AN: It is ridiculous how long it took me to publish this story, but here I am now. To call this a Jily story might be a stretch, since it's more about the marauders era in general. It picks up at the beginning of fifth year and hopefully continues all the way through school and after that as well.

Also, English is not my first language so there might be a few grammar mistakes.

R&R

/Liz

Of course, I own nothing of Harry Potter. Except for the books in my bookcase, they are very much mine and no one else can touch them.

It was the first day of September, not autumn enough for the leaves to turn red on the trees, yet not summer enough for the sun to warm the pavement outside King's Cross station. A car, a small, blue Volvo, pulled up and stopped abruptly outside. A redheaded girl opened the back door, bag over her shoulder and a black cat in her arms. She grabbed the trolley her mother handed her and put the cat inside the cage that her father had placed on top of it. She went in front of her parents through the doors to the station. Inside the station, she pushed herself through the mass of people standing in line to buy tickets, or watching maps, their eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Lils!" Next thing Lily knew someone was hugging her tightly around her back. She turned around to discover her friend Marlene.

"Marls!" Lily hugged her friend back. "You're tanned! I take it Greece was good."

"It was great." Marlene's brown eyes sparkled. "Except that mum thought she needed to hold my hand every time we went out of the hotel. I was just like 'I'm not five years old'.""

"Where is your mother now?"

"I think she took Ellie to the platform. She had a meltdown this morning when she realised all her kids are 'all grown up'."" Marlene did an not too convincing imitation of her mother's voice. "I don't see how she can think eleven is grown up."

Her parents had caught up with them now and Lily's mother must've heard their conversation. "Maybe you should pay your mother some respect. It's hard to see your kids growing up, and now she will be home all alone too. I remember the first time Lily went away, I cried for days."

"Mum, go away," Lily murmured. She loved her parents, except for when they were interrupting her conversations with their "wise words"". Lily's mum ruffled Lily's long red hair before stepping back and talking to Lily's dad instead. Lily turned to Marlene again with a laugh.

"So your mum let you walk around the big scary train station all on your own huh? She must really be a wreck." If Lily had learnt something from her visits at the McKinnons it was that she was lucky to have parents who didn''t snoop on her. Mrs. McKinnon, on the other hand, wanted to know everything: where they had been, what they had done, who they had met.

"Kind of," Marlene laughed. "Have you heard anything from the others?"

"No. I guess Mary will come running in at the last minute as usual, and Alice is probably on the platform already."

"How much time left until we need to get there?" Marlene asked her and Lily checked her watch.

"I would say ten minutes, fifteen at most."

"Perfect, I need to buy salted almonds." Marlene smiled and dragged a few pound bills from her purse. Lily asked her parents to watch their trolleys as she and Marlene went over to the small store selling candy, magazines and fruit.

While Marlene payed for her almonds, Lily grabbed a few packages of her favourite muggle chewing gum.

"Fruit, huh? I would've taken you for a spearmint girl Evans." Lily turned around quickly at the sound of the familiar voice. Sirius Black stood leaned against the gum shelf, a bag of crisps in his hand.

"What're you doing here Black? Where's Potter?" Lily snapped. During the summer she had almost managed to forget how annoying James Potter and his best friend were.

"Your soulmate is currently paying for our candy."

"Never. Call. That. Arrogant. Git. My. Soulmate. Ever. Again." Lily hissed before throwing the gums on the counter together with the muggle money in her wallet.

"Come on Marls. We need to get to the train." She snapped when she got her change. Marlene followed her out of the store without a word. Her parents waited for them not far from the barrier between platform 9 and 10. Together she and Marlene ran towards the solid brick wall.

"Does that ever stop being scary?" Lily wondered when they were on the other side. "I always expect myself to crash into the wall.""

"Why?" Marlene wondered.

"I don't know…maybe because in the muggle world solid brick walls don't so often turn out to be unseen entrances to other worlds." Marlene laughed and Lily hit her arm. "I'm serious!""

They were almost at the end of the platform when Marlene pointed at Alice, who stood next to a woman looking much like her.

"That's her mother, right?" Lily asked Marlene in a whisper. Marlene nodded. Lily grabbed a steadier grip of her trolley before running up next to Alice.

"Hi Al!" She said before turning to Alice's mum. "Hello Mrs. Fortescue."

