Hi there!

So this is my first ever fanfic :) I've read so many and I thought hey why not give it a go. I hope you like it! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Hogwarts or the characters created by JK Rowling who has inspired so many of us. I do however own the story line and some of the characters that are mentioned.

Chapter 1:

For as long as James Potter could remember he had been in love with one Lily Evans. Pretty much since that first meeting on the Hogwarts Express in his first year at Hogwarts he knew that Lily was the one for him. Unfortunately this was when he also met Severus; or Snivellus, as James liked to call him; Snape. The idiot of a thing who was friends with Lily. How he had ever come to be friends with someone as gentle and kind as Lily was simply beyond James.

Lily Evans was simply furious. It had been nearly a year since her ex-best friend Sev was outside the Gryffindor common room begging for her forgiveness. Nearly a year since they had even spoken to one another. Yet apparently this time frame didn't matter, and it was simply okay to start talking and even try to apologize after all this time!

"Aurgh! How dare he! Why couldn't he just leave me alone?" Lily screamed as she walked into her dorm room, slamming the door behind her.

"Oh god, what did Potter do now to get you this mad?" Lily's best friend Alice Prewitt asked, exasperated as she turned over on her bed to face Lily.

"Surprisingly not Potter this time."

"Wait, who then?"

"Sev!" Lily screamed as she threw her heavy bag onto her bed.

"Wait.. What? Snape.. Hasn't it been like a year since you spoke to that creep?" Alice asked her friend in a disbelieving tone.

"Seriously Alice, I know you never liked him and I know I haven't spoken to him since last year, but do you seriously have to call him that?"

Alice went to interrupt but Lily continued, "And yes it has been a year. You know it's been that long. Can we not think about that?"

"Yeah I know" her friend replied, "But what did he do to you to make you so mad? Especially since it's been so long since you guys have spoken."

Lily took a deep breath. She knew she was probably about to lose it and was glad it was only Alice with her right now. "I was sitting in the library by myself, doing nothing to anyone and studying. As I usually do! But the entire time I felt odd, like I was being watched. I looked up and checked behind me and guess who it was from across the room?"

"My guess not Potter for once," interrupted Alice.

"No! It was SEV! When he noticed I was looking he looked away but decided to look back! I started glaring and instead of him looking away, he gets up! And actually starts walking towards me!"

Alice could tell that as Lily told her all this, she was getting worked up again so she moved to sit next to her best friend on the bed.

"So of course I didn't want him anywhere near me. I packed up as quickly as I could but I wasn't fast enough! He spoke to me, said hi in a soft voice. But I couldn't… no, wouldn't respond to him! I just grabbed my stuff and walked away but no, he HAD to follow me! Obviously it's okay to finally start talking to me when his stupid, evil, deatheater wannabe friends are not around! How could he think I would even want to talk to him?! It's been that long!" As Lily spoke her eyes had begun to tear up. Using her sleeve she quickly wiped her eyes. Alice, noticing this, put her arm around Lily's shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.

"What did he want then? What else did he say?" Alice asked gently, knowing it was better to let Lily get it all out instead of bottling it up.

"He kept trying to apologise for what he said on 'that' day. It was pretty much the exact same as when he was outside the portrait hole that night. He tried to blame Potter for working him up, and… look, I may not like Potter but I'm not letting Sev blame him for calling me a m-m-mudblood," Lily said, stumbling out the final word as a tear rolled down her face. "But the thing was, he didn't just mention that day, he had to bring up our friendship before Hogwarts, before Slytherin and Gryffindor. The fact that we were best friends, how he was the one who told me I was a witch, and told me everything! He tried to guilt trip me! Like it was my fault we haven't spoken for so long! "

By this time, tears were easily rolling down Lily's face. It was hard for her to remember her friendship like that with Sev. He had been there for her right at the beginning, spent day after day with her telling her all about magic and Hogwarts. She knew how things weren't great for him at home and he knew about her sister who stopped looking at her in the same way after discovering she was a witch.

Alice couldn't stand to see her best friend cry. It hurt her too much see her like this. She looked for something to say and thought of it hoping Lily wouldn't get too offended, "Oh Lily I'm so so sorry! Look, I know I never understood your friendship with him but I know you two were really close. But you grew apart. Sometimes that happens and we have absolutely no control over it whatsoever. If the friendship had been meant to last it would have. You both changed Lils. There is no point in beating yourself up over it. Remember those good times like they were, don't try and forget them or think about the what-ifs. And just remember you have me now and I'll always be here for you."

Lily, who had been looking down this entire time looked up at Alice and gave her a weak smile.

