Green Eyed Shadows

The Start of Term

James rushed through the corridor to the Transfiguration classroom. It was already August 31 and he still had to plan his lesson for the start of term. He took a quick glance at his watch and found himself falling onto the floor.

"Oof," he grunted as the wind rushed out of him. He looked up to see what he had collided with and found himself pleasantly surprised. He first saw the sandal clad foot with bright red toe nails. Then his gaze traveled up the long expanse of leg that seemed to go on for miles. The legs were eventually stopped by a pair of extremely short jean shorts. The flat stomach was covered by a black tank top with glittering silver wording that said "Believe In The Magic!" The words brought his attention to a very generous chest. James stared at it for a moment before moving onto her face.

Her hair was the color of a fine red wine, and it cascaded in loose curls down to her mid-back. The color was so unique that James was sure that it was her natural coloring. Her tanned skin was devoid of make-up, yet it had the arousing affect many women spent hours trying to achieve. James knew this from experience (not his experience—his past girlfriends'). Her pink lips were parted and James could only anticipate how they would taste. He looked up into her eyes. The almond shapes were framed by long, coal black lashes. The emerald depths were glaring at him with undisguised rage.

"I think it's against the rules for you to look at one of your students like your next sex toy," she told him coldly.

James gaped at her when her words reached him. "You're a student?" he asked incredulously.

She rolled her eyes at his words. "I matured early, Potter. And apparently, you're still just a boy who thinks with his nether-regions."

He was saved from having to come up with a snappy retort by a familiar voice. "Is there a reason you two are conducting this conversation from the ground?"

The mystery girl's eyes lit up in delight when she looked up over James's shoulder. "Remus!" she cried and jumped up into his friend's arms with a look of complete adoration on her face.

Remus laughed jovially as he swung the girl in circles. When he finally put her down he stared at her for a long moment before saying, "Lily, last time I saw you you were a tiny pipsqueak that could be knocked over by a feather. Now look at you: a young woman!"

James still couldn't believe it. His best friend knowing a looker like this and not sharing his finds with the rest of them? James tried to smother his bitterness and focused on his bewilderment. Though many women were fond of Remus, he never got too involved with any of them. He had the strange idea they would be afraid of him because of his…er… problem.

"Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Mooney?" James asked, interrupting the friendly reunion.

Remus looked at James in surprise, as if forgetting he and this Lily girl had an audience. "Oh, right. Prongs, this is Lily Evans—a seventh year Ravenclaw. I met her in our fourth year when I found her sneaking into Hogsmead. She was quite interested in the Shrieking Shack." Remus said meaningfully.

"Oh, for gosh sakes Remus, no one's around," Lily said exasperatedly. She turned her attention to James and said, "I know about what Remus is. I've known for a while now, and no I haven't and will not tell anyone. Though if it had been any other of you lion scums, the whole school would have known in a heartbeat."

And with that she turned on her heal and left, leaving a sheepish werewolf and an angry best friend standing there awkwardly.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, mate," James coldly told him.

"Yeah," replied Remus. "Let's do it over a cup of tea."

"So let me get this straight," James said forty-five minutes later. "You follow this girl into Hogsmead because she smells funny. Then when she's standing at the Shack, you just feel this need to start up a conversation with her. And when you begin to talk about magical creatures you tell her every single thing you know about werewolves and when she asks if you've ever encountered one, you tell her all about getting bitten…That about right?" James finished, trying to keep his feelings in check.

"Yeah, but when you say it like that, it seems so stupid." Remus sighed.

There was a few seconds of silence and then James exploded as if he was baking soda and someone had poured a ton of vinegar on him. "ARE YOU CRAZY? TELLING A FIRST YEAR YOUR SECRET? AND NOT ONLY THAT A FIRST YEAR GIRL, WHO WAS NOT IN GRYFFINDOR, WHO COULDN'T BE TRUSTED, WHOM YOU HAD ONE CONVERSATION WITH, AND YOU DIDN'T FIND THE NEED TO TELL THIS TO ANY OF US?

James was silent for a moment, staring at the cold tea. "We're your best friends, right Mooney?"

