A/N: A little - well, OK, a not-so-little - oneshot to help me get out of my writer's block. It's so not-little that it's not even a one-shot anymore. There's at least 2 more chapters, probably more - I might even do the other members of the band, if anyone wants me to (that would make it a series wouldn't it?)! This idea has been annoying me for a while, so I thought I'd just do it and get back to my main story. :D All of the songs (fragments) are of my own creation, though not particularly creative... it's terrible, isn't it? I hope it isn't obvious that I haven't ever read an autobiography in my life... or a biography... maybe this should be a rant of his, or a diary or something? Let me know what you think. :D Oh, and this is just before they finish Seventh-Year, so it's before Peter's betrayal. It might even prevent it. Hey, I did say it's AU! Obviously, James wouldn't tell anyone about them being Animagi or the cloak or the map, so they won't be mentioned directly or by name. Read&Review! Suzi

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A year ago, my life now would've seemed like an unacheivable dream; just a wish that wouldn't come true. I guess hoping always pays off in the end? Or persistence? Sorry, that was really cheesy. I guess that's what you get from attempting to help with the song-writing so much. I think I'll leave it to Moony and Padfoot from now on; they can be surprisingly poetic. Of course, all of Sirius's fan girls adore it when he writes a love song; you should hear them after a concert, arguing about who he was looking at when he was performing. I know for a fact that he doesn't look at anyone specific. Not like me. Of course, no one has to argue about who I'm looking at; she knows it and so does everyone else. I've been in love with her for seven years, you see, and I was rather vocal about it. It wasn't a good strategy, it made her think I was an arrogant arse for six whole years. It was rather painful.

I suppose you're wondering what I'm talking about? Well, maybe I'd better introduce myself. My name is James Potter, and I'm just out of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If you've heard of me, it's because I'm a member of The Marauders, the most famous pranksters of Hogwarts and, more recently, a rather famous band, in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. That doesn't really cause any problems, except concert dress code, since there isn't any difference between a Muggle and Wizarding band. Well, since most of our fans are fairly young, they know the basics of Muggle dress, so it isn't too bad. And we can post magic bulletins around the venue with reminders and stuff about wands. It's not too much trouble, or at least our manager makes it seem as if it's not. Our manager, Frank Longbottom, is the greatest. He's really smart about muggles (I think it's because his girlfriend, Alice, a muggle-born; she's dead useful with that kind of stuff) and he's more of a friend than an employee or employer or whatever. I don't even know who's working for who; we're all in it together. It works better than it sounds like it should, if that makes sense.

So, apart from Frank Longbottom being our manager and Alive being unofficial helper(who're the only Hufflepuffs, by the way; the rest of us are Gryffindors), there's me, James Potter, as the co-lead singer and a back-up guitarist, the beautiful and recent addition Lily Evans as the other co-lead vocalist and keyboardist (between us, we don't need a backing vocalist. We kind of share the vocals), Sirius Black as the lead guitarist, Peter Pettigrew on bass guitar and Remus Lupin on drums. Of course, there are so many other people backstage that need to be thanked properly, but if I named them all properly this would be a very long book - and there's already a lot to go in. Suffice to say, you all know who you are, and I'll thank you all personally next time we have a performance, or if I see you before. That's a promise. The band has been described as a rock band, but I think that our genre is really a bit of everything; we like to have fun with our music, but we do some serious stuff too, and it doesn't all fit into the same genre.

OK, so now that you know, basically, about the band, I'll start from the beginning. The Marauders go way back to First-Year, but Lily wasn't always with us (well, she's been with us from the beginning, which you can read about in a minute, but she wasn't in the actual band until later). In fact, she hated us all with a passion until lately, and I hope she doesn't mind me saying this. She's the girl I mentioned before; the one I've been in love with for 7 years, who hated me for 6. Well, I'm very happy to say that I'm still in love with her, only now it is reciprocated. I love you Lily, and I can't possibly ever say it enough - even though we've only been together for 7 months. Anyway, the Marauders. We all have nicknames, as everyone knows; I'm Prongs; Sirius is Padfoot; Remus is Moony and Peter is Wormtail. To stop confusion, I'll just call them by their real names, unless I'm quoting someone that used their nicknames. People always ask us what they mean, and I'm always give the same answer; can't rock gods have personal secrets too? Joke, joke. Well, truthfully, they're just silly nicknames. Do they have to have a meaning? We made them up when we were 15, for Merlin's sake! Yeah, we were best friends all the way through Hogwarts (and it's still not over!) and then, in Seventh-Year.. well, I'd love to say it was all my idea, but it really wasn't. It was actually - and this is a bit embarrassing for me to admit - all to impress Lily. Here's what happened, in very posh narrative style. I should probably add for legal reasons that Sirius isn't really that much of a pervert... and I kind of regret our dodgy sense of humor now that I have to tell everyone about it.

