Little Changes

Isilarma

Written for Slytherin Cat for the 2014 GGE. Hope you all enjoy it :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and am not affiliated with Bloomsbury or Scholastic Inc.

The art of Conjuring living creatures requires extreme concentration and unparalleled technical knowledge...

Lily groaned and rolled over yet again. She'd been trying to get to sleep for the past two hours, but the work she had been attempting to finish before bed was not helping. Neither were Marlene's snores, but she was used to ignoring those.

Right. She was not going to think about Transfiguration for the next eight hours.

Golpalott's Third Law states that the antidote for a blended poison will be equal to more than the sum of the antidotes for each of the separate components...

Lily liked Potions. She did not like Potions at half past two in the morning. She pulled her sheets up over her head. One hippogriff, two hippogriffs...

The bite of the Venomous Tentacula conveys venom of sufficient potency to cause death within eight hours...

That was enough. Lily sat up and grabbed her wand from her bedside table. Maybe something completely unrelated to work would distract her. She looked round in the dim light and scowled. Of course this had to be the one night she left a book in the common room. Then again, maybe a walk would help. She pulled on her dressing gown and slipped out of bed. Anything was better than lying there getting more and more wound up.

Lily was pleased to note that the tower was silent as she made her way down to the common room. All too often she had to remind the younger students, and occasionally the older ones too, that the night was for sleeping, not gossiping, studying, or having midnight feasts. Though she could never be too annoyed at them for the latter. She wasn't that much of a hypocrite. This time though, everything was quiet.

Unfortunately, the common room wasn't quite as deserted. Even more unfortunately, the one inhabitant was the last person Lily wanted to see late at night. Part of her wondered why she was surprised. After all, James Potter did seem to have decided his life's one true purpose was to drive her to distraction.

Lily bit her lip. Potter was seated at the table closest to the fire with his back to her. Her book was on the shelf above his head. Maybe she could use a Summoning Charm...

Of course, Potter chose that moment to look round.

"Evans?" His voice was slightly hoarse with disuse, and his hair was somehow even more rumpled than usual. "What are you doing down here?"

Lily bit back a groan and nodded above his head. "I came for my book." Maybe he would take the hint and let her leave in peace.

Potter got to his feet and stretched. "Couldn't sleep?"

Of course not. "No," said Lily dryly. "I was fast asleep and decided I wanted to practice my sleep-reading."

Potter just grinned as he handed over the book. "So, what's the matter?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Nothing you need to worry about."

Potter slumped back into his seat and folded his hands behind his head. "You know, if you don't tell me, I'm going to have to guess."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Good night, Potter." She turned to head back up to the dormitory. She most certainly did not need to know what disturbing fantasies Potter's mind could produce.

"Stressed about work?"

Lily paused with one foot on the step. Slowly, she looked round. Potter just shrugged. "Everyone is. Even those who won't say so."

Lily didn't need to stay. She could tell Potter to leave her alone, and go back and read and hopefully sleep.

But she was tired. Tired of having to pretend that she was dealing perfectly well with everything so as to set an example to her classmates. Tired of keeping everything bottled up. And Potter, for all his faults, knew how to keep things to himself.

"Yes," she said quietly. She crossed the room to sit opposite him. "I know they warned us that N.E. would be a step up, but I never expected anything like this."

Potter grimaced. "I know the feeling. But what are you worrying about? You're already top of the year."

"Yes, because I work," Lily snapped. "You see, some of us actually want to do more with our lives than playing pranks. Not that you'd know anything about that," she added under her breath.

Potter placed a hand on his chest, his eyes wide with mock-horror. "I always work hard."

"Of course you do. Next thing you'll be telling me that's why you were down here in the middle of the night."

For a split-second Potter's eyes flashed to the pile of parchment next to him, but then he leaned back in his chair, his all too familiar smirk spreading across his face. "Keep dreaming, Evans. Now, if you don't mind, the Slug Club is having one of their lovely little get togethers next week, and I really need to think of some suitable entertainment for them."

Anyone else would have believed him, but, despite her best intentions, Lily had gotten to know James Potter over the past five years. She had seen him when he was planning pranks, and when he was defending himself to a teacher or a prefect. Now, his answer was a little too cocky and his smile a little too forced for her to take him at face value. And the mere fact that he had admitted to planning a prank to her of all people was enough to set alarm bells ringing. Lily folded her arms and glared at him.

"What's on the parchment, Potter?"

"Can't give away trade secrets, Evans," he drawled. "You know that."

Lily's eyes narrowed. "So you are working on a prank."

"Well, yeah. What did you expect?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Then, as a prefect, my duty is this." She whipped out her wand and concentrated. There was a split-second's pause, then the parchment shot into her waiting hand. Lily allowed a grin to touch her lips. Nonverbal spells were really quite useful.

Potter glared at her. "That was a dirty move, Evans."

Lily ignored him. His tone was more admiring than annoyed. She scanned the parchment and froze.

She was expecting to find some elaborate schematic for a new prank. She was not expecting to read, in surprisingly neat handwriting:

Discuss the classification of charms and spells with regard to naturally and magically occurring transformations, and provide suitable examples of each.

Lily stared at the title, then at Potter, then back again. "This is our Charms essay."

