It was an 'ordinary' day for Lily Evans. Well, as ordinary as a day could get when you were around James Potter.
Lily had been studying with him and the Marauders for the past couple of hours for their ever looming N.E.W.T exams.
The only reason they were actually studying was because she had forced them to.
They were extremely distracted by tiny things, as they sat under the beech tree by the lake, such as butterflies.
Remus definitely wasn't as bad, Lily thought, but the others needed to improve. Vastly.
The leaves swayed in the breeze, and James looked up, yet again.
Lily snorted.
'You lot really are pathetic at studying,' she said, torn between amusement and exasperation.
'We can't help it, Lily-kins,' said Sirius, as Lily rolled her eyes.
Lily began to drift back into her work… human transfiguration, for her theory exam in Transfiguration.
She smiled to herself ever so slightly, remembering the day she'd found out about the Marauders being animagi last year.
'YOU…WHAT?! POTTER!'
'Lily, it's all in good reason—'
'How in Merlin's name?! That's intensely complicated magic, what if it went wrong—how didn't it go wrong!'
'I'm really touched that you doubt our magical capability that much, I really am, but could you not scream about it in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room?' James said urgently, and Lily realised the many pairs of eyes that were focused on them.
'Right. Sorry, Potter.'
'Ah, the two lovebirds!' a voice popped out of nowhere, and Lily gave the speaker a hard glare.
'Sirius, can you not, we were just—'
'Talking.' Lily finished for him, before Sirius could interject with something like 'snogging' or 'confessing our true love for each other', which she knew he would.
'Anyway, back to the point!' She snapped, making the two boys jump.
'What 'point', Lily-kins?' Sirius said, smirking. He'd picked up the habit of calling her Lily-kins since she and James had become friends, and she'd grown weary of correcting him, and so didn't bother anymore.
'The point,' she began to speak in a hushed voice, 'that I just got told that you are all animagi!'
'Prongs! You just had to tell her, didn't you?'
'I really couldn't help it. She'd find out one day either way, anyway.'
'True. Lily, there is a real reason behind it, honestly.' Lily softened at Sirius' use of her proper given name, and calmed down a little.
'That's amazing magic though…how did you do it? I don't mean any offense, but few grown wizards can pull off being animagi!'
'Just come outside, and we'll explain.' James took her arm, and Lily obliged.
They walked until they arrived just under the beech tree, which Lily knew the Marauders had taken to sitting under on sunny days.
'We're not just animagi for no reason, you know,' said Sirius, taking a seat on the firm ground.
James quickly glanced around, making sure no eavesdroppers were in earshot.
'We did it for Moony, you know Remus. We know that you know he's a werewolf, he did tell us, you know, how understanding you were…' he began, looking deeply into Lily's eyes.
'Well, that's the only way I should've been, prejudice against werewolves is unjust, Remus is one of the best people I know, really.' Lily shrugged.
'Well, just try to be as understanding with us, okay?'
'Only within reason,' Lily warned.
'It is.' Sirius said.
'Well, Remus' time of the month is HARD,' James began to speak again. 'Much harder than that naff stuff you girls go through.' He cringed and Lily sighed.
'And, well, when we found out, back in second year, we thought it'd help if we were somehow there…but how? We really had no idea.'
Sirius began to grin.
'After many weeks of thought, we finally came up with the idea of animagi, after darling McGonagall mentioned it briefly in class one day,' he said, his eyes glinting with pride.
'Moony was against the idea at first, but eventually gave in when we told him that we'd be doing it anyway, no matter what he said.'
Lily frowned at this, but Sirius continued, regardless.
'After many years of perfecting our attempts—'
'3 years, Padfoot, 3,' James rolled his eyes - but not even with half as much impatience as Lily had done earlier - at his best friend.
'Okay, 3 then, Prongs, way to be a downer,' Lily giggled, forgetting her 'outrage that they had broken the law' 'So, after 3 years, we'd managed to become animagi, Peter with a tad bit of help, but we'd managed, anyway.'
'So, Lily, we did it all to help one of our closest friends in the most painful moments of his life…'
'That—That is very sweet.' She smiled at the two Marauders, who exchanged grins, James going a bit red.
'I knew you'd see sense, Lily-kins, well done,' Sirius nodded.
'Well, that is probably the best thing you could do for a friend, really,' admitted Lily, turning slightly red.
'Oh dear,' said Sirius suddenly. 'Here comes Moony, he doesn't look very happy. Peter's probably eaten some of his 'full moon' stash again.'
Remus Lupin was known to eat absurd amounts of chocolate, and, James had told Lily that he put it down to 'the full moon'. Lily recalled him saying: 'Really, he gets enough chocolate as it is after the full moon from Madam Pomfrey, but he insists on buying more! Typical Moony…'
Lily snapped back to Earth as Sirius snuck off, chortling as he yelled behind him 'I'd best be leaving you two lovebirds!'
'Padfoot… what a joker…' James sighed, but Lily couldn't help but notice that he was studying his hand more intently than consider normal in society.
'Lily…' James began, and Lily looked up. 'You know, earlier, when you said that Moony was 'one' of the best people you know?'
'Yes…' said Lily slowly.
'Well, who were the others? I don't mean to intrigue, you know, I'm just curious—' James made excuses for himself, and Lily smiled.
'I never thought I'd say this, James Potter, but you'd have to be one of them.'
That was the moment Lily had seen James the happiest she'd ever witnessed. She even remembered Sirius coming up to her later that day saying: 'My best mate's been kind of funny since I left you two alone, been walking around like as though he's taken muggle drugs!' When Lily had snorted with laughter – which she had to admit, wasn't the most attractive thing she'd ever done but it was only Sirius Black she was talking to – Sirius had retorted, 'And yes, Lily-kins, I do know what muggle drugs are, Moony told me!'
Lily smiled to herself as she continued with her Transfiguration study, only occasionally glancing at the tall, black haired, four eyed, yet extremely attractive being that was James Potter.