Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter JK Rowling does. I also do not own The Weird Sisters. I'm not actually sure who owns the name The Weird Sisters. Though according to the Canadian legal system it is not the actual band called The Weird Sisters, so I guess they belong to JKR? (Shrugs.) I have no money for you to take, please don't sue.

Chapter 9 An Assertion of Authority

Lily yawned and stretched as she woke up smiling and happy that it was Saturday. Sure she had a pile of homework she had yet to finish, but if she was diligent she could finish it all before dinner and enjoy the remainder of her weekend homework free. As much as she hated the idea of homework she found the idea of doing it all today and having none tomorrow highly motivating. As she didn't feel this motivated to finish all her homework in one day very often she decided to go with it.

She got up quietly so as not to wake her friends, showered, dressed, grabbed her homework, and headed down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast before heading to the Library.

After two hours in the Library Lily had made good progress. She had already completed her Ancient Runes translation, answered Professor Sprouts questions on the proper care of Poisonous Tentacula, and was now putting the finishing touches on her essay on the correct way to brew the Amortentia Potion. She was glad she had started this essay during her free period yesterday, as it would mean that she would definitely be finished with all of her homework before dinner.

Although Lily agreed with Slughorn that the Amortentia Potion was rather dangerous, she was hoping that at the very least he would brew some for the class to see, she was very curious about what it would smell like to her.

Lily looked out the window and saw that the clouds that had been there when she woke up had disappeared and the sun was now shining invitingly. Lily decided that after lunch she would take her remaining homework outside. If she were diligent in the hour and a half until lunch she would be almost done.

She put the finishing touches on her Potions essay and started in on her DADA essay. A foot and a half on essay on the Patronus charm. She couldn't wait to begin trying to cast that spell. The new DADA teacher, Professor Franklin, had shown them what it looked like in their last class before setting the essay and she was quite keen to try it out, even if he said it would be one of the most difficult spells they learned in their time at Hogwarts.

Lily was surprise to find that, as the clock in the Library began to chime announcing that it was now twelve o'clock, that her DADA essay was almost complete. Lily quickly put the finishing touches on her essay and reread it to make sure she hadn't missed anything important. Satisfied with what she had written she put her homework into her bag and headed towards the Great Hall for lunch, hoping that her friends would also be there.

When Lily arrived in the Great Hall she found Marlene and Katie sitting with James and his friends. It still seemed a bit odd to call him 'James' and not 'Potter' though it was nice to be getting along with him instead of being constantly annoyed with him.

In the past, it would have annoyed her to no end that Marlene and Katie were sitting with the Marauders, but today she didn't seem to mind. She and James had been getting along surprisingly well during the past week. James hadn't gone out of his way to bother her like he usually did and he still hadn't even hinted at asking her out, perhaps he was trying to lull her into a false sense of security. But that didn't make sense, he honestly seemed to have matured over the summer. Lily found this new and improved James model to be quite tolerable.

"Hey guys," she said as she sat down and started ladling beef stew onto her plate. It was amazing how hungry studying hard all morning could make a person.

"Hey, Lily," they answered.

"Where've you been all morning?" Katie asked.

"Library," Lily answered, now reaching for a roll. "I felt inspired this morning to get all my homework done today, so I went with it," she said with a shrug. "I've just got the essay for McGonagall left."

"Wow," said Marlene clearly stunned. Lily was usually fairly on top of her homework, but it was rare even for Lily to spend her entire Saturday doing homework. "I feel bad I slept in now."

Lily laughed, "Yeah, sure."

"Your right, I don't, but I do wish I was almost done with my homework," Marlene said grinning.

Lily shrugged again, "Yeah, but that Transfiguration essay will take me all afternoon. I still don't entirely understand what McGonagall is talking about," Lily countered mildly annoyed with herself.

"I could help you if you wanted," James offered.

"That's okay, I can do it by myself," Lily said, snapping a little more than she meant to.

Sure she was having trouble understanding the material and James was the best Transfiguration student in the year but she wasn't going to let James help her and listen to him gloat about it the whole time.

"Okay, but if you change your mind come find me," James replied.

