James slumped down into his seat in their transfiguration classroom, ignoring the cold look McGonagall gave him when he did so. He supposed it was understandable that she was rather miffed at him at the moment. After all, today the Marauders had done their first prank since mending the rift between them! Sirius, Remus and he had solved their issue about a week ago and as James had predicted, it had been rather easy to get Peter to forgive Sirius as well. Being back to their full strength, they had decided to celebrate by pulling their first prank in a long time. Of course, there had been certain restrictions. James was still try to appear well behaved and therefore must not be caught pulling any prank. Remus had stressed that he did not want the prank to be damaging to anyone. Instead, it should be harmless fun and not disrupt classes too much. Also, James had pointed out that it probably was not that good an idea to hex the Slytherins. With Snape knowing their secret, they had to be careful not to antagonize him so much that he blurted it out to anyone. Even though Dumbledore had made Snape promise, James would rather not test his luck. Sirius had promptly complained that pranking was not fun under these circumstances, but they had continued with their planning nevertheless. After a few hours, they had come up with a perfect solution and had pulled it off flawlessly this morning. Peter had been the one to come up with the key idea. He liked to ice skate, but so far this winter had only allowed him to do so once. Either the ice was too thin or the weather was too foul to even consider going outside. So, Peter had suggested having some ice inside of Hogwarts, so that students could safely ice skate indoors. Remus had eagerly latched onto the idea, saying that had seen such indoor ice lakes in certain Muggle stadiums. Even Sirius had agreed that it sounded fun, even though he hated ice skating. He said it was impossible to look dignified while wearing those ridiculous shoes. James had to agree, but he still enjoyed ice skating. He had only started at Hogwarts, because ice skating was a Muggle sport and therefore not known to pure-bloods like him. He had first seen it at Hogwarts and being the person he was he had tried it immediately. He had done a lot of ice skating during the winter of their fourth year, mostly so he would get good enough to impress Lily, who was an avid ice skater herself. Sirius had made fun of him then and to this day refused to even set a foot onto the ice. James suspected that Sirius just did not want to risk making a fool out of himself.

Having decided on what they wanted to do, they had sprung into motion. A suitable spell was easily found, but naturally they did not stop at simply creating eternal ice. No, they needed to add further measures to make sure that the teachers could not just remove the ice again. They also added a cushioning charm, so that people could not hurt themselves when the lost their balance during skating. It took some thinking, but in the end they had come up with the perfect spell. They had decided to enchant the entrance hall. This way, everyone would have to notice their work. Naturally, this would hamper anybody walking in and out of the castles, but they were alright with that. It was a prank after all. They had snuck down in the early hours of the morning and began their work. Enchanting the hall had taken them close to half an hour which was an uncomfortably long time. While far less people were patrolling the castle during the morning than in the evening, the risk of getting caught by an early riser was still rather high. Fortunately, nobody had disturbed them and they were able to complete their work and sneak back to their dormitory in peace. When they had went down to breakfast a few hours later, their head of house was already waiting for them. While some students were already testing the ice and obviously were rather eager to skate, McGonagall was not amused at all. She had tried to put all four of them in detention. Naturally, the marauders had protested, claiming that they were completely innocent. McGonagall interrogated them for a while, trying to make them slip up and admit the deed.

Fortunately, they had enough practice in these kind of things to give themselves away. Even Peter, who had been terrible at lying when he first arrived at Hogwarts, had become quite adept at handling the teachers. So, McGonagall had no choice, but to let them off the hook, much to her displeasure. James had not felt that happy for a long time. It was almost as it had been last year, when their world had still been simpler. Even though the progress was encouraging, there was no denying that they were still fragile. There was an undercurrent of mistrust in their interaction. While both Remus and James had forgiven Sirius, they were still not entirely convinced that he had truly learned his lesson. The trust Sirius had shattered with his betrayal would take more time to regrow. Sirius seemed to sense it too, as he was unusually polite with them. That wasn't saying much though, as Sirius tended to be rather rude to most people. Overall, James was optimistic, but knew that they still had a long way to go.

'That was bloody brilliant,' hissed Sirius, bringing James's attention back to the present. 'The look on Minnie's face when she had to let us go was priceless! I can't believe that we did not even get a single detention. We should do something like that again very soon.'

'Careful, Padfoot,' said James quietly. 'McGonagall is still watching us. Don't slip up now. Remember, we had absolutely nothing to do with that prank and are horrified about this blatant transgression of school rules.'

