Chapter Eleven

"I heard Evans laid into you again last night," said Sirius as they walked to Charms the next morning. "What happened?"

"I have no idea," James replied with a shrug. "One minute, I'm talking to Moony and Wormtail, the next minute she storms in and starts calling me names."

Sirius nodded, but did not say anything. James glanced suspiciously at his friend. "Why? What do you know?"

Sirius held up his hands, as if deflecting any accusations. "I know nothing, Prongs. I'm just trying to figure you two out."

James made a face. "Forget it. I have no idea what's going on with her most of the time. I have half a mind to quit just to get out of constantly fighting with her about some thing or another."

"Mmm," said Sirius, obviously not listening. He was watching a group of sixth-years heading toward the dungeons. James narrowed his eyes.

"I'm also going to run off to London with Anastasia Harrison and shag her senseless in the middle of Hyde Park."

That got his friend's- attention. "What? Who are you shagging?" asked Sirius.

"Never mind," James grumbled. They continued down the corridor, each wrapped in their own thoughts. As they passed a window, James noticed the grey sky outside and shook his head. "Bloody rain. I hope it clears up for the match on Saturday."

"Doubt it, " said Sirius. "We'll have to row out to the pitch and float about in boats."

"Funny," said James. "You don't have to fly through it, though."

"Some people fly through the rain, others just get wet," replied Sirius, affecting a wise tone.

"What the hell does that mean?" asked James.

"No idea," said Sirius, laughing. "Sounds good, though, doesn't it?"

"You're such a porlock," muttered James as they entered the Charms classroom. Remus was already sitting with Peter and motioned them over. James glanced around the room and saw Lily with Mary and Sandra, who were whispering and looking sympathetic. Lily gave him a stony-eyed look, and James almost shivered from its coldness. Apparently he had done something to really hack her off, but he still had no idea what it was…this time.

Professor Flitwick called for attention and began the lesson. James felt his eyelids begin to fall shut almost immediately. He shifted his chin from one hand to the other and blinked the sleep from his eyes. It was hard to concentrate, however, on nonverbal spells when he had mastered them last year. He had even used them in several real duels; it seemed pointless to practice now.

But Professor Flitwick was walking them through every charm they had learned since O. as they prepared for their more advanced N.E.W.T.s. While half the class probably needed the review, the other half was nodding off in their notes; Sirius was drooling into his book. James couldn't help it: his head fell to his chest.

"Heads up, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black!" snapped a voice next to him. Professor Flitwick was looking at them with an exasperated look on his face. "You're with Ms. Evans. Mr. Black, you're with Mr. Robertson."

Sirius shot up. "Yes, sir!" he said, jumping out of his seat and looking for the Ravenclaw. He turned back to James and whispered, "What are we doing again?"

"No idea," murmured James, standing reluctantly and moving toward where Lily was waiting for him. It was just his luck he was paired with the one person in the room who hated him more than anything at the moment. "I wasn't listening either."

He reached the corner of the room where Lily was standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She was already glaring at him, and they hadn't even started whatever it was they were supposed to be working on. He stopped and faced her, but before he had a chance to ask her what to do next, she had whipped out her wand and cast a silent spell.

Only his sharp instincts saved him from losing his wand. He was quick and just managed to throw up a Shield Charm to block the spell in time. "What was that for?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant even though his heart was suddenly racing. He noticed Avery sniggering at him from the corner of his eye; Severus Snape was watching with a curious look on his face.

"We're dueling, Potter," she replied, shaking her head disparagingly. "Shield Charms. Silent wand positions. Or were you asleep over there?"

"No, I wasn't," said James, rolling up his sleeves. "I just wasn't paying attention." And he threw a Tickling Charm at her to gage her reaction.

She blocked it with a deft flick of her wand hand and nodded. Whether it was for the charm or the block, he wasn't sure. He just watched for her next spell.