Lily was surprised how easily he let it go. She figured she would have to argue with him about it for at least a couple of minutes before he let it drop. She wasn't sure what to make of this "new and improved James," it was slightly unnerving.

Just then Professor McGonagall approached the table.

"I didn't do it, I swear," Sirius said as he saw her heading towards them.

Professor McGonagall chose to ignore him, "Mr. Potter, Miss Evans I would like to see you both in my office when you've finished your lunch."

James and Lily eyed her nervously. Professor McGonagall smiled, "Don't worry, I just want to discuss any ideas you may have for Halloween. I'm sorry to cut into your Saturday but I'm quite busy at the moment and this is the only opportunity I have." They both nodded.

"I shall see you shortly then," she said and headed out of the Great Hall.

"I hope the meeting doesn't last too long," James said conversationally, I'd at least like to start my homework today."

"James Potter, do homework, I'm so confused," said Katie trying and failing to keep from laughing.

"Well I am Head Boy, gotta set a good example and all," he replied with a grin.

"Don't let him fool you," Remus said, "He's always done his homework. He just does it in the dormitory where nobody can see him, along with Sirius. Can't have people actually thinking they do work, now can we."

"Shhhh, don't tell people our secrets," Sirius stage whispered, looking shocked and betrayed.

Lily couldn't help but chuckle at them. "Well, I'm done. You ready James?"

"Yup," he replied, mopping up the last of his stew with a roll and stuffing the whole thing in his mouth.

"That's disgusting!" Katie exclaimed.

James attempted to smile at her but his mouth was too full.

"So, got any ideas for this dance thing," James asked several minutes later as they walked down the hall, finally having managed to swallow the rest of his roll.

Lily shrugged, "Food, music, dancing."

"Sounds thrilling," James said rolling his eyes. "They'll be talking about it for years. Aren't girls supposed to get all giggly about this sort of thing?"

"I can't stand girls that are constantly giggly," said Lily.

"Oh, good," said James chuckling. "They drive me mad as well."

"What about your fan club?" Lily asked half-joking half-serious. He really did have one after all.

"Eh," James replied, "they're nice girls, but I can't exactly see settling down with one of them."

"James Potter, dating king of Hogwarts, talking about settling down?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Well my parents didn't have me until they were older, even by wizarding standards. They actually didn't think they could have children," James said shrugging. "So I'm an only child, but I've always thought it would be fun to have brothers and sisters. So I decided I'd like to have at least three kids." He said all this as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lily was still looking at him skeptically.

"What? I'm completely serious," James stated. "My mother says I lack ambition, because I don't really want some high level position in the Ministry, but I just don't want my career to consume my life. I'd like to have time for a family, too."

Lily had to admit she was quite shocked. James Potter was admitting to her that his secret ambition in life was to be a family man. Perhaps this was just some clever ruse to get her to go out with him. Though even she had to admit, the idea that he would come up with a story this elaborate just to get her to go out with him seemed a bit ridiculous.

Unfortunately Lily's thoughts were interrupted by their arrival at McGonagall's office. James knocked on the door and they heard McGonagall reply, "Enter."

"Good afternoon, Professor," James said as they entered.

"Yes, good afternoon," Lily repeated.

"Good afternoon, both of you," McGonagall replied. "Let me apologize again for taking time out of your Saturday, but as I said before, this was the only time I could meet with you."

"That's okay, we understand Professor," James responded pleasantly.

"Now about this dance," McGonagall said more business-like. "Professor Dumbledore and I have already agreed that it will be open to fourth years and above, although if a student wishes they will be allowed to bring a younger student as their partner."

James and Lily simply nodded.

"We will have a feast for the younger students before the ball from five to six-thirty. The actual ball will start at 8. This will give us time to set up any last minute decorations after the feast for the younger students."

Again James and Lily simply nodded.

"The ball will include dinner for the older students so they will not have to worry about attending the feast and trying to get ready in time for the ball."

"What will the dress be for the ball?" James asked.

"Professor Dumbledore and I were thinking dress robes, but we thought we'd ask your opinion before deciding on that."

"I think that sounds like a good idea," Lily said. "I know most of the girls will enjoy an excuse to get all dressed up," Lily said smiling happily.

