Lily Evans woke up on the morning of September the first feeling as though she was going to be sick. She shakily extended her small, graceful hand and turned off her alarm clock, which was ringing in her ear. Her heart pounded as she neatly pulled off the covers of her bed and took a deep breath. She wasn't normally this nervous on the first day of term. However, this day was different than the rest of her first days. She was going to Hogwarts, a school for magic. Lily Evans was a witch.

It had come as a total shock that hot summer day when the letter came in the post saying that Lily had been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As she read it, her eyes wide with wonder, she took the whole idea as a joke. Surely her big sister Petunia was in on this. Just by looking at her list of supplies she knew it had to be a hoax- cauldrons? wands? But then again, Petunia had never been much of a practical joker. And when she showed her parents, it had become obvious that Lily truly was a witch.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans were thrilled at the idea. Their little girl; a witch! Extraordinary things like this never happened to the average, middle- class Evans family. They were very proud at this unique and exciting discovery. Petunia, on the other hand, who was a year older than Lily, seemed to think that having a witch in the family was similar to having a family member with some odd, incurable disease. However, Lily did her best to ignore her. She was so curious about this new world that she was asked to be a part of; a world where magic existed not only in her favorite stories, but as a part of everyday life.

She got up gently and smoothed out the covers on her yellow and pink, flowery bed. It matched everything else that she had in her small, organized bedroom -- from her curtains to her walls.

She pulled on her miniscule jeans and neatly pressed sweater, then walked over to the mirror. She didn't like the appearance that was staring back at her. She was the only one in her family with red hair, and she didn't like being different. She was tired of being called "Ginger" at her school; but then again, she wouldn’t be going back there, would she? She was also a very small girl, even for eleven. She was barely five feet tall and was so skinny that her new school robes seemed two sizes too big for her tiny frame. The only things that Lily really did like about herself were the eyes that she had inherited from her father. They were a deep, shining green, and when they caught the light they seemed to glimmer like emeralds.

"Lily! We need to leave in a few minutes!"

Lily whipped around at the sound of her mother's voice. 'I guess this is it,' she told herself. She grabbed her trunk, took one last look at her room in hopes that she wouldn't be too homesick, and walked out.

On the stairway she met her sister, who looked like she had just eaten a rotten egg. If someone saw Lily and Petunia walking down the street, no one would have guessed that they were sisters. Petunia was tall and leggy, but in a very awkward way. She had an extremely long neck and blonde hair that she always wore in a bun. Petunia didn't fit in with her family very much, in physical features or personality.

"So... you're going then?" she asked in a rather resentful tone.

"Yup," Lily smiled, trying to ignore her sister's grimace.

They stood on the stairwell for a moment, staring uncomfortably at each other, obviously at a loss for words.

"All right, then!" Lily said suddenly and cheerfully. "See you at Christmas, Petunia."

Petunia's mouth crinkled into a sort of thin scowl. "Right, bye then," she said without emotion.

Lily shrugged and walked down toward the kitchen. She had never been exactly close to her sister, but ever since she found out she was going to Hogwarts, Petunia had been downright cold. She didn't even seem to care that she wouldn't be seeing her sister for four months. Lily tried to shrug it off, but she couldn't deny the fact that it hurt her feelings.

When she was swept up in a giant hug by her father, however, her spirits lifted.

"My little Lily! Off to school! Oh, I'm going to miss you, darling," he exclaimed.

"I'm going to miss you too, Dad."

Lily's mother came into the room and kissed her on the cheek. "Our little witch! I have a surprise for you." She opened up her closed palms and revealed a scrawny little black cat with big brown eyes.

"Oh, Mum!" Lily squealed in delight, scooping the kitten up and stroking his head.

"He's a present from us, because we know that you'll make us proud, Lily."

Lily looked up at her parents, who were beaming down at her. It was going to be really hard to leave home. What was waiting for her there at Hogwarts? Would she fit in? She was afraid that when she got to King's Cross, a great big clown was going to jump out in front of her and scream, "April Fools!" But it wasn't April, and when she arrived and looked up at the massive scarlet steam engine, it seemed very real. She took in her surroundings. There were hundreds of students, her age and older, kissing their parents goodbye, clutching strange animals and big trunks like hers. It was just then that she realized that it wasn't a dream. She was actually going to this school for magic. She felt a million emotions at once; excitement, apprehension, anxiety, fearfulness, and nausea. She took a deep breath, hugged her mother and father, and stepped onto what was the platform for the beginning of her brand new life.

**************************

James Potter woke up late on the morning of September the first.

"James! You're going to miss your train!" he heard his mother's magically magnified voice bellow throughout the house. He wiped the sleepiness out of eyes. He was ready to protest for five more minutes of rest, when he suddenly realized what day it was.

He popped up out of bed and opened his curtains. The tall, floor-length windows let in all the light of day. James' room was very spacious, with high ceilings and walls and a large fireplace. He made his way across the floor littered with old socks and magazines with moving pictures of Quidditch stars. He opened his wardrobe and got dressed.

He looked in the mirror at his reflection and cringed. What was he wearing? His T-Shirt was way too tight and the jeans that he was wearing were uncomfortable. 'How can muggles stand to wear this rubbish?' He thought to himself. He didn't want to wear it, but his father said that it was important to go to King's Cross in disguise. It was kind of annoying, but James had been waiting his entire life to go to Hogwarts, and a little thing like having to dress weirdly wasn't going to rain on his parade. He noticed that his black hair was looking as untidy as ever. His mother was constantly telling him to brush it, but it made no difference. It would never lie flat; and he was starting to like it that way. His hazel eyes twinkled with excitement- this was going to be the best day of his life.

He glanced over at his top-of-the-line broom, gleaming and resting in a case on his windowsill; he wished he could bring it, but first years weren't allowed their own broomsticks. It wasn't fair at all, in James' opinion. He would have to wait until next year to join the Quidditch team. He gathered up the rest of his stuff and hauled it downstairs without giving his room a second glance. He would not miss it, he had decided. Hogwarts was going to be too exciting.

He had heard his parents talk about Hogwarts ever since he could remember. When he was a little boy, he would beg them to tell him all about the classes, the Great Hall, and even the Giant Squid. He could hardly believe that now it was his turn to see it all first hand. There was so much to experience, and he had seven whole years to do it.

When James entered the sparklingly clean, white marble kitchen, he walked in on his mother at the kitchen sink in her apron, magically scrubbing the dishes with her wand.

"So, Mum..." he grinned, puffing out his chest. "How do I look?"

He watched as his mother's eyes became glassy and her bottom lip began to quiver. She dropped her wand and the sink began to overflow with bubbles. "Oh, James," she shrieked and grabbed him into a back-breaking embrace.

"Oi, mum, let me go!" he struggled out of her grip, rumpling his hair.

"It's just... James, you're my only little boy, and you're so grown up now, leaving for school already!" she sniffled, rushing to grab her wand again and clean up the mess. James was used to this treatment, being an only child. "What are we going to do without you around the house all day?"

"There, there, mum," he said, patting her on the back. "It'll be Christmas before you know it."

James' dad suddenly appeared in the doorway with a handsome grin, much like his son's, that made him look much younger than he actually was. "Ready, James?"

James returned the identical smile. He had never been more ready in his life.

Platform 9 and 3/4 was everything he had imagined it to be and more. The second he looked at the great scarlet train, he couldn't wait to get on. He heaved his stuff up in through the doorway, kissed his parents, and hopped aboard. 'So, this is it,'' he told himself, looking around. 'This is going to be brilliant.'

Lily dragged her trunk down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express. She had been walking the perimeter of the train for five minutes, not knowing where to go or where to sit. She hadn't been able to find an empty compartment, and she wasn't very good at making new friends. As she passed, she couldn't help but stare at the other kids in awe. Some, like her, were shy and obviously new at Hogwarts. Others had greeted old friends like siblings and were already doing magic with their wands. Lily wasn't even sure of how to hold hers yet. She was just wondering if she would be the first student to ever not know how to hold her wand when---

WHAM.

She hit something hard and fell over, barely hanging on to her little kitten, her trunk flying away from her. When she regained her composure, she looked over at a girl on the floor across from her. She had small blue eyes and dirty-blonde hair. Her face was very round and plump, although she wasn't fat, and it was turning beet red in embarrassment.

"I'm... I'm so sorry," Lily apologized nervously, trying to help the girl up.

"No, no, it was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was walking," the girl replied.

Lily smiled timidly. "It's okay. I'm Lily, by the way, Lily Evans." She extended her small, graceful hand.

The girl grinned back and shook it. "I'm Alice Nichols." Alice's expression was very warm and friendly. There was something about her that Lily liked. She seemed just as nervous as Lily was, which made Lily a little more comfortable.

"I haven't been able to find a free compartment,” Lily told her.

"Oh, you can come in mine, I was just on my way back from the loo," Alice offered in a friendly voice.

"Great." Lily was beginning to like Hogwarts, and she hadn’t even arrived yet.

"It's this way," Alice said as she lead Lily towards her compartment, helping her carry her trunk.

"I like your cat, he's really cute," she told her as they began to walk.

"Oh, do you? He was a gift from my mum and dad. I've named him Sam." Lily offered Sam for Alice to pet, but he began to wriggle out of her hands.

"Oh- Sam, no!"

Sam squirmed his way onto the floor and began to run down the corridor in the opposite direction; Lily and Alice followed him. He ducked into an open door, and Lily hurried in after him.

She was embarrassed to see that the compartment wasn't empty, and four boys were sitting down staring up at her. She brushed her hair out of her eyes nervously.

"Oh... I, I'm really sorry... my cat ran into here," she explained, pointing at Sam.

Sam was curled up in the lap of the boy sitting by the window. He had hazel eyes and very untidy black hair.

"It's all right," the boy said, handing Sam over to Lily with a cute smile. "I'm James Potter, by the way."

He was obviously very friendly and not shy at all, which made Lily a little nervous. “I’m Lily Evans,” she stammered out.

He turned around. "This is Peter, Remus, and Sirius," he said motioning over to the boys he was sitting with. Sirius was quite cute with dark hair that fell into his eyes, Remus was thin and tall with mousy hair, and Peter was very short with a squat appearance. She smiled awkwardly at them.

“This is Alice,” Lily told them, nodding towards her new friend standing behind her.

“Do you guys know any magic yet?” Sirius asked them hopefully.

Alice shrugged. “Not really. My mum never let me play with her wand.”

“What about you, Evans?” James asked Lily. She wondered why he called her by her last name.

“Well, I’m muggle-born,” Lily explained shyly.

Sirius eye twitched a bit. “Muggle born? So you don’t know about anything?” he was staring at her intently, making her very uncomfortable.

“Not... not really.” Lily wanted to leave, but Alice seemed to be relaxed and enjoying the conversation.

“I don’t really know any magic either,” Remus spoke up suddenly, looking at Sirius. “I don’t know how to do any spells. I don’t think many of the first years do.”

Lily was grateful to Remus. It seemed to her like he did know a little bit of magic, but he was pretending not to for her sake- and she fully appreciated it.

“Well, I know a spell,” James said loudly, rumpling his hair and looking at Lily. “My dad taught me.”

“Oh, let’s see it!” Peter said eagerly.

James whipped out his wand like a pro and polished it on his T-shirt. He walked over to the compartment door, opened it, and peered around the corner. A nervous- looking boy with blonde hair who was considerably smaller in size than James walked past. He was wearing a brown hat.

James puffed out his chest and said firmly, “Accio hat!”

The hat flew right off the boy’s head and into James’ outstretched hand. The boy turned around uneasily and grabbed at his empty head, looking over at James with wide eyes.

James beamed and tossed the hat back to him. “Just a little trick!” he sniggered, and he closed the compartment door.

“Whoa, James, that was great!” Peter squealed. James swelled with pride.

"Excellent," Sirius commented.

Lily put her hands on her hips. “That wasn’t very nice, you know,” she told him, her shyness melting away a little bit.

James’ smile faded a little. “It was only a little prank!”

Lily frowned. “You wouldn’t like it if you didn’t know how to do that, and someone else did it to you.”

James shrugged, looking a little down.

“Well, I think it was brilliant,” Sirius told James, and he smiled again.

Lily pursed her lips and looked at Alice. "Well, we should be going," she said. “Nice meeting you all." She walked out and Alice gave a cheery wave and followed her.

“Can you believe that James Potter?” Lily asked Alice in disbelief as they walked towards Alice’s compartment. “He doesn’t seem very nice.”

“He was friendly enough,” Alice shrugged. “But I don’t think we’re supposed to do magic before we get to school.”

Lily liked Alice’s last sentence- her new friend seemed to be a rule-follower, just like she was.

“Here it is,” Alice said, motioning towards the last compartment in the hall. When they got there, however, there was someone already sitting in it.

It was a very pretty girl with wavy, shiny brown hair and big brown eyes. Lily and Alice stared at her uncomfortably. “This is our compartment,” Alice said, sounding a little bit unfriendly, even if not on purpose.

The girl shot up. She was very statuesque, and a lot taller than either Lily and Alice. “I’m sorry, there’s none left and I... I thought this one was empty,” she explained quickly, grabbing her things.

Lily stopped her. “It’s okay. You can sit here, if you want, I mean. It’s just the two of us.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude.”

“No, stay,” Alice said. “It will be fun.”

The girl smiled and sat back down. “Thanks a lot. My name is Ophelia Owens, what's yours?”

By the end of the train ride, Lily had bonded with both Alice and Ophelia. They were really nice girls, and they made Lily feel less worried about entering the magical world. They told her all they knew about Hogwarts and Lily told them all she knew about the Muggle world. Ophelia seemed a lot more interested in how a television worked than Lily was in goblins and hags. When the girls changed into their Hogwarts robes, Lily looked down at herself. She couldn’t believe that she was about to enter the place that she had seen only in her imagination. It was a new beginning. She neatly folded her jeans and sweater and placed them at the bottom of her trunk. She wouldn’t be needing them for a long while.


******************************

"Potter, James!" Professor McGonagall called out from her long list of names.

James, unlike the rest of the trembling first years that had gone before him, marched up to the sorting hat with confidence. He elegantly placed the tattered old hat on his untidy black head. Suddenly, from within his own head, the hat began to speak to him:


James Potter... you come from a long line of Gryffindors, you do... but have you the same qualities as your ancestors? Hmm... let’s see... you have an unwavering sense of courage and confidence... you’re quite stubborn... as well as intelligent and self- assured... I’m afraid that there’s only one house for you. GRYFFINDOR!


James was surprised at how well the hat knew his personality and character traits, but not surprised at its choice. Both his parents had been in Gryffindor. He walked over to the long house table to applause from all the students, including his fellow recent Gryffindors Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and the girls he met on the train, Lily Evans and Alice Nichols. There was another, rather pretty girl with them as well. He sat down in between Sirius and Remus.

“I thought for sure I’d be in Slytherin, my whole family comes from a long line,” Sirius explained to James as he sat down. “Did you see my cousin Bellatrix get sorted into Slytherin? And last year, my other cousin Andromeda graduated. she was in Slytherin as well. But now I’m glad we’re all in the same house!”

James smiled. He really liked Sirius. He reminded him a lot of himself.

Professor McGonagall called out the last few names, and, a few minutes later, the feast began.

Sirius immediately began eating like a wild dog. Remus and Peter seemed famished too; James remembered having been hungry about an hour ago, but now wasn't. He was watching Lily Evans, who was sitting across the table and about three seats away from him. She was talking to Alice Nichols and Ophelia Owens, also new Gryffindors, about what the hat had told her.

"Well," Lily began, delicately cutting her pork chop with her fork and knife, "The hat told me that I was very intelligent and that I would have fit in at Ravenclaw, but also that I was ambitious so it chose Gryffindor in the end."

"It considered me for Hufflepuff," said Alice. "Don't think I would have liked that much. My second cousin Ursula was in Hufflepuff, and I always thought she was a bit of a flake.”

“My parents were in Hufflepuff!” Ophelia said defensively, her big brown eyes looking hurt.

Alice dropped her fork in horror. “Oh! I’m sorry, Ophelia!“ she said quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that! Sometimes I just don’t know when to shut up--”

Ophelia grinned. “My parents weren’t really in Hufflepuff."

