Change

by goddessofgryffindor

To any stranger James and Lily appeared to be complete opposites and entirely incompatible. Over the years to come however the pair would be brought together by force, shared hatred, anger, friendship, tragedy and finally love.

The morning of the 1st of September 1976 began like any other. The sun shone bright in the sky, giving off an immense heat that seemed to mock the vast amount of children who would return to school on this very day. All over the country children and teenagers alike rose reluctantly from their beds, not yet ready to accept that summer and subsequently their freedom, were both over.

Lily Evans was not among this group. James Potter was. For Lily, the beginning of the new school year meant peace. There would be no more arguments with Petunia, no more mundane evenings reading in her bedroom and no more hiding. No more hiding her magic, the very essence of herself. No more hiding from certain neighbours she no longer had anything to say to. At Hogwarts Lily was free. James Potter did not feel the same. He had spent as much time with the marauders during the summer as he would have if he'd been in school, without the interruptions of class or homework. Although James felt slightly guilty to admit it, Sirius running away had been one of the best things to happen in a long time. Having grown up as an only child James loved the constant company and companionship, this joy multiplied by the fact the new house guest was his best friend. The return to school, just one of the any things James Potter and Lily Evans did not agree on. The pair had been known to fight about anything from the importance of Quidditch (a topic James felt most passionate about) to their favourite Beatles member (James was preferential to the less popular George Harrison while Lily unambiguously favoured John Lennon). In fact, it was a rare occurrence for pair to agree on anything. To any stranger James and Lily appeared to be complete opposites and entirely incompatible. Over the years to come however the pair would be brought together by force, shared hatred, anger, friendship, tragedy and finally love. Now however, they were mere acquaintances at best, the idea of friendship still too strange to consider. Separated by thousands of miles in their respective homes, James and Lily had one thought in common. This year would be different.

Several hours later platform nine and three quarters was packed. Misty eyed parents were in abundance, as were embarrassed children trying to escape the overly tight embraces of their parents. As the trains departure time neared the platform became less populated by Hogwarts students and soon only a few lingering strays remained. Among these was Lily Evans who, having stowed her wand deep in her trunk for safe keeping, was now having immense trouble manually maneuvering said trunk through the crowded platform. Sighing Lily thought back to earlier that morning.

'You don't mind if I leave you at the station do you?' Her fathers had said in hushed tones.

'Its just Tuney wants me to drop her into the centre so she can have a look round the shops and you know how she'd feel about me going with you to the platform.'

Lily had agreed, wishing just this once to avoid an argument with Petunia. Her father tried so hard to keep them happy and she wanted his last memory of her until Christmas to be untainted by drama. So because of this, Lily had pretended not to hear Petunia when she had muttered about how nice it would be to have some peace in the house again. She had also refused to give a rise when Petunia began moving her things into Lily's room before she had even left the house. Most uncharacteristically Lily had just smiled saccharinely and remained complacent. This had not gone unnoticed by her father who had thanked her profusely as he unpacked her trunk from the car. Hastily, as if he did not want this gesture to be seen by petunia, her father had handed Lily a small envelope, filled with galleons, sickles and knuts.

'I don't know exactly how much it is I'm afraid. I still don't really understand the exchange rate and I felt a bit out of place in there, but I just wanted to get you something small before you left. I figured this way you can buy yourself something when you go on a trip to Hogmeady or whatever that place is called.'

Feeling the weight of the envelope in the pocket of her jeans Lily smiled to herself, one of the few genuine ones that had been on her face all day. She really would miss her dad.

After nearly knocking out a three year old who had crossed her path, Lily finally pulled her belongings aboard the Hogwarts express. She was now faced with the task of trudging along the corridor until she found the carriage where her friends were located. This task was easier then she had first believed however as a voice from behind called out to her.

'In here Lily!' The unmistakably cheerful voice of Marlene McKinnon filled the corridor. 'And get a bloody move on, the trains about to leave the station.

As Lily stepped in she was bombarded with hugs from her other friends. After regaining her balance Lily beamed up at them in return.

