At King’s Cross Station on September 1st, Lily Evans paused to look behind her and flashed a smile at her family as they stood looking after her. Mr. and Mrs. Evans smiled sadly and waved, while her sister Petunia stood indifferently beside them. Turning back around, Lily closed her bright green eyes and walked through the barrier between the Muggle world and the life that had been hers for six years.









Appearing at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters moments later, she heard the sound of the train and the voices of people on the platform before she saw them - one voice in particular standing out.









“Lily!” the girl squealed, and Lily opened her eyes quickly, looking around to see where it had come from.









Suddenly, the speaker was right in front of her, and just as quickly, they were hugging and grinning behind the other’s back. Lily held on tight and realised again how much she had missed her friend over the holidays.









“Kathleen! I can’t believe I haven’t seen you all summer!” Lily squeezed her friend again, and let go to get a good look at her.









It was pretty much the same Kathleen Brady she had said good-bye to at the end of last term. She had the same dirty blonde hair, the same sharp, gray eyes, was still two inches taller than Lily and still smiled just as effortlessly. The two of them had been as close as sisters for ages, almost as soon as they had arrived at Hogwarts. Kathleen knew everything about Lily, and Lily could virtually read Kathleen’s thoughts.









“I know, but you know I was gone all summer. At least we got to write, though,” Kathleen said, hugging Lily again. “Well, we have all year together, now.”









“Right. Come on, I need to be at the Head Compartment in a couple minutes.” Lily picked up her trunk and started walking towards the train with Kathleen.









“Oh, yeah, you’re Head Girl! You said that in your last letter. Congratulations again. You know, I really can’t believe we won’t ever be leaving for Hogwarts again after this. . . .” Kathleen trailed off sadly, but then smiled. “But this year will be perfect! Especially now that the Head Girl’s my best friend.” She glanced at Lily, grinning, as they stepped onto the train.









Lily laughed. “Well, I probably won’t be giving you detention, but I can’t just let you get away with everything!”









“Some things, though,” said Kathleen, and Lily nodded, smiling.









“We have to have fun, after all. It’s our last year!”









The two girls reached the Head Compartment and put their bags down. Looking around, Lily saw that almost half of the prefects had arrived already and were milling around discussing their summers.









“I wonder who the Head Boy is. You'll have to work with him all year long. . . . Let’s hope he’s cute.” Kathleen grinned at Lily, who smiled.









“Well, at least we know he won’t be a Gryffindor. Remus is the only one that could possibly be it, but then he’s sick too much,” Lily answered. “Probably a Ravenclaw. The worst thing that could happen is that it could be a Slytherin.”









“Or Black or Potter!” Kathleen laughed. “But Dumbledore is smarter than to make it one of those two. Plus, neither of them were prefects.”









“That would be crazy. I might have to resign!” Grinning, Lily looked around to see if the Head Boy had arrived yet. When she saw no new faces, she sat down next to her bag and tucked her trademark red hair behind her ears.









“I don’t think he’s coming,” said Kathleen as she sat down next to Lily.









Lily smiled at her best friend. “He wouldn’t just skip the first meeting. Just be patient.”









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The loud crack of a wizard Apparating filled a small, messy flat that had an odour like a spell gone wrong. Instantly, loud footsteps could be heard running throughout the place, and a panicked voice yelled, “Padfoot! We have to go NOW!”









“What?” a groggy voice mumbled, sleepily opening his eyes. He seemed confused as he looked over the young man with wild, hazel eyes standing in his bedroom, and became even more bewildered as the man began to pack his trunk. He sat up, took off his covers and got out of bed. “What are you doing, Prongs?”









“You idiot, today is Hogwarts! The train leaves in six minutes!” James Potter, known as Prongs to his friends, stopped packing for a moment and found a clean pair of jeans and a shirt. He tossed them to Sirius Black, also known as Padfoot, who immediately put them on over his boxers.









James finished his packing and charmed the trunk to make it weightless. “How clean are you?”









“I took a shower last night. Let‘s go,” said Sirius hurriedly as he ran a hand through his long, dark hair and picked up the trunk. He looked around his flat and then the two Disapparated to the platform.









Once there, they took off running amid the hustle of students and parents saying goodbye to each other. Sirius cursed as he nearly knocked over a small boy, and then he hurtled onto the train after James only seconds before the train began to move. Breathing heavily, the two began laughing as they leaned against the inside of the train, trying to make their heartbeat return to normal.









“There you are. I've been waiting for you in the Head Compartment for almost ten minutes, but I should've known neither of you would be here until the last second,” said Remus Lupin, approaching Sirius and James from behind.









“Of course not! You know us better than that.” Sirius grinned as he clapped Remus on the back in greeting.









“How’ve you been, Moony?” asked James. “But really, how’s the Head Meeting supposed to begin without the Head Boy?“ The three boys laughed together as they began heading towards the back of the train, stopping only for a moment to greet Peter Pettigrew, called Wormtail, another one of their friends.









The four of them, laughingly called “The Marauders,” had been friends nearly their entire time at Hogwarts. Since James and Sirius had louder personalities than the other two, they usually ended up as the ringleaders of their pranks.









James was the tallest of the four at nearly 6’2”, beating Sirius and Remus by two inches, and Peter had not grown any taller since he reached 5'9" in fifth year. James’s scruffy-looking black hair was always sticking up, no matter what anyone did to try to flatten it. He actually didn’t mind it being so untidy; he thought it looked rather good, even if some people pretended not to like it.









“Oi, Prongs! Evans is Head Girl!” Sirius said, laughing. “Won’t this be interesting?”









“What? Really?” said James, trying to look in the compartment window to see if he could spot her.









And there she was, standing next to her friend Kathleen and talking to one of the Ravenclaw prefects. He thought she looked even more wonderful than she had two months ago. . . . James shook his head to clear his thoughts. Sirius was looking at him funny, like he was about to laugh.









“See something you like, Prongs?” he teased. “You’d better straighten your Head Boy badge before she sees you!”









Trying to hide his smile as James looked down at his shirt in confusion, Sirius opened the compartment door. Quickly, James braced himself for Lily’s reaction to seeing him and the badge pinned on his shirt.









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Looking back a few hours later, Lily supposed it hadn’t been so bad. She hadn’t turned purple after all, just fairly red. She hadn’t shouted herself hoarse, but her throat did hurt a little. And she had only frightened half of the prefects, not all of them. Most people that had heard about the incident were actually quite amused. But certainly not Lily. She was still furious.









“Don’t tell me you’re still upset about Potter!” Kathleen raised an eyebrow at Lily’s clenched jaw and folded arms.









Lily made herself relax. “Well, I still don’t understand why he’s Head Boy. Surely, Dumbledore knows that I can’t stand him!”









“Dumbledore knows all,” said Kathleen in agreement.









The two had stayed in the Head Compartment along with James and his friends during the train ride. After all, the Head Boy and Girl were supposed to stay there while they sent prefects to patrol the train, and no one thought that Lily should be left alone with James until she cooled off some more. But Lily had ignored all of the Marauders and talked only with Kathleen.









“Come on, here’s an empty compartment,” said Lily, stepping into it and locking the door behind Kathleen.









As they began to change, Kathleen asked, “How much time do we have until the stop?”









“About ten minutes. Hey, we haven’t seen anyone except the prefects and the Marauders. We should try to find Peyton, Hallie, and Annis to get a carriage,” said Lily. Kathleen and Lily had shared not only a dormitory with the girls, but also a lot of laughter and fun.









“What about Brooklyn?”









“Mrs. Wycliff took her out of Hogwarts over the summer. She didn’t think it was safe or something,” said Lily gravely. “I’m going to miss her…”









“She was so sweet! But why did her mum take her out? Doesn’t she know Voldemort is more likely to kill her outside of Hogwarts?” Kathleen asked angrily, glaring at her tie as she put it on.









“I don’t know. All I know is that I‘m tired of this damn war.” Lily sighed in frustration. “Come on, let’s go find them.”









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“Yes, I definitely think that Evans will fall madly in love with you this year,” said Sirius. He was stretched out on his back along the compartment seat, lazily eating from his pile of Chocolate Frogs.









“Toss me one of those, Padfoot,” said James. He caught and opened it. “Dumbledore. Here, Wormtail, I already have about twenty of those.” James flicked the card at Peter, who grabbed wildly for it but missed by a foot.









Smirking a little, Sirius sat up. “I’m bored,” he said, stretching his arms.









“You’re always bored,” Remus said dryly. “You ought to be used to it by now.”









“Well, it’ll be different this year,” said James, to no one in particular.









“Of course,” Sirius said, not missing a beat. “I think I’ve already begun to see signs of non-hate in her.”









James rolled his eyes but smiled and helped himself to another Chocolate Frog. As he started to open it, the train began to slow down, eventually stopping at the station in Hogsmeade. “Finally!” he said, and the group got to their feet.