"What!?" Alice shrieked, her mouth still hanging open.

"Just teasing, Alice!" she chuckled heartily. She had a large smile that revealed a lot of white teeth.

Alice playfully smacked Ophelia on the shoulder and Lily giggled, her auburn hair falling into her plate.

“James?” Peter asked, staring at James’ blank face.

“What? Oh... yeah,” he said quickly, covering his tracks.

Sirius laughed. “So, you’ve got a crush, eh, Potter?”

James blushed. “What? What do you mean?”

Remus smiled. “You haven’t been able to take your eyes off that girl we met on the train, Lily Evans.”

He suddenly became very interested in his carrots. “Nah, I was just.... you know," he said awkwardly.

“Yeah, we know,” Sirius and Peter said in unison.

They all laughed. As the feast finished, James and his new friends got up to the Gryffindor Common Room and saw for the first time the place they would call home for the next seven years. It was perfect. The room was full of cozy chairs and couches and was lighted by the warm glow of a massive crackling fire. James saw Lily, Alice and Ophelia walking excitedly up towards their dormitory.

James wanted to talk to Lily, but he didn’t know what to say. “All right, Evans?” he called out to her with a smile. It was the first thing that popped into his mind.

Lily looked back at him with an odd expression on her face- like he had just told her an extremely dirty joke or something. She continued to walk upstairs.

“Come on, lover boy,” Sirius sniggered at him. “Let’s go see our room!”

James entered his dormitory and saw a big, comfortable looking bed with his belongings on it. It on the far end of the room, towards the big window overlooking the grounds. He noticed that Sirius' bed was right next to his, and he shot him a large smile. The day had been so excited that sleep was the last thing on his mind. He decided to unpack his things.

He opened his trunk and began pulling out all his clothes, books, and other belongings from home. But as he dug deeper towards the bottom, he spotted something unfamiliar that caught his eye. Wrapped in a heap of smooth, silvery fabric lay a small note scribbled with a tiny scrawl.


James,

Your mother would kill me if she knew that I was giving you this, that's why I hid it within your other things. It's an invisibility cloak, and it's been in the Potter family for ages. My father gave it to me, and now as part of family tradition I'm handing it down to you. Let's just say that it made my Hogwarts days a bit more enjoyable. See you at Christmas.

Love, Dad


James excitedly unfolded the cloak and let the silky, metallic fabric fall to the floor. He wrapped it around his shoulders and watched his body disappear. He couldn't help but walk straight up to his new friends on the other side of the room and laugh at their reactions.

"Whoa!" Sirius exclaimed as Remus gasped and Peter nearly fell off his chair. "Where'd you get that?"

"My dad," James smirked. "Anyone feel like giving it a go?"

*******************************

"What was that?" Peter asked nervously, pausing in front of the charms classroom, a good fifteen minutes later.

"Nothing," Sirius groaned from beside him. "And keep that mouth of your shut, otherwise you'll be sure to get us expelled!"

"Ouch, that was my foot!" James exclaimed. It was hard to fit four boys underneath one cloak, but somehow they had managed to fit.

"Sorry," Remus grumbled. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"Anywhere we feel like," Sirius replied coolly. "The school is ours."

"This is like an adventure," Peter whispered as they made their way through the cool, dark corridors with no idea of where they were going.

"We're four avengers of the night!" Sirius nearly shouted, causing Remus to shush him.

"Or marauders of the school," James said.

Sirius stopped dead in his tracks, causing the other three to knock into him. He didn't seem to notice. "That's it!" he whispered excitedly. "That's our name! We're 'the Marauders'!"

"The Marauders," Remus repeated.

"I like it!" James said. "It's settled then. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful- and, well, rule breaking- friendship!"

That night, the newly- coined Marauders not only discovered Filch's office, the fourth floor corridor and the kitchens, but a friendship that would last for years and live in infamy.


(A/N- This chapter and the chapter before it are really just setting the scene, introducing new characters, etc. There's plenty of excitement to come later. This is my first fic, so I would appreciate any feedback you can give me- please review! thanks!)

Lily woke with a start. She had been having a dream about her first day at Hogwarts, four long years before. It seemed like just yesterday, and forever ago at the same time. She remembered how mesmerized she was about everything, from the moment she saw the Hogwarts Express to the moment she closed her eyes in her new dormitory that night. She was so different from that little girl that had entered the magical world knowing absolutely nothing and feeling like an outsider. Now, in her fourth year, Lily was so used to magic that it had become second nature. As she rose to the top of her class, she found it hard to remember back to the time when she had no idea what a Muggle or Floo Powder was. In those short four years, she had changed entirely.

Not only had she changed on the inside, but on the outside as well. Lily had grown a fair few inches, so that she didn't feel so much smaller than everyone else, especially Ophelia. Her once thick and unmanageable hair fell into a silky scarlet mass that shone in the light. Of course, she did have a little help from Miss Merryweather's Magic Hair Potion, but no one need know that. For the first time in her life, she actually felt pretty. Overall, Lily Evans was becoming a confident young woman.

“You up, Lil?” Lily heard Alice call from the four- poster across from her.

“Yeah,” Lily replied.

Lily jumped as her bed curtains drew themselves open and a face popped out in front of her. It was Ophelia, wearing her ‘The Gobstones’ band t-shirt and a manic grin.

“Ophelia, it’s way too early for you to have so much energy,” Lily moaned, rubbing the sleep out of her glinting green eyes.

“But it’s such a beautiful day!” Ophelia said, practically skipping to her wardrobe to change her clothes. “Besides, it’s my favorite class this morning!”

“Ugh, Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Lily groaned. “I loathe that class.”

“You do, do you?” Alice smirked, petting Sam who had just jumped up into her lap.

“Yes,” Lily continued, naive to the fact that she was being mocked. “It’s just so pointless.”

“You just don’t like it because you’re not the star, like you are in every other class,” Ophelia said as she tied her shoes.

Lily frowned. “That’s not true.”

“Then it wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain... James Potter, now, would it?” Alice asked innocently.

Lily frowned again, this time her cheeks turning slightly pink. “I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about.”

Yes, Lily had changed quite a bit since her first year... James Potter, on the other hand, had not changed at all.

****************

James walked out of his dormitory. He was sure that he was going to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he didn't mind. He had Professor Westmoore in the palm of his hand. He knew that he was her favorite student; how couldn’t he be? He was the best in his year. Sirius was with him; good boys Remus and Peter had gotten there early.

As they walked, a couple of girls in their year giggled and winked at them. Sirius smiled and James messed up his hair. They took their sweet time getting to class; they were simply too cool to rush.

“Mr. Potter and Mr. Black,” smirked Professor Westmoore as they approached the classroom. She was a very stern, middle-aged witch with short blonde hair. “This is the second time this week that the pair of you have been late. Under most circumstances, this would constitute a detention, would it not?”

James winked at Sirius before turning around to face Professor Westmoore. His expression was full of phony remorse. “Professor.. I’m so sorry," he exclaimed in a deeply regretful tone. "It’s just... I didn’t want to come to class before I read up on Monday’s lesson. I was having a hard time understanding the part about the Grindylow’s natural habitat... I wanted to make sure I got it for today, so I skipped breakfast, and Sirius here was kind enough to help me...”

Professor Westmoore's eyebrows furrowed. “Mr. Potter, if you needed help you should have come to me after last lesson! But nonetheless, that was a tricky chapter...” she seemed to be having some sort of internal struggle until she said with a small smile, “All right. Sit down, gentlemen, and try to be more punctual next time.”

Lily Evans snorted into the air. James shot her an unrequited smile and couldn't help but mouth 'All right, Evans?' before taking his seat between Sirius and Peter, who both gave him disbelieving grins.

“Anyway, let’s get started,” Professor Westmoore began. “I’d like to continue to study the Grindylow today by taking a look at its distinctive physical features...”

James immediately became bored and tuned out the lesson. He turned and looked over at Sirius. He was scribbling a note to him.

‘What are your plans for after dinner?’

James scribbled back.

Quidditch practice. Why, what have you got in mind?

‘I thought I heard Snivellus telling some Slytherins that he’s going to be studying until late in the library. Thought after practice, we might get out that invisibility cloak of yours, eh?’

James glanced over at Lily, who was copying notes- word for word, likely.

‘Excellent.’

“Now, I hope you’ve understood that, because we’re having a pop quiz!” Professor Westmoore said a good half-hour later. The class groaned.

"Were you paying attention?” Remus whispered as he passed James the parchment.

James smiled. “Nope. Not a word.” He began to scribble.

Fifteen minutes later, Professor Westmoore collected the parchments with a flick of her wand. The class sat patiently as she silently looked over the quizzes with occasional looks of surprise or disappointment. A few minutes later, she spoke.

“Now, now, not at all what I expected. None of you got a perfect score. You have to pay more attention, class!” she said sternly. Then she turned on James. “Mr. Potter, however, outshone the rest of his classmates with a commendable score of ninety-three percent! Well done, Mr. Potter!” She smiled sweetly and gave a small applause.

James leaned back and messed up his hair again, a look of smug satisfaction plastered on his face. From the row ahead of him he heard Lily whisper fiercely to Alice Nichols, “But he wasn’t even paying attention!”

He couldn’t resist. He leaned forward and said to her ear, “You know, Evans, some of us are just born with pure talent.”

She laughed sarcastically. “If you mean talent for being a cocky git, you’re absolutely right, Potter.”

He pulled away grinning. One of these days she’d warm up to him. He was sure of it.

***************************

“Alice, what was the date of that goblin convention again?” Lily asked, looking up from her History of Magic assignment.

“1237,” Alice repeated almost instinctively. Besides Herbology, History of Magic was her best subject.

The fire in the common room crackled merrily as Lily, Alice and Ophelia caught up on some homework. It was a rainy Saturday, and everyone was inside. Everyone except, of course, the Marauders. They never let a little bit of rain stop their fun.

“I’m bored,” Ophelia declared, shutting her book and sighing rather dramatically.

Lily smirked. “Yeah, well, just tell that to Professor Binns when he asks why you don’t have your essay done.”

“Lily, the man doesn’t even know that he’s dead, I doubt he’ll notice my missing homework,” she replied, causing Alice and several students around her to laugh. Ophelia smiled with a smug look of satisfaction on her face.

Alice shut her book as well. “Let’s take a break, then.”

Alice and Ophelia both made puppy eyes at Lily, who couldn’t help but smile at her two ridiculous friends. “All right, I suppose a little rest won’t hurt much,” she said, reluctantly putting down her quill.

Ophelia jumped up happily. “Let’s go down to the Great Hall, lunch should be starting in a few minutes and we can start up again after.”

Alice and Lily agreed and began walking towards the door.

“Whoops,” Lily said as her scarf slipped out in front of her, landing on the floor. But before she could pick it up, the door ahead of her swung open fiercely and a giant, muddy foot stepped right on it.

“Oh, sorry Evans,” James Potter said brightly as he removed his soggy shoe from Lily’s scarf, that was now completely soiled in wet filth. She looked up to frown at him (he was quite tall) and noticed that he was completely soaked from his head to his toes. His robes, weighed down by the water, hung from his body heavily and his face was smeared with bits of mud. His hazel eyes, however, sparkled as they always did from behind his rain- splattered glasses.

“What, gone swimming in a mud puddle, Potter?” Lily said sarcastically as she hesitantly picked up her filthy scarf with the tips of her fingers, not letting it touch her robes.

“Very charming,” James replied, whipping out his wand and pointing it at the scarf. “Scourgify,” he said clearly, and the scarf became clean and dry once again. Lily wrapped it around her neck with a ‘hmmpf’.

“Actually, we were just playing a bit of Quidditch,” he explained, pointing to his equally wet and dirty friends behind him.

“Quidditch? In this weather?” Ophelia said disbelievingly, looking at the heavy rain and wind that was pounding on the window.

Remus looked down at his soggy feet as Sirius slapped him on the back and sniggered.

“Come on, a bit of water would do you good, Ophelia!” Sirius said wryly, muddy water trailing off his robes.

“I suppose you’re right,” she replied sarcastically. “Look what good it’s done you.”

James interrupted the banter cheerfully. “Anyway, the season’s almost beginning! And you know what that means!”

He stomped off past the girls, leaving a trail of muddy footprints, and posted a flyer on the bulletin board.

QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS THIS THURSDAY

If you’re interested in joining the best Quidditch team that Hogwarts has seen in years, grab your broom and come down to the Quidditch field at 5 o’clock, Thursday. Tryouts will be held by the amazingly talented James Potter, Captain.

James turned around and smirked proudly. Lily snorted.

“Not pompous sounding at all, Potter,” she said sarcastically.

“I try, I try,” James responded. “Will I see you there, Evans? Got a bit of Quidditch talent stored up there behind that brain of yours?”

Lily gave a high laugh. “I don’t think so.”

“Alice? Ophelia?” James questioned her friends.

"I'm afraid I can't tell a Quaffle from a Bludger," Alice said with a small smile.

Ophelia briefly glanced at Sirius. “You know what, Potter...” she said suddenly in a pensive voice. “I think I just might show up.”

Lily turned around and gaped at her friend.

“Excellent!” James said happily.

“You, play Quidditch?” Lily stammered out, completely ignoring James.

“Well... yeah,” Ophelia said firmly. “I mean, I’ve got a broom... why not?”

“Well, I'm looking forward to it,” James said, giggling like a school girl at the look on Lily’s face. “Evans, Alice, Ophelia- catch you ladies later. I’ve got to get out of these wet clothes.” He walked into the boys’ dormitories, closely followed by Sirius, Peter and Remus, whom all dripped a trail of mud.


A/N- SO SO SO sorry for the delay in this chapter!! I wrote it like three months ago, but I was having posting problems... whatever, let's just hope it doesn't happen again! Enjoy! I skipped a few years to try and keep it interesting... there's some excitement to come soon. I like this chapter, there's a good bit of foreshadowing in there if anyone spotted it... anyway, please read and review as always!)

"Oh, Ophelia, you were brilliant!"

Lily and Alice gushed over to their friend with hugs at the conclusion of her first match- in which she had undoubtedly become the star, scoring twelve of Gryffindor's twenty points and helping them storm away in victory.

“Really, Lily?” Ophelia smiled sarcastically.

Lily had to admit that lately, she hadn’t been the most supportive of Ophelia’s new Quidditch career. To her, Quidditch meant James Potter, and she tried to distance herself from that boy as much as she could. However, watching Ophelia zoom around with the Quaffle in her hands and a manic glint in her eye, Lily had to admit that Ophelia was born to play.

“Of course!” Lily replied.

“She’s just been being stupid these past few weeks,” Alice said as if Lily was not even standing there.

“Lily Evans? Stupid? Can’t be,” a voice said from behind.

Lily didn’t even need to turn around; if she didn’t recognize the sound of James’s voice by now, then at least she could count on the fact that he always had some comment to make.

“Good game, Owens,” he said with a smile, going to stand next to Ophelia. “I’m just disappointed you didn’t join the team sooner!”

“Good game yourself, and cheers,” she replied with a smile.

“I’ll see you ladies later, I’m going to go get out of these sweaty things,” he said, pointing to the state of his dirty Quidditch robes. Lily noticed in disgust that a couple of girls a few feet away had silently exchanged glances of longing.

If there was one thing in the world that Lily hated, it was girls like those. All they wanted was to date James because he was Quidditch Captain, and handsome, and popular, and then maybe if they dated him they would be popular too. Well, they wouldn’t be! Everyone would still think that they were a couple of dim-witted hussies who just...

“Lily?”

Lily snapped out of her own brain. “Uh... yeah,” she said stupidly.

************************

"It's going to be brilliant!" Sirius groaned at Remus, Peter, and James. James was grabbing his broom and they were getting ready to go back up to the castle after the game. "Would you three just stop worrying? We're going to become Animagi!"

“Sirius, it’s illegal, and the risks...”

“Don’t you want company when you transform, Moony? Make it a little easier for you, eh, mate?”

Remus seemed to reluctantly agree by the look on his face.

“Plus, we’re halfway there! We’ve done all the research! Pretty soon we will officially be Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs!”

"Shh!" Remus hissed as the last of the students walked away from the Quidditch pitch.

