Lily huffed. "He is so unbelievingly infuriating!"

Serena and Marlene, Lily's two best friends looked at each other with identical knowing grins and each sat down on their respective four posters, preparing themselves for a tirade they had heard many times before.

"I mean honestly, who does he think he is? A bloody god? He walks around this place like he's holier than thou, harassing innocent people-"

"I know he's your friend but I would hardly call Snape innocent." Serena interrupted but Lily continued as though she hadn't heard her.

"- and then he has the nerve to act like a cocky bastard. Really, I don't understand how everyone in this place looks up to him. He is a git. What would make him think I would ever date a guy like him? Just because every tramp in Hogwarts falls at his feet doesn't mean those of us with a brain and some common sense are going to." Finally she addressed Serena, "And Snape is no longer my friend, I don't know who that person is."

"Just forget about it." Marlene pleaded. "It's not the first time James' asked you out and I'm certain it won't be the last. I, for one, am exhausted from those exams and would like nothing more than to relax before we leave in a couple days." She tossed back a chunk of her short, dark hair and stretched out on her bed.

Lily plopped down on her own bed, sighing. "I just can't stand him."

"We know." Serena and Marlene said in unison, causing them all to break out in giggles.

Lily had a terrible temper that had a knack for showing up when James was around. Most of the girls at Hogwarts thought James was gorgeous, sweet, charming, and had an irresistible grin. Lily thought James was a hideous, egotistical jerk that was full of himself. They had hated each other for as long as anybody could remember, and as far as Lily was concerned, it was going to stay that way.

"Are you excited for summer vacation?" Serena asked nonchalantly.

"Ugh, no." cried Marlene. Her dark hair and almond eyes made Marlene the kind of beautiful that wasn't noticeable at first but quickly became are of. She was kind and soft spoken, a good listener and a good friend.

"Oh come on, what do you have to complain about?" Said Serena, "Another summer in France with your family, which in case you haven't noticed, you happen to have three very good looking brothers." Serena was a good looking witch with blond hair, blue eyes and a healthy figure. She was loud and obnoxious, but that was why Lily loved her. She was definitely the outgoing one of the group, if not a little promiscuous.

"Okay, ew. My brothers are anything but good looking; big, hairy, testosterone filled ogres the lot of them."

"Yum," Serena exclaimed, "I'd take those hunks for brothers any day. Still, hello, you're going to be in France. There will be loads of amazing boys with amazing French poetry to sweep you off your feet and plenty of shopping to keep you busy the entire time. I'm utterly jealous."

"Aw, but your forgetting; I have already been swept of my feet by the gorgeous, charming, sixth year, Ravenclaw Quidditch captain."

"Are you trying to make me feel better because let me tell you. It isn't working." Serena pouted.

"Besides, even if I was looking, you remember those aforementioned ogres. I forgot to say how overprotective and overbearing they are, all the time. What about you guys, what will you be doing this summer?"

"Being bored out of my mind, you Lils?"

"Absolutely nothing. It looks like you are going to have to have enough fun for all three of us Marlene."

Lily was not looking forward to her break. Sure, she loved her parents and was excited to see them after so many months but, just as it had in the years past that excitement would change into desperation to be back at Hogwarts after only a few short weeks. As the years went one, she felt less and less like she home was with her parents and more like Hogwarts was her true home. Her sister was an awful bint to say the least and did what ever she could to make Lily's life hell. No, Lily was not looking forward to her break.

-

"Way to go Prongs." Sirius exclaimed, giving James a high five.

"Thank you, Thank you very much." He said with a bow and a parade wave to his imaginary audience. He was pulled out of his daydream by being blindsided with Remus's pillow which he picked up and threw back it him.

"I don't think Lily was in the least bit amused." Remus said.

"Well I don't think I care about Evans or what amuses her in the least." He said with a chuckle. "Come on Moony, you have to admit, seeing that grease ball hanging in the air like that was hilarious."

"I admit it." All four of the Marauders were over come by laughter as they recalled the day's events.

Fifth year had gone by with out a hitch. Despite occasional screaming matches between Lily Evans and James Potter which often evolved to include Serena and Sirius screaming at each other, everyone would call it normal. No one could begin to anticipate what the next two years would bring. But everyone would look back on the end of the year and realize, yup, that's when it all begun.

