Title: A Rocky Start
Ship: Lily/James
Name/Pen Name: Cat/Placid Destruction
Word Count: 1,428
Theme #/Theme: 1/Muggle Confusion
Challenge count: 1/7 finished

Content: PG
Spoilers: Books 1-5
Warnings: None
Summary: The Marauders need help with a Muggle object that has them completely bewildered. Naturally, they turn to Lily for an explanation.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK Rowling. It's easier that way.

A Rocky Start

It was the beginning of another school year. The welcoming feast had only just ended less than an hour before, and students were now going about the task of settling into their dormitories before classes the next day.

Because of this, only a few students were in the Gryffindor common room. Among them were four boys huddled around something on a table in the corner. They whispered quietly and poked at the object on the table from time to time.

Lily Evans, still in shock after learning that James Potter had been appointed Head Boy, floated past them on her way to the fireplace where she had planned to sit and contemplate jumping off of the Astronomy Tower before Dumbledore had the chance to assign a task for the Head Boy and Girl to complete together.

But before she could so much as consider when she would carry out her fatal plan, she was brought back to reality by loud whispering in the corner.

“Go!” the whispering voices said. “Go quickly before she leaves.”

And then James Potter himself was standing beside her chair, looking down at her with a nervous smile.

“May I help you, James?” she asked politely.

She figured that the least she could do was to be polite to him. Sure, she didn’t think that he was the most qualified student for the Head Boy position, but she didn’t hate him…anymore. He had changed the previous year. Now he was more tolerable, and they had become something close to acquaintances.

“Lily, you’re a Muggle-born,” he began awkwardly.

“Yes, I am,” she confirmed. “Did you come by to tell me that? Because I already knew, James.”

“No, no,” he replied. “I know that you knew. Well, I assumed that you knew. See, the thing is… What we need is… Well, we need your help.”

“With…?”

James took a deep breath and placed himself in the chair next to Lily’s. She had noticed that he had been standing with his hands behind his back, but she found it odd that he didn’t move them when he sat down.

But then he pulled his hands from behind his back and held their contents for Lily to see.

It was a rock. It was a smooth, round, grey-ish rock about the size of a tennis ball, only flatter.

Lily looked from the rock to James’s face, assuming that it must be a joke of some sort. What kind of help could he possibly want concerning a rock?

But James’s face was serious.

“Is it alive?” he asked.

Lily almost couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“Excuse me?” she asked. “Alive? James, it’s a rock.”

“No, no, it’s not,” he insisted. “We bought it at a Muggle shop in London. The salesman said that they make good pets.”

Suddenly, she understood. It was a pet rock. The Muggle salesman had obviously not explained it very well, and these poor boys thought that they had somehow failed in keeping it alive.

“It’s a pet rock,” she explained. “It’s not alive. It never was, but it wasn’t supposed to be. It’s just a rock. Muggles…well, Muggles use these to…” She was finding it harder to explain that she had originally thought. “Muggles pretend that they’re real and keep them as pets. It’s silly, really, but it’s what they do.”

James looked at the rock in his hand.

“So there’s nothing special about it?” he asked.

“No, it’s just a rock.”

He seemed to contemplate this for a moment before tossing the rock over his shoulder.

“Ouch, Prongs!” Sirius cried from where he had been trying to eavesdrop. “Watch it!”

“Sorry, Padfoot.”

Sirius walked over, the rock in one hand and the other rubbing his arm.

“What did you do that for anyway?” he asked. “After all the hard work we’ve put into keeping him alive, you should treat him better than that.”

James looked at Lily.

“Lily says that it-”

“He,” Sirius corrected. “Call him ‘he.’ That way you don’t offend him.”

Lily giggled.

“He?” she repeated. “Have you named him?”

“Yes,” Sirius replied.

“What did you name him?” she pressed.

“Frederick.”

“Phineas.”

“Giuseppe.”

“Bruce.”

Lily looked around to find herself completely surrounded by the Marauders, and each of them had had a name for the rock.

