Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the Marauders belong to J.K Rowling.

The four young men laughed cheerfully as they walked back through the secret passageway from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. All of them had their arms filled with candy, prank articles or firewhisky. Remus vanished his and Sirius' cigarettes just before Peter opened the entrance in the wall and looked out to make sure no one was there. No one was so they stepped outside and began to make their way toward the Gryffindor Tower. It was Godric Gryffindor's birthday soon, and they had something big planned for it. Of course, they had to be more careful not to get caught this year, because not only was Remus a prefect, but for some reason Dumbledore had made James Head Boy.

When they all found out, they had thought it was a joke at first. When they found out it wasn't, Sirius had exclaimed: "Has Dumbly finally gone bonkers? Prongs? Head Boy?!" and James had been appalled. And worried that Remus would think he had stolen his position, but Remus had taken it with equanimity and been glad for James' sake when they finally had accepted it. He also knew that it was for the best that he wasn't Head Boy; it was hard enough to hide his lycanthropy as a prefect. The four had still been extremely confused why Dumbledore would make one of the biggest troublemakers in school – and a former bully – Head Boy, even though Remus guessed it had something with James' leader qualities now when the war was getting more grave. Since a week ago, there had been an outright battle between the Aurors and the Death Eaters (who had until a few years prior went under the name 'The Knights of Walpurgis'). James' father had just went into retirement only three months earlier when he finally found someone reliable to take his place as Head of the Auror Department – Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody. Or more accurately, finally persuaded Mad-Eye to take the post. He hadn't been too fond of the idea, but Mr Potter had refused to give the position to anyone else since practically anyone could be working for Lord Voldemort. That was also the only reason Mad-Eye had agreed to take the post as Head Auror.

But James being Head Boy had had its benefits. Except that he has often as he could took points from Slytherin, (even though he admittedly was a lot more fair than most people had expected him to be) it had given the huge advantage of giving him a chance to prove himself for Lily Evans that he had changed and wasn't that immature bully he had been before The Prank. After a few weeks she had accidentally called him 'James' instead of 'Potter', and it had been enough for James to live on an entire week. And after a month Lily had even become a friend of all the Marauders and usually hung around with them. They had even began to think about making Lily an official Honorary-Marauder, which was the highest honour and evidence of trust they could give anyone. They had never done it before, even though they had considered making the Prewett-twins Honorary-Marauders. But they had let go of the thought after some consideration. James hadn't gotten over his love for Lily, but he had stopped acting on it. He knew that Lily didn't feel the same for him and he didn't want to force himself on her any longer, nor did he want to make her uncomfortable or mad. And he really didn't want to risk that she stopped hanging out with them, she had become an important part of the group.

They laughed at something Sirius said as a harsh throat clearing was heard and they all quickly looked up, into the corridor to the right. They froze when they saw the fierce red haired witch that stood there, glaring at them. James almost dropped the prank-articles he was holding but caught himself in time.
"Flower…!" he said, smiling hesitantly as she moved her gaze from all of them to only him.

"Been sneaking out to Hogsmeade again?" she asked and the four boys couldn't really lie since they were carrying things they couldn't have gotten anywhere else, plus it was impossible to lie when Lily had that look on her face. They nodded.

Lily sighed and shook her head.
"James, you can't do this anymore. You're Head Boy! You are supposed to be a role model!"
"But… No one can prove I did it." James defended himself. "You can't expect me…"
"That's exactly what I expect!" Lily interrupted him. "You're Head Boy! There's a war going on out there, and you're sneaking out from school to the village!"
"That's exactly why I do it! (Except for the fun of it…) We can't let the War stop us from doing these things! We should try to live as normal as possible and make sure to have a good time when we can!"

Sirius, Remus and Peter awkwardly watched as it turned into a great shouting-match. By now James and Lily were yelling at each other, each trying to win by raising their voices the highest rather than having the most valid arguments. They glanced at each other, but knew there was nothing they could do when their two best friends got like this. They couldn't really tell her a part of the reason why they sneaked out was to stack up Remus' stock of chocolate since it wasn't more than a few days until the full moon and the chocolate was all finished.

Lily and James kept shouting at each other as the hallways began to be filled with a small group of students, and now they had entirely let go of the subject of sneaking out of school, luckily since they didn't want to get caught. But suddenly Lily did something that surprised everyone in the school, even herself.
James stared, downright shocked, as Lily kissed him. After a moment she backed, looking almost as surprised as the four Marauders. Neither of them, nor anyone else in the school, could believe what just happened.

"You kissed me." James stated, breathless, staring down at Lily who blushed.
"It seems so." She said, looking slightly unsure. She didn't know why she had done it, because James was clearly not interested in her anymore and only saw her as a friend. Just in time for her to begin to like him back. More than like, fall in love with him back. Typically.
"And you… you don't regret it?" James asked, sounding like he was talking from a land far away, like he didn't believe what just happened. Lily thought about lying but then shook her head.
"No, I…"
She didn't say anything more because James put his arms around her and pressed their lips together, kissing her. After a moment she began to kiss back. Lily threw her arms around his neck and they just stood there in the middle of the crowd, kissing.
Suddenly Sirius gave out a loud cat-call and the other three Marauders began cheering and applauding, and soon the rest of the students joined in.

"Finally! It finally finally happened!" Sirius yelled, laughing, and Remus and Peter joined into the laughter.
After quite a few moments Lily and James finally parted and both of them had ridiculous grins on their faces.
"Go on a date with me, Evans?" James asked breathlessly, hope sparkling in his eyes and Lily dragged her fingers through his hair.
"I've wanted to do that for years! Marlene was right. No products! I owe her two galleons." she said thoughtfully. "And of course I'll go on a date with you, silly. Why do you think I kissed you?"
"You did, didn't you?" he replied, looking like a little child on Christmas morning.

