Chapter 1: Attacks and unexpected helpers

"James I know you hate to do this, but could you PLEASE tone it down? Some of us actually intend to pass 6th year!"

"Ah, you'll pass all your N.E.W.T's anyway Moony." The black haired teen replied breezily, ruffling his spiky locks and blinking his hazel eyes, trying to look innocent.

"Unlike poor Peter." Sarcasm dripped from Sirius's voice. The tall haughty boy reclined on an arm chair, balancing it on 2 legs. He jabbed his finger in the direction of Peter Pettigrew, a short blond boy with watery eyes who seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "Poor kid seems to need your help with his charms homework Prongs." With a sigh, James Potter got up and took a seat next to the youngest of the group, took one look at his work so far, face palmed and groaned. Apparently Pettigrew was going to need more help than he'd thought.

Remus Lupin sighed, rolling his brown eyes and returned to his Potions textbook, his short terra cotta hair falling into his eyes again. As much as he disliked Severus Snape (or "Snivellus" as he and his fellow Marauders frequently called him) the sallow skinned boy was a genius at Potions. And if they hadn't hated each other's guts, (and he hadn't feared deadly retribution from James and Sirius) Remus would have asked for Snape's help on his homework. The common room was quiet for a while. Most of the students were either outside having snowball fights or in the hallways helping the teachers decorate for Christmas.

With the holidays coming up, most of the teachers had decided to ease up a little on the homework. This didn't stop Lupin from studying for his finals. He desperately wanted to prove he was a good student despite his "furry problem". One student he hadn't seen lately was Lily Evans. She was a good student, fairly popular, and hated James Potter with a fiery passion. Personally, Remus thought James might be wasting his time trying to impress the kindly red head.

As the Marauders sat in the common room of Gryffindor tower, the relaxed atmosphere was suddenly cut through by an outraged shriek. Lupin, James and Sirius immediately jumped to their feet, wands at the ready. Pettigrew shrank back into the cushions of the chair as if hiding. He was the worst duelist among them, and was extremely tentative. As the other three trained their wands on the porthole, another yell of rage was heard, and then a slapping noise. Stepping forward slightly to see if he could hear more, James came face to face with an absolutely FURIOUS Lily Evans.

Her red hair was dripping with purple muck and her robes were stained with something green and slimy. Dark patches of dirt and something else covered her usually rosy cheeks. And her green eyes were snapping with rage and humiliation.

"Evans?" James stared opened mouthed, nearly dropping his wand in surprise. Sirius and Remus lowered their wands and looked at the sopping wet girl standing before them. Remus, being the only Marauder Lily was truly on friendly terms with, came forward slowly.

"Lily?" he asked quietly. "What happened?"

The girl stood for a few more moments completely silent, not long, but enough time to make the four boys feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Potter." She stated in a dangerously calm voice.

"Yes..?" James answered slightly fearful.

"Why do the Slytherins seem to think we are dating?" Sirius dropped to the ground laughing and Remus gave an amused smile while he went to fetch some towels for Lily. James just stood gaping at the girl.

"What?"

"They think we're dating! They decided that to get at you, they're going to attack me with different sludges that I'm frankly scared to know what they're made of! How on earth did they get the idea that I would date an idiot like you?" Sirius recovered from his fit of giggles and trotted over to Lily.

"Evans."

"And I mean really! We both have standards!"

"Evans!"

"What?" She screamed at Sirius.

"You're bleeding." He stated calmly. Underneath her mud covered cheeks, a slight blush was just visible.

"Sorry." She shot him a slightly apologetic look.

"Lily, sit down okay?" Lupin had returned with several towels and a washcloth.

"Remus, really its fine."

"Sit." His voice was gentle, but it was clearly a command. Too tired to disobey, Lily sat down on the carpet leaning against the sofa. James sat right above her on the cushions. Grabbing one of the towels from his werewolf best friend, James began to massage the messy goo from her hair. Sirius was inspecting the cuts and bruises on her knees and wrists while Remus was gently washed the muck off her face.