Sounds of excitement and lots of chattering filled James’s ears when he stepped outside of the Head Compartment. For a moment, he forgot about the several long minutes of yelling that had taken place earlier, and he became happy, realizing that they would be at Hogwarts within minutes. His face lit up with a grin, and he motioned for his friends to follow him to get a carriage.









On the way to the nearest carriage, amidst Hagrid’s shouting for the first years and the general scramble to find an empty carriage, James backed into someone.









“Oh, sorry!” he said, turning around.









“I don’t need your apologies. I just need you to get out of the way,” Lily said with a raised eyebrow, motioning at the carriage door that he was blocking.









“Wait a minute, Evans, I believe we were getting into that carriage,” Sirius began charmingly.









“Just get in, we can all share.” Remus pushed his friends in, and they sat waiting expectantly for Lily and Kathleen to follow.









“No, thanks,” said Lily coldly. “I’d like to spend as much time as possible away from Potter while I still can.”









Lily turned around to join her friends in the next carriage, but she didn’t miss the look of pain on James's face. She shook off the feelings of guilt, promising to herself that she wouldn’t be so nasty the next time she saw him, but his expression stayed in her mind all the way to Hogwarts.

“Lily?” Kathleen said, turning her head to look at Lily. “Are you still mad about Potter?”





The two girls were lying across their beds in their Hogwarts dormitory, their ties loosened and shoes off, too full from the Welcoming Feast to sit up. Lily and Kathleen had headed up to their dorm immediately after the feast, and had stayed there on their beds ever since.





“Yeah, but I’m getting better. I’ll just have to get used to him, right? It’s not like I have a choice anyway. Do I?” asked Lily hopefully. She managed to roll over on her stomach and prop herself up on her elbows, idly blowing away some strands of hair that had fallen in her face.





“You definitely do not a have a choice.”





“Other than resigning as Head Girl,” Lily said moodily.





“Which is not an option!” Kathleen sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed and stared at Lily. “You aren’t really considering that, are you?”





“No, of course not! Being Head Girl is a good thing to put on job applications. No, I think I can handle Potter for until June.”





“You know, he’s only said like two words to you so far this year. It’s not like fifth year.” Kathleen giggled, dodging a pillow that Lily had tossed at her head. Lily joined in laughing, seeing that it had missed Kathleen by three feet.





“That year was the worst, though. With Snape, too. And I’m sure that Potter is just still embarrassed from last year to bother me right now. But his ego will come back any time now.” Lily actually felt a little guilty, thinking of what had happened on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters a few months before, even if it was mostly Potter’s fault in the first place.





“You think so?” asked Kathleen thoughtfully.





“I do.” Smiling slyly, Lily picked up another pillow and flung it at Kathleen, laughing as it hit her in the stomach.





“Ah!” Kathleen bent over, holding her stomach. “Everything I ate for supper felt that!” she moaned. But she quickly stood up and grabbed the pillow, smiling evilly and whacking Lily on the side of the head.





“Ow!” Lily laughed, as the hit caused her to fall over. With no regard for her personal safety, Lily grabbed three more pillows and knocked Kathleen into the huge pile of clothes they had already unpacked at the foot of the bed. “Good thing you have so many clothes.”





Kathleen didn’t answer her, only pulled her into the stack and laughed as all of her whole wardrobe enveloped Lily.





“Fine, fine! Truce!” Lily rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling as she stood up and pulled Kathleen to her feet. “Now that we can move, let’s go down to the Common Room. I think the other girls are still down there.”





In a few moments, the girls had made their way downstairs. Lily closed her eyes as she sat down on the couch in front of the fire, feeling its warmth on her arms and face.





“Why are you smiling?” asked Peyton Scott, the most extroverted of Lily’s dorm mates, asked. She sat down on the floor with Hallie Maddock in front of Kathleen and Lily, hugging her knees to her chest.





“Hey,” Lily said, leaning back into the couch. “I’m just really glad to be here.”





“That’s the general opinion of everyone I’ve seen so far - especially the seventh years,” said Hallie. She smoothed down her dark hair and looked around at the students in the Common Room.





Seeing what Hallie was doing, Lily turned to look as well. Several first year girls were flocked together near the Portrait Hole, and every few seconds Lily noticed that they would quickly glance at the group of second year boys across the room and burst into giggles. Obviously, the boys didn’t notice anything and continued playing their game of Exploding Snap. Lily sheepishly remembered being younger and acting possibly even more clueless and foolish than them.





“Remember our first day at Hogwarts?” Lily asked Kathleen, who was lounging next to her on the couch.





“Yes. I don’t know if we were ever like them, though.”





“No, I’m pretty sure we were worse.” Lily kept her eyes on the girls.





“Well, what’s wrong with being young?”





“It’s not that,” Lily tried to explain. “Look at them. They just think that one of those older guys will just turn around and fall in love with them. But nothing like that is going to happen.”





“Are you talking about yourself?” Kathleen asked, looking concerned.





“What? No,” Lily said firmly. “I don’t know why I’m making such a big deal about it.”





“There’s nothing wrong with having hope, even if it’s pointless.”





Lily looked into Kathleen’s eyes and saw something like pity - or understanding - in them. For some reason it bothered her. “But it is pointless. They’re just getting their hopes up for nothing.”





“Maybe so. But maybe not,” said Kathleen, looking like she wanted to change the subject. “Do you want to go back to the dorm now?”





“Yeah.” Lily stood up. “Hey, Peyton, Hallie. We’re going up to the dorm. Did Annis go up there?”





“Yeah, but I think she was going to go to sleep,” said Hallie.





“She is,” Peyton added. “We'll be up in a little while.”





“Okay, I‘ll set the alarm when we go up.”





“Okay, thanks.”





Lily and Kathleen headed up the stairs in silence, the noise from the Common Room fading away.





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“Miss Evans and Mr. Potter, Professor Dumbledore would like a word with you before your first lesson this morning,” said Professor McGonagall as she passed out the Gryffindors’ schedules the next morning. She looked at them until they swallowed their breakfast and nodded, and then continued handing out the schedules.





“Well, I’m done,” James said to his friends, who were eating breakfast with him. He took a final sip of pumpkin juice and stood up. “Lily?”





Lily stopped talking to Kathleen and looked to him. “I’ll be there in a minute,” she said, remembering that she was going to be polite to him.





“Okay,” answered James, and he began walking towards Dumbledore’s office.





“I’ll see you at Charms,” she told Kathleen, who nodded as she took a bite of bacon. Lily sighed, hesitating, then picked up her bag and went after James.





“Hey,” Lily called after James, half-jogging to catch up with him just outside of the Great Hall.





He turned to look behind him and smiled when he saw it was Lily. “Hey.”





Lily bit her lip as the two began to walk in silence for a while. She never really knew what to do in awkward situations like these. Glancing up at James, she saw that he didn’t seem to notice anything. He looked down at her, and she quickly looked straight ahead.





“So what is your schedule like?” James asked, sounding as though he was actually interested instead of just trying to make small talk.





“Well, pretty busy.” Lily frowned, trying to think of something else to say about it. “Er, I have Charms first.”





“So do I,” said James. “Where’s your schedule?”





Lily got it out of her bag and handed it to him, watching as he scanned the piece of parchment and waiting for his comment.





“You’re in almost all of my classes.”





“Really?” Lily tried to sound indifferent, struggling to see how James felt about the news. She thought he would be smug or something about it, as he would have been a few months before, but now she couldn’t read the emotion on his face at all. “That’ll be fun.”





Lily hoped that James hadn’t noticed how flat she had sounded, because she hadn’t meant to, but he had. He exhaled quietly and stopped walking.





“I’m sorry about the last six years,” he said suddenly, surprising Lily. He paused for a moment, and she almost answered him, but he continued, “I know you’re mad at me and all, and you deserve to be. I can’t change anything about that now, though. But I won’t constantly be bothering you this year. I want you to know that you don’t have to worry about me.”





“I want to believe that,” said Lily slowly, trying to find the right words. “But it’s only been a day, and I don’t trust you yet. Sorry.”





“I know. I don’t expect you to. But at the end of last year, what you said. . . .” James trailed off.





“Don’t tell me that’s what made you repent of your ways or something,” Lily said disbelievingly, laughing.





James looked slightly sheepish. “It was true, even if it was harsh.”





“It was more than harsh. But you kind of deserved it.”





“I know,” he replied without hesitating as they stopped at the gargoyle in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office. “It did make me think though.”





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“So what are we going to do about Moony’s furry little problem this time?” asked James, grinning as he walked down the corridor with his friends after class.





“Remus’s rabbit still acting up?” a Ravenclaw girl asked with a smile.





Sirius snorted, but Remus elbowed him in the side then answered with a straight face, “Yes, actually. We may even have to do something drastic.”





Peter snickered as the four continued walking. “We should do something really fun for the full moons this year!”





“Well, of course we’ll do something fun, Wormtail,” said Sirius, sighing. “We always do.”





