eyed.

"I doubt it," said Lily. All the Gryffindors were looking at her now they knew she had some prior experience of what they would be doing. She, rather than elaborating, motioned for them to listen to Professor Estella, who had stood up in Professor D'Arcy's place.

"This class will be compulsory." A few people groaned. "However, no homework or other extra activities will be required of you. Anything other than the fortnightly classes will be entirely optional." This sparked off more conversations, as a homework-free class was an unusual thing. Professor D'Arcy sat down, presumably having nothing more to say, and leant over to speak to Petra, who didn't look to pleased about it.

"Wow, so basically we get to sit in a room for an hour or so every couple of weeks, doing nothing, then ignore any homework we're supposed to be doing and not get detention for it. Sounds good," James grinned, looking slightly shocked.

Lily frowned. "Don't you think there'd be more to it than that?"

"Should there be?" James asked. "Sounds to me like a Ministry thing they've got to do that they're not really that bothered about."

"So why are they making such a big deal about it?"

"She's got a point," agreed Chrissy. "Why would Van Spyk and Estella get involved if it was something boring and Ministry-run?"

James shrugged, and Sirius piped up, "Why should we care? If Van Spyk and D'Arcy are involved, it can't be a good thing."

"How so?" Jess asked.

"Because they're both evil Slytherin bitches, that's why."

"Evil Slytherin bitches promoting Muggle awareness? i think not," Lily retorted.

"Why are you sticking up for them?" Sirius scowled. "No, wait, you always have to be teacher's pet, don't you?"

"Sirius!" Chrissy frowned. "This is not the time!"

"Why not?"

"Because...because it just isn't."

"No, he's right, Chris," Lily said. "Why shouldn't he say exactly what he thinks whenever he thinks it? After all, we can't really expect him to understand tact or sensitivity or anything that emotionally complex, can we?"

Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but Remus spoke first. "Can you two please leave this alone? It's not our faults your relationship fucked up, so can you stop fucking up good times for the rest of us? It's just not fair."

Lily tried to think of something to say, but closed her mouth again. Remus was right, and there was no getting round it. "Sorry, Remus," she said quietly. "Sorry, guys."

"No worries," Carrie said quickly, and James nodded. Sirius, however, didn't say anything or make any kind of apologetic gesture. Somehow what Sirius did or didn't do just didn't seem to merit comment, but Lily couldn't avoid it.

"Anyway," Lily said, changing the subject back to the teachers' announcement, "Slytherin bitches they may be, but I don't think this has anything to do with Slytherin bitchiness. This is something else."

"Hang on, Lil," Jess said. "Who says this is anything more than one of those PSE thingies?"

"Have you ever known a Slytherin get involved in something that wasn't beneficial to them?"

Jess thought for a moment. "That is a very good point."

"So," asked James, "what's the plot?"

It's been too long, and I'm sorry.I had this finished last night, and I'm not that happy with it, but I owe you guys an update. I've had too much going on, with a new job and study leave and panicking about GCSE orals, andI hope you can forgive me for keeping you waiting. I don't forsee it being anything like as long before the next chapter, so hang on in there! I'll get more written as soon as physically/mentally possible. Thanks,

Becca