"Where do we go now?" Lily asked once they had put a few corridors and a flight of stairs between themselves and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's office.

"Fancy a trip up to that tower?" James asked. "We can't go back to the common room yet, and I don't want to waste time looking for an empty classroom."

"Suits me," Lily said, "as long as it's not too cold up there."

"Oh, it won't be," James reassured her. "It's easy enough to Summon some blankets or a coat, anyway. Our dorm window is always open, just for that purpose."

"You make a habit of sitting on towers and Summoning blankets?" Lily asked curiously.

"You should know that," James grinned, and Lily's stomach gave a flutter. "Actually it's also very useful for throwing Sirius' duvet out of when he won't get up in the morning."

Lily laughed. "Fair enough."

The two of them made their way up to the tower they had sat on after the ball, and settled themselves leaning against the wall as they had before. Lily pulled the bundle of letters from her pocket and handed half to James.

"Let's get reading."

Chapter 26

Almost simultaneously, Lily and James said, "Lumos," and their two wands lit with a warm, white-gold glow. Lily looked down at the top sheet of parchment, and began to read, but the letters shifted before her eyes and she looked away, blinking and shaking her head to try to clear her vision. Looking back again, she frowned, and turned to James.

"I can't read it."

"What?" he asked, leaning over to see the letter Lily was currently perusing.

"See for yourself."

Sure enough, James looked up, frowning. "I don't get it."

"Some kind of scrambling charm, I suppose. Stupid to suspect she'd leave them lying around otherwise," Lily sighed.

James looked back at his own letter. "This one isn't scrambled," he said. "It's written in some kind of code or an obscure language I've never seen before."

Lily took the letter from him. "It looks scrambled to me. How can that happen?"

James leant his head back against the cold stone for a few moments, then looked back at Lily, but winced and rubbed his neck, making Lily smile. "I think it must be a charm that adapts itself."

"How so?"

"I think it makes itself confusing to whoever reads it. I can't decode stuff for shit."

"I can," said Lily, but then her face fell. "But if I can't see the code…"

"It's useless."

"Unless…" Lily was chewing her lip again, a mannerism which often left her with annoyingly sore areas on the right side of her mouth. "Unless you read the code out to me. I could write it down, and try to figure it out."

"That works," said James, with a why-didn't-I-think-of-that look. "Leave it till later, though. Let's just check whether all the letters are charmed; she could have forgotten one or two." Lily doubted it, but didn't argue the point. Instead, she flicked through the pile of befuddling parchment, searching for a legible word or phrase anywhere.

"Hey!"

"What?" James asked eagerly, looking up from his own task.

"What's this doing here? I didn't pick that up." She was looking down at a silver chain with a familiar-looking pendant: the necklace she had borrowed from Petra more than two months before.

"Well, you must have," said James, looking sideways at her. "I didn't bring it out."

"I'm sure I didn't," Lily said, and James jumped a little at her snappishness.

"Well, it doesn't matter," said James in a placatory tone. "It's only a necklace."

"I don't think it is," said Lily, and James raised an eyebrow pityingly.

"You don't always have to be right, you know. No one thinks any less of you for making mistakes."

Lily shot him a withering look, and continued. "It's not about being right." James snorted, but she ignored him. "I borrowed this from Van Spyk for Halloween, and I thought then that it felt enchanted. I found myself wearing it a couple of times without remembering putting it on, but I thought I'd just done it automatically or something." James looked at her reproachfully, and she said, quietly, "It didn't seem like a big deal at the time…"

"Not a big deal? Lily, you know how dangerous stuff like this can be. How could you go and wear something you don't know anything about?"

Lily felt her temper rising. It wasn't her fault he was overreacting, and she certainly didn't believe there was anything dangerous or harmful in the necklace. "Because generally, James, when you borrow something from someone, you don't expect plots to kill or maim you from every side. Why are you so paranoid?"

"I'm not paranoid, I've just got common sense, something which you seem to lack."

"I'm not made of crystal, James! I can look after myself."

"Yeah, because you're doing that so well right now."

"If there was something wrong with that necklace, I would have known."

"No you wouldn't. You don't know anything about magical artefacts or Dark spells."

"I've done as much Defence Against the Dark Arts as you have," Lily pointed out indignantly."

"That doesn't mean a damn thing. You haven't grown up with magic; you don't know how it works like I do."

"Oh, so I'm suddenly inferior because I'm Muggle-born, is that it?" Lily's nostrils flared, and she glared at James with a look reminiscent of both his mother and Professor McGonagall. He blanched.

"Lily, I didn't mean that. I just meant that my mum works at the Ministry, so she's come into contact with stuff like this before, and…" he trailed off, defeated by Lily's expression.

