A/N
It only took a week this time! Unfortunately the next update is not going to be as quick – mainly because I kinda need to write it…. and I'm working on another little something-something that's starting to look suspiciously like another major multi chap so…
For those who asked about the trip to the Potters – It WILL happen – have no fear.
Thank you for all your wonderful reviews (I can't believe I might hit 500! It's so exciting and I feel extremely honoured).
I hope you enjoy
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Lily was waiting nervously in the now very familiar tower room, her foot tapping erratically against the stone floor.
Tonight was the night they would try out her disguise before she went to her first practice in a few days. She was absolutely terrified about what James had planned and whether it would work.
Tonight was also the first time she would see James since their kiss.
That reminder sent Lily's hand tapping along with her foot.
She'd been avoiding him, trying to make sense of everything that had happened between them. Trying to decipher the new funny feeling she had in her stomach whenever she thought about him or the kiss that now haunted her.
Just then James entered the room with his normal enthusiasm, pulling her out of her reverie and making her jump. She braced herself for what he had to say, her body as tense as a spring, but the conversation never came. Instead, she merely watched, confused, as he started pulling clothes and potions out of the bag he'd had slung over his shoulder.
She stared at his back for a second as he continued to rummage and considered bringing the issue up herself when James turned around and pushed a bottle into her hands, distracting her completely.
"Is this… is this a cosmetic potion?" she asked, after taking a good look at the item in her hand.
"Of course," James said, looking at her strangely. "What did you think I was going to bring – polyjuice or a transgender potion? I think that would be taking it a bit far – not to mention that, when duelling, you have to learn to use your own body. If it's not actually your body you're using you'll never be any good. And we need you to be good."
"I guess that makes sense… so what are we going to do?—Where do we start?" Lily asked, getting wrapped up in the plan and deciding to follow his example and forget about their other problems. For now, anyway.
"We're going to cut your hair."
That announcement cut right through any other lingering worries. "Cut it?! No, you bloody well are not!" she cried out taking a few hasty steps back.
He laughed at her outrage and her suddenly green looking complexion. "Don't worry, Lily." He said grabbing her hand and pulling her back towards him "See this potion here?" He held up a square glass bottle with a red potion in it.
"Yeah," she answered, eyeing the bottle warily as he dropped her hand.
"Don't you recognise it, oh potions guru?"
She took a closer look and stepped into his personal space without a second thought. After a moment, she acknowledged, "Yeah, it's a variation of hair growth potion."
With Lily in such close proximity that he could actually feel her body heat, James only just managed to prevent himself from reaching out and grabbing her to him. "Ah, but not just any hair growth potion," he corrected eventually when he'd gained control of the urge, raising a finger in the air. "If you drink it with one of your original hairs in it, it will return your hair to exactly the same way it was before you cut it."
"That's amazing!" Lily looked up into his face with wide, eager eyes.
"Yeah," James coughed uncomfortably, even as he stared right back "Aurors use it a lot when they go undercover and hairdressers use it all the time, too."
"Aurors and hairdressers, really? And how would you know that?" she laughed, finally realising how close she was and taking a step away from James.
James covered his disappointment and said, "Well, as you know, my dad's an Auror and…" he hesitated.
"And?…"
"The family hairdresser uses it – she's always doing strange things to her hair and then changing her mind," he shrugged uncomfortably.
In the interest of the plan, Lily took pity on James and didn't comment, instead storing the information for a later date and only asking, "How does it work?"
He brightened at that, and pulled the cork out of the top of the bottle and poured some of its contents into a goblet he'd stolen at dinner. He put one of his own messy strands of hair into the concoction, before turning his own wand on himself and performing the razor charm, effectively cutting off all his hair.
Lily stood silent, staring at the bald boy in front of her right before she fell about laughing.
"Oh goodness." She wheezed one hand clutching her side, the other reaching up to run over the short prickly hairs now covering James head. "What the hell do you look like?"
She managed to say as she looked up at him through tears of mirth.
He grinned back at her foolishly, taking delight in her touch and her hilarity, right before taking a swig of the potion and his hair grew back right before her eyes.
"Why'd you do that?" she asked, valiantly trying to recover from her giggles.
"Do what?" he asked.
"Cut your hair, you looked awful!"
"Thanks," he drawled still grinning before he turned serious. "I knew you wouldn't be too keen on using it without proof that it works, and this way, if I'd cocked the potion up, I would be the one who had to walk around looking like an idiot, not you."
