Chapter 1- Back home

"So, Evans, will you go out with me?" James shouted as Lily joined her family at the end of their sixth year.

"No," Lily shouted back, "and stop asking!"

"Never," James smiled as he joined his parents and Sirius.

"Who is that charming young man," Violet Evans, Lily's mom, inquired.

"Just a friend, mum." This wasn't a complete lie. This year the Marauders seemed a bit more under control. She noticed that Sirius and James didn't seem to pick on the poor first years so badly, even if they did torture Severus. Lily never liked how they treated him. Just because Lily had played a few games of exploding snaps with them, didn't mean that she wanted to date the bigheaded leader of the group. That would just be going too far for her.

"Well, he's cute," Violet pointed out.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Mum! He's not cute, he's annoying!"

"There's always a fine line, sweetheart. Now, why don't you tell me what you've been up to since Christmas?"

"Not a whole lot. Where's Petty?" Lily asked.

"She decided to stay home and wait for your dad to come home. He should be back before we get there." Violet said while opening the trunk of the car for Lily's things.

"Oh," Lily said, feeling a bit put out. Petunia and her used to have a pretty good relationship. That was until Lily got her letter, well, it really started when Lily first came home.

"Show me a trick," Petunia asked.

"I can't do magic outside of school," Lily told her.

Petunia got offended at this. Until this point they had shared secrets, and Petunia thought that Lily was holding out on her. She couldn't accept the fact that she might not be included in this part of Lily's life, and slowly decided that she didn't want to be a part of any of it, in that case.

Lily was glad that her mother didn't shun her for this. Violet was her best friend. A lot of people didn't believe Lily when she said this, but it was true. Violet had always made a point to be involved in her children's lives, and made a true effort to always listen to their concerns and such. Lily even remembered Violet taking her aside when she was ten and giving her the talk about the bird and the bees. Lily had heard some things about sex, but it was her mother who told her about it. Lily appreciated that her mom didn't mind telling her about things. Lily had heard about too many people who had to find out from friends, or look it up themselves.

Besides this, Lily always felt that if she did something wrong, she could tell her mother with out fear of more guilt being placed on her. Violet realized that her children would make mistakes, and she would rather her daughters tell her, so that she could help them fix it for themselves. It had come in handy, too. There was one time Petunia went to a party and had gotten drunk, and instead of trying to drive home herself, in fear of being caught, Petunia called Violet and asked if she could be picked up. It wasn't as if there weren't any punishments, but they were decided with the girls, and they were always a fair consequence. Lily hadn't done anything too terrible, only because she was a natural 'good girl' and didn't do things like drink, or try inappropriate things with guys, or any number of things Lily probably could have tried.

Lily's father was a bit different, however. Violet was ever trying to calm Josh's temper. He was more into the punishment portion of a lesson, but Violet always managed to keep him calm for such situations. He did well for his family, however, and cared about them greatly. Joshua Evans was a Lawyer and was very good at what he did. He was a bit of a work-aholic, but would do things to make up for it. When Lily was at home, her dad would take her on a daddy-daughter date at least once a month. Josh might not have been the perfect person to open up to, but Lily could appriciate the things that her father did with her. One of her greatest memories of him was something he always did when she was six or seven.

"Hey Fred," Josh would say to her.

"I'm not Fred," The young Lily would say, smiling and rolling her eyes at the same time.

"Oh, alright Barney," Josh would retort.

"My name's not Barney," Lily would try to fake frustration through her light-hearted giggles.

"Okay, hey George," Josh would have a go again, and so it would go on.

Lily and her mom got home nearly thirty minutes later, and Josh came out to greet them. "There's my girl!" he exclaimed.

"Hi dad," Lily said through a tight hug.

Petunia was standing in the door frame, with a bit of a sour look on her face. "Hey Lily," she said trying to suppress a small grin.

"Hi Petty," Lily went over and hugged her sister. Petunia took it, but Lily knew that she wouldn't get another one of these from Petunia for the rest of the summer. "What have you been doing lately?"

Petunia went to the local private school, and although she had a dorm room, she was able to visit home more often. "I've just been doing things with Vernon," Petunia said, finally smiling at the fact she had a boyfriend. It was one thing that she knew Lily didn't have, and it made her glad to know she had one thing better than Lily.

They all went into the house and got things ready for Lunch. Over the meal, Lily filled them in on the things she had done the previous year at school.

"Who is that, James?" Kyla asked her son.

"My future girlfriend," James said with confidence.

"Future?" Kyla raised her eyebrows.

"Let the boy dream," Michael said to his wife. "Let him think he has a chance." Michael winked.

"I do. She's already been warming up to me."

"Is this the same girl that you've been saying would be your girlfriend since your third year?" Kyla asked.

"Yeah that's the one," Sirius chimed in.

"Thanks, Padfoot," James shot a dirty look at his supposed friend. "Does it matter how long it takes? All that matters is that she's going to be my girlfriend."

"Does she have any say in anything?" Kyla wondered.

"Sure, as long as she's my girlfriend," James stated.

Kyla rolled her eyes and Michael laughed heartily. They always had this dynamic with their son. James was over confident, like his father was. Kyla had to admit that Michael had been the same way when they had first started dating. The only difference was that she wasn't opposed to the idea of dating Michael. From what she had heard, Lily didn't show any signs of affection toward her son, and Kyla didn't quite blame her. During this conversation, though, Kyla decided that she would teach her son some manners.

James wasn't going to be seventeen until the next week, and Sirius still had a month, so they walked to a deserted street and summoned the Knight bus to take them back home. When they got there, Sirius and James took their things up to James's room and went downstairs to raid the kitchen. Kyla shooed them out and told them to keep themselves busy until she was done making a proper meal.

Padfoot and Prongs went back up to the bedroom, snacks in hand and against orders. Not that it bothered them to break rules.

"So, how do you expect to win over Evans?"

"First," James started with a treacle tart in his mouth, "I think I'll start calling her by her first name. More personal, I think. Besides, isn't that a great name? Lily. What's Sam doing this summer?" James inquired of Sirius girlfriend, well, almost girlfriend. Sirius had been know for his player qualities, and that reputation was making it difficult for him to make things official with Samantha Scott, the girl he finally had found that meant more than a hot night.

"She's going to her parent's summer home on the beach." Sirius stuffed his face with a handful of Honeyduke's chocolate that he managed to get from Hogsmeade before the school year ended. "Oh yeah, she said we could all come in a couple of weeks if we wanted to."

"I guess, it could be fun," James noted.

"Yeah, I reckon I should write her and let her know we can come. Guess we should ask Remus and Peter as well."

"Peter said that he was going to some sort of summer camp. I don't know what it is, but he wouldn't say. Maybe it's one of those fat camps."

"What about Remus?" Sirius asked.

"Full moon's in three days, so by then he'll probably want a break. Sure, let's write to him."

They took some parchment and James's owl and sent it to Remus.

Lily awoke her first morning back to a black owl tapping on her window. She groaned as she opened it. She looked at her clock and realized that her parents had allowed her to sleep until ten o'clock. Lily removed the parchment from the owl's obliging foot and read the note from her best friend.

Dear Lily,

My parents and I are going to our beach for the summer, and they said I could invite anyone I wanted. So I was hoping you might be able to come in a couple weeks. Write back soon!

Samantha

Lily took out another piece of paper and told Sam that she would come. Lily got dressed and went down stairs to tell her mom and dad.

A/N: I've been waiting to do this one, but I wanted to wait until things were almost done with my other stories, because I want this one to be good. Hope this is a good opening. I don't like Lily entirely hating James, but I like the attitude of indifference. I'm trying not to make this one of those stereotypical L/J stories, so warn me if it starts to get that way. Hope you enjoy!