Big Change in the Weather: May 1974

Nobody was quite sure of the reason for the sudden change in the weather on the first of May, but it was not entirely unexpected. It was, of course, quite typical that it should rain all the way through the Easter holidays and two Quidditch matches, and then brighten up as soon as exam revision kicked in. This predictability, however, did not make it any more welcome, and even a Dementor's heart might have softened at the pitiful expressions on the faces of the older students as they gazed forlornly out from behind complicated Transfiguration diagrams and dusty accounts of Goblin rebellions, sniffing longingly whenever someone opened the library window and a sudden breeze swept in tantalising scents of freshly-cut grass, sweet honeysuckle, and pungent blackcurrant.

But a professor is a very different beast from a Dementor, and, when it comes to exams, twice as terrifying. And so, with a multitude of gloomy fifth, sixth, and seventh years filling every alcove and turret of the castle, and with the teachers on high alert for any sign of mischief, the younger students found solace outdoors. Some of the more conscientious, deciding that they could hardly ignore the pressing concern of their own exams, squeezed into whatever small space they could find in the library. But when faced with such clear blue skies and balmy weather, most paid little attention to their education beyond obligatory attendance of classes and dodging the prefects' wrath whilst they scribbled down some half-baked essay and then escaped outside again. Lastly, of course, there were the few who had quickly made up their minds that a hot day was enough of a rare phenomenon to excuse them from doing any work whatsoever, whether in the classroom or without.

Rather unsurprisingly, James Potter fell into this final category. On a Wednesday morning his timetable normally consisted of enjoying an extra hour's sleep in History of Magic and tampering dangerously with the wires of the model television set in Muggle Studies before rushing off to catch the previous night's Quidditch scores on the wireless during morning break. Third period saw him courageously fighting off the attentions of a particularly amorous (or hungry, he could never tell) Venomous Tentacula in Herbology, and then fourth was spent in Potions, throwing Flobberworm Mucus at the Slytherins and interrupting Professor Slughorn's lesson to ask whether it was possible for Horklumps to grow on the human body, "Or is that just Snape's normal face, sir?"

But not today. For once the temperature had actually exceeded ten degrees, and that meant only one thing- bunking off. Which had been fun for approximately half an hour until Mrs Norris had caught Sirius trying to sneak food out of the kitchens and his friend had been hauled off to class by an irate Professor McGonagall. After that, Remus had decided it was simply safer to go to his Care of Magical Creatures lesson, and so James and Peter had been left to amuse themselves.

To be fair to Pete, he wasn't bad company. After all, it had been his idea to use James' invisibility cloak to sneak into the library and levitate books just out of reach of the seventh years trying to read them. And that had been extremely amusing, until Galiena Burke ended up sobbing into her robes in frustration and James had felt so guilty that the joke seemed to have fallen a little flat. After that, it had been out into the grounds to lounge under the beech trees and enjoy the feeling of having absolutely nothing to do.

There was only one flaw in this otherwise excellent waste of time: after five minutes, James was as bored as a Flobberworm without any lettuce.

"I'm bored." He moaned, just to make sure that Peter knew about it.

"So what should we do?" Asked Peter, who had been perfectly aware.

"Dunno," James cast around for ideas and spotted a large pink mound perched on the edge of the Lake. "Reckon the Squid would suit ribbons?"

As it turned out, the Giant Squid did not appreciate being attacked with large blue bows, no matter how glamourous. After eying them with an air of weary reproach, it dived back underwater with a splash that soaked the two boys to the skin.

"I'm wet." Whimpered Peter, valiantly attempting to keep his teeth from chattering.

"Don't you worry Pete," James replied confidently, swaggering over as if he weren't drenched in slime and muddy loch-water. "I've seen my mum use this charm loads of times. Sure it can't be too difficult- it went something like this-"

"AAARGHH! AARGH!"

"OH SHIT SORRY-" James beat violently at the flames that were rapidly consuming his friend's sleeve, and when that proved useless, dragged him over to stick his arm into the water of the Lake. "Never happened before. Sorry about that. You alright?"

As he had nearly had his arm burnt off, and his clothing were now even more water-logged than before, it was perhaps understandable that it took Peter a moment to answer. But he seemed to have recovered reasonably quickly nonetheless, for his next words were not a complaint, but another suggestion. "Plant fight?"

