Summary: My take on how Lily and James got together. Lily hears a heart to heart-talk between Sirius and James.

A/N: This is my first fanfiction and english is not my native language, so there is probably going to be a lot of spelling errors and stuff. Try to be understanding. I hope you enjoy, thank you.

Edited: 27.3.2014 There are slight alterations to the original version and I've tried to correct the spelling errors, but if you find something please let me know.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

'Thoughts'

The Hidden Truths

Lily Evans had always taken her responsibilities seriously and that night was no different. It was her seventh year at Hogwarts the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she had been given the honor of being named the Head Girl. All in all her last year at Hogwarts was perfect, if not for the one person: James Potter.

James Potter had been named a Head Boy and not even in her wildest dreams could Lily figure out why. He was an arrogant, selfish, bullying toerag, always pranking innocent students with his best friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, or the Marauders as they called themselves. Potter had annoyed Lily from the very first moment they had met in the Hogwarts Express and as the years went by he became even more annoying. Every year since their third year he had continuously asked Lily out every single day at least twice and every time she had told him no in the most creative ways she could think of.

But no. He just couldn't get it into his thick head that she wasn't interested, and what annoyed her even more, was that every other girl in the school would take the chance to go out with James Potter in a heartbeat. Potter was attractive and devilishly handsome; Lily couldn't deny that - she wasn't blind after all - but there was so many things about him that annoyed Lily to no end. Especially the way he ran his hand through his hair to make it look like he had just gotten off of a broom making him look even more attractive and sexy and... - absolutely infuriating!

So, it was no wonder it was James Potter that Lily was thinking when she was patrolling in the halls of Hogwarts at Halloween night.

'How, just how in the name of Merlin did he get the Head Boy badge?' she thought. 'He doesn't even come patrolling in time. What were the professors thinking?! Did he do some kind of compulsion charm on the staff? I certainly wouldn't put it past him, or then Dumbledore has just finally gone mad. Yes... that must be it...'

Her musings however, were interrupted by a concerned voice just around the corner: "Moony! Have you seen Prongs? I can't find him anywhere."

"No I haven't, like I have told you a hundred times. Calm down Padfoot, we will find him. Have you checked the map?"

"No, he had it with him…"

Lily recognized them right away; the voices belonged to Black and Lupin. 'I can't see Potter with them… Whatever, now is my chance to get back at them for all the pranks…' Lily thought, but just as she was about to confront them something held her back. She heard Remus telling Black that he was going to find Peter and ask him if he had seen James and asking Black to search the Astronomy Tower. Black agreed and took off towards the tower.

Lily followed him.

She didn't know why she followed Black to the Astronomy Tower. Maybe it was her curiosity or maybe it was the concern in the Black's eyes, but follow she did. Lily cast a Disillusion charm and a Silencing charm on herself and ran after Black. He walked fast up the stairs to the highest part of the tower and opened the door.

"Prongs?" Lily heard him whisper, "Are you here?"

A silence answered his calling, but when Lily finally reached the top he heard Black's voice sounding even more concerned than before.

"Prongs, what the hell are you doing? What's wrong?"

Lily peeked from the door and what she saw made her stop dead. James Potter was standing on the edge of the Astronomy Tower. 'What the hell is he playing at?' Lily thought.

"Come on James, get down." Black tried. "Get down and talk to me, tell me what's wrong. Please."

"Mum's ill again, Sirius." Lily heard Potter say faintly. "They – They say she won't l-live through the year."

Lily couldn't see his face, but she could tell from his voice and body language that he was crying.

"No, she can't… they said she was getting better." Black stuttered. Potter silently dropped the letter he had been clutching in his hand to the floor, from where Black picked it up with shaking hands.

Lily could see the tears running from his eyes as he read the letter. Lily was overly confused; this was definitely not what she had expected. She had been hoping to catch the Marauders planning a prank, but she finds Potter and Black crying because Potter's mum was ill. 'Wait, why would Black cry when Potter's mum was ill? It's not like his mother was dying.'

"I'm so tired, Sirius." James whispered.

"I know, but that's not the answer Jamie. You know it isn't." Sirius said shakily. "Come down, and we'll talk about this."

And finally James came down from the edge to the safety of the walls and Sirius embraced him. Lily let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. The two young men sat in the silence leaning to the walls before James spoke:

"I don't know what I'm going to do Sirius… after Dad… It's just too much at the same time."

"I know mate, I miss him too... But he would have kicked your ass in a duel and gave you severe talking to if he had seen you standing on that edge tonight. I mean what the hell were you thinking? Leaving me and Mum alone? And what about Lily? You were going to give her up to Snivellus too?"

For the first time in the whole night Lily saw life in James' eyes.

James let out a shaky laugh. "I know Sirius; I don't know what I was thinking… And she's your mum too."

"Yeah."

They sat a moment in silence until James spoke:

"You think she would care… if-if I was gone?"

"Of course she would care! Who would ask her out ten times a day, if it wasn't for you? Who would she yell at if you weren't there? She would miss you mate; she would feel her day was incomplete without you."