She smiled at him gratefully, feeling a tug in her heart at how thoughtful he was, before chuckling out, "Thanks, but next time warn me so I can get a photo!"
"Sure," he grinned.
"So," she asked nervously after taking another few moments to contain herself. "Shall we try it on me?"
"That's the whole point, I'm afraid," he said, noticing her hesitance. "Facing the Great Hall on the first day of our 'relationship' doesn't seem quite so daunting anymore, eh?"
"No," Lily chuckled weakly, absently twirling a lock of her long beautiful red hair around her finger. "Not so bad at all."
"Don't worry, Lily, I would never do anything to destroy that beautiful hair of yours," James reassured, as he too grasped a lock of her hair and tugged gently.
She looked up at him quickly after he'd said that, and when she saw he was being completely serious, she nodded. Then, without any more hesitation, she plucked a long red strand out of her head and picked up the second goblet James had filled with the red potion. She looked to him quickly for confirmation that it was the right thing. As soon as he nodded, she placed her hair in the goblet. She then turned to him, bravely saying, "Well, what are you waiting for, get cutting!"
"You want me to do it?" he asked wearily.
"I don't have the will power or the strength to do it on myself," she retorted, rolling her eyes. "and I'd probably end up taking off my eyebrows instead."
"How do you want it?" he asked, knowing that she was in no mood to debate with him. He knew this was going to be difficult for her.
"How the hell would I know, Potter?" she said, her voice betraying her bravado by trembling a little. "I'm not actually a boy—you decide, I trust you."
James still couldn't seem to get used to hearing her say that she trusted him, no matter how much she said it or acted like it. He ignored the swooping feeling in his stomach and flicked his wand once, giving her a haircut reminiscent of Sirius's, not too short, but rather long and a little bit shaggy. He decided it was best to keep it longer, after all, he didn't want her to have a heart attack when she saw herself.
When he announced he was done, Lily kept her eyes clenched closed and said, "Could you please make sure the hair you cut off has been cleaned away before I open my eyes? Because otherwise, I think I might be sick."
He snorted before waving his wand a second time and complying with her wishes.
She opened her eyes slowly and scanned the floor around her warily, finding it clear of her auburn locks. She gave a relieved sigh. "Okay, so what else?"
"Well, the rest are just charms and transfiguration." He shrugged casually.
"Really?" she asked, intrigued now that the hair mutilation portion of the evening was over.
"Yeah, I don't want to do anything too extreme or permanent because you still have to be you in lessons and such. So we need to keep this as simple and easy to undo as possible."
"Okay," she agreed, her frayed nerves eased by James's confidence.
"We'll charm your hair a different colour since yours is too unusual. People would ask awkward questions if we leave it the way it is."
"Okay," she said, finding herself unable to come up with any other responses, way too overwhelmed to be able to access her full vocabulary.
"Same goes for your eyes," he continued. "I'm thinking we should make both your hair and eyes brown. We'll also tan your skin a little. We're trying to make you as nondescript as possible. We don't want people to question you too much, at least not until the final tournament."
"That can be done?" she asked, expanding her responses to half sentences.
He nodded and she suddenly grinned. "Is that another little tidbit from your hairdresser, Potter?"
"Shut up," he said good-naturedly. "My mum always has to do this stuff for ministry functions, award ceremonies, and such. Sometimes, the only time where she'll sit still long enough to have a proper conversation is when she's preparing to go out. When I was little I always used to keep her company." He shrugged.
Hearing that, Lily's smile changed from a mocking one to a fond one. "That's sweet… and a little sad."
"Nah, I'm good. I – I love that time with her." He laughed exasperatedly "It's one of the few times during her day where she's actually relaxed. Don't worry though, Evans, I'm not a neglected child or a lonely one, just one whose parents work really hard," he finished, having been transfiguring her the whole time he'd been talking, even adjusting her nose a little after he'd decided it was too feminine.
"Isn't this taking a little too long?" she asked worriedly as he concentrated.
"It always takes a while to sort out a disguise for the first time, but once you know what you want to look like, it takes no time at all to do," he assured her.
"I'm not even going to ask why you know that." Lily sighed.
"That's probably best." James mumbled as he focused.
He paused as he scanned her face critically before nodding to himself. "I think that's good. So, moving on to your body…"
"My what?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her, suddenly defensive.
"Don't be shy, Lily, you've got a great body, but it's most definitely a girl's!" James couldn't help himself from glancing over her form, but seeing her slight blush, he quickly looked away.