This notion went down quite well, and within a few seconds the two boys were tearing about the lawn, flinging clumps of cherry blossom in each other's faces and stirring up piles of leaves with a flick of their wands. It was a game that did not require a great amount of skill, but, as with all games, James treated it with the same determination and competitive spirit with which he might have approached a Quidditch World Cup Final (he had even introduced a points system back in his first year). So when, after five minutes of hard-fought battle, Peter crawled out from beneath an assortment of twigs and foliage to offer his surrender, the ever-sporting Potter did not fail to rub it in.

"Ha! Thirty-five to fifteen! Did you really believe you could beat me? That was pathetic!"

Peter shrugged. He did not look particularly sorry to have been beaten and if anything he seemed more relieved that it was over. James was immediately suspicious; plant fights were one of the few things at which Peter excelled (though he would never tell him so) and he had hoped for a little visible irritation to sweeten his victory. It was another five minutes before he noticed the clump of goosegrass that had hooked itself onto his back- fifty points in one go.

"Why you little-" He was about to make a dive for the smirking Peter when suddenly an airy laugh brought him to his senses.

A gaggle of girls- mostly fourth years by the look of them, with the exception of Emmeline Vance- had trickled out of the front doors and down the steps to the lawn. Rita Skeeter was among them, but for once she did not appear to be monopolising the conversation. This honour fell instead, James noticed with a gulp, to Xia Lin, who was animatedly comparing the top speed of the new Comet 260 to the Nimbus line, an easy smile gracing her face. Immediately, he leapt to his feet, one hand flying to his hair as the other tried to loosen the claws of the goosegrass on his back.

James, according to his mother, was "going through a phase". According to James himself, it was love. It must be said that his father's observation, that his son was merely a "randy little twerp", was probably the more accurate, for love does not usually last a week, no matter how strong a thirteen year old's devotions may be. This week, the unwitting object of his affections was Xia Lin, who combined the two highly desirable qualities of being both extremely attractive and obsessed with Quidditch. A fortnight ago, it had been the fifth year Herbology genius and Witch Weekly model Isabeau Zabini, and before her the tough-as-nails Duelling Champion Cordelia Savage. At one point, there had even been a brief, embarrassing attraction to the young Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Branwen Corbie (which his friends had never let him live down).

James preened himself carefully as the girls passed, trying to act as if the fact that he had just had half the contents of the Lake emptied over his head and was also covered in cherry blossom and beech nuts didn't affect him in the slightest. To his dismay, Xia didn't seem to notice him as she argued over the importance of tail-clipping with her fellow Ravenclaw Chaser Lì Chang, but Skeeter slipped an arm through Vance's and began whispering gleefully, shooting him pointed glances. Vance looked impatient and tried to pull her away but Skeeter seemed to have her own ideas. As the bell rang for lunch, she sashayed over to stand in front of the boys, hands on hips, her expression accusatory.

"Potter, you look like you could use a woman's advice."

"Er no, thanks Rita but I'm fine-"

"Now don't fuss. It's quite obvious you're infatuated with Xia here. Why don't you just come out and say it to her?"

The rest of the Ravenclaw girls had paused now, looking around to see what was going on behind them. Xia Lin broke off her strictures on the different characteristics of Fleetwood's various broom waxes as Chang nudged her, and turned to stare at the scene curiously.

James flushed and scowled at Skeeter, but the girl only smiled sweetly and carried on loudly. "I knew you had good taste. Sylvie always said it was that Evans girl you had your eye on, but I knew-"

"Don't you start on that again, Skeeter," James growled warningly, his face scarlet. "Haven't you already caused enough damage?"

James hadn't thought or seen very much of Lily Evans of late, beyond watching Flitwick and Slughorn fawn over her in class. The irritating rumours that had caused such dislike between them the previous year had died down somewhat, and even before that, James had stopped antagonising her after the altercation they had had on the stairs. He had already been balancing feelings of shame against his frustration at the teasing which her proximity to him appeared to provoke, and after that particularly nasty argument, his guilty conscience had won out.

But for some reason, Evans did not appear to care much about, or even acknowledge the shift in his behaviour. When she had returned after Christmas of their second year, something about her had changed: she was more open, sharper, thicker-skinned, and much more her own person, rather than simply being her friend Snape's shadow. Mary MacDonald had mentioned something about her mother having passed away, but if Evans was upset about it, she did not let it ruin her determination to succeed or her interactions with others. And James wasn't cruel enough to interfere with that. The thought that Skeeter might kick up the same fuss about Xia made his stomach clench.

