AN: Here we go. This story has been a long time in the making, and since I'm stuck in an airport for who knows how long, I've decided to write it all (hopefully) today. Wish me luck!

"A man does what he can; a woman does what a man cannot."
― Isabel Allende, Inés of My Soul

Day One:

Lily adjusted her robes and reached up to brush locks of hair that were no longer there behind her ear. So far everything was going according to her plan. Her plan was as follows: Don't get caught. It was short and simple, but she had a feeling that it was going to be a bit more difficult than the brevity suggested.

The train ride had been long, but she had kept to herself and no one had really tried to talk to her. They had stared, and whispered behind their hands, which had worried her at first, but she assumed that the whispering had more to do with the fact that she was a new student than anything else. She knew that Hogwarts didn't receive a lot of transfer students, especially not seventh years.

She had been sorted into Gryffindor, which wasn't much of a shock to her, even though she had been hoping for Ravenclaw. With how far behind she was in all of the classes that Hogwarts offered, she could use the ego boost to remind her of how intelligent she was. But Gryffindor was a good fit too, because it was either extremely brave or extremely stupid to be doing what she was doing. According to the hat that had gone through her head, it was a bit of both.

"This is strange." One of her new roommates said, throwing his cloak on a bed near a window and staring at the bed that had Lily's trunk near it. This particular roommate was too broad and good looking to be only seventeen years old. He had a sharp jawline, stormy eyes and hair that Lily would kill for at the moment. She once again reached up for her own hair. "It's only ever been the four of us."

"It is going to be an… adjustment." This roommate was tall, thin and also had better hair than Lily. He didn't speak as though he was trying to scare Lily into suggesting she sleep in the common room, but she could tell by all the glances the four boys before her kept sharing that she wasn't exactly a welcomed addition.

"I won't be a bother, I promise." She said, her voice an octave that was still unfamiliar to her. "With all the homework we'll get this year, I doubt I'll be anywhere but class and the library for the most part."

Roommate number three seemed to agree with her as he laughed humorlessly and patted a stack of books that he had just finished fishing out of his trunk. "I think that you've got the right of it." He sighed. "And don't listen to them," He waved off the other two, who had taken to unpacking their trunks as well. "They don't have any friends outside of this room so their social skills are subpar at best. My name's Remus." He stood up and held out a hand in her direction.

Lily liked this boy almost instantly. He had sandy blonde hair, dark blue eyes and a crooked smile that didn't make her feel at all unwelcomed. "Nice to meet you, Remus. I'm Marcus."

"McKinnon, right?" Lily's eyes darted back over to the first boy.

"That's Sirius." Remus said, his tone indicative of an eye roll.

"Marcus McKinnon." Lily nodded. "That's right. My name mean something to you?"

"I might have met your sister at some point." He shrugged, and Lily knew that this was her first test. Sirius had chosen those words deliberately and she was a bloke now, she couldn't just ignore them.

"You'd remember meeting one of my sisters," She said, turning away and picking up her stack of school books. She walked around her bed and set them on the night stand. "Marlene would kick your arse if you tried anything, Felicity would have had me kick your arse and Jemma's an Auror, so I'm just going to assume you weren't talking about her."

The room was quiet for a minute and she could feel all four boys stares on her back. She ran a finger along the spines of her books and shifted them around so that her Transfigurations book was on the top. It was her first class tomorrow morning.

Sirius was the first to break the silence, laughing and shaking his head, he walked across the room and held out his hand. "Sirius Black. It's nice to meet you."

Lily couldn't help but feel a bit victorious as she took his hand and repeated the sentiment. The tall boy walked over and offered her his hand as well.

"James Potter. That lad over there is Peter Pettigrew." The fourth boy waved. "We don't mean to come off as-"

"Prats?" Remus offered.

"Sure." James shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "It's only, the four of us are pretty close-"

"Too close." Remus interjected.

"Some could make that argument." James nodded.

"Some have. McGonagall called you and Pads 'dysfunctional codependents' in her end of year reviews. She also made sure that you were both taking some different classes so that the other professors didn't have to deal with the two of you as a pair."

"Yes, we get it Remus." Sirius threw one of his shoes at Remus. "But we can't help it. James and I are in love and we don't care who knows it." James laughed and blew a kiss in Sirius's direction, the later pretended to catch it and then winked, slipping his hand into his pocket.

"I'm not dealing with another year of this." Peter said, walking over to Remus's trunk and digging through until he found a blue tin. "What did your mum send up this year?"

"Coconut fudge." Remus said, snatching the tin from him. "But I don't remember saying that I was going to share with you."

"Don't touch Moony's chocolate, Pete. You know better than that." James said, gripping the hem of his dress shirt and wrenching it over his head. "We should probably get to bed soon." He was reaching for his pants now and Lily could feel her face heating up. She could count on one hand the number of naked boys she'd seen. Actually, she didn't need to use her hand because she'd seen none. None naked boys.

Sirius let out a yawn of assent and then started undoing the buttons on his shirt. "I'm not going to enjoy transitioning back to school schedule."

"You mean waking up before one in the afternoon?" James' pants were now pooled around his ankles and Lily wasn't sure what to do. Remus and Peter had started to undress as well and it was going to look very strange if she just stood there all red in the face and watched them. Would it be weird if she took her pajamas and changed in the loo?