James smiled at the thought of the names that they had given themselves when they found out what animal forms their human bodies took; Remus was, of course, the werewolf, Peter was a rat, Sirius was an enormous black dog, and James was a strong, white stag.

He remembered how, back in his second year, he and his friends had found out that Remus was a werewolf. As opposed to deserting him, as Remus had thought they would, it brought them even closer together. And they all had one person to thank for it- Lily Evans. She, having figured it out before anyone, had persuaded Remus to tell his friends in the first place. James smiled at what a good friend Lily was. She wouldn’t let Remus believe for a second that his friends would not care for him anymore, and she kept his secret, not even telling her best friends. Lily and the Marauders were the only people (besides Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey, of course) that knew.

“I’d say about next year this time, it’ll be done,” James said, adding finality to the conversation.

As they reached the entrance hall, their way was blocked by a group of Slytherins. James would have hated them anyway, the filthy racist scum of a House that they were, but it was an unusually horrible bunch. There were four of the ugliest boys that you could ever lay eyes on, Lestrange, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle; a pompous Sixth year with white-blond hair named Lucius Malfoy, Sirius' brother Regulus, and Sirius’ cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa Black.

Regulus looked very much like his brother indeed, but he was a bit shorter and stockier. James knew that Sirius had always been very close to his brother, but being in different, if not enemy, houses put a strain on their relationship. Bellatrix and Narcissa looked very different for being sisters. Bellatrix had long, dark hair like Sirius had, but her matching dark eyes didn’t have the same warm and friendly glow that his had. They were cold and sullen, and they made what would have been an attractive face like her cousin’s mean and odd looking. She was tall and had long, elegant limbs that constantly reminded James of a spider’s. Narcissa was extremely thin with blond hair and pallid skin that made her look almost dead. Across her face she always wore an expression of disgust. Now that Sirius was there, it intensified.

“Cousin!” Bellatrix stepped forward in a falsely happy voice. “Long time no see. We never get to spend quality time together anymore!"

James never saw Sirius look more angry than when he was in close proximity to a family member. He looked fit to kill, his eyes filled with hate. “Don‘t talk to me, Bella," he snapped.

She laughed. It was more like a shriek; cold and creepy, that pierced the air. “Of course, why spend time with us when you’ve got these blood-traitor friends of yours?”

"Guys, let's not get into a row," Regulus muttered under his breath; he was, however, not giving James the friendliest of looks.

“Good idea. Just get out of our way then,” Sirius said with a slightly loathing tone.

“Maybe we don’t feel like it, Black,” Lucius Malfoy said casually as he strode forward.

“Shove off, Malfoy,” James piped in, shoving his wand threateningly in Malfoy's face. He hated Malfoy possibly more than he hated Snape, and that was saying a lot.

“James, Sirius... come on now,” Peter said from behind them. He looked as if he wanted to run straight out of the hall.

“Oh, look now, your little minion doesn’t want to play with the big boys,” Malfoy said. “I guess tubby here isn’t used to a good duel. Not when he’s got big friends to protect him.”

The Slytherins behind Malfoy howled with laughter.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Lucius, so shut it,” Sirius said, stepping next to Peter.

“It’s okay, I can defend myself...” Peter whispered to Sirius, but Sirius didn’t back off.

“Come on, let him fight for himself, Cousin!” Bellatrix declared. “You know how it is for him! Always a bridesmaid, never a bride...”

There was more laughter from the Slytherins. James didn’t quite know what to say. Peter was nearly shaking beside him, and he couldn’t help but want to protect his friend. Remus was standing behind Peter, his wand out, but not moving.

“I know you’ve got talent in there somewhere, Pettigrew, you don’t need these so-called friends of yours to mask it with their own all the time. Come on. Fight me.” Bellatrix’s face was looming in on Peter’s; no one could help but stare at her.

James could see Peter’s brain processing what Bellatrix was saying. All he could do was hope he didn’t fight her, that he didn’t give her what she wanted. Peter was about to raise his wand when from the corner of his eye, James saw Malfoy discreetly begin to raise his own and point it at Peter.

Before he had a chance to strike, James did. Malfoy was smashed against the nearest wall before he had blinked.

“Oh no you don’t, Potter,” Bellatrix warned, advancing on him, but she was hit with another curse.

James looked back and saw it was Sirius who had taken her out.

“Now, get out of our way,” Sirius sneered.

At that point, it became a full on duel. Wands were flying everywhere, jets of red and yellow sparks rising into the air. Even Regulus had defended Narcissa and given Remus quite the bloody lip. No one could see a foot in front of them. James thought he had stepped on Nott, but it was actually Peter, whom he heard begin to whimper as he tried to take on Lestrange, who was roughly the size of a boulder. James had a black eye and what he knew what was going to be a giant bruise on his left shoulder. He was just about to advance on Malfoy for the second time when they were interrupted.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?”

Professor McGonagall ran up the stairs in a fury. Her eyes were stern and beady, her face contorted with rage. “Fighting in the corridors is not tolerated! I am ashamed of all of you!”

James put his wand away, but didn’t stop glaring at Malfoy.

“Detentions for each of you this Saturday, and I’m taking thirty points each from your Houses. I better not witness something like this ever again,” she warned, and she pointed for the Slytherins to get to their common room.

James watched as they walked away slowly and menacingly, their eyes gleaming and their robes torn.

Professor McGonagall then advanced on Sirius, Remus, Peter and James. “I must say, I would have expected better out of Gryffindors,” she said sternly, and then walked away in a huff.

James, disappointed but still shaking from anger, looked over at Sirius. He had a mad look on his face.

“Good thing for them that I wasn’t put in Slytherin like the rest of my family,” he said angrily. “I would have killed the whole lot of them in their sleep.”

No one noticed that Peter began walking to the dormitory by himself.

"Aw, Come on, Evans! You're going to miss me over break, aren't you?"

James cunningly raised his eyebrows at Lily.

"Oh, yeah, loads," Lily said sarcastically, pulling her wool scarf around her neck. "Whatever will I do with no one to bother me all day?"

Remus, Peter, Sirius, Alice and Ophelia had all gone off with their parents already from Platform 9 and 3/4. Lily was, unfortunately for her, left with James to wait for her mum and dad. She breathed a great sigh of relief as she finally spotted them. They were standing on the edge of the platform, next to the steaming Hogwarts Express that was letting off the horde of students eager for their Christmas break to begin.

"Are those your parents?" James asked her as they began walking over with big grins on their faces.

"Yes," Lily said apprehensively.

James smiled. "You know, I'd love to meet them... think I'll go introduce myself...."

"No, don't you dare James Potter," Lily warned under her breath, but it was too late.

"Mr. and Mrs. Evans, it's a pleasure to meet you," James said charmingly as Lily's parents came over to where they were standing. He shook both their hands politely.

Mrs. Evans smiled. "Who's this, Lily?"

Lily gritted her teeth. "This is... well, this is James Potter."

"Yes, Lily and I are in the same House," James elaborated charismatically. "So I thought I’d say hi and wish you a Happy Christmas! But I must be off, I've spotted my parents. Hope you all enjoy your holiday!"

"Happy Christmas," Mr. and Mrs. Evans grinned as James walked away.

"Oh, Lily, that boy is absolutely charming, is he a friend of yours?" Lily's mother asked her as she gave her a loving hug and lead her away from the platform.

"Not exactly," said Lily, blushing out of both annoyance and embarrassment.

***************

James woke up on Christmas morning feeling happy to be home, but missing his friends. He loved his parents very much, but in a way Hogwarts felt a lot more like home now. He almost half expected to see Sirius, Remus, and Peter there in his room. He leapt up excitedly and started to get dressed- he couldn't wait to see the pile of presents all wrapped in silver and gold that were waiting for him beneath the usual massive Christmas tree in the living room.

Before he opened his door, he had a sudden idea. He ran over to his desk, grabbed a quill and some parchment, and scribbled a quick note with a grin on his face. He sent it out the window with the family owl before slipping on his trousers.

Suddenly, something began to rustle from within his bottom drawer. For a moment, James wondered what it was, but then he remembered.

He ran over to his drawer, pulled it open, and picked up a small, shiny mirror. However, instead of seeing his own reflection within it, he witnessed the handsome face of Sirius Black smiling back at him.

"Happy Christmas!" said Sirius' face merrily.

"Happy Christmas," James replied with a grin. "So, you like your gift, do you?"

"It's brilliant!" Sirius replied. "This should make separate detentions a lot better, I think."

For Christmas, James had sent the family owl with a two- way mirror for Sirius, as well as a note explaining how they worked. One of them simply said the name of the other, and they could have instant communication. He wasn't sure if they were allowed at Hogwarts, but a simple thing like a rule had never stopped James Potter from having his fun.

"So, how's your holiday been so far?" James asked.

Sirius's smile faded and he groaned. "Not well. I don't know if I can take it anymore."

James frowned. "Why, what's happened?"

"Well, for one thing," Sirius began, "My entire family is completely insane. My mum went crazy last night over dinner because my cousin, Andromeda, brought her husband over and he's Muggleborn. It was like a murderer had entered the house, they were all making this big deal of it. And it's a shame, too- his name's Ted Tonks, and he's a really nice guy, plus they've got a little girl, Nymphadora. Andromeda left after ten minutes and swore she'd never go anywhere where her family wasn't welcome."

"No way," said James.

"Yup. And that isn't the half of it. I've always been close with Andromeda, she's my favorite cousin. So I got into this huge row with my dad over it. I told him that the family shouldn't care if Andromeda's husband is a muggle as long as he’s a nice guy. My dad started yelling things about ‘family honor‘, and my git of a brother sided with him! Can you believe that? Before I knew it, half the family was screaming at me... it was a total mess.”

James shook his head. “I’m sorry, mate. That sounds awful.”

Sirius sighed. “Yeah. Can’t wait to get out of here. I’ll take classes and exams over this rubbish any day.”

James suddenly heard his mother’s voice from downstairs.

“Look, I’ve got to run. Try to hang in there, I’ll see you in a week, all right?”

“See you. Cheers for the present,” Sirius replied, trying to sound happy but failing miserably at it.

As James sadly put away his mirror and leapt downstairs to his loving and smiling parents, he felt truly lucky to be a Potter.

****************

Lily rolled up her sleeves, tied an apron around her tiny waist, and began scrubbing the dishes that were left in the sink from Christmas dinner. The guests had just left, and as Mr. and Mrs. Evans tidied up the living room, it was Lily and Petunia’s job to wash the plates and silverware.

Petunia, although never exactly best friends with her younger sister, had never been as mean as she was being this particular holiday. She had barely said two words to Lily, and if she did speak, they were brief words in a cold, forced tone. Lily, the generally positive person that she was, had tried to ignore her sister's attitude and make the best of the situation. So there she was, cleaning dirty dishes and trying her best to enjoy her Christmas.

Lily began to realize how dependent she was on magic; she longed to run upstairs and grab her wand (a quick wave and the dishes would be sparkling in no time). However, due to restrictions on underage magic, she couldn’t. She missed home very much, but not the manual labor that came along with living without magic.

“You know, if I was allowed to use magic at home, we wouldn’t have to clean all night!” Lily said cheerfully to Petunia as she scoured the inside of a wine glass.

Petunia kept scrubbing and silently pursed her extremely thin lips.

Lily frowned. "Seriously, Petunia, what is the matter with you?” she asked fiercely, tired of the stupid game her sister had been playing for the entire week.

“Nothing,” Petunia replied coldly. “I just think that... well, if you can’t bother to do things like normal people... why didn’t you just stay at that school of yours?”

Lily almost dropped the plate that she was cleaning. “You know that’s not what I meant,“ she replied in shock. “Besides, what’s that supposed to mean anyway? Just because I go to Hogwarts, I’m not allowed to come home for the holidays?

“No... I would just appreciate it if you shut up about Hogwarts and all your weird friends for two seconds.”

Lily now felt like taking the plate she was holding and throwing it at her sister’s head. “That’s completely unfair!” she shouted.

Suddenly, Mr. Evans entered the kitchen, holding a large black trash bag. “Girls... what’s going on?”

Lily looked from her father to Petunia, then back again. Petunia kept washing her plates as if she had never said anything at all. Lily threw off her yellow rubber gloves, untied her apron, and ran upstairs without a second glance at either of them.

She threw herself on her bed, trying not to let the tears fall that were clouding her eyes. All her anger at her sister had been brewing since she got home, and now it was bubbling over. She loved being a witch, but why couldn’t her sister accept that? It was so hard having someone that was supposed to be so close always be so distant. Lily wanted more than anything to talk to Ophelia and Alice, her best friends that could always make her laugh and get her out of a bad mood. If she were at Hogwarts, she would simply go down to the Common room and find them there. At that moment, she hated being at home, being so disconnected from the world of magic.

Then Lily heard an unexpected tap at her window. Curiously, she went over and opened it. A beautiful, large, brown owl swooped onto her desk clutching a letter. It offered Lily its head, and she softly stroked its silky feathers. Lily gently grabbed the letter out of the owl’s beak and opened it. Inside was a simple note, written in an untidy scrawl that she knew so well-

Hey Evans- Happy Christmas.

Lily wiped a small tear from her eye as a smile spread across her face.

“Where’ve you been?” James asked Sirius as he casually strode into the boy’s dormitory. “It’s nearly sunset! We should have left for the Shrieking Shack ten minutes ago!”

Sirius grinned at James and Peter. “I was just having a little fun.”

“You haven’t been hanging around that Hufflepuff girl again, have you, Padfoot?” Peter asked apprehensively.

Sirius’ grin widened. “No, even better. Well, maybe not better, she is pretty cute...” he trailed off. “But just as entertaining.”

“Well, what?”

“Snivellus,” he hissed.

James groaned. “Padfoot, you know I love a good Snivellus prank just as much as you do, but it’s full moon!” He held up his invisibility cloak and began to put it on.

“I know. That’s what makes it the prank of all pranks, my dear Prongsie.”

“What are you talking about?” James asked exasperatedly.

“Our dear friend Snivelly was getting a bit too nosy for his own good. I mean, who can blame him, with a honker like that who wouldn’t be nosy...”

“Get to the point!” Peter reminded him, watching as the late spring sky turned from blue to purple from outside the window.

“Right. He was watching Moony from the window in the hall, seemed to be interested in where he was going. I let it slip to him that there might be a way of going in after him... to see what he was up to... he just couldn’t resist the temptation of getting Moony in trouble, the slimy git...”

James’ mouth dropped and he gaped at his best friend. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t, Sirius," he said plainly.

Sirius laughed. “Of course I did! I couldn’t let a golden opportunity like that pass me by! It’s high time that Snivellus learns to mind his own business.”

Peter’s nose began to twitch and his eyes became glassy, like a rodent’s. “Oh, this is bad,” he said. "This is very bad...
"

James stepped forward, in total disbelief. “Sirius, if he goes after Remus, he’s going to come face- to- face with a full- grown werewolf! He could get bitten, or worse, killed! What about Remus, eh? He can’t control himself! Do you think he wants to become a killer because of you!?” He shouted, his face turning the shade of a tomato.

Sirius stepped back and his expression changed completely. “It... It was only a joke... I didn’t think--”

“No, you never think!” James bellowed, and without even looking back, he ran out of the dormitory.

James ran faster than he ever had. Through the windows in the corridors he had peeks of the sky... it was already dark. There wouldn't be time to get a teacher. Remus was already in his wolf form. If Snape had let his curiosity get the best of him, he was in serious danger.

James ran down the stairs and out of the castle. Why was Sirius such a prat sometimes? He was so immature. Everything he did was for the thrill, and he thought that his actions didn’t have consequences. James liked a joke just as much as his best friend did, but this time, it had simply gone too far. As James approached the Whomping Willow, he prayed that it wasn’t too late.

It was then that he saw it- a black cloak lying at the base of the tree. Snape was inside.

The Willow’s branches were swinging wildly in the cool night air. James was suddenly furious with himself for not bringing Peter... how was he supposed to touch the knot? The rat form of Peter could have done it in a second. But it was too late now. James ran up towards the tree, but an enormous solid branch walloped him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying. Every time James took a step, the tree sent him back two. His glasses were smashed and he could feel the cuts and bruises on his arms and legs, but he couldn’t give up.