'Nice to see you guys too, you could've let me put down by bags first though.'

'Well it has been months since we've seen each other. I've been left alone all summer across the sea with nothing but sheep for company.' Hannah Murphy replied, her accent even stronger after a summer spent in the countryside of Ireland.

'I guess it is excusable for you Han, but Mary we saw each other two days ago! I know I'm great to be around and all that but you can't have missed me too much.' Lily grinned at her best friend.

'Just trying to show a bit of affection that's all. Would you have preferred if I'd stayed sitting?' Mary laughed, her brown eyes showing mock hurt.

'Of course not, I am, of course, overjoyed to see all of you as well. Almost all of you I guess, where's Lisa?'

'If you had to take a guess as to where our boy obsessed friend Lisa is on the first day of term, what might you say?' Marlene quipped.

'Hmm,' Lily pondered. 'I suppose she might be with a boy. Very uncharacteristic of her though.'

'If you want to hear about uncharacteristic wait till you hear the story I was told about Melissa Zadrin at Hugh Markey's party. I have so much to tell you guys, I'm going to explode if I have to keep all this gossip to myself any longer.'

Further up the train Melissa Zadrin was also the topic of conversation in another carriage.

'I cannot believe you got off with Melissa Zadrin Padfoot!' James Potter exclaimed incredulously.

'Yeah I really thought she had higher standards.' Remus commented.

'Lets just say she was willing to make all sorts of exceptions for me.' Sirius said trying and failing to add an air of mystery to the story.

'Let's not ahead of ourselves Padfoot, you snogged for five minutes in a broom cupboard.'

'It was at least ten prongs.'

'She did also get back with her boyfriend later that night.'

'True wormtail but-'

'And don't try and pretend it was anything other than snogging. She was quite clear on that detail.'

'Look Moony, everyone, the details aren't important. The fact is I got to snog a pretty seventh year at a party last week. That's more than any of you can say.'

To this the other marauders had no come back. Remus had not been able to attend the party to it's proximity to the fool moon, Peter was notoriously unlucky with girls and James, well James had other people on his mind.

'Lets go have a bit of fun.' Sirius exclaimed.

'What sort of fun are you thinking of Padfoot?' Peter questioned.

'Well Wormy my friend, it's been a long summer without seeing our Slytherin pals and I'm sure they're dying to see us.'

'I'm freshly stocked up on stink bombs, if anyone is interested.'

'Indeed Prongs, I think Avery and his crew would love a welcome home gift from us.' Peter smirked.

'That's settled then, anybody know where the Slytherins are sitting?'

Remus cleared his throats. 'As a prefect I can take no such part in this plan. On an unrelated matter I did see a few Slytherins returning to a carriage towards the top of the train after the meeting earlier.'

'Oh Moony, you being a prefect has it's perks.'

'Thank you Prongs, now I must go and find the trolly, I'm terribly hungry. I'll see you all back here in say, 15 minutes?'

'Better make it twenty Moony.'

With this James Sirius and Peter left. After a minute Remus did too, walking absentmindedly through the train. With his mind kept busy with thoughts of his mothers face as she had bid him goodbye. His mind was so occupied that he did not notice somebody waking towards him until it was a second too late.

'Lily!'

'Remus!' Lily replied beaming at him. 'Sorry about walking in to you just there, my mind was on other things.'

'As was mine, how are you anyway? Have a nice summer?'

'Yes, things are still a tad tense at home but overall it was very enjoyable. What about you, did you do anything nice?'

'More of the same really, spent a week with James and his family in the country which was nice.'

'I'm sure that was just lovely for James' parents, having four crazy teenagers to care for. Actually, where are the other three? It's pretty rare to see one without the others.' Lily smiled widely.

'They're, erm, busy.' Remus replied unconvincingly.

'I really don't think I want to know what they're doing, do I? In the meantime why don't you come in and sit with us? We won't bite I promise.'

Pleased to have an alibi, Remus followed Lily into her carriage and greeted everyone inside.

'You'll be able to confirm this Remus, did Sirius get together with Melissa Zadrin?' Marlene skipped pleasantries and got straight down to grilling Remus.

