Complete Summary: At a time when no one could be trusted, your friend could be your foe, and your family was under the constant threat of You-Know-who, Hogwarts produced a group of students who would turn out to be the greatest Aurors of all time. These Aurors would change teh Wizarding World. They would give the magical community a temporary sense of security. Nine people, all who would endure an Unforgivable Curse that would be the death of them.. They were the best, and they were the pride of Hogwarts Auror Age.

This is the story of their 6th year, and how they began to realize and fufill their destinies.

Disclaimer: It's all JK's, except for a few non-canon characters.

Prologue

By: Empress M

In the last compartment of the Hogwarts Express, sat an 11 year old girl , nervously chewing her nails. Her eyes were a stunning emerald green, and her hair a vibrant red. On the seat next to her sat a pile of books- the first and foremost being Hogwarts, A History. The girl was just about to pick it up when--

SLAM. The door to her compartment was loudly pushed open.

"And I'll say -- did you see that Hufflepuff prefect back there? Name of Henry Wright. My mum knows his mum or summin- but the bloody bloke winked at me! Can you imagine! The nerve of him that-that boy! Oh hello!"

The speaker of this lovely dialogue was a tall, tall girl, with wavy brunette locks that reached past her shoulders. She had bright, twinkling, but somewhat mysterious black eyes. She held the air of someone who knew exactly what she was talking about, and who talked a lot. Behind her stood a much, much shorter girl, but with the same colored light brown hair, except hers was cropped short. Her eyes were a soft hazel, almost yellow, and she appeared to be extremely shy.

"I'll say I've never seen you before," the tall girl smiled brightly at the young redhead in the seat. "What's your name?"

"L-lily," the girl removed her fingernails from her mouth. "L-lily Evans." She sat up straighter and tried to act lady-like and polite, just as her mother had showed her.

"Lovely! I'm Marlene -- Marlene Vance, that is, and this is my cousin, Emmeline Vance."

Marlene had seemed to take the name-exchanging as an invitation to sit down, so she plopped languidly on the seat opposite Lily. Then-most unexpectedly- she popped right back up, and in the midst of her newfound excitement, she hit her head on the ceiling of the compartment.

"Damn!" She swore, tenderly rubbing her head. Seeing Lily's startled look she swiftly apologized. "Sorry. Me mum says I curse like a terrible sailor -- but say, I just realized this -- you're a muggle, aren't you?" Her dark eyes gleamed with hope.

"A what?" Lily asked, feeling terribly confused.

"A muggle! Oh yes, Em we have a real live muggle!" Marlene clapped her hands together excitedly. "Fancy that! Oh I'm dreadfully sorry Lily, its just that I've never met a real muggle before!"

"What's a muggle?" Lily asked, confusion etched on her face.

"It's what we -- the Wizarding Community, that is -- call non-magical folk. Like you! Oh Lily, don't you worry, I'll tell you absolutely bloody everything about the magical world!"

At this, a soft groan emanated from Emmeline in the corner.

"Do shut up, Em." Marlene said. "Well Lily, first I think I'll tell you about Hogwarts and how it started…"

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An hour later, Marlene sat chatting away, while Lily, enraptured in the conversation, hung on her every word.

"… and then there's the Ministry, which is where Em and my dad's work," over in the corner, Emmeline reading Defense : The Perfect Escape, gave a short nod.

"See, the Ministry's got all these different departments. My dad works for the Magical Hit squad, and my mum works for the Department of International Magical Cooperation…"

Marlene's explanation of the Ministry of Magic was cut short, when a knock came from the compartment door. Marlene jumped up, excitedly muttering, "I wonder who that could be…" under her breath before sliding the door open with much enthusiasm.

"Alice! Oh how lovely it is to see you!" Marlene stepped aside and beckoned the newcomer in. "Lily this is a distant cousin of mine, Alice Fawcett. Alice, this is Lily Evans -- and she's a muggle!" Marlene emphasized the word "muggle" with great drama. Meanwhile, Lily looked at Alice.

She was short, not shorter than Emmeline, though, with pretty locks of blonde hair. She was a bit pudgy, but not too much, and had extremely gentle soft blue eyes, which were currently overflowing with tears. As soon as Marlene noticed this, she gasped and pulled Alice down into the seat.

"Oh Alice dear what's wrong?" she soothingly patted Alice's back, her eyes wide with sympathy and apprehension.

" They - hic- they-hic- stole my - hic hic- cat!" Alice burst into a fresh bout of sobs, resting her head on Marlene's shoulder.

Marlene gasped.

"How dare they! Who Alice, who stole your cat?" Alice didn't answer, just sobbed harder into Marlene's shoulder.

"Who?" Marlene grabbed Alice by the shoulders and shook her. This only caused Alice to sob harder and cling tighter to Marlene's shoulder.

This annoyed Marlene, so she roughly pushed her away and stood up.

"I'll find 'em Alice, and punish 'em," Marlene's eyes shone with a manic glint. "I'll hunt 'em down to the ends of the earth and punish 'em good!"

In her solitary corner, Emmeline Vance rolled her eyes.

"I'll punish 'em, till they wish they weren't alive!" Marlene exclaimed.

"You wouldn't!" Alice eyes, all tears forgotten, were wide as Galleons with shock.