“Well, which one is it?”

Each of the boys insisted that the rock should be named what he wanted to name it. Lily didn’t dare interrupt their argument. It was too amusing.

Finally, James seemed to remember his earlier conversation with her because he called for their attention and thus ended the argument.

“Look,” he explained. “It doesn’t matter what its name is.”

“His,” Sirius corrected again.

“No,” James said firmly. “Its. See, it’s just a rock. Muggles think they’re alive so they keep them as pets, but they’re not really alive.”

All eyes were immediately on Lily.

“Well,” she said slowly. “Muggles know that the rocks aren’t really alive. They just keep them as pets because they don’t make a mess and they don’t need to be fed or played with or taken care of at all really. It’s actually just a joke.”

None of the boys looked any less confused than before.

“Boy, Muggles sure are stupid,” Sirius muttered loudly.

Lily opened her mouth to respond but didn’t have the chance to say anything.

“Can’t you imagine them sitting around all day watching a rock?” James said.

Once again, Lily was interrupted before she was able to defend anyone.

“They must be easily amused,” Peter added.

“Well, the four of you certainly seemed pretty amused just watching a rock a little while ago,” Lily finally managed to say.

The four of them were silent again.

Remus was the first to break the silence. “Well, it was oddly entertaining.”

They laughed.

“It was,” James agreed.

“So what are we going to do with Frederick?” Sirius asked.

“You mean Bruce,” Peter corrected.

“No, I meant Frederick.”

James interrupted. “You could set him free in the forest tomorrow.”

“Do you think…” Sirius said quietly. “Do you think I could keep him?”

They all laughed again.

“Sure, Sirius,” James said. “He’s all yours.”

“Great!” Sirius exclaimed, jumping to his feet and rushing from the room. “I’m going to find a place to put him.”

“I’ll help!” Peter called, following Sirius from the room.

Remus watched the fire.

“I don’t remember learning about pet rocks in Muggle Studies,” he said.

“Well,” Lily began. “It’s a pretty recent fad, and they probably didn’t think it was important enough to teach at school.”

“Still…” Remus continued to look into the fire. “It’s an interesting concept. Rocks as pets. I think I’ll go see if I can find anything in my textbook.”

“Goodnight, Remus,” Lily called after him as he ascended the staircase to the boys’ dormitories.

“’Night, Lily,” he called back.

Lily and James were alone in the common room. Lily was a little uncomfortable. It was awkward. All of a sudden, she didn’t know how to speak or act around James. It was as though she were nervous.

“When we’re married, we can have an owl…and maybe a cat if you want one,” he said, breaking the long silence, but not helping Lily’s nerves, which he hadn’t noticed. “We won’t keep pet rocks.”

Lily forced a laugh, watching her feet swing back and forth.

James sometimes talked about what they’d do when he and Lily were married. It used to annoy her, but now he seemed to say it like it actually thought about it happening, not just because he wanted to see how angry he could make her.

He had definitely changed, but Lily hadn’t decided yet if it was for the better or not. He still did odd things to her stomach. Only now it was a much more pleasant feeling than before.

“Yes, well,” she said nervously, her voice shaking. “Some Muggles keep whole gardens full of rocks – rock gardens – but they don’t grow like normal gardens. They’re just rocks.”

James noticed that there was something wrong with Lily, but he chose not to mention it. He just observed her as she watched her feet and rambled on about rocks.

“I don’t understand Muggles,” he said quietly.

“Mmm hmm,” Lily replied vaguely. “Well, I need to get some sleep before class tomorrow. Goodnight, James.”

“Goodnight, Lily.”

He watched her disappear around the corner at the top of the staircase leading to the girls’ dormitories.

“I don’t understand Muggles,” he repeated. “Or Muggle-borns.”

It was definitely going to be a long year for everyone.

Nice, although I hoped it went further in their developing relationship...

Thanks! Sorry about that, but it's short, and this is about as far as I thought their relationship should go at this point.