Crash and Burn

Liliana Arista Evans flopped over sleepily in her bed, fumbling for the "snooze" button on her muggle alarm clock. She finally slapped her hand down on the offending clock, and snuggled deeper into her warm duvet.

Unwillingly, the thought of morning classes floated through her mind, and simply would not depart. So, with a great sigh, she heaved herself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom.

15 minutes and a hot shower later, Lily was making her way to the Great Hall while hurriedly pointing her hair up into a messy bun. Lily's best friend, Calista Windsor met her at the base of one of the staircases. Her blond hair caught up in a very elaborate hairstyle and blue eyes sparkling, Calista was very pretty and had a fantastic sense of humour.

Lily look dubiously at the long staircase ahead of her, and then at the smooth banister with a raised eyebrow. She looked at Calista, who merely grinned back. This was the only sign she needed before Lily hopped onto the banister, pulling Calista with her.

A smug smile on her attractive face, Lily slid all the way down the spiralling staircase that led to the great hall, before landing in a heap with her best friend at the feet of the most popular boy in school.

Squinting up at him, she grinned cheekily.

"Hello, love."

Enter James Potter. Star and Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, ¼ of the maurauders pranking group, and voted hottest boy of the year, all 4 ½ of his years at Hogwarts. He had a fantastic voice, ocean blue eyes and messy black hair. His girlfriend, Hilary Maxwell was blond, blue eyed and curvy.

James looked down at this heap of girls and raised an eyebrow.

"It's Lilac right?"

"Not even close." Lily made no move to disentangle herself from Calista and continued looking up at James.

"So it's...."

"Does it matter?"

"Lily Evans!" Hilary Maxwell pushed her way through the small crowd that had gathered and stomped next to James. "Paws off you freak! He's mine!"

Raising a delicate eyebrow, she looked enquiringly at James.

"Your Zoo Keeper?"

James blushed.

"Ah well, Ranger Maxwell you've kept him from me this time." She snapped her teeth playfully at James. "Now if you'll excuse me."

Lily and Calista pushed their way through the crowd, giggling madly and heading towards the Gryffindor table.

"Good morning." Lily grinned at Elizabeth Williams, who merely raised her eyebrow in greeting.

"Get into a brawl this early?" Elizabeth carefully buttered a piece of toast while still looking pointedly at Calista's drooping hairpiece.

"Had a bit of a run in with James Potter." Lily snickered.

"Oh and how did that go?" Elizabeth blue a strand of blue-black hair out of her face and glanced at Lily, trying to seem disinterested.

"Oh you know, the usual. That horrible girlfriend of his is never far behind so there wasn't really time to exchange political views or anything. And no, Sirius wasn't with him."

Elizabeth blushed.

***

"Two flicks of the wrist should do it! And, contrary to Mr. Black's believe, it is NOT funny to turn your peers into woodchucks..." Professor McGonagall glanced sharply at Sirius Black and James Potter, who were snickering in the corner.

Lily rolled her eyes, and continued to concentrate on turning her tea kettle into a rabbit. Try as she might, Lily couldn't manage it. She sighed and proceeded to set fire to her kettle just to see what McGonagall would do.

Calista noted what Lily had done and decided to help it along. "Fire!" she screamed pathetically, placing a hand to her forehead and pretending to faint.

Professor McGonagall was not amused. She walked stiffly over to Lily, who was trying with all her might to keep from bursting out laughing. She roughly jabbed the kettle with her wand and walked back to her desk.

"Detention Ms. Evans," she called out.

"As expected Professor!" Lily called cheekily back, eyeing her charred kettle and wishing the flames had lasted a bit longer.

McGonagall raised a carefully shaped eyebrow and pointed her wand at James. Feeling himself being lifted in the air, James noted that it was McGonagall who was doing it and, taking advantage of the situation, folded his legs Indian-style and let out a few "uhmmmmm's" which sent his best friend Sirius and most of the class into gales of laughter.

"Mr. Potter, you will help Miss Evans with her kettle issues."

"Of course professor!" James said from his position in the air.

Lowering James carefully into the seat next to Lily (which had been vacated by Calista in her faint, and was still not occupied as Calista was still on the ground pretending to be dead) McGonagall rolled her eyes and continued with her paperwork.

"So Lila -"

"Wrong again." Lily interrupted rudely.

"What?"

"Lila! That's not my name."

"Then what is it?"

"Figure it out." Lily challenged.

James looked exasperated, and nudged Calista lightly with his foot. Her eyes shot open and she looked carefully innocent. "Yes?" she asked politely.

"Who is this?" he pointed to Lily.

"That would be Lily," Calista said.

'Traitor." Lily stuck her tongue out at Calista, who preceded to snap her eyes shut and sprawl her arms out.

"I'm sorry about my girlfriend today Lily," James said, running a hand through his messy hair. "Hilary can get a bit - jealous sometimes."

"No worries!" Lily said, grinning at him and patting him on the head. "If I had escaped from my cage, I bet my zoo keeper would be mad as well." She said, keeping her face carefully blank.

"Haha," James said ruefully. "Anyway, about this kettle..." he trailed off , looking at the charred appurtenance questionably.

"I got bored," Lily supplied.

"Right." With a wave of his wand, the kettle was again silver and James proceeded to explain to Lily the basics of transfiguring medium sized objects. Or tried to anyway.

"...but then why bother?"

"What do you mean "why bother?""

"Why would you bother waving it when you can just flick it?"

"Well because you can't just flick your wand and have it done. You have to wave it and THEN flick it."

"But what if I only wanted to wave it and POOF there it is!"

"Because it doesn't work that way."

"Why?"

"I don't know"

"Some teacher you are."

James looked at her in admiration, at how she had managed to trap him in a verbal corner. Lily only gave a grin at her triumph before packing up her books. "Thank you professor." She said to him, shaking his hand patting him on the head again. "That was a very informative lesson."

"Are you ever serious?"

Lily grinned and nudged Calista, who got up without a word and packed up her books.

"Not usually."

James grinned at her their eyes met for a moment, before Lily grabbed Calista and the two ran out of the room. It was then that James realised Sirius had left him in favour of food, and the entire classroom was empty.

***