"Red hair, green eyes and a bright smile, you must be Lily," Alice's mother sais. Lily nodded. ""It's lovely to meet you, Lily," Mrs. Fortescue smiled at her before spotting Marlene.

"Oh Marlene, you've grown so much!" Marlene gave her an insecure smile. "I said that to Harold just this morning, 'the girls are growing up to ladies', I said. Didn't I, Alice dear?"" Alice hid her face in her hands and Marlene looked happy to get an excuse to get away when Lily's parents appeared in the crowd.

"I guess we should board," Lily whispered.

"Guess so", Marlene nodded in approval. The three girls started lifting their trunks on board the train.

"Lilypad! Can't an old dad get a goodbye before his daughter goes away for a year?" Lily nodded at him and finished lifting Marlene''s trunk up the stairs of the train before walking back to her parents.

"Have a nice term now, honey", he said while he dragged her into a hug. Lily hugged him back before turning to her mother.

"Bye, mum."

"Promise you'll write", her mother grabbed her shoulders, "every week. I want to know everything that's going on in my baby's life. I'll miss you so much.""

"Mum, you'll see me again by Christmas."

"I know but you're my baby girl, I don't want you to go away at all." Her mum looked at her and stroke a hand over her cheek.

"Look at this, our little girl, all grown up," Lily's dad put his arm around her mum and stroked his hand against her back, but Lily could see his eyes sparkling at her.

The train spat out smoke and Lily hastily said goodbye to both her parents, promising once again she would write, before boarding the train together with Alice and Marlene, who had just finished saying goodbye to their own families. Marlene had her younger sister Ellie with herhe tiny girl held Marlene's hand hard as they walked through the corridors of the train. They found Mary in a compartment in the back of the train together with Dorcas Meadows, a Hufflepuff in their year who hung out with them from time to time.

"Hi Dora. Mary." Marlene nodded at the two girls.

They put their trunks on the luggage shelf before sitting down. Lily fiddled with her prefect badge. A feeling she had forgotten about something gnawing in her chest.

What Alice said ten minutes later abruptly reminded her. "Lils, shouldn't you be in the prefect compartment?

"Oh Merlin. Thanks Al!" Lily quickly got out of the compartment and made her way through the corridor of the train.

As Lily closed the compartment door behind her, Mary turned to the others and asked:

"Who else do you rekon's prefect?"

"I really can't see any guy in Gryffindor nearly responsible enough to get it," Marlene said, putting her bag on the seat next to her and leaning back in her seat. "There is no chance that it's any of the Marauders." she made a pause and waited for the others to nod in agreement. ""And Longbottom is way too shy."

"So you can't be shy and prefect?" Alice protested.

"The only reason you say that is because you've got a thing for Longbottom", Mary told her and ignored Alice''s response that she "did not!". Instead she turned to Marlene. "The only one left is Arnold.""

Marlene had totally forgotten about him. He wasn't really shy or quiet but in the same class as the marauders, he was often overlooked.

"I bet it's him", Marlene said. "I always thought he seemed responsible."

"He's quite good looking too", Mary was quick to say.

"Mary! What do you think Lily will be doing during prefect patrol?" Marlene tried her best sound as if she was actually kidding.

"So she won't take advantage of empty hallways and an attractive guy?" Mary Scoffed, "I would."

"To no ones surprise." Marlene retreated, hoping Mary didn't notice her harsh tone. She was sure Alice did though because she quickly took charge of the conversation. For the next fifteen minutes, the two were engaged in a discussion about whether or not making out during prefect patrols would put you in detention, were you discovered. Marlene leaned back in her seat and looked at the landscape flying past the window outside. Muggle villages separated by yellow fields passed by. Alice and Mary didn't stop talking until three boys bashed the compartment door open and stepped in.

"What's up Marls?" James Potter threw himself flat over two seats, on top of Marlene's bag, and forced her to high-five him.

"Where is your fourth musketeer?" Mary , she too had noticed the absence of Remus Lupin.

"He abandoned us!" Sirius burst out. "he became a prefect! Does he not realise this is dishonouring our entire group? One of the marauders, a prefect?"" Marlene rolled her eyes. Ever since the Hogwarts letter containing Remus' prefect badge had arrived at the end of July, Sirius had seemed unable to think about anything other than the "betrayal"" their friend put them through.

"Remus is prefect?" Mary asked in disbelief.