'Of course we are,' said Sirius, rolling his eyes. 'You know, I have always said that taking credit for a well done prank is half the fun, but I am starting to take a liking to getting away unscathed. It frees up so much of my time. I had tonight blocked for the unavoidable detention, but now it seems that I am free to whatever I please. Maybe I should for a date. I could do with a shag.'

'Who's the victim?' asked James.

'Hm... maybe Violetta Greengrass?' asked Sirius. 'I think she fancies me.'

'You think that everybody fancies you, Padfoot,' said James, rolling his eyes.

'And I am right, am I not?' asked Sirius, rhetorically. 'So what do you think of Violetta? I think she is really fit.'

'She is rather pretty,' admitted James. 'But she is a Slytherin, a pure-blood and a fourth year.'

'I have no problems with teaching a young woman how to love,' said Sirius haughtily. 'And what colour her tie is does not matter at all. I have to admit that it took me some time to get over my distaste for everything Slytherin, but I am glad I did change my mind. Some of the best shags I ever had were with Slytherin girls. And what does her being a pure-blood have to do with anything?'

'I am glad that you so generously share your love with the female population of Hogwarts,' said James, rolling his eyes. 'Do you really think that a pure-blood girl will just let you shag her in some broom cupboard? I don't think so. Most of the more traditional families guard their virginity vigorously as they know it is expected of them to be a virgin bride. As Slytherin is chock full with traditional pure-bloods, you will most likely be out of your luck.'

'You know, you are right,' said Sirius. 'How could I forget about that? Maybe hanging around with the mostly progressive pure-bloods in Gryffindor has confused me. Well, I am going to try anyway. After all, not all pure-bloods girls are prudes. Amber for example is a pure-blood as has no qualms shagging a bloke she is not married to and I assume that you were not her first.'

'Keep your voice down,' hissed James. He did not want any additional information about Amber and him to spread around the castle. 'And no, I wasn't.'

'See, there is hope for me yet,' said Sirius happily. 'And if not, I will just have to find someone else for some tumbling. I will be fine.'

'Sometimes I wonder how you still find any witch willing to shag you,' said James, shaking his head. 'Have you ever managed to end things amicably with a girl you have shagged? By now, most of the girls in the castle must have shagged you and hate your guts by now.'

'You exaggerate James,' said Sirius. 'I have not shagged that many girls. I only managed to bed eleven so far. There are a lot of girls left in this castle for me. Besides, my reputation as a womanizer only turns off girls looking for a boyfriend. Birds looking for some fun know that they will be very happy with me.'

'Good for you,' said James. 'I just think that you should try a proper relationship some time. Maybe you will even like it.'

'Now, that is unlikely,' said Sirius. 'I think, I will pass. Relationships never work and they take way too much time. You have to be a romantic to even think about them. You are a romantic, James, but I am not. Don't try to force your lifestyle on me.'

Just as James wanted to say that he did not want to force anything onto Sirius, McGonagall's voice rang out. Apparently, she had noticed the two of them talking with each other.'

'Mr. Potter, Mr. Black,' she snapped, making both of them jump. 'Is there anything you might want to share with this class?'

'No, professor,' they chorused, arranging their faces in to an innocent expression. James could tell that McGonagall was still miffed with them. Her lips were still rather thin. They would have to tread carefully if they did not want to find themselves in detention after all.

'Now, that is not a surprise,' huffed McGonagall. 'I can't have the two of you interrupting my lesson. We are dealing with partial human transfiguration today for the first time. This kind of transfiguration can only be done when you are concentrating properly. Your antics are not helping at all, so I am going to separate the two of you.'

'Oh, come on Professor,' said Sirius. 'Now, you are just overreacting.'

'It is not your job to judge the way I teach, Mr. Black,' she said coldly. 'Now get up from your seat. Ms. Evans, kindly switch with Mr. Black so that he works with Ms. McKinnon.'

'But, professor,' protested Marlene. 'Is there nobody else Black can swap with? Black and I are not a good mix and neither are James and Lily.'

'Ms. Evans is a prefect,' said McGonagall. 'I am counting on her to control Mr. Potter. You and Mr. Black will just have to get adjusted to each other. Now, move it. I am not going to waste and more time discussing this.'

