A/N: Sorry that took so long. I went on a short vacation and had minor foot surgery (couldn't make it up the stairs to my computer!), but now I'm back. Sorry about the "9 chapters" confusion. I won't be getting to chapter 30 by the HBP premiere, but oh well. And by the way, this story will have WAY more than 30 chapters ;)

Thank you if you reviewed last chapter, I always appreciate your support! Enjoy~

"Lily, hurry up!"

"I— I don't think this is such a good idea anymore."

"You're backing out?!"

"No...just give me a minute, okay?"

With a hugely impatient sigh, Regulus sat on the ground and glared at the door that led to the girl's bathroom. While it had been easy for him to sneak out of the common room without anyone noticing the small change in his appearance, Lily wanted to wait until they were closer to Gryffindor Tower before downing the Polyjuice Potion. The only problem now was that she couldn't bring herself to drink the vile concoction, and when Regulus threatened to go in there and force it down her throat, she had magically sealed the door shut.

"It's now or never, Lily, and I'm not going alone!"

"Fine! I'm drinking it...agh! This is horrible!"

Suddenly, Lily stopped talking. Regulus pressed his ear closer to the door and heard her choking.

"Lily? Are you alright?" he asked, trying to muffle the panic in his voice.

"Not...sure," Lily wheezed from the other side.

Regulus looked down at his watch: it was currently nine o'clock in the morning; the Gryffindors' tryouts wouldn't be over for several hours, but they were getting a head start anyway. The night before, they had asked Lucius to Transfigure their silver and green scarves into gold and maroon scarves. He didn't bother asking why they had suddenly become supporters of Gryffindor, and finished within two minutes. Regulus was worried that the older boy would tell Bellatrix that he was going down the same path as Sirius, but there was no time to explain the situation, so he could deal with the consequences later. Everything thus far was going according to plan; Regulus could only hope that their luck would hold out.

Finally, after a full minute of nonstop gagging, there was silence.

"So...how do you look?"

Her response was an ear-splitting shriek.

Uh-oh.

"Is it that bad?" Regulus asked tentatively. Lily didn't respond, which prompted Regulus to immediately fear the worst. Had it gone horribly wrong? Did she look like some grotesque alien-like monster? Or had it actually worked and she was simply horrified with the results?

Not my problem, Regulus told himself firmly. After all, a couple of days ago, he had suggested for her to steal a hair from one of the older girls in Gryffindor, but Lily had insisted upon going as the Snape boy.

"I know Sev better than he knows himself," Lily had proudly informed him, though somehow Regulus doubted this. Even then, she would have a much easier time staying in-character than he would. Sirius was an ardent risk-taker with an ego the size of Mount Everest…Regulus, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of his brother. He didn't enjoy making a fool of himself, which he was going to have to do if he wished to accurately portray Sirius. Too bad he couldn't have gone as that Lupin kid.

"So, uh, Lily…coming out any time soon?"

There was no response.

Apparently she didn't realize how many differences there are between girls and boys, Regulus mused.

"Lily, come on, we don't have all day!"

"I can't go out in public like this," Lily whispered from the other side of the door. There was a noticeable change in her voice; it was lower and the girlish pitch was completely absent.

Regulus smiled smugly. That's what you get for choosing someone as ugly as Snape.

"Well, you're stuck like that for an hour anyway…and nobody will know it's you…except me. But I think you're much prettier than Snape, so—"

Regulus trailed off as Lily opened the door, unable to believe his eyes.

"You really think I'm pretty?" Lily asked, beaming. Regulus' flattering comment had subdued her panicking for a few moments— enough to get her to come out of the bathroom, at least— but her smile dissolved into a scowl once she noticed his reaction to her new appearance.

Unable to control the constricted feeling in his chest, Regulus fell to his knees and burst into laughter. Lily's pleased expression distorted into one of pure loathing, and if Regulus didn't know it was really her, he would have thought the person in front of him was preparing to murder him.

"Oh shut up will you?!" Lily yelled at him. She had not drawn her wand yet, but she swore that if Regulus kept this up, she would resort to drastic measures. Had the situation been any different, he would have understood what an awkward position Lily was in and quit mocking her, but the way in which her voice cracked when she spoke was too hilarious to ignore.

