James slipped through the crowd, wondering when he had decided that approaching Lily wouldn't get him hexed immediately. This plan was one of the more questionable plans he had come up with and it certainly wasn't because he was sending Sirius and Peter to deal with Sirius' less crazy cousin and her fiancé.

Walking beside Lily for a few moments, James contemplates how smart his endeavor was. Lily could easily say no, and he would have to find an alternative. He couldn't transfigure too much of himself, lest the underage magic rule take effect. Most people didn't understand that small magic was easy to slip under the radar, especially in predominantly magical places, but larger and more powerful magic? That was impossible to hide without applying wards to do so, and the wards would trigger the underage law first.

Taking a chance at the next alleyway, James grabbed Lily's wrist and bodily shoved her into the shadowed place. "Shh!" He muttered, placing his other hand over her mouth.

This close to her, he noticed the small things he hadn't noticed ever before. Lily was so much smaller than him, and her eyes were almond shaped, not round like he had assumed before. Looking at her like this, he wished that she hadn't altered her appearance, so he could see if her eyes were really as green as he thought they were.

Green eyes that were filled with petty rage, as she bit down hard on his hand. Pulling his arm away with a curse, he whisper-yelled, "Evans! It's me, James… Potter! Don't scream, please?"

"Why shouldn't I hex your balls off right now, Potter?" Lily asked, lips curled, disgusted and angry, as he slowly pulled off his invisibility cloak. "What are you doing here, Potter? And with an invisibility cloak no less."

James bristled at the unwanted questions, and he couldn't quite refrain from retorting. "I could ask the same of you, Evans, since you have especially good transfigurations covering your body."

"That's none of your business, Potter," she spat at him, anger and attitude from the previous years resurfacing. James suppressed a grin at that, wondering when he had started missing her temper. "What do you want?"

"A tiny favor, Evans." James said, and when she gestured for him to go on, he explained his entire idea to her. It wasn't a very problematic or difficult plan, but at the same time it wasn't the most well planned out either. James would definitely attribute that to the fact that Remus hadn't been there while they were plotting, and Sirius' sense of 'danger' was different from other people's.

James went through everything. "So, what do you think?"

"I think that it's the worst plan I have ever heard," Lily said, a considering look on her face. James knew his face fell, shoulder's slumping. This was his last resort, after all. "I also think that it might be some fun."

Lily laughed, likely at the way he had perked up at her words. "You're not kidding, right?" James asked, hushed and in awe. "You'll really do it?"

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"Thank you!" He said, grabbing her into a hug and grinning widely. "I will do anything for you in return! See you in a bit, Evans!"

With that, James turned and throwing the invisibility cloak over himself, he dashed out of the alley. He just had to find Remus now, and tell him about the change in plans before leaving to get Sirius and head to the rendezvous point. It couldn't be all that difficult, right?

James skid to a stop beside where Remus was supposed to be. He couldn't see Remus, but that was expected since they weren't supposed to even be there. Something about disguises. He did see a dark-haired, sullen looking teen slouched in the alley though, and he skipped towards the boy.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered in the teens ear.

The boy stiffened slightly. "Who are you? Where are you?"

He started turning around in circles, eyes wide and breathing panicked. James took a few steps back and resisted the urge to sigh. That was clearly not Remus, because Remus knew the answer to their code. In the background, James could hear the sounds of the alley getting softer. The hush that fell was filled with awe and horror, and James could feel a warm, pleasant feeling thrum through his veins – the satisfaction of a plan going the right way.

"Ah, hello there," Remus' voice came from behind him, and James watched as the boy whirled to look through him at Remus.

"What are you doing here?" The boy asked, narrowing his eyes.

"That's none of your business."

"It is when you creep up on me and mutter bullshit in my ears."

Remus frowned. "Muttering bullshit in your ears? I haven't done anything of that sort."

"As if I'd believe one of you posh fools," the boy sneered. James sighed. He should have probably looked at Remus' disguise before they left, but he had been so excited to leave the castle. This was an adventure after all. And he loved adventures!

The boy continued to mutter, and James just tuned him out, turning to Remus. Surprisingly, his disguise merely involved removing his scars and changing his clothes to something from Sirius' wardrobe. It changed the way he looked though, much younger and much more casual than usual.

