"Wow! Look at James Potter!" said one of Lily's best friend, Holly

Lily's head turned to look where Holly was pointing. Sure enough James Potter was standing across the platform with the rest of the Marauders.

The Marauders were the troublemakers since the beginning of there friendship. Sirius and James are the smartest in their class, next to Lily of course. But the point is, they are both naturally smart. Sirius was the looks, but hardly the brains in all of their pranks. Her friend Allison had a crush on him and he knew this, and flirted with her whenever he could. Remus, however much they mocked him for it, was the brains and probably the most mature of the four. He was infatuated with Holly. Peter was the misfit always there, but never really seen.

Lily lost herself staring at James. He must have grown at least four inches over the summer. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. She could see the outline of his muscles. He was indeed handsome. She felt herself losing her grasp on reality as she was staring at him.

She was brought back to reality by Allison wrapping her in a hug. She smiled, "Allison! I have missed you so much! Your letters made you sound so distant, what's going on?"

"I'll tell you later. We should board the train before all the compartments are full."

Once on board the train they noticed as Allison had said, all of the compartments were full. As they passed one of them, they heard a voice yell.

"Lily, Holly, Allison sit in here!" The voice belonged to Remus. The last few words were said in pain due to the fact that James had elbowed him in the ribs, and whispered, "Are you nuts?"

"Ha ha too late mate, they're coming over here," said Sirius pointing and laughing at James like a 5 year old. "Damn I'm rhyming again late mate, get it.?" He started laughing even harder.

Lily made a face toward Holly that clearly said 'No way.'

"Oh come on Lils, it can't be that bad," Holly said, trying to sound convincing.

They walked into the compartment before Lily could say anything against it.

"Hey Remus, how was your summer?" asked Holly turning to Remus.

"Not too bad, you?" Remus replied scooting over so she could sit next to him.

"Nothing that exciting," she said sitting next to him.

Remus put his arm around her. He may have been a bookworm, but he was smooth. Holly smiled.

"So Allison, how was your summer?" Sirius asked flirtatiously.

"Nothing extremely exciting. It was actually really boring, said Allison, obviously thinking about something completely different. She shook her head as if to make her thoughts go away. "How was yours?"

"Well I stayed at James' place, which was cool. But we didn't do anything that could be deemed super or anything," Sirius replied noticing the far off look in her eyes. "How was yours Lily?"

"My summer was really bad, thank you very much Black," Lily exclaimed angrily.

"Wow, calm down Lily!" said Allison, puzzled by Lily's outburst.

"Don't tell me to calm down Allison, that was meant to make me angry!"

"Uh no it wasn't," piped up James.

"How would you know Potter?"

"I know Sirius and all he did was ask you how your summer was. How was he supposed to know that you would explode in his and everyone else's face?" James retorted heatedly.

"Care to explain why your summer is such a touchy subject?" asked Remus thoughtfully.

"No! I will just be made fun of. So no!" exclaimed Lily once more.

"Fine but don't expect any sympathy from us since we have no idea why you're exploding," said Sirius coolly.

"The only good part of my summer was that James wasn't always asking me out!" retorted Lily her voice growing louder still.

"Lily, he hasn't done anything to you this year and you're already trying to make him you enemy!" snapped Holly, her head leaving Remus' shoulder to look Lily in the eyes.

"Yeah, you don't believe that people can change especially for the ones they love!" Remus added to what Holly had said. He knew immediately that he had said the wrong thing, but before he could say anything more, he heard Lily, at a level at which he thought could only be heard by a dog scream.

"LOVE? HE DOESN'T LOVE ME...-" before she could finish James said in a cool voice,

"Yes I do, Lily, can't you see?" He stood up and took Lily's hands in his.

Lily paused at his touch, but then removed her hands from his and slapped him harder than she ever had before across the face.

She had slapped him so hard he had to shake his head to make the pain go away.

"Fine," he said simply. "I am through." And with that he left their compartment.

Sirius started to stand but was motioned to sit by Remus.

"He needs time to sort out his thoughts after," he glanced at Lily, "everything..."

He noticed Lily had started crying. He wouldn't say a word to her after everything she had just done to James. Maybe she did love him... so bad it hurt, or maybe it wasn't love she was feeling, it was pure hatred.

James had started pacing the train thinking

"Is it time to give up and move on?"

"No..."