'Well, they did snog-'

The girls in the carriage gasped in unison while Marlene nodded triumphantly muttering 'now they believe me.'

'-but, she's back with her boyfriend now and I really don't think she's too proud of what happened with Sirius.'

'I knew it!' Mary exclaimed. 'I knew she wouldn't be with Sirius properly. She was probably off her face.'

'Mary!' Lily called out. 'Sirius is Remus' friend!'

'Really don't worry about,' Remus replied as Mary's face reddened. 'I was very surprised when I heard what happened too, Sirius is just not her type.'

Mary nodded her face still flushed bright read. She had a habit of always saying the exact wrong thing and tact was a thing of mystery to her.

Only a few carriages further up the train, the other marauders sat with bated breath. With the help of James' invisibility cloak the plan was that one would slip in to the Slytherins carriage and when the time was right silently detonate a stink bomb. As James was the owner of the cloak he would be the one to carry out this task. Peter and Sirius would wait outside and then proceed to cause a distraction to allow James to get back out. Once James had exited they would lock the door using an alohamora resistant curse and leave the Slytherins with the repugnant smell in their carriage. For this plan to begin they needed one of the Slytherins to exit so James could slip in. After five minutes of waiting one of the quietest ones left and James entered.

Waiting for the right time to do drop the bomb, James was careful to position himself so that nobody would knock against him. He began to wait.

'- it's nice to have you finally sitting with the right crowd Severus.' Mulciber pontificated. 'But you must understand that if you're going to be with us from now on there can be absolutely no communicating with the mudblood.' Mulciber spat the final word out as if it was dirty in his mouth.

'That shouldn't be a problem' replied Snape drily.

James felt his fists tighten under his cloak. He hated to hear anyone use that word.

Abandoning the plan completely James threw off his cloak and dropped the stink bomb.

None of the Slytherins were able to fully comprehend what they had just seen and stared in disbelief. Using this delayed reaction to his advantage James fired a jelly legs curse at Mulciber just as he tried to stand up. The ensuing result was hilarious, but the carriage was already beginning to fill with smoke from the stink bomb and James knew he needed to leave. Storming out of the carriage James began to sprint signalling for Peter and Remus to do the same.

'What the bloody hell mate?' Sirius yelled incredulously. 'What happened to the plan?'

'Plans change. They were talking about Mudbloods.'

Sirius and Peter both nodded and continued to run. In their haste to leave they has not locked the door and they could hear the Slytherins getting closer. A door opened at random and James was pulled inside.

'Thanks for that.' James said grinning at Remus.

As the three caught their breath they began to take in their surroundings. James scanned the room until his eyes stopped on a furious looking Lily Evans.

'What do you think you're doing Potter. We haven't even arrived at school yet and you're already causing trouble.'

'Look it was the Slytherins, we had to. Surely you of all people would understand that Evans.'

'I deal with my issues in a mature and-'

Lily had no time to finish the sentence however as the door was thrown open for the second time in five minutes and a group of Slytherins entered. The carriage was now extremely cramped and James found himself standing on Hannah Murphy's toe.

'I don't know how you did that Potter but you're gonna be sorry you did.' Knott glared at James.

'Did what?' Sirius asked innocently.

'You were in on it too Black. Once Mulciber recovers he'll come after you.'

'What exactly are you trying to imply we did?' James asked incredulously.

'Y-you snuck in to the carriage and then just magically appeared. You must've dissaperated or something.' Avery replied sounding unsure.

'That sounds highly implausible Avery.' Peter responded.

'Besides, we've been here the whole time. Haven't we Remus -Gryffindor prefect and respectable fellow.'

'Yes, they have. All of them.' Replied Remus.

'Of course he's going to say that he's your friend.'

'Fine,' Peter looked up. 'Ask Evans she's a prefect as well.'

James' breath caught in his throat. There was no way Lily would lie to protect him. Her lips were set in a thin line and she opened her mouth to speak. Suddenly her eyes focused on one of the figures and darkened immediately.