"You aren't even listening to what I have to say!" the boy exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. He was acting like a twelve-year-old, which he might have been for all James knew.

"Yeah… I'm not good at listening to people," Remus said, scratching his cheek slightly. James wasn't sure if it was a quirk of disguise or if the scar that he got there recently was hurting him.

The boy glared and stormed out of the alley without letting Remus continue. James stifled his laughter, knowing that he would've acted the same way. Even Sirius would have acted the same way.

"Well, at least I managed the mischief better than you," Remus said, out loud. To anyone else, it would look like he was talking to himself, but James knew better.

"I could've dealt with it myself," James said, walking out of the shadows that had concealed him as he removed his cloak. No need for anyone else to know that he had an invisibility cloak. "Anyways, how's your job going?"

"My job is to literally just stand here until you're done." Remus muttered, glaring at the sky. "What's the change in the plan?"

"Sirius had to check something, Lily is helping out and I have no idea what Peter is doing."

"What did Sirius mess up now?"

"For once, it isn't his fault," James said, defending his best friend. "But yeah, counterfeit."

Remus sent him a confused look. "Did you expect Borgin and Burkes to give an underage kid the real copy on demand? Borgin and Burkes which is a known dark artefacts store, and is literally built off of swindling, fraud and multiple other illegal activities that I can't remember?"

"When you put it like that, it makes me feel stupid," James said casually, resisting the urge to bang his head against the wall.

Remus was logical in the way he thought, and he picked up on stuff extremely fast. Maybe he should have involved Remus in this impromptu change in plans because he knew that Remus was going to end up hitting him before he was done explaining their current plan. Sure, Sirius was good at picking out flaws, but he wasn't great at giving out better ideas. Generally, Sirius' ideas were worse than his.

"Which is what you deserve if you make stupid decisions," Remus shot back, completely unaffected by James' glare. Suddenly, sound rushed back into the alley, and James widened his eyes. What had happened to Lily? Was Sirius done already?

He grabbed Remus' wrist and checked the watch on his hand. They still had ten minutes before they had to leave. What was going on then? What had gone wrong with his plan?

Remus wrenched his wrist away from him and his eyes hardened, no doubt having noticed the difference in sound level. "What did you do, James?"

James opened his mouth and Lily rushed into the alley. "I can't do this! We need to leave now!"

"What? No! Did you just leave Sirius back there, by himself?" James asked, voice rising slightly. "How could you do that?"

Sirius wouldn't be able to get away because Remus and James had the two portkeys they had created for this mess. And neither of them were close enough for Sirius to walk around Knockturn without someone spotting him and reporting back to Hogwarts.

"I came here to buy something for myself! It was supposed to be a stealth mission. Not one where I walked through the alley, pretending to be a vampire! I was supposed to be inconspicuous!" Lily ranted, throwing her arms in the air. James took a few steps back from her flailing limbs and the way her eyes glinted with fear.

"A vampire?" Remus yelped, turning his glare to James.

James shook his head, knowing that he was getting into so much trouble for this later. But Sirius was still out there, hopefully with Peter and he had to get to Sirius. "We need to get -"

Remus shook his head. "I'm not listening to your plans, James. Give me the cloak, take Lily and Peter and go back to Hogwarts."

Peter? Looking at Lily again, he saw the rat that was sitting on her shoulder and trying to cower away from her and avoid falling off at the same time. Peter made a funny figure there, and James wanted to laugh hysterically. Instead, he threw the cloak at Remus, even as he opened his mouth to protest.

"This was our mess, James." Remus said, sounding tired. "Just go."

James nodded, hoping desperately that whatever Remus was planning would work. Then, with a resolute glance at Remus' retreating back, he held his hand out to Lily. She hesitated, not reaching forward to take his hand, but not cursing him like she had always done. She looked at him, her eyes bleeding green now, that same bright green that he couldn't stop himself from staring into.

Lily took his hand.

James stared at their joined hands for a moment. Pulling out the portkey, he whispered, "Green whispers."

There was a tug behind his navel, Lily's hand tightening her grip on his and they were gone.