How It Began

The sun shone over the Hogwarts grounds, heat beating down on the students who were outside - most of them, really. Even some of the teachers had forsaken marking essays and planning lessons to enjoy the beautiful day - it was unusual to have one so late in the year. In mid-October, it was very likely to be the last hot day we had that year. In the Gryffindor Common Room, however, four teenage boys sat in various positions that suggested boredom to observers - and there were plenty of observers. You see, The Marauders didn't just have observers; we had a whole fanclub, practically. Most of it was dedicated to me and/or Sirius, but the other two didn't seem to mind, so everyone just got along with things. We had been outdoor all day every day for the past two weeks, and we knew the whole of Hogwarts better than their own homes. Doing the same old thing was beginning to bore us, but exams were coming up soon, so 'pranking season' (as it had been christened) was well and truly over as people began to revise. What else could we do to occupy their time? Our creativity seemed to have gone with the winter.

"I'm so bored," I said unnecessarily. I was sitting on the one person chair with my head resting on of it's arms and my legs slung over the other. I didn't have any problem making myself comfortable.

"What is there to do? We've already done everything." Peter replied with a yawn, looking at the other two Marauders to see if they agreed. Remus nodded, but Sirius didn't react at all. "Padfoot? Padfoot!" Sirius turned quickly, seeming to have dozed off; as his friends, we knew better. It was never coincidence when Sirius 'dozed off' in the direction of a now giggling girl, in this case a Fourth-Year with long black hair and, now, a very red face. This wasn't an unusual situation for the Marauders, and they had learned to either ignore it or tease Sirius and/or the girl. In this case, they jumped on the opportunity for something to relieve their boredom.

"Sirius, do you have to attempt to - ahem - 'charm' every girl in Hogwarts before we leave?" Remus asked sarcastically.

"A Fourth-Year, Padfoot? Are you a cradle-snatcher or is it just that no one Fifth-Year and above go out with you?" I added.

"He doesn't care about age, he just goes for anyone with hair longer than his..." Peter joked, laughing.

"Hey! I have nothing against short-haired girls!" Sirius retorted in mock offence.

"You have nothing against i any /i girl," I smirked and corrected, turning around so that I was on his side, giving me a better angle to talk to his friends. Of course, it had to be at the precise moment I was turning around that I saw Lily Evans entering the Common Room - she'd probably came from the Heads' Dorms. I remember; she was wearing jeans and this fantastic green top that made her eyes kinda glow. Her curly red hair fell loose on her shoulders, and I - wait, I'm getting off subject. Well, I would've greeted her, but it wasn't necessary; while I was watching her come through the Portrait Hole I moved the slightest bit too far and my chair, large as it was, toppled over, sending me crashing into a small coffee table which, thankfully, stayed intact. I groaned and rubbed my head, which had been the first body part to hit the table. All of my friends laughed (Yeah, thanks guys!), while everyone else rushed over to see if I was alright, however they were laughing too. Lily was first to get to me, having been fairly close and the reason I fell (not that she knew it at the time). She leant over me to check I was OK.

"Potter- Potter are you OK?" She asked, looking concerned, even if she was giggling quietly. I was tempted to laugh myself, as soon as my head stopped throbbing. But it was the fact that she looked just a little bit concerned that made me decide (yet again, and against my friends' advice) to chance my luck.

"I see -" I said faintly, like they always do in those weird Muggle movies when they're supposedly dying, "a light... an angel... red hair..."

"You're an arse, Potter. I thought maybe that would've knocked some sense into you." She replied, straightening up again and turning away. As she left, I saw her stick these round things in her ears, and wondered if they were earplugs so that she didn't have to listen to anymore of my crap - and I suppose I did talk a lot of crap where she was concerned. Well, I got up and used my wand to fix my chair, plonked myself back on it and stared in disbelief at my still laughing best friends.

"It wasn't that bloody funny!" I said incredously (because it wasn't. I don't care if it sounds it, but it was incredibly painful and I am reassured every day that I lost many brain cells in that fall). "Anyway..." I said, trying to change the subject, "can you believe it? She put in ear plugs after I spoke to her! Ear plugs!" This caused another outbreak of laughing, Sirius and Peter because they thought a girl put in ear plugs just to block me out, Remus because his dad was a Muggle, so knew that it was really an enchanted CD player. He enlightened me to that fact, which didn't stop Sirius and Peter's laughing, but kind of eased the hurt. "So she can hear music through them?"