Lily recovered herself quickly and managed to say, "So what do you want to do?—There's no way I'm letting you transfigure my body, by potion or by wand. No matter how good you are, that's really complicated magic!"
He held up his hands defensively, his wand hanging loosely from his fingers. "I wouldn't feel comfortable anyway. I was thinking we could just do it the Muggle way."
"Oh, and what's that?" she asked, suddenly interested again instead of afraid.
"Bindings and slightly baggy clothes," he answered promptly. "You've got a slim frame anyway, so it should be too hard to disguise your ummm… assets . In an ideal world, I wouldn't suggest you wear anything too loose , it can get in the way, but other competitors do it all the time. So it is doable, it's just not…ideal," he added.
The whole time James had been talking, Lily had been changing behind a conjured screen, and James was valiantly trying to ignore that fact. Just as he finished his sentence, she came back out in to view. "Okay."
"Whoa!" James said almost speechless.
"What?!" Lily asked frantically. "Did it not work?"
"It's not that," he said with great difficulty. "I think it worked a little too well!" he finished, positioning her in front of a conjured mirror.
Lily stared in shock, unable to recognize the person in front of her. She couldn't help but whisper as she peered intently in to her now brown eyes. "Wow, you really have thought this through, haven't you? I still look a little feminine but –"
Having regained his senses, James was quick to respond, scoffing incredulously. "What, you think I'd transform you into a boy on a whim – I've been considering how to go about this since I first mentioned it!"
"Well, no, I guess not. You never do anything without being well prepared."
"Thanks," he smiled. "But we're not quite finished yet…"
"Really, what else is there?!"
"Well, your voice, for one," he answered, chucking a green potion in a round bottle at Lily. "It won't alter it much, just by an octave or two, but it should be enough to sufficiently disguise your voice and make you sound like a boy. But be careful, that potion doesn't have an antidote. It wears off on its own after an hour and a half, or if you have a drink, whichever comes first."
"Okay," she said, testing it.
Hearing the change in her voice, James couldn't help but admit, "You have no idea how weird this is!"
"Wanna bet?" she scoffed incredulously. "I'm the one who's transformed everything about herself; I've been looking at the same face for almost seventeen years, and now look at it!"
He chuckled. "Yeah, sorry. If I'm a little freaked out, you must be bordering on insanity."
Lily could do nothing but nod. "That's a bit of an understatement."
"Okay, the last thing…"
"Good," Lily admitted. "I'm starting to feel really overstretched here."
"I know," he nodded sympathetically. "This would be a lot for anyone to take in."
"So what's the last thing?"
"We need to think of a name, a year— your cover story."
"Oh, shit, I hadn't even thought about that!" she said, almost hitting herself.
"Understandable, there's a lot going on for both of us at the moment – but that's why you've got me!" he told her brightly. "You have to be a Gryffindor, obviously, otherwise you can't be on the team, but I was thinking you should pretend to be a fifth year."
"What, why?"
"You're way too small and young looking to pass off as a seventh year boy. All the guys on the team would recognise you anyway if you were our age. No one on the team is a fifth year so we should be able to pull it off quite convincingly and without the team asking too many questions."
"What? Surly they're going to wonder why they've never noticed me around before?"
He shrugged "The older boys rarely notice anything past how good you are. The other house teams won't think anything of it if we add a fifth boy, not until it's too late. And when its time for you to actually compete in the tournament, it won't matter if people start asking questions… we want them to know it's you… just not now. You'd be mobbed and more importantly attacked left, right and centre if you're discovered too soon. We want you free to practice without problems."
Lily didn't want to think about what would happen if she was exposed too soon and so instead asked "Why no fifth years?"
"A bunch of reasons – normally, though, they just aren't good enough or developed enough. Only the odd few are."
"Like you?" she questioned, vaguely remembering the school wide awe when he'd made the team in fifth year.
"Yeah," he said, fidgeting a little self-consciously. "But because I did it in fifth people won't think too much of you doing it, hopefully..."
Knowing she didn't have a choice and was going to have to risk it in any event she just asked "What about the younger years?"
"Oh, well, there are a few fourth years who have some real potential that train with us. We've got to keep a new influx of kids. Need to train them up early so the team stays decent in the years to come, but the majority of the competing team at the moment are sixth and seventh years."
"Oh," she responded before sighing, "Are we done now?"
James chuckled, and Lily groaned with relief, as he pointed his wand at her and started to remove his handiwork and passed her the potion to restore her hair. She swallowed it quickly, eager to return to her original appearance.