"Stuff like this? James, you're assuming there's something wrong with this necklace. A moment ago you were laughing at me for insisting that I didn't mean to pick that necklace up –"

"I didn't laugh at you! Lily –"

"- and now you're trying to persuade me that I'm in mortal danger just from wearing it a couple of times."

"Look, just give it here, would you?"

"Why? So you can use your magnificent Defence skills on it, Mr. Auror wannabe?"

"Lily, just give it here. It could be dangerous."

"That's not what you were saying a few minutes ago."

"Give it to me, Lils."

She was rather enjoying herself now. "What makes you think you're any better equipped to deal with it than I am, hm?"

"Lily –" James made a grab for the necklace, but Lily swung it out of his reach.

"Hm?"

"Lily –" this time he threw himself across the yard or so of stone floor separating them and wrapped his fingers around the chain.

The next thing Lily knew, she was lying flat on her back, staring at a golden, pre-dawn sky. Groaning at the throbbing ache at the back of her skull, she raised her head and looked at the prone form of James Potter lying a few yards away.

She kicked out. "Potter."

James grunted.

"Potter," she called, louder this time.

"What?" James raised his head too, then quickly lowered it, clearly suffering from the same headache as Lily.

"What did you do?"

James screwed his face up in concentration, clearly trying to remember exactly what had happened, but then shrugged. It was an interesting effect, thought Lily in amusement, trying to shrug lying down. "I don't know. I don't remember much, apart from grabbing that necklace."

Yes, the necklace: Lily had almost forgotten that. "Where is it?" she asked, sitting up and looking around. She turned to James, half-expecting him to be holding it.

"Dunno." He sat up too. "Hang on, is that it?" He was pointing to a glint in the shadows on the other side of the tower.

Lily clambered to her feet, grimacing. "I think it may have been raining last night."

"You think?" James tugged at his own cold, damp shirt. "That may be the understatement of the century."

Lily absent-mindedly wiped her eye with one finger, took a glance at the black streak now adorning her hand, and scowled. Lovely to know how good you must look after a nice cold shower. In fact, she was surprised the rain hadn't woken them.

When she voiced this thought, James replied, "It's not that odd, really. Magical blackouts generally only end when a spell is used or when the magic wears off. Cold water doesn't have much effect."

"Fair enough," Lily said, and strolled over to the other side of the tower, well aware of James's eyes on her as she walked. She bent down, about to pick it up, when James interrupted her thoughts.

"Are you sure you should touch it?"

Lily shrugged. "Why not? We know it doesn't do anything worse than knock you out for a few hours."

"That's still no reason to be touching it when you don't have to," James said, but it was too late. Lily had already straightened up, the necklace clutched in her hand. James sighed. "Do you ever listen to me?"

"Nope," said Lily, then smiled. "You know I do; stop being melodramatic."

"Says the queen of overreacting," James grinned, but Lily didn't retort, just laughed.

"Look, it hasn't done me any harm. Maybe it just doesn't like you."

"Then explain why it knocked you out too."

Lily pursed her lips. "Fine, maybe it wasn't just you. But it really isn't doing any damage: look." She dropped it into her other hand, and the silver gleamed in the morning light. "Catch."

James caught the pendant without so much as a glance, and let the chain fall, still glinting, to dangle onto the stone floor. "Seriously, Lily, I think I should keep it for now."

"Why?"

"It could be dangerous."

"Don't be an arse," Lily said, laughing. "Why should it be any less dangerous for you to keep it than me?"

James ran a hand through his (very messy) morning hair, and said, "You might wear it."

"So might you," Lily retorted, and James grinned.

"As enamoured as I am with Slytherin jewellery, I have no particular urge to parade around in my Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's necklace."

"Neither have I," Lily said, "but that didn't stop it finding its way onto my neck, did it?"

"It's different for you," James replied. "You're a girl."

Lily laughed. "So what? You think whoever enchanted the necklace made it gender-specific? Highly unlikely."

"But possible," James said, trying to retain some kind of control over the conversation. "Seriously, Lily, I'd be much happier if I had it."

"And I wouldn't," Lily said.

James sighed. "Fine. Are you prepared to compromise?"

Lily folded her arms and looked at James, who was now propped up against the far wall. "That depends on the terms of compromise."

James rolled his eyes. "Do you ever come out with anything that doesn't sound like it's been extracted from a textbook?"

"Don't look at me like I'm the only geek round here, James Potter. You're such a hypocrite." Lily was smiling as she spoke, and James grinned too.

"I'm not a geek: I'm an intellectual." He gave a winning smile (and Lily had to admit that it was a winning smile).

"And I'm the Queen of Sheba," she countered.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Your Majesty." James got to his feet and gave a sweeping bow.