'Yes, yes they were here.'

'That's not true Lily and you know it.' Snape's voice rang out.

'What would the Mudblood know anyway.' Knott muttered.

'This Mudblood knows enough to be a prefect when you're not so unless you want detention before the term starts I'd get the hell out of here.' Lily's voice was icy cold and had the desired effect on the Slytherins as they reluctantly began to file out

'Evans thank you that was... Magnificent.' Sirius winked at her.

'That was not for your benefit. But you're welcome anyway.' Lily smiled softly.

'So much for a quiet start to term I guess.' Mary said to nobody in particular.

'Peace and quite is over rated anyway.' Marlene grinned. 'Now, whatever else may have happened that night the fact of the matter is Sirius did snog Melissa. So if you could all please pay up I'd really appreciate it.'

The rest of the journey passed without event and the students began to exit the train and head for the carriages that would carry them towards the castle. Unsurprisingly, just as the train had pulled into the station Mary MacDonald had announced her dire need for the bathroom. Not wanting to leave her friend alone, Lily agreed to stay back with her and told Marlene and Hannah to go ahead and meet up with the still missing Lisa on the way. It was because of this detour that Lily and Mary were one of the last few to reach the enchanted carriages, meaning they would have to share. This idea was not altogether an unpleasant one to Lily until she realised who was in the only remaining carriage.

'Over here Evans!' came the unmistakable voice of James Potter.

'God please no.' Lily muttered to Mary.

'Afraid there's no other carriages left ladies.' Sirius called. 'Looks like you're going to have to travel with us. Some girls would kill for the opportunity you know.'

'And I am most certainly not one of them.' Lily replied with a grin.

'How come you're both so late? I saw Marlene and Hannah head up a while ago.' Remus questioned.

'Due to Mary's tiny bladder and bad timing.' Lily laughed.

'Lily!' Mary gasped, flushing red with embarrassment.

As everyone bar Mary laughed at this Sirius extracted a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, stuck one in his mouth before passing the packet to James. After James had placed one in his mouth also, Sirius lit both of them up as their carriage took off in the direction of the school.

'Don't be rude Padfoot, offer to share.' James teased 'MacDonald can i tempt you? They're top quality I promise.'

Mary shook her head; 'I'm not really a fan James, can't abide the smell.' Fearing she has insulted James and Sirius Mary, hastily added, '-just when I do it of course, second hand doesn't bother me.'

James grinned back between drags of the cigarette. 'No worries MacDonald.'

'How come I wasn't offered one?' Lily questioned, slightly insulted James had so blatantly ignored her.

'No need Evans, no need. Hogwarts' golden girl would never smoke. Wouldn't want to tarnish that perfect reputation would we?' James' playful tone and infectious grin made it hard for Lily to be insulted.

'You should never assume Potter, didn't your mother ever teach you it was rude?'

'Of course, would you care for a cigarette Evans?' James dramatically stretched out his arm towards Lily dangling a cigarette inches from her face.

Lily sighed. 'Smoking is bad for you, you know.'

At this James and Sirius both laughed heartily. 'Is it really? I've never heard that. How about you Padfoot?'

'Nope, never. Positively insightful.'

By this time their carriage had finally made its way to the castle and the group began to dismount.

'My bet is one day it'll all get too much Evans.' James and Lily had been the last two to get out of the carriage and were now subsequently left with the slightly awkward task of walking to the castle together.

'What will get too much? Having your presence inflicted upon me?'

'That too. But I was referring to your little miss perfect act. Doesn't it get tiring? Don't you ever just have the overwhelming urge to do something wild and crazy that you definitely shouldn't? I mean I've seen you anger plenty of times, mainly at me, but even then you seem.. restrained. When do you ever just let loose?'

'Is this your way of telling me I'm boring Potter?'

'Quite on the contrary Evans. You're a lot of fun to be around, everybody agrees - but that's part of it don't you see? You're everyone's friend, you're the top of nearly every class and you're a bloody prefect. Just appease me here Evans. Please tell me that below that veneer of calm and collection you have at least one bad habit?'