Then, he spotted it. A long, sturdy twig lying near the right side of the tree. He figured that must have been what Snape had used to get in. James lunged towards it, grabbed onto the end, and pulled away at the last second. A massive branch had almost swung right into his head. He crawled forward and thrust it at the knot on the tree’s trunk. Instantaneously, the branches stopped swaying and the tree froze, as if petrified.

Without a second thought, James crawled under and into the passageway. “Lumos,” he muttered, and began to run full speed with his lighted wand in front of him. He ran for what seemed like ages, not seeing anything except the dark, dirt walls of the tunnel. James never remembered the journey towards the shack being that long.

“AAARG!”

James heard a yell. He froze, then sprinted up. The tunnel was inclining, growing higher and higher, it wasn’t much longer...

And then he saw him. Severus Snape, a look of sheer terror plastered on his pale, greasy face. He had opened the door to the Shrieking Shack and what he saw had horrified him.

An enormous, gray, shaggy creature stood towering in the doorway. Its hollow, yellow eyes glinted and glared at the two boys that were standing in front of it. It growled menacingly, exposing its sharp teeth and flinging snot out of its snout.

James looked over at Snape. For the first time in his life, he let down his guard. He looked scared, helpless... he was looking to James for a plan, and James didn’t have one.

Without warning, the werewolf flung itself at the doorway. James’ Quidditch reflexes went into action.

“IMMOBILIS!” he bellowed, pointing his wand at the wolf. Its body froze in place, while it’s head still snarled at him ferociously. James panicked. That wasn’t supposed to happen! Why didn’t its entire body freeze?! But he didn’t have time to think anymore. He pulled the door shut tightly, and yelled at Snape, “RUN!”

The two boys sprinted down the tunnel like their lives depended on it... and they did. James wasn’t very adept at Charms, and he wasn’t sure how long it would last. Finally, they reached the opening. James hauled Snape’s thin, gangling body through the entryway and followed him immediately. James fell on the ground out of the reach of the tree’s branches, gasping for air and clutching his side. He picked up his head and looked to Snape. He was doing the exact same thing. Then James turned his head and saw Albus Dumbledore standing before him.

*********************


"Please come with me."

That was all that Professor Dumbledore said to James and Snape before turning on his heels and walking across the grounds. He did not wait for the boys to get up, but they caught up with him in a rush.

James' legs were sore and tired. Between running from the dormitory to the Whomping Willow, down the tunnel and back again, he felt as if he had just completed a marathon. He was amazed at how quickly Dumbledore was able to walk for being such an old man.

The odd trio were as silent as the night as they swiftly walked in a triangular formation, with Dumbledore leading the way. James glanced over at Snape; his expression was comprised of shock, terror, and disgust all in one.

As they reached Dumbledore's office, James was able to stop and catch his breath for a moment. He didn't care if he was in trouble, as long as he got to sit down.

"Acid Pop," Dumbledore said calmly.

The statue of the gargoyle leapt aside and revealed the familiar flight of stairs, which they climbed. Dumbledore sat down at his desk and motioned James and Snape to sit down in front of him.
For a moment, he didn't say anything at all. His electric blue eyes twinkled in the dim firelight. James watched him closely, waiting for what was coming and trying to form a story in his mind. He was furious at Sirius, yes, but never in a million years would he ever rat him out. Snape was a different story. He wouldn't hesitate to get Sirius in trouble... hell, he would be thrilled.

"You two have certainly had an interesting evening," Dumbledore finally said quietly.
James and Snape said nothing.

"Now, am I safe to assume that the both of you know what... or what I mean to say is, who... you encountered tonight in the Shrieking Shack?"

"Lupin is a werewolf," Snape spat, not bothering to raise his eyes to look at Dumbledore. James felt a rage of fury towards him.

"Indeed he is," Dumbledore answered simply. "Mr. Potter, of course, I guessed that being Mr. Lupin's good friend, you would know already. I also might have heard you call him 'Moony' once or twice."

James heart skipped a beat. He made a mental note to not call his friends by their nicknames in front of teachers.

Dumbledore sat forward, gazing intently at the two boys in front of him. "Mr. Snape, I know that you and Mr. Lupin are not exactly... well... friends, but I must ask you a favor. You must never tell anyone what you have seen tonight. Not a soul." His eyes were amazingly intense for such an old man.

When Snape did not answer, he continued. "If perhaps, and I am confident that this will never happen, you let it slip-- I am afraid that there will be consequences."

Snape's bottom lip disappeared into a tight purse. His beady eyes darted to Dumbledore's.

"Now, do I have your word?"

He had Snape in a corner. "Yes," Snape said reluctantly.

"Splendid." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. He looked as if he was waiting, but for what, James did not know.

"It was Sirius Black, Professor," Snape suddenly spat out. "He told me to follow Lupin. He knew."

James clenched his fists in his chair until his knuckles turned white. He had known that Snape would do this... if he was going to be in Dumbledore's debt, he wanted to take someone down with him. James suddenly could not remember why he had bothered to save the slimy prat’s life.

Dumbledore looked emotionless at this news. He leaned in again, focusing on Snape. “Thank you for telling me, Severus.”

Snape’s pale face had cracked into a malicious grin.

“However, I am already aware of this.”

As Snape’s smile disappeared, James couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How did Dumbledore know? Had he assumed, given Sirius’ past with Snape, that he was to blame?

“I will have you know that Mr. Black came to me tonight, not a moment after Mr. Potter had gone to put a stop to the prank that he had created.”

James’ jaw dropped. Dumbledore continued.

“He told me what he had done, and said that he was incredibly sorry. Not to sound pompous, but I regard myself as an excellent judge of character. I believe that Mr. Black showed great integrity and sincerity by coming to me. It was something that he did not have to do. I ask you to remember that, Mr. Snape, the next time you come across Mr. Black or Mr. Potter. Remember that James did not have to do what he did either.” One of his ancient white eyebrows were raised in Snape's direction.

Snape looked fit to kill. He sat twitching in his chair, glancing at the door at every available moment.

Dumbledore relaxed again. “It is late. If either of you wish to visit Madam Pomfrey, she will be pleased to see you. Although, considering you boys are better judges of your own health than I am, you may just return to your dormitory and get some rest if you wish. Goodnight,” he said.

Snape rose quickly and avoided James’ glare as he sulked away. James thought he saw Dumbledore wink at him as he turned, but when he looked again, he was fiddling with one of the silver instruments on his desk. So he walked out of the room, grateful that the night had not been as bad as it could have been.

“James.”

James turned around outside of the statue of the gargoyle and met Sirius. He did not look his usual smiling, handsome self. He seemed worried and much older than he really was.

“James... I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

James sighed. “Sirius, I should be apologizing to you. I didn't mean what I said."

“You were right,” Sirius protested. “I was a total git, and I didn’t think of what might have happened.”

James smiled and Sirius returned it. Silently, they both knew that everything was all right again between them.

"Just promise me one thing," James said, as they began to walk back up towards Gryffindor Tower.

"Anything," Sirius said sincerely, crossing his fingers and placing his hand on his heart with a smile.

"Let's not hex Snape for at least, say... another twenty-four hours, okay?"

Lily was so nervous, she thought she was going to be sick. She hadn't even felt this anxious when she had gotten her O.W.L. results in the post over the summer (seven 'Outstanding's' and one ‘Exceeds Expectations’). What was she doing? Was she crazy? If it weren’t for the fact that she was halfway there, she might have turned back.

He had said to meet her in the Courtyard after lunch. He had slipped her a note while she was eating. It made her lose her appetite. Alice and Ophelia had urged her to go for it, but her palms were sweaty and her knees felt weak. Sure, they could talk... Ophelia had a different boy after her every month lately, and Alice had just begun to date Frank Longbottom, a Hufflepuff sixth year. It’s not like Lily had a lot of experience... sure, a few boys (and one fairly obnoxious one) had paid attention to her over the years, but it’s not like she was exactly comfortable around the opposite sex.

She had liked him now for a while, always blushing when she passed him and avoiding his direct glare... not exactly the way to get a boy to notice you.... but obviously somehow he did. And now she was meeting him, in the Courtyard. Oh yes, she felt like she was going to be sick.

She walked outside and spotted him. He was so handsome- his blond hair and brown eyes reflected the sunlight as he stood in a casually graceful pose.

“Hi,” she choked out, embarrassed at the way her voice sounded.

“Oh, Lily, hey!” he said brightly, looking as cool and collected as ever. “I was starting to think that you weren’t going to show up!”

Lily tried to laugh cutely, but it ended being some kind of snort, like she had something stuck up her nose.

“I just wanted to ask you if you were going to Hogsmeade with anyone this weekend.”

Lily’s heart skipped a beat. “Um... no, not really...”

“Good,” he smiled.

Lily returned it.

“So... do you want to come with me?” he asked in a charming, boyish sort of way.

She didn’t respond. She was worried that something other than words might fly out of her mouth.

“If you don’t want to, that’s okay....” Aaron began awkwardly.

“No, I do!” she said quickly. “That would be... that would be fun.”

They smiled at each other. “Okay,” he said. “See you later, Lily.”

Lily watched him stride back up to the castle with a casual sophistication. Once he was out of sight, Alice and Ophelia suddenly appeared from behind a tree.

Lily laughed. “You guys weren’t listening, were you?”

“Of course not, Lily, we wouldn't do that, not your two best friends!” Ophelia grinned. Lily looked stern.

“You’re going out with Aaron Anderson!” Alice squealed. They all laughed.

Lily couldn’t believe her luck. Aaron Anderson was, of course, the handsome, popular Ravenclaw Seeker that quite a few of the girls in her year had their eyes on. But he had bypassed them for Lily. She smiled at her friends, who were all excited for her. She was going out with Aaron Anderson!

“I’ve got to get to the bathroom,” Lily mumbled as she ran towards the school, one hand on her stomach and one covering her mouth.

*******

“Aaron... Anderson...”

James drew out the name like it was an extremely dirty word. “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it,” Sirius told him. “A lot of guys have been paying more attention to Lily this year. You know, even I have to admit, she’s really-”

James shot him a warning look.

“All yours, mate, all yours.” Sirius’s hands went into the air in surrender.

“What does she see in him?” James asked, not taking his eyes off of them. They were sitting on a bench outside, and he was making her laugh. From the tree that they were leaning against, James had a perfect view of the (unfortunately) happy couple.

Remus shrugged. “He’s quite popular... and plays Quidditch, and he gets good marks, you know...”

“You’re describing me, Moony,” James said pompously. It was, however, the truth. “I meant what does she see in him that she doesn’t see in me?”

“Dunno.”

It’s not like James would have been happy no matter who Lily decided to go out with, but of all people, Aaron Anderson! The last time that Gryffindor had played against Ravenclaw, he had had a hand in some of the slyest cheating James had ever witnessed. James couldn't stand the sight of him. He fought the urge to just walk on over and...

“Remind me again why I can’t just beat the pulp out of him?” James asked through clenched teeth.

“Save that for Quidditch field- your match against Ravenclaw is Saturday, remember?" Peter told him.

James' eyes glinted. "Oh, yeah... yeah..." He saw Aaron casually lean over and kiss Lily, who looked elated.

"Prongs! Prongs, what's that tree ever done to you?"

James noticed he had a fist full of bark and threw it on the floor.

James could not remember ever being this nervous about a Quidditch match before. Even way back in his second year, when he had flown in his very first match, he had the utmost confidence in himself. He knew that he was an above average flier, and he had never failed to win for his team.

But today was different. He was facing Ravenclaw; their team wasn't as good as Gryffindor, but it wasn't the whole team he cared about. It was Aaron Anderson, their seeker. He wanted to beat him more than he had wanted to beat anyone in his entire life. It was one of those things that girls never understood about boys, it was a matter of pride. He absolutely had to win.

He clenched his broom and walked out onto the field with the rest of his team members, all dressed in scarlet and gold. The announcer called out their names, and when he shouted, "And Captain James Potter!" the sea of Gryffindor supporters erupted with the loudest welcoming for any of the players. This gave him a boost of confidence (as always) as he mounted and shook hands with Ravenclaw's captain. He glanced at Aaron in the back, who had a smug grin plastered across his chiseled face. James subconsciously took it out on the captain by accidentally giving him a handshake that made him clutch his hand in pain for a moment.

When the quaffle was released, James sped up into the air. It was a clear, sunny day- perfect playing conditions. James squinted around to see if he could find the Snitch. Aaron was on the other end of the pitch doing the exact same thing.

James spotted Lily. She was sitting with Alice in the Gryffindor stands, but her eyes were on Aaron. She was watching him in awe as he flew around, smiling.

“POTTER!” He heard Ophelia's voice yell at him.

James whipped around. He had been watching Lily for too long, and Aaron was in a dive. James sped up like a rocket and met up with him. Aaron looked over and smirked as he pulled up out of the dive- it was a trick.

But James was too smart for this- it was one of the oldest tricks in the book. He pulled up not a moment too soon, and rocketed gracefully back up to the sky. Aaron frowned at him and flew in the opposite direction. "Bastard," James thought angrily; he was even more determined now, and was willing to do anything to win.

Ravenclaw was ahead, but only by ten points. One more goal and they would be even, and if James caught the Snitch now, Gryffindor would win the match. He was desperate. He wanted more than anything to knock that smug look right off Aaron’s face.

Ophelia had scored a goal for Gryffindor, but a Ravenclaw chaser had rebutted with two goals of his own. James continued to soar around the stadium, but every time he thought he saw a glint of gold, it turned out to be someone’s wrist watch or glasses reflecting the sun.

And then, he saw it. Shimmery and gold, glinting in the sunlight. But he soon realized he wasn’t the only one; Aaron was soaring towards it. James was a little behind, but he was quicker and a lot smarter than Aaron. He sped up and began flying right alongside of Aaron, who refused to take his eyes off the snitch straight ahead to look at James. James, thinking quickly, used this to his advantage and cut Aaron off mid-flight, confusing him. As they both dove, he whipped around Aaron’s broom. Aaron was disoriented and lost his balance. He pulled away clumsily just as James clasped his hand around the tiny golden ball.

James threw his hands up into the air in triumph, his team zooming over to lift him up and do a victory lap. He had hardly remembered ever being this happy; not only had he secured his team a spot in the finals for the season, but he had humiliated Aaron Anderson, the dirty cheater that he was! Practically floating with excitement, James looked over at the stands where Lily was sitting, but she wasn't there. In fact, he noticed that half the crowd was on the pitch, running towards the middle.

Then, James saw it. When Aaron had pulled out of his dive, he had lost his balance and fallen. He was lying on the ground as teachers and students rushed to him.

James became light-headed and felt a deep twinge of guilt- he was the one who had made Aaron lose his balance, he was the one who had made him fall. He had wanted to beat him, not hurt him. He flew down, hoping that he was okay.

Through a sea of students, James could see Aaron’s lower half, lying in the grass. He could only hear whispers of broken sentences with words like "broken rib", "hospital" and "Madam Pomfrey".

James sighed. Aaron would be fine; James himself had suffered two broken ribs during his Quidditch career and was completely healed in less than twenty-four hours. He let relief sweep over him; until he saw Lily, that is. She was fawning over Aaron like he was an injured soldier.

“Oh, Aaron!” she was crying. “Are you okay, does it hurt an awful lot?”

Aaron winced. “I’ll be all right, don’t worry.”

Lily kissed his cheek as he was lifted to be taken to the hospital wing, then got up hurriedly to follow his magically levitating stretcher.

James couldn’t believe his luck. He had won, and Lily didn’t even care just because this prat had broken a stupid rib.

“Congratulations!” a Gryffindor boy yelled out enthusiastically at James as he made his way through the crowd. James only half- smiled.

As summer crept upon Hogwarts, Lily knew that the time had come to go back home for break. Exams were over, classes were finished, and everyone was packing up their trunks in the dormitories to catch the train the next morning. She was excited to see her mum and dad again, but sad to leaver her second home and all her friends. She and Aaron had promised to write each other and made arrangements to get together sometime during the break. Lily was ready to take a break and get ready for her last year at Hogwarts, which she had a feeling was going to shape up to be her best yet.