"Yes, it's a muggle thing," Remus explained, "it plays music off of a disc that stores certain songs. If she wants a song that isn't on the disc, she has to change to a disc that does have them. Each disc can hold different amounts of songs, but it's usually about... 12 or so?"

"I wonder what kind of music she likes..." I said, only taking in part of his explanation. (I have since been enlightened more on CDs, and they're actually pretty cool, if they have decent songs on them. I don't see why she couldn't just use her wand, though.)

"Well, I was talking to her the other day," he began, but I cut him off before he got any further.

"WHAT?" I wasn't angry, more... shocked. She hated us poor Marauders... so why would she be talking to Remus? She didn't even talk to me all that much, and I was Head Boy, and she was Head Girl! OK, admittedly, she spoke to me then more than she used to, and it was certainly a lot more civil than it used to be... in fact, now that I thought about it, when I wasn't trying to chat her up/charm her/flirt with her or otherwise flatter her, we could almost be friends. Almost.

"I was talking to her?" Remus repeated, looking slightly alarmed, and even more than slightly alarmed.

"But - but I thought - I thought she hated the Marauders?"

"She never actually hated me, it was more of an association thing... she hated you and Sirius, because you were, in her words, 'arrogant toerags'. There were a few more words... she doesn't hate Peter but thinks he needs to grow some, but apparently I was always quiet. And being a Prefect helped, too, I suppose. And anyway, she doesn't so much hate you as people anymore... more the fact that you seem to be obsessed with her. Sometimes." He added hastily. I think that I should take the opportunity to point out that I was not in any way obsessed with her... there's a thin line between love and obsession!

"I do not! But - wait, she doesn't hate me? She does a good job of pretending she does!" I knew I was getting off of the subject, but I could always ask him again later.

"Like I said, she hates that you always act all... I don't know... not you around her."

"I called her a friggin angel! How is that offensive?" I asked... I thought girls liked compliments? Every other girl I'd spoken to did. Obviously I was missing something. And since when did Moony know so much about girls anyway? I didn't think much about it at the time, but I realized later that the whole 'sensitive and understanding' thing really helped him out.

"It's not, really, but... you know, if she'd let you carry on, you would've gone over the top and tried to impress her and stuff like that." OK, I had to admit he was right, but...

"How exactly is that not me?" I replied, with a childish 'hahaha, I outsmarted the smart one' air about me. His expression was getting more and more exasperated by the sentence, and I could tell he didn't know how to phrase whatever he was trying to say... well, it's not as if I was trying to make it difficult for him!

"OK, maybe that is you, but... why don't you try, er, toning it down a little?" He rephrased what he'd been trying to say for ten minutes now. (Just in case anyone is wondering, Sirius and Peter were having a conversation of their own about a certain Fourth-Year Gryffindor Sirius seemed to be interested in, but I didn't really care at that particular moment.) "You can still keep it up with the, er, 'romantic gestures', but try and be a bit more subtle. Why don't you," he looked as if he was thinking hard, and then his mind seemed to fall back on the subject of music, "try writing her a song?"

I brightened up a little. Not only did this give me a way to relieve my now non-existent boredom, but it gave me a much better idea. And I told my friends so.

"That's it! One thing we haven't done yet..." I could tell by Remus's face that this wasn't what he meant by 'toning down', but I was bored..."Let's start a band!" I said excitedly. Sirius and Peter apparently weren't as absorbed in their own conversation as I thought, because they broke off. We all said everything at once, which ended up as an excited din, but it was an anonymous decision; the Marauders were soon to be The Marauders!

Lily's Song

So that was how we got the idea. Starting the band was a different thing altogether; we had to buy instruments and find somewhere to practice. We stumbled across a room in Hogwarts (I won't tell you where, because we still use it) that's enchanted to suit your needs. Say if we need better acoustics, the room would adjust itself to give us them. It was heaven for us, because it had anything we could ever ask for - it even had instructions and lessons on how to use the instruments! We took to it like mer-folk to water, we looked the part and we sounded great. It gave us loads of confidence; I wrote my song for Lily ("I Can't Break This Spell"), and by the beginning of December, we had a whole repertoire of songs that we had written. I bet you can guess what happened next. I'll give you a clue; look at the month.

We went to the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. He was delighted that we'd 'undertaken such a creative extra-curricular project', and agreed to let us play at the Christmas Feast. There were notes posted on all of the bulletins saying something along the lines of; "As most students are leaving for their homes on December 21st, there will be a very special entertainment provided after the feast on December 20th. A rock band has been booked to play in the hall, all students may attend. The concert will end at 10:00PM."