As noisy crowds of students began to flood out onto the grass around them, Rita Skeeter placed her hand over her mouth with a theatrical gasp. "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean- are you still going out with Evans? Oh dear, that sounds like an awful pickle."

"What? No, I'm not-"

"Oh, really, I shouldn't have said anything. Only, well, poor Lily. And Xia, how must she feel-"

The look that Xia Lin was giving him would ordinarily have been enough to send James scuttling for the safety of his bedclothes, but for some reason he was no longer aware of her existence. It was Rita who had all his attention now- and not in a good way.

"Right Skeeter, that's enough," He snapped, interrupting her witterings on his non-existent relationship problems. "D'you get a kick out of making people miserable? Spread as many rumours as you like about me, but leave Evans out of it."

"Unless you want the pants hexed off you." Peter added from beside him, doing his best impression of Sirius' most devil-may-care attitude.

Skeeter merely sent him a withering look. "Really, Pettifer? You thought Gally Meadowes would go to Hogsmeade with you?"

Peter turned a light pink and muttered something about his name being Pettigrew as James leapt to his defence. "You leave him alone, Skeeter. Last I heard you got turned down by McLaggen. Didn't know he had standards but-"

"For your information, it was the other way around. And besides, do you think I don't know about your friend Lupin?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" James was seized by a sudden panic. How could she possibly know?

"Oh just that, with his condition, I'd be surprised if any girl went near him-"

Any kind of noble ideas James had about not jinxing a girl were thrown out of the window as he made a grab for his wand and the girls shrieked. Peter tugged on his arm, and Skeeter dived behind Vance, who had been edging further and further away from the conversation, looking furtive. They had acquired a small audience now; Lì Chang was yelling for her prefect brother and Tiberius McLaggen was shoving his way through the crowd, pulling out his wand.

"You going to defend her McLaggen? Go on then, make my day."

"Don't be such a fool, Potter. If you were more of a gentleman-"

"What's Skeeter then, a lady? She's a bloody insect and you know it-" James was pleasantly surprised to find out that McLaggen was fool enough to be easily riled into throwing the first hex. He laughed, deflecting it lightly as the word "Fight!" echoed around the grounds and students everywhere pricked up their ears hopefully.

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

McLaggen was much bigger than James, and it wasn't long before he decided to put that weight to good use, throwing away his wand and rugby tackling him with such force that James couldn't do much other than take the punches that followed. Luckily, unlike McLaggen, he still had his wand and, after the third blow to the head, was finally able to gasp out a spell.

"Impedimenta!"

There was a loud bang and the other Gryffindor was thrown backwards. James scrambled to his knees, groping for his glasses. The crowd was pressing round them eagerly, some taking bets about who would win whilst others pointed and gasped over James' bloody nose and McLaggen's torn robes. Somewhere, Wei Chang was trying to keep order but in the absence of any other prefects, he wasn't having much luck.

McLaggen was struggling to his feet, fuming like an angry bull, but James shot another jinx in his direction, and he dived back to the ground. The jinx missed, scattering a group of first years, but James paid no attention to their squeals, nor to Peter's frantic attempts to draw him away. A fight was just what he needed to liven up his afternoon, he had decided, and now he had McLaggen exactly where he wanted him. He raised his wand again…

"THAT'S ENOUGH! DO YOU HEAR ME? ENOUGH!"

James jumped several feet into the air as someone bellowed loudly in his ear and a flash of red hair burst into the space between him and the furious McLaggen. It took him a moment to realise that the small figure holding the two of them apart was none other than Lily Evans herself and he dropped his wand, slightly shocked at the power of her lungs.

McLaggen quickly took advantage of James' incapacitation, sneaking a Jelly-Legs Jinx at him which Peter barely pulled him out of the way of in time. Evans, however, was having none of this.

"Give us that." She demanded, snatching McLaggen's wand away from him and, with a flick of her own, summoning James' from the ground. Both boys made noises of complaint but another bark from Evans silenced them. "Stop clarting about! I expected it from you Potter, but really Tiberius! Weren't you hoping to be made a prefect?"