" I would!" Marlene exclaimed proudly, causing Alice's eyes to grow even wider. "I'll -----"

What Marlene Vance would do next became a mystery to the girls, as at that very moment the compartment door slid open to reveal none other than James Potter, and Sirius Black.

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"You!" Alice exclaimed. She pointed a finger at the two boys, sending an accusatory glare their way. "You stole Benjie!"

"We didn't steal 'im," James Potter said.

"We just borrowed 'im," Sirius Black continued.

"Without askin," James finished. They exchanged glances with each other, and began to snicker.

"How DARE you!" Marlene said. "You give Alice her cat back," here Marlene poked Sirius in the chest, " Right - poke - now -poke !"

"Alright, alright!" Sirius gave her a look that made it clear he thought she was a madwoman. From behind his back he produced a slightly disheveled Benjie, and handed him to an overjoyed Alice.

"Hey…" James Potter's eyes settled on Lily. "I know Marly here, and Emmeline, and Alice… but who are you?"

"She." Marlene said, making her way to Lily's side, "is Lily Evans," she looked at Lily proudly, "A muggle!" Marlene swung her arm around Lily's shoulders as if she had known her all her life.

"A muggle?" James exchanged a glance with Sirius. "Really now…" As Lily looked at him, she had to admit that he was somewhat cute, with messy black hair and glasses.

"Welcome to the Wizarding World, Lily." he smiled and offered her his hand to shake.

"I wouldn't touch him if I were you, Lily…" Marlene removed her arm from Lily's shoulders and cast a wary look at James outstretched hand.

"Why not?" Lily asked.

"Why not? Well everyone knows why not," Marlene said, frowning. "Because boys, have cooties." Marlene said this with such a serious expression on her face that Lily had to try hard not to laugh. Sirius and James, on the other hand, elapsed into such a fit of laughter that Lily wasn't sure if they were breathing .

"It's true! Isn't it Alice! You saw Patty Patil's older sister the other day! She had that terrible cootie on her neck from David Jordans!"

"It's true, Lily," Alice said solemnly, while stroking Benjie.

"Oh come on Evans," James said, his eyes shining with innocence. "You really aren't going to believe old Marlene here, are you?"

Well, Lily thought, he seems nice. Her eyes roved over his face once more. Next to her Marlene was muttering warnings about "boy-diseases." Emmeline in the corner looked at Lily expectedly. Alice, still stroking Benjie, was listening raptly to Marlene's banter. Sirius was leaning against the door, looking slightly irritated (but sexily so) that Lily was taking so long to decide. And James, James stood in front of her, hand outstretched, smile showing off his gorgeous pearly white teeth.

Lily hesitated, and then sighed. She thrust her hand forward, and immediately felt fireworks shoot through her body, before she fainted.

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Lily was woken by a soft voice, then a hand lightly patting her face. She could hear another, much less gentle, voice screeching in the background. Lily opened her eyes to see Emmeline crouching over her, hazel eyes worried. When she saw Lily was awake, she broke into a silly grin. Alice was sitting on the other side of Lily, stroking Benjie and holding Lily's small, pale hand tight.

"You could've bloody killed her you bloody idiot!" Marlene was holding James up against the wall with one hand, while punching him in the stomach with her other one. James' face was screwed up with pain, whether from Marlene's voice being so close to his ear or his stomach being repeatedly punched, Lily did not know. Sirius was still leaning against the doorway, finding it highly amusing that his best mate was being beat up by a girl.

"Listen," James rasped, his voice hoarse. "I said I was sorry and --"

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry doesn't cover it, you lousy buffoon! You know what you did? You took advantage of her being a muggle and tricked her! Yes James, you tricked her! That wasn't a prank! That was outright cruelty!" Marlene, done with her lecture, dropped James to the floor. She gave him a withering glare and turned towards Emmeline.

"Ah Lily, you're awake. Don't worry, there won't be any lasting damage. It was one of Dervish and Banges new Shocking Starters. Your supposed to swallow 'em in one gulp with a glass of mulled mead and it'll make you shake for a minute or so. Or," here, she glared at James, who gulped, " you can misuse it and send 600 jolts of power through a person's body by applying the right amount of pressure. Fortunately for you, that idiot," she jerked her head towards James again, " cut it down. So you only got about 150 jolts. And you'll live." She glared evilly at James. "But he won't."

"Here Marlene," Alice said, looking worriedly at the crazed girl. "Maybe you should sit down…" She roughly grabbed Marlene and dragged her over to a seat. At any other moment Lily would have found it quite comical, short, little Alice forcing tall, strong Marlene to move, but now wasn't the time.

"Listen Evans," James said, coming over. "I really am sorry. Truly." he frowned when he saw the look of misbelief on Lily's face. " I didn't think you'd fall for it. Oldest trick in the books, and all that… you know?" He reached out kindly toward her. "Friends?"

This time he offered her his hand, face up so she could see that there was nothing in it. She looked at him, and then his hand, and said very coldly;

"Absolutely not, Potter." She spat out his name like venom. James sighed and Marlene nodded approvingly from the corner.

And this was how the 6 years of enmity and hate between Lily Evans and James Potter began.

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A/N: So what do you think? Please, please review and tell me! I plan on making this a pretty long fanfic, and I will not let it become AU, I will write everything according to HBP and some of the facts I learned from the interview JKR gave with Mugglenet and TLC. R&R please!