'I have many Potter, stop trying to make out that I'm some super human.'

'Name one then Evans, bet you can't think of a single one.'

Lily could think of one bad habit clearly in her mind but she would not give James the satisfaction of hearing about that.

'Well I, I bite my nails.'

'Dear God Evans you're fatally flawed. How in Merlin's name can you live with such a secret?!'

Lily wasn't sure whether it was the ridiculousness of what she'd just said or the look on Jame's face but she was suddenly overcome with a fit of giggles. For the first time in months Lily laughed properly. Tears began to form in her eyes and her stomach soon ached with the convulsions of laughter. As if it was contagious James after a few seconds was doubled over too and as soon as the others turned around and saw the state of them they followed suit. So this was how they entered the Great Hall, giggling uncontrollably with tears of laughter streaming down their faces. They did not manage to get this laughter under control until the halfway point in Dumbledore's speech. Lily kept her eyes trained firmly on her plate, refusing to make eye contact with any of the others. It was only when she had fully recovered that Lily began to take in her surroundings and noticed that Lisa was still not present. Lily scanned the Gryffindor table, expecting to see her with a new love interest but she was no where to be seen.

The minute Dumbledore had finished speaking and the new defence against the dark arts teacher had been introduced (a rather meek looking woman who didn't look as if she could fight off her own shadow), Lily looked across the table to Marlene.

'Where is Lisa?' Lily hissed. 'Has anybody seen her all day?'

'I saw her at the platform and she said she'd meet up with us later but nobody has seen her since. We think she might've missed the train or something.' Marlene replied, helping herself to mashed potatoes.

Lily was about to speak again before she was interrupted by Melanie Ashford, her sleek red hair swishing behind her as she walked over to Lily. There was nothing wrong with Melanie Ashford. She had always been perfectly nice to Lily and to everyone else, in fact, Lily couldn't think of a single time where they had conversed without a smile fixed on Melanie's face. In spite of this Lily just could not abide the girl. Maybe it was the fact she called Lily her 'red-head rival' partly due their shared hair colour but also because the two were constantly battling for the top spot in all of their classes. Lily did not want to hate her, she really didn't. After all she din't really have a reason to but inexplicably, every time she spoke in that unbelievably high pitched voice of hers Lily had to fight waves of annoyance.

'Welcome back Lil!' Melanie squeaked wrapping her arms around Lily and causing the girl to nearly pass out from the overly sweet stench of her perfume. The only thought going through Lily's head was why in Merlin's name she was calling her 'Lil' as if they were close friends. 'I have the best news ever Lil! I've been made a prefect!'

Lily nearly choked on her food. A prefect? Last year when Lily had been made the female prefect for Gryffindor house ahead of Melanie she had been childishly elated. The return to school last year had been the closest Lily had ever come to seeing Melanie without her manic grin.

'But how?!' Mary questioned, before becoming victim to a coughing fit as she swallowed her Yorkshire pudding without swallowing due to her shock.

'Well,' Melanie giggled looking at Mary sympathetically. 'As I'm sure you've all heard our beloved friend and fellow Gryffindor prefect Brian Desmond isn't returning to Hogwarts this year.' Lily thought of the friendly boy who had been prefect of the year above them. They hadn't spoken much apart from at prefect meetings but what little encounters they had shared had always been pleasant. How had Melanie, who was a year younger been chosen as his replacement?

'Apparently his mother has a rather over-active imagination and banned from coming this year as she doubted the safety of our school. So Dumbledore sent me a letter this summer and asked if i would fill in for the position. That makes Gryffindor the only house in the school with more female prefects in the school! Girl power!'

Marlene who had a short temper with regards to Melanie anyway, seemed to have taken it as a personal insult that she had not heard the gossip about Brian Desmond before now and shot Melanie an acidic glare. ' You didn't just kidnap Brian yourself so you could be the prefect, did you?'

Melanie laughed felicitously, the sugary sweet quality of her voice grating at Lily. 'Oh Marlene you have such a great sense of humor. Anyway, I tried to find everyone on the train at the prefect's meeting today, but nobody told me where it was on. I must've walked up and down the train for an hour but you were all nowhere to be seen.'