As she walked from her last class of the year up towards her dormitory to begin packing, Lily passed James Potter. However, instead of the usual greeting, she received the cold shoulder- he was too busy to bother with her now.

“Oh, Merlin, James, you and Sirius are an absolute riot!” Rena O’Reilly giggled, her hand intertwined with James’s.

“Yeah, we try,” he replied pompously. “Anyway, that wasn’t the half of it. The rest of the story happened when...”

Lily walked quicker to avoid being around the new, happy couple. They were really obnoxious, Rena with that long dark hair that she always swayed around and James with his “charming” jokes. They were the golden couple of the school, and unlike everyone else who wanted to be their friend, Lily avoided them like the plague.

“Miss Evans!”

Lily turned around to see Professor Flitwick peeking around a corner. She walked up to him.

“Yes, Professor?”

He smiled. “I just wanted to tell you, Miss Evans, that you scored the highest out of anyone in the year on the charms exam!” he said. “Just, uh, don’t mention that to anyone else, will you?”

Lily smiled and walked to her room with a decidedly more positive outlook on life.

***

James and Sirius had just said goodbye to Remus and Peter, whose parents had already picked them up from the train. He was rather excited that his parents had invited Sirius to stay over break, and even more excited when Sirius replied by asking if he could be adopted as well. It was going to be some summer.

Hauling luggage around with no magic was getting a tad old now that they were in the vicinity of muggles, and James was wondering what was taking his parents so long. He turned to apologize to Sirius for the wait when he spotted a bunch of Slytherins walking towards them. He knew that it could mean nothing good.

“Why hello, cousin, not off home with your brother this summer?” Bellatrix stepped forward. She smiled in a falsely sweet way.

Sirius obviously didn’t feel like dealing with her. “Shut up, Bella.”

Regulus, who looked a great deal like Sirius, put up his hand to quiet her before she could speak again. “It’s okay, Bella. Sirius, I want to talk to you- alone, if that’s okay.”

Sirius nodded awkwardly as Bella and the other Slytherins walked away. James took a couple of steps back to give them some privacy, but not far enough so that he couldn’t hear.

“Look, Sirius, I know that Christmas didn’t go too well...”

Sirius laughed sarcastically.

“...But I’m disappointed that you’re not coming home for break.”

“Me too,” Sirius said. “But, sorry Reg, I’m not setting myself up for that again.”

“For what exactly?” Regulus asked. “I know mum and dad sometimes get a bit carried away...”

James thought Sirius‘s eyes were going to pop out of his head. “Carried away? Are you serious? They all off their rockers, that’s what they are!”

Regulus pensively thought of how to put his words without getting Sirius angry. “Look, it’s just that they’re worried about you. It’s not your fault that you were sorted into Gryffindor, but...”

“Not my fault?” Sirius repeated incredulously. “You make it sound like there’s something wrong in it! You’re just like them!”

Regulus seemed angry now. “And so what if I am? We are Blacks, Sirius! We can trace our heritage back for generations and generations, we have a noble blood line--”

“Don’t give me that ‘pure-blood’ rubbish,” Sirius spat.

"Why have you turned against your family?" Regulus asked angrily. "Don’t tell me that it’s true what I’ve heard, that you’re spending the summer with the Potters? They‘re the biggest lot of blood traitors around today, that friend of yours the worst of them! That girl he chases around, Evans... why, she's a Mudblood, isn't she?"

James felt a surge of rage and turned to see Sirius’s face twist in anger. "Don't ever call Lily, or anyone else for that matter, that foul name again..."

“You act like you’re not even proud to be who you are!” Regulus shouted. People, including a few rather confused muggles, were beginning to stare.

“I used to be!” Sirius retorted furiously. “I used to buy into all the crap that our family has been feeding us since we were born, but then I came here and realized that it’s all just old- fashioned rubbish! They’re all a bunch of idiots, thinking that they’re better than everyone else just because they’ve all married their cousins! I don’t want to be a part of it anymore!”

Sirius watched the friendly gray eyes that he shared with his brother become cold. “Then don’t be.”

Sirius said nothing. From a distance, James saw his parents beginning to walk over with smiling faces. He tapped Sirius on the shoulder and awkwardly watched as Regulus silently walked away. James couldn’t imagine what Sirius was feeling, and he felt absolutely terrible. But later, as James sat at dinner with his parents and his smiling best friend, he could tell that Sirius was feeling the most at home that he had been in a long while.

Lily took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The air was so crisp, so clean. It was the smell of September at Hogwarts, when the wind was still warm enough that you could stand outside but cool enough to hint at the coming season. She tried so hard to take it all in, to implant every detail of the wind whisking her hair around her face into her memory- but she knew that come next year, by the time she had left that place for good, she would not remember. Hogwarts would soon become a memory so far away that the simple things that had become parts of daily life would need to be dug out of her brain like shells from sand. It was hard to imagine at that moment, with her shiny new Head Girl badge pinned to her robes, but it was true; this was the very last first day of Lily's life at Hogwarts.

When she opened her eyes, what seemed like hours later, she looked up toward the majestic castle, its lighted windows twinkling like the eyes of a familiar friend. She had spent so long trying to savor her entrance that she had lost sight of Ophelia and Alice, not to mention most of the other students. She hurriedly ran into the almost deserted entryway when she bumped into something.

“Oh!” Lily exclaimed, turning around. “Oh, Peter! I’m sorry to bump into you like that,” she said, realizing just who it was that she had ran into.

Peter looked nervous for some reason, more nervous than usual. “Oh, uh, don’t worry about it, Lily,” he replied, barely making eye contact. He quickly began to scamper off- however, Lily noticed, not in the direction of the feast.

“Wait, Peter!” she called after him.

He turned.

“Aren’t you going to the feast?”

“Oh, the feast!” Peter’s eyes darted towards the Great Hall. “Yeah, um, yeah I was just... forgot where I was going for a moment, you know, start of term jitters!”

“Oh, yes,” Lily said politely, although she wasn’t exactly sure why a seventh year would be having start of term jitters.

They walked in awkward silence into the Great Hall, where the First Years were about to be Sorted. Lily couldn’t help but grin at the looks of sheer terror on their faces; it didn’t feel like long ago at all that she was standing among them, wishing that she could just run out of the room without anyone noticing.

“Lil, where’ve you been?” Ophelia asked as Lily took a seat between her two best friends. “Snogging Filch again, you naughty girl?”

“Bite your tongue,” Lily laughed. “The words ‘Filch’ and ‘snogging’ together in a sentence is no joking matter.”

“I’ll second that, Evans.”

Lily didn’t even have to turn around. Just as “Byrnes, Thatcher” was sorted into Hufflepuff, James Potter plopped himself in the seat across from Lily.

“So, Head Girl, what d`you reckon? Best year ever? With the team of Potter and Evans, how could it not be?” he said with a grin.

“I still don’t believe you, you’ve stolen that from Remus.” Lily pointed to the badge on his chest; it was identical to hers, but with a large B on it as opposed to her G.

“I’m afraid he’s being truthful, Lily,” Remus interjected from across the table. Ophelia leaned in on the conversation and Remus looked away.

“That’s right. What must have happened was that Dumbledore forgot that Remus attended this school,” James said. “But, that just means more fun for you, Evans!”

“Oh, yes,” Lily replied, but she wasn’t sure that James got the sarcasm. She didn’t understand how James was picked Head Boy, not when she had worked so hard for years to achieve the same honor that he had earned by flying around on a broomstick and hexing people.

“So, how were your summers?” James asked Lily and her friends.

“Fine,” Lily, Alice, and Ophelia said in unison. Ophelia, usually the most likely to have a chat with James Potter, apparently had other things on her mind.

James smirked. “Not conversationalists today, I see. Well, mine was wonderful, thanks for asking. Now that Sirius is staying with the Potters, mum and dad are treated to twice the fun.”

Sirius choked a laugh from across the table.

“Actually, it’s a funny story...”

But just what was so funny about the story, Lily never knew, because as “Yang, Fiona” was sorted into Ravenclaw, the Sorting ended and Dumbledore got up to make his speech. It was short and slightly confusing, as always. Lily wondered how she would feel when next year at the same time, she wouldn’t have a speech by her Headmaster to look forward to.

As the feast began, Lily looked around. She was feeling so many emotions that the other students seemed to be unfazed by. They were smiling, and laughing, and eating like they were home again. But, she wondered, did they realize that many of them would never see this place again? It scared Lily how quickly things were about to change.

“Are you okay, Lily?” Alice asked as the feast was finishing up. “You look a bit out of it.”

“Yeah,” Lily replied pensively, looking up at the perfect night sky that was smiling down at her from the ceiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Dumbledore sneak a wink in her direction.

***

James could not believe his luck; he had just spent the past two hours with Lily Evans. Sure, as the Head Girl to his Head Boy, she was forced into it, but James didn't care. They had been briefed by McGonagall about their duties and responsibilities, then patrolled the corridors for the first time. It had been fairly successful; James had gotten yelled at by Lily for chastising a bunch of first years for no reason but, other than that, they had actually seemed to get along.

They had efficiently worked together, without any of their usual tension- and James liked it that way.

"Well, I suppose that went well," Lily said pleasantly as they began heading back to the common room.

"As well as it could have went," James replied.

Lily, for reasons unbeknownst to James, suddenly stopped in the middle of the hall.

“What’s the matter?” James asked.

He looked at Lily. Her arms were crossed tightly, and she had an odd expression on her face, like she was deciding something deep within her mind. After a few moments of this silence, she suddenly extended a small, graceful hand to him.

“My name is Lily Evans. Nice to meet you,” she said simply.

James looked at her and laughed. “You're about seven years late there, Evans."

Lily smiled smugly and stood up straight, trying to make herself even height with James; which was perfectly impossible, considering the fact that he had grown even more over the summer.

"The point I'm trying to make here, Potter, is that I think it’s time for a new beginning. For us. A clean slate. We’re going to be working together very closely for the next year, and even though I felt like tonight was pretty successful, I don’t want things to go wrong because of any old animosity. Who knows, we might even be able to become friends. So, what do you say? A fresh start?"

James stared at her with his eyebrows raised, but she didn’t stop smiling, and put her hand out again.

“Lily Evans,” she repeated firmly.

James’ puzzled expression melted into a grin as he took her hand within his. “Nice to meet you, Miss Evans,” he said coolly. “James Potter’s the name.”

For the perhaps the first time ever, James Potter witnessed the face of Lily Evans break into a smile as she looked at him.

“All right, Potter,” she said determinedly. “Have a good night, then.”

"Excuse me, sir!"

Lily strode across the hall to a third year that was snickering and fiddling with something in his pocket. She liked finding any excuse to exercise her new found power; it made her feel important, and although Lily Evans was a small, rather quiet girl, she enjoyed having a bit of power. The boy turned around and gave her an anxious glance.

"Would you mind showing me what's in your pocket?" Lily asked with a tone of supreme authority. Behind her, James Potter rolled his eyes.

The boy begrudgingly turned out his pocket, revealing a dung bomb in his hand.

"A-ha!" Lily exclaimed, sounding very unlike herself and more like a professor who took their job a bit too seriously. "I see, I see. Well, in case you didn't know, we" - she motioned to herself and James- "are Head Boy and Girl. And I'm afraid we're going to have to confiscate that illegal object, if you please."

She extended her hand. The boy, seemingly trying not to laugh, handed Lily the dung bomb.

"Can I go now?" he asked.

Lily opened her mouth, but James spoke before her. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead."

As the boy was walking away, James turned to Lily. "Evans- what was that?"

"What was what?"

"'I'm afraid we're going to have to confiscate that illegal object, if you please," James mocked. "You sounded like you worked for the Ministry of Magic!"

"I was just doing my job, Potter," Lily replied firmly.

"Okay, McGonagall,” James said quietly.

“Hey! What did you say?”

“Nothing!” James said innocently.

"You called me 'McGonagall'!"

"No I didn't," James lied. "But let's just say that if you show up in the Great Hall tomorrow with little glasses hanging off your nose and your hair in a tight bun, I'm going to have to do something."

Lily couldn't help but laugh. James laughed with her.

She was noticing that the more time she spent with James, the more she got to like him. She didn't know what had happened over the summer to change him so greatly, but he was almost like an entirely new person; the type of person that she could be good friends with.

***

“So...” Sirius said with his eyebrows raised one night as the Marauders met up with him. He had just finished patrolling corridors with Lily. “Anything interesting happen tonight?”

James laughed. “No, Padfoot, unfortunately not.”

“It’s got to, eventually, you know.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Come on, Prongs! You know... you and Rena broke up over the summer, so you're a free man. Plus, all that time together, all alone...”

“She’s got a boyfriend, Padfoot,” Remus reminded him.

James’ teeth clenched in his mouth.

“Lighten up, Moony! She’ll come around!” Sirius said. “Look, Prongs, why don’t you grab your cloak, and we’ll--”

"My cloak!" James slapped his hand to his head, interrupting Sirius.

"What, forgotten it from last night?" Peter asked.

"Yeah! I threw it behind the statue when we heard Filch coming, remember?"

Sirius grinned widely. "Yeah, well, that was a pretty close call..."

"Shh!" Remus silenced him, glancing around the hall.

“I’ll be right back, let me grab it before curfew,” James told his friends, and he disappeared around a corner. How could he have forgotten his cloak? It was only five minutes to curfew, and he did not want another detention.

He checked his watch and ducked into a less- traveled corridor. Filch would most likely be starting to make his rounds in a minute or so. He was about to approach the statue of the one-eyed witch when he heard a voice in an empty classroom.

He heard a giggling voice of a female, but he couldn’t tell whose. He did recognize, however, a male’s. How couldn’t he? Every time he spoke, James's blood boiled.

“I've really been wanting to talk with you," Aaron Anderson said.

James figured that he was talking to Lily, and he felt a surge of jealousy. Maybe he was breaking up with her, he thought hopefully; but his tone didn’t sound apprehensive or resentful.

“Yeah? About what?” the female voice said, but it wasn’t Lily’s; James was shocked to hear that it was Rena's.

“Well,” Aaron said casually. “I’ve noticed you a lot lately.”

James' ears became glued to the door. How was it possible that his ex- girlfriend and Lily's boyfriend were alone together in an empty classroom?

“Noticed?” Rena repeated shyly. It was fake. James knew from experience that Rena was not a shy girl.

“Yeah. I like you a lot, Rena.”

James simply could not believe what he was hearing. Aaron was going out with Lily! He thought it simply couldn't be him, but there was just no mistaking Aaron's voice.

“But I thought you were going out with Lily Evans?” Rena asked apprehensively.

Aaron laughed. “Well, that’s sort of over, you know what I mean? She’s nice, but.... it’s just not working out, I guess. We both feel that way.”

James felt like kicking open the door and hexing Aaron into oblivion. How could he be talking that way? He must be insane!

“So you like me, now?” Rena asked, sounding rather happy.

“Yeah.” James heard Aaron get up from where he was sitting. Then, James didn’t hear anything at all. He knew what must have been happening, though.

He turned around and stomped back towards Gryffindor Tower. His heart was pounding in his ears. All he could think was that Aaron Anderson, the lucky bastard, had absolutely lost his mind. Lily was perfect, and she was his. If James hadn't heard it with his own ears, he would have never believed that he would throw that all away for some girl that James had dumped because she was really nothing more than a pretty face.

James wondered if Lily even knew. Had Aaron broken up with her? He doubted it. He had been with Lily for the entire afternoon and there didn't seem to be anything different about her.

He had to tell her. He knew it. But how could he? She would never believe him. And even if she did, what, did he think she was going to suddenly declare her love for him?

“Where’s your invisibility cloak?” Sirius asked as James stalked right past him, got into bed without changing, and closed the curtains around his bed.

Lily frustratingly turned over in her bed. If she didn't get some sleep soon, she'd look like a banshee in the morning. But no matter how hard she tried, sleep would just not come that night.

She threw off the covers and got up to get a drink of water. She looked over at Alice and Ophelia's beds. Through the drapes of their four- posters, Lily saw Ophelia's long and narrow feet dangling over and could hear Alice's gentle snores. She laughed and decided she wasn't thirsty.