"Your— your voice…" Regulus managed to choke out. Had it truly been Severus Snape standing in front of him, it wouldn't have been funny at all. However, seeing his best female friend as a boy, let alone one as ugly as Snape…she was never going to live this down!

Infuriated by Regulus' blatant mockery, Lily grabbed him by the collar and lifted him to his feet with surprising strength. Ignoring the urge to throttle him to death, she violently shook him until he managed to shut up.

"Regulus Arcturus Black, if I hear one more noise out of you, I'll hex your sorry ass all the way to Antarctica! Understood?"

Regulus had never seen Lily look so fierce before, though perhaps it was the creepy new face contorted with rage that scared him. Or maybe it was the way the black eyes glared at him as though they were trying to burn a hole through his skull. And, he noted, Snape was much stronger than Lily. Wanting to avoid further conflict, he nodded numbly as she shoved his wand back into his hand and they began their trek up to Gryffindor tower. Just as they rounded the corner, Lily ran into someone and fell to the ground.

"Severus?"

It was a girl's voice.

"And...Sirius? I thought you two were going down to the Quidditch tryouts."

Lily looked at Regulus out of the corner of her eye; he looked just as panicked as she felt. Apparently he didn't recognize the plump redhead either.

"I'm not good at Quidditch," Regulus mumbled under his breath, forgetting the person whom he was trying to impersonate. Lily jabbed him harshly in the ribs as though to say: Sirius thinks he's good at everything!

The girl hadn't heard Regulus, but she clearly noticed that something was up. "Are you two alright?"

"We're fine!" Lily said far too quickly. "I just…you know...I hate Quidditch...and he's not feeling very well, so we'll just be going now..."

"But you promised everyone you'd go!" the redhead called after her. Much to Regulus and Lily's frustration, she was following them to the portrait. "And Sirius! You've been saying for days that you're going to be the greatest Chaser Gryffindor has ever seen. Now you're not going to tryout at all?"

Lily could see Regulus internally struggling to maintain his Sirius-status, but he was not a good actor, nor was he the type to strut around as though he were king of the school.

Without thinking, Lily suddenly said: "Sirius, I think you should still go. It's your dream to make the team isn't it?"

Regulus looked at her, wide-eyed. "What?!"

Lily smiled grimly and faced the redhead once more, who was looking more baffled than ever. "We'll be right down; Sirius here just needs to get his equipment ready. Isn't your broom in the dorm?"

"No..."

"Yes it is," Lily replied tersely, resisting the urge to slap him across the face for being such a dunderhead in such a precarious situation. "I saw it last night…we'll meet you down there in um, an hour or so," she added to the girl as she turned to face the Fat Lady and muttered the password: "Gillyweed."

The portrait did not swing open, however.

Sev told me that was the password! Lily fumed. "Gillyweed! Why won't you open?"

"That's not the password, dear," the Fat Lady smiled sweetly down at the kid whom she thought was Severus Snape. "Changed yesterday."

"It's Quidditch," the redhead replied from behind the two imposters, and the portrait swung open. Lily and Regulus hustled inside at once, leaving behind a very confused Molly Prewett.

"That was close," Lily whispered as they casually strolled through the common room, trying to appear as normal as possible to the older students whom had stayed behind to study for exams, rather than watch the tryouts. "You need to think more like Sirius—"

"That's not too hard, considering he hardly ever thinks," Regulus replied with a smirk. "So where's their dormitory?"

"I think it's this one."

"No, I think that's the girls' dormitory."

"No it's not, look! If this is the girls' dorm, then why am I able to go up?" Lily asked, jumping up and down one the steps to prove her point.

"Because you are a girl," Regulus said exasperatedly. Noticing a group of older Gryffindor boys giving him strange looks, he blushed furiously and added: "I mean...you act like a girl."

Lily glared at him. "Are you coming or not?"

"I..." Regulus didn't have enough time to respond. Girls' voices were floating down the stairway, growing closer and closer every second. If they found Lily (whom they would assume was Snape) walking up to their dormitory, they would go ballistic.

"Quick!" he grabbed Lily's wrist and yanked her away from the stairway. Luckily for Regulus, he managed to hide behind a nearby door, but as Lily tried to frantically escape, she tripped herself and fell to the ground. The group of three seventh-year girls, upon exiting the stairway, dropped their conversation and walked over to help Lily to her feet.

"Hi Severus," two of the girls gushed flirtatiously, making Lily gag inwardly.