'Well, that could be fun,' whispered Sirius. 'Don't let Evans kill you during your inevitable argument. In the meantime, I am going to see if I can push some of Marlene's buttons. '

'Don't overdo it,' said James. A ticked off Marlene was going to do something drastic to Sirius and James was going to suffer the fallout from both her and him. He was not overly worried about working with Lily. After all, they were no longer enemies. In fact, he probably would even enjoy spending some time with her. They still were not friends, but rather friendly acquaintances. James liked the status quo much more than their fighting or mutual disdain, so he was interested in keeping things the way they were. Who knows, maybe they could even improve them further and end up as proper friends. A part of James was still harbouring hope that Lily was going to become his girlfriend in the foreseeable future, but he did not let this hope rise to the surface. He still was with Amber and things were well between them, even though they were running on borrowed time. Also, Lily had a boyfriend and James was not going to steal her away from him. Naturally, he refrained from trying not because of moral reasons, but because he knew that it would never work with Lily. She was way too loyal to be swept away from him. So, he was going to play nice and just see what would happen.

Sirius walked away from their table to join Marlene in front of the classroom and was replaced by Lily a minute later. As she sat down, her long red hair which she had arranged in a neat ponytail swung in James's direction and he caught a whiff of a flowery scent which probably was her shampoo. Something inside him squirmed at the smell and resisted the urge to inhale deeply. He cursed inwardly. He was drifting back into being a love-sick idiot around her if he did not get a grip on himself! By now, he had given up on denying his attraction to the pretty redhead. It was okay to feel that way as long as he did not make a bloody fool out of himself all the time. Hopefully, she would not notice his distraction.

'Hey there,' whispered Lily as she sat down in the chair. 'McGonagall is rather cross with you, isn't she?'

James made to answer her, but a cold look from McGonagall quieted him. Instead, he just nodded and refocused his attention back to the teacher, who had started droning on about human transfiguration. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Lily extracting a piece of parchment out of her bag as well as a quill and some ink. She started taking notes diligently. James had to stifle a smile. He should have known. Lily was known in Gryffindor for taking ridiculously detailed notes in all subjects. She was even able to take notes in History of Magic, while almost all other students were bored into stupor by Binns's droning voice. James usually did not bother taking notes in transfiguration. He was naturally gifted at the subjects and usually tinkered with transfiguration well beyond their current curriculum for fun. Also, as a regular reader of transfiguration today, he learned a lot of more advanced transfiguration. He considered it pointless to write down what he already knew and only did it once in a while if one of the other Marauders was absent and had asked him to take notes for him. Today, it was even more pointless to take notes. As an animagus, he knew a lot about human transfiguration and therefore was not at all challenged by today's subject. He glanced at their teacher, who seemed to have noticed that he was not writing down anything, but so far had refrained from commenting. James knew that McGonagall appreciated his talent for transfiguration. It was the only reason why she tolerated him not paying attention in her class. James had a sudden idea: He knew that McGonagall was going to spent most of today's double period to lay the theoretical fundament of human transfiguration and that meant that most of the class would be spent taking notes and listening to her talking. He probably should use this time productively. Lily was not going to be much fun as long as McGonagall explained the theory. She was paying so much attention to their teacher that she did not even glance at James and he knew that distracting her was only going to earn him a few sharp reprimands. Normally, when he was bored in class, he would swap notes with the other Marauders or pull a prank, but he doing that today would be very foolish. McGonagall was already ticked off with him and was paying close attention to all four of the Marauders. Peter and Remus were diligently taking notes, while James suspected that neither of them really needed them. While Remus was not an animagus and not particularly good at transfiguration, he had been exposed to a lot of advanced transfiguration when the other Marauder's had tried to become animagi. Peter should have little problems as well. Neither of his two friends seemed willing to risk McGonagall's wrath, just to entertain him.

He stole another glance at Lily and had to bite back a groan. She was still taking her notes, but at the moment had stopped writing as she was busy looking at McGonagall who was just drawing a complicated looking diagram on the blackboard. Given that she had nothing to do with her quill at the moment, she had placed it into her mouth and was sucking on it. James mind went straight to the gutter and he imagined her sucking his cock like that. He could feel himself harden in his pants and quickly averted his eyes. He was going to make a fool out of himself if he continued looking at her. Instead, he refocused his attention on the diagram on the blackboard. He recognized it immediately, now that it was complete and felt his attention wander on immediately. He just could not focus on this class without being ridiculously bored. As he could not goof around with the other marauders and could not talk or even look at Lily at the moment, he was going to do something productive instead. He opened his school bag for the first time during the lesson and extracted a piece of parchment, quill, ink and his potion book. He had a potion essay to finish and now was as well a time as any to do so. He just needed to be careful: If McGonagall found out that he was doing homework in her class, he would be in a lot of trouble. He stealthily tapped the potion book with his wand. It changed his appearance to match his transfiguration book, which he had not even bothered to take down from the dormitory. There, now McGonagall would just think that he was taking notes like everybody else in this class. James dipped his quill in ink and started to work.