She cast a Jelly-Legs Jinx at exactly the same moment Alan Diggory swore loudly next to them. James couldn't help but glance to the side, where Diggory was hopping on one foot while Remus stood and waited for his partner to finish yelling. James caught a sly grin on Remus's face before the Jelly-Legs Jinx smashed into him, and he felt himself go limp. He stumbled, muttering 'Finite' under his breath to stop his legs from wobbling beneath him.

Remus burst out laughing, only Diggory took the opportunity to hit him with a Flutter Charm, and Remus's arms started flapping wildly when he failed to block the spell and it hit him on the shoulder. James grinned at his friend before he stood up straight again, leveling his wand to continue. When Lily raised her eyebrows in a questioning challenge, he simply inclined his head with a confident nod.

Game on.

What began as a simple exercise in practicing silent wand positions soon became a gripping duel. Spell after spell rebounded from their shields, flashes of light crashing against invisible defensives with more and more energy. Soon most of the class had stopped to watch the intense battle, except for Professor Flitwick, who was helping a pair of Ravenclaws in the corner. James ignored the Slytherins, who were pointing and laughing at the battle, and concentrated on the girl in front of him.

He felt a strange thrill as he dueled with Lily. Part of him recognized that he was taking out his frustrations—especially with her—through their duel. The look on her face seemed to indicate she felt the same. And yet he also felt an exhilarating challenge, as if their verbal sparring had moved to the next level and now threatened to explode into something more. Something physical. He moved closer.

It gave him an edge, and he managed to get inside her defenses. A Trip Jinx sent her clumsily to the floor; the class gasped. She managed to throw a fairly strong Knockback Jinx at him from the ground, and he staggered backwards. The satisfied look on her face made him grin, much like he had the other night with Avery. But unlike that fight, where he had been motivated to defeat if not hurt the Slytherin, now he only wanted to continue dueling with Lily and see how far they could take it before one of them gave in. It almost felt like…foreplay.

He stepped forward and fired; she blocked it and sent a spell back. He circled around her, watching her wand carefully, and cast a sudden and quick Stretching Jinx. It caught the edge of her shield and hit her left hand, causing it to drop to the floor almost instantly. She flushed, cast the counter-jinx at her am, and quickly stepped forward with a powerful Levicorpusspell. James missed the block and found himself hanging upside down, his robes falling over his face so that he could not see Lily's reaction. He could hear the class laughing, however, and realized things were starting to get a bit more serious.

He murmured the release spell and fell awkwardly to the ground. Now the entire class was watching, as Professor Flitwick squeaked precautions from the chair where he stood and watched. James concentrated on Lily. He threw a Leek Jinx at her. Apparently they were both getting tired and blocking was becoming more difficult, for she missed it completely, and he was rewarded when giant leeks sprung from her ears.

"I hate leeks!" she shrieked, her face livid.

"But they match your eyes," he said, grinning. The class sniggered, and Lily flushed deep red as she pointed her wand at her head and Vanished the large leafy greens from her ears.

"I hate you," she hissed under her breath, and threw a Bat Bogey Hex at him that rivaled any he had seen. He somehow deflected them, sending the bogeys spiraling into the class. Flitwick Vanished them with another warning to keep it clean; James ignored him and sent an Impediment Jinx at Lily, his heart pounding from both the vehemence of her spell and her words.

"The feeling is mutual, Evans," he said, though he knew full well he didn't mean it. Her face paled as the spell erupted against her shield, and she fell to the floor once more. From the corner of his vision, James saw Sirius shaking his head at Remus; he ignored them as well, ready for whatever came his way.

Standing swiftly, Lily recovered and surprised him with a Full-Body Bind Curse that he managed to stop; but she followed it so quickly with a Leg-Locker Curse that he missed the block and toppled over sideways. The class cheered; James felt his own face flush with embarrassment now. He cast the counter curse that would release his legs, then jumped up and threw a Babbling Curse at Lily.

She simply ducked, and it hit Teresa Davis instead. Flitwick once again tried to stop their duel as he ran to cast the counter curse and stop Davis's ramblings. Lily stared at the Slytherin, her mouth twitching in a smile, her wand down. James raised his wand to cast another spell, but waited for her to turn. She was quick, though, and cast a violent Hurling Hex as he hesitated. The ferocity of it surprised him; he just barely deflected it toward the ceiling before hitting her square in the stomach with an impulsive Transfiguration spell instead of the Banishing Charm he had intended.