Over the next few days the hatred that had always been between the two groups seemed to escalate beyond anything anyone could have imagined. The morning after the fifth years had finished their O.W.L.S. James felt the need to payback Lily for her little show out by the lake.

Lily and her friends woke early and got ready for their day. It was going to be a good one, full of lounging comfortably on the beautiful sunny grounds of Hogwarts with out a care. No classes to worry about, just time to waste. They were looking forward to it. As they made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast their chatted good naturedly. The common room was fairly empty as a large number of students opted to sleep in while they could.

"Hopefully we'll get lucky and we won't have to see those insufferable gits at all today." Serena said, they all smiled at the thought.

Unfortunatly, the girls had no such luck. Even though the Great Hall wasn't full for much of the same reason as the common room the Marauders were among the few of those who had showed up for breakfast. Although they looked up from their plates when the girls entered the hall, the girls choose to ignore them and continued down the hall right past them, taking their seats as far away as possible.

During breakfast Lily was mid way though the process of bringing her fork to her mouth when she looked down to see what once was a plate of pancakes had been turned into a plate of flobberworms. Their slimy little bodies writhing on her fork. She threw it down in shock. Her attention was called down the table when James, Sirius and Peter were all in hysterics while Remus just gave her a helpless shrug.

"What are you going to do?" Asked Serena.

Lily turned and looked at her with a furious look on her face. With out saying a word, she picked up her plate and walked over to where the Marauders were sitting. They all tried to stifle their laughter. As she approached them James said through his laughter, "How can we help you darling?"

Without a word she dumped the plate of flobberworms directly on James's head. Immediately the four friends sobered up and the entire hall went quiet. Everyone was waiting to see who would make the next move. James put the plate on the table. The look of him flobberworms in his hair would have been laughable if he didn't have murder in his eyes. Slowly, he brushed the worms off his shoulders and out of his hair, missing one which dangled at the side of his face. He stood up so that he was eye level with her, who mirrored the look in his eyes.

"You are such a bitch."

It was Lily's turn to laugh. "Don't dish it out if you can't take it, Potter." With a flip of her hair she moved to make her way around him and out of the Great Hall where every one continued to stare in silence. He grabbed her arm roughly and spun her around to look him in the eye again.

"Oh, I can take it. I'm just not sure you can take what I'm going to dish out next." His voice was loud and cocky, as though he were putting on a show for the occupants of the Great Hall.

"I'm looking forward to it. Are you sure you really want to be upstaged by a girl?" All Lily wanted to do was get out of there, she hated calling attention to herself like this but he knew she couldn't let Potter win this battle of the wits.

James looked around wildly before saying, "That's funny Evans, I don't see a girl around here. A troll maybe but nope, definitely no girls."

"Oh, and you're an authority on girls?"

"Damn right I am. I know girls left to right, up and down." He said slyly, bluntly looking her up and down.

"Funny, I've never seen you with a girl. Unless the tramps you're in the habit of spending time with are your piss poor examples of girls. Then again, I guess that would mean you're not much of an authority on girls, now wouldn't it."

"Oh now Evans," He replied obviously not even phased by her comments. "There is no reason to be jealous. If I've told you once, I've told you twice you could make me change me wicked, wicked ways." He said with a wink, to which Lily responded with a disgusted huff. "How about it? One date?"

"Not in this life time, sleaze bag." With that last comment she turned her back to him and walked out of the Great Hall. The entire room let out a collective breath and the room exploded with chatter.

James quietly took his seat and all of his friends looked at him expectedly before cracking up. Sirius grabbed the one remaining flobberworm that resided on James's head and dangled it in front of his face.

"You looked real intimidating with this dangling on your head mate." James grabbed it from him and flung it across the room causing a group of girls who had just entered the hall to shriek in disgust as it had landed at their feet. The Marauders took no notice.

Serena and Marie got up from where they had been sitting witnessing the whole exchange between Lily and James to follow their friend out of the Great Hall. As they passed the boys they wore identical looks of hatred.

"Piss off Starr." Sirius said irritably to Serena to which she only replied with a rude hand gesture.

"Hello Remus." Marlene said quietly.

"Ladies." He responded with a wave.

"What is wrong with those girls?" said James once they were out of earshot.

Remus shook his head. "Have you guys stopped to think maybe it isn't them? Maybe it is you who are the problem."

Sirius crossed his arms and pouted. "Us? Who doesn't like us? We are the greatest guys here."