If she was home, Lily would have turned on the TV and watched some late-night chat shows until she drifted off into dreamland. But this was Hogwarts, and most of the student body didn’t know a television from a telephone. She paced around the dorm, glancing at her snoozing roommates. 'What's there to do in this place for an insomniac witch?' she thought to herself. Maybe she could finish some homework... nah, she didn't feel much like studying. Or maybe she could write a letter home... no, she felt too antsy to stay seated. So she quietly tip- toed to the door and headed down to the Common Room. Maybe there would be something there.

The fire was still going, but it had little light left in it, and the room was dark. With her wand, she ignited a few of the torches around the room until it became bright enough to see.

Lily sank down into an armchair and watched the fire crackle. This was boring, but she didn’t feel the least bit sleepy.
She wished it was morning so she would at least have something to do. Usually, Lily wasn’t this restless. She wondered what had come over her.

"All right, Evans?"

Lily gasped and instinctively jumped out of her seat.

James Potter cracked his boyish grin at her from the big, scarlet couch next to her.

"Merlin, Potter, you scared me!" Lily exclaimed, her heart rate slowing down. "What are you doing down here at this hour of the night?”

"I should ask the same of you," he said. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Nope," Lily sighed, sitting back down.

"Same," James agreed, rumpling his hair in the way that Lily found so incredibly annoying.

For a few minutes, they silently watched the sputtering fire without looking at each other.

"Hey- are you hungry?" James asked suddenly.

"Starving," Lily confessed as her stomach began to rumble at the thought of food. She hadn't had much at dinner, but there was nothing to eat until breakfast in the morning.

James smiled again. "Don't move. I'll be right back."

Lily turned to look at him and began to ask, "Where are you going?", but he was halfway out the door.

***

A quarter of an hour later, James returned carrying a silver platter and wearing a smile.

"What's all this?" Lily asked, gaping at the assortment of cakes and scones that he presented her.

"A little late-night snack," he said proudly. "I got them from the kitchens."

"The kitchens?" Lily repeated incredulously. "But how did you--"

"I have my ways," he answered mysteriously. "Help yourself."

Lily grabbed a scone and bit into it delicately. "What's that?" she asked through a full mouth as she watched James unwrapping something that he was carrying.

He held up a dark, dusty bottle that looked like it was at least a hundred years old. The dark, murky liquid inside was splashing around. "Fire whiskey," he said, smirking.

Lily practically choked. "Fire whiskey!?" she whisper- yelled. Her face became very rosy. "We can't have fire whiskey in here! We'll get caught, we'll get in trouble!"

James just laughed. "Don't worry about it. I've nicked this stuff up here loads of times. Besides, who's going to find out?"

Lily frowned disapprovingly. "We're Head Boy and Girl!" she answered. She spoke the words, but she knew that they would have little effect.

"Your point is?" James took a swig from the bottle and smacked his lips. He then held it out, offering it to Lily.

"No, thank you," she said firmly, reaching for another scone.

"Come on, don't you like it?"

Lily blushed. "No... I... I don't like the taste," she said.

James stared at her intently, as if trying to see through her. "Oh my," he said simply. "You've never had it before."

She blushed harder and began to fidget with her fingernails. "Don't be silly, of course I have."

James leaned in close to her face, his hazel eyes twinkling with delight. "You've never had it," he repeated.

Lily looked at his stupid grin, and then looked away. "All right, you win. I've never tried it before. Happy now?" For some reason, it embarrassed her to admit to James what a goody-two-shoes she was.

"You've never even tried it!? A little sip?" he asked incredulously. Apparently, the thought that someone might actually follow the rules was a concept that he just didn't understand.

Lily blushed deeper. "No, I haven't."

“Well, you've got to!" he smiled. "Come on, just a sip," He teased her, waving the bottle in front of her face.

Something deep down inside of Lily that she never knew existed came up and took hold of her. Whatever it was made her to take the bottle from James. With one last apprehensive look at him, she put her lips to the rim and took a swig.

She immediately began coughing and spitting. It really did taste like liquid fire- it burned her throat and insides as it went down.

"Are you okay?" James laughed. "I remember the first time I tried it," he sighed, as a dreamy sort of reminiscent air came over him. "I remember it fondly. It was the end of second year, and I puked for nearly a quarter of an hour- Sirius nearly went and got Madam Pomfrey." He looked proud.

Lily handed him the bottle. "It's all yours," she choked out.

James shrugged. "Well, if you can't handle it..."

She frowned. "It's not that I can't handle it!" she stated defensively.

James grinned menacingly. "Then what is it?"

Lily stared hard at the bottle and then at James, and then at the bottle again. She grabbed it out of his hands. "Cheers," she said, and took a bigger gulp this time.
***

"You know what, this stuff is good," Lily giggled twenty minutes later. She and James were sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Yeah... really good..." James mumbled as he drank and then passed the bottle to her.

She chuckled and grabbed it from him. "Cheers!" she yelled, swinging the bottle above her head and splashing some of the whiskey on the floor.

"You know what, Potter," Lily said to James. "This is fun. I like having fun with you."

"Really, Lily?" he answered, his eyes widening.

"Yeah. I never have fun with Aaron anymore."

James paused and listened closely.

"We used to have fun," she continued without reservations. "But we‘re sort of hitting a rough patch right now, I guess you would call it. Between his Quidditch, and me being Head Girl, we just don't have time for each other." She took another gulp. “I don’t think he really likes me anymore."

James felt awful. He was pretty drunk, but not drunk enough to forget about what had been plaguing his mind for the past couple of weeks.

"Lily, I need to tell you something."

Lily looked up. James couldn't help but stop and marvel at just how green her eyes truly were. The emerald colors danced in the light of the fire, and they were unlike anything he had ever seen before. He knew he had to tell her about Aaron. Sitting with her there, for longer than they had ever been alone together before, he knew that he loved her. He wasn't expecting anything, but he couldn't go on waiting for her to get hurt. He opened his mouth to speak, and then... he burst out laughing. It was so sudden that neither he nor Lily had any idea what had happened. A few seconds later, James had lost all composure and was on the floor in a fit of hysterics.

"What?" Lily asked, watching curiously as tears began to roll down his eyes.

"Your pajamas," James cried, massaging his ribs.

"What about them?" she smirked.

"They're funny."

Lily looked down at her T-shirt and flannel bottoms. "What's funny about them?"

James could hardly contain himself. "You look like a muggle."

Lily watched him laugh for a moment, and then began to join in. The giggles spread throughout her body like a plague until she was writhing around, pounding her fists on the floor. Her laughter made him laugh even harder and vise versa, until they finally stopped who knows how long later.

"We're funny," Lily finally stated, wiping the tears from her eyes..

"Yes. Funny we is," James mumbled.

Lily stopped. She looked pensive. "I should go to bed," she stated.

But when she tried to get up, but her legs collapsed from under her and her head began to spin. She grabbed onto the arm of the couch for support and laughed.

"Can't hold your alcohol, can you, Evans?" James teased as he attempted the same thing, but failed as well. He grabbed onto Lily for balance, then collapsed onto the couch and brought her down with him. Lily was on top of James, unable to move or stop laughing.

Lily sighed and rested her head on James' shoulder. Her vision was blurry, and when she tried to move a limb, her muscles protested. James put his arm around her and settled into the couch. He felt Lily's petite body clasp onto his.

"Fire Whiskey is good, good stuff," he muttered under his breath, his eyes closed and the empty bottle dangling from his limp hand. They both passed out.

***

James heard voices whispering and mumbling all around him. 'I must be dreaming', he told himself as he approached conciousness, but the voices only got louder. He decided that it must be Remus, Sirius, and Peter, but he didn’t want to get up just yet. He needed some more sleep, so he tried to turn over onto his side and get more comfortable. When he did, however, he was stopped by something warm and solid.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was on the couch in the Common Room, Lily Evans lying next to him, his arm around her body. She was drooling onto his shoulder and in a deep sleep. Lily wasn’t the only one with him, though. At least a dozen pairs of eyeballs were staring at him, and James realized where he was.

He jumped up and noticed that he had an empty bottle in his hand. He dropped it and it landed with a thud on the carpet, the faces of the Gryffindors around him watching with interest.

“AAAHH!”

Lily soared off the couch with a scream. She looked from face to face and then to James, her eyes wide and her expression one of deep horror.

James noticed Remus as one of the faces, and he was smiling.

“Had a rough night?” he asked James.

James didn’t know what to do. He looked over at Lily, who was standing awkwardly in her pajamas as the early risers of Gryffindor House stared at her. Her hair was frazzled and she looked absolutely appalled.

“All right, all right, nothing to see here,” James told them all, and they began to walk away smirking. James rubbed his head. It felt like there was an elephant standing on it.

“Breakfast in an hour,” Remus said simply, as if he had just walked in on Lily and James playing chess, and walked back up towards the dormitories.

Lily didn’t say anything for a moment, and didn‘t dare look at James. She just sat on the arm of the couch, frowning into the floor. “I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life,” she finally said slowly.

He smiled weakly. “Do you remember anything from last night?”

Lily’s eyes darted to the empty bottle on the floor. “Vaguely.”

James didn't remember much either, but he knew that any night that allowed him to wake up next to Lily Evans must have been a good one. “I think we drank a bit too much.”

Lily laughed sarcastically. "That's an understatement."

James stretched his long arms over his head and let out a yawn. "Guess we should go get dressed, then," he said, looking at his watch.

Lily suddenly stood up angrily and looked at James with beady eyes. "I'm mad at you, James Potter, d`you know that?" she stated.

James looked at her with his brow furrowed. "For what?"

"You got me..." she paused and leaned in to him so no one could hear her, "... drunk last night! My head hurts, and I feel achy all over, and..." she didn't finish her sentence, but stomped the ground with her foot, crossed her arms, and trudged up to her dormitory.

As James watched her, he couldn’t help but smile. “Your first hangover, Evans. I’m so proud!” he called after her.

The night was cool, clear, and beautiful. Lily shuddered a little bit from the wind and pulled her scarf closer to her body. Where was he? He had told her to meet her up at the Astronomy Tower at eight. Well, it was ten after, and Aaron was nowhere in sight.

Lily hated to admit it to herself, but he had become a little unreliable in the past few weeks. He used to be so attentive to her, never missing an opportunity to see her; he was the perfect boyfriend, everything Lily could have ever asked for. He just seemed to be a little distant lately.

But, Lily told herself, it must be Quidditch. The House Teams were training like crazy. It was their last year, and everyone wanted their House to come out on top, even Lily. She had even began to enjoy watching the games from the stands, whereas she only used to go to support the team's most enthusiastic member, Ophelia.

The fact of the matter was, she was really happy with Aaron, and if he was a little busy sometimes that wasn’t something to end a relationship over. Ninety- nine percent of the time she was really glad to be with him... well, more like ninety percent lately, she thought, but still, that was still good.

It was fifteen minutes after. Lily was starting to get cold. Feeling a little down in the dumps, she decided to turn around and head inside.

“All right, Evans?”

Lily groaned. Why did James Potter always seem to find her when she least wanted to be found?

“What now, Potter?” she asked icily. She had never really forgiven him for bringing fire-whiskey into the common room that night... she shuddered at the thought of it.

James gave her an enormous smile. “I just saw you standing out here, looking lonely, so I figured I’d come cheer you up!” He sounded so animated, like a little boy on his birthday.

Lily tried to suppress a smile. “I’m not lonely. I’m waiting for Aaron.”

James leaned on the balcony next to her and pensively looked out at the forest.

“You look cold,” he told her. “You want my cloak?”

Lily looked at him with furrowed eyebrows as he began to untie his cloak that the students wore in winter. Since it was March, Lily hadn’t brought hers, but she did not want to wear James Potter’s.

“No, I don’t want--” Lily started to refuse, but as he placed it gently upon her shoulders, sudden warmth spread throughout her body. The cloak smelled wonderful; she didn’t know what of, but the scent was heavenly.

“Better?” James asked, smiling at her again.

“Yes, thank you,” Lily blushed reluctantly.

James’ smile widened as he turned to look out at the great expanse of grounds. It was a beautiful night, if it at least it wasn't so warm. The sky was like a huge, black blanket draped over the Earth and making the hills and the lake look like something out of a painting. They stood in dark silence for a few moments until James' face grew excited again.

“I’ve got an idea,” he told Lily animatedly.

“What?” she asked him.

His eyes glinted. “Come with me, and you’ll find out.”

She stared at him incredulously. “I’m not coming anywhere with you.”

His face looked disappointed, but he wasn’t giving up.

“Come on, Evans.”

Lily turned her body around to face him. “I’m not going anywhere. Besides, Aaron is meeting me!”

James smirked. “Well, where is he then?”

Lily bit her lip. Aaron wasn’t there, and he probably wasn’t coming. How could he just forget her like that? She was angry with him for standing her up. If only there were a way to get back at him...

“Okay, Potter,” Lily said. “Let’s go.”

***

James seemed happier now than Lily had ever seen him; even when he was tormenting Snape, and that was really saying something. He was nearly skipping.

“Come on, Evans, move it!” James told her as he led her out in the grounds.

“Potter, where are we going?” Lily pleaded with him, but he ignored her.

Finally, after several minutes of trudging through places that Lily had never been before on Hogwarts’ grounds, James came to a halt and grinned at her again.

Lily looked around. She recognized this place; the little shops and bars, the streets that she had walked on so many times before...

“Hogsmeade?!” Lily shrieked. “We can’t go into Hogsmeade, we’re not allowed!”

James’ grin grew so wide she thought it would grow beyond his face. “’Not allowed’ are words that don’t exist in James Potter’s vocabulary,” he told her.

He reached out for what Lily thought was her hand, but he went into the pocket of his cloak that she was wearing and pulled out something silvery that was wrapped into a ball.

“That’s not...”

“Yep, an invisibility cloak,” he answered for her.

“Wow,” Lily said, touching the fabric. It was smooth and silky. She was impressed. “But, we can’t... it’s against the rules...”

“Who can stop us if we’re invisible?” he asked her cheekily, tossing her the cloak.

She caught it and stared at it. The thought of she, Lily Evans, breaking any rule of any kind was simply insane. She wasn’t even supposed to be out of bed at this hour, let alone prowling the streets of Hogsmeade with James Potter!

Lily smiled down at the cloak in her hands. She wrapped it around her shoulders and watched her body disappear. It was an extremely odd feeling. She offered the other end of the cloak to James and he took it more than willingly.

Lily realized what that wonderful smell on James’ cloak was; it was him. She couldn’t help thinking that he smelled just so good- she had never been this close to him before to notice. He was tall, so he had to bend a little bit, putting his face even closer to hers.

“Where are we going?” she asked him. Their faces were so close that she barely needed to whisper.

“Anywhere you want,” he replied.

‘Anywhere I want,’ thought Lily. “You know what I could really go for? A butterbeer,” she said dreamily.

“Off to the Three Broomsticks, then!”

Lily had never experienced anything like this before. Hogsmeade was even better at night, with the stars lighting the pathways and the warm glow of candlelight in the upstairs of the shop window . The air was crisp and cool, but their faces were protected by the cloak and they were warm from standing so close.

The Three Broomsticks was still open, but it was beginning to empty out. Lily jumped as she saw Madam Rosmerta, the young and pretty barmaid, come out of the doorway and begin to sweep outside. She remembered again that she was invisible, and James pulled her through the door quickly.

“How are we going to get butterbeers?” Lily whispered. She had just realized that she had no money, and even if they did, what were they going to do, walk up to the bar as invisible customers?

“Don’t worry,” James told her. “Just follow me.”

Madam Rosmerta was still outside. James led her in the back pantry, which was filled with every kind of drink you could imagine. Lily had the feeling that James had been in here before.

He grabbed two hot bottles of butterbeer and replaced them with four shiny Sickles. They crept out of the door before Madam Rosmerta even looked up.

“I can’t believe we just did that!” Lily gasped, but she was smiling. It was so exhilarating and exciting, and Lily Evans never did anything exhilarating and exciting.

“I’m glad you came with me, Evans,” James told her, handing her a butterbeer.

“Me too,” she said before she could stop herself.

There was a moment's silence before it was interrupted.

“WHO’S THERE?!”

