"Real nice, Evans," said James in their next Transfiguration lesson, "The Ravenclaw Quidditch captain? What sort of traitor...?"

Lily smiled and said in a casual, airy voice, "I suppose I just have a thing for Quidditch players…"

"Clearly," said James, rolling his eyes and looking surly. "You're allergic to Gryffindor men, though, are you?"

"No," said Lily, pretending to be in deep thought, "I've gone over it in my head and I think it's only the really irksome ones. And Chasers. Chasers make me break out all over. Horrible lashes."

"Yeah, I'll give you lashes, alright," mumbled James sardonically as Professor McGonagall began the lesson and Lily fell to pieces in silent laughter.

They were beginning human transfigurations, and after an hour-long lecture the class broke into pairs, Lily sidling next to Maggie as Professor McGonagall continued with instructions. "I advise you all to be very, very careful today. Human transfigurations can go very badly if not performed correctly and it would be nice to get through one lesson without incident. Although we have spent some time on theory, I would like you all to read page—

"NO," McGonagall interrupted herself firmly and abruptly. "No, no, no. Mr. Potter and Mr. Black. Absolutely not. I simply haven't the strength today." James and Sirius, whose body language suggested that they were, as usual, pairing up, wore bemused expressions. Lily and Maggie, who were sharing a table with the pair, smirked sideways at them, before—

"Miss Evans and Miss Jacobs, please do my blood pressure a service and swap partners with Black and Potter."

James and Sirius shrugged and, as Maggie and Sirius were sitting right next to each other, James stood and shuffled over to Lily's other side. He showed her a rather roguish grin and muttered, "Ready, Trouble?" Lily rolled her eyes.

When it was time for some hands-on work—they were supposed to be transforming one another into marble statues—James tossed his book on the table and took out his wand.

"Er," Lily said, "Professor McGonagall told us we should probably read over page 12 first."

"Ah, it's just a bunch of rubbish about mastering the mind so you don't—I dunno—think of chocolate pie or something when you're meant to be transforming someone into stone and end up with marble cake."

Lily had no idea why, but she laughed at this. "You've read it?"

"Er…I…just last night."

"James Potter? Doing extra reading?"

"Hey, I read!"

"Right. So have you experimented at all with human transfiguration?"

"HA!" James blurted uncontrollably. But Sirius, who could hear their conversation perfectly, shot him a warning glare. Lily looked confused. "Sorry, I—I laughed because erm…human transfiguration is way too dangerous to experiment with outside the classroom."

Sirius rolled his eyes and went back to work with Maggie.

"Right…" said Lily, eyeing him suspiciously. "Are you fibbing, Potter?"

When he was sure Sirius was completely distracted, he leaned toward Lily and said in a low voice, "Well…it's only an ickle white lie…"

"How's that?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, it is too dangerous to experiment with outside the classroom." He lowered his voice even more. "But that doesn't mean I haven't," he grinned.

"Doesn't surprise me," said Lily, turning away from him and opening her book in a very business-like manner. "You're probably actually a chimp with a wand who has found a way to look like a scrawny, specky jock that needs to comb his hair."

"Scrawny?" James yelped. "Words hurt too, Evans."

"Oh, contain yourself," she said, nudging his wand arm and causing a stream of purple sparks to fly across the room. Professor McGonagall ducked just in time, but the top of her hat was singed.

Thinking quickly, James elbowed Lily and said, "Evans! Control yourself!" in an accusatory tone.

Lily looked at James, aghast. She elbowed him back. "Shut it, Potter!" she hissed.

"Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall sternly, "How is it that you always manage to bring trouble wherever you go? And Miss Evans, horsing around during lessons? I expect more from you."

"Yes," James added in lofty tones, "I for one, Professor McGonagall, am absolutely appalled. And a Prefect as well! Shameful," he said chidingly, shaking his head at Lily, who flushed crimson.

"Potter, it would be the understatement of the century to say that I have heard quite enough out of you for one lesson. Get to work immediately or I will remove you from this classroom."

"Yes, sorry Professor," said James, arranging his face so that it was as serious as possible. But the moment he made eye contact with Lily, they both broke into silent laughter.

As far as Lily was concerned, it was nothing short of irritating how quickly James mastered human transfiguration. James, like his friend Sirius, was uncommonly skilled in most subjects, and transfiguration seemed to be his specialty. Lily could almost understand how the pair of them came to be so arrogant, though she could never condone the way James would hex people for the fun of it or bully younger students and, of course, Severus Snape.

But James was not showing off today. He transfigured Lily with ease, and when it was her turn he offered her several pointers. Eventually she mastered it, and when the lesson had only ten minutes left, James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Maggie, and Peter ended up in one large group together.

"Always the dithering Marauder, aren't you Pete?" said Sirius, while Peter grimaced in his attempt to transfigure Remus.

"What is this 'Marauder' business?" asked Maggie. "Not that the name doesn't fit…"

"Have we never told you this story?" James said excitedly. "It's a good one, this…Right, third year. Me and Sirius. We're on the run from Filch 'cause we'd just set off two Dungbombs in the corridor between classes, and—"

"Mate," Sirius interrupted, drawing out the syllable reprovingly. "Rubbish story-telling, you've left out the best bit."