It took Lily a moment before she realized that they weren't talking about his mother anymore. They were talking about her. And what was worse, deep inside, she knew Sirius that was right; she would miss him. This year James hadn't asked her out nearly as much as before and she had felt empty. Now that she thought back, every day that she had been on a bad mood was when James hadn't asked her out.

'No, no, no, no! I have not fallen for James Potter! I swore I would never fall for him.'

"You really think so?"

"I know so." Sirius said confidently before turning more serious. "Anyway, we have a new target."

"Who?" James asked his body stiffing and Lily saw anger passing through his hazel eyes.

"Hufflepuffs Jeffrey Smith and Matthew McCoyle" Sirius said mirroring James' demeanor.

"What – What did they do?" James asked. Lily noticed that he sounded like he'd rather go without knowing.

"They… They raped a second year. She doesn't wish anybody to know. Her friend found out and came to us." Sirius said through gritted teeth.

"So, Voldemort has reached the other houses too, not just Slytherin." James said sadly. "What about the Slytherins? Have the Death Eaters-in-training made any moves?"

"I haven't heard anything." Sirius said.

James nodded.

"We need to make a plan, but that will have to wait till next week. And then we'll prank them to next year."

As they stood watching the sunrise Sirius spoke:

"Do you remember our first prank?"

"Yeah. It was the first week of school in our first year when we saw Snivellus, Malfoy and Avery bullying a first-year Rawenclaw and decided to try that prank Dad told me about before I left to Hogwarts." James said smiling as he reminisced. "It took them a week to get rid of the pink color in their clothes and hair."

"Yea, that was classic." Sirius sighed with a faint smile. "We have come a long way from there. It's sad how many victims or their friends have come to us for help."

"Yes, but you know they can't go to the teachers, they can't do anything."

"Unfortunately… But Dad always gave us good ideas for new pranks so we didn't have to use the same ones." Sirius grinned.

"Yea, he told me once that he and Mum pranked the whole school many times when they were young." James grinned.

"What?! She was a prankster in school?" Sirius asked astonished. "Prongs, why didn't you tell me? All those times she ranted at me for pranking the house elves."

"Well, it was fun watching you suffer." James said grinning mischievously.

"What kind of brother are you?" Sirius pouted.

Lily almost laughed out loud. She was seeing a whole new side of James and Sirius; there was no sign of the arrogant bullying toerag Potter or the ladies' man Black. There were just two best friends and brothers in all but blood.

"Prongs…"

"Mmh?"

"You know… if you just told Lily why we prank people and show her this side of you, maybe she would…" Sirius started, but James cut him off:

"I know Sirius, but you know that I don't betray our sources' trust for anything, not even Lily. You know I love her and would give my life for her in a heartbeat, but I don't sacrifice other people lives for anything."

"Yea, you're right."

"You know its full moon on the weekend…" James said grinning mischievously.

"Time to let Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs ride again. You think Moony would like to go explore the forest again?" Sirius said mirroring James.

"Well, I think we can convince him…"

"Yea, just need to make a little trip to Honeydukes' chocolate section…" Sirius laughed.

"Sun's almost up… I think I'm going to fly a bit, perfect time to do that…"

"You love flying too much..." Sirius complained good-naturally.

"That too, but mostly I'm just trying to avoid Lily… she's gonna kill me for missing patrol and I'm not in the mood for that yet."

"Oh right, not to mention Moony, he's probably gonna kill you for worrying us." Sirius smirked.

"Damn…"

Sirius laughed and started walking towards the door and Lily. Lily slipped quickly back to the stairs as James spoke:

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks mate."

"Don't mention it bro."

Lily spent the whole next morning pondering what she knew about James Potter and what she had found out that night. The more she thought about it the more she realized that she had been wrong all along. James and the other Marauders didn't prank people for fun; they pranked the bullies and Voldemort's followers. What astonished her most though, was that the student's actually came to them and asked for help. She also realized that he wasn't selfish at all; his friendship with his friends was more than it looked like; it was more like they were brothers.

She pondered where the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs came from until suddenly the answer came to her; they were Animagi. She had figured out Moony a long time ago, since she knew that Remus was a werewolf, but then she remembered waking up once on a night of full moon and seeing a black dog and a stag disappearing into the forest. Back then, she had dismissed it as a dream, because it was insane to think that a dog and a stag could be seen together like that, but it appeared that it hadn't been a dream after all and Lily couldn't help but be impressed of the boys becoming Animagi.

And now when Lily thought about all the discoveries she had made, she realized that she had fallen for James Potter even more than before and this time she accepted it without any protests.

She decided it was time to do something about it and that was what she did.

Lily walked back into the Common room by the time for breakfast and saw James coming out of his dorms.

"Lily I'm really sorry…" he started, but was cut off by Lily who astonished the whole common room by snogging him senseless and asking him out on the Hogsmeade weekend. After that she left the Common room leaving behind a very stunned, but happy James with a very goofy grin on his face.

And nobody noticed a very sullen-looking Sirius Black handing over ten galleons to a grinning Remus Lupin.

THE END

A/N: Well, what do you think of my first fanfiction? Please review.

- Dalnim