"I thought you hated it when girls got all excited about dances?" James asked grinning.

"No, I said I can't stand girls that are constantly giggling. Sometimes a girl likes an excuse to look pretty," Lily said smiling happily.

Professor McGonagall smiled at them, "And what do you think James?"

"Dress robes sound fine, I doubt the guys will care. And it is always fun to see girls all dressed up," he said, getting a slightly faraway look in his eye like he was envisioning all the girls of Hogwarts all dressed up.

Both Lily and Professor McGonagall rolled their eyes at him. He just smiled back at them.

"Now," McGonagall said once again business like, "Professor Dumbledore and I thought it would be best to speak to you in regards to choosing the music as you will be much more aware of what the students will like. We were thinking we would hire a band."

"Well, there is this new band, The Weird Sisters, which are becoming fairly popular. Their repertoire isn't huge yet, but they have some really great songs and I know they do some pretty decent covers of some other popular songs. Plus they're still knew so they'll be cheaper than like say the 'Mad Muggles.'"

"Lily, do you have any suggestions?" McGonagall asked. Lily wasn't that familiar with Wizard musicians, but she had heard of the group the Weird Sisters from Marlene and Katie, both of whom loved their music. They had actually been playing their new record the other night and Lily had to admit that it was pretty good.

"Um, The Weird Sisters would be fine with me. I've only heard a couple of their songs, but they were all pretty good."

"Well, Professor Dumbledore and I will see what we can do," said Professor McGonagall.

"If you have any trouble getting them you should talk to Slughorn," James said. "Their lead singer was in Slug Club a few years back."

Professor McGonagall smiled at this, "Well, The Weird Sisters it is then." All three of them laughed.

"Now, as far as food goes, Professor Dumbledore and I were thinking that we would leave it largely up to the house elves to come up with snacks and the dinner menu. And for drinks we'd have things like Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice."

Again James and Lily simply nodded.

"When will the ball end?" James asked.

"Midnight," McGonagall replied. Professor Dumbledore and I felt that four hours should be sufficient.

James and Lily agreed and with that their meeting came to an end.

"So, where are you off to?" James asked.

"Well, it's such a nice day I thought I'd head outside and write my last essay down by the lake. I figure the weather won't stay this way much longer so I should enjoy it while it lasts, regardless of how much homework I have."

James nodded. "Do you mind if I join you?" he asked hesitantly.

He really was kind of cute when he was unsure of himself. I did not just think that, Lily admonished herself.

"I promise not to bug you," he added quickly. "I really would like to make a dent in my homework today. I don't want to get behind before the Quidditch season even starts."

Lily rolled her eyes, but more jokingly than because she was annoyed. "Oh, I suppose. As long as you don't bug me, I really need to concentrate on my Transfiguration Essay."

"My offer to help still stands if you want it," James said sincerely.

"No," Lily said quickly. "Thank you," she added as an afterthought.

"Okay," James replied with a shrug.

James and Lily walked out the front doors and headed down the hill towards the lake. Suddenly they heard shouting coming from the direction of the lake. Looking up they saw a large circle of students and in the middle were Sirius and Snape.

James sighed. He knew it would happen eventually, he had just hoped that it would be something along the lines of him catching Sirius in a broom closet on his after-hours patrol, not in front of half the school. Standing up a little straighter and stealing himself for what he was about to do, James quickened his pace with Lily on his heels.

As they neared the crowd Remus came up to him and Lily.

"Who started it?" James asked him.

"Sirius," Remus said in a resigned voice. "Snape was just walking by and well, you know the rest."

James nodded and looked at Lily. "Please let me handle this. I know you're capable and all, but this is something I have to deal with myself."

"I'll be here if you need back up," she said, understanding his need to handle this on his own.

James started making his way through the crowd. People moved out of his way and he heard the occasional whisper of, "Ooo Potter's here, now Snape is really gonna get it."

James walked into the middle of the circle with Sirius and Snape just as Sirius suspended Snape upside down by his ankle. James took a deep breath to prepare himself.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" he asked trying to sound as authoritative as possible.

"Hey Prongs. You're a little late, I've almost won already," Sirius said grinning arrogantly.