'Oh how terrible!' Hannah said trying to hide her laughter behind a napkin.

Missing Hannah's sarcasm completely Melanie replied, 'Don't worry Han, ('again with the nicknames' thought Lily) I got to carry out some prefect duties today. I went in the boats with the first years after they got off the train. It was just so lovely to-'

'Going in the boats with the first years isn't even a Prefect's task. Never has been.' Marlene interrupted.

'I didn't mind at all, I just love to-'

'It's not really a prefect duty than is it?' Mary asked feigning innocence.

Melanie was saved a reply from this by the rather surprising presence of Professor McGonagall at the Gryffindor table.

'Ms Evans, Ms McKinnon, Ms Murphy and Ms MacDonald you had all better follow me.' Lily was worried by the rather concerned tone in Professor McGonall's voice as she led them out of the hall.

'I'm afraid I have some bad news for you all. You're friend Lisa is in the hospital wing. This morning before she boarded the train she took out what she thought was her own compact mirror, however the object was vastly different. We think somebody replaced her regular mirror with a cursed one while she left her bags down to say goodbye to her parents. Seconds after coming into contact with the mirror she began to have convulsions. Once these finished she remained unconscious and was dissaparated to Hogwart's hospital wing immediately. Thanks to the work of Madam Pomfrey she is now okay although she is still in a great deal of pain.

By the time Professor McGonagall had finished speaking all four girls has tears streaming down their faces. Lily could not help but feel incredibly guilty about what had happened and how they hadn't looked for her properly.

'Who did this?' Marlene shouted, the loudness of her voice seeming to shock even herself.

'We are still unsure at this time of who did it, but aurors have been called and will be investigating the matter.'

'Can we see her?' Hannah asked earnestly.

'You may, but you can't stay very long, she is absolutely exhausted and in a lot of pain.' By this time they had reached the hospital wing's and Professor McGonagall held the door ajar, gesturing for the girls to enter.

'Hey Lis, how are you feeling.'

'Pretty shit to be honest.' Lisa's voice was week and shaky, a million miles from what is normally was. Her normally perfectly made-up face was streaked with sweat and her black curls were sticking out in all directions. Her dark brown eyes were the only part of her that looked as they normally did, alert and watching. Seeing her look so helpless stirred something in Lily and she reached out and clasped Lisa's hand in her own.

'Anything you need we're here,'

'All I want is to find the bastard who did this to me.'

Two hours later with their minds at rest that although Lisa was not yet okay she soon would be. As the girls headed towards their dormitory, Lily hung back and promised to meet them there.

'I just want to ask Professor McGonagall about prefect duties. I'll see you up there.'

Walking towards an empty corridor with an open window Lily reached into her robes and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. As she placed one between her lips and lit it up Lily could here James' voice running through her mind. 'Please tell me you have at least one bad habit Evans.' That she certainly did. She hated smoking- always had. When her dad had briefly smoked two years ago she had berated him for it insisting she did not want to lose him to lung cancer. She had started by accident this summer after a blazing row with Petunia. Walking into the sitting room to see a packet of Vernon's cigarettes she had decided to smoke one out of spite, however by six o'clock that evening and before she really realised what she had done, she had smoked the entire packet. She had vowed it would never happen again, yet the very next day she walked around to the corner shop and bought her own packet. By the end of the summer she had begun to have regular cravings and smoking regularly. She did not want anyone to know, nobody ever could. Especially not James Potter. So as Lily stood smoking a cigarette she vowed for the fiftieth time to be her last she thought of James Potter calling her too good to be true, she thought of Melanie Ashford as a prefect and she thought about who on Earth could have attacked Lisa. Lily had wanted change this year and it appeared she would definitely get it. She just hoped some of it would be good.

A/N- So this is my first story on this sight and I hope you like it! I know the chapter is very long so I will try to shorten it down a bit next time. If you've read this chapter and liked it I'd love a review if you have the time. I should have the next chapter up soon :)