A/N This isn't a part of my drabble fic, "A Literal Scrapbook", some of the stuff here was inspired by that though. That bit isn't important. What is important that this will be at least until the end of the Marauder's schooling.

I'll try to update as soon as possible, though I promise nothing.

Thanks to my friend, Kira, for making sure I don't kill you all with my lack of grammar.

This will have a tad of swearing, a dollop of snogging, references to shagging and will have eventual James and Lily, with Sirius and Remus.

This would be, first and foremost, a love story. That sentence is too overused; love and the consequences of the matter cannot be summarized like that. It simply cannot. To fall in love takes time, it breaks a man down and can build him up. It's the cause of wars; it's the solution to wars. It takes so much time-you could be dragging your feet across the ground, wondering when this strange and unfamiliar concept will happen to you. Then, out of nowhere, you'll find yourself drowning in it and struggling to get a gasp of air.

Some see it as a disease or an illness. Some resent it and even loathe being that vulnerable to another person, as their equal. Some will run for years from it, and then eventually give up in the very face of it and collapse; while others will be out till all sorts of hours looking for it.

But the sole purpose of being alive isn't to fall in love with some charming man; it's so much more than that. Of course, being in love is a side-effect of living, a by-product of being human, but the fact remains that being in love is only one side-effect, there are far more extras in life than just love.

That's what James and Lily learnt, as did Remus and Sirius.

Because, after all, there are far worse and better things in life to savour than just love.

They just didn't know it yet. None of them did.

I lied. This isn't really a love story at all.

Chapter One

"Errands To Run And A Feast"

September 1ST, 1975.

HOGWARTS EXPRESS

"Why're you so glad?" asked Mary, her face twisted between the gloom of not quite yet being the eldest year level at Hogwarts (or was it something completely different?) and a smirk of that was thanks to Lily fluttering her gaze momentarily from her book to James Potter as he –quite rowdily- made his way off the train and onto the platform.

"I'm just glad to be back," said Lily, her eyes now in a far off place where she dreamed of the wondrous year ahead, free of the burdens and troubles she dealt with back in Surrey. "This year will be different," she promised.

Not good or even better. Just different. That's just what Lily wished for most.

Difference.

Lily isn't unlike many other teenagers her age either.

They're in sixth year now, this meant a year free of those darn OWL examinations (something Lily could do without), but it was to also be a year without Lily's former closest and best friend, Severus Snape (someone she regretfully would and had to do without).

Lily shook her head, suggesting that merely thinking of him was outrageous and ridiculous.

He had hurt her: she knew that and he knew that. He was different now, and most certainly not the Severus she had known and practically loved. She had made too many excuses for him time and time again, and she knew that. She really did. She seemed to resent a little, though, the idea of never being able to laugh or talk with him like she used to.

They did have a good friendship, the sort that you could have easily had in fifty years from now and it still be as easy as it was when they were fifteen, fourteen, nine years old. The sort of friendship that those clichéd scrapbooks were filled with and based on. The ones with faded and sun stained pictures that are full of smiles. Friendships like that were half the reason living was as enjoyable as it was. It's a comforting thing to know that even if everything else in your life is falling apart like a soggy newspaper, you'll still have that one person you can rely on to talk to and to make you laugh.

But that was over now: he had ruined it all himself, and Lily just confirmed it.

Just keep calm Lily, keep a clear and strong face, and do not show mercy, whatever you do.

Mary laughed. "You sound like a protagonist in a really bad individually made film about a bunch of Muggles in high school."

"Oh, shut up." Lily rolled her eyes.

"This year will be different," mocked Mary teasingly. "I will kiss the darling of the school and be popular and have oh too many sleepovers and sneak out of my dorm and get up to all sorts of tomfoolery! Oh, dear Diary, I will be marvellous and extraordinary."

"I don't do that!"

"Yes, you do. I read your diary last year, in November. I know all the clichés you use in that thing," grinned Mary. "'And when his lips met mine it felt as if I were flying'? Really?"

"I was fourteen." Lily tried to find a half decent excuse. "Don't even get me started on what you were doing when you were fourteen." Lily muttered.

