It's tragic! My Betas went MIA!

Which is one of the reasons you all had to wait so long - I was just about to post anyway (mistakes and all) when Cosmopolitan returned from her much deserved holiday and volia we have a beta'd chap!

I would like to take a moment though to say thanks and bye to abok as she has decided she can no longer provide her services – she really is brilliant and I will miss her comments.

I have the next chap almost ready if that is any kind of inducement for you to forgive me for the delay!

That's enough waffle for now - I think you've waited long enough

Thanks for your patience and thanks for coming back to read – please review.

---

"Oh Merlin, Oh Merlin, Oh Merlin."

"You do realise you're talking out loud, don't you?" James asked dryly as he and Lily walked towards her first Gryffindor duelling club meeting. Their pace had been rather slow so far, mainly because Lily kept stopping every few feet so that she could take a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. James didn't mind, he was in no rush and he knew her well enough to know that once she was actually there all her nerves would be forgotten. Still he was amazed to see her react like this, she was usually so composed.

Noticing his amused smile Lily threw him a dirty look, despite the flying dragons rampaging in her stomach, but didn't even pause in her mantra of: "Oh Merlin, Oh Merlin, Oh Merlin."

James finally sighed, half amused and half worried. "Stop it Lily," he said, instinctively reaching out to take her hand comfortingly. He stopped walking and used his grip to turn her to face him. The moment they were looking at each other he promptly released her hand as if it were on fire. "Shit. I'm still not used to seeing you like that."

Lily scoffed. "Yeah, coz' this is just a normal, run of the mill kind of thing for me. I feel just dandy."

James smile sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry. You're the one who has to walk around like that; I'm just the one who has to watch. Although, just for the record I think I may be scarred for life. "

Lily glared at him. "Er, this was your idea remember? Comments like that are not helpful."

James shrugged apologetically and Lily shook her head choosing change the subject slightly. "We're going to have to be really careful."

"Careful of what?"

"Careful not to show affection when I'm like this," she clarified, spreading her arms wide and indicating her appearance sarcastically.

James eyed her uncomfortably "It's definitely not going to be a problem if I'm facing you."

Lily glared at him before she suddenly smiled, "I could hit you," she said raising a fist threateningly, "You know every time you reach for me?"

James narrowed his eyes. "Good to know you'd jump at the chance to batter me, but it's not going to work. Plus imagine what that would look like if the team saw you hitting me every five minutes, they'd either think you had anger management issues or that I was turning in to a pansy because I was letting you hit me without retaliation. I don't know whether you've noticed, but I don't normally let people push me around," he paused thoughtfully, "although I seem to have developed a bit of a weak spot where you're concerned."

"Damn," Lily said, looking momentarily crestfallen though silently she felt tingles at the knowledge that he had a 'weak spot' for her.

"I didn't realise how difficult this was going to be," James continued, "I'd never really thought about it, but because of our deal I'm going to be spending half my life purposefully trying to touch you whenever I can and the other half purposefully trying to stop myself."

Lily groaned. "I hadn't thought about it like that either."

James patted her shoulder timidly trying to ignore what she looked like and be supportive. "We'll manage."

Lily scoffed at his pathetic attempt and then smiled when she saw the unease etched on his face. Deliberately, she kept moving closer to him until he started to shift uneasily.

He tried valiantly not to let it bother him but when Lily ran her hand along his arm, he couldn't suppress a shudder. "Stop it," he growled trying to dodge her misbehaving hands.

Giggling Lily finally stepped back. "Don't worry; we knew this was going to be difficult. It's just going to take a little getting used to."

"Yeah, I know" sighed James, "but sometimes I wonder what we might have gotten ourselves into?"

"Me too," Lily nodded, glancing down at herself wryly.

"Back to the problem at hand, though," James said, straightening. "Stop being nervous, you are a fantastic dueller."

"But that's with you. I'm used to you; I'm comfortable with you…. I trust you. These boys are going to have it out for me."

"Don't think about it. Just do what we do in practice and you'll have them on side within minutes. As long as you've got talent and dedication they'll respect you."

"Okay," Lily nodded.

"Are you okay now?"

"No, but let's get this done. Standing in the corridor isn't going to make it any better so let's do it."

"There's my Evans!" James said with a smile and cheeky chuck on her chin with his fist.