James grinned but looked away when Kathleen and Lily passed them. “Did I tell you what she said this morning?” He turned back to his friends, who rolled their eyes and made other annoyed expressions.





“Only about four times,” said Sirius, raising an eyebrow and slapping James on the back. “But it really wasn’t that great, you know.”





“Well, it was a start,” Remus argued for James, trying to counter Sirius’s pessimism. “It’s only the first day, for Merlin’s sake!”





James made himself smile at Remus, but glanced over his shoulder to see Lily’s diminishing figure nonetheless. Her red hair swung back and forth as she laughed and shook her head, and James found himself wondering what she was laughing about. This wasn’t the first time he had wondered what she was thinking. . . .





“That Ravenclaw girl wasn’t so bad, was she, Moony?” Sirius teased, nudging Remus and bringing James’s attention back to his friends.





“Felicia? She’s nice, but I don’t really think-”





Here, James interrupted him. “I think she might like you.”





“You know, you don’t actually have to fall in love with the girl. Dating is never that intense,” Sirius said quickly as Remus opened his mouth again.





“That’s easy for you to say. The girls always come to me after you dump them, begging to know what they did that was so wrong,” Peter complained.





“Well, what should I do? Lead them on after I don’t like them anymore? Breaking it off is really the lesser of the two evils.”





James rolled his eyes as they entered the Gryffindor Common Room and headed for their dormitory. “Is the Map still in your trunk, Padfoot?”





“It is. Why, you have some great idea for a prank?” Sirius replied interestedly. He began to search through the trunk at the foot of his bed and pulled out an old piece of parchment.





“Maybe,” James answered with a grin. He tapped the parchment and the other three gathered around, not ending their planning and laughing for several hours.

The seventh year Gryffindors’ first couple of weeks at school passed with some differences than their previous years at Hogwarts. For example, James had gone the whole time without chasing after Lily at all, and there had been no yelling at James on Lily’s part. But many things were still unchanged. For one thing, the Marauders were still the close-knit pranking group they had always been, proven by the fact that on one Tuesday morning, several of the Slytherins had inexplicable twitching fits, while a group of four Gryffindors watched on, smiling surreptitiously.





Some people were confused as to why this year Lily was polite to James (although definitely not overly friendly) or why when they met each other in the corridors or in class they made a point of at least nodding an acknowledgement at one another. They were both actually still a little puzzled as to what had passed between them that morning in front of Dumbledore’s office, but both were careful not to erase the small step forward that seemed to have occurred. Head duties were usually completed in silence together, and any needed conversation was civil.





While James didn’t truly enjoy the shortage of conversation between them, he knew that he was still trying to prove himself to Lily, so he kept his mouth closed many nights while they patrolled the corridors together.





Nevertheless, on Thursday night of the third week of school, James changed his mind as they were walking together. Why shouldn’t he talk to Lily? He wasn’t going to hit on her or anything, and he had rights as a human being. There was no reason that he couldn’t just start a perfectly innocent conversation, as long as he was careful.





“Wasn’t that Potions test hard today?” James asked Lily, using the only safe topic of conversation he could think of, lame as it was. He turned his head and looked at her to see a surprised expression on her face, which he attributed to the fact that they hadn‘t really spoken in the past week.





Lily quickly got over her small shock, and answered easily. “It wasn’t too bad, but I didn‘t do great either. Um, did you study?”





“Not as much as I should have,” admitted James. “Did you?”





“Barely. I’ll just study a lot for the next one.”





“Yeah, right,” laughed James, but when he realised what he said, he was going to make it sound nicer, but Lily smiled.





“You know, I probably won’t. I’ll at least try though.”





“That’s all that matters, then.”





“Yeah,” answered Lily. She looked up at James and smiled.





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“And all of a sudden he just started talking to me.” Lily rolled over on her bed and turned the page of her magazine, glancing up at Kathleen, who was on the next bed doing Hallie’s nails.





Hallie cracked her Droobles’ gum loudly. “What did he say?”





“He just asked me about the Potions test, but I think it was still kind of weird. You know, he’s barely talked to me at all this year.”





“Yes, we know,” said Kathleen. She finished painting and closed the bottle of polish, then motioned for Lily to trade places with Hallie. “Pick a color. Not peach.”





“What’s wrong with peach?” Lily asked annoyed, but she closed her magazine and moved to Kathleen’s bed.





“You’re going to ruin the colour forever if it’s all you ever wear. But what’d you say to him?”





“Basically, just school stuff. You know.” Lily pulled out a light coral shade, and Kathleen reluctantly took it.





“Well, then, it wasn’t that big of a deal, right?” said Hallie.





“No. I’m just saying, that’s all he’s said to me all year.”





“Hold still,” instructed Kathleen, not looking up from her work.





“But that’s a good thing.” Hallie glanced over at Lily, smiling a little. “Isn’t it?”





“Well, yeah.”





Hallie stretched on the bed and glanced at the clock on the wall, which read 8:06. The three girls had been in their dormitory since supper, gossiping and fixing themselves up for the night, and weren’t exactly sure where Annis and Peyton were.





Suddenly, Hallie pronounced Lily finished and hopped off the bed. “Do that curling charm on me, Lily.”





“Torqueo!” said Lily, after reaching for her wand from the bedside cupboard, and Kathleen’s normally wavy hair turned to curls.





“Thanks. Are you leaving your hair curly too?”





“No, I’ll change it,” answered Lily, similarly straightening her hair with a spell.





“Because Merlin forbid both of you have curly hair!” laughed Hallie. “Where are those black shoes you borrowed, Kathleen?”





“Probably under the bed,” Lily said for her, glancing in the mirror. “Both of you ready, now?”





“I am.”





Kathleen stood up and waited for Hallie to put on her shoes. When she had done so, the three girls exited the room and headed for the Astronomy Tower. Most Friday or Saturday nights there was a party there, which almost always was moved to the students’ respective Common Rooms around curfew.





“Ready to have some fun?” Kathleen asked Lily with a grin.





“Of course.”





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“What time is it, Padfoot?” James asked later that night amid the noise of the party, which was still going strong.





He turned to look at Sirius, who he knew was sitting on the couch next to him, but Sirius was asleep. Laughing, James looked to Remus, who was on the other side of him.





“It’s your turn to carry him to the dorm,” he said, and quickly stood up.





“What?” exclaimed Remus, also jumping up. “I carried him up last Saturday night! And it was your turn then! You said you owed me.”





“Damn your good memory!”





“It wasn’t even a week ago, Prongs,” said Remus, raising an eyebrow.





“Oh, just look at him!” James pointed to Sirius, ignoring Remus’s remark and laughing loudly.





Remus turned to see Sirius, who was the same as he had been before. He turned back to James, his forehead wrinkled, but James was gone. Remus laughed and rolled his eyes, then headed up to the dorm, leaving Sirius where he was.





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“You know, I think you might be the only other seventh-year in the school that isn’t in bed with a hangover.”





Lily turned around with a puzzled look on her face to see James standing in the door of the Owlery, bright rays of early morning sunshine streaming through the nearest window and falling on him. “Hi,” she said in reply, giving him a quick smile before turning around and tying a letter to one of the owls.





“Why are you up already?” James asked. He walked towards a tawny owl and pulled out a letter of his own.





“I just woke up and wasn’t tired enough to go back to sleep.” Lily shrugged and turned around to face him, holding her hands behind her back and leaning to rest her head on the stone wall to the back of her. “You?”





“Pretty much the same thing. Sirius is still out cold, so I decided to write a letter to my parents. They wanted me to write a lot this year, and I’ve only written once or twice.”





“I know. My parents have been sending me owls constantly ever since they learned how to do it,” Lily laughed.





“I can’t imagine having Muggle parents.”





“Um, yeah,” said Lily, and then there was a short silence. “Well… I better-”





“Do you want to do something?” James suddenly asked, cutting Lily off.





“I don’t know,” Lily began doubtfully, but then asked curiously, “what kind of thing?”





“Let’s go outside,” said James animatedly, taking a few steps towards Lily.





Lily laughed at his eagerness and shook her head with disbelief. “Why would we do that?”





“Why wouldn’t we? There’s nothing else to do; no one else is awake.”





Lily frowned as she thought and opened her mouth to argue, but no protests came out. Grinning, James seemed to take her hesitation as an agreement and beckoned for her to lead the way outside.





Once they had made their way out of Hogwarts’ large oak doors, James guided Lily around to the south side of the castle.





“Where are we going, anyway?”





James stopped and turned to Lily, locking his eyes on her. “Where do you want to go?”





“Um. I don’t know,” she answered, fidgeting under his gaze, friendly as it was. She looked around and spotted the lake close by. “How about the lake?”





“What, you want to go swimming?” James asked without thinking. Then, he grinned at Lily and raised his eyebrows.





“Seriously?” Lily looked at the lake and then back at James amazedly.