They whipped around, holding their breath. Not even two feet in front of them was a short, gray- haired man that Lily recognized as the owner of the quill shop.

Lily’s insides froze. She almost dropped her butterbeer her palms were so sweaty. All she kept thinking to herself was, ‘if I get caught, I’m going to kill James Potter’.

She looked over at James. He put his finger to his lips and began to back away from the man, who was looking very confused. He had heard someone talking, but couldn’t see them. Lily followed James as they crept away, until the man yelled, “I heard you! Come out!” and trudged into the opposite direction.

Lily breathed again. “I want to go now,” she said. “That was too close. We’re Head Boy and Girl!”

James looked let down.

“We can finish these up at the Astronomy Tower,” she added quickly, seemingly lifting his spirits slightly.

***

“So, do you do that often? You and the Marauders, I mean?” she asked James as she sipped her butterbeer, free of the invisibility cloak and sitting on the floor of the Astronomy Tower.

“Yeah,” he grinned. “We tend to break the rules quite a lot.”

“I can tell,” she laughed. . “I can’t believe that I snuck into Hogsmeade under an invisibility cloak and stole butterbeer!”

“Hey, we didn’t steal!” James laughed. “I left the money in the pantry, remember? Come on, I would never steal.”

Lily raised an eyebrow at him.

“Okay, I would never steal butterbeer,” he confessed with a grin.

She laughed. They became quiet, drinking their butterbeers as they watched the stars. Lily’s inner voice kept talking to her. ‘You’re nutters! You don’t actually like James Potter, do you!?‘ But she had listened to her inner voice, her more rational side, for too long now. She chose to ignore it because although she was there with a boy that she had sworn to hate for almost seven years, she had laughed more that night than she had in the past month with Aaron. But there was one thing she was still wondering. Before she could stop herself, Lily opened her mouth and voiced a question that had been on her mind for those entire seven years.

“Why me, James?” she said very simply.

He looked up with a confused glare. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean, why me? For all these years? You’re smart, you’re a Quidditch star, you’re part of the most popular group in the entire school. You could have any girl you want, and I mean any girl. Why waste your time chasing after me for so long?"

He sighed and looked at her, his hazel eyes focused on her intensely. “It's simple. Do you think that any of the girls I’ve gone out with would have given a damn about me if I had never won a Quidditch game?”

Lily had never thought about it that way.

“They don’t like James Potter,” James explained to her. “The real James Potter, that is. They like the image. They like all that superficiality. But honestly, I'm so sick of it. Besides my friends, you're the only other real person I know. You actually care about people, and how they feel, and not just how many times they've caught the Snitch. No other girl can compare to you.”

Lily didn’t know what to make of this. She was feeling so many things at once that she didn't even know what she was feeling at all.

“James,” she began, her voice shaking a little bit. “The thing is, that-- "

“Lily!”

James and Lily whipped around. It was Aaron. He was standing in the doorway, looking a little bit mad and confused at the scene that he had interrupted; his girlfriend sitting on the floor chatting away with James Potter and wearing his cloak.

“Aaron!” Lily said, shooting up. She looked at James. He looked like someone had told him that Christmas had been canceled.

“Lily, I came here and you were gone, so I looked around a bit, and then it was late, so I thought I'd come back one last time to check and... what were you doing?” he asked.

“Oh,” Lily panicked. “Well... I waited for you, but it was cold, and then...” she realized she was still wearing James’ cloak and handed it back to him. She felt the cold come sweeping back over her.

“I wanted to see you tonight,” Aaron told her quietly, glaring at James.

Lily didn’t know what to say. “I'm sorry, I know, but... I waited for you and you never came."

There was an awkward silence where Aaron looked at James intensely.

"Look, it's late now and we should be in our dormitories," Lily said quickly. "You can walk me back." Then she turned to James. She just stared for a moment, not sure of what to say. She could feel Aaron's eyes on her. “Thanks, James...” she mumbled uncomfortably, and turned away.

As she walked hand in hand with Aaron, Lily felt horrible. She was still cold, even though they were inside. She kissed Aaron goodnight, apologized, and went in. But she didn’t go to bed; she wasn’t tired at all. She stared out the window, and saw a dark figure moving across the grounds. She couldn’t see a face, but she knew exactly who it was.

James was angry. He was fuming. The time he had just spent with Lily was probably the best time they had ever had. They had laughed, they had talked, they had gotten along. And then, of course, her boyfriend had come to interrupt it all. And he was cheating on her! James knew he couldn't tell her, but if she only knew...

For the first time, he wished that he had picked some other girl to chase for all these years. James could have had anyone; girls threw themselves at him! And the one girl who didn't was the only one he loved. That feeling, more than ever before at that moment, really hurt.

He gripped his broom so tightly that his knuckles were white. He was walking so fast that the wind stung his eyes. He wanted to fly away from Hogwarts for the first time in his life. He figured he needed to get up in the air for a bit, forget his troubles. Flying was the one constant in his life that always put him in a good mood. As he kicked off from the firm ground, the cool air whirled around his body. He rose higher and higher, but instead of the usual light-heartedness that he always felt, his heart was heavy and dense.

He was soaring back down to earth when he spotted something moving from the glow of the lights within the castle. He figured it was Sirius coming to check up on him- he had been gone for an awful long time- but he really just wanted to be alone at that moment. He squinted hard and saw that it wasn't Sirius at all. It was a girl; it was Lily.

Her arms were crossed and she walked towards the pitch apprehensively. She was shivering from the cool wind that was blowing her hair around her face. James wondered what she was doing down there as he ambled up to her, his legs still a little shaky from his landing.

They stood ten feet away from each other, not saying anything for a moment. Lily brushed her hair behind her ear. James wished that she would stop being so beautiful.

She was just looking at him, not saying anything at all. Why had she even come down? But he knew what was in those eyes, those eyes that made his heart melt....and it was confusion, apprehension.. She just couldn’t find words.

“How did you get past Filch?” he asked her. He was surprised she had even broken the rules to go out at all.

“I don’t know, I just turned around and came back out when I saw you. I guess I wasn’t thinking,” she mumbled. “We need to talk."

James suddenly became a bit bitter. “What about?”

“James, look,” she began slowly. “I’m sorry... for everything.”

James didn't quite understand what she meant. “What do you mean, sorry?"

Lily seemed to look like she wanted him to just say, ‘Okay, see you round’; she didn’t want to have to explain herself.

“It’s just... everything, between you and I, I mean...” she blushed. "I don't know."

James just watched her, puzzled. She wasn't exactly making much sense.

“I’m with Aaron, and I’m...” she wouldn’t look in his eyes. “I’m happy with him, you know?"

“Oh,” James gulped. He understood now. She was basically telling him to stop going after her. Aaron was her boyfriend. He wanted so bad to tell her, but he just couldn't...

She continued. “It’s just... I was upset. I thought Aaron had stood me up, and--”

“He did stand you up,” James interrupted angrily.

“-- and you were there, and I was lonely, and....” she trailed off, not finishing her thought.

James couldn't take it anymore. The thought of Lily continuing a relationship with her miserable, cheating boyfriend was too much for him to bear. He couldn’t let her have her heart broken, like his was.

“Look," he sighed. "I know what you're trying to say to me, and I get it, but there's something I need to tell you, about Aaron,” James said hesitantly.

Lily’s expression completely changed. “What about Aaron?”

James took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to tell you this... I just think that you need to know, that you have a right to know...” he couldn’t look directly at her.

“Tell me.” She redirected his gaze at her.

“I saw Aaron and Rena O’Reilly together last week... they were in an empty classroom, kissing.”

Lily’s eyes turned cold. “You’re lying.”

James could hardly speak. “I’m really sorry, but I’m not.”

“I honestly never thought you would stoop that low, Potter,” she said coolly, her voice filled with anger. I’m with Aaron now, and you’re going to just have to accept that. Stop interfering in my personal life.”

"Did you even hear what I told you!?" James asked, hardly believing what she was saying. He couldn’t believe that this was the same girl that he had just shared a butterbeer and a friendly chat with. "You have to believe me, I saw him!"

“I don't believe you."

"I'm not lying!!" James told her in a near yell. "I'm trying to protect you!"

"Well you can stop it! I'm not your girlfriend!"

This silenced James for a moment. He had always felt like she was his, that she belonged to him. If he saw her upset it made his heart sink. When she was happy he felt just as elated. But it was unreciprocated affection; she obviously didn't care if he was alive or dead.

"Look," he spoke softly, "You make it blatantly obvious that I'm not your favorite person in the world, but we've been able to become friends this year and I'm telling you the truth..."

"No, James," she spat. "This is just a ploy to get me to break up with Aaron and you know it. I get it. But you can stop chasing me now.”

James laughed at this. "You don't get it!. Don't you think I would have if I could? Don't you think I would be very happy with someone else if I could just get you out of my mind? You just don’t understand what it’s like!”

Lily rolled her eyes. "I understand it perfectly. It's all a game to you. You follow me around, asking me out all the time, just for the chase. It's no different from when you're up there" she pointed to the sky "on your stupid broom chasing a Snitch. Admit it."

"You don't know what you're talking about," James muttered. He didn't want to meet her eyes anymore.

“Admit it, James,” she said piercingly. “You only want me because you can’t have me.”

James gave up trying to be nice. He just let his thoughts flow out of his mouth. "Not really, Lily. The only reason that I want you is because I love you, and I've probably loved you since before I knew what that was. But I get it now. I'm telling you the truth, but you don't want to believe me. It's fine." He hadn't meant to tell her that he loved her. But he did.

Lily didn't say anything at all.

"I'm done with it all, with being friends, with pretending that one day you might actually love me back. It's apparent that you want me to leave you alone, so just say it," he pored out.

Lily stood there, stunned, her cheeks red from the whirling wind. James couldn't read her expression. It seemed to be one of confusion, anger, and disbelief all rolled into one.

"Fine. Leave me alone." She said it slowly and softly, her bottom lip quivering. She would not look directly into his eyes.

It was hard for James to think that she was serious, but she obviously was. He suddenly felt the urge to run as far away from her as could.

He threw his arms up into the air. "Done," he said simply. He walked briskly through the darkness up to the castle, not bothering to look back.

Lily stepped out into the deserted corridor. She dabbed the corner of her eyes with a tissue and wondered if perhaps there was some sort of spell to erase the way her eyes looked from crying so much. She had just spent the past fifteen minutes in the loo and simply couldn't bear the thought of seeing other people at that moment; the embarrassment was simply too much for her.

Because that day had probably been the worst day of her young life. It started off well enough; Lily was entering the Great Hall for breakfast when she bumped into Aaron. But instead of greeting her as he usually did, he seemed strange. He stumbled with his words and looked behind him, where Lily noticed Rena O'Reilly standing off in the corner, watching. He told Lily that he wasn't sure it was going to work out. Half the school stared as Lily walked away, completely flabbergasted.

Of course, Alice and Ophelia had done their jobs as best friends- "You're too good for him!", "He didn't even have any decency in him to do the deed in private!", "Seriously, how ugly is Rena??"- but none of it did any good. The words of her closest friends were appreciated, but nothing could conceal the fact that she had just been dumped; and it hurt.

In the aftermath of this fiasco, the thought of going to her first class and facing everyone was terrifying, but there was one person whom she was more scared of seeing than anyone: James Potter. He had, of course, tried to warn her, and she had dismissed him as a liar and ruined their new friendship in the process. The past week since their awkward confrontation had been strange; James had kept his word of leaving Lily alone. She no longer walked the corridors and heard a friendly, "All right, Evans?" and the absence of that one annoying phrase somehow left her feeling empty. If James was sitting somewhere and Lily entered the room he would leave, but if they were around each other for some reason, he didn't crack jokes or even talk much at all. Head Boy and Girl meetings and duties had become very formal and uncomfortably awkward. Lily hated to admit it to herself, but she missed James so much that it nearly killed her.

And now this. Why hadn't Lily listened to him? James was so good to her. Deep down she had known he was right, but her reluctance to believe him was her way of protecting herself. She didn't want to admit that her relationship with her boyfriend had been falling apart for weeks, even months. She didn't want to admit that she was being replaced by another girl. She realized that she didn't want to admit that, after all these years, James had finally gotten his wish; she wanted to be with him. And now he hated her.

Lily swung open the door to Transfiguration and walked to her seat. She tried not to look at the faces watching her, but they were hard to miss. She glanced ahead of her and saw that every student was trying subtly to catch a glimpse of her. Everyone, of course, except James.

"You okay?" Ophelia whispered, a small, concerned smile on her face.

Lily smiled back, weakly. "I'll be fine". It was a lie- well, she knew she would be fine eventually- just not anytime soon.

As class began, she just stared at the back of James's head. She wanted to take her book at throw it at him. After all these years! She hated to admit it to herself how badly she wanted him. So she decided that she would be angry at him instead. She took out her quill and began writing about the differences in transfiguring a turtle and a tortoise, trying to eliminate all other thoughts from her mind. It wasn't until half a paragraph in that she realized she was writing in her book and not on her parchment.

*******


“Prongs?” Sirius asked. “Feel like going out for a bit, see if we can’t have a little fun?” His dark eyes glittered as he obviously imagined all the first years and Slytherins that were out there to torment.

“Nah,” James replied, not answering.

“Are you all right?’ Remus asked considerately.

No, he wasn’t alright. He was miserable. Beyond miserable. For the first time in his life, he hated being at school. He wished he was back home, where there were no red- heads to ruin his life and drive him to insanity. “I’m fine,” he answered.

“Come on, you must have a little more faith in your friends than to think that we wouldn’t see right through that,” Sirius told him.

“I just don’t want to talk about it, that’s all.”

“But it’s your last year!” Sirius nearly yelled. “You’ve got to live it up while you still can! Promise me you won’t be like this for the rest of the year, I'd rather be at home with the rest of the loving and kind Black family!"

James smiled, but it was half-hearted. “I’ll try.”

Sirius sat down next to him on his bed. "Look, I'm really sorry about Evans. Don't think that I'm not. It's just that you're my best mate, and I don't want to see you this upset over one girl."

"But she's not one girl, she's the girl," James said. Just hearing the words killed him.

Sirius laughed. "You're eighteen years old! There are plenty other snitches on the field, all ready and waiting to be caught, if you know what I mean..."

"For you there are," James sighed. "Anyway, where are Moony and Wormtail?"

“Dunno where Wormtail is,” Sirius shrugged. “I haven’t seen him for a while, actually, now that I think about it. Where has he been?”

“Maybe he’s staying late with teachers or something, he hasn’t been doing too well has he?” James suggested. “But where’s Remus?”

Sirius looked down. “Well, he’s with Ophelia.”

“Ophelia?” James asked.

Sirius sighed. “Yeah... they’re sort of... a thing now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we didn’t really want to tell you with... you know... your troubles in the lady department. Sorry about it.”

James smiled, for what felt like the first time in ages. “All right, Moony! How long has he liked that girl? A year, two years?”

Sirius smiled back. “Probably almost as long as she’s liked him.”

“Took them long enough.”

“Yeah, well... me and Alice have sort of been helping them along. We thought they would never get to it by themselves, and it’s Seventh year!”

“Good for him,” James said. He was actually very happy for his friend, no matter how badly he was hurting at that moment. And it was about to get worse.

“Well, I’ve got to go patrol...” James said quietly.

“With Lily?” Sirius asked.

James nodded. “If the pain doesn’t kill me, the awkwardness will. See you later, mate.”

He used to love going to spend time with Lily patrolling. Now, he would much rather be serving a week long detention in the dungeon with Filch.

Lily woke up suddenly to the sound of a shutting door. When she opened her eyes, she saw Ophelia standing before her.

"Oh, sorry Lil! I was trying to be quiet."

Lily checked the time. "It's all right, I have to go patrol in a minute anyway. I can't believe I just napped for an hour, I never nap." She rubbed her eyes. She still felt tired.

Ophelia sat down next to her. "You've had a rough day. Are you okay, by the way?"

"I'll be fine," Lily said, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. At that moment, Alice walked in.

“Hey...” she said quietly. “Are you okay?”

Lily laughed. One hundred and one. “Yeah, fine. What were you guys doing out and about anyway?”

Alice and Ophelia looked at each other.

“Well, I was sending a letter to Frank...” Alice said apprehensively.