"Did I? Oh right," James laughed, "We set off the Dungbombs to distract Professor Slughorn so we could leave a love letter from Lucius Malfoy in his office."

The group laughed heartily at this; even Lily laughed reluctantly, though she could sense Severus Snape watching her from several rows behind, as he had done for the entirety of the lesson. He was clutching his wand, knuckles white, as James told his story.

"Anyway we're running, and we just dash for any room available, and where'd we end up, Padfoot?"

"Bloody teacher's lounge."

"And who'd we hear in the corridor about to come in?"

"McGonagall and Grubbly-Plank."

"Well, you can imagine the sheer terror of it. So we dive into the wardrobe, and when they come in we hear them talking about someone who got into trouble—I dunno, Mundungus Fletcher or something—and they start saying stuff like, 'ah well, at least it's not at the Marauder scope' and 'hear what the blubbin' Marauders got up to last week?' and we're thinking, 'Who are these Marauders, some sort of underground wizarding separatist group?'"

"And then," Sirius picked up, "we start hearing them throw our names in now and again, and, long story short, we work it out that the teachers have codenamed us 'The Marauders.'"

"Which we thought was brilliant, naturally—"

"Naturally. Proudest moment of my life, I reckon."

"You have to imagine, it must get really exhausting having to keep records of some of the stuff we get up to; 'Jaames Potteerrr, Siiiriuss Blaack, Reemuss Luupinn, and Peeterr Pettigreeww…'" he said laboriously. "I mean, you don't even get past the names and people have gone home."

"Marauders? Easy."

"Right. I'll tell you what's not easy, though, Padfoot."

"What's that, Prongs m'boy?"

"Watching Pete think. Nasty business."

"Oh stop," said Lily, turning to Peter. "Here, let me show you."

Class was nearly over now, and Professor McGonagall had asked everyone to demonstrate the fruits of their labor.

"Excellent, Potter," she said sharply. "I must admit I would be incredibly interested to see what kind of magic you could do, what kind of wizard you might become, were you not up to your elbows in ludicrous horseplay."

"Cheers, Professor!" he said brightly.

She nodded stiffly. "Though I did hear from Hagrid that you have managed partial human transfiguration. Far more tricky and dangerous than complete human transfiguration, contrary to popular belief. Would you like to demonstrate?"

James sprang to his feet. He did not even lift his wand, but a look of intense concentration came over his face. When he relaxed, Professor McGonagall looked inquiringly at him. He turned stiffly on his heel, and it was clear he'd managed to turn only the back half of his entire body to stone, while the front portion remained soft and human. His hair transitioned from the black, untidy tuft to unmoving marble with a very distinct, very precise seam, which ran the length of his body, halving him from back to front.

Professor McGonagall gave a small, rather uncharacteristic smile, and walked on to check other students' work.

As the class, including James, began stuffing their books back into their bags and heading for the door, Lily remained still, looking at James as if she was seeing him for the first time. "Potter," she said abruptly, "you are…amazing." Her tone was unmistakably incredulous, but contained enough admiration to make James go a vivid shade of beetroot. He nearly broke his neck turning to look at Lily and froze, feeling heat creep along his face. He laughed a bit awkwardly and said, "I'm not—it's—it's not difficult, really."

"Not difficult," Lily said dryly.

They looked at each other for a moment before James chuckled, brandishing his wand. "Well, only at first glance," he said matter-of-factly, touching the tip of his wand to his arm, "but fundamentally, it's actually very simple. It follows Tinsley's Second Law of Elemental Transfiguration." He twirled his wand around his arm, as if binding it, and Lily's eyes widened as the fair, smooth skin of James's arm hardened and darkened, the scattered hair morphing into wood grain, and the limb became completely rigid. "Textbook example, in fact," James said, waving the branch that his arm had become. Lily let out a disbelieving yet clearly impressed laugh. James was sure to enjoy the awe on her face with discretion and nonchalance, yet was not too modest to revel in her astonishment. Lily reached forward and touched his transfigured arm. "Blimey." It was practically a whisper. "You'd never know...I mean…it's perfect." James grinned, and after a moment Lily cleared her throat and withdrew her hand rather hastily.

Having become very good at controlling magic without a wand, James merely shook his arm as if it had fallen asleep, returning it to its normal state.

"Care to try? I can show you," James offered. Lily surveyed him for a moment, a crease forming between her brows before she shook her head and smiled. "You are really something, James Potter."

James's grin faltered. "Eh?"

Lily looked at him another long moment and said, in one long breath, "You run around this school wreaking havoc and driving people to their last nerve, you can be unbearably arrogant, frustratingly rude, you clearly think you are above any rules enforced upon you—and I hate to fuel the fire—" Lily sighed and shook her head again, looking bewildered—"But you are idiotically brave and very, very clever. You can even be quite kind sometimes. It's maddening."

James did not know what to say to this. But even if his brain was going to come out with something witty, something remotely relevant, or anything at all, Lily collected her things and exited before he had a chance to think of it.

He did not even mind—hardly noticed in fact—when Severus Snape shoved by bitterly, knocking James's bag to the floor.