Lily couldn't help but close her eyes. In a weird way, this felt good. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought that she, Lily Evans would be treated this way by the Marauders that she disliked so much. The feel of James's hands on her hair was soothing and she tried to swallow the sigh of contentment as the wet towel went down the nape of her neck and brushed underneath her scarlet tresses.

"Lily, who did this to you?" Remus queried as he lightly rubbed the dirt from her nose.

"I didn't recognize them. But I did get in a good slap. So if you see anyone who's a Slytherin with a black eye tomorrow, he was one of them." The faint smile of satisfaction on her face made a grin appear on James's.

"Gosh Evans, you're so danger prone!" Sirius teased lightly, trying to relax her as he applied bandages to the cuts on her wrists. She gave a slight chuckle and a wince.

"This is coming from the boy who ended up hanging upside down from the top of the Quidditch bleachers?" She retorted sleepily, her eyes still closed.

"I still say that it was Mary's fault. If she hadn't startled me with those eyes of hers…" The playboy trailed off with a nostalgic look in his dark eyes. With a last pat on her ankle where the final Band-Aid had been placed, he gave a wily grin. "Well, I'm off to bed. I'm tired, and to be honest, I'm going to have to drag Peter with me." He nodded toward the tiny boy asleep behind the couch. "Night all." With a daring smile and a wink at James, Sirius slid an arm under Peter's and clambered up the steps to the boy's dormitory.

Finishing the cleaning of Lily's face, and limbs, Remus gave her a kind smile.

"Lily, are you really okay?" The girl in question sighed.

"Yeah, I suppose so. But if you do see a Slytherin with a bruise around they're eye, would you mind jinxing him for me? It's going to take weeks to get the rest of that purple out of the back of my hair!"

With a slight laugh, her friend stood up. "I'll keep my eyes open then. Just be careful alright? You'd think with the way you and James fight, people would get the picture by now…Oh well. I'm off to sleep. And before that," he walked up to the desk where Peter and James had been pouring over Charms work.

"What are you doing?" Lily and James chorused. They looked at each other for a second then they're heads snapped back to their friend.

"Well, Peter isn't going to pass exams if he's studying wrong answers is he?" The brown haired teen closed the books and put papers in folders, shaking his head tolerantly. "And now, I really am going to sleep. He can thank me later. Night you two." With a nod and a smile Remus Lupin was up the stairs and in the boy's dormitory.

Lily and James sat alone in front of the fire place, both wrapped up in their own thoughts. Deciding to break the tension, James spoke:

"So you got a good smack in then?" This elicited a giggle from the red head.

"Yeah. I don't get it though…" She trailed off yawning. "You know you don't have to keep doing that right? I can wash it again tomorrow." James was still cleaning gunk out of her hair.

"Yeah, but you're gonna have to sleep like this then. And One: That'd be totally gross. Two: Like you told Remus, it'll take ages to wash out. So I'm giving you a hand." Pulling another chunk of sludge out of her hair, he grimaced then showed her the towel.

"I don't even want to know what that is." Lily shuddered, pushing the towel away from her face. "God, I really will murder whoever did this…" Without realizing it, Lily was leaning fully against the cushions again and her eyes were closed. James kept rubbing methodically, and he smiled slightly when he saw that the girl with scarlet tresses and a spirit of fire had fallen asleep. When he'd gotten all of the sludges out from her hair that he could see, James sat down on the floor next to the sleeping girl and gave Lily a quick once over. Her heart shaped face was marred with a few scratches. But they would soon heal with time. Cuts and scrapes were all over her arms and legs. She hadn't been wearing her school robes but instead a long sleeved black shirt with the words "Give Peace a Chance" stitched in rhinestones across the back and a pair of jeans that had probably once been navy blue, but now seemed slightly tie-dye after the Slytherins' "revenge." Bandages administered by Sirius had been placed over the worst wounds. All in all, after the Marauder's treatments, she looked battered, but not scarred.

Gently, so as not to wake her up, James slipped his arms around her, and lifted her onto the sofa. He couldn't take her to the girl's dormitory because, well he was a guy. Carefully arranging her into a comfortable position on the couch, James pulled a threaded blanket with the Gryffindor crest on it, and slipped it over Lily's sleeping form. Stroking a finger once across her cheek, James gave a sad smile and sauntered off to bed.