"You know, that makes sense. He should probably keep these three…" Alice nodded at the boys "…from coming up with too much mischief.""

"Oi Prongs, you hear that? Fortescue's hoping for a calm year."

"Ugh…Sorry girl, this year will be legendary," James smirked.

"This will be the best year of all time. Thousands of years into the future they will not teach us about goblins in History of Magic, they will talk about the epic year when the marauders pulled a prank on every student and teacher in the school, including Dumbledore himself."

"How will you have time for that?" Alice sounded suspicious. "We've got O. this year. You'll need to study your asses off."

"We already know everything." Sirius said.

"Besides, I doubt the Banchory Bangers will care what Transfiguration grade I get. Even if I will get an O because I've got a talent above everyone else's." James talked louder and ran his hand through his black messy hair. Marlene was positive it was because a certain redhead had opened the door to the compartment. Lily walked straight past James, snorted as an answer to his greeting and sat down opposite to Alice. She started telling her about the prefect meeting. Marlene saw James looking at her from the corner of his eye while listening to Sirius, who talked about their epic end-of-the-year prank. Marlene had already heard these plans multiple times during the summer holidays and her mind started to wander before Sirius had even gotten to the part where Severus Snape slipped down the main stairs, helped by a puddle of wet water.

"Okay guys, we should keep moving. If we're pranking everyone we better get started. I think we can finish off a good three compartments before lunch." Marlene hadn't noticed Sirius had finished.

They entered their own compartment in the very back of the train and Sirius closed the door in the face of a dozen girls. It took another few minutes, during which Sirius managed to fall flat on his stomach when the train made a sharp turn, before Remus appeared in the compartment door.

"Picking blueberries, are you?" Remus asked as he simply walked over Sirius on the floor.

"This was on purpose." Sirius growled and pushed himself into a sitting position. Rolling his eyes, Remus sat down next to Peter.

"So, what did you do at your meeting with the enemies?" Sirius crossed his arms and stared at Remus.

"You make it sound like I joined You-Know-Who."

"You could as well have done. The things they stand for are as opposite to us as what the prefects stand for", Sirius was still on the floor, now leaned against the door with his arms folded. Remus opened his mouth to answer but was cut short.

"Who else is prefect?" Peter asked. Clearly, he too spotted the argument about to break out. James knew Sirius didn't mean what he said and he knew Remus knew that too.

"Evans is the other one from Gryffindor. Aubrey and Bones from Ravenclaw, Jones and Cattermole from Hufflepuff, Greengrass and Bulstrode from Slytherin", Remus counted on his fingers.

"Aubrey got it?" Sirius looked upset "that pompous, cocky idiot that thought he could beat us in quidditch?""

"That's him."

Sirius looked like he was about to say something, but the food trolley rolled up outside of the door and he closed his mouth again.

"Anything from the trolley to my troublemakers?"

James smiled at the middle-age lady rolling the trolley in front of her.

"We'll take the usual Trace", Tracy nodded started taking out one sweet after another and handing to James who put it down on the table by the window. Remus looked puzzled when she handed him a chocolate cake and started searching his pocket to pay her but she waved her hand at him.

"It's on me", she said, smiling at him.

"Oh, well, thanks then," he said quietly.

"So, Lily's prefect?" James asked when she had shut the door and the she started pushing the trolley back towards the front of the train.

"Prongs wants you to convince Evans to go out with him", Sirius told Remus, even though James was sure Remus had caught that. "Because he simply can''t pluck up the courage to ask her himself."

"That might be an impossible task", Remus shrugged, "I heard her talk to Hestia after the meeting, discussing how to best catch you in action so she could put you 'where you belong'"

"Oh how can she Prongs! You're so tall and talented and handsome and a quidditch star." Sirius joked while shuffling in the last piece of cauldron cake in his mouth. He, Remus and Peter laughed loudly.

"Shut up." James snorted, not finding the joke as funny as the others.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing Exploding Snap, with the outcome that Sirius lost both his eyebrows. When the cards set fire to Peter's clothes for the third time they decided to stop before setting something of value on fire. Big rain clouds had gathered in the sky that, for once, had been cloudless when they left London. Now the rain smashed against the top of the train.

"You know, we should go for a walk, see if we can find some Slytherins to mess with." James suggested after a few minutes' silence. Sirius brightened and stood up, while both Remus and Peter appeared to sink lower in their seats.