“Come on,” he said, smiling and holding out his hand.





Slowly, a smile spread across Lily’s face, and she reached for James’s hand.

“What the hell is that?!” screamed Lily, jerking her legs in the water with a frantic expression on her face. She looked down desperately and then at James, who was completely bewildered. Then she suddenly closed her eyes and sheepishly half-smiled. “Oh. I think maybe it was only the seaweed.”





With a surprised laugh, James realised he was relieved, but he quickly dove under the water towards Lily’s feet. He opened his eyes and grabbed a dangling foot, then quickly swam away to dodge the kick she placed near his head. When James surfaced, there was no one around, only several ripples spreading out from the spot where Lily had been treading water moments earlier.





Then, before he had time to react, a sudden push came down hard on his shoulders and James was plunged back into the lake. He smiled to himself underwater, but quickly came back up for a deep breath before being submerged once again. This time James forced himself to stay hidden underwater until he reached the other side of the dock. Quickly slipping out of the water where he could see Lily still floating, James waited on the dock until she turned around to look for him.





“James?” Lily called around, laughing still. “Where’d you go?”





Snickering quietly, he scooped up water in his hands and flung it across the water where it landed on her hand. With an astonished face, Lily looked around wildly for a moment until her narrowing eyes rested on the figure laughing on the dock. She swam to it faster than James had seen her swim the whole morning, and before he knew it, she was only ten feet away.





James soon noticed this and threw himself off the end of the dock away from her with a yell. Grinning, Lily walked over to the edge and stood over him with a brief smile.





“Now, what would you do if I jumped on you?” she asked teasingly, her hands on her hips.





“Drown, probably,” answered James matter-of-factly.





“Oh, no. We wouldn’t want that. I guess I’ll just have to go on back to the castle.” Lily shrugged and grinned as she turned around and feigned heading back.





“You can’t go back inside now! The sun is barely up! What will you do?”





Lily stopped and turned around. “You don’t think I can find something as fun as this?”





“No,” James answered with certainty. “What could be more fun than swimming in the lake at sunrise with me?”





Lily said nothing.





“That’s what I thought,” continued James. “Now come back in.”





“No, you come out. I’m tired of swimming.”





“Fine, you’re right. I’ve got water all in my ears.” James reached a hand up for Lily to pull him out.





Rolling her eyes, Lily reached for it and began to pull, but James grinned widely at her and yanked her into the water again.





Spluttering, Lily surfaced with a look of rage in her eyes. “What in Merlin’s name was that for?”





“For ducking me under earlier, of course,” James answered decisively.





He swam a few strokes to the edge of the dock and lifted himself up. Turning, he sat on the side to look at Lily, hoping she wouldn’t be mad at this little thing. He really had thought she had begun to relax around him, but if he was wrong, any steps forward they had made this year could have been quickly erased.





Then James saw a reluctant smile pull across Lily’s face and knew that they would be okay. He smiled back at her confidently and lay down on his back to see the sky, with the sun now right above the treetops of the Forbidden Forest. Hearing the sound of Lily lifting herself onto the boards next to him, James turned his head and watched as she laughed and collapsed to where he was very aware of as only a foot from him.





“Do you always do things like this?” Lily asked slowly, turning her face to James and idly stretching against the slightly warm boards under her back.





“Things like what?” James returned with a languid smile.





“Like… whatever you want. Fun things.”





“Er, yes, I have fun. Is that what you’re talking about?” asked James amusedly.





“Never mind,” Lily said, exasperated.





“No, what? You sound like you don’t ever have fun, and I know that’s not true.”





“Not… not just fun. I have loud fun, or crazy fun, but this is just taking it easy. And I like it. But you probably don‘t get what I'm saying.” Lily awkwardly smiled a little, closing her eyes.





“Yeah, I do.” James propped himself up on his elbows and leaned towards Lily slightly. He knew exactly what she was saying. He could understand her perfectly then, as he looked at her and it seemed like he would always be fine.





Then, Lily opened her eyes, and for once, James didn’t worry about what she was really thinking or what she would want him to do. He only looked into her face and watched her move her arm to brush her fingers against the side of his forehead. He saw a little smile and the curious expression on her face, and thought that maybe he should kiss her. But at the moment all he really wanted was what he had, and that was Lily with him.





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“Hey,” said Lily under her breath as she slid into her seat just as Transfiguration class was beginning.





Kathleen looked up from her textbook and raised her eyebrows. “Where have you been? Did you just get out of the shower?”





Lily looked at the strands of damp hair lying on her shoulders, as if she hadn’t notice it was wet. “Yeah. I went swimming first, though.”





“Alone?” Kathleen teased, turning in her chair to face Lily.





“Yes, alone,” replied Lily, smiling and rolling her eyes.





“That’s about the fourth time this week, and it’s Thursday.”





“Third,” Lily corrected as looked away and began to unpack her bag. “You should come with me tomorrow afternoon, after classes are over. It’ll be pretty warm then.”





“Okay, sure. Hey, look who’s behind you.”





Lily put down her quill and twisted around to see James and Sirius walking through the door, talking quietly. Not five seconds later came Remus and Peter, who quickened their paces and sat with their friends.





As he took his seat, James looked up around the room and grinned when he saw Lily. Noticing this, Lily smiled back a little shyly and gave a small wave.





Kathleen smiled to herself and opened her mouth to speak to Lily, but at that moment Professor McGonagall entered the room and headed towards the front to begin class.





“Class, open your textbooks to page 49,” she began, as Kathleen tapped Lily’s arm and slid a scrap piece of parchment across their desk to her.





So are you and Potter a little bit friendlier since you went swimming, or am I just imagining something?





Mouth open in surprise, Lily discreetly reached over and pinched Kathleen, who uttered a loud, “Ouch!”





McGonagall stopped in mid-sentence and looked at her. “Miss Brady, are you quite all right?”





“She pinched me!” Kathleen immediately blurted out, pointing at Lily. Of course, everyone in the room looked at her, and Kathleen grinned as she covered her mouth to hide it.





“Loud mouth!” Lily hissed not so quietly.





“What was that, Miss Evans?”





“She said, uh, ‘Clouds out,’” came a male voice from the back of the room. “Er… as in, it’s cloudy outside.”





“Oh, really?” McGonagall asked, clearly amused but still looking strict.





Lily turned around quickly to see that, of course, it was James. Remembering that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky when she was swimming earlier, Lily looked out of the window nearest her and found that the weather had not changed at all. Sighing, she wondered how the three of them would be able to get out of this without points docked from Gryffindor.





“Yeah, haven’t you noticed?” said Sirius, trying to save his friend. “Personally, I think it’s going to rain.”





“Mr. Black, I don’t think so. Please, take your seats and try not to cause anymore interruptions.” McGonagall turned back to the textbook she held in her hand, but Lily saw a hint of a smile before she opened her mouth to begin teaching the lesson again.





“Well, no one believed Noah, either,” muttered Sirius, making Lily snort with laughter.

“Okay, this is getting me nowhere,” came the sudden, impatient voice of Kathleen.











“Not again,” muttered Lily, exchanging an amused glance with Hallie, who was studying with them in their dormitory.











“I mean, what’s the point of learning to transform a salamander into an owl? When am I ever going to need to do that?” Kathleen questioned loudly, slamming her textbook book shut.











Lily leaned back into the pillows stacked at the head of her bed, watching Kathleen on her own bed with an expectant expression. Hallie, who was sitting at the foot of Lily’s bed, nudged her and winked, giving her the signal to speak her line.











“You probably aren’t,” Lily said with a dull tone, exactly like she always did when Kathleen began the rant.











“Why don’t they focus our only seven years of education on things we actually will need?” Kathleen continued, ignoring Lily’s words.











“Kathleen,” Hallie began rationally, “you’ve been giving us this lovely speech just about every month since fifth year. Not that it isn’t an absolutely striking point, but don’t you think you’ve vented enough about this?”











“What? I’ve said this maybe once, ever. But you know, the thing that is really maddening is that there’s so much more we should concentrate our studies on! We could be learning a ton more Defence Against the Dark Arts, which is definitely useful these days. I mean, poor Peter Pettigrew would have no chance against a real, live Death Eater!”











“Why don’t you tell all of this to Dumbledore or McGonagall?” Lily suggested tiredly.











“You know what? I think I will.”











Tossing her books onto the floor, Kathleen slid off her bed and exited the room with her head held high. Lily rolled her eyes and picked up the books, then stood near the door and waited for a moment.











It didn’t take much time before the door reopened and Kathleen came back inside. Smiling, Lily held out the books and Kathleen took them grudgingly as she walked back to her bed.











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“Hogsmeade weekend in three weeks!” James heard a girl squeal as she entered the common room.











“For Halloween?” Sirius asked the girl, who turned out to be Peyton, turning around to face her.











“Yeah,” said Peyton, sitting down on the couch where her dormmates were packed together.