Lily sighed. “Guys, it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend not to have love lives just because mine is down the tubes.”

There was a pause.

“All right then, because there’s something I’ve been dying to tell you...” Ophelia said quickly. “I’m with Remus.”

Lily gasped. “No way!”

“Yeah, she is,” Alice said. “Sirius and I had to give them a little push, but it finally happened.”

“Finally? That’s an understatement!” Lily said, grabbing Ophelia’s arm. “You know, Ophelia, I never knew why you were so shy about this boy for all this time. How long have you liked him now?”

“Probably almost as long as he’s liked her,” Alice smiled.

Lily couldn’t help, through all her heart ache, to have a grin plastered across her face. “Ophelia, that’s wonderful. Seriously wonderful news.”

Oh well, Lily thought. At least someone in this room is happy.

“Oh!” she suddenly said. “I’m late for patrol!”

Lily got up quickly, but wished she could just stay in her room all night.

“Good luck, Lily,” Alice said.

Lily opened the door. “Thanks. I’m going to need it.”

*****

James looked at the clock on the wall. It was 9:03. Lily was three minutes late for their nightly patrol, something that she had simply never been before.

James knew that she didn't want to see him, and it killed him. She was probably still so hurt over the awful day she had had. He watched as in the halls and in every class, people whispered about her. He wished he could make her feel better. More than anything, he wanted to ask her if she was all right.

9:05. But who was he kidding? She had asked him to leave her alone. Even now that Aaron was out of the picture, she hated James. In a few weeks time, he would probably never see her again. So all he had to do was finish the end of the year with some dignity, and get over her. Finally.

9:06. James watched as Lily strode in, looking like she was trying not to cry. He ignored this and gave her an awkward smile. "Hi".

"Hi", she replied blankly. They both looked down.

"Um..." James began. Patrolling had never been this difficult. "Which wing do you want to start with?"

"Doesn't matter", she said, looking at her feet.

"All right. Let's go this way then." James began walking to the left and noticed that Lily was walking a few steps behind him. He wasn't planning on saying anything. They would fulfill their duties, get the job done efficiently, and then go to bed.

Walking throughout the school quietly was strange. He and Lily had always enjoyed friendly conversations, so James didn't think that he had ever heard the school this silent ever before. It was eerie. The shadows created by the torches were as spooky as ever, and every little sound of a floorboard creaking or the swish of Mrs. Norris's tail sounded threatening. James was eager to end the patrol, so he was glad when ten o'clock rolled around and he was able to say goodnight.

"I guess we're done here, Lily" he said, and they both turned on their heels to start to make their way back.

"Yeah," Lily said. Then she stopped. She had an extremely odd expression on her face, and James waited for what seemed like minutes for her to say something. "Wait. You just called me 'Lily'." She sounded quietly shocked.

"That's your name."

"But you never call me Lily, you always call me Evans."

James gave a small laugh and frowned. "I have. You've just never listened." Without looking at Lily again, he continued walking.

"James!"

He turned around slowly to face her. He carefully avoided her eyes, looking down and scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah?”

She seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment. Then she spoke. "I'm just so sorry. That's all. I'm sorry. I honestly don't know what else to say."

He looked at her quietly. She looked so... sad. That was the only way to put it. James really did believe her, too; he had never seen her look that way before. But he didn't know what it meant. He was trying to move past wishful thinking, but it was hard to avoid in his brain at that moment. He kept looking at her, hoping she would speak again.

BOOM.

Before she could think of something else to say, a loud crash had erupted from the floor above. It sounded distant.

"Did you hear that?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah... what was it?" he replied. Both of their voices were very different now.

BOOM. This time, it sounded closer.

“Should we call for a teacher?” Lily suggested, now a little scared.

BOOM.

It was too late. James was already walking slowly towards the stairs, his wand out.

"Wait, what are you doing?" she asked him.

"I'm going to see what's making the noise. By the time we call a teacher they could have gotten away."

“’They‘?” she repeated apprehensively.

BOOM.

"It's probably just a bunch of stupid third years trying to wake up the school or something," James said. Somehow, he didn't even believe the words out of his own mouth.

“You stay here,” he told her.

“No, if you're going, I'm going with you," she replied firmly. She whipped out her wand.

James thought it over for a second. “All right, but keep your wand out.”

He began to walk slowly up the stairs, and she followed closely behind him. What was going on? They could still hear the rumble from above.

James led her up and up, and with each step the sound grew stronger. They walked until they were in a dark corridor that students didn’t normally frequent; there were no classrooms here, only a long stretch of cold, gray walls lit dimly by torches.

"Seriously, what is going on, there's no one here James," Lily said. She sounded panicked.

And then suddenly, they didn’t hear anything at all. The noise stopped. Ironically, the silence was even more disturbing than the booming crash had been, and James wanted to leave.

“James, where are we?”

“I don’t even know,” he replied. He moved a bit closer to her, as if ready to defend her if anything suddenly popped out at them. “Let's go get a teacher, shall we? I mean, we don't know our way around here. We must be at least ten stories up, but I don’t know, it doesn’t look like any students have ever come here-”

“Well done, Potter.”

A voice that didn’t belong to either James or Lily had spoken, and it was cold, empty, and eerie. James knew that voice.

Someone had stepped out from within the shadows. James had to squint to see her, but she was a girl. She seemed to blend into the darkness that surrounded her, her hair and dark eyes that glinted with menace merged into the shadows.

“Bellatrix,” James said.

Looking at Bellatrix Black before him, James couldn't believe he had actually been scared for a moment.

"All right, Bellatrix," he said. "That little sound of yours was cute and everything, but why don't you just head on back to your common room before we need to go get a teacher."

Bellatrix laughed. It was really, really creepy, and sent shivers up James's arm.

"You know, I would, Potter," she said. "But I was really planning on causing a little damage tonight. I was hoping that you would be with my dear cousin instead of this one--" she pointed at Lily.

"You know that we're Head boy and girl, and we do the patrols at night," Lily said.

Bellatrix seemed to pretend that Lily hadn’t even spoken at all. “But, you know, it’s quite all right. The mudblood will do, I suppose.”

“Excuse me?,” James said. He felt his eye twitch.

Lily rolled her eyes and began walking towards the end of the hall. “All right then, I’m going to get a teacher,” she said. But before she could reach the stairs, a jet of purple light flew past her and hit the wall near the staircase.

“What the--” Lily said nervously, quickly stepping back.

Where just a second ago there was a staircase, there was now a completely solid wall. Bellatrix had blocked the exit.

"You're crazy!" James shouted. "Off your rocker! You'll be expelled-"

Bellatrix laughed again. James couldn’t help but be a little nervous now. What was she trying to do? Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lily move closer towards him.

“Like I said, Potter, my intentions were to cause trouble tonight,” Bellatrix explained. “If that means getting expelled, then so be it. There are bigger and better things than Hogwarts.”

“Like what? Azkaban?” James asked.

“Let’s just say I’m not really concerned with that right now. But there are things worth going to Azkaban for. And even if I did go, it wouldn’t be for long. He would come for me.” Her face was strangely serene.

James had no idea what she was talking about, but Lily gasped quietly. “Oh no,” she said from under her breath.

“Yeah, your little girlfriend knows what I’m talking about. Good mind, that one, even if it is such a waste.”

“Look Black, either explain what the hell you’re on about or let us out of here, because I honestly don’t have time to stand here and listen to you ramble like a crazed--”

James stopped as Bellatrix took out her wand and twirled it around her long, pale fingers.

"I'll tell you what I'm on about," she said softly. "Things are changing, Potter. Dumbledore, this school- it'll all be gone in a little while. You'll be stupid if you don't join our side. He will take it all. He is the future. You can stay here with all your little friends, doing good and pretending that you’re saving the world, but in the end, none of it will matter.”

At first James was confused, but now, he knew exactly what she was talking about. He, along with most of the people that he knew had chosen to ignore the disturbing news that had been coming out of the wizarding world lately. And there was only one person that was responsible- Voldemort. Some regarded him as a joke, others simply as a loony that St Mungo's needed to get their hands on... but they couldn't deny the fact as the months passed, there were more deaths, and more sightings, and more confusion...

"Yes, that's right, Potter," Bellatrix said. She could tell he finally understood. "My master."

"You have really and truly lost it," James said shakily. He always thought that Bellatrix and her unfriendly posse were mean and probably slightly mad, but in a fairly harmless way. He wasn't willing to show it to Lily, but he was nervous now.

"Bellatrix, put your wand down," Lily said, in a slightly maternal voice. "I don't understand what you're trying to--"

"I didn't say you could speak to me, filth," Bellatrix hissed.

James raised his wand at her. But before he could even think of a spell, he felt Lily's hand grasp his wand arm.

“Please, don’t, James,” she begged him. Her brilliant eyes were glassy and her voice was unsteady. “It’s what she wants.”

No matter how hard James would have liked to hex Bellatrix out of oblivion, he knew that Lily was right. Fighting her would be giving her the satisfaction of knowing that she had gotten to him. He relaxed his arm down, but Lily didn’t let it go.

“Come on, Potter. Fight me.” The dark, cold hall was illuminated by the tip of her wand, casting eerie shadows over them all.

“No,” James said firmly. He wanted to pull Lily and run, but he couldn’t. He didn't know what he was going to do.

“If you won’t fight me, then I’ll have to make you,” Bellatrix said, and before James had realized what she was doing, she raised her wand and sent a stream of hot red sparks in his direction.

But it wasn’t James that had been hit; it was Lily. James’ heart froze as he saw her panicked face illuminated by the light, a deep gash appearing on her side. She was clutching it with her tense fingers, blood trickling from between them. Bellatrix was laughing.

Bellatrix didn’t even see it coming. James had hit her with such a curse that the wind had been knocked out of her, sending her flying down the corridor. James glanced at Lily, his eyes cold with rage. He ran next to her, his back to Bellatrix. She was hurt, she was barely standing, and he had to help her, but Bellatrix wasn’t out for long.

She sent a purple jet of light at him that James’ wasn’t ready for. But instead of hitting him, it was deflected by Lily. The hand not clutching her deep cut was holding her wand. Even with her injury, Lily’s aim was impeccable. James stood up and ran at Bellatrix.

They began to duel. He was very fast, but so was Bellatrix, and she was so obsessed with the Dark Arts that he knew that she had more knowledge about dueling. She sent a curse at him, but it missed by inches. He missed his next one as well. Finally, she hit him in the shoulder, causing white hot pain to sear through his arm. He ignored it, but it was hard to keep going after that hit.

James’ wand flew from his hand to a hundred feet behind him. Bellatrix was advancing on him, and his shoulder continued to throb. There was nothing he could do.

From behind him, Lily tried to curse her again, but this time she had missed, and she had done nothing but make Bellatrix angrier.

“That is the last time you interfere,” Bellatrix hissed at her. She raised her wand, and, as if in slow motion, James saw her point it straight at Lily. Her thin mouth had opened and was starting to bellow out an incantation.

James ran at her. He had to protect Lily, at all costs. Wandless, defenseless, his only choice was to stop that curse from hitting her... she was too weak.

James’ legs did his thinking for his brain, and he ran in front of Lily. He created a barrier between Bellatrix’s wand and Lily’s body, and caught the full force of the curse, square in his chest.

“JAMES!” He heard Lily scream. It was pain beyond anything he had ever felt, like a thousand flaming torches burning into him. He felt dizzy, his vision went blurry, his legs couldn’t support him anymore. He collapsed, and everything was black.

Lily felt the cool, sharp breeze whip around her face. The night air felt so good as she looked down at the world below, the Hogwarts grounds that appeared to be no more than a tiny model. She flew higher and higher into the stars, not a care or a worry in her mind.

It didn’t occur to Lily to see just what it was that she was flying on, so she was slightly surprised to look down and see that she was gripping the handle of a broom. To her even greater surprise, she looked ahead of her and saw that it was none other than James Potter piloting this broom. She was glad. She always felt safe with him, and no matter how much she tried to deny it, she was so happy just to be near him.

She moved closer to him. “Where are we going?” she asked curiously.

“Well, we were going to go to Hogsmeade,” he called back to her, fighting the sound of the wind whirling past their faces. “But now… I have to go.”

Lily paused and formed a puzzled expression. “Go? Why?”
James’s face was stoic. “Good-bye,” he replied monotonously, and just like that, he let go of the broom and fell.

Lily watched in horror as James plummeted lifelessly down, deeper and deeper, into the dark of the night.

“No!” she screamed, panicking. She wanted to do something, anything, to help him, but what could she do? All she could do was watch as he disappeared in the blackness below. She was left alone, crying, and feeling helpless and scared. If only she had tried to grab him, tried to save him, they would still be flying together happily through the stars. Now he was gone, and it was all her fault…

Then suddenly, Lily was distracted by a chirping sound. Was there a bird nearby? How could there be? There was a chirping in her ear, and somehow she felt the warmth of the sun on her face. Then she opened her eyes.

She was in an armchair in the hospital wing. The sun was shining through an open window, straight onto the bed below it. Inside the bed was James Potter, grinning at her.

She screamed, for real this time, jumping out of her seat.

He laughed. “I was wondering when you were going to wake up. And be quiet, you’re going to startle Madame Pomfrey.”
Lily’s heart was beating fast and she was clutching her forehead in disbelief. “But… you’re awake!!”

James laughed once more. “I’ve been for a while, Evans, you slept through the big fuss.”

“Madame Pomfrey knows? She’s checked you, you’re okay? You’re…”

“I’m still a little sore, for obvious reasons. That last curse… that was a pretty big one. But Madame Pomfrey says I should be back in fighting shape in about a week.” He smiled at her obvious concern. “You can sit down now, you know.”

But Lily didn’t sit. For the past 24 hours, she and James had been in the hospital wing. Their episode with Bellatrix had left them both with serious injuries; however, James’s had been significantly worse than hers.
Lily remembered vaguely Professor McGonagall discovering she and James, moments after he had been hit with the mortifying curse, the one that was intended for her. Lily had lost a lot of blood from the deep gash in her arm, and only remembered grabbing James’s lifeless hand as he was lifted by Professor McGonagall, trying to stay on her feet. When she had woken up that afternoon in the hospital wing, James’s had not yet woken up, and Professor Dumbledore was sitting beside her. Despite her desperate pleas for information, she was told to rest.

“But, Professor, please…” she had said.

Dumbledore had only smiled. “When Mr. Potter wakes up, I will let you both know everything that you need to.”

Lily’s lip trembled. “But, Sir… what if… what is he never does?”

“Knowing Mr. Potter, he won’t be asleep for long. Not when you’re around, Miss Evans. Get your rest, now, and we’ll talk later.”

So Lily had no choice but to try to sleep, and it hadn’t been easy. She could hardly be as confident as Dumbledore. For hours, but what seemed like days to Lily, she laid awake. She thought of how James had risked his own life for hers; something that seemed almost implausible, but had done it. That curse, whatever dark magic was contained in it, was intended for her. And if something went wrong- well, it was all her fault. She had countless dreams, like the one she had just had, of James disappearing from her life forever. The thought had haunted her for those few hours that her world was spinning, the thought that James may have never known that she actually- finally- did feel for him the way that he had shown he did for her. That was the worst part about the uncertainty of knowing that he may or may not have woken up. But now he was there, completely awake, and smiling at her.

Without saying anything, Lily flung herself into James’s arms, attacking him with a giant embrace.

“Whoa, Lily!” he exclaimed, his voice a bit higher than usual and his body tensing up. “Remember, I’m not completely healed yet!”

Lily shut her eyes and held on for dear life. She rested her chin on his shoulder and felt his body relax.

“I was afraid you were never going to wake up,” she whispered, almost to herself.

“I thought you didn’t care,” he replied. “Remember- you’re not my girlfriend,” he quoted he his voice more sad than bitter.

She pulled away to see his face. There seemed to be tears in her eyes as she took a deep breath. “Well, I guess that just goes to show that even Head Girls must sometimes eat their words.”

And she kissed him. Suddenly, that feeling that Lily had had that night when she was wearing James’s cloak returned to her again, and it felt so good. The warmth of his embrace, the heavenly scent… it was so familiar and perfect, that Lily never wanted to let go.