McLaggen had the good grace to look slightly ashamed of himself. James, on the other hand, could do nothing other than stare at Evans. He'd never seen a fellow student control a crowd with such ease; had he shouted like at such a motley crew, they'd probably have eaten him for breakfast. And yet here was Lily Evans, not yet five feet in height and usually so quiet, holding court over a group of frankly terrifying fight-lovers, who not two minutes ago had been baying for his blood, with all the effortless confidence of an Amazon queen leading her army into battle.

"Now," Continued Hippolyta reborn, her face disturbingly pale and stony in contrast to the fire of her hair. "Can you be trusted to behave like civilised human beings, and not chuffing great baboons?"

Rather dazedly, James nodded. McLaggen, looking suitably chastened, stretched out a hand. "Sorry old man, don't know what got into me."

"No problem." James muttered, patting his hand awkwardly, his eyes still fixed on the green-eyed angel in front of him. Evans, for her part, spared him little more than a glance. "Good. Both of you bugger off then." She tossed their wands back to them and turned away to deal with the crowd. "Alright, I think you've all seen quite enough. Move along please."

And with a kingly swish of her robes she was gone, taking an equally shocked-looking Severus Snape with her.

James gazed after her for what seemed like an age, mesmerised by the flame-like strands of red hair floating in the breeze as she moved off towards the Lake. Who was Xia Lin? A fleeting infatuation. And what of the nearly three years of animosity between him and Lily Evans? A mere technicality. They were meant for each other, it was plain to him now. Such poise, such imperious grace, such eloquent Brummie tones- how had he never seen it before?

Eventually, he became aware of a light tugging at his sleeve and Peter's voice penetrated his senses. "James, mate, you alright?"

James turned slowly to grin at his friend, though the strange glint in his eye did not fill the smaller boy with comfort. "Alright? I'm perfectly alright Pete. I," Here he paused for effect, rather wishing he had some sort of trumpet fanfare to accompany his announcement. "I am in love."

For a moment, Peter looked very confused. And then a look of incredulity passed across his face, followed swiftly by yet more confusion. "You don't- you're not- do you fancy Evans?"

"I do not fancy her," James replied indignantly. "I am in love. Love, Petey. You just wait 'til it happens to you. You'll understand then."

Peter didn't seem to know what to do with this information, and to tell the truth, James was having trouble digesting it himself, hence the dreamlike trance. Somehow though, his friend managed to usher the starry-eyed boy back up the steps and into the castle. Lunch was not yet over and with students milling everywhere Peter had a hard time keeping track of his charge, who would wander off at every opportunity to gaze out of the windows at the sky and admire the flowers in the paintings, muttering to himself about hearts and souls and poetry. Struggling under the weight of both James' bag and his own, he finally succeeded, however, in guiding his charge up the stairs to the Gryffindor third year boys' dormitory, where the other half of their quartet sat sprawled on the floor, finishing off a large bar of Honeydukes' finest dark chocolate.

"Thought you were in detention?" Peter panted, as he dumped James' bag on top of an all too happy-looking Sirius.

"He decided it wasn't worth it." Remarked Remus, who was flipping anxiously through a pile of scabby old tomes with such snappy titles as, "Man or Mouse? A study in the comparative assessment of animal transfiguration, with a particular review of the question of sentience and self-control in the case of cephalopods".

"Oi that's not fair, I just had a brilliant idea about how to deal with Remus' furry little problem and thought it was a bit more important than writing lines for McGonagall."

"It is not a brilliant idea. It is a highly dangerous and not to mention completely illegal idea."

"Why are you looking it up then?"

"Because you couldn't be bothered to do your own reading. And because if you're going to do it- and I'm sure you'll try- I don't want to be held responsible for any tails or crocodile heads you give yourself."

"Hey, I resemble that remark! You worry too much Remus, we'll be- what's up with him?" James had collapsed onto his bed with a happy sigh and was now humming quietly to himself. Sirius eyed him curiously. "James, mate? Where'd you get that black eye? And why are you so wet? You ok?"

"Yeahhh…"

Remus raised an eyebrow in Peter's direction and the boy shrugged. "I dunno, he just- one moment he was fighting McLaggen and the next he's going on about how he fancies Evans-"

"I do not fancy her, I am in love with her," James reiterated fiercely. "And her name," Here he let out another deep sigh. "Is Lily."

