Alright. This is my first HP ff, and I feel really bad about that. Personally I think it's because Rowling ended hers so well there's no need for ff. But, of course, there can never be enough Marauder's Era and Jily.

So now everyone will know my secret obsession with the marauders era and how I've been combing AO3 and here, of course, for good Jily fics, although I don't think I've favorited any of them.

Basically after looking around for specific stories and deciding that I might as well put together exactly what I figured happened (looking for someone who thinks just like you do is harder than it looks) so that at least there will be a fic there for it.

Note: none of the dates are sure, I just made sure the years were correct.

Prologue

If one were to go to Gryffindor Tower on May 29, 1977, they would find themselves in the midst of a celebration. Now, this wasn't a rare occurrence—the Marauders decided to throw a party in the Gryffindor common room every time something good happened to the house: after winning quidditch games, exams, Christmas and Easter and every holiday they could think of (these were also used as excuses to get people out of Slug club parties).

For this occasion in particular, however, it was for winning the inter-house quidditch cup. And it was not being thrown by the Marauders.

It's not to say that parties aren't parties if the Marauders didn't throw it. In fact, this party was almost up to par with all the others that were thrown by them. After all, they weren't the only ones who knew where the kitchens were, or had a secret stash of butterbeer and firewiskey somewhere in their dorm. The thing that made this party different was the lack of enthusiasm.

The last game of the year, against Hufflepuff, which had happened only one hour prior to the party, had been heart-wrenching. No one could decide whether the team had played the best yet, or their worst. Certainly there was a sort of lack of coordination and teamwork in their last match, what with the beaters doing their own thing and the chasers a completely other. There had definitely been some switch-ups, since Potter had lost his seeker to a nasty curse that the Slytherins claimed to have nothing to do with but ultimately did, and in his panic (and lack of a reserve for seekers) had no other choice than to place himself as seeker and his best reserve to take his place as chaser.

Some people now wondered why Potter wasn't seeker to begin with. (Of course, if one were to ask him, he would reply that seekers were out of the way most of the time, and although many consider them the most important, the seeker's job would be useless without chasers, who although did have to share the glory with their other chaser teammates and the seeker, were the ones who really made the goals and won the games.) Potter's team had played a mediocre game in general, making about half as many goals as they usually did. The beaters coordinated terribly, and the reserve chaser (poor thing!) had nearly died because of a bludger to the head, but Potter had, in the end, won the game. He managed to feign seeing the snitch so many times, each time weaving in and out of Hufflepuff's careful manoeuvres, that the Hufflepuff seeker (a much worse flier than Potter) had crashed into his fellow chaser and both had to be sent to the hospital wing. (If asked, he had not intended to do so, only to break them up and upset their plans, but he was secretly glad everything went so well.)

So yes, the team performed rather badly, but by some stroke of good luck and lots of James Potter's excellent quidditch skills, they won the game and the quidditch cup. Everyone, especially Lily Evans, expected Potter to gloat and boast about his performance. But he had merely smiled tiredly at the festivities, going up to bed after a decent amount of time. If people noticed, they tried not to feel bad that the celebrant was not happy with the celebration. But Lily was determined to find out what was the matter with Potter (before talking with Remus about stopping this party).

She was much better friends with Remus, but decided that it would be better for her to talk to Black first, if she wanted quick results. Sirius Black had taken a completely different approach to the party than his best friend did, and an hour into it, was drunk and snogging girls one after another. Lily intercepted before he could find another one, pushing him back into the sofa and taking the seat beside him.

"Well, Evans, fancy seein' you 'ere." He slurred. "Y'know, Prongs'd prob'ly kill me 'f we snogged."

"I don't want to snog you." Lily replied curtly. "And Potter doesn't own me or anything, I can snog whoever I want to and he has no right to say anything or do anything about it."

"Wha'?" Black furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Lily regretted talking to him already.

"What happened between you and Potter?" Lily finally ground out. "You two played as if you were on different teams today, and you and your mates are apart all the time. What happened?"

"Y' know what happened." Sirius was frowning fully, now, as if remembering a bad dream. "I mess'd up, now Moony hates me 'nd Prongs thinks 'm an idiot and a prat 'nd Wormy doesn' know who t' hang with."

"I see." Lily pursed her lips. "And do you even feel bad about this at all…?" But Black had already turned away from her, trying to catch the eye of some brunette across the room. Lily sighed. It seemed Remus was the better option after all.

Remus was doing something far better with his time than Lily had. She found him taking firewiskey away from a pair of second years, sending them off to their dorms. He grinned wearily at her when she approached, and she couldn't help but noticed how ragged he looked. Was the full moon coming up, or was it simply something to do with the 'mess up' of Sirius?

"Hey Lily." He said, turning to glare at the second years as they hesitated on the stairs. "Been telling all those below fourth year to get to bed already. Harder than it looks."

Lily studied his face again. It had always been worn-down and wise, consequences of being a werewolf, but there seemed to be extra worry-lines on his face, marks along his forehead where he had frowned.

"Are you okay?" She asked him. "You and… the other marauders…" She hesitated. "You don't have to tell me anything." She said hurriedly. "I just want to make sure you're all right. I remember falling out with my best friend since before Hogwarts, and it wasn't pretty."

"Snape?" Lupin asked quietly, and Lily nodded. "Yeah… I suppose you could say it's similar…" He sighed. "It's about my… illness." Lily's eyes widened as she made sense of his words. "Oi, you!" Remus called out suddenly, causing Lily to jump. "Hey, first years have to go to bed already! Up to your dorms!" Two girls darted back up the stairs to their dormitory. "Sorry about that. But yeah, Sirius told someone, and I… I nearly—" Lupin looked away quickly, and Lily laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever might have happened, it didn't." She said soothingly. "And you in that state is not the real you. Whatever he might have done means nothing about your own character."

"It is the real me, Lily, don't you see?" Remus whispered, and turned back to look at her pleadingly. "I am that monster. No, it's true, don't deny it." He continued as she shook her head and made to speak. "My friends call me Moony, for Merlin's sake. This is as much a part of me as everything else. And I nearly killed—or worse, turned—someone. How can I let my own mates near me with that knowledge?"

"I don't know what you've been drinking, Remus, but you've got to stop with these delusions." Lily announced, plucking the firewiskey out of his hands (they were the second years', but it proved her point, so Lily took it anyway). "Do you want to know who you are? You're a 6th year prefect who is very good a charms and defence against the dark arts, and pretty good in all the other subjects. You're my friend, but not my best friend, and you best mates are Black, Pettigrew, and Potter. You four are the marauders, and although I don't approve of your marauding, I have to hand it to you: you four are as close as people can get. So stop wallowing and feeling bad for yourself, it's not like you failed a class or anything, and get your friends back!" With that, Lily Evans flounced away, placing the firewiskey in a 7th year's hand and grabbing a third year obviously trying to catch Marlene Mckinnon's eye (too young, way too young).

"Up to bed with you." She said to him. "She's too old for you."

"Then you'd be just right, now won't you?" He tried.

"Marls and I are in the same year, and you're only thirteen." She retorted. "I'm only going up with you so that I can check up on everyone else up there, make sure you aren't drinking yourselves to oblivion on your own."

True to her word, Lily performed a few spells to bring her to the nearest alcohol, deposited the boy to his dorm, and followed the spell up to the 6th year dorms, where she ended it.

Well, she'd already talked to Remus and Black about it, and Peter was so scared of her he'd probably hide before she could get a word out, so she might as well finish off with Potter. She didn't want Remus and Sirius moping around anymore.

She immediately decided that Sirius and Potter, although supposedly at odds right now, were in fact the same person. The only difference between the two of them was that Potter was drinking by himself, and there were no women. Well, there was her, now, but that wasn't the point.

"Whaddya want?" He demanded.

"I just wanted to check up on you." Lily said softly. "Make sure you're all right."

"Yeah, well, 'm just peachy right now. Won a game almost single-handedly, after all."

"That was only because you and Sirius had a row."

"A bit more than a row, really." Potter sighed, moving from the foot of his bed where he had been sprawled to sit comfortably on his bed, and Lily wondered whether he really was all that drunk. "But you don't need to know about it." He smirked, and, just like she had when talking to Black, Lily began to regret doing this. They had finally been able to talk to each other civilly, did he have to become arrogant and ask her out again? "What you do need to know is that there's only you and me here, right now, in this room—"

"No. Goodbye, Potter."

Lily went straight to bed. Remus could handle the party. He was, after all, a marauder.

um... okay... It'll get better?

I tried to make it the least OOC as I could. In terms of relationships, I figured that Lily was really good friends with Remus, friends with Black, and tolerates Potter at this point. (my explanation with Black is that he shows that blood isn't everything and Lily proves that too, so Black is like, an older brother to her. Also, they both know what it's like to be hated by a sibling you pretend to hate too, but actually love, just for being who you are.)

So, Review! Tell me what I need to improve on, including the accents or whatever, I'm american but trying to use british lingo idk if its working.