As soon as the words left his mouth, James wished he could pull them back. Yet the spell was cast, and the jet of white light slammed into Lily, instantly enveloping her in a cloud of fog. The room went silent.

"Uh, James…" said Remus, appearing next to him. "I think you just…" He trailed off, mouth open in disbelief as he stared at the spot where Lily had stood.

Only now a fluffy white cat licked her paws.

"Oh, shit." James dropped another curse as he flicked his wand at Lily, desperate to undo what he had just done. His hand was shaking, though, and it took him three tries. The class was stunned silent, staring at him in shock. He turned to Professor Flitwick as the little man hurried past him to help Lily, who was now sitting on the floor licking her fingers.

"Professor, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" he stammered.

Flitwick cut him off, his face red. "Detention, Mr. Potter. For a month. Go back to your dormitory, I will speak with both you and Professor McGonagall later."

James turned to leave, his shoulders slumped. He heard a shriek behind him and turned to see Lily staring at a long white tail poking through her skirt. He halfway raised his wand to fix it, then decided he was better off staying out of it. If he knew her at all, she was going to be so furious with him that she wouldn't talk to him for weeks, if not months—or quite possibly the rest of the year.

As the class gathered around her in support, James walked slowly toward the door. He had almost made it when he heard a shout behind him.

"James Potter!" yelled Lily. "You're a pig!"

And she hurled a bolt of light at him that he knew was trouble. He probably deserved whatever it was it, but he deflected it out of instinct. It must have caught his Shield Charm awkwardly, though, because it rebounded back toward the class, and hit Sirius square in the back.

Lily gasped and James groaned as a pig's ears began to pop through Sirius's hair and his nose transformed into a pig's snout. The Slytherins burst into raucous laughter.

"Thanks a lot, Prongs," Sirius muttered sarcastically as James just stared at his friend in shock. Flitwick waved his wand at Sirius, who quickly returned to normal. Then he turned on James, who had never seen his tiny Charms professor quite so angry.

"Out!" he shouted. "Out, out, out!"

James hurried from the room, ignoring the uproar behind him. He practically ran through the castle corridors, just wanting to get away from it—all of it. He couldn't believe what had he had just done; it seemed one thing after another kept going wrong, from the moment he'd stepped onto to Hogwarts Express. He was starting to dread his first game on Saturday, certain it would be a dismal failure if it were at all like the rest of his year.

He was making his way up the main staircase when he passed Mark Whitby. The Ravenclaw gave him a deep frown, as if he already knew what had happened in Charms. James wasn't sure how that was possible, but he stopped and turned.

"Tell Evans I'm sorry," he called to Whitby, "since she'll probably never speak to me again."

Mark stopped and gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"I just turned your girlfriend into a cat," James confessed before he could stop himself.

Mark's mouth fell open. He just stared before he finally shook his head. "That's something you don't hear everyday," he murmured. Then he shrugged, a somber look on his face. "But she's not my girlfriend anymore, so apologize yourself."

He turned and walked back down the stairs. James watched him go, his confusion slowly giving way to understanding. Now he had some idea why Lily had yelled at him last night, why she had been so aggressive in Charms. What he didn't know, though, was why she blamed him.

Lily wasn't seeing Mark anymore. For some reason the thought almost made him smile, until he remembered the look on her face when she'd cast her last spell at him. He'd turned her into a cat, and she'd called him a pig. The thrill of the duel evaporated as he thought about Professor Flitwick's detention, Professor McGonagall's reaction—and the next prefects' meeting he'd have to sit through with a girl who certainly hated him now.

End Notes:

Thank you, Lea, for putting up with me on this one. It was such fun to write. And if there are one or two Americanisms floating around this chapter, they are my mistake...although I really like one of them and would keep it anyway. ;-)
Oh, and the quote from Sirius is originally from Roger Miller: "Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet." Sirius just brought it into the wizarding world.