"I'm not ashamed of it. Friends with benefit relationships are awesome. We started on as friends, we fucked as friends and we broke up as friends." Mary's blonde curls bounced around the nape of her neck as she talked. "There really aren't any cons to that situation."

"I can think of a few. And you shagged Sirius Black for crying out loud. Sirius Black."

"Like I said; I'm not ashamed of it."

"You were fourteen!" whispered Lily in a horrified voice.

"Oh, don't mother me, Evans." Mary's face fell, suddenly the fact that her own mum had been killed by parading Death Eaters in the past summer resurfaced after drowning for an hour. She was only just being able to get up in the mornings in that empty house without crying before breakfast. After breakfast, however, was when each piece that she had so valiantly picked up and placed back in order fell back to the ground and when she let the tears roll down her cheeks once more.

A lump rose in both of the girls throats.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Lily was quite fond of Mrs MacDonald. "Dumbledore did say that you can just catch up later or do some work at home until you feel ready to come back."

"Nah." Mary tried to sound casual, trying to blanket over her welling tears. She was trying to sound as if she was talking about the weather. "Too many memories at home and she's never been to Hogwarts, being a Muggle and all, so it'll be easier." She reassured.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," she nodded. "We'd better get off the train, it stopped ages ago. We might have to go back to London." She always did a good job at changing the subject. That, and finding out gossip.

Both Lily and Mary cringed at the thought.

And, with no further notice, Lily plucked her cat, Morphus, from the upholstery. She gathered her shoulder bag, as did Mary, and they both hurriedly walked off the train, the Hogwarts uniform iconic black cloaks dancing at their heels, as they made their way onto the last remaining carriage.

DORMS

James was not going to the Welcoming Feast.

Sirius was not going to the Welcoming Feast.

They had other plans.

"We need to fix the map," James said, the self-appointed guardian of the Marauder's Map through the entire summer holidays. "It's not showing the third floor quite right, it's upside down and it keeps on playing up."

"What were you doing looking at the third floor in the holidays, oh Amateur Stalker?" Sirius whispered back.

"Just making sure that the thing wasn't broken after Peter sat on it on the train home, oh Snuck Out of Home," James said defensively.

"Sure sure, I see how you'd be worried for the Map, and I ran away, it would have worked if that woman didn't catch me." Sirius began to raise his voice. "Peter's arse is pretty big after all."

The 'woman' was Sirius's pretentious mother.

"Oi!" Peter yelped.

"Sorry mate didn't see you there." Sirius said sarcastically. "Seriously though Prongs, I doubt Worm's butt will ruin the Map. It's not that fragile."

"Well, regardless it's a bit messed up." James said. "We're going to skip dinner to fix it."

"I'm not." Remus said. "I'm a Prefect and I can't miss the Welcoming Feast, McGonagall will skin me if I did."

Darn Remus being a Prefect; it makes rule-breaking a tad harder in some respects. In other ways, it helped a little too much than one would expect. Teachers trust him a lot more now, and even encourage him to be around James and Sirius to try and be a good influence on them both.

In all there five years and soon to be six at Hogwarts, Remus has never been a good influence over James and Sirius. Or Peter.

Or any sort of influence for that matter.

"Sirius will," James decided. That was the perks of having a best friend- you're allowed (and usually right) to force them to do things. "Won't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Sirius said, a bit disheartened.

"What about me?" Peter said, longing to be a part of the plans.

"Er…" James met his eyes with Sirius's, whose facial expression highly suggested that Peter should be kept away from the Map for a long time after the sitting-on incident.

"It's really just a two person job, Pete," Sirius said. "If there were three, it would become overcrowded and stuff."

"Sirius, you're making it sound as if you have a problem against orgies," Remus shook his head.

"For the record I have nothing against orgies, you can quote me on that." Sirius grinned. "Speaking of, here comes MacDonald with-"

"-Lily Evans," James finished, sighing slightly. He ran his fingers through his hair several times and loosened his tie.