There was a pause and then Sirius let out a roar of disbelief. "What? Tell me you're joking!" He clutched at his friend's leg pleadingly. "James, who did this to you? Did McLaggen hex you? Was it that Skeeter bint? Say something, anything!"

"I'm in love with Lily Evans." James repeated firmly. Sirius threw up his hands and buried his face in the bedclothes. "No, no, no, no, no-"

Remus, on the other hand, was rather less surprised. Exchanging a glance with Peter, he snorted and returned to his book. "I give it a week."

But, though by morning James had shaken himself out of his trance and regained something of his old composure, the infatuation with Lily Evans did not disappear as quickly as Remus had expected. A year later, true to Emmeline Vance's prophecy, he was even to be found howling over her picture, having consumed enough of Rhonabwy's Rum to kill a concrete Erumpment. James Potter was officially a lost cause.

.

"Ouch, slow down will you? You'll wreck my hair! Sylvie!"

"Don't call me that," Emmeline hissed through gritted teeth as she dragged the gossip-loving fourth year into an empty classroom by the arm and turned to face her, fuming. "Just what, exactly, did you think you were doing?"

"I don't know what you mean," Rita wrenched her arm out of her friend's grasp and patted her hair haughtily. "I was only trying to help and Potter lost the plot. Poor boy, it must be mummy issues or something. Mind you, I really ought to be complimenting you. Well done for getting Evans to see him fighting, seemed to give him just what he needed-"

"Bollocks," Emmeline snorted, ignoring her prattle. "You weren't trying to help. You've never tried to help in your life. It's all just a game to you, isn't it? Stirring the pot so you can get a good laugh at us all stewing and be the first to tell everyone if we boil over. You don't give a damn about Xia, or Lily, or McLaggen, or any of us- only the drama you can enjoy by association."

"Now that's not true Sylvie, of course I care about you. And don't you think Tiberius standing up for me like that was very brave? A pity I turned him down really, but I just can't stand the thought of those study sessions he wants to go to, and they're not the fun kind-"

"You shut your face for once and listen." Emmeline snarled. "All that carry-on about Lupin. You keep your cake-hole shut about him, you hear? Or I'll give you such a clatter you'll wake up in St Mungo's."

"You?" Rita had sounded less scathing about Peter Pettigrew's chances, but Emmeline wasn't so easily cowed. "Aye, me. And what's more, when you finally come out of intensive care, you'll find out that every single one of your deepest darkest secrets is all over the school."

The blonde simply sighed. "Oh Sylvia, you're so funny. I know you wouldn't do that to me. Not unless you wanted everyone to find out what you and that Macmillan girl were doing in the library last week. I'm sure it would be terrible if it were to slip out…"

"Really?" Emmeline's eyes glittered. "Try me. Who do you think's got more to lose- you or me? Do you want to find out? Maybe I'll get that little notebook of yours and leave it on McGonagall's desk- see what she thinks."

"You wouldn't," Rita scoffed, though she was starting to look a little scared now. "You couldn't. I could destroy you-"

"No, you couldn't," Emmeline laughed harshly, sinking into a chair. "You really think you're something don't you, Rita? Well here's news for you- I'm not scared one bit. You say a single word about Lupin, and you'll find out what's really scary. I keep my promises, see."

Rita's nostrils flared and she glared at her for a moment, her mouth twisting in to an ugly expression. Then she leapt to her feet and pointed to the door imperiously. "Fine then. You want to leave? Leave."

"Nah, I'm going nowhere Skeeter," Emmeline swung back on the chair's hind legs, her feet resting on the table and twirling her wand between her fingers. "This time you can walk away. Get out."

Rita hesitated, and for a moment Emmeline was slightly frightened that her intimidation tactics hadn't worked, that the other girl was simply going to refuse. But she kept her mouth shut; if she had to tell Rita to leave more than once it would look weak.

Eventually the blonde seemed to come to a conclusion and slowly, stiffly, she turned and walked out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her. Emmeline let out a sigh of relief and buried her face in her hands, suppressing the urge to laugh hysterically. She was her own person at last.

.

Quite a long chapter this time, sorry! But there was a lot of ground to cover. And I hope Emmeline's change of heart didn't seem too sudden, but there didn't seem much I could do to make the transition smoother.

Still, hope it wasn't too awful!

Title of chapter from for Gerry Rafferty's 1978 song of the same name.