James, Remus, and Peter were on the couch opposite the girls, with the fire to their side. Looking down, James saw Sirius giving him a look from where he was stretched on the floor. Sirius looked to make sure that none of the girls were looking and then mouthed, “You going to ask Evans?”











“No, you idiot,” James mouthed back. He leaned back into the cushions, rolling his eyes. Obviously, Sirius still didn’t understand the whole ‘not asking Lily out’ thing he had been working on this year.











“Who are you going with, James?” asked Peyton, who was promptly elbowed by Kathleen.











James glanced at Lily and saw her blushing faintly. He quickly looked back to Peyton. “Probably just go with Moony and Wormtail, and meet up with Padfoot after his date.”











“And who are you taking, Sirius?” Peyton kept on.











“Kathleen,” he said confidently.











All of the girls turned to gape at Kathleen. “What?” they all asked simultaneously.











“He’s joking,” Lily said scornfully. “Do you honestly think she would date him again?”











James looked at Kathleen, who was beginning to seem uncomfortable. He saw Lily notice this about the same time as he did, and she stood up.











“Damn, I forgot my Potions book in the dungeons,” she said, not even trying to sound convincing. “Come on, Kat.”











Lily gave Sirius a cold look as she headed towards the portrait hole with Kathleen at her side.











“I was just kidding,” said Sirius defensively.











“That was pretty thoughtless,” Hallie pointed out.











“It was two years ago!”











“Let’s just drop it,” said Annis. “Remus, I heard that sixth year girl in Ravenclaw likes you. You should ask her.”











“Felicia Holstein?” asked Peyton. “I’m pretty sure she does.”











“Well then. Looks like Moony here’s got himself a date for Hogsmeade! But just so you know, I call the dorm for afterwards,” Sirius said, grinning.











James chuckled as the girls all sent Sirius a dirty look and headed up the stairs to their own room.











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“Oh, Misses Evans and Brady! Can Mimsy bring the misses anything?”











Lily smiled down at her favourite house-elf in all of Hogwarts. “Do you think you could get us some of that treacle we had last night for supper? It was wonderful.”











“Yes, yes! Would the misses want chocolate to go with their snack?” said Mimsy eagerly.











“That would be nice,” answered Kathleen.











Mimsy rushed off to get their snack, and Kathleen and Lily sat down at a small table in the corner of the kitchens.











“You always know exactly what to do,” Kathleen told Lily with a grateful smile.











“Well, I know that comfort food deals with almost anything,” Lily laughed.











“Oh, it wasn’t that bad. I’m totally over it and all. I just think that it’s just weird how he acts like we never dated.”











“Maybe he feels bad about dropping you just like all the other girls” -Lily paused for a moment- “but then you never know.”











“Probably not,” Kathleen said sourly.











Lily only nodded and sighed. She wondered how Sirius could be so incredibly loyal to his friends, but utterly unconcerned when it came to anyone else.











“Oh, food!” Kathleen said in relief as Mimsy came back with their plates. “Thank you.”











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“James, how were the Quidditch tryouts? Do you know who you‘ll pick yet?” a blonde fifth year girl asked James the next afternoon as he entered the castle and headed for the common room.











“They were excellent! I think this will be the best team I’ve seen yet,” he told her. “But I haven’t exactly had time to decide the players yet, sorry.”











“But you’re definitely going to go with Hamilton for Keeper?” Sirius asked in a low voice.











James and Sirius turned into a lesser-known corridor and were able to speak louder, no longer worried about being overheard.











“Right. He’s the obvious choice for that one. I just need to think on a new Chaser and one Beater.”











“Frankly, I thought that Lawrence girl was the best of the Beaters. She might not be able to hit quite as hard as McCullen, but she can definitely aim. And then it’s between that third year and the short fourth year for Chaser.”











“Yeah,” James agreed. “I’m leaning towards Lawrence, but I still think there’s a possibility for Bullock as a Beater. He was fast, too.”











“You know what Moony would say? Sleep on it.”











“Sounds like a good idea. Hey wait, though. Isn’t it the eighth?” James wondered.











“Yeah. Oh, right. I had actually forgotten about the full moon. Guess that means no sleep tonight,” Sirius realised. “Well, I’m going to go ahead and sleep until it’s time. Today wore me out.”











“Good idea.”











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“So you’re fine?” Lily asked Kathleen again, trying to be certain.











The two were walking back up to the Gryffindor tower from the grounds, where they had taken their food from the kitchens. They had spent a few hours around the lake, successfully distracting themselves from their schoolwork and any classmates that were in the castle.











“Yes,” Kathleen said emphatically. “I told you, it was fifth year.”











“But he was just so rude to bring it up again,” Lily argued.











“Of course he was rude. He’s always been like that.” Kathleen paused to give the Fat Lady the password and the portrait swung open to show a nearly empty common room. “You ready to go to bed? I’m pretty tired, actually.”











“Well,” Lily hesitated. “I think I’ll just relax in here on a couch or something for a few minutes. I’m sure the dormitory is crowded and at full volume.”











“Okay, ‘night,” said Kathleen, heading for the girls’ staircase.











“’Night,” Lily responded as she settled into the same couch beside the fireplace the boys had been sitting in earlier.











Kathleen paused by the first step. “Thanks,” she said quietly, turning to look at Lily.











Lily smiled warmly and watched her leave. Yawning, she kicked her shoes off onto the floor next to her and stretched out on the couch. When she stared into the fire, Lily realised she had grown drowsy but was too out of it to consider getting up and stumbling all the way to her room. Her eyes slowly closed and soon she was sleeping.











She stirred for the first time around dawn, when the moon had only disappeared minutes earlier. Propping herself higher up on the pillow underneath her head, Lily only wondered where she was for a moment before comprehending that some noise must have woken her up. Then she saw two poorly lit figures slip into the room and quickly disappear up the boys’ stairway.











Lily had almost stood all the way up before the portrait swung forward again and one more person entered. He had almost crossed the room before he stopped and noticed Lily.











“James?” she called questioningly. “Is that you?”











“Yeah. Lily? What are you doing?” James walked towards her and yawned down at her.











“I fell asleep,” she admitted, motioning towards the couch. “What about you?” she continued suspiciously. “Have you been out all night? And was that Sirius and Peter that just came in?”











“Yeah. We were, uh, in the Hospital Wing. Moony’s sick again, so we stayed down there with him.”











“Oh.” Lily accepted this answer, but then frowned. “But why are you so tired? Surely you three didn’t just sit there while he slept all night.”











“Well, we didn’t,” James began, but he was interrupted when the Fat Lady swung forward yet again and Remus walked in.











Lily looked to James to watch his eyes widen as Remus came closer. Confused, Lily glanced at Remus and her mouth opened in shock as James cursed quietly.











“What in Merlin’s name happened to you, Remus?” Lily looked in confusion between the two boys in front of her, who didn’t say a word. “Okay, somebody needs to start filling me in right now.”

“Lily,” began Remus. “You-”








James looked at Lily, alarmed. She was bewilderedly glancing back and forth between him and Remus. Then James noticed Sirius at the bottom of the boys’ staircase as he interrupted Remus.








“Back from your detention, Moony?” he asked casually with a stretch and a yawn.








“You had detention?” Lily looked at Remus in surprise.








“Yeah, all night,” continued Sirius, laughing a little. “I think it’s his first, to be honest. Me and Prongs, here, always get in trouble, but Moony and Wormtail were busted too this time. Looking for some kind of herbs in the Forbidden Forest that could only be found at night. It was Filch’s idea, of course.”








“How did that turn Remus into that, then?” asked Lily, hesitating to believe Sirius’s story.








“I fell out of a tree, actually,” Remus lied in a sheepish voice, “looking for that stupid stuff.”








Lily was convinced. “Oh, wow. Are you going to be okay?”








“Yeah, he’ll be fine,” said James. “He should probably get some rest, though.”








“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry. I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow then. ‘Night.” Lily smiled and waved before heading up the stairs to her room.








“’Night,” the boys echoed.








James waited until he were sure Lily was safely out of earshot before falling back on the couch. “I didn’t think there was any way we could get out of that,” he said tiredly, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead.








“Pretty close, wasn’t it?” Sirius grinned and sat down next to James.








“I didn’t even think she would’ve believed you, Padfoot,” said James. “I’m thinking it was when Moony went along with it that she was convinced.”








Remus looked down and sighed. James frowned, knowing that Remus didn’t want to have to lie to everyone, especially someone who trusted him like Lily did.








James stood up and clapped Remus on the back. “Well, it’s around sunrise, so I think it’s time for bed. Night, boys.”








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In the last couple of weeks before the first Hogsmeade weekend, girls gossiped and flirted in the corridors, trying to subtly eye the boys standing around and faking nonchalance. Everyone discussed who was going with who and desperately tried to secure a date.








“I’m definitely fine,” Kathleen said, coughing. She rearranged her hair around her face and looked at Lily.