"Get away from me," she muttered angrily as she tried shoving the girls away from her, but they wouldn't let her go. Somewhere behind the portrait of Godric Gryffindor, she heard Regulus snickering.

"I saw you go down to the Quidditch pitch with Sirius and James; what happened?"

"Aww, Quidditch is too easy for Sev," the chubby blonde girl giggled.

Hey, I'm the only person who may call Sev that! Lily thought angrily, resisting the desire to kick the creepy girl away from her.

"Are you alright?" the eldest girl asked calmly, helping Lily steady herself on her feet, though she would have preferred it if they would just leave her alone.

"No, I'm actually quite ill," Lily snapped irritably as she swatted their hands away from her. "Now I'm feeling ready to vomit, so if you don't move out of my way…well, don't say I didn't warn you."

The three girls gasped and darted away, though the irksome blonde still had the nerve to say "Bye Sev!" as she left.

"Don't say a word," Lily threatened Regulus as he came out of his hiding place with an unmistakeable smirk on his face.

"Lucky..."

Lily whirled around to face him. Having three people of the same sex flirting with her had put her in a very bad mood, and she wasn't going to stand for Regulus' stupid little comments. "Oh, and I suppose that you would enjoy it if someone, say, Lucius Malfoy started flirting with you? Would you?!"

Regulus grimaced. "I suppose not. But that brunette girl was—"

"Shut up!"

xXxXxXxXx

James Potter was in his element: the crowd was cheering, fangirls were chanting his name, and best of all, the captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team had just announced that he would be joining the team as one of the three Chasers. It was a brilliant moment indeed; even Sirius' foul attitude couldn't spoil it for him.

"I can't believe the tryouts are already over!" he exclaimed loudly once Severus and Sirius had dragged him a safe distance away from the pitch. The tryouts weren't exactly over just yet; fifteen boys were currently in line to show off their Beater abilities, and the ultra-exciting position of Seeker was currently open. A whopping total of thirty four boys and girls from Gryffindor awaited their chance to go for that glorious spot, but Severus was in no mood to continue watching now that his friend's portion of the tryouts was over. Sirius, having not made the team this year, was even more desperate to get away from Quidditch arena and to someplace quiet where he could beat the shit out of something.

"It's still early on, why don't we stay a while?" James pleaded them, but Severus and Sirius continued tugging him back to the castle.

Severus knew Lily was busy today— doing what, he did not know— but he hoped to at least get some studying done in the library before dinner.

"Can you believe I made the team?" James asked for the billionth time that morning. "Can you honestly believe I made it?"

"No, I can't. Truly astonishing. Fantastic. Congratulations," Severus muttered under his breath.

James was one of the most arrogant people he knew, and just when he thought he couldn't get any worse, he did. Although he loathed Quidditch with a burning passion, Severus couldn't help but feel sorry for Sirius. He had certainly tried his best, but it appeared that his only objective was to have fun out there, rather than settling down and focusing on scoring goals, as James did. Severus admired James' surprising ability to concentrate solely on the task ahead of him when he was playing Quidditch; he only wished that he could say the same for him and his studies.

"Hi boys," a cheery voice greeted them as they entered the castle.

"Hey Molly! Guess who Gryffindor's next greatest Chaser is?"

Molly rolled her eyes and smiled. "You?"

"That's right!" James shouted excitedly. "I made the team!"

Don't hit him...don't hit him...don't hit him, Severus silently repeated to himself several times.

Molly also smiled at Sirius and Severus. "So you two decided to go after all?"

The two boys exchanged confused glances.

"We've been down there all morning," Severus replied suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

Molly was puzzled too. "But you told me you were feeling ill...I just saw you thirty minutes ago, remember?"

"What?!"

xXxXxXxXx

"What's that noise?"

"What noise?"

"That...hissing."

Lily looked up from Potter's trunk and saw none other than Hairy, Severus' kitty, sitting on the bed opposite to her, looking cross.

"Hairy!" she grinned and reached out for the cat, but apparently it was no mood to be friendly. Its sharp claws peeled into her skin like miniature daggers and she jerked away at once. "Ouch!"

"What is it?" Regulus whispered.

"It's Sev's cat...we found him over the summer...you know, I thought he liked me," she added disappointedly.

"Lily...I think it knows you're not Snape."

"For the trillionth time, could you please just call him Sev? Severus, at least?"