CARRIAGE TIME

"Oh, great," muttered Lily under her breath, and not even Mary, who was standing dumbfounded next to her, could hear, or she chose not to hear. One of them. "Just great."

"Your favourite person," said Mary, smiling at the extent of how much James Potter bothered Lily.

"Not a word," warned Lily. "James?"

"Yeah?" James said, indignant.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?"

"We do go to the same school," James said. "It's impossible to miss me."

"Because your ego takes up the majority of the spare room." Lily crossed her arms.

"Harsh words, Evans. Harsh words indeed." interjected Sirius. "Hey MacDonald," He winked.

"Hi Black."

Lily had no idea how those two managed to date –if you can call shagging in a broom cupboard a few times a week dating- and still call each other by their last name.

"What I meant was why are you on the last carriage? I saw you run off the train a good half hour ago."

"Checking me out, are we?" James raised his brow.

"You wish."

"How I do, Evans. How I do."

Lily frowned.

"Seriously though- " said Lily.

"No, Padfoot," silenced Remus, just as Sirius's face grew a smirk and opened his mouth.

"-how're you on this carriage?"

"Had to run some errands."

"You don't have any. You couldn't possibly have any." Lily said. "You're lazy and wealthy enough to pay anyone to do anything for you."

"Not true. We all had errands to run."

Peter nodded, confirming James's tale. Or –rather- lie.

"We had to go to Hogsmeade village," Sirius chortled.

"We had to go to Honeydukes and Zonko's. Peter had a thing on layby that he needed to collect, didn't you Peter?" Remus added.

"Sure did, Lily," Peter said and thus the topic was disbanded.

There was a mild uncomfortable silence for a few moments, as these things usually go between the Marauders and Lily, typically with Mary by her side.

Armed with her wand, Lily drew out the novel she didn't quite finish on the train and began reading from where she left off. She quite often rested in a good book whenever things became mildly unbearable. It gave her terrible skills to cope with problems she faced in real life, but it was a haven in which she could escape whenever and wherever she fancied.

….grabbing Sophie from the small of her back with his gentle hands, Jack drew her in so the lovers were almost able to hear the others heart beating rapidly between the little space between them and the few sheets of clothing.

"We did it," Sophie whispered excitedly. "We really did it."

"And now we can rest, my love, in absolute perfection-"

"-until forever ends."

Then their lips met and, for a few minutes, nothing else mattered or even seemed to exist. Hot breath tickled Sophie's neck, Jack's own breathe vaporous against the cool and crisp night air.

"I promise never to let you leave my sight," Sophie promised, her dark brown hair falling and rolling over her shoulders and filling the air with the scent of mint and roses.

"I will love you regardless," Jack pulled Sophie closer in.

And at that exact moment, those two love bound creatures were at bliss.

"Evans, you're crying," James pointed out.

"Am not," said a crimson Lily, brushing her hand against her cheek to inspect for tears. "Dammit. Shut it, Potter."

They were tears of happiness, she thinks. She hopes. It was more out of longing that she cried, even though her and Severus were never lovers, it seemed that they were able to be happy forever like Sophie and Jack.

Was it too much to ask to just want to have her old Sev back?

Lily honestly thought that was how it worked, you meet a guy, you fall in love and that's it. Nothing could be simpler.

She did not sign up for this other nonsense that came along with it all.

"Tissue?" offered Mary, presenting one to Lily.

"Thanks," she whispered.

The six teenagers were interrupted by Minerva McGonagall.

"Where on Earth have you been?" demanded McGonagall. "Miss Evans?"

McGonagall always turned to Lily, Remus or even Mary in situations like this, as if she couldn't trust any of the Marauders, apart from Remus, of course. Though, even Remus could sometimes be biased. Scratch that, he was biased to favour his friends most of the time.

Loyal, it could be called.

"Mary and I got held back at the train," Lily explained, patting Morphus absentmindedly. "Sorry, Professor."

"And you, Mr Lupin?" Her piercing eyes turned to Remus, who was known to be extremely bashful and hesitant in situations like this.

"Same as Lily and Mary," He said.