Remus was shocked at the hoarseness in his friend's voice. "Yeah, mate," he told him reassuringly. "The Marauders are the best friends I could ever ask for. Don't doubt that."

"Then why couldn't you trust us with this?" said James, hurt. "We spent practically our whole first year trying to figure out what was wrong with you and this girl—a Ravenclaw first year—is the one you spill your guts to. You were telling your biggest secret to a cute little red-head and we were trying to become animagi. Were you drunk? Was that it?"

"Prongs, the thing you have to understand is, I trust Lily with my life. She…she hangs with a tough crowd, and she knows how to stand up for herself. She isn't the type to just let my secret slip," Remus explained.

"What do you mean, she hangs with a tough crowd?" asked James.

Remus looked at the ground uncomfortably. "First, you have to promise not to lose control," he warned James.

"Sure," James confirmed, his curiosity peaked.

"Lily—now, don't get me wrong, she's a terrific person—hangs with the Slytherins," Remus admitted whispering the last part.

"She what?" exploded James. "You told your biggest secret to a Slytherin?"

"No, that I didn't do. She hangs out with the Slytherins; she is in Ravenclaw. And when I did tell her I didn't know what house she was in," he explained.

James shook his head in frustration. "Does she know what we are?" he asked finally.

"Prongs, you know I wouldn't tell that to anyone, not even Dumbledore," began Remus, and James let out a sigh of relief. "But she figured that out on her own."

James looked at his friend in horror. "Do you realize what opportunity this presents her with? I give her a bad mark, and she could send me to Azkaban! And my being an animagus gave me an advantage over the Dark Side—spying on Death Eaters without there knowledge, and that sort of thing. With her being friendly with the Slytherins…"

"First of all," Remus said, "she won't deserve any bad marks. She's a genius in every subject. And second, she won't tell them anything. She learned about it in her second year and she's in seventh year now. She hasn't told anyone yet."

"It's the 'yet' that scares me," James said glumly.

"Listen, she hates you. She has this thing against all Gryffindors, and the Gryffindors hate her. It's probably because she's the only one from a neutral house that publicly chose one house over another. Even her own house dislikes her. The majority of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have always sided with our house. She…Lily knows how to take care of herself. I sometimes get the feeling she has a reason for hanging with the Slytherins; she doesn't agree with a lot of their methods, but they accept her—almost worship her in a way."

Remus stumbled along in his explanation. He knew how James had no tolerance for the Dark Arts, and telling him Lily was involved with people who were definitely in line to become Death Eaters might have been a bad idea, but if he didn't tell James what he knew about Lily now, he knew when James saw her with her other schoolmates he would feel even more betrayed.

"Lily's got a lot of tough stuff in her life, pal," Remus told his angry friend. He wasn't about to go into details, though he knew that might have convinced his stubborn friend. "She asked me not to tell you guys about her, because she knows how the Slytherins would react to her being friends with us. They'd kick her out of the group, and that group is all she has."

"Well, that would be doing her a favor, wouldn't it? Listen to me closely, Mooney: You. Are. Crazy. I would chalk it up to your furry little problem, but you were always the sane one during the old days. As a matter of fact, you still are today! Sirius and I would've splinched ourselves trying to apparate while drunk if it weren't for you. Now, though…well, maybe we can hit her with a good memory charm," James said thoughtfully.

"We aren't going to hit her with a memory charm. Only a lunatic professor would attack their student like that," Remus warned.

"You're right," James said absent-mindedly.

"I—I am?" said Remus incredulously; surprised he had been able to convince James so easily.

"Yeah," muttered James. "Doing a memory charm doesn't get us any revenge for her brainwashing you. Maybe we could try that hair-removal potion we fed to Snape and Malfoy during seventh year. Remember how greasy ol' Snivelly's bald head was? We'll have to call in the troops if we want to scare her into silence. I'll owl Padfoot; you get Wormtail."

James was already rushing out of the room when Remus understood his war plan. "Prongs," he growled, yanking the neck of his friend's cloak, "no one is going to do anything to her. It was my secret to tell, and you can't blame her for finding out about you. If you so much as glance at her the wrong way, you'll have me to deal with." He threw James down onto the floor and stormed out of the room.