"Why are you fighting with him?" James asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Well, I was a bit bored you see and then he walked by with his hair even greasier than normal looking all shiftily and I felt that it was time somebody, once again, tried to explain to him about bathing," Sirius grinned cheekily as he finished.

"Put him down, Sirius," James said his annoyance with his friend now coming through.

"Huh?" replied Sirius.

"You heard me put him down."

"Prongs mate, what has come over you, this is Snivellous we're talking about!"

"Put him down or its detention, Sirius."

"Yeah, sure Prongs."

"Alright," James said, completely serious, "I'll tell McGonagall to expect you every night next week starting on Monday."

"Uh-hu, Prongs, whatever you say mate," Sirius said casually, still grinning like a fool.

"Alright, Sirius I really hoped it wouldn't come to this but you leave me no choice," James said this in an authoritative tone, but there was also a hint of disappointment in his voice as well.

Sirius looked at him curiously, but still smiling. "Finally decided to join me have you?"

"No," James deadpanned. "Twenty points from Gryffindor. Now put him down before I make it more."

The entire crowd fell silent. Had James seriously just taken twenty points from his own house? James Potter who was notorious for jinxing Snape at every opportunity. Sirius's mouth fell open unable to believe what James had just done. James folded his arms across his chest and gave Sirius a look that told him James was deadly serious.

Still in shock Sirius lifted the curse sending Snape crashing to the ground. Sirius stormed away mumbling under his breath.

"I'll have McGonagall get back to you about what time to meet her for detention," James told him.

"Traitor," Sirius said his voice full of anger and also James detected, hurt.

James chose to ignore Sirius, as he knew talking would currently do no good. Instead he turned to his attention back to Snape. "Are you all right, Snivellous?" he asked.

"I'm fine. No thanks to you, Potter," Snape spat.

"Just doing my job," James said calmly. He turned to walk away when suddenly he heard Lily and Remus shout, "Look out!"

With reflexes born from years of Quidditch James ducked and felt Snape's curse brush the top of his head and then saw it, thankfully, hit the ground and not an innocent bystander.

James sighed, turned around and spoke, trying very hard to keep his calm authoritative voice, when really all he wanted to do was curse Snape into oblivion and said, "Alright Snape have it your way, twenty points from Slytherin and a week's worth of detentions for attacking the Head Boy completely unprovoked." With that he turned and walked away, heading in the direction of his favorite beach tree.

He sat down at under the tree and sighed. Well, at least it was over with. Now he wouldn't have to worry anymore about what would happen when he finally had to exert his authority over his best friend. He knew it would happen eventually but he really had hoped it would have been a little more private.

Although, he reasoned his authority was now firmly established seeing as he had just proven beyond a doubt that he would do his job and enforce the rules even if it meant punishing his best friend and taking points from his own house. James closed his eyes and leaned back against the old beach tree.

"Are you ok?" Lily asked quietly sounding slightly nervous.

James opened his eyes. "I'll get over it. It was bound to happen eventually and now everybody will take me seriously." James laughed at his terrible unintentional pun despite himself.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'd say your authority is now well established. I'm sure he won't stay mad at you for long. I mean you were completely within your rights, although, even I was surprised that you took twenty points from Gryffindor, I didn't think you had it in you, I'm not sure I do."

James looked out over the lake. "If it had been anyone else I probably wouldn't have taken as many. But if I went easy on him I'm sure Snape would have gone straight to McGonagall or Dumbledore screaming that I was playing favorites."

"Perhaps," Lily said neutrally.

"I suppose I could have given him more detention and taken less points but McGonagall probably would have taken additional points anyway," James said contemplatively.

"Why would she think he needed more points taken away?" Lily asked curiously.

"It's a long story and I'm not supposed to talk about it," James said in a voice that told Lily she wouldn't get any more out of him. Though she wondered if it had anything to do with the night that James saved Snape's life. Snape had never given her a full account stating that Dumbledore had forbidden him from discussing it.

"Does it have to do with the night you saved Snape from whatever is under the Whomping Willow?"

"Where's Remus?" James asked suddenly hoping to change the subject. Though he suddenly realized that asking about Remus might not be the best change of subject choice at the moment.