“About having to miss Hogsmeade?” Lily raised an eyebrow and looked at her friend, who was lying in her bed, looking miserable.





All of the students had gotten out of class for lunch the Friday before Hogsmeade, so Lily had taken the time to visit Kathleen, who was sick, in the dormitory.








Raising her eyebrows back up at Lily, Kathleen put on her serious face. “Yeah. It’s not a big deal, so you can stop looking at me like that.”








“Well, I wish you didn't have to miss the trip.”








“Yeah, well, I didn't have a date anyway. Although it isn’t like no one has asked me; if that was the case, then I would be in an even worse mood.”








“The horrors,” said Lily sarcastically, finding a shirt on the floor and throwing it at her friend's head.








Kathleen blew her nose. “Well, who asked you besides Potter?”








“He actually didn’t ask me,” Lily said evenly.








Kathleen’s mouth opened. “Really?” she said with interest.








“Yes. No one seems to believe that though, even though James is totally different than he was last year.”








“Well, I knew he wasn’t being an ass anymore, but I still thought he’d try to date you eventually - just not as obsessively. How about that,” Kathleen said thoughtfully. “Oh, but who else asked you?”








Lily grimaced. “Mark Bearden, that guy from Charms that’s in Hufflepuff, and two fifth years.”








“Fifth years?” Kathleen laughed. “But the other two were fine. What about them?”








“I just thought I’d go alone, too. But I'm starving, so I'm going down to eat. Get some sleep and I'll see you later.” Lily stood up and began to leave.br />







“He, you weren't going solo so I wouldn’t be alone, were you?” Kathleen asked with accusation in her voice. “You know I could've just shopped with Annis; she’s still with the guy who graduated last year so she won’t have a date.”








“I just didn’t want to date any of the guys that asked me. But you know what? I bet Annis will get married within the next year or so. They’re pretty serious, right?”








“That would be great. Annis would be, like, the best wife,” said Kathleen, nodding.






"Yeah. I'll tell her you said that," Lily laughed and said.





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“Wow, thanks,” said Annis, who sat down across the table from them. “Any particular reason you two were discussing my possibility of marriage?”








Lily laughed and shook her head. “We were just talking about dates.”








“Not you, too,” Peyton jumped in as she and Hallie approached their roommates. “That’s all everyone’s discussed for weeks. Well, and Voldemort.”








“Yeah, that’s great, Peyton. Thanks for the downer,” Hallie said sourly. She stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth and chewed forcefully.








Lily looked at Kathleen questioningly, but she shrugged. Noticing this, Peyton sighed.








“She’s just mad that her date broke his skull at Quidditch practice last night and had to cancel on her,” Peyton announced, dismissing it with a wave of her hand.








“Seriously?” asked Lily, her eyes widening. “That boy in Ravenclaw?”








Hallie said nothing at first, but then sighed. “Yes. I was really looking forward to, you know, after the date, but I guess that’s ruled out now.”








“Merlin, Hallie, I bet he’s not feeling too great about it, either,” said Lily incredulously.








“It’ll be fine; I’ll just hang out with Lily,” Hallie replied.








“James didn’t ask you?” Peyton asked, swallowing her bite.








“Nope. Apparently, he’s doing a total change this year,” Kathleen answered for Lily. “Isn’t that crazy?”








“Yeah, I thought he would’ve asked her now that they’re friends,” said Hallie.








“What? Me and James aren’t exactly-” Lily began.








“Well, he still could, couldn‘t he?” Annis pointed out. “It’s not until tomorrow, after all.”








“He’d better not!” Peyton exclaimed. “Haven’t you ever heard of The Wednesday Rule?” She rolled her eyes and took a sip of pumpkin juice.








“Apparently, it’s forbidden to accept a guy’s offer for a date for the weekend after Wednesday of that week,” Lily explained with a smile.








“What if you do?” asked Annis.








“Then your roommates ambush you in your sleep, drag you outside, dump you in the lake, and leave you at the Giant Squid’s mercy,” Lily joked.








“Oh, yeah, I think I heard last year’s class of Gryffindors did that to some poor girl,” Peyton threw in conversationally.








Annis and Lily exchanged an amused glance before going back to their meals to hide any giggles.








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After hearing one too many shrieks of “Where’s my mascara?” and “Stop with the noise! I'm sick, dammit!”, Lily slipped out of her dorm room and closed her eyes in relief. She leaned against the wall for a moment, then headed down the staircase to wait for the girls to emerge from long and tiring battles with their hair.








She had only sat down for a moment when Annis came running down to the Common Room with parchment in her hand and a grin on her face.








“Michael’s coming!” she announced, collapsing into a chair next to Lily’s.








“To Hogsmeade?” asked Lily in surprise.








“Yes, he’s just going to Apparate over when we get there.”








“Oh, that’s great!” Lily said, smiling. She noticed Hallie coming down the stairs. “Hal, I guess it’ll just be me and you.”








Hallie looked sheepish. “Actually, Brad just asked me at breakfast when he heard about my date being cancelled.”








“What the Wednesday Rule?” Lily asked dryly.








“I didn’t know Annis was getting Michael to come, but I’ll go cancel now. It’ll just take a minute.”








“Oh, I don’t want you to cancel,” Lily said sincerely.








“No, it’s okay,” began Hallie.








“What’s okay?” asked Sirius, who was walking by with his friends.








“I, uh, have to cancel on somebody so Lily won’t be alone at Hogsmeade,” explained Hallie.








“We can take care of her,” Remus said, smiling at Lily.








“Oh, that’s okay-” Lily glanced at James, then looked helplessly to Hallie.








“No, it’s settled. Lily can come with us,” decided Sirius. “I’ll be with my date for a while, but the other guys will be with her then.”








James smiled at Lily. “You don’t have to, but it’ll be fun.”








Lily thought for a moment. “Okay,” she answered.

Lily climbed out of the carriage at Hogsmeade and stopped to wait for the boys to climb out. “Where to first?” she asked when they had joined her.


“Honeydukes,” they all answered simultaneously, as if it should have been obvious to Lily.


“Where else would we start, Lily?” Sirius grinned down at Lily and led the way to the sweets shop.


James shrugged at Lily as he walked with her behind his friends. “Don’t you worry; we’ll try to make today as painless as possible for you,” he said with a grin.


Lily looked sheepish. “Sorry. I’m sure it’ll be fun,” she said, immediately changing her expression to a cheerful one.


James laughed and reached over to rumple her hair. Looking up from under a few strands of her now dishevelled hair, Lily rolled her eyes at James and turned her head to hide a smile.


“You know,” Remus called back at them, “if you two can’t keep your hands off of each other, we can give you some privacy.”


Lily blushed, but took out her wand and held it in front of Remus mock-threateningly. “What was that, Remus?”


Sirius lowered Lily’s arm for her. “He was just trying to keep his mind off of Felicia. But you can breathe easy, Moony, she’s only here with her friends.” Sirius raise his hand to noticeably point at Felicia, who was walking with the Ravenclaw girls a few yards in front of them.


“Put your hand down,” Remus said, shoving Sirius to the side.


“Why don’t you go talk to her, Remus?” Lily asked curiously, motioning at Felicia.


Glancing at Sirius’s smug expression, Remus rolled his eyes and began walking towards the group of girls. James let out a whoop and yelled, “Go, Moony!” but Remus didn’t look back.


After taking Felicia aside from her friends and talking to her for a few moments, Lily and the other Marauders watched as Remus walked away towards the Three Broomsticks with Felicia, looking awestruck.


“Wow. I can’t believe he actually worked up the nerve to do it,” said Peter, amazed.


Lily laughed and clapped her hands, seeing James and Sirius’s proud faces. “All right, you lot, time for Honeydukes.”


The group didn’t leave Honeydukes for several minutes, but when they did, all were weighed down with at least a pound of sweets, looking content.


“Do you all want to visit the Shrieking Shack?” Lily asked mischievously, sucking on a Sugar Quill.


“Not really,” the three Marauders answered together.


“Zonko’s!” Sirius shouted out, marching away to the store without looking back.


“I guess we’re going to Zonko’s, then,” said James.


Lily bought nothing there, but the boys refused to exit without a considerable amount of pranking supplies.


“So now that you have your Zonko’s fix, how about… the Hog’s Head?”


“Sounds good,” answered Sirius, with James and Peter nodding their agreement.


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“I can’t believe you’ve never collected Chocolate Frog cards!” James said, clanking down his bottle and sounding shocked.


“I never really saw the point.” Lily explained.


James smiled and shook his head, then began tapping his fingers to the old-sounding tune playing from the bar’s WWN. Lily turned her head slightly and was a little surprised to notice that his arm was on the back of her seat, but James didn’t seem to notice anything. For some reason, this made Lily smile.


When Sirius and Peter left the groups corner table to talk to a few students that had just entered the room, Lily leaned back against James’s arm and closed her eyes.


