Lily stepped onto Platform 9 ¾ just as the train arrived. Her thick dark red hair danced in the wind and her green eyes sparkled in anticipation for her 6th year at Hogwarts.

She pushed her cart a couple meters before hearing a loud shriek, she whipped her head around and found her best friends, Anna and Christine, shouting their heads off, giggling and jumping at the same time, she quickly joined in.

"Look at them, just look, and they accuse us of being immature. They're the ones carrying on like mad banshees." James Potter said as he walked onto the platform. He looked over at his best friend and noticed that he was practically drooling over a certain screaming brunette.

"Nice choice Padfoot, although I'm pretty sure that you were the one saying that blonds were-"

"That was before shudder Katherine."

"She was the one who-"

"Yeah"

"With the maple syrup? Or was it-"

"No that was Amanda."

"Oh! Katherine! I remember her, your darling Kitty Kat who got you those extra special pajamas for your birthday and…umm…broke your broom because she said you loved it more?"

Sirius Black buried his head in his hands momentarily thinking of his lost broom before raising his head and shaking out his black hair. As soon as James noticed the mischievous twinkle in his best friend's eyes he smiled and immediately started to brainstorm. They promptly walked to the train in search of a compartment while barely noticing all of the conspicuous hair flicking and giggling that was going on.

Lily Evans watched James give a girl a huge wink while walking with Sirius and sighed. James Potter was as cocky as ever and here she had been hoping for a change. Ever since their 4th year when James took a sudden interest in her she had been doing her best to avoid him, that was an extremely difficult job considering he did just the opposite.

"Worrying about James already?" asked Anna, "I'm sure he grew up over the summer, especially after what happened last year."

Lily thought back, her memories of the incident were all crammed together and confusing, she saw random parts of it in a quick blur,

Snape was on the ground, gagging on soap bubbles, then hanging from the air.

Sirius was laughing.

Lily was screaming at James, "You're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter…I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid!"

Remus was staring in shock.

"You make me sick!"

She was stomping her way thought the entertained crowd of students…

She was watching the aftermath from the Gryffindor tower…

She shook her head violently to clear it of the images.

"Come on lets get on the train, it's leaving soon and we still have to get our trunks on!" shouted Christine over all the noise.

Lily finally returned from the Prefects compartment, she, Christine and Anna sat in their own compartment for the rest of the ride. The compartment was filled with sweet wrappers (both muggle and wizard), laughter, summer stories and hooting from Anna's owl.

They sat listening, munching on chocolate frogs and laughing while Christine talked about how her 18 years old brother had 'accidentally' transfigured her foot into a duck's. Lily then talked about Petunia's new boyfriend Vernon, a.k.a. Walurus man, and Anna about how she had bumped into Amos Diggory at Diagon Alley with 'that Hufflepuff girl'.

They were making their way through their umpteenth licorice wands when the door slid open revealing Alice Longbottom. The girls threw some candy at her in their sugar rush state, exchanged greetings in abnormally high voices and then had a dance party.

The girls were all sitting/ lying on the train seats, feeling completely drained after their sugar rushes, when the door opened again, this time showing the famous/ infamous Marauders.

Lily had been gazing at the landscape, frowning as she thought about how Petunia hated her, and didn't notice the entrance. She remained in this pensive state until a toned arm wrapped its way around her shoulders and pulled her towards a certain seeker who was smiling at her and ruffling his hair simultaneously.

He said, "Hey honey, sorry it took me so long, I know you've been in agony without me all summer."

Her frown deepened

Everyone stared at her expectantly; she didn't disappoint them (except the insufferable James Potter, of course)

"Potter," she began calmly "you have exactly 3 second to remove your arm before I hex you into oblivion."

An alarmed look crossed James' face,

"3,"

All of the other occupants of the compartment distanced themselves from the redhead,

"2,"

James recovered from his shock and gently lifted his arm off of her looking quite put-out.

Sirius promptly started laughing and in between his fits of laughter managed to say, "she got you there mate!"

Needless to say James moved to the other side of the compartment and sat there for the rest of the ride while conversing with Sirius, Anna, Alice and Peter. Every so often he would gaze at Lily hopefully, willing her to like him.

Lily on the other hand took no notice of him and talked animatedly with Remus and Christine.

That night Lily went to sleep worrying about all of her homework, double checking in her brain that she had done it right. She also thought about her closest friends, Anna, Christine, Alice and Remus, especially Remus. He was looking more worried than ever before and had a tired, tattered air about him.

James didn't fall asleep for the longest time. He had hoped that over the summer Lily had forgiven him for what he had done to Snape, but that was obviously untrue. If anything she was even colder towards him.

He glanced at the row of picture he had set on the windowsill near his bed. They were all picture of Lily Evans. Sirius had stolen most of them, although he had managed to 'find' some himself, and 'borrow' a couple from the girl's friends.

In all of the enchanted ones where she had been waving happily at previous owners, she was now permanently angry and hiding behind the frame. He sighed deeply. Then he looked at his favorite picture, this one was an ordinary muggle photo, and in it Lily was smiling, her eyes were shining with laughter and her hair was resting delicately on her shoulders.

It had been that gorgeous hair which prompted him to ask her out for the first time. He had noticed it one day and walked up to her… she had listened to him intently, even kindly, before politely refusing. He had gained some respect for her, she wasn't just another girl madly in love with James Potter, she was something special. He hadn't been able to take the rejection and kept asking, she had gotten annoyed and the angry. Now he was in a funny situation. He was in love with a girl who utterly despised him.