"They're in the front of the train." Remus looked a little guilty having let this slip, knowing what would happen, but once it was out in the air he didn''t seem to mind.

"Excellent!" Sirius burst out and opened the compartment door. "Come on everybody.

Lily was on her way back from Professor Slughorn's lunch when Severus ran up by her side.

"Can we talk?" he asked shortly.

"Sure. Why don't we go to the prefect compartment? I rekon it's empty by now." Lily didn't feel like talking to Severus in the corridors where there was a big chance one of his friends would walk past. Lily wasn't ashamed of her background but it wasn't a lot of fun to have "mudblood" shouted after her. Severus nodded and followed her as she made a full turn around and started walking towards the front of the train.

Shutting the door closed behind them, she turned to him.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"You avoided me all summer." He told her firmly, for once going straight to the point.

"Sev, you know as well as I do that's not how it was. Your mother doesn't want to see me after your father took off, and Petunia won''t let you into our house."

"You went away a week after we got home, Melin knows where. I was worried."

"I went to Marlene for a week", Lily told him. Severus looked questionably at her, "Marlene McKinnon, she''s a Gryffindor in the same year as us and she's been my friends since first year." Lily clarified and just managed not to sigh at the fact that Severus didn''t have a clue who her friends were, "And when I got back you were gone."

"Since you went away without saying a single word there was no need to hang around in that fucking town anymore."

"Where did you go?"

"To Rosier. his parents were away over the summer. Everyone was there. Mulciber, Avery, Bulstone, Lestrange…"

"I don't want to hear the names of every future death eater," Lily snapped. Most of the time she would try to ignore who her best friend hung out with, mostly because he avoided mentioning them, but when he made a point of naming them one by one it was hard to overlook. Lily knew what path they were all going down. She also knew the Lestrange brothers had graduated years earlier and odds were they had already been recruited. Severus didn't reply. Instead he headed for the door and of the compartment. Lily followed close behind him. They must've been close to the end of the journey because the corridors were mostly empty. Lily intended to go straight back to the compartment and change into to her robes. That was until she saw a light flash in a compartment nearby.

"Merlin, they're dueling", Severus murmured and hurried towards the compartment. Lily followed, thinking she had a great idea of who else was in there.

The compartment was way too small for the chaos inside. Everyone was standing and curses were flying in all directions. Lily ducked to avoid a purple flash of light and then turned to face Severus, only to find he was not there anymore.

"Sectumsempra!" Lily didn't have time to see who had thrown the spell. A moment earlier the compartment had been full of noise, now you could hear a needle drop. Even though Lily was quite tall for her age she had to stand on her toes to see what was happening. The sight made loose her balance and she stumbled backwards, falling down on her foots again. Recovering, she pushed herself through to the front of the crowd. Sirius was on the floor, in a puddle of blood.

It was dead quiet still, no one wanting to be the first one to speak. James fell onto his knees and pulled Sirius onto his lap, the latter's eyes flickered and then closed again. As some of the slytherins slipped out of the compartment and the once still there had turned away from the scene, occupying themselves with something else, Lily realised no one else was going to help and slowly she bent down next to James.

"Lily, do something." James pleaded. Lily looked at him for a moment, surprised at the use of her first name, before collecting her thoughts and speaking.

"We need to get him looked over by someone," Lily said, straightening again and trying her best to keep her voice calm. "Will you lift him up?""

James nodded and carefully he used his wand to levitate Sirius from the ground. Lily went out of the compartment first then Peter followed and Remus and James went out last, their wands drawn and keeping Sirius in the air.

Lily slid the door to Professor Slughorn's compartment open and found him in the same spot he had been in when Lily had left the compartment almost half an hour earlier. When they entered he was talking to a seventh year Ravenclaw while sipping from his bottle of mead.

"Hello professor." Lily carefully drew attention to her. "I'm sorry to disturb but…"

"You could never disturb me Lily." Professor Slughorn exclaimed, "What can I help you with?""

"Well…" Lily didn't get the opportunity to finish the sentence before Sirius came floating into the compartment.

"What in Merlin's name happened to him?" Slughorn tried to stand but the train but the train made a turn and he fell down in his seat again.

"They were dueling, Professor," Lily said while Professor Slughorn rose again and hurried over to Sirius.