"It's just a thought, besides, I get along with the girls fine."

"That's because you like Marlene." Sirius mumbled.

Remus kicked him hard underneath the table. "I do not! She has a boyfriend."

"Ouch. That hurt." He said rubbing his now sore knee cap.

"So what?" said Peter, "When has that ever stopped a Marauder."

"Just because I'm a Marauder doesn't mean I have to go around ruining relationships by having meaningless one night stands with every girl in Hogwarts, who is old enough to be aware of their sexuality, whether they are attached or not. Not that it matters because I don't like her. You know, it is possible to be friends with a girl a not want to get in her pants."

"No it's not." Said Sirius through a mouth full of food.

"I assure you, it is."

Sirius decided not to argue and opted for a subject change. He and Moony were just never going to agree on girls. "So, summer vacation in a few days? Excited?"

"What is there to be excited about? We do the same thing every summer. Spend it at my house."

Every year since they were twelve, the four boys had spent the summers at the Potters. They were truly brothers in every sense of the word. Only Sirius had any siblings and he was completely estranged from his family. Remus's parents had never actually shunned him but if he was being perfectly honest with himself he knew they preferred that he wasn't around, which was fine with him. Only James and Peter were even remotely close to their parents. The Potters spent most of their time away from home on various excursions, leaving James to his devices and Peter's parents allowed him to spend his time at the Potter's under the condition that he came home for a couple of days once a month. In fact, other than when Peter was visiting his family, the only time the boys were separated had been during a full moon. But they had solved that little problem at the beginning of this year.

"But this year is going to be great, I can feel it."

"You say that every year Padfoot."

After breakfast the boys made their way to the Black Lake. It was a beautiful day and many students had chosen to spend it outside; including Lily and her friends along with Brandon Writhers, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. James could see them from where he was seated with the Marauders. Lily was laughing at something Serena had just said.

He really didn't know how he and Lily had gotten off to such a bad start. Okay, he knew but he just didn't understand how it all turned out so bad…

'Wow, I hope there are more girls like this one at Hogwarts.' He thought. He put on a smile and directed his attention towards the family of three. "You must be looking for platform 9 ¾." He stated in his most polite tone of voice.

"Yes," said the girl in a confidant, almost superior tone though she didn't seem rude. "The letter I got said platform 9 ¾. I don't see any platform by that number. Would you be so kind as to show me the way."

"Sure thing." James casually leaned against the barrier and fell through to platform 9 ¾. He pushed the trolley carrying his trunk off to the side then went back through the barrier. "See, there is nothing to it." He had to control the urge to laugh at the look on the girl's face.

"Yeah. Hopefully, bye." After James boarded the train he went searching for his best friend Sirius Black. They had meet five years before in preparatory school for young wizards and witches before they are old enough to attend Hogwarts. He found Sirius in the very last compartment.

"Hey Jamesie Boy how was your summer?"

"You should know, you were at my house the whole time."

"Yeah, I know, but that's just the thing you say on the first day of school. Like good morning in the morning. Besides you know I hate going home, my parents are cynical bastards."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"No biggie."

"At least yours would be there if you needed them, my parents are never even home."

"I know. Sorry man." Sirius laughed. "Tell me something good!"

"Well, I did meet a really pretty girl. She was nice too." Sirius was just about to ask more about this girl when the compartment door slide open. A boy with sandy blond, brown hair stood in the doorway.

"Oh sorry."

"Don't be." Said James.

"Would you like to sit with us?" invited Sirius.

"Uh, sure. Thanks. All the other compartments were full."

"Well, we were just talking about girls so come in and join the fun." The boy picked up his trunk and put it in the compartment.

"Wow. You're strong, do you work out or something?"

The boy looked shocked then answered with a shaky, "Um yeah, alittle. I'm Remus."

"James."

"Sirius." The boys shook hands in what they felt was a manly way.

"So about this girl."

"Well." James went on to tell them about Lily. About an hour after the train left the platform the boys decided to go find the old witch with the snack trolley and 'hopefully find some cute girls' as Sirius said. As the boys walked they stumbled across an open compartment. Sirius managed to peak in with out its occupants noticing.

"James, its been a while since we've had some real fun, hasn't it?

"Well, no, just two days ago-"

"I agree," Sirius cut James off, ignoring him. "Too long. Follow my lead." Sirius entered the compartment.

