Classes the next day were . . . tense. She could sense that everyone recognized a shift. All eyes were on James and Sirius, with the occasional darting glance in her direction.

Nothing came of it, though. Sirius ignored her completely. James appeared satisfied with the result. And Lily went on looking for a spell that might help her deal with her real problem.

When he returned to the common room that night, James was delighted with his progress.

"Did you notice?" he asked, practically dancing into her room. "Not a word from him. I mean, words, yeah. But I don't think he insulted a single person, all day."

She smiled, more at James than his friend's accomplishment. She guessed it had killed Sirius to keep his comments to himself all day. She doubted it would last long at all. "That's great James."

"You don't think it'll stick," he said, sitting on her desk.

She shrugged. "Who am I to say?" She turned her book to face him. "What do you think of this one?"
He read over it quickly. "You'd have to apparate to where they were," he said. "Cursing a name gives you the location, not the speaker."

"Yeah," she said, chewing on her quill. "I wonder if there's a way to modify it."

She looked up and found him staring into space. "Why don't you go spend some time with him?" she suggested. "You know, positive reinforcement and all that."

"What? No. I wasn't thinking about that. I was just . . . I had an idea. Umm . . . Let me just, go get something."

Lily stared at his retreating back, bemused.

He reappeared a moment later. "If I show you something, can you keep it to yourself."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Yes?"

"Is that a question? Because I'm going to need a firm answer here. If word gets out . . ."

"What is it, James?"

He handed her a piece of parchment.

"What is this?"

"It's a map," he said. He mumbled something and waved his wand, and it became exactly that. "It shows where everyone is, in the castle, at any given time."

She stared at it, studied each and every dot. "Oh my God. Where did you get this?"

"We made it."

Her look was either very complimentary or very insulting, because he looked embarrassed.

"You and . . ."

"And Sirius and Remus. And Peter," he added, as an afterthought. "I was thinking, what if you did put that curse on your name, but then, once you knew the location, you could just look at the map to see who was in the room where they said it."

"Would they let me borrow the map?"

"Well," he said, thinking it over, "they definitely would if they knew why you needed it." At her look, he continued. "But, I could just hang on to it. Say I needed it for something. I could probably make up a good story, if they pressed."

"This is amazing, James," she said, still examining the map. "I mean, this is really great magic. I knew you guys were good, but this . . ."

She glanced up, touched to find him flushed. She pulled him down for a kiss. "Really, brilliant. And inventive!"

"Yeah, well. If it helps . . ."

"I'll do it tonight."

One night was all it took for them to realize it had been a terrible idea. People said her name more often than either had guessed. It probably didn't help that with the fight between James and Sirius, she was a topic of conversation in many of the sixth and seventh year dorms.

Switching to the word "mudblood" was even more disturbing. Lily knew what to expect. The frequency of use stunned James, left him speechless, and something close to distraught.

She took the curse off. The headache alone was too much to bear.

With Christmas rolling around, they were back to ground zero. She walked dejectedly into the common room, shocked to find James with a pile of candy in his arms.

"James! Have you been supplying me with sweets all this time?" she demanded.

He looked down at his bounty and laughed. "No. This is a one time deal. I thought you could use some cheering up."

"Oh," she said. "I guess the kitchen just supplies us somehow."

"It's not the kitchen," he commented, dropping the pile of candy onto a counter. "It's the house elves."

"The what?"

"The house elves. They're the ones who put it all in here."

Lily felt silly for having to ask, but could think of no other way to get the information, so she press on. "What are house elves?"

Surprise crossed his face, but he smothered it. "I'll show you," he offered, holding out a hand.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Come on. Really. You'll like it."

Cautiously, she laid her hand in his. He pulled her out of the common room and down the hall, through several passages she didn't recognize, until they came to a portrait of some fruit. To her surprise, he tickled it, and a door opened.

"James."
"It's just the kitchens," he said. "Come on."

He led her inside. Dozens of tiny creatures rushed forward, bowing and offering food. They called him by name, and seemed to know what he liked. Lily gripped his hand just a touch harder.

"This is Lily," he said, to the crowd of house elves. They all immediately set about discovering what they might do for her.

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you," she said, uncertain.