"I could get used to this," Lily said, laughing, but inwardly thought that you could tell he was old money, just from his mannerisms and the ease with which he gave his (nevertheless over-exaggerated) airs and graces. There was something in the Pureblood class divide, although she thought it was strangely wasted without a feudal system to accompany it. It was strange, she thought, to be contemplating things from this point of view. Normally she would deny that the Purebloods were in any way superior, but in some things they did have a clear advantage. Not in intelligence or magical ability, but in their understanding of wizarding society, and the history of all their old traditions. It was the difference, she realised, between the old English aristocracy and the nouveau riche.

Lily was always fascinated by the idea of the gentry and their old world. She had always thought she would have loved to be one of them, back in the days when class mattered and etiquette had to be observed, but now she wondered if that was a little hypocritical of her. She could understand the 15th Century gentry's wish to stay apart from the masses, and she criticised the Purebloods for doing the same. That didn't make it right, of course, but it made the debate more difficult and the moral line even less distinct.

"What was your plan of compromise, then?" Lily asked.

"Well…" James grinned. "Seeing as I'm so fabulous…"

"I'm glad someone thinks so," Lily muttered, and James pointedly ignored her.

"…I know many a hiding place in this ol' castle."

"You surprise me," Lily said dryly.

"Do I? That's nice. Anyway, there's this loose brick near the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room that would be perfect to hide it behind. What say you?"

"Lead the way, m'lord."

Once the necklace had been safely stowed away, Lily turned to James and said, "What do we do with it now, then?"

James frowned. "I thought the point of hiding it was so that we didn't have to do anything with it."

Lily sighed. "Dear me, aren't you even a little bit curious?"

James grinned. "You know me too well. I don't see how we can really find out what it is without asking Van Spyk, though."

"No? Well, the library's always my first port of call, followed by…well, followed by something else. I've always found the answer in the library, so I've never had to invent Plan B, but I'm sure we can come up with something. If we can't find it in the library, that is."

"I hate the library. I can never find what I want, and Madam Pince seems to hate me so she's never any help…" sighed James.

"Could that possibly be because she caught you drawing rude pictures in the back cover of Hogwarts: A History?"

"That was Sirius, not me!" James whined, and Lily chuckled.

"Guilty by association," she said matter-of-factly, and James scowled.

"That woman will hate me forever."

"I don't doubt it," Lily laughed, and James frowned again at her lack of sympathy. "Look, she may hate you, but she loves me, so I'm sure we'll be fine. She might even help us."

"All teachers love you," James grumbled.

"Who doesn't?"

"All the sane inhabitants of the world."

Lily elbowed him, and he winced. "Bloody hell, woman! Violence isn't the answer to everything, you know."

"I've yet to find something it can't solve," Lily said, and they both grinned, although James did so reluctantly, still rubbing his upper arm.

The two of them made their way back to Gryffindor tower, where they had a few minutes to clean themselves up and, in James's case, ruffle their hair, before their dorm-mates woke. The two had an unspoken agreement that no one would tell of their night-s exploits, although how each knew that the other would keep mum, neither could say. Apart from a few furtive glances at breakfast, no one would know that anything had transpired, and Lily was feeling quite pleased with herself by the time the Gryffindors made their way to their first lesson, Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Professor Van Spyk was in her usual morning mood: tetchy, dry and sarcastic. Lily couldn't help thinking that she seemed a little preoccupied, and her mind jumped immediately to contemplate her secret relationship. She wondered absent-mindedly whether there had been some sort of problem, or whether Petra was just having a bad day, and was therefore so engrossed in her thoughts that she wasn't paying attention when asked to recite what should have been a simple definition, earning glares from half of the class as five points were taken from Gryffindor. This didn't stop Lily wondering, however, and the rest of the morning was spent this way. Lily didn't see James again, but made her way to the library all the same, thinking that she could do some research alone if need be.

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Just to clear up a bit of confusion: when I said I wanted to edit and shuffle this story around, I didn't mean that I was putting it on hold. That would be frustrating both for me and for you, and I have no intention of doing that. However, I could really do with some moral support here: even those of you who don't normally review, could you please, please, please give me some constructive criticism? I really don't mind if you loved parts of this story or hated them, so long as you let me know what you think. I can take the style of bits you like and rejig bits you didn't like so that they suit you more, but I really can't improve unless I get some feedback. I'm not asking for compliments; I'd much rather get criticism at this point in time (I know I'm asking for it here, but it's true to a certain extent) and be able to improve. I won't expect review from all of you evry chapter, but it would be fabulous if everyone said something. I know that's never going to happen, but if I get even one in ten of you to give me an idea of how you feel about this fic, then that would be so much more help than I'm getting at the moment. For those of you who do faithfully review, many thanks, and you should know that it's always appreciated.

Thanks,

(a very hopeful) Becca x

PS. you know you don't wanna make me sad...a sad Becca is not a Becca inspired to write...