"Shut up," Lily said, knocking an elbow gently into his ribs.

When they finally reached the room the team held practice in Lily reached out to open the door, but right before she turned the handle James put his hand on her shoulder so she would momentarily halt her movements. "I've got your back…always, you know that, right?"

Lily reached up and rested her hand on top of his and briefly squeezed. "I know," she said, simply, "and I've got yours."

James didn't answer, but Lily distinctly heard him mumbled something along the lines of "I'm never going to get used to you looking like that."

"I should hope not," she threw over her shoulder as she confidently swung the door open.

All noise halted as the door loudly hit the wall.

"Smooth, Lily," James whispered to her before he stepped around her effectively drawing the focus away from her.

"Evan," she hissed back pinching his arm as he passed.

James smirked at her, but Lily took satisfaction from the fact that he'd now deliberately moved out of arms reach.

"OKAY," shouted James, despite the quiet in the room. "Everyone gather round," he commanded. "I would like to introduce you to Evan." A circle of intimidating boys quickly formed around Lily and James, some of them mumbling friendly greetings and some of them just staring curiously. Before any of them had a chance to ask any questions James announced: "and he'll be my second."

There was a blissful moment of silence before the uproar commenced.

"Second?"

"You finally picked a second?!"

"What do we even know about the little pip squeak?" someone asked with hostility lacing his tone.

"Hey!" Lily frowned in the direction of the voice.

James cut off Lily's protest, the rest of the team falling silent instantly. "He's a friend of the family and I want him as my second," he stated, indicating there was no room for argument.

"We're a team and we should make decisions together," someone mentioned from somewhere to the right.

"Are you really complaining?" asked Gideon, his familiar face and bright ginger hair making him stand out in the crowd. "We've been begging James for almost a year to pick a replacement for Sirius and he's refused based on the fact there isn't anyone he trusts enough. He's finally found someone who meets his high standards. I say we should just be relieved and get back to work."

"Here, here," mumbled a few voices.

Brandon suddenly appeared from behind a young dark haired boy that Lily didn't recognise, and he was having none of it. "I still say we need to see what he's made of," the moment he spoke Lily knew he was the one who had called her a pipsqueak.

She wasn't surprised the insult had come from him though. After their argument James had warned Lily about Brandon and the fact he believed he should have been captain. Lily was surprised, however, to see such an open defiance. She couldn't imagine anyone believing James shouldn't be captain, and she couldn't imagine anyone being more worthy, especially not this idiot stood in front of her. Lily felt pride and protectiveness well inside her and decided that if Brandon didn't shut up soon she might just have to hurt him.

"That's enough" James bellowed over the sudden chorus of his teammates voices, most of whom were telling Brandon to shut his mouth endearing themselves to Lily "I'm captain."

Brandon scoffed.

James's body tensed and he turned to face Brandon as he said, coldly, "Don't you dare undermine my authority, Marshall."

Lily had never seen James so commanding; he was always so calm and patient with her. She also detected anger in his voice, but on this occasion she believed Brandon deserved it. She hated that it was because of his favour to her that he had to put up with this; it had only been two minutes at most for goodness sake and already she was causing problems within his team.

"That's fine," Lily finally interrupted in her manly voice before James could become really riled.

"Excuse you?" asked the obnoxiously loud Brandon.

"I said that's fine. You need to see what I can do before you'll accept me. I don't want life to be difficult and I love to duel. I don't need your snide shit for the rest of the year so that's fine, how about I duel you to….prove myself?"

The rest of the group looked at Lily as if she'd lost her mind.

"Mate, that may not be the best decision," said the dark haired boy she hadn't recognised earlier, "the only person who can beat Brandon, is James – "

Lily scoffed. "Of course he can't beat, James." that announcement received nods of support from most members of the group particularly Sirius. "But who better to test me, unless of course James would rather do the honours."

"He can't," interrupted Sirius from where he stood next to Brandon, Lily thought he looked rather menacing as he stared at the boy next to him even as he continued "He introduced you so he can't test you, he'd be considered bias. It has to be someone else"

"No one on the team can beat me, but James," Brandon said firmly throwing Sirius a smug look and Lily a filthy one. "Especially not a midget like you."

Lily looked at James out of the corner of her eye and saw him trying to conceal a smile. He noticed her gaze, despite how discreet it was and gave her an imperceptible nod.