"She's got a sweet tooth. All those biscuits we've been eating," he stage whispered to the elves, "her." He jerked a thumb in her direction.

Several elves scurried around, and before she could sort out what they were doing, two pieces of cake and three pieces of pie appeared before her, offered on trays by trembling house elves.

"Take them," James whispered. "You'll hurt their feeling if you don't."

"I haven't got enough hands," she whispered back.

She took two, thanking each elf, and indicated that James would carry the rest.

They all began bowing again, ushering them out of the room.

The moment they were outside, she turned to James. "I don't understand."

"They're house elves," he said. "Another magical race. They're really powerful."

"At cooking?"

"At everything."

"Why were they dressed like that? I think one was in a towel."

He nodded, trying to take a bite of pie straight from the plate, without dropping anything. "Yeah. It's part of the package. If they're given clothes, they're freed."

"They're not free?" Lily gasped.

He shook his head. "Nope. It's really hard to free them, actually. My mum doesn't like it. My dad's family always had house elves, so when they got married, she was stuck with two. She tried to give them clothes a dozen times. They still sort of hate her for it."

"For wanting to free them?"

"They don't want to be free," he said. "I don't get it either. I just," he shrugged, nearly dropping the third plate, "try to be nice and make sure they seem happy."

"That's so sad," Lily said. "And nobody knows why they're like that?"

"Not that I know of," he said. "Dumbledore says just to be kind to them."

"He does, huh?" Lily said, giving him a curious look. "When have you guys talked about house elves."

He cleared his throat. "Oh, you know . . ."

"No," she said. "I don't. I'm quite certain it's never come up at one of the feasts."

He shrugged.

"James."

"He knows my family," he admitted.

She laughed, walking back to the room with him. "Why wouldn't you just say that?"

"I didn't want you to think I got away with stuff, because of it. If anything, I think my parents hear more about whatever I get up to."

"Probably," she agreed, easily enough.

"Anyway . . ."

They had arrived at their door. Lily said the password, and it swung open.

"I was actually thinking about that," James said, kicking the door shut. He joined her at the table, letting her take the pie off his hands.

"About knowing Dumbledore?"

"About knowing my family. About you, knowing my family."

Lily struggled to pull her attention away from her slice of pie. "What? I don't know your family."

"Yeah," he said. "So, I thought you should come. To our Christmas party. We have one each year. Dumbledore will be there. Not that that's a plus, really, having your headmaster at a party. But, you know, lots of people will be there." He stopped for a breath.

"James," she said. "That's very sweet, but no."

"No?"

She shook her head, taking a massive bite. "Absolutely not," she said, with her mouth full.

"Why not?"

"It's a terrible idea."

He looked taken aback.

"I don't mean any offense."

"Of course not. How could I possibly take offense?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure your family is very nice."

"Well . . ." he said, thinking it over. "I think they'd be nice to you, at any rate."

"Well, as tempting as that makes it sound . . ."

"Really. I think they'd like you."

"Whether they would or they wouldn't isn't really the issue." She got up to get some milk. "Do you want something to drink?"

"No," he said. "How is that not the issue?"

"The issue is us, James."

"What about us?"

"Well," she said, walking back to the table and settling down for more pie. "For starters, we aren't an us."

"Of course we are."

She shook her head. "No. We're just shagging. And friendly. How would you even introduce me?"

"As Lily. As the Head Girl. What does it matter?"

"And that," she said, pointing at him with her fork, "is why it's a terrible idea. You would panic – or I would panic – definitely one of us would panic. And then it would get awkward. And there would be questions. And it just . . ." she made a vague gesture with her fork. "Isn't a good idea."

"Why do you think I would panic?"
"Because people would ask questions. 'Oh, is this your girlfriend?'" she said in a deep voice. "And neither of us would know how to respond, so we'd both say something stupid, and it would just go south from there."

"Well . . ."

"And anyway, I'm sort of looking forward to some time away from wizards. I've decided not to open my school books the whole vacation. Can't get any notes if I'm not looking, can I?"

"No," he said. "I suppose not."

She leaned over and gave him a smacking kiss. "It was very sweet of you to offer, though."

"Yeah, sure," he said, starting in on his own slice of pie.