"Hello ladies." James and Remus entered after him. James saw Lily sitting with two other girls and smiled. She returned his smile as the other girls looked at the boys with raised eyebrows.

"How are you fine ladies?" James really wished Sirius would shut up. Then before the girls had a chance to reply Sirius took his wand from his robes and over dramatically tossed it on to the floor. "Oh darn," Sirius exclaimed. "Would you look at that?" He dramatically bent over to pick it up and turned his head slightly to look up the blond girl's skirt. Unfortunately for Sirius this act did not go unnoticed. The blond girl kicked him in the nose before he had a chance to move out of the way. "Bitch!" Sirius yelled, blood streaming down his face.

"What the hell do you think your doing, asshole?" The girl barked in, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. Lily and the dark haired girl stood also. The blond girl pushed Sirius out of the compartment. James looked at Lily with a look of helplessness which she returned with a deadly glare. Remus followed a cursing Sirius back to their compartment.

"Look, I'm really sorry about him." James said to the three furious girls as Sirius's voice faded away.

Lily crossed her arms. "Get out!"

"Lily-"

"Wait," Said the blond girl, "You know him?"

"No." Lily said firmly.

Years later James would never know what made him say it but he blurted, "You know what, he was right, you're all bitches."

Lily stepped closer to James. "I said, get OUT!" She said as she kicked him in the shin, pushed him out of the compartment, and slid the compartment door closed.

Every encounter he had with Lily after that just went from bad to worse. He didn't mean to be such a jerk, at first he was just trying to get her attention. Every time he was around her he couldn't think clearly and ended just pissing her off.

After the incident on the train she seemed hell bent to ignore him at all cost. After a while he treated her that way just to see her angry. He loved the way she looked when she was angry. The color in her cheeks and the fire in her eyes; God, she was beautiful when she was angry. Though it wasn't until late in his fourth year that he understood exactly why he liked the way she looked when she was angry.

His fourth year was when he had lost his virginity. At a Gryffindor quidditch victory party he had a little too much to drink and ended up sleeping with an equally intoxicated fifth year. It was all down hill from there. Once he had told Sirius of his activities he was soon to follow. It was panoramic. Almost as though he and Sirius were having a race to see who could bed the most girls. At one point in the middle of this year Sirius had even convinced Remus of its appeal.

It only took one girl to ruin it for Remus. She ended up using his own guilt to rope him into a month long relationship then broke it off with him, much to his pleasure because ironically she felt they had nothing in common but sex.

Once James had experienced female arousal first hand he knew exactly what had attracted him to an angry Lily Evans. The two emotions looked almost exactly the same: flushed cheeks and passionate eyes. He didn't even care that it was passionate hate in her eyes. She felt passion nonetheless.

The man who was lucky enough to win her over would be in for a treat. He just knew it. She had so much pent up energy from being a goody-little-two-shoes that when some one finally lets that cat out of the bag she was sure to be a wild one.

James knew he couldn't let her get away with what happened in the Great Hall this morning. They would be leaving for a whole three months tomorrow and he just had to show her who's boss.

He looked back over to where she was sitting. Man, he loved her smile, it could light up and entire room. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone out loud.

"Come on guys, let's come up with a prank to get Evans back for this morning."

Despite Remus' objections, James, Sirius and Peter set out to concoct the perfect farewell prank.

Lily was glad they had this final day to just relax and spend time with friends before they had to leave for the wretched summer. She looked over to where Marlene and Bandon were sitting in each others arms. Marlene was the only who had ever had a real, lasting relationship. Serena was almost as bad as the Marauders when it came to sleeping around. Not that she was a bad person; Lily thought it had much to do with the need for attention and the desire to feel wanted. Though she would never say as much to Serena's face.

She herself did not date. She simply didn't have time. She was much too busy with school and prefect duties to even think about boys and relationships. At least that is what she would tell any one who asked. Not that is wasn't partially true. The other part she supposed was that none of the boys attracted her in the least. She would never admit it to herself but the Marauders all had dashing good looks and enormous ego's to boot. No, not dating suited her just fine; she didn't need those kinds of distractions.

The day passed with little fanfare which admittedly worried Lily. She had expected some kind of retaliation from James but it never came. The girls decided to tuck in early since tomorrow would be a big day. Lily just hoped it wouldn't be too eventful.