"Congratulations, Evans," Potter muttered. "You can recognise our coursework."

Lily chose to ignore that. "I thought you and Black were boasting that you could start this the night before and still get an O."

Potter's shoulders slumped and he gave a rueful shrug. "Yeah, that does sound like us."

That he was willing to say as much was enough to make Lily raise an eyebrow. She looked at his work. There were several inches of Potter's familiar scrawl, but even at a glance she could see that he hadn't filled the word limit. "Looks like you're having trouble."

Potter pulled a face. "I finished the Transfiguration analysis in about ten minutes, but the Charms... That's less fun."

"You have a strange definition of fun," said Lily dryly.

Potter shrugged again. "I understand Transfiguration."

Lily didn't need to be told that. She had been in the same class as him for over five years. "Lucky you."

Potter glanced at her. "I bet you could do this no problem."

There was a complete lack of rancour in his voice, but what really made Lily pause was the sincerity in his eyes. This wasn't just flattery, he actually meant what he was saying. She should know; she had, after all, had plenty of practice with James Potter's attempts at flirting. This...this was just him being honest.

Maybe he deserved the same.

"I'm a bit stuck," she admitted. "Not with the Charms," she added, when he raised an eyebrow. "That's fine. The details for the Transfiguration arguments have been giving me some trouble."

Potter leaned forwards. "You know there's an obvious solution here."

Lily stared at him for a moment, then the penny dropped with an almost audible clatter. "You have got to be joking."

"What? Come on, you can't deny that we'd be a brilliant combination."

Lily grimaced and waited for the inevitable pick-up line, but Potter simply continued to stare at her. She pinched herself. No, this was definitely happening. "You really think we should work together."

"Why not?"

Lily stared at him. "This may have escaped your notice, Potter, but I don't like you."

"Don't worry," said Potter dryly. "You've made that very clear. Look," he said, before she could comment, "I'm not asking you to Hogsmeade, or to visit me over the holidays, or anything else like that, I just want to work on this. Promise."

Lily knew exactly what she should say. She should tell him just how stupid an idea this was. There was no denying that Potter did know what he was doing when Transfiguration was involved, but he was also the last person in the world that Lily would want to work with. She should go back to bed and leave Potter to do his own work.

But the mere fact that he had asked, and was actually taking this seriously had piqued her curiosity. So she didn't immediately snap something back and disappear back to bed. She folded her arms and fixed him with what Black had described as her scary prefect stare.

"What's going on here, Potter?"

"What do you mean?"

"You never seemed to care about your marks before," Lily pointed out. "Yet here you are at nearly three in the morning."

Potter frowned. "And now me caring is a bad thing? Make your mind up, Evans."

Lily continued to stare at him. Potter shifted under the scrutiny and dropped his gaze. "Maybe I changed my mind," he muttered.

"Why?" asked Lily.

For a moment there was no sound but that of the crackling fire. Then Potter let out a sigh and tilted his head back. "There's a war going on, Lily."

Lily blinked, taken aback by the abrupt subject change. "I know," she said slowly. "There's been a war going on for a long time."

"Exactly." He looked at her, and Lily was struck by the expression on his face. "Voldemort's getting stronger. We're losing Aurors and Hit Wizards. And Dumbledore can't be everywhere at once." His hands clenched into fists where they rested on his knees. "This isn't going to go away."

Lily stared at him. "And you think you can do something to change that?" She winced internally at the incredulity in her voice, but Potter just shook his head.

"No. I don't know. I hope so." He scowled and shook his head. "I don't know," he whispered.

Lily felt a sudden irrational urge to take his hand. Or pat his arm, or something. She very firmly squashed the impulse. She was just opening her mouth when Potter looked up again, and the fire in his hazel eyes killed any words she might have spoken.

"But I do know that I have to try. And if I'm going to try then I have to be my best." He gave a rueful grin. "Even if that does mean slaving away over some stupid essay." The smile faded as he looked at her. "If you don't want to work with me, that's fine. But we'd both do better if we did this together."

Lily studied him. There still remained the possibility that all this was some elaborate scheme he'd concocted with Black and the others. After seeing some of their pranks, she really wouldn't be surprised. But Lily considered herself a good judge of character, and something told her that James had been telling the truth. He really did want to do some good.

Maybe he wasn't the same prat he'd been for the past five years. Maybe he was. Either way, he deserved a chance.

"Meet me in the library tomorrow after lunch," she said abruptly. "I know you've got a free then. We'll see what we can do."

James' eyes lit up, but then his face settled into a familiar smirk. "Memorised my timetable, have you, Evans? I know there was something going on."

Lily gritted her teeth. "Do you want to do this, or not?"

The smile died immediately and he nodded. "Tomorrow after lunch. All right then."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned away. "Don't bring Black."

"The thought never even crossed my mind," James called. He settled back into his chair and picked up his quill. "Good night, Lily."

"Good night, James."

Only at the top of the stars did she pause.

She had just had a civil conversation with James Potter. She was willingly going to work with James Potter. There was no way this was going to end well.

Lily took a deep, calming breath. One meeting. James would be a prat, she would snap at him, and then everything would be back to normal. Yes. Everything would be fine. After all, there was no chance that Potter had changed that much.

A very small part of her had to admit, though, that he was making quite a good start.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated.