A/N: This is a multi-chapter. Not a fic, really. Just bits and pieces of the marauders' lives over time. These will not be in chronological order. I will try to make each time frame clear within the chapter.
Marauder Momentos: Of Life, Laughter and Love
James Potter was a selfish jerk. He knew this. In fact, he embraced it. But occasionally, he hated himself for it.
Like now.
He stood near a sobbing Lily Evans, just hours after making a fool of her best friend and effectively ruining her friendship with him in front of most of Hogwarts. His Head of House had given him three days detention for that stunt and taken twenty points from him and Sirius, each.
All for a handful of seconds of amusement because they were bored.
James didn't know what to do. He felt like he had rocks in his stomach. The last thing he'd ever wanted to do was make Lily cry. And yet, here she was in an unused corridor, alone and sobbing into her knees not even three feet from him. James didn't know what to do.
Guilt ate at him. Hate for himself welled up inside. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not like this, not to her.
Silently, James moved closer to Lily, who either hadn't noticed him yet or didn't care to. He sat beside her against the wall and put an arm around her shoulders. Lily gasped and stiffened at his touch, but didn't push him away.
Slowly, Lily leaned against him. Her sobs calmed down to just hiccups after what James considered a million years.
"You're a prick, you know that?" Lily muttered.
James snorted. "To put it lightly." He squeezed her shoulder.
A few moments passed before she said anything else."James?"
"Yea?"
"Thanks,"
He smiled into her hair. "Anytime, Lils."
As curfew drew near, James decided that he didn't want to be a prick anymore. Or a selfish bastard. He didn't like it when Lily cried, didn't like how it made him feel, seeing the repercussions of his actions and swore to himself from that day on he would work on being a better person.