"Yeah, except you need a name," he said. "I was thinking Evan – it sounds enough like your surname that you shouldn't have too much trouble remembering to respond to it."
Lily nodded right before he pressed his bag to her chest containing everything she would need. "There should be enough of everything in there to last you until the tournament and you've got the picture of the final transfiguration and the list of instructions – you are sure you can do it yourself, aren't you?" He looked at her nervously.
"Yeah, I'm sure…" Lily said, casting another glace at the mirror to make certain she'd returned to normal. "I'll make sure to practice and by the next training session I'll be able to do it myself, but you'll help me the first time, won't you?" Seeing his anxious look, she said, "Don't worry, none of it is stuff I haven't done before. I've just never had a use for it before. I'm worried I'll mess it up the first time. I have the suspicious feeling I'm going to be extremely nervous."
"Okay," he sighed in understanding, wrapping his arm around her comfortingly and escorting her through the door to the staircase, steering her in the direction of the common room.
After a few hallways of semi-comfortable silence, Lily finally decided to speak up. "James?" She glanced up at him tentatively.
"Yes?" he hummed.
"Don't…don't you want to talk about it?" she finally asked quietly, as they made their way through more deserted hallways.
"Talk about what?" James asked without looking at her, resisting the urge to hold his breath and hoping he sounded nonchalant.
"James!" she groaned. "I'm embarrassed enough as it is…are you really going to make me say it?"
Briefly James turned to her with a confused expression on his face, even though inside his heart was hammering, "I'm sorry, Lily, I don't want to embarrass you, but I'm afraid I really have no idea what you're talking about." He hated to make her uncomfortable, but he needed to hear her ask, so he could assess what it was she wanted from him.
The fact that her kiss had made so little impact on him that he couldn't even remember it had happened, stung Lily a little—or, if she were being honest with herself, a lot.
"The kiss," she whispered hoarsely. "I'm talking about our very passionate, very public kiss."
"Ah, yes….the kiss," he chuckled, even as his heart rate increased further. He searched the side of her face for a few moments as they walked, his brow furrowing in uncertainty.
Just as he was about to turn her towards him, she spoke. "You're laughing?" she asked cautiously. "You're not angry?"
"Angry?" he repeated, caught off guard. Especially seeing as that assessment was so far from the truth it was almost comical.
"Oh, Merlin you are! I know we agreed on no kissing – I'm so sor—"
"Lily?" James gained the strength to interrupt through his disappointment. "You think I'd be angry about being thoroughly kissed by a very beautiful girl in front of my peers?"
"Well… yeah," Lily ventured to say, a little confused by his reaction.
"No!" James forced a casual laugh, incredulous that she could even think such a thing. "You're joking, right? You just added like a million cool points to my rep!" he smiled, unable to stop himself from brushing his hand over her burning cheek.
"Cool points?" Lily laughed, rolling her eyes, trying to ignore what his touch was doing to her.
"Yeah," he answered before asking, "Why are you embarrassed?" He hesitated before continuing, "It worked and it was great, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it really was," she sighed, wrapping her arm around his waist affectionately before they continued their stroll back to the common room.
"No need to sound so surprised," he said sardonically.
Lily shook her head at him. "Idiot," she said fondly. "Still, I'm sorry for just attacking you like that."
"Nah, don't be, I would have done something like that myself if I'd know you'd be willing… and if I'd had the bollocks. That was gutsy." He flashed her a wicked grin.
She blushed again.
"You really are an odd one, Lily Evans," he said, noticing that his words were making her even more embarrassed. How could she not know how incredibly attractive it was that she had taken charge of their kiss? How could she not have noticed his body's response to her? He stopped them both giving her a small smile as he stepped toward her, raising her chin with his finger. He couldn't resist leaning down and gently brushing his lips over hers. "There, we're almost even now," he whispered.
"Almost?" Lily managed to question through her shock and the tingles racing over her lips.
"Of course," James nodded seriously. "The kiss was no chore at all," he told her matter-of-factly, stepping away from her slightly. He ran a hand through his hair as he shook his head at her. "But, damn, Lily, how could you do that and just leave me standing there with all those people? That was so evil. All I could do was gape after you just like everyone else!"
"Well Catreena –"
"Who cares about her? I hope she gets a horrible disease, nasty little piece of work…" he said, frowning.
Lily smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For being so understanding about everything."
"It's fine, but what I really want to know is where the hell you learned to kiss like that?!" he demanded, wagging a finger in her face as she laughed, adding wistfully in his head,... and if I'll ever get to experience it again.