After more than an hour James had made good progress on his essay. Fortunately, McGonagall was very good at keeping the class silent, so he only had to filter out her voice to be able to work in peace. It was not perfect, but it had worked much better than he had expected. He would need to put in some more effort in the essay this evening, but he was satisfied with his work anyway. Sadly, McGonagall had just finished with her theoretical explanation and the time to practice human transfiguration had come. Nevertheless, he was feeling pretty good at the moment. Doing transfiguration always brought a smile on his face. He quietly whistled a tune as he put his essay as well as his book back into his bag, just after McGonagall had told them to start practicing their first human transfiguration spell: Crinus Muto which changed the colour and style of the casters hair. When he looked back up, he found Lily looking at him with a confused expression on his face.

'What?' he asked her. Had he done anything wrong? He did not think so. Why was she looking at him like that?

'What was that you were whistling?' she asked.

'Err,' said James who had not expected that question. What had he been whistling? He had been paying attention. He wrecked his brain for a moment, before coming up with the answer. 'Iron Man by Black Sabbath.'

If Lily had looked confused before, she looked flabbergasted by now. James really did not see what was so confusing about him whistling some heavy metal. It was a bloody brilliant song after all.

'What?' he asked her. 'Don't you like Black Sabbath?'

'You are listening to Muggle music?' she asked.

'Sure,' said James. 'I have a record player at home. It is in a shielded room without any magic, so that it works properly. Sadly, I can't really listen to Muggle records at Hogwarts, there is too much interference. I have read some weeks ago that it is possible to convert a record to a Wizard Wireless recording, but I have never tried it myself.'

'How on earth did you get introduced to Muggle music?' asked Lily. 'You are pure-blood and don't really mingle with a lot of Muggleborns.'

'Sirius,' said James simply. 'You know that he starting taking Muggle Studies back in third year, because he wanted to tick off his parents. Well, they talked about Muggle music in that class and Sirius quickly got interested. He started to visit these Muggle record shops in London and listened to a lot of records there. He dragged me along a few times and I was blown away. I mean, we have a lot of high energy wizarding music, just think of bands like Thousand Inch Wand, but Muggle music just has this raw edge which the wizarding music lacks. It is less polished if you know what I mean. Well, I started listening to rock music, you know the Stones, Beatles and all that jazz, but it was Black Sabbath who really captured my heart. Paranoid is an incredible album, don't you think so?'

James realized that he had been rambling immediately after asking that question. Lily was looking at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face. She obviously had not expected him to be a connoisseur of heavy metal. James smiled at her expression. It felt good to be able to surprise her like that. For the longest time, Lily had dubbed him a bully and a prankster and he loved to poke holes in this distorted image.

'Wow, I never would have guessed that you liked Muggle music like that,' she said after having recovered from her shock. 'Black Sabbath is not my cup of tea, I like the Beatles.'

'Of course you do,' said James, with a smirk on his face. 'Every girl likes the Beatles.'

'What is that supposed to mean?' she asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Just that their music is so polished and diluted that nobody can truly dislike it,' said James. 'It is not that they produce bad stuff, but personally I just think it is bland and boring.'

'Well, you are free to think so, but you are wrong,' said Lily, with a sparkle in her eyes. James laughed.

'Who would have thought that the two of us would ever argue about which Muggle band is better?' he asked. 'Nobody is going to believe us when we tell them about that conversation.'

'Mr. Potter, are you practicing?' rang McGonagall's voice through the class room. James looked up, just to see his teacher looking suspiciously at him.

'Of course, Professor,' he replied. He picked his wand and pointed it at Lily.

'Well, looks like we have to get cracking,' he said, with a grin on his face. 'McGonagall told us to get started with the eyebrows, but that is boring. I think I am going to change my hair as well.'

'Is that wise?' she asked. 'Shouldn't you stick to the basics? After all, this is your first time attempting human transfiguration.'

'Is it now?' asked James with a smirk. 'Maybe I am quite adept at this branch of transfiguration as well.'

'Maybe you are not,' said Lily.

'What's that? Don't you have any confidence in my transfiguration skills?' James asked, with a slight pout on his face.

'I am just being prudent,' she said rolling her eyes. 'While I know that you are excellent at transfiguration, a fact that you insist on sharing with everybody who might listen, I still don't think it is a smart idea to experiment on yourself.'

'It is only experimenting if you don't know what's going to happen,' James pointed out with a smile on his face. 'I know perfectly well what I am going to do.'