With James's support Lily turned her attention back to the boy in front. "If you're so good then you've got nothing to worry about have you?"

Brandon eyed her contemptuously as the rest of the group watched them in silence "Fine, I don't mind giving you a beating, if you're up for it." Brandon eventually said

"Bring it on."

The rest of the group started to smile before making way for Lily and Brandon to walk to the duelling ring.

---

Lily took her stance, squared her shoulders and raised her wand arm.

Brandon swaggered his way towards his spot and lazily raised his hand.

Lily frowned at his lack of respect. No matter how talented, it was a stupid man who judged an opponent before he'd even seen them fire a spell. But, in this case, it was going to work to her advantage, she could knock him on his arse before he even realised she'd cast a spell.

Still, she now understood why he and James had such a rivalry, and not that she'd ever doubted him, but she now had an even deeper understanding of why James always came out on top. Brandon was an egotistical idiot, James was not. After all, he had always known he could beat her, but he'd never been cocky about it. He was confident, and yet he had always taken her and her magic seriously, even in the beginning.

It was amazing that he'd managed to stay so respectful she thought as she looked around the assembled boys who all looked up to him. But, then again, he'd once told her that even the stupidest person could get lucky, and that desperate men always had something unpredictable up their sleeve. He had warned her to always be prepared for anything.

Brandon eyed her with a smug confidence and Lily's hackles started to rise. But, instead of reacting with anger, she stayed calm just like she'd been taught. Anger got you nowhere in a duel, and if that was his best attempt to rile her than he was in for the shock of his life.

Still, she couldn't resist raising a cool eyebrow in response, she was really going to enjoy this.

"I'll get you muffins and bring them to you every morning for a week if you wipe that look off his face," James's voice suddenly came from behind her.

Lily smiled slowly, a wicked gleam coming to her eyes.

James walked around in front of her and tested her wand.

She made eye contact with him and he flashed her a confident smile, his eyes glittered as he stared at her and his lips tilted just a little further as her turned his gaze over his shoulder to rest on her opponent. She could tell by his look of satisfaction that he believe she could beat him and that he was going to enjoy watching.

That made Lily confidence rise and her heart soar and she couldn't take her eyes off his broad shoulders as he strolled over to test Brandon 's wand.

"Opponents ready?" James asked as the rest of the group circled around their little arena and he stepped out of the duelling area.

Lily nodded and Brandon gave an impatient gesture towards James.

James raised an eyebrow, but set the protective wards without making a comment.

"Make ready," called Sirius.

Lily's body tensed and despite her confidence she felt butterflies start to flutter in her stomach. This was the first time she'd ever duelled someone properly outside of James.

Brandon wasn't even looking at her though; he was too busy shining his wand in a pathetic display of superiority.

Time to knock him down a peg or two. "Come on asshole, let's not dawdle," Lily smiled. "I'm about to start my first team practice and your fat arse is holding me back"

There were appreciative chuckles and Brandon 's face grew red and the boys surrounding them started to grow a little more interested in the fight as they saw the way she prepared.

"Why you arrogan-"

"FIRE!" yelled Sirius. Brandon, who had been too busy rubbing his wand and eyeballing Lily had missed the make ready signal and so was taken completely unaware by the call to start.

Lily, however, had been listening intently and as soon as she was allowed to move she threw three spells in quick succession and managed to strike with two of the three, the third one missing only because Brandon had already fallen to the floor.

The whole process took less than a minute.

"Jack ass," she whispered under her breath as she instinctively turned to smile at James, but she froze when she noticed the ten pairs of wide eyes staring at her.

"What?" she asked defensively.

She glanced quickly at James about to ask him if she had done something wrong, but even he appeared a bit shocked.

"What?" she asked again a little more nervous now.

They all seemed to take a breath and then said as one "You're in" the synchronicity was a little comical but the effect was lost on Lily. Instead, she blinked and before a sentence was even out of her mouth she found herself shaking hands and being back slapped by what felt like the whole team at once.

She heard someone in the mass say "You sure can pick em', James" and Lily nearly fainted with relief, that had been her biggest fear, that she would embarrass James.

"I know," she heard James reply then. "So provided Brandon is finished," he called sarcastically, "do you think we could practice sometime today?"

There was a rumble of laughter and Lily received a few last pats on the back before she found herself stood alone with the sound of practice duels starting up all around her.