Later that evening the five of them were the last ones in the common room except for a third-year that had fallen asleep in the corner and two sixth years that were talking quietly on the other side of the room.
Peter sat in an armchair, Remus sat on the floor, leaned toward the couch, and Sirius lied in front of him, his head in Remus' lap and Remus combed through Sirius' hair. As long as he was careful not to destroy the perfection Remus was one of the extremely few who was actually allowed to touch Sirius' hair (the others were James and Mrs Potter, and whoever Sirius slept with right then, but they were only allowed during 'special occasions'. Peter wasn't because of his clumsiness). James and Lily sat close to each other on the couch, Lily's head on James' shoulder.

"Were you really angry that we sneaked out?" James asked tentatively, petting Lily on the head. She shook her head slightly.
"No. I was mad because you sneaked out during a prefect-meeting. Now I had to handle it all by myself and come up with a reason as to why both you and Remus weren't there."
Remus hit himself over the head.
"Oh, I totally forgot. I'm so sorry, Lily."
Lily smiled.

"No problems, Remus. Oh, and you four were in the Hospital Wing after messing up a potion and growing fangs and green skin."
"Lily!" James sat straight up and the other three Marauders looked at her in shock, even Peter who had been falling asleep.
"Don't drag me and Wormy into this, Evans!" Sirius complained and Lily smiled deviously toward him, her green eyes sparkling evilly.
"Oh, Padfoot. What did you expect? Especially since you didn't invite me with you to Hogsmeade. I'm out of Licorice Snaps, and you know they're my favourite."
Sirius blinked.
"Did you just call me Padfoot?"

It was the first time Lily had used any of their nicknames. She blinked too, looking like she hadn't even thought about it, and then shrugged in an 'it-would-seem-so-way'.
The Marauders began to grin and looked at each other, nodding sharply once.
Lily looked at them confusedly, wondering what the hell they were saying in their secret-not-necessary-to-talk-because-we-know-each-other-that-well-language. She felt slightly worried but also kind of curious what they were going on about. They turned to her, grinning.

"Lily Anne Theresa Evans, what would you say about getting an honour nobody had ever gotten before?" James began and Sirius picked of where he left off.
"Something that comes with great responsibility, but also great gain?"
"You would have to swear an oath, which you could never break." Peter said, looking very excited, and Remus continued:
"But you would also know that you would never, ever be alone again, as long as you give that favour back. What would you say about…"
"Becoming an honorary-Marauder?" they finished together, looking at her with expressions that were a mix between solemn and eager puppy. James had a little bit more of eager puppy than the others, but he too looked very solemn.

"… Honorary-Marauder?" Lily asked, confused. They nodded eagerly and threw themselves into an explanation about what it would mean. As an honorary-Marauder she would get almost all the privileges of a real Marauder (but she couldn't be one since they were the Marauders and the Marauders were them – Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs) such as their eternal loyalty and friendship and she could also be sure that they forever would stand by her side, but in return they expected her to do the same. Neither would she not, no matter what it was about, betray one of the Marauders' secrets. Lily smiled, understanding that they actually meant what they were saying and that this in their eyes was the biggest honour anyone could be given. For them being included in the Marauders was a bigger honour and bigger achievement than being elected for Minister for Magic, Head Auror, or (in their eyes) even World Master in Quidditch, all at the same time.
She smiled and agreed. Yes, she would love to be an honorary-Marauder. She swore the Marauder's Oath.

"Did you really come up with that one when you were 12?" Lily asked afterwards, surprised. It had been a very complicated and detailed oath, that's for sure. That four pre-teens would've come up with it was hard to believe, even though three of them were geniuses. She had finally come over her disgust over the fact that James and Sirius truly were geniuses when they became decent people. Even though it still annoyed her that they hardly had to study to get top grades – but James actually had begun to study this last year at Hogwarts. Time to think about the future, he said.
They nodded.
"Yep." Peter confirmed.

Another hour later Lily stood up.
"We really should go to bed. The clock is showing 2 a.m. and we've got school tomorrow."
The young men agreed after a moment, and Remus woke Peter up. He had fallen asleep in the armchair.

Lily pecked James on the lips.
"Good night." She told them with a smile.
"'Night, love." James said, his eyes shining as he said it.
"Hey! Don't we get a kiss?" Sirius exclaimed, grinning mischievously and Lily rolled her eyes before walking over and kissing him, Remus and Peter on the cheek.
"Better?"
"Much." Sirius nodded and yawned. "G'night, Lily Flower."
She shook her head, amused, and smiled back, feeling a strange sort of love for these four sleepy, wondrous boys. She waved once before walking up to her dormitory, and saw the four young men walk up to their own. James looked over his shoulder and his face lightened up in a smile as he saw that she looked back at them. He truly was wonderful, Lily thought with a smile, now when he had grown up a bit and wasn't such an arrogant jerk as he had been when they were younger. He certainly had grown up to a man worthy of love.

Review! Please. :)

It wasn't long since I gave you another chapter of A New Life, but I wanted to publish this now anyways, so here it is. Did I get Lily's personality right? She's hard to write.

I feel that I am running out of good stories. If you've got anything you want me to write about the Marauders, tell me and I'll try doing it! :)

Mar sin leat! (According to Google Translate that's bye on gaelic.)