"He went to and I quote, 'go make sure Sirius doesn't do anything too rash,'" Lily replied.

"Ah," said James. "I should probably be careful when I go into our dormitory tonight."

With that James pulled out his own homework and for a long time neither of them spoke, both absorbed in their own thoughts.

Several hours later it was starting to get dark and Lily was putting the final touches on her Transfiguration Essay. It definitely wasn't the best essay Lily had ever written, in fact she was pretty sure it was the worst, but at least she was done.

James looked up from his work at the sound of Lily packing up.

"All done?" he asked.

"Finally," Lily said with relief. "Not the best essay I've ever written, but at least it's done."

"I'm sure you did fine," James said confidently.

Lily wished she felt as confident about it as he sounded. Part of her knew she should have sucked it up and asked James to help her, but she had a bit of a pride streak and she refused to accept help from James Potter. No matter how much he seemed to have changed.

James took his cue from Lily and started packing up too.

"Are you finished?" Lily asked.

"No, but I've made a good dent in it, so hopefully I'll be able to finish it up fairly early tomorrow and enjoy most of the day. Besides it's just about dinner time and I'm starving," James said with a grin like a small child.

Lily couldn't help but laugh. James's heart leapt. Lily Evans was laughing at him and not in a bad way. He had done something to be funny and she had laughed at it. Maybe his plan was working after all. He really wanted to take her to the Halloween Ball but he knew that he mustn't ask her yet. He really wished he could ask her to Hogsmeade or something before the ball.

Although he really liked the idea of taking her to the dance, he knew it would be hard to have a conversation with her there and he really wanted their first date to be one where they could talk and get to know each other better and a dance with loud music wasn't really conducive to that.

There was bound to be a Hogsmeade visit before the dance perhaps she would agree to go with him and if it went well, maybe she would go to the dance with him. He wished now that he knew if there was a trip or not. Then an idea came to him.

"You know, we really should have asked McGonagall if there was a Hogsmeade trip before the ball or not. I mean people aren't really expecting one and I'm sure all the girls will want to buy new dress robes," he said suddenly.

Lily looked over at him with a thoughtful expression on her face. "You're right," she said. "I could use some, actually," she added as an afterthought. "Let's talk to McGonagall after dinner."

"Sounds like a good idea," he said as they walked into the Entrance Hall.

Lily spied Katie and Marlene sitting with Remus and Peter and nudged James pointing towards them. The four of them looked up as they saw James and Lily heading over.

"Is it true that you're the one who took all those points from us?" Marlene asked sounding slightly scandalized.

James gave her an annoyed look. "Well, if Sirius had just listened and put Snape down the first time I told him to I wouldn't have had to," James said firmly.

"I never thought I'd see the day that James Potter took anything this seriously," said Katie slightly in awe.

"I never thought I'd see the day where James did something to benefit Snape," said Marlene with a chuckle.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't very well let him off in front of half the school. Besides, Sirius really does need to learn boundaries when it comes to stuff like that," James said reasonably. "He can't be quite so blatant in his disregard for the rules once we get out of school."

"But still," Peter argued, "it was Snape. Everyone knows he's a slimy git."

"Snape's not a bad person," Lily said causing everyone to look at her with raised eyebrows. "He's not," Lily continued adamantly.

"So that's why you don't speak to him anymore?" Katie asked sarcastically interrupting her.

Lily sighed in frustration. "He's not a bad person," she continued adamantly, "He's just made some bad choices. And hopefully he'll realize it before it's too late."

"I think it's time for a new topic," Remus interjected.

"I'll second that," James replied.

"So did you really have to take all those points from us?" Marlene grumbled.

"Yes," James said clearly frustrated.

"Leave him alone guys, he was just doing his job," Lily said.

"James Potter is enforcing the rules and Lily Evans is defending him. The world is ending!" Katie said in mock terror.

"No, it's not," said Remus, laughing none the less.

"Yeah, when they start dating then the world will end," Marlene said, though with difficulty as she was laughing rather hard.

With that their four friends could no longer contain their laughter.

Once they had calmed down a bit James looked at Remus, "Where is Padfoot by the way?"