“You know, I’ve had more fun that I thought I would’ve,” she confessed without opening her eyes.


“Oh, really?” James asked with surprise. His arm tightened around Lily amiably as he smiled at her. For some reason, this didn’t bother Lily at all or even strike her as odd; it felt comfortable and she realized she was beginning to really like being around him.


“Hey, one more, please,” Lily called to the bartender, holding up a finger.


The man behind the counter glanced at Lily and nodded.


“Rather thirsty tonight, are we?” asked James, raising his eyebrows and gesturing at the two empty bottles in front of her.


“Something like that,” Lily answered light-heartedly. “Anyway, you’re drinking, too.”


“This is the same one I’ve had all evening,” James began.


Lily shushed him and touched a finger to his lips. “I’ll stop after this one.”


“Okay,” James replied, smiling, once she had put her hand down.


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In the meantime, Kathleen had been sleeping in the girls’ dormitory all day. When she woke up, her head had begun throbbing, so she decided to visit Madam Pomfrey. Kathleen moved her legs to hang over the side of her bed, then quickly stood up and took a few steps, thinking of quick relief from her headache. The sudden movement came with dizziness that caused her to hastily rethink getting out of bed.


Quickly, Kathleen turned to her bed to climb back in, but had to let herself drop to the floor. She sat there for a moment with her eyes closed and her hands on the floor behind her to hold her up.


“Whew,” she breathed out.


Then she felt a sheet of parchment beneath her hands, which were partially under Lily’s bed. Leaning her back against the bed, she slid the parchment around in front of her and saw Lily’s handwriting.


Kathleen frowned, immediately recognizing the male handwriting next to her friend’s. Feeling around back under Lily’s bed, she pulled out several more notes and began to read the notes to herself. Her expression became slightly darker with each one, until she dropped them on the floor, another wave of sickness coming over her.


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“Okay, you wait here. I think Peyton has a Sobering Potion in the dormitory that I’ll be wanting before the feast.”


James nodded at Lily and smiled as he watched her climb the girls’ staircase.


Lily began to open her dormitory door, but it only swung forward a foot until it stuck. Frowning, she slipped in the open space and looked to see what was on the other side. Her hand flew to her chest when she saw what the door had hit. Kathleen was lying there with closed eyes, not moving a muscle.

Flashbacks:

“And who are you taking, Sirius?” Peyton kept on.


“Kathleen,” he said confidently.


All of the girls turned to gape at Kathleen. “What?” they all asked simultaneously.


“He’s joking,” Lily said scornfully. “Do you honestly think she would date him again?”


“I was just kidding,” said Sirius defensively.


“That was pretty thoughtless,” Hallie pointed out.


“It was two years ago!” Sirius exclaimed.

…

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad. I’m totally over it and all. I just think that it’s just weird how he acts like we never dated.”


“Maybe he feels bad about dropping you just like all the other girls” -Lily paused for a moment- “but then you never know.”


~


“But you know what? I bet Annis will get married within the next year or so. They’re pretty serious, right?”


“That would be great. Annis would be, like, the best wife,” said Kathleen, nodding.


~


Then she felt a sheet of parchment beneath her hands, which were partially under Lily’s bed. Leaning her back against the bed, she slid the parchment around in front of her and saw Lily’s handwriting.


Kathleen frowned, immediately recognizing the male handwriting next to her friend’s. Feeling around back under Lily’s bed, she pulled out several more notes and began to read the notes to herself. Her expression became slightly darker with each one, until she dropped them on the floor, another wave of sickness coming over her.




“Prongs, there you are!” Sirius called out merrily. “I’ve been looking for you all over this damn place!”


James closed the Portrait Hole behind him and tiredly looked to where Sirius and Peter were standing.


The grin slid off of Sirius’s face. “What is it?” he asked, walking towards his friend.


“I was just looking for you two. Everyone else is down in the Hospital Wing with Kathleen,” James explained.


“What are you talking about?” Sirius demanded, looking alarmed.


“A half-hour ago, when I came back with Lily, she found Kathleen passed out on the floor upstairs.” James ran a hand through his hair. “We took her to the Hospital Wing, but we don’t know anything yet. Madam Pomfrey is doing all she can, so she won’t let us in. Lily, Hallie, and Peyton are outside the doors with Remus. I don’t know where Annis is; I think still in Hogsmeade.”


Sirius’s face turned white. Without another word, he quickly left the common room.


Peter stared after him. “Uh, should I go find Annis? She’d want to be here,” he said to James.


“Yeah, that’d be good. I’m going back down there,” answered James.


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Lily didn’t look up as James walked up to the group sitting on the floor outside the Hospital Wing doors. Her head was bent over to rest on her knees, and her hands were on the back of her neck.


Remus quietly shook his head at James when he saw him looking at Lily.


“Lily?” said James, ignoring Remus. He got on his knees on the floor in front of her.


Lily quickly stood up, letting everyone get a quick glimpse of her tear-stained face as she said, “I’m sorry,” and quickly walked away.


James started to get up as though he was going after her, but sat back down with a heavy sigh.


“She just needs a little time. She was afraid Kathleen was dead when she first found her,” said Hallie, resting her head back on Peyton’s shoulder.


Both girls had tears rolling down their faces. Remus and James sat there quietly for a little while, not knowing what to do or say.


“Wait, where’s Sirius? I thought he was headed down here.” James looked around to see if he had missed him.


“He came for a few seconds, just to find out if we knew anything else. Then he disappeared,” Remus answered.


“I think this is really scaring him,” said Peyton. “He’s realising how much he still really cares about Kathleen.”


Hallie let out a sob and turned her face.


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Lily walked along the empty corridors blindly, glad that most everyone was still at Hogsmeade. She wiped her eyes as she looked for a classroom with an opened door; she was too afraid to open another closed door and find a body on the other side of it. Nearly five minutes of walking finally sent her to the Transfiguration classroom, which had a thankfully wide open door.


“Sirius?” Lily asked with surprise, seeing him sitting in one of the desks in the back, staring at the wall next to it.


Sirius didn’t look up at her, so Lily walked closer to see what he was looking at. Carved there at the bottom of the wall was the small inscription of SB + KB, which Lily immediately recognized to be Sirius and Kathleen’s initials.


“Did you do that?” she asked softly.


Sirius finally looked up and nodded. “About a week after we started dating. It was December of our fifth year.”


“She was absolutely crazy about you then,” Lily remembered, staring off.


“Then,” Sirius emphasised.


“Well, of course she hated you after you dumped her. How would you like it if she had broken up with you a month after you started dating? She was coming to give you your Christmas present that morning, and instead, she found you asleep next to some-”


“Did you come in here to make me feel better?” Sirius demanded, cutting Lily off.


Lily threw a dirty look at him and turned to walk away, but Sirius grabbed her wrist before she could go anywhere.


“I’m sorry,” he whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I know what I did was horrible.”


“Yeah, so do I. And so does Kathleen. But feeling guilty about it now that she could be dead doesn’t change anything. You broke her heart two years ago and didn’t feel a thing. I don’t care how you feel right now, and it’s stupid of you to expect me to feel sorry for you when my best friend might never wake up,” Lily said hatefully, her eyes flashing.


Sirius looked stung. He had never seen Lily this way, not even towards James. Before he could think of anything to say back to Lily’s rant, she was gone.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Meanwhile, Annis was still on her date at Hogsmeade, not knowing about Kathleen‘s collapse.


“I’m really glad you could make it to Hogsmeade, Michael,” Annis said, smiling across the table at her boyfriend.


The two had walked around the village all day, finally ending at the Three Broomsticks, where they were sipping butterbeer.


“Do you want to know why I came?” Michael asked with a nervous grin.


“You hadn’t seen me in two months?” Annis guessed.


“Well, that too. I just wanted to remind you how much I love you, especially with the war going on. People are dying left and right, and we don’t know how much time we have left.” Michael got out of his seat and went down on one knee.


Before he could pull the ring box out of his robe pocket, Annis stood up. “I’m not ready for marriage!” she blurted out. “You’re crazy!”


“But, Annis,” said Michael, standing up with a hurt look on his face. “We could-”


“Annis!” came a breathless voice from the door.


Annis turned to see Peter Pettigrew standing there. “What are you doing?” she asked confusedly. “Me and Michael are-”


“Kathleen is hurt,” Peter said, interrupting again. “She’s in the Hospital Wing right now. You need to come.”


Annis gaped at him for a second, then quickly turned to Michael. “I’ve got to go,” she said faintly, turning heel and following Peter out the door.


“Lily? What are you doing here?” Annis asked, running into Lily outside the pub. “Kathleen is hurt.”


“I’ll be there later,” Lily said, not slowing down to talk.


She continued walking towards the back of Hogsmeade, where the Hog’s Head was. Kathleen stared after her for a moment, but quickly turned and headed for the castle.