"Lily it knows you're an imposter," Regulus repeated, ignoring Lily's previous comment. "Quick, Stun him or something."

"I would never Stun a poor defenceless kitten! Especially not this adorable one!"

"Lily!"

Just as Regulus yelled, Hairy launched himself at Lily, hissing and meowing angrily as he attacked every inch of her face that he could reach. Lily shrieked for him to get off of her, but Hairy got a few of his claws imbedded in her skin, and couldn't come off anyway.

"Stun him! Stun him!" Lily screamed as tiny spurts of blood flecked across her face. She knocked several things over as she scurried around in panic, but she didn't care at the moment. Her only objective now was to get the damn animal off of her.

"Hang on!" Regulus shouted as he pulled out his wand and shakily pointed it at her face. One wrong move and Lily would end up with more than just facial scars…

"Stupefy!"

The cat meowed loudly upon the impact of the spell, but at least he was blasted off. Lily immediately stumbled to the ground and clutched her face in agony.

"Bloody cat...I'm going to get you for that," she whispered wrathfully to the unconscious animal.

"Uh Lily?"

She looked up. Regulus initially flinched at the sight of blood and tears streaming down his friend's face, but figured it wouldn't be such a good idea to reveal just how terrible her injuries were just yet…

"You only have about ten minutes left."

Lily gasped and leaped to her feet. "Quick! We need to find it before I change back!"

"Actually, I already found it," Regulus replied coolly, holding up a silvery blue cloak. "With this," he added with a smirk as he held up a rather worn teddy bear. "According to the tag, his name is 'Mr. Cuddles.'"

Lily grinned deviously. "Potter still sleeps with his ickle teddy? Adorable..."

"Let's go—"

"What's going on in here?"

Lily almost screamed at the sight of Remus Lupin entering the room. Luckily, Regulus had heard him coming up the stairs just in time, and currently stood frozen underneath the Invisibility Cloak. To Remus, it would only look like it was him and 'Severus' in the room.

"Nothing. I just...my cat...attacked me," Lily ashamedly pointed at Hairy's limp body. She felt her cheeks grow warmer as Remus walked towards her; would he know that she wasn't really Severus?

"I heard two voices up here," Remus replied quietly. "Who else is here?"

Lily didn't know what to say. Somewhere, Regulus was in here, but he would be of little help to her if he was invisible.

"No...it's just...me," she said lamely.

Remus walked right up to her until he was just a single stride away. Lily avoided eye contact; she knew he was watching her for irregularities, and, being one of Severus' close friends, he would probably find what he was searching for.

After several seconds, he said at last: "You're not Severus."

"Yes I am!" Lily replied, though her high-pitched squeal completely gave herself away. She could feel the potion wearing off, and her voice was swiftly returning to normal. Over Remus' shoulder, she saw the door open seemingly by itself. She barely had time to register what was happening, and the next thing she knew, someone had yelled "Stupefy!" and Remus was laying face first on his bed, unconscious.

"What'd you do?!" Lily cried in alarm as she ran over to see if Remus was okay.

"Lily! There's no time for this!" Regulus pleaded to her by the door, but she had to make sure her friend hadn't hurt the Gryffindor boy too bad. Ignoring the horrendous awkwardness she felt in her current transition from male back to female, Lily gently placed a pillow under Remus' head before darting over to Regulus and running out of the dormitory at top speed. They threw themselves down the stairs three at a time and sprinted through the common room as fast as they could until they reached the portrait, which, much to their horror, opened from the other side.

"As I was saying..."

James Potter trailed off as he looked up and saw Regulus and Lily, who were just as wide-eyed as he was. By sheer luck, the Polyjuice Potion was still loosely intact, and while Lily had returned to her normal, female physique from the neck down, her face still somewhat resembled Severus'.

Just as a wildly perplexed James turned around, Regulus threw the cloak over Lily and himself, and they darted through the portrait hole, unnoticed by the trio of Gryffindors outside.

Behind him, James saw Sirius and Severus waiting impatiently.

But they were just right in front of me...

He looked towards the portrait again: they were gone.

"What's wrong?" Severus asked, puzzled by James bizarre behaviour. Neither he nor Sirius had seen what James had.

"Did you two learn how to Apparate?!"

A/N: Next chapter: Severus makes a little discovery...

Any reviews are appreciated, as always :)