She let out a huge breath of relief and wished that she had a chair to sit down in, because her knees suddenly felt weak.

"I've never seen you duel from the other side" James said as he came to stand in front of her. His hand instinctively reaching out to steady her, luckily he remember that he shouldn't do that and quickly retracted his arm, "Normally, when we're duelling I'm too busy concentrating on other things like form and posture and the individual spells you use, I never realised what it was like when it was all put together like that….I had no idea…. You're spectacular, Lily, I mean it."

"Thanks," she replied suddenly feeling inexplicable shy.

Not seeming to notice how much his words had meant James turned and gestured to Sirius. As they both watched him make his way over Lily asked: "Why does Sirius keep watching me like that?"

"He's understandably suspicious," James answered with a sigh "we've been best friends from the moment we met, and he knows almost everything about my life, so the fact that he doesn't recognise one of my 'friends' is unusual."

"Really?"

"Okay," James amended, "the fact that he doesn't know you and I trust you enough to be my second is making him suspicious."

"What are you going to tell him?" she asked a little frantically as Sirius drew even closer.

"That, because of the age difference and the fact that your mother is one of my mother's socialite friends we don't see a lot of each other and that's why you've never met, but that when you saw me practicing with my dad this summer you asked to join and I saw how much potential you had."

"What if he starts asking me questions?" asked Lily nervously.

"Lie," James responded flatly just as Sirius came within hearing distance and he smoothly changed the subject. "I'd like you two to spar. Sirius will train with you today before you start working with the others—"

"I thought you weren't allowed to participate," Lily interrupted.

Sirius eyed her strangely before he shrugged. "I'm not allowed to participate in the competitions, but Dumbledore still lets me help James with practice's…. Guess he figures it's educational and keeps me occupied."

"Oh, okay," Lily looked between the two of them before she realised they were having some sort of silent conversation. "I guess I'll just go warm up over there." she pointed to the other side of the room before making a quick exit.

--

"You're being suspiciously quiet, Sirius. Say what you want to say." James sighed as he watched Lily practically run away from them.

"I don't recognise him," Sirius stated simply.

"So?"

"So ...I've known you years and we've been best friends for all of it. If he were a family friend I would know about him. So, I'll repeat, I don't recognise him"

"His parents are really distant friends of my parents. He was at my house this summer while you were visiting your cousin and her new husband."

"How did you manage to see him duel?"

"He saw me practicing and asked to join in. He had raw talent, but was seriously lacking in training. He asked me to help and so I did. Turns out it was a really good idea"

Sirius hummed. "He's good, a natural, but he's a little flawed… stiff perhaps? It's almost as if he hasn't really ever been in a real duel before."

"That's because he hasn't."

"What?!"

"I know," James replied, "but just watch, he really is magnificent, he has real potential, I've been training him myself, but you know what it's like when someone only practices with one person."

"They are poorly prepared for different styles of attack. Not that Evan seemed to have any problems," Sirius snickered as he cast a glance at the red faced Brandon .

James laughed, too. "That was the best thing I've seen at a practice in years."

"Yeah," Sirius acknowledged. "But we both know that if Brandon had taken it all a little more seriously it wouldn't have been so easy."

"At the moment you're right, but a few weeks training with some different people and I recon, she—he could give us all a run for our money," James finished quickly trying to cover his mistake.

Sirius cast a speculative eye at Evan and surprised James when he said: "I agree and I suppose if you think he's good enough…" he trailed off with a shrug. "Can he can hold his own against you?"

"Yes," James instantly replied. "I've never thrown everything I've got at him, not yet anyway, but he gives me a really good work out…"

A little more interest entered Sirius's eyes. "…then I agree that there's potential."

"And?"

"And I'll help you, if you want me to?"

"That would be fantastic, Padfoot." James said relieved.

They stood quietly for a moment before: "I'm not stupid, Prongs; I can sense something about all this, something doesn't fit…. There've been some major changes recently, and I know you well enough to know when you're lying about something but I'm going to let it go for now."

"I appreciate it," James nodded, relaxing a little. He hated the lies that were currently floating between the two of them.

"I'll find out eventually," Sirius said, deadpan.

"No" said James "I will tell you… eventually."

"Fair enough," Sirius nodded before moving off to join Lily eyeing her thoughtfully the whole way.