Of course, what student wouldn't want to go to a concert? Everyone was really curious about who was playing, but we kept quiet about it. We had all our songs planned out; my song to Lily, our own original song, would be the finale. We were all on an adrenaline high for the two weeks before it; it was exhausting. I don't think anyone else slept either; they all thought we were planning a prank or something. No one even came close to guessing the truth; it didn't help that we kept disappearing to practice.

When the night of the concert came, we had all our stuff ready in the little chamber off of the hall... you know the really cold one they take you into before being Sorted? We had all our instruments, equipment and clothes ready in there. I can't really remember much about that dinner, but I do remember that my stomach was churning, and I kept glancing at Lily. She flashed me a small smile the first time she caught me - making my stomach churn more - but by the sixth time, she just rolled her eyes. I think by this point she could tell that I was planning something to do with her during the concert, but I don't think she had any idea what would happen; she probably thought I was going to ask her to dance or something. In fact, she was probably planning her careful rejection at that point... hopefully, by the end of the night, I'd be able to change her mind. The band had been started because I wanted to impress Lily, but it was much more than that now, and it would continue whether or not my 'plan' worked.

The Great Hall was cleared after dinner as everyone went to get ready. In the crowds, we lingered behind and slipped into the chamber. We changed quickly. Our outfits weren't dressed-up in a suit and tie sense - obviously, since Dumbledore had said it was a rock concert, but they were just past the point of casual. We all looked quite good, actually; Sirius especially, since his long hair really looked the part. We quickly set up and tuned up our equipment, testing the microphones and we even had a lighting desk, which was on a timer. The doors would open at 9:00PM (dinner had finished at 7:00PM tonight).

Right on schedule, the doors flew open and students walked inside. There was a black curtain around us, so we couldn't see, but we could hear the giddy chatter and our spirits lifted. When everyone was in their seats, the room blacked out. It was so dark that no one saw the curtain opening. There was immediate silence as Remus played a bar's drum beat, setting the speed for our first, uptempo song. People started to clap along with the beat already. Then Peter kicked in, and then after a bar, Sirius. The lights blasted on and everyone screamed in recognition of us as I started to sing.

It was one of the most fantastic feelings in the world. My stomach, which had been churning before, felt like it had dropped completely, but not in a bad way. Pure bliss, adrenaline, exhilaration pumped through my body as my heart sped up and I really got into the song. I took the mic off of the stand and started to really perform instead of just singing. I would've been exhausted by the end of it, but I was on an adrenaline high that I could tell would last well into the night, even after the concert was finished. I knew all of this, and yet I didn't think; I couldn't, my head was buzzing along with the rest of my body. I looked out into the audience and saw that I wasn't the only one who was enjoying myself; everyone was dancing along, and attempting to sing the choruses when the words had been repeated enough that they knew them. And then I saw her.

Lily. She was enjoying herself, yes - probably the most out of everyone - but she also looked like she was in complete and utter shock. I don't blame her; I think I might've been numb for a while myself. Her eyes were all lit up - she looked beautiful. Seeing her made me put even more into my songs, although I'm not sure how it was possible, since I'd been putting in everything I had already.

After 5 songs (that lasted about 15 minutes all together) we stopped.

"Hey, everyone, are you having a good time?" I said energetically. I am, generally, used to crowds anyway, on the Quidditch pitch, so it wasn't new to me... talking to them was new, but it just came naturally. I suppose I'm just confident... the replying roar I received boosted it even more. "Great! We really hope The Marauders were a good surprise for you... and it ain't over yet!" There are several hundred people in our school, staff included, so as you can imagine, they made quite a noise when they really wanted to. "We are, however, going to be taking a 25 minute break, when we'll be listening to a live wireless feed with some great songs! At about twenty-to, we will be back up here, so make sure you're here then, 'cause we've got a great finale!"

We turned off the amps - leaving the levels the same so we didn't have to set up again - and got down from the stage. We were immediately ambushed by crowds of people (mostly girls) complimenting us and asking us questions. Sirius openly enjoyed it, whereas Peter and Remus just had small, tolerant smiles on their faces, trying to pretend that they didn't like the attention. I, however, was fending off the questions as I scanned the crowds. I think it should be pretty obvious by now who I was looking for - there's more about her in this book than there is about me! She would make a much better cover than I would, though, so I suppose I'll need to refer the publishers to her.

It took me five minutes to find her, next to the refreshments table, talking with a friend. My timing was perfect, too, because her friend wandered off as soon as I got there (I have a feeling she wanted to leave Lily alone with me - I'll have to write her a thank you note).