"Thanks Al, but I'm not done yet... After he reminded me about how things used to be he went on to tell me how much he cares for me, how much he LOVES me! Then he moved in to kiss me! That's when I got mad. I pushed him away and started yelling.. I don't even remember what I said to him! But after I just walked away unable to face him!"

While Lily said all this, tears continued to glide down her cheeks. She couldn't help but cry. She was one of those girls who would tear up over the smallest of things because she just couldn't help it.

"Whoa. Back up a minute! Snape did what?! Ew that is so gross! I mean sorry Lils..." Alice exclaimed

"No it's okay, it is. I'm just ... Eurgh I can't believe he tried it"

From just talking about it, Lily had felt she had calmed down enough. But she already knew her face would probably be the same red as her hair and her eyes would be blood shot. Getting up slowly, she moved to the bathroom to go and wash her face. Unfortunately it was dinnertime and she was going to have to head down to the great hall, plus she was too starving to actually skip dinner.

James sat at the Gryffindor table with his three best friends. Sirius 'Padfoot' Black and Remus 'Moony' Lupin were what they would call 'discussing'… but what was actually arguing, about Sirius' latest 'catch' of the girls at school who were after him. Next to James sat Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew who was too busy stuffing his face with food to join in. As for himself, James sat lost in his thoughts slowly picking at his food. All of a sudden, someone grabbed him from behind. Knowing straight away who it was, he pinned the arms together holding the small hands in one of his own. Using his other hand he tickled his attacker. " AHH JAMES! LET ME GO!" squealed Marlene McKinnon. Marlene and James had been friends for as long James could remember. Their parents had been friends since before they were born so when Marlene and James were born they were immediately thrown together to keep each other company. Marlene was also a part of Alice and Lily's trio. She had actually been the one who brought Lily and Alice out of their shells, and as true best friends, they wouldn't want it any other way.

James eventually stopped tickling Marlene, and she sat down beside him. "So, what's up? When I just walked up to you, you seemed completely out if it" stated Marlene to her best guy friend.

"Eh not a lot," James replied, "I was kind of just lost in my thoughts."

"Ha, stuck thinking about Lily again?"

"No, of course not!" James said unconvincingly.

"Yeah of course not… Oh crap, excuse me," Marlene said noticing something and getting up to move down the table.

When James looked up to see what Marlene had noticed, he saw a certain red-headed girl walking into the great hall with one of her best friends, the two going to where Marlene had moved to. Straight away James knew something wasn't right, and it wasn't because of her puffy eyes. It was her smile. Lily's smile; the one that made James' stomach do little flips and was usually always there; was gone off Lily's face.

From a distance James watched as the three girls leaned in closely, Alice telling Marlene whatever had happened that was making Lily so upset.

"Oi! Prongs! Stop staring at Evans!"

James looked away noticing that Sirius was waving his hand in front of James' face. Bringing James back to his friends, he noticed that Remus and Sirius had stopped their discussion and even Peter had look up from his food.

"Leave me alone! Besides look at her. Something happened."

"Leave it be prongs, Marlene will take care of her," Remus told James.

"Yeah plus I'm pretty sure she'd want you to leave well enough alone" Sirius continued.

"Yeah come on, don't remind me. She'll never give me a chance," as James said this they all looked towards the trio along with many people as they all heard Marlene scream out.

"WAIT WHAT?! HE TRIED TO WHAT?" Alice and Lily were trying to pull Marlene back into her seat. They eventually succeeded, but even from a distance James could tell Marlene was furious. Looking at her, James saw her glaring at the Slytherin table, in particular a greasy haired young guy.

"Snivellus" James mumbled under his breath.

After eventually getting Marlene to calm, or at least quiet down, Lily sat there in silence thinking about that day almost a year ago.

It had been after the Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L exam and everybody had escaped the great hall to the sunshine after all their hard work. Sitting by the lake's edge with Alice and Marlene, Lily was comparing their answers on some of the questions;"So what did you guys say for the werewolf question?"

"Ahh come on Lils! Just forget about it! It's done now!" Marlene complained. Lily was about to respond when she heard a disturbance a little bit away.

Looking in the direction of the noise she'd heard, she saw Potter and his friends terrorising Sev. 'Of course it's them,' Lily thought, 'they just can't leave people alone.' As both a prefect, and friend to Sev, she moved closer to the group and called out "Leave him ALONE!"

James, hearing it was her, turned and ran his hand through his hair; addressing her, he said, "Alright, Evans?" in a tone that was suddenly pleasant, deeper and more mature.

"Leave him alone, what's he done to you?" Lily said, knowing she was looking at him with a clear dislike. When James replied that it was the mere fact Sev existed, she got annoyed calling him 'an arrogant bullying toerag'

But it was the next thing James said that annoyed Lily even more; "If you go out with me I'll leave him alone,"

God he was frustrating! Why couldn't he just leave her alone, Lily thought. Instead she said, "I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid."

James' attention turned back to Sev and he hexed him, causing the other boy to hang upside down with his underwear showing. Lily couldn't help it, but she tried to keep her face stern but she knew it twitched, wanting to smile. Instead she told Potter to let him down. He obliged, saying to Sev,

"There you go. You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus"

"I don't need help from filthy little mudbloods like her!" he shot back.

"Fine," snapped Lily, "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash my pants if I were you Snivellus"

Lily watched as James got all annoyed and tried to make Sev apologise to her, but instead of being grateful, she turned on James "Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool, to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can - I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."

She then turned, tears threatening to run down her cheeks, and hurried away. She heard Potter shout from behind her "Evans! Hey, EVANS!" but did not and could not turn around.

When she eventually came back to present she heard Marlene mumbling under her breath to Alice, "Stupid Snape, couldn't leave you well enough alone could he? Look at her! She's completely out of it now."

"Umm guys, I am right here you know," Lily told her friends, "I'm fine, don't make it such a big deal."

"Fine, let's just finish up eating and head back upstairs. Dorm room, common room or library?" Marlene asked.

"Dorm room" both Alice and Lily replied.

They all quickly finished up eating and stood to start heading back to their dorm room, when from further down the Gryffindor table they heard, "Hey Mar! Come here!"

Looking around, the three girls saw that James was calling her over.

"I'll meet you guys up there," Marlene told her friends. Both girls nodded and began to leave. Lily however stopped and turned to her.

"Hey Mar? If he wants to know what happened with me, don't tell him okay? It's none of his business."

"Sure thing, now go. I'll be up there soon."

Marlene watched her friends leave the great hall and then herself turned to walk over to the Marauders. "What's up?" she asked, sitting down next to James.

"What's wrong with Evans?"

Marlene sighed. Of course he wanted to know. "Nothing's wrong, or at least it's something you need not worry about"

"Ohhh come on Mar! Teeeelllll us!" Sirius begged her.

"Leave it alone Sirius, it's none of your business"

"I know it has something to do with Snivellus"

"James don't get involved. Mar we're just worried. She's my- I mean our, friend too," Remus said, joining the conversation.

This was kind of true. Remus and Lily were actually really good friends. He was the one marauder that Lily truly liked and got along with. For some things, Remus would turn to Lily for help. Lily's relationships with each of the other Marauders were slightly different. With Peter, it was pretty much non-existent. They had spoken a few words but nothing more. Lily thought that he seemed like an okay guy, considering who he was friends with. Sirius again was different. She actually got along with him pretty well, all things considered. He was quite bright and sometimes she would ask either him or Remus for help. She also admired him. She would never admit it out loud but she admired how he separated himself from his family and became his own person. However he could be pretty annoying, especially when it came to James. Then the final Marauder was James Potter. Lily could not stand him. Through their six years at Hogwarts he had been a bigheaded toerag who would not leave her alone. At every single opportunity, James would ask Lily out. And every single time, she would tell him exactly where he could shove his offers.

"Yeah I know Remus, but honestly it's not my place to tell and she asked me not to. Now if you excuse me, I've got friends upstairs waiting for me," Marlene told the boys before she stood up and left.

The four boys watched her leave before turning to one another.

"James," Remus began, "don't do anything. It's not of your business and you don't even know what happened. Plus if you do anything, she'll hate you even more."

"I know Moony, but you can't expect me to sit back and not so something! Did you not see her? Ehh whatever, I'm outta here, I've gotta look at that potions essay for Slughorn for tomorrow." James stood up and walked away from his friends knowing their eyes were following him as he left the hall.

As James slowly made his way back to the Gryffindor common room he was lost in his thoughts. He was worried about Lily. Seeing her like that actually killed him, knowing that something was upsetting her. The entire school knew that James had a 'crush' on Lily, but no really knew how he truly felt. Not even his friends, he had never really told them. He assumed they all knew, especially with how he acted and of course how he had asked her out so many times. Only Moony really knew James thought. Moony was just one of those guys that could just see into you like he knew exactly what you were thinking. The others, they just thought it was an obsession. Which in a way, James knew it was, but to him that wasn't the point. He truly cared for Lily and wanted her to like him in return. But whenever he was around her or is she was involved in something he couldn't think properly and majorly screwed up, making her hate him even more.

This was it, he decided. He was going to change. Not change by stopping his pranks with his friends, but change towards Lily. He would maybe back off a bit to be a friend. Let her see what kind of guy he could be.

I hope you guys like the start :) I would love some feedback on what you think!

Black-Lightningrunes-13 xx