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After more drinks at the Hog’s Head, Lily made her way back to the castle and started towards her dormitory. She came to the end of an empty corridor and dropped to her knees, too tired to make it all the way to the seventh floor. As Lily began to shake with sobs, she tilted her head to the ceiling as her tears started to fall. Covering her face with her hands, she let her body slump against the wall next to her and she was soon asleep.


Lily slept throughout the night there, until dawn came and someone came across her in the corridor.


“Lily?” the figure said, shocked.

“Lily?” the voice said again.

In the back of Lily’s mind, she could sense someone crouched in front of her, lightly touching her shoulder. The next thing she realised was that her head was not on her warm, soft pillow as usual, but was against a horrible stone wall that felt remarkably like the sides of the school’s corridors.

Lily’s eyes fluttered open. Her head pounded and her mouth tasted like some animal had died in it while she was sleeping. Rubbing her eyes, she glanced up and was startled to find that the someone who was so close to her in her un-showered state was Blake Ramsden.

Oh, Merlin’s beard, Lily thought. She rose slowly to her feet, closing her eyes to help her ignore the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach. It would be just perfect if she threw up in front of Blake, the only boy she had ever thought about dating.

“Er, how’ve you been, Lily?” Blake asked awkwardly.

Lily cleared her throat. “I’ve been better than I seem at this particular moment.” She sent him a slightly panicked smile, desperately wishing for him to be on his way.

Of course, Blake took no note of Lily’s unheard plea. “Haven’t seen you around very much this year,” he continued.

“Yes, I’ve been meaning to say hello.” Lily forced herself to smile, but couldn’t think of anything else to say. She ran her hands through her thoroughly unwashed hair and hoped her breath wasn’t too noticeable.

“We’ll have to catch up later. But, er, did you…?” Blake trailed off, motioning at where he had found Lily against the corridor wall.

Lily turned to look at the spot, and suddenly everything from the day before rushed back to her. Her hand flew to her chest as she leaned back against the wall. She thought no more of Blake as she raced to the Hospital Wing, leaving him standing there in confusion.


Lily burst through the doors to the infirmary, her concern for her friend more pressing than the hangover bearing down on her. She looked around wildly until she saw Kathleen lying in a bed on the other side of the Hospital Wing, all of their friends sleeping in chairs and on the bed next to hers.

“Lily?” Kathleen whispered.

“Kathleen! How long have you been awake?”

“Shh. Don’t wake up the others; they look exhausted,” Kathleen cautioned.

Peyton and Hallie were spread out on the bed next to Kathleen’s, Remus and James slumped over in chairs next to them. Annis had fallen asleep in a chair next to Kathleen with her head resting on the edge of the bed. Looking around, Lily noticed that only Sirius and Peter were missing. Then Lily looked back at Kathleen. She was pale with dark circles under her eyes and had an unsightly fluorescent glow from the lights above.

“You think they’re exhausted? You look like you haven’t slept in years. Have you been awake long?” Lily asked quietly, mindful of the boys snoring behind her.

“I’ve only just woke up when Madam Pomfrey came in here.” Kathleen laughed as much as she could, remembering. “She was a little angry that everyone had gotten in the Hospital Wing while she was away, but I talked her into letting them stay, since they had fallen asleep already.”

“Yes, sorry, I fell asleep before I had the chance to come,” Lily explained, feeling embarrassed and hoping no one would find out why she had fallen asleep. “What has Madam Pomfrey said?”

“Not much. Apparently, I was partly dehydrated and I’ve always been a bit anemic, so it all just took a toll on me and I fainted.”

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You know, I was the one that found you.”

“Yeah, that’s what Madam Pomfrey told me. She thought you were a little shaken up,” Kathleen said, carefully choosing her words.

“Yeah,” was all Lily said in return. “So when are you going to be let out?”

“After a couple more days of beds rest, I’ll check on her and see how much she has improved,” Madam Pomfrey said, unexpectedly materializing behind Lily. “Now, it’s time for Ms. Brady to rest alone. Everyone out!”

The group woke up at these words and blearily opened their eyes.

“Come back later, okay?” was all Kathleen had time to quietly say to Lily before everyone realised that she was awake and began exclaiming over her.

Lily nodded and squeezed Kathleen’s hand before turning to leave. She saw James get up to follow her so she waited outside the Hospital Wing until he came out.

“Hey,” James said, finding Lily leaning against the wall as he closed the doors behind him. “How are you doing?”

Lily grimaced, remembering how she acted the day before when she didn’t know if Kathleen was going to wake up. She had totally shut down and walked away from James.

“I’m doing better than yesterday,” Lily told him. “Sorry for that little meltdown, by the way.”

“Don’t worry about it. I would’ve been the same way if I was in your position,” James said immediately.

Lily smiled at him gratefully. “Are you going back up to the tower?”

“Yeah, are you?”

Lily hesitated, knowing that she said no and easily make an excuse to be alone for a while. She looked into James’s eyes and could tell that he wanted to help her somehow, but could he? Or would letting him into the bad parts of her life only ruin the careful friendship she had just begun getting used to?

It didn’t take long for Lily to smile and nod at him.


The others tiredly walked out of the Hospital Wing a moment later, after promising to visit Kathleen later that day. Peyton, Hallie, and Annis leaned on one another as they went, filled with relief for their friend.

“Look up ahead,” Peyton quietly said with a smile. She lifted her hand to point towards Lily and James, who were just far enough ahead of the others to be out of hearing distance.

Sirius grinned at Remus. “And you thought he’d never make it.”

“He hasn’t made it yet,” Annis reminded them, turning her head to see the boys behind her.

Then everyone saw Lily turn slightly towards James and put her hand on the back of his forearm as she laughed at something he said.

“I wonder if it’ll be long, though,” Hallie said thoughtfully. “Hey, let’s leave them alone for a while and head outside.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to follow them until we get within earshot?” Sirius suggested, grinning.

Peyton rolled her eyes and steered the group towards the doors. “Let’s go,” she said.


After talking and laughing the entire way to the Gryffindor Tower, Lily went up to her dormitory to take a shower and James decided he should do the same. As he and Lily went their separate ways, James realised he had left Lily with a smile on her face almost as big as the one he had.

But while he showered and dressed, he knew that he still needed to know exactly where he stood with Lily to see if they were really friends yet. When he had finished dressing, there was a knock on his door. “Just a second,” he called out as he crossed the room.

When he opened the door, he was surprised to find Lily standing there. Her hair was piled on top of her head, still damp from her shower, and she wore some old, grey sweatpants and a shy grin.

“I thought I’d just come up here instead of waiting in the Common Room. There are a lot of people down there, and everyone wanted me to tell them all the details about Kathleen,” she explained.

“I understand,” said James. “Er, do you want to sit down or something? Sorry, the place is pretty messy.”

Lily laughed. “At least you don’t have bras hanging from the bed posts and hair products everywhere you go.”

“What, haven’t you seen Sirius’s side of the room?” James joked.

Smiling, Lily walked to what she guessed was James’s bed and sat down on the end. She stood back up, realizing she had sat on one of his cloaks.

“Wow, this is a nice cloak. What in Merlin’s name is it made from?” Lily asked in wonder, running her hand down its side.

James grinned. “Close your eyes and don’t look.”

Lily was confused, but complied and covered her face with her hands.

“All right, you can look now,” said James.

Lily looked up, expecting James to be standing directly in front of her, where his voice had come from. She saw nothing, even as she turned and looked around the entire room. Standing up to look for him in the closet, Lily hit something solid and fell back onto the side of the bed.

She heard laughter coming from the air in front of her, most likely at the sight of her shocked face. Then James materialized from under his cloak, still chuckling.

“You have an invisibility cloak?” Lily asked in astonishment.

“Yeah, my dad gave it to me. Been in our family for a while, I think.”

“Wow.” Lily was silent for a moment, then said, “That’s amazing. Hey, is that how you get around Hogwarts after curfew and always seem to know everything that ever happens?”

James grinned sheepishly. “It’s a part of it. The rest is just the mystery of James Potter.”

Lily rolled her eyes, but laughed as she smacked him lightly on the head. Grinning at her response, James sat down on his bed next to her and held up his cloak.

“Do you want to try it on?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lily replied immediately, quickly standing up.

James covered Lily with it and she became completely concealed from view. She walked around the room for a moment then pulled the cloak off of her head, causing it to float in the air without the rest of her body.

“This cloak is… amazing!” she said, her eyes wide. “Wait, does Dumbledore know you have it?”

“Probably. He knows almost everything I do, even if he never shows it.”

“Almost everything?”

James just smiled. “Maybe one day you’ll find out.”

“I doubt I’d ever know more about a person than Dumbledore seems to,” Lily said in disbelief.

“Well, I’d tell you. Hey, do you want to wear the cloak somewhere?”

“Tonight?”

“Right now,” said James. “We can go anywhere you want.”

Lily smiled as she thought, putting a finger on her chin.

“Okay, I’ve got it,” she said a moment later with a grin.