"Hey, Lily," I said, smiling, noting that the knot in my stomach was back; I really hoped she liked the stuff, so that she stayed for the finale. If she didn't it would all be pointless.

"Hi, James," she replied. The fact that she used my first name instead of my last made me feel so much more at ease... it meant she wasn't mad at me or anything.

"So, what do you think?"

"I'm surprised," she said, and I could tell she was being honest. "I didn't know you had it in you," she joked. "It's really good. Did you guys write all the songs?" And those three words were like a Vanishing charm; just like that, the nerves were gone, and the adrenaline took over again.

"Yeah, we've been at it for months now, since the middle of October... it's really fun. We're never bored any more, because practicing is actually fun."

"So music's your new pranking," she joked, "I really never thought I'd see a school band at Hogwarts; you're probably the first ever. What gave you the idea?"

"Er, well, not exactly. A boy can have more than one hobby, can't he?" I joked, quite unaware of how stupid I sounded. "I looked it up; we are the first. It's only recently that wizards have adapted electric muggle instruments like the guitars, amps and mics, so if they'd made one before, it would've been too quite for anyone to hear anyway." I thought carefully about the question... should I tell her that she was my inspiration? I didn't see any harm in it... "You, actually. Remember the day I fell on that table in the Common Room?" She nodded in response; it was hard to forget the famous Chaser, James Potter's incredible fall. "When you walked away, I saw you put some headphones in your ears, only I thought they were ear plugs. Moo- er - Remus explained to me that you could hear music through them... and, well, we just started talking about music and stuff. We were really bored, and decided it would be a cool thing to do." I explained. The explanation satisfied her and I continued to make small talk for the rest of the break. Glancing at my watch and seeing that it was almost time to go back on, I said, "I really hope you're having a good time. I have to go now, but I'll talk to you later. Make sure you stick around for the finale, yeah?" With her smile and nod, I turned my back on her to walk back to the stage, conveniently hiding my huge grin from her.

The next few songs were just as breathtakingly electric as the first. We started to wind down the tempo, then, at five minutes to ten, it was time for the last song. My nerves were twisting again, but the excitement took over.

"OK, guys, it's almost time to go, so this will be the very last song," my eyes sought her out, to find that she, like everyone else in the room, was watching me. She gave me a tiny smile, which I unconsciously returned, "I want to tell you all a little bit about this song." This is it, Lily, I'm putting my neck on the line for you, I remember thinking, this is the last think I can think of. "This was the very first song we wrote. I wrote the lyrics myself, because I had someone very special in mind." Oh crap, I can't do it. I've already started - I have to. Just do it! "This song, "I Can't Break This Spell" goes out to Lily Evans."

The music started. I heard people whistling, while others glanced around, looking for Lily and her reaction. I could see her, but her face was blank. I couldn't tell if she was happy, angry, surprised, sorry for me - any sign would've helped, but I had no time to look, since the intro was ending. All I could do was hope for the best.

I only act like this,
'Cause I love you,
You can deny it,
But you know it's true,
I just can't help it,
Can't you tell?
I know you don't like it,
But I've fallen under your spell.
Can't you give me just one chance?
Won't you save me just one dance?
This is all I ask of you;
Nothing more, nothing less.
Cos now I'm under your spell,
I have something to confess.
I can't break this spell,
I can't break this spell,
I can't break this spell,
I can't break this spell.

The rest of the hall was swaying to the music, but Lily was still unreadable. The verse broke out again. I can't remember exactly how I felt for the rest of the song, but I was desperate to get Lily's reaction. There was tumultous applause at the end of the song (louder than ever before), but I lost Lily in the crowd; everyone stood up and moved about in a very confusing manner.

"Alright, everyone!" I tried not to seem distracted, and after years of lying to teachers, pulled it off satisfactorily, "We really hope you've enjoyed the very first performance of The Marauders, and we guarantee you'll hear from us soon! But for now, goodnight everybody!" There were more screams, more clapping as we headed off to the chamber.

"Merlin's head, that was AMAZING." Sirius exclaimed when we were in the chamber. All of a sudden, the room was full of incomprehensible, adrenaline-fueled, more-than-excited shouting. We needed to get rid of at least some of this energy somehow, and the best way we knew how was to run about and shout as fast and loud as we could without injuring ourselves too badly. After a few minutes, we had to tidy up the Great Hall, with much congratulations from the Professors. I still swear, to this day, that Professor Dumbledore winked at me, and even now I wonder why, when he mouthed something to me, it looked so much like 'good luck'.