It didn't really matter if it was strange, it was her only option. They may have changed a lot about her physic with hall their spells and whatnot, but she was still a girl underneath her cloths. She had bound her chest to make it look flat and that was about it.

She picked up her nightclothes and grabbed her toothbrush before heading off to the loo.

"Bit shy, McKinnon?" Sirius called after her.

She knew that she should say something, shoot back with some witty comeback, but she was at a loss and opted for pretending she didn't hear him and closing the door behind her. She pulled her clothes off quickly, and when she was dressed again, she ran her toothbrush under the tap and then walked back into the room with it hanging out of her mouth.

"What time does breakfast start?" She asked, throwing her laundry at the foot of her bed. That was something that she wasn't going to have a hard time remembering. She was naturally a slob. So you know, at least she had that going for her.

"Breakfast starts at seven. But you can eat till ten."

"Don't classes start at nine?"

"Yeah, but not everyone has a class at nine." Peter smiled. "Like me for example. Tomorrow I have free period till eleven." Sirius sighed dramatically and threw a pillow at him.

"That's because you failed out of Transfiguration."

"Yes, but I don't have class till eleven on Fridays."

"It's strange that we're starting school on a Friday this year." James said, running a hand through his hair. "Though I suppose it will make it easier to have Quidditch tryouts early. I'll just have them this weekend."

"You're not going to be a git and have two day tryouts again, are you?" Sirius said, looking ready to lob another pillow at someone. Lily walked back to the loo and spit, rinsed out her mouth and then left her tooth brush on the counter.

She came back into the room and fished her schoolbag out of her trunk, not really paying attention to the conversation because Quidditch was something that she just wasn't familiar with. They didn't have a league at Beauxbatons, which is where Lily studied magic for the last six years of her life. Her headmistress, Evelyn Fox, had thought the sport far too violent for the ladies that she was cultivating.

"What about you, McKinnon? What do you play?"

"What?" Lily turned towards James, with what she was sure was a blank expression.

"What position do you play?" Lily blinked.

"Quidditch position?" She asked.

"That is what we're talking about." He nodded. "You've got an in with the captain after all, so if you wanted to try out for the team…"

"How do I have an 'in'?"

"Well, I'm the captain." He said, cocking his head to the side. "And you're my roommate-"

"Oh, right. Well, I don't play Quidditch so, thanks anyway."

"What do you mean you don't play?" James laughed. "Isn't Marlene on a short list for the Harpies?"

"That's my cousin Gwen." Lily corrected.

"Right," He nodded. "So you're no good at all then?"

"Probably not. I've never played. Never even flied a broom actually." This seemed to shock James more than Lily thought it should.

"What?" This was Sirius, and after quickly glancing at him, she noticed that he and James wore similar expressions. "What do you mean you've never flown a broom before?"

Lily shrugged. "I never really wanted to." She was impersonating a pureblood. A member of a family that she knew for a fact was very into Quidditch. Marlene may not have been on a short list for the Harpies this year, but Lily knew very well that that was where she was headed. There was no way that James and Sirius were going to accept that she'd never flow simply because she wasn't interested, at least, not judging by the expressions they were currently wearing.

"Where's your broom, Prongs?" Sirius asked, grabbing for his pants.

"If he's never flown before, I'm not letting him use my broom. It's the new Comet. We'll have him use one of the school brooms." He too grabbed for his pants.

"What's going on here?"

"You can do this tomorrow after class." Remus sighed, pulling back his comforter and climbing into bed. "If he's never flown, do you really think his first time should be in the dark?"

James and Sirius looked at one another and then James threw his pants back into his trunk. "Alright, first thing after classes then."

"I can't believe you've never flown before."

"You know there's a reason I've never flown." Lily said, suddenly quite nervous about tomorrow for an entirely new reason.

"Don't care." James said.

"It's unacceptable." Sirius agreed.

"It is a bit strange." Peter allowed.

Before Lily could come up with an argument that would get her out of her flight lesson, all four boys had gotten in bed and the lights over their beds went out one by one, till hers was the only one still on. She took a deep breath and shook her head. She would deal with it tomorrow.

With the hangings around their beds drawn shut, Lily felt as though she was about as alone as she was going to be, and she had promised to write to Marlene to let her know how things were going, so she pulled out some parchment, a pencil and climbed into bed.

Dear Mars,

First things first, take a deep breath and let it out. I've survived my first day and no one knows that I'm not actually your brother. The spells all stayed in place, my chest is still bound and though someone gave me shit for using the loo to change, it wasn't really a big deal. So far, what everyone seems to be most worried about is that I've never flown on a broom before. I'm starting to think that that's something we should have gone over, not that we had the time.

Seems as though I'm more brawn than brain, not that you'll be surprised. I've been placed in Gryffindor and I've got the strangest roommates. They seem nice, just strange. They're clearly very close, and I already feel like some useless fifth wheel that someone just kind of threw at them. You might know two of them, James Potter and Sirius Black? They seemed familiar with your name, if you know why, you should probably let me know.

Anyway, how's Beauxbatons? Still insufferable? Which classes are you in this year? Hosting Magical Creatures? Advanced Ballroom Dancing? The Art of Keeping House? Try not to stab yourself in the eye with your quill.

That's all for now I suppose,

Your friend who is going to become an Auror no matter the cost,

L

AN: Alright, we're about to embark on an adventure together because I had half of this written already. My writing is either going to go downhill real fast here, or it shall surprise us all.