"Leaping lizards!" James cursed, batting at the flames that engulfed his arm. He had been trying to transfigure Lily a gift for Christmas for the last three hours.

"Dude, you sound like my grandfather!" Sirius informed James in his silliest voice after a few minutes. "And you definitely don't want to sound like another insane Black."

James glanced around the dorm room. Remus lounged on his bed, looking amused. Remus probably knew the exact incantation and wand movements to create a perfect lily flower, but James knew better than to ask the sandy-haired male.

Remus was a Marauder like the rest of them, and preferred to keep his pranking targeted at him, Sirius, or Peter - it kept them out of trouble, and that was probably the only reason James didn't complain as much as he would have otherwise. This wasn't something he was willing to mess up - or willing to allow Lily to know who the gift was from - James wanted Lily to keep the gift instead of throwing it at him the next time they saw each other.

Peter came bounding, arms full of Transfiguration books. "I found these in the library. I thought you may want to look through them for your... project. They looked kind of helpful?" Peter dumped the books on James' bed, and returned to his own, next to Remus'.

"Thanks, Peter!"

"I think this is the hardest I've ever seen James study. Don't you agree, Remus?"

Remus snorted. "Remember last year when he tried to send Lily the snitch he enchanted with Christmas tunes last year? I think that may have been a little more effort."

"It would have worked out, had you actually helped me out, Moony," James whined, looking up from the tome he had started flipping through.

"You're supposed to be the Transfiguration pro. I mean, didn't you hear McGonagall gush about your talent for Transfiguration? You shouldn't have had such a terrible time of it." Remus grinned, watching as James slumped forward on his bed.

"It's the only class Lily sits near me. I had to do something to make her notice me!"

"James, mate, with the way you behave, anyone would believe you and Lily were in separate houses," Sirius sniggered.

"Don't worry, James, I'm sure you'll get it to work this year," Peter enthused between Sirius and Remus' laughter.

"You keep working on it, James. I'm sure you'll get it right eventually. If not this year, maybe next year, or the year after that... hopefully some time before you graduate, or I think Lily will forget about you," Sirius teased.

"Imagine the horror," Remus added. "Sounding like another insane Black won't even be the worst of it!"

"I don't know why I'm even friends with you two. Peter is the only one being helpful right now," James groused.

"You're clearly friends with us because of our stunning personalities," Sirius said, smirking.

"I think he's just friends with us for the homework and prefect benefits," sniffed Remus.

"I do all my homework myself, thank you!" James argued.

"Except Potions."

"And History of Magic."

"And-"

"Okay, okay. I get it. Can I just go back to transfiguring this now?" James whined.

Sirius and Remus high-fived.

The Golden Snitch [Uagadou, Biloko]: 12 Days of Christmas – 10 lizards leaping: dialogue prompt