"Dueling? Why would you do that?" Slughorn muttered while bending down next to Sirius. No one answered and Slughorn didn't seem to expect them to, ""There is a glass flask in my bag, will you grab it for me, Lily?"

Blood was no longer pouring from the wounds and although he looked cleaner Sirius was still unconscious when Slughorn ten minutes later told them they could leave.

"Will he be okay?" Peter asked anxiously.

"I'm sure he will be. I'm going to take him up to madam pomfrey as soon as we get to the school. I think I fixed him but I am no healer."" Slughorn said. "Now I must ask you to leave, we will be at the station any minute now, you don't want to get there without having changed will you?"

Lily though the boys probably wouldn't matter a bit whether they were in their school uniforms or not but she didn't say.

"We're not leaving." Remus said, determently.

"Come on guys", Lily said and exited the compartment, not expecting them to follow her. She hadn't walked far when before she heard footsteps quickly rushing towards her.

"Evans." James ran up beside her. His hair stood up in the back as usual and his glasses was greasy.

"Come here", Lily said, taking them of his face and cleaned them with the sleeve of her shirt. When she put them back on he smiled.

"Thanks Evans."

"We're back to last names then huh?" Lily asked him, not expecting an answer.

"Yeah…I guess."

"What were you even doing in there?" Lily asked. Not sure if she wanted an answer.

"Where?"

"That Slytherin compartment, your git."

"We were bored." James said with a nonchalant smile and ran his hand through his hair.

Lily was surprised by her disappointment. She had, without realising it, started imagining that it wasn't their fault, that it was the other who'd started. Her face heated as she raised her voice.

"Of course. I should've understood. You werebored. They hadn't done you anything, you were just bored huh? Gits!" She spat before hurrying away.

She didn't immediately return to the compartment where she knew her friends must be waiting, she had been gone for much longer than expected, instead she locked herself in one of the small loos. What had just happened? She asked herself. Why had she been that upset when she found out something she''d already known? She had seen something in James' eyes when Sirius was hurt and Lily almost thought he could be a decent human being, then he knew his friend was safe and he went back to being just as he always was. An arrogant show off, acting like he owned the entire world.

The rest of the trip seemed to fly past and before they knew it they were sitting in the carriages taking them up to the school. With none of them knowing if Sirius was okay the air seemed tight and Remus found it hard to say anything. The others appeared to have the same experience because they too were quiet. As soon as the carriages pulled up outside of the school the door smashed open and Marlene rushed in.

"What happened?" She asked "Lily told me Sirius is hurt. Where is he?"

"Breathe Marls", James ordered, "We got into a duel at the train and someone used a pretty nasty curse on Sirius so he started bleeding. He was taken care of though and should be okay. I rekon he will make a grand entrance in the middle of dinner."

This seemed to calm Marlene remotely.

"I'm going to the hospital wing. Who's coming with me?"

James roared agreeing and Peter nodded.

"Okay..." Remus said hesitatingly. "But I will blame it all on you if we're caught."

They stood hidden underneath James invisibility cloak and waited for Marlene who convinced her friends to go to the feast without her. They hadn't been sure whether they were allowed to be in the corridors during the fest but they didn't feel like running into Pringle, the caretaker, who would without doubt find a way to get them in detention either way.

"Okay Moony, get out from the cloak." James told him as Marlene came closer.

"Why me?"

"Because you're prefect. It will look less suspicious if you're walking around the corridors and we can''t fit all of us under the cloak."

"Yeah, I'm known all over Hogwarts for being involved in nearly every prank ever pulled but I'm sure they will let me pass because I''ve got a badge."

"Why can't I just go without the cloak?" Marlene asked.

"Becauce…umh … your mum will kill you if you get detention", Remus could tell James had tried to save the situation, so had Marlene.

"That's not what it is. You think because I'm a girl I can't sneak around. I'm telling you, these shoes are excellent to sneak around in." Remus looked down at her feet. She wore a pair of platform boots; he had not noticed until now that she was almost his length.

"I don't get how you're walking in those things." Peter shook his head.

"Okay Marls, you go then." James said.

The walk through the school was by far the easiest they had ever done. Since everyone was at the start of term feast there was no prefects patrolling. Remus knew that he would now need to be one of the pupils walking the corridors with an eagle eye and keep a lookout for students out of bed and wondered how that would affect his friends.

Quietly they slipped the door to the hospital wing open and peeked in. One bed in the middle of the room had its dividers shut and Remus thought he saw the shirt Sirius had been wearing that day hanging over the top.

"Come on", James pulled off the cloak and walked towards the bed. He moved the dividers and revealed Sirius laying in a bed behind them. He was sitting shirtless against two pillows and his eyes were open. His chest was clean from blood although it was still pink and sore.

"Hey, I wondered when you would come", he brightened up when he saw them.

"Keep it down will you. They don't know we're here." Remus hissed.

"What're you doing here then?" He said, a little quieter this time.

"We wanted to see you were okay, no one wanted to tell us anything." James said.

"I'm fine."

"You sure?" Peter asked "You lost a whole lot of blood."

"Oh that. Madam Pomfrey fixed it in a moment. I just need to stay for the wounds to heal."

"Are they okay?"

"They're fine. She says I will get some nasty scars, but I'm used to that. I'll just tell everyone I fought another dragon."

"When are you getting dismissed?" Marlene asked while producing a bouquet of purple flowers from her wand and putting them in the pot on Sirius nightstand.

"Tomorrow afternoon. I can return to class by Tuesday."

There was a loud bang from a door opening at the end of the ward and James quickly drew out the cloak and hid himself and Remus underneath. Marlene rolled under the bed and Peter took a step to the left so he was hidden by the dividers.

"Who else's here!" Madam Pomfrey yelled from behind her office door.

"No one ma'am", Sirius responded.

"No one? Where are these flowers from then?"

"I fixed them myself, practicing some transfiguration you know."

Madam Pomfrey raised her eyebrows and looked firmly at him.

"You need to rest. I don't want any visitors here. Understood?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"Very well then. I need you to take this potion before going to sleep. It will help your skin

recover." Madam Pomfrey left the ward again.

"I think we should go", Peter said unsurely.

"Yeah", James agreed. "If we hurry they might not have started the feast yet."

When Marlene sat down beside Alice McGonagall was trying to quiet the chatting students in order to start the sorting.

"Where were you?" Alice whispered.

"Hospital wing. Checking on Sirius, I will explain later." She said shortly before turning around to face the front of the room where McGonagall now had started reading names of a long list. The first year students were dripping with water and looked like they could just as well have swam over the lake.

"Adkins Mabely" McGonagall called and a girl with pigtails came forward. She had the hat on her head for almost a minute until it called out "Ravenclaw!"" Next up to be sorted was "Blaze Alice" and "Bolson Maya"". "Chalk Noah" became the first new Gryffindor and he was greeted with wolf whistles and applause as he sat down at the end of the table.

"McKinnon Ellie." Alice noticed Marlene sat a little straighter in her chair to be able to see her sister be sorted. The hat had barely touched the blonde curls when the hat announced

"Hufflepuff!"

"Well, that was no surprise", Marlene said but Alice could tell she was relieved. Alice were a bit jealous at Mary and Marlene. They both had siblings whom they loved and who loved them back. Alice had always missed someone to play with and talk to when her parents were too busy. Alice even thought Lily, who's sister refused to talk to her, was lucky.

"Welcome, all of you, to another year at Hogwarts." Alice jumped a little at Dumbledore's voice, she had not noticed the sorting was finished. ""I won't bore you with an old man's words, especially since our new students seem like they could do good with some food."

"So tell me now, how was Sirius?" Alice asked when they had started eating.

"He's excellent. Madam Pomfrey patched him up quickly and will dismiss him by tomorrow." Alice nodded.

"Any idea who did it. Threw that curse I mean." Marlene asked, turning to Lily.

"Got an idea. But they were all responsible. It was Black and Potter who started the whole thing." Lily said stiffly, clearly not wanting to discuss the matter further. Instead she tried to start a conversation about what they would learn the following year but Mary was more interested in the discussion about which boys had grown over the summer ("Well there's Black but he's always been good looking although some height never hurts. Did you see Michel Cox though, must've grown 4 inches since June…")

"Lils, your sister's getting married right? What's her fiancé like?" Marlene asked a bit louder than necessary to shut Mary, who was now discussing with herself whether Peter Pettigrew would ever grow taller than five foot.

"He's a charming type. Big moustache and even bigger appetite", Lily began, her voice dripping with sarcasm. ""But really though, he is probably the most grumpy and unthankful person I've even met. Don't know what Petunia sees in him. He spent the first half of the dinner complaining about everything. His work, the government, the banks and the second half telling dad that 'no one will respect you if you're driving that old excuse for a car' and mum that Petunia simply couldn''t have wild flowers on their wedding because 'how would that look? She's having roses, like the rest of my family. He kept going all the way until he went out through the front door and I might have called him an rrgiarsehole over breakfast the next morning. Petunia got really upset and started screaming that I was only jealous because she could get married and not me. I called her a bunch of nasty stuff and she hasn't talked to me since then."

"What does your parents say about it?" Marlene scratched her fork against her almost empty plate to pick up the last mashed potato.

"You know how my parents are. They want us to be friends just like when we were little. They have tried to get us to talk to each other in every way possible. They even forced us to clean the attic together. Do you know how many spiders there was up there?" Lily shivered ""But enough about me, what have you guys been up to? I kind of missed that between prefect meeting and saving Sirius from bleeding to death."

"Okay. Mum wouldn't let me go anywhere all summer; she said something about me growing up too fast. I snuck out at night sometimes. Mickey was a pain in the ass, spotted me one night and threatened to tell mum if I didn''t do his laundry. We went to Greece for the last week, that was amazing, only thing this summer that was." Marlene talked fast and when she was done she took a sip of pumpkin juice from the cup in front of her. Almost at the same time the food disappeared and all the tables were suddenly filled with lots and lots of desserts.

"Well as for me I met a guy", Mary started and Alice could hear Marlene murmur "what a surprise"". "Dad dragged me along to this boring string quartet concert and I was standing in line to get a drink when this guy, hot as hell, walks up to me and start talking."

"Ehh…no offense Mary but this guy seems like a perverte", Alice said.

Mary laughed "No, no! Turned out he was the son of my father's old friend. However, we talked

for a while and then…we didn't talk anymore." Mary giggled.

"Please don't spare any details." Marlene begged sarcastically. Lily glared at her which shut her up.

"So Alice? What were you up to?"

"I bet she was snogging Frank in a forest somewhere!" Mary exclaimed. Alice anxiously looked up and down the table to make sure no one had heard Mary's exclamation, which had been louder than necessary.

"No I wasn't. For your information I spent the summer at our country house with my cousins."

"And Frank…?" Marlene asked, "How''s things going?"

"We're not even together!"

"You will be eventually."

"No we won't, that's not part of the plan." Since Alice was little she had had a plan for her life. She would finish school, become an auror and she had no need to marry or get a family.

"Stop it with 'the plan' for a minute will you? Then you would be able to see the bigger picture, that you and Frank are meant to be.""

"I haven't even talked to him since, like, third year."

"We'd better change that then. Frank!" Marlene cried. Alice hid her face in her hands and wished her friends would stop meddling with things that weren''t their business.

"Yeah?" Frank's voice replied, sounding as if it was right behind her. Alice had forgotten how his voice sounded, calm and reassuring.

"Care to sit with us for a minute?" There was a long silence before Alice felt the bench bend slightly next to her and looked up to see Frank sitting there. His eyes flickered around as if not sure where to look and he kept licking his lips. Alice felt bad for him. She could see how confused and insecure he felt. Alice wasn't the person who started a conversation but seeing Frank that uncomfortable broke something inside of her.

"Hi", she said. Frank looked around and Alice felt a jolt in the depth of her stomach when their eyes locked for a moment before he lowered his glance.

"Hi", He answered.

"Did you have a pleasant summer?" Alice wanted to punch herself for making it sound like she was an old lady.

"Yes", Frank replied shorty, still looking away "and yours?"

"Quite enjoyable", "What are you talking like Alice? Stop it!" she then thought. After that they seemed to have ran out of conversation topics because they both went silent and Alice looked down at her plate, now containing a piece of almond cake. She started ladle it into her mouth to distract herself from the way her head kept spinning whenever Frank was around. When she had finished Frank had left the table and she found that Marlene and Mary for once talked to each other.

"…so cute together!" She heard Marlene finish before she realised Alice looked at her.

"Frank is totally into you", she then said to Alice.

"He is not."

"Excuse me, was you even here a minute ago?"

"He wouldn't even look at me."

"He kept glancing at you whenever you looked away", Lily assured her. Alice didn't know if she believed her. She''d never planned on letting herself fall for anyone, especially not a guy. Ever since she was little she had watched her father rule over her mother and she had decided that she would never put herself through that. She was even more convinced after all the times she had seen her friends crying because someone didn't like them. Though, she wasn't sure for how much longer she could hide her growing feelings for Frank.

Without Sirius being there and talking constantly it felt like the dinner had lasted for years when Dumbledore finally rose from his chair.

"Welcome back to a new year at Hogwarts", Dumbledore said and smiled "Our new students should note that the forest is called the forbidden forest for a reason and I don't want any incidents involving students inside of it."

James thought Dumbledore looked at him as he said that and James smiled to himself. Last year they might just have sneaked into the forest in the middle of the night and angered the centaurs, all by accident off course.

"This year we also have two new members of staff…" Dumbledore continued "…Welcome professor Terry. She''ll be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts since professor Whiteside decided to leave us after last year." A young woman at the end of the table waved. She had dark hair which was collected into a bun at the back of her head. "I'm also pleased to inform you that we've found a new caretaker who will replace Mr. Pringle."

"Hopefully someone with a sense of humour." James whispered and Peter laughed.

"Please welcome Mr. Filch to our school", Dumbledore said as a man with long grey hair and hunched shoulders entered the room. A few students who had begun to applaud stopped quickly "Mr. Filch has already put together a list of items forbidden on school grounds, it can be found in his office and includes 286 objects." Dumbledore let out a small laugh and James could tell even he thought this was a ridiculous idea. "Now off to bed with you. You''ve got lessons tomorrow."

Disorder erupted in the great hall when everyone rose from their seats and tried to walk away at the same time. Remus left and James saw him catch up with Lily before the two of them together started collecting the Gryffindor first years. He and Peter walked out of the hall. The corridors were crowded and after managing to squeeze themselves through the corridor on the first floor James slipped in behind a tapestry remembering there was a shortcut there which would take them almost all the way to the Gryffindor tower without walking into other students. When they arrived in the Gryffindor common room it was empty and so was their dorm.

James was putting his and Sirius' quidditch equipment in the wardrobe while discussing with Peter which brand made the best stink bombs when Frank Longbottom and Arnold Whills entered the room. James stuffed the last piece of clothing onto the wardrobes top shelf and then closed the door.

"How's you' summer?" he asked them.

"Great, we were visiting my family in brazil." Frank answered, Arnold shrugged.

"I was at home."

A moment later Remus stepped through the door, almost as wet as the first-years had been when they first arrived in the great hall.

"What happened to you? You look like you got into a fight with the giant squid", Peter commented.

"I feel like it too", Remus voice was straight forward "We were walking up the stairs with the first years when peeves showed up and started throwing water balloons and stink bombs all over the place. People ran everywhere and we had a hard time keeping the first year's together. Lily managed to get them in a line and they kept walking up the stairs while I was caught in the middle of the chaos. Then the new caretaker, Mr. Filch, showed up and gave me a long speech about how this won''t happen anymore now that he's in charge. Then he forced a copy of the list with forbidden items on me before yelling at me for being out of bed."

James was torn between laughter and fury at the new caretaker.

"Sounds like a charming type", he finally said.

"Moony, do you still have that list?" James asked. Remus nodded and drew a folded paper from his back pocket. James took it from him and started reading. The list started out as he had expected it too. Listing all prank articles available for sale and love potions but as the list continued the items on it got more and more ridiculous until it ended at point 286 with the word "High heeled shoes"

"He's a total nutter", Peter exclaimed, clearly having read the list over James shoulder.

"Yeah Wormy, now you can't even wear heels to get taller", Remus said and James roared with laughter.

"Don't get to excited Prongs, you won't be able to…" Remus eyes searched the list "…ask Lily out by playing her a guitar serenade."

James lay awake that night and heard how Remus breath eventually turned into loud snores. Since Sirius was hurt he hadn't had time to think properly, now when he was alone with his thoughts he couldn't calm. He was furious, he wanted to hurt the people responsible for his best friend not being asleep in the bed next to his. That spell, James thought, had been dark magic, the person throwing it had known it would cause severe damage. James would never be able to do that; to throw a spell he knew would hurt the receiver. When he slowly drifted off to sleep it was past midnight and James was painfully aware of how tired he would be the following day.