"Up in the dorm, sulking," said Remus rolling his eyes. "I wouldn't advise going up there alone, no witnesses, yeh know," he added.

James sighed.

"Give him a couple of days to cool off. He'll get over it," Peter said.

"Wormtail's right Prongs, he'll get over it," Remus added reassuringly.

Sighing again James reached for the nearest plate of food.

Later that night James and Lily were on patrol. So far it had been a fairly quite night. James and Lily had passed the time talking amicably and were walking through the Potions corridor when a thought occurred to James.

"So you never did tell me what your sister said to make you break the Statute for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Wizardry," he reminded her. "I mean I have trouble seeing you just up and cursing anyone even when they deserve it, not even the Slytherins."

"Yeah, but it's one thing to be insulted by a Slytherin, it's different when it's family," Lily explained. "I mean it I'm used to her calling me a freak, that's par for the course…"

"Par for the course?"

"Sorry muggle expression, it means normal. But when she told me she couldn't understand how our parents could stand to let me stay in the house and that if I were her child she'd have chucked me out, well, I just kinda lost it."

James looked at Lily totally confused. "She said that? And why does she think you're a freak?"

"Because I'm a witch," Lily answered as though it was obvious.

"I still don't get it, how does that make you a freak?" James was thoroughly confused. "What's freakish about that?"

"Well a lot, technically, if you're a muggle. Seeing as most of them don't know that magic exists. I mean I thought I was a bit of a freak too before I met Severus and he explained it all to me. I didn't realize all the weird stuff that I made happen was magic. I've talked to a couple of the other muggle-borns and apparently it's pretty common," Lily said shrugging. "I guess that's why wizard children are usually home schooled, we tend to stick out and be considered odd by muggle children."

"People thought you were odd? But you're the most talented witch I know," James said in disbelief.

Lily laughed in spite of herself. "Well, here I'm normal and I'd argue that at home I'm normal, but that's not how my sister sees it. Well, no that's not true. She didn't think I was a freak until she realized that my being a witch made us different and she couldn't do magic. So instead of admitting that she was jealous she decided that I was a freak."

"Wait," said James with a look of shocked realization on his face, "Are you saying your sister treats you like you're a freak because she's jealous?! Not that it would be right for her to treat you like a freak for a different reason," he added.

"Gotten there at last have you?" Lily asked, slightly amused, despite the situation. "And to think, I always thought you were smart."

"But that's not right!" said James indignantly. "You can't help being a witch. And even if you could there's still nothing wrong with it and it's not like you made her not be a witch."

James's anger on her behalf startled Lily. At the moment she was strongly reminded of James's reaction to when one of the other Slytherins would call her a Mudblood.

"It's alright, James, really," Lily said because he looked rather upset about the whole thing.

"No, it's not. It's not right for her to treat you like that just because you're different from her!"

"You hate the Slytherins just because they're Slytherins," Lily stated. "I won't deny a large majority of them are rather unpleasant, but they aren't all going to grow up to be Death Eaters," Lily stated.

"Okay, I guess I see your point," James conceded somewhat begrudgingly. "But that still doesn't give your sister the right to treat you like that. I mean your Mum's right, family shouldn't treat each other like that."

"I guess I've just gotten used to it."

"That's not something you should have to get used to," James said and Lily was sure she'd never heard him sound so…she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She had never heard him speak so passionately about something. She was genuinely shocked at how upset this made him. She had never seen this side of James before or at least she hadn't recognized it for what it was.

"People shouldn't treat other people like that. I know my treatment of the Slytherins, hasn't always be the most pleasant, but I can't just sit back and watch them treat people the way they do, it's not right."

Lily smiled at him, "You know Potter, maybe you're not as bad as I thought you were. Come on, it's almost midnight let's head back to the common room, I could use some sleep."

James stood there for a moment too shocked to speak or move. Did Lily just say he wasn't as bad as she thought? But she had called him Potter. But not like she usually did. It had been in jest. If he hadn't known any better he would have thought she was flirting with him…but she wouldn't do that. Would she?

"Well, are you just going stand there all night or are you coming?" Lily called from the end of the hall snapping James back to reality.

"What, oh yeah, right, I'm coming."