Hey! Well, my name's Manal, as you've probably already guessed. Anyways, this is my first ff on ff.net, and so I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. All the characters (except a few minor ones) belong to the one and only J. K. Rowling.

Chapter One:

*~*~*~*

On board the Hogwarts Express

*~*~*~*

"James! James Potter, get up already!" Mrs. Potter's shrill voice broke the silence of the morning.

James opened one of his eyes to see what was going on. He sleepily reached for his alarm clock and brought it closer to himself to see what time it was.

"James! Are you awake? Its already 8!" Mrs. Potter said, knocking on his door rapidly. James got the distinct impression that she had read his mind and put his alarm clock back in its place.

"I'm coming, mum", he said drowsily. He quickly got out of bed and opened the bedroom door to see Mrs. Potter standing with her hands on her hips.

"Finally! Listen, dear, your dad can't take you to the station. Mind if I drive you there?"

James gave his mum a weird face, but said, "Why not? I love being seen with my mum."

Mrs. Potter obviously didn't catch the sarcasm, for she smiled rather lovingly at James. She quickly scanned her son's bedroom, and took in the shirts and jeans lying casually on the floor. Books were stacked untidily on top of lampshades and posters of famous quiddich players were covering every bit of the walls. She gave James a stern look, said "you better clean up this room of yours before you come downstairs for breakfast, young man", and left.

James sighed and took out his wand. He muttered an incantation that lifted all his clothing from the floor and his books from the lampshades, and put them neatly in his trunk. James quickly ruffled his hair. The place looked just like how his mother wanted it. He walked out of his room and went to the room next to his, which was occupied by Sirius Black, James' best friend.

"You awake, Padfoot?" he asked. Sirius was lying in his bed and his head was under his pillow.

"I think", Sirius' voice sounded very muffled.

"Get up. My mum's in a bad mood," James said.

Sirius lazily got out of bed and said, "Prongs, do me a favor. Can you clean up the room and put my stuff on top of my trunk? I'm gonna go to the restroom." James nodded and Sirius left his room. He muttered the incantation he had used to clean up his own room again and in a few seconds, all of Sirius' belonging were in his open trunk. James sat down on Sirius' bed and thought of how fun this summer was, and how quickly it went by. It was the summer that Sirius came and lived with them.

You see, James and Sirius were best friends ever since their first year at Hogwarts. They were an inseparable pair. James and Sirius, along with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew all were what they called "the marauders".

James was the leader of the marauders, and went by the nickname Prongs. He was funny, gorgeous (according to the girls), smart, a prankster and rather arrogant (afterall, who wouldn't be, with such good traits?). James had messy jet black hair which was adored by girls and warm hazel eyes. 

Sirius was James' side-kick, and his nickname was Padfoot. He was very handsome, funny, rather smart, brave, a prankster, and very good with the ladies. He had light brown hair and piercing gray eyes. He was mostly the one who came up with the pranks in the group, and he (along with James) held the record for the most number of detentions in the whole history of Hogwarts.

Remus was the sensible one in the group, and went by the nickname Moony. He was also wise and mature. Unlike James and Sirius, he spent more time in the library then in boys' dorm coming up with new pranks to play on Snivellus.

Peter was the last member of the marauders, and went by the nickname Wormtail. He was different then the other marauders in every way. Unlike the rest, he was not very handsome, a coward, dependant, and rather stupid. He was also the tag along of the group.

James' thoughts were soon interrupted by Sirius' return.

"Hey Prongs. Wow, great job cleaning this place up."

"Thanks. We better get going downstairs before my mum throws a fit," James said, and left the room, followed by Sirius.

*-*-*-*-*-

"So, have you two boys packed all the stuff you need for school?" Mrs. Potter asked at breakfast, smiling fondly at them. Sirius and James nodded in unison. "Great! So after breakfast, we'll get ready and go."

"Mum! Its only 9! We're gonna get there too early!" James said in a whiny voice.

Mrs. Potter raised an eyebrow. "And what's your point?" James sighed and decided to give up. He quickly finished eating his breakfast, excused himself, and went up to his room to get ready.

As James finished packing up his trunk, he couldn't help but think of a certain redhead and how her summer was. Had she gotten a boyfriend, or was she still single? James had been thinking about her the whole summer, and owled several times asking her how she was doing, but got no response in return.

"Jamesie dear, are you ready?" Mrs. Potter's voice brought him back to reality.

"Yeah", he said dully. He lifted his trunk and brought it out of his room. This, he thought, is gonna be one long day.

*********************************************************************

"Oh, Lily, is it just me or is Mick Ryan totally gorgeous?" Gabriella Figg said rather girlishly.

Lily chuckled and looked in the same direction as Gabriella. The platform was crowded with students and parents who were saying goodbye to one another. But Lily quickly spotted Mick and smiled to herself. Actually, he is kind of cute, she thought. "Why don't you ask him out, Gabi?"

Gabi gave her a look as if the answer was quite clear already. Elina smirked at the other two. "He's lost a lot of weight during the summer", she commented, playing with a few strands of her hair.

"Did you guys see Jack Murray? He also looks rather cute", Nada, the last member of the little group of friends added.

"But don't you already have a boyfriend, Nada?" Gabi asked.

"Sirius? Nah, he's a lousy boyfriend. He hasn't written a letter to me all summer."

"Maybe he was just busy", Elina said, casually shrugging. Nada snorted.

"Any guy in your life, Lily?" Gabi asked curiously.

Lily smiled and said, "nah. And im not going to think of going out with any in our year." As her eyes roamed the platform, they landed upon a pair of brown ones, which their owner happened to be someone Lily had never seen before. He looked around the same age as her. He was tall, and very handsome. He had dark brown, untidy hair with dark red streaks. The boy smiled at Lily, who gave a shy smile back.

"Don't be so harsh, Lils! There are some cute ones. Like James!" Gabi commented. Lily broke eye contact with the guy as she turned to look at Gabