At the start of her fifth year at Hogwarts, Lily was assigned to be a prefect alongside Remus Lupin. Although she had initially been excited to be a prefect, having to work with a Marauder did not seem ideal.

"Hi, Lily," Remus greeted her warmly their first night on hall duty together.

"Hello," Lily responded politely.

"So we just have to make sure no one's out of bed? That seems easy enough."

"Yes," Lily answered. "Although I expect to be doing most of the work there. I doubt you'll want to punish James and Sirius when we find them sneaking around the corridors at night to plan another one of their infamous pranks."

Remus laughed. "I wouldn't be so sure of that Lily. James and Sirius have so many measures in place to avoid getting caught that even I wouldn't be sure how to find them."

The two walked quietly down the halls for a while before Remus began to casually ask Lily about her interests. Lily was surprised to discover that she had a lot in common with Remus. They talked about their favorite authors, and Remus confessed that he had read every Jane Austen book twice, except for Northanger Abbey, which he had read three times.

"Really? Northanger Abbey is your favorite?" Lily asked, eyebrows raised.

Remus shrugged. "Sure it is. What's yours?"

"Pride and Prejudice," she answered. "Cliché, right?"

"No that's a great book. Just don't tell James that's your favorite. He might start to fancy himself as your Mr. Darcy."

The two laughed. Their conversation continued and soon Lily was surprised to find it was time to go to bed. Before the two parted ways in the common room, Lily turned to him.

"Remus, can I ask you something?"

"Of course," he answered.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but you're such a nice person so why are you part of the Marauders?"

Remus laughed. "You know the two aren't mutually exclusive."

"No I just mean...I don't know Peter well but you seem so different from James and Sirius."

Remus paused for a moment before finally speaking. "James and Sirius do tend to come off as prats most of the time; you're right. But they're actually incredibly good people. I know that might be hard for you to believe, but they've helped me through a lot of really rough things. They've always been there for me, and I know they always will be. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't know them well, since they do such a good job of hiding the fact that they're decent people, but honestly, they are the kindest people I have ever known."

Lily seemed shocked for a minute. She had no idea how to respond to that. Then Remus smiled lessening the tension between them.

"Also I do enjoy their antics," he added. "You never know what to expect with them. It's amusing to watch. And quite honestly, it's fun to join in sometimes too."

Lily smiled then as well, finally regaining her composure. "Well good night Remus."

"Good night Lily."

In January of her sixth year, Lily was assigned to work on a potions project with Peter Pettigrew. She was not thrilled. Although her and Remus had become fairly close by this point, she was still hesitant to befriend any more Marauders.

"Okay let's get to work then," Lily sighed, taking a seat next to him in the library.

"Sure," Peter replied, smiling kindly at her. "I have some books that I thought might be helpful so I brought them along. They're actually Remus's, but he said I could borrow them."

Ten minutes later the two were working together amicably. Lily was surprised. Peter seemed like a genuinely sweet person. At one point he even offered her some cookies he had with him. Lily was fairly certain they'd been smuggled out of the kitchens, but the gesture was still kind. Still, curiosity got the best of her, and eventually she found herself asking if Peter had in fact stolen the food from the kitchen.

Peter shook his head, his mouth still full of cookie crumbs. "We made them," he answered.

"What do you mean you made them?"

"Well we all visited Remus's house over holiday and he decided that Sirius and James should learn how to bake like Muggles - you know since they're pureblood and all so never learned how - so we all snuck down into Remus's kitchen late one night to make them. It was loads of fun too! We made the cookies with no magic at all and Sirius got flour everywhere so James cracked an egg in Sirius hair. We cleaned up afterwards though. We didn't want to leave the mess for Remus's parents. But you should have seen the look on James and Sirius's face when they saw an blender!" Peter laughed. "They had no idea what it was! They called it Muggle Magic."

Lily laughed. The way Peter talked about his friends was almost endearing. And the way he described James and Sirius acting was unlike anything she would have expected. She never would have pictured them cleaning up so that Remus's parents wouldn't have to or getting excited over a blender.

For the next two hours, Peter told Lily all kinds of stories about his friends while they worked together on their project. At one point, when Peter was telling an exceptionally outrageous story involving James seeing a Muggle telephone for the first time and immediately trying to prank call as many random numbers as he could, Lily found herself laughing so hard that tears were running down her cheeks. She would never admit it, but she was starting to realize why people found the Marauders so amusing. By the time night began to fall and her and Peter left to go back to their rooms, Lily was beginning to wonder if perhaps she had misjudged the Marauders.

During the winter of Lily's seventh year, she found herself patrolling the hallways alone one night. This was not unusual. Roughly once a month Remus ended up in the infirmary for at least two nights and came back looking exhausted afterwards. She had an idea what was going on but never directly asked Remus about it. However, she had talked to him at the end of fifth year and agreed that he should take at least three days off from night watch around the full moon so that he could catch up on sleep.

She was walking around the astronomy tower, a popular place for couples to sneak out together, when she caught sight of a familiar figure standing by the window with his back to her.

"What are you doing here Black?" she said stepping towards him.

Sirius spun around quickly so that he was facing her. "Ah, Evans, fancy seeing you here."

Despite obviously trying to appear as though nothing was wrong, his voice lacked it's usual arrogant tone and his words seemed flat and forced. Lily stepped closer to him and noticed that there were tear streaks down his face.

"Sirius," she said more gently. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," he responded, wiping his face with the back of his hand. "Sorry for being out of bed after hours. I'll just go back to my room now."

Lily had always found Sirius to be an insufferable twat, however seeing him like this, when she was so used to seeing him confident and cocky, made her truly pity the boy, and she found herself unable to let him go back to his room in the state he was in. So, as he moved to walk past her, Lily grabbed onto his arm.

"Sit down Sirius. Let's talk."

Sirius hesitantly sat down on the top step and Lily took a seat next to him. He seemed anxious and uncomfortable, and Lily realized that he was probably not used to talking to other people other than the Marauders about how he was feeling. "So," she prompted him. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Something tells me I don't really have a choice," Sirius responded, his remark punctuated with a forced laugh. Lily saw him glance down at her, and her somber expression must have told him that he really didn't have a choice, because he took a deep breath and continued. "It's, uh, my little brother. Regulus. We used to be close when we were younger but then I got sorted into Gryffindor and he got sorted into Slytherin and inherited my parents' pureblood mania so that was that. I tried to talk to him today but he just ignored me. I had thought maybe..." he trailed off. "I don't know what I thought. What was I expecting? It was stupid," he finished bitterly.

"It's not stupid, Sirius," Lily told him. "It's almost Christmas break. Maybe over the holidays when you're home you guys can talk and-"

Sirius shook his head. "I'm not going home. I don't exactly live at home anymore. This summer I, um, I left. I ran away I guess."

"Oh god Sirius I'm so sorry." Lily felt completely shocked. The Marauders' lives were constantly gossiped about, and yet somehow this vital piece of information had yet to become public knowledge. "Where are you living now? I mean do you have a home? Do you have anywhere to go?"

"I'm living with James now. He was the one who had convinced me that I had to leave home for my own safety. Usually I talk to him when I get upset but I hate to worry him so much. He's essentially the mother of our little group and anytime one of us is unhappy he gets so anxious."

Lily chuckled slightly at this. "James is the mother of the group?"

"Oh yeah," responded Sirius, his demeanor brightening considerably when he talked about his friends. "He's a real worrier. Always making sure we're dressed warmly in the winter and have had enough to eat. He's a wreck anytime any of us gets sick. There was one time when Remy had pneumonia and I thought James would die he was so nervous."

Lily raised her eyebrows.

"What?" Sirius asked. "Still hung up on James being the group mother?"

"Oh no," Lily answered. "I was just thinking about how I've never heard anyone call Remus 'Remy' before."

"Oh, that." Sirius's faced flushed crimson and he ran his fingers through his curly dark hair nervously and glanced at Lily again. "Nothing gets passed you does it?" he asked her.

"Nope, nothing," she responded, smiling. "I mean honestly I had wondered for a while. The way you two act around each other is different. It's not like how you act around James or Peter. So are you two..."

"What? Oh no no he doesn't exactly..." Sirius sighed. "James is the only one who knows that I'm... that I'm gay. Well I guess, James and you now. I'm worried that if I told Remus that I felt that way about him it would freak him out or something."

"I don't think he would Sirius. Honestly, and I shouldn't be telling you this, but from the way Remus talks about you when we're together I wouldn't be surprised if the feelings were mutual."

"You really think so?" Sirius asked, seeming surprised.

"Yes, I really do. And as for your brother," Lily paused for a moment. "You know, I have a sister who refuses to talk to me, too. It's not easy."

"You do? I never knew."

Lily nodded. "She thought I was some kind of freak when we found out I was a witch. Hasn't really talked to me since. She's getting married next year and I've never even met the man she's engaged to. It's hard because despite everything, I still do love her. But I just try to accept that for now at least, she isn't ready to accept who I am."

"Thanks Lily," Sirius said. "I've never known anyone else who's been in a situation like mine with my brother. No one sees why I still care about him when he treats me so badly. It's nice to know that someone else understands."

The two stood up then and began to head back to the common room. Before Lily left to go up to bed she turned to Sirius. "You know there's one last Hogsmeade trip before the holidays. I think you should ask Remus to go with you."

Sirius blushed again slightly. "Maybe I will. And Lily? If you ever want someone to talk to about your sister, I don't mind listening."

"Thanks Sirius. I might take you up on that."

When Lily went to bed that night she realized that she wasn't surprised that Sirius turned out to be such a kind, complex person. In fact, she'd come to expect that the Marauders were nicer than she had previously assumed.

The next week, when James Potter asked Lily out, she didn't think about the immature comments that James made in class. She didn't think about his childish pranks or cocky attitude.

Instead, she thought about Remus Lupin, telling her how James had helped him through difficult times and looking at her straight in the eyes saying that James Potter was one of the best people he had ever known.

She thought about James learning how to bake with Peter Pettigrew. She thought about him cracking an egg in Sirius's hair and then helping to clean up the mess and the look of wonder Peter said he got on his face when he learned about 'muggle magic'.

She thought about how Sirius had told her that James was the mother of their group because he always made sure his friends were happy an healthy and worried about them when they weren't. She thought about how Sirius had trusted him enough to tell him he was gay, and James had accepted him wholeheartedly. She thought about how James had been the one who helped Sirius escape an abusive family situation, and welcomed him into his home.

And that was why finally, a week before Christmas break, Lily happily told James that she would go with him to Hogsmeade. And the next day, as they walked together through the snowy village, talking harmoniously in a way they never truly had before, Lily realized that all of the wonderful things that the other Marauders had said about James just might be true.