James stared at his friend's retreating back in shock. "Sorry to disturb you during your time of month," he called out cheekily, but if Remus heard him he gave no indication.

Well, he'd make his judgment on this Ravenclaw later. For now, he had lessons to prepare.

"So, what are you doing here before the term starts? I didn't know they let students in early," Remus said over his pumpkin pasty.

"They don't," Lily told him between bites of her chocolate frog. "But I'm helping Dumbledore out, so…here I am."

"Helping him with what?" Remus asked. He had never heard of a student staying at Hogwarts during the summer holidays, or Dumbledore needing help from a student.

"Just some muggle stuff. With the war here the Headmaster wants access to newspapers and telephones and televisions. He even has a few cars. He wants to save them, and with all this stuff he feels closer to him and he's able to know what major events are coming up for them," she told him casually.

"And he can't manage that himself?" Remus asked suspiciously.

Lily laughed ruefully. "I'm sure he can," she said. "But he knows what I go through at home. This way, he gets me away from that and says something to make me feel useful.

"Good ol' Dumbledore," Remus sighed.

"May he always be with us," Lily added.

And they held up their half finished sweets and bumped them together as though they were saying a toast holding champagne flutes instead of their favorite sweets.

"It gives me great pleasure to announce to you our three new members of teaching staff," Dumbledore announced before desserts.

James and Remus looked at each other, their argument now forgotten. "Three?" they asked each other at the same time. Then they peered down the long table looking for an unfamiliar face.

"They must be on the other side of Hagrid," Remus said still looking down the table. "He's the only one I can't see around."

"A lot of you may already recognize them, as they were students not so very long ago."

"Does that mean whoever else is teaching is young, too?" James whispered to his friend.

"I guess so," Remus said. "Let's wait and see."

"As our new Defense against the Dark Arts we have Professor Lupin!"

Upper members of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw burst into spontaneous cheers. Soon the younger students joined their example. The Slytherin table was clapping politely, though it looked as if it pained them. Remus stood up and made a slight wave, then sat down bashfully.

"This years Transfiguration teacher will be Professor Potter."

The Great Hall erupted in noise. The Slytherin table's hissing was drown out by the other tables' greeting. James stood up and bowed gallantly to the three tables, waving his hand as though he were a king. It was five minutes before the applause finally died down, but when James shot fireworks into the air from his wand it started out again. Finally, after fifteen minutes of standing there, soaking up the applause, the sound died down.

"And last, but not least—our new Potions teacher, Professor Snape."

The Slytherin table jumped to their feet screaming their praise. It took a few seconds for the other tables to respond. Hufflepuffs started clapping politely, and soon the Ravenclaws joined in. Gryffindor table glared over at the Slytherins who were looking triumphantly at them as if saying, "At least Dumbledore's picked one decent teacher." A single Ravenclaw jumped to her feet and yelled, "Way to go, Severous!"

James stared at Lily in shock. Sure, Remus had warned him, but she was friends with his mortal enemy? He was so much older than her. he glanced in the direction that Snape was in and was surprised to find him floating five feet off the ground and without a wand in his hand. He was staring directly at the red-haired Ravenclaw and a boiling sensation came into James's stomach.

Was he jealous? Was James Potter jealous of that greasy Slytherin git? James had had a parade of women in his life, most of them with him for a week or two. All of them were beautiful, sexy women, and when he was out with them, many a man would turn his head. But to think that his longtime rival had gotten farther with this green eyed seductress than him was unthinkable. Sure, he had just met her yesterday and Snape probably knew her for a few years, but…

It didn't matter. They were her professors now, and any type of relationship between them was against the rules. Still, that didn't mean James couldn't picture the enticing vixen without her school robes on, head thrown back, eyes closed, fingers clutching the bed sheets, moaning in pleasure. James gave his head a sharp shake. Think about something else, dimwit! She's Remus's friend. She's your student! James's head responded quickly enough trying to devise ways of getting Snape sacked, but his body was another story. It was gonna be one interesting year.