'Well, go ahead then,' said Lily. She raised her wand at him nevertheless. 'Let's see if you can change your hair to blonde.'

'Does it really have to be blonde?' James asked. 'Blonde only looks good on birds. Can't I just transfigure it into long straight black hair?'

'Already backing down?' she asked. James shook his head. 'Well, then get started.'

James toyed with the thought of protesting further, but decided against it. It was not going to make a difference and he had effectively boxed himself in. Well, if he wanted to show off, he would do it right and do the spell non-verbally. He gathered his concentration, waved his wand and though the incantation. Immediately, James could feel a prickling on his scalp and knew that the spell had worked. He picked up an empty piece of parchment and transfigured it into a mirror and checked his reflection. He had done good work. His hair had been evenly changed to a rich golden colour and the eyebrows had changed as well. He looked a whole lot better than he had expected, but still preferred his dark natural colour. He liked the contrast of his fair skin and inky black hair.

'Well done,' said Lily. 'Even though you are a show-off for doing it non-verbally. You were right about the blonde, though. Maybe some darker colour next time. I think you look a lot better with dark hair than with blonde hair.'

James raised an eyebrow at that.

'You know Lily that almost sounded like a compliment' he said smirking. 'I always knew that you had a thing for my hair. You are terrible at hiding your attraction, you know?'

'Oh, shut up,' she said, hitting his should lightly. James was pretty sure he could see amusement in her eyes.

'Deny it all you want, but I know the truth,' said James haughtily, finally causing her to laugh. He felt something warm spread in his stomach. Things were finally looking up with Lily Evans! The though brought him a wave of happiness, tipped with a bit of guilt. After all, he was still on his mission to move on from fancying Lily Evans. He was not sure that he was currently making progress in that regard.

'Well, it is your turn to try,' he said.

'Oh,' said Lily. 'Alright, but I am going to stick to the eyebrows at first. I don't want to risk messing up my hair too much. What colour do you think I should get?'

'Err,' said James, surprised that she was asking his opinion. What colour should she get? In his mind, her coppery red was the perfect colour for her, but he hardly could say that to her without sounding like a love-sick idiot. So, he had to pick another colour. 'Do you think you can manage to turn them black so that they match my natural colour? I think it would be an interesting contrast between red and black.'

'I suppose I could,' she glanced at his hair for a moment. 'But you have to turn in back first. I want to study your hair first, before I attempt that spell.'

'Right,' said James. He was not sure what exactly she had to study about his hair. After all, she had seen it countless times over the last six years. Nevertheless, he flicked his wand and turned his hair back to his natural colour. There, now he was not looking like a fool anymore.

Lily looked at him for a moment in utter concentration. James could see her biting her lower lip, like she usually did when she was intensely thinking about something. He had always found that gesture strangely endearing and today was no exception. Maybe being so close to her was not the best idea. He was slipping back into his old habits.

'Crinus Muto', she said and James could see her eyebrows changing to an inky black. It was a shade lighter than his colour, but it was a good start nevertheless. He passed her the mirror and she beamed when she realized that she had done it. Her expression darkened a bit, when she realized that it was not quite right.

'It has to be a bit darker,' she said ponderously. She screwed her face up in concentration and repeated the charm. This time, she managed to produce the desired colour.

'Well, done, Miss Evans,' said Professor McGonagall, who had chosen just this moment to sweep by at their table.

'Thank you, Professor,' said Lily.

'It is good to see that Mr. Potter did not prevent you from paying attention to my class,' she said with a rather frosty glance.

James suppressed the desire to roll his eyes. McGonagall really was angry with him. Normally, she would have asked to see him do the charm by now and would probably have granted him some points when he performed well. Today she did not seem to be in the mood. He just hoped that Lily did not use this opportunity to get him into trouble. McGonagall would surely go ballistic if she learned that he had done Potions in her class. He doubted that Lily had noticed, but he could not be sure.

'Oh no, Professor,' said Lily. 'He has been very well behaved. In fact, I even have enjoyed his company.'

Both McGonagall and James were stunned by that statement. McGonagall recovered first. She gave Lily a disbelieving look, but refrained from saying anything and hurried on.

'She is really annoyed with you at the moment,' said Lily. In just that moment, the bell rang indicating the end of the lesson.

'Yeah, but she will calm down,' said James. 'Thanks for your support. You did not have to lie to her though.'

Lily gathered her things, before answering him.

'I wasn't lying,' she said and swept out of the classroom with a small smile on her face. James just stared after her until Sirius shouted at him to get a move on.