"Five house points will be taken off each of you, for being so careless, now get inside. You mustn't dawdle in these dark times." McGonagall shooed them all off the carriage. "I thought you could've all well of been dead," she muttered, though very much doubted whether anyone of the group heard.

FEAST

The sorting had already been long finished by the time Remus, Mary, Peter and Lily got to the large and imposing doors of the Great Hall. The air was warm and over flooded with the scent of roast lamb, gravy, pudding and an assortment of rich foods that were desperately longed for by the empty stomachs of the students. The quad took seats towards the back of the Gryffindor table to attract minimal attention to them- without the shelter of the ever confident Sirius and James, Remus and Peter felt vulnerable.

"…Let the feast begin," Dumbledore said in a clear and strong voice- it wasn't in the slightest condescending or pitiful. "I do recommend the mashed potato; it's rather sweet and buttery." Dumbledore added as he sat back down.

Dumbledore waved his hand, which created a ripple of highlights on his crimson robes, to a stranger that none of the students near Lily could recognise. He had a short black stubbly beard that was wildly unkempt to match his hair; this was topped off with dark grey eyes and a long nose that almost dipped into his wine when he took a drink from his goblet.

"New Defence teacher?" Remus asked into Lily's ear.

"Guess so." The man was now conversing with Dumbledore. His eyebrows were raised, surprised, perhaps.

"I know all about him!" gasped Mary.

Figures, thought Remus. Mary knows everything about everyone.

"Who is he?" asked Peter, eyeing off the new teacher.

"Marlene's dad," Mary said simply. "I saw him with Marlene when we went on holiday to Spain two years ago and I needed my school books so I went to this one shop- oh that doesn't matter- and they were there."

"How'd you know he wasn't her lover?" Lily tested as she filled her plate.

"She called him 'Dad'. Duh."

"I can't imagine Marlene would be happy about him being here," Remus said.

"I heard she slept with Scott Blakemore from Hufflepuff," Mary announced as if it were some scandalous thing, the Hufflepuff part.

"She's in seventh year, it's a wonder if she isn't having sex by that age, half of them are statistically," Remus said in between mouthfuls of steak.

"Where are James and Sirius?" asked Lily, suddenly noticing that they weren't at the table, or anywhere in the dining room, to be honest.

"Had stuff to do," Peter managed through a mouth full of gravy soaked potato.

"Errands to run," Remus said.

"Again?"

"Yep."

"Personally, Marlene's a bit of a snob." Mary wasn't listening to the other conversation Lily, Peter and Remus were having.

MARAUDER'S MAP MENDING

The Gryffindor common room was always at its best when it was like this. Empty. It was also at its prime when it was just after a round of school holidays, like this. It was completely deserted, in every single way; there was neither a hoot of an owl or the sound of a page being turned.

Coincidentally, it was a new leaf, a new year to start fresh. And boy did Sirius and James need that fresh start this year.

Between them, they had served almost two hundred detentions since their first week at Hogwarts where they had tripped Severus Snape up with a long piece of string that James and Sirius held at either end. Professor Slughorn caught them laughing themselves silly while Severus inspected his grazed knee, red, swollen and harsh looking. They were from there taken to Slughorn's office in the dungeons, where they were to come back after dinner that night to the same location to clean out the extensive collection of cauldrons he carried.

They couldn't feel their forearms for a week afterwards.

Despite that awful first brush with the consequences of trouble, detentions did not stop them one bit.

The little fear they already had of detentions was kindled again when teachers realized they would need to separate them in order to prevent them from talking and mucking about and defeating the whole point of detention in the first place.

That Christmas, however, Mr Potter sent his son the Potter's two-way mirror.

James and Sirius saw this newfound toy as a means of defeating the teachers - teachers unknown to the concept- straight in their own tracks. The small fire of fear that the boys had of detention had a large bucket of water thrown over it then and there.

Socially and (somehow, by some sort of miracle) despite their aversion to study, academically, they had excelled in every way and had gone from strength to strength since their first day five years ago on the first of September.

However, and as Mrs Potter had put it only a few days ago: 'James needs to realise that the universe does not revolve around himself and that if he wants anyone to take him seriously as a person he has to deflate his head.'.

Naturally, and with such harsh words full of sting coming from his mother, James took this on board.

However, after being one sort of person for so long, it's hard to go and suddenly chameleon your appearance and become a better person.

Sirius, being James's brother in every single way apart from being closely biologically related, was trying to follow James's footsteps and unsurprisingly, neither of the two boys were having much luck with the fresh concept of 'being good'.

"Nice save with the errands bit back there with Evans," Sirius congratulated.

"Thanks, Pads. Merlin, what's wrong with it?" James groaned as he looked down from the sun bleached sofa at the Map, which was sitting on the table.

The Marauder's Map's depiction of the third floor was displaying flashes of bright and vivid colours every several seconds. It was also directly upside down, including the lettering. It was most annoying and bothersome to James and Sirius.

"I've got no idea," Sirius shook his head. "Have you tried Reparo?"

"Yep."

"Scourgify?"

"Yep."

"This is beyond us," Sirius sighed, deflated.

"We need Remus," James suggested- actually it wasn't even a suggestion, it was a plea.

"Yep."

"Should we just go get some food?" James queried.

"We can go to the kitchens. There's always better stuff there," Sirius decided.

Getting up from their seats sluggishly, James picked up the map, stuffed it into the inside of his jumper for safe keeping and they both departed the Common Room.

TO THE CORRIDORS

Mary did not feel like eating anymore. Sad news did that to some people. In some people, once they've heard some awful news, they'll stuff their mouths and stomachs full of whatever edible food they can find. Mary, however, whilst going through something as awful as her mother's murder, barely ate.

Lily, the saint that she is, came around to Mary's aunt's house most days to make sure Mary at least had the minimum daily dietary requirement each day. Aunt Julie worked long hours in a prestigious and snotty bank in the very heart of London, meaning she was away for the best part of each day. This therefore made it even harder for Julie to keep a proper eye on Mary.

Lily was good to her. It was hard, hard to keep on going on like this. Most days, since the murder, Mary just felt like falling into nothing. Most days she did do just that.

She walks in a haze, as if she is living in a small glass dome in which she is untouchable to the rest of the world. She stands hunched, as if she has aged fifty years in only a matter of weeks.

She does try though.

She brushes her hair each day, has a shower, and brushes her teeth. Appearance is all that matters now. She's always been rather pretty, not outstandingly gorgeous, but her tangles of blonde hair that spun around her round face and took the majority of her appearance and swallowed it whole. Her eyes could be a little sparkly in the right lighting, and she was in proportion, roughly.

She had no idea how anyone, especially Sirius, could've mistaken that for supermodel attractive.

Though - due to her lack of appetite, due to the account of misery being her three meals each day- she was hollowing out, starting with a concave stomach then slowly growing and spreading like a cancer to other parts of her body. She wore more and more layers of clothing to disguise this, though.

For instance, she was wearing at that moment, three tank tops and a thermal top under her school uniform to blend in.

The trick was to keep busy.

Keep busy and you'll make it through eventually.

"I've had enough of dinner. I'm going to go to bed." Mary said to Lily as she got up, leaving a barely touched plate.

The halls were so much quieter at night.

She needed to sleep. Sleep right now would be bliss.

"CRU- " said a voice from the dark. Mary couldn't recognise it and it had a gritty and somehow slimy ring to it.

Mary, almost instinctively, dragged out her wand and turned around to find the owner of the voice. "Percificus Totalus!"

She missed due to her shaking hand. Seeing it as her only chance to escape, she began to run.

"Stupefy!" he shouted.

Mary was thrown to the ground just as she was about to run up the flight of stairs. Her head knocked against the corner of the stair case as if she had lost complete control of her body for a moment. Reflexively, she dashed her palm to the site of the collision to assess the damage, she couldn't feel anything yet. That should be a good sign.

"Help!" she croaked in a strained voice. "HELP!"

The boy was hooded, and was virtually unrecognisable due to the cloak and mask he wore.

The figure raised his arm, his posture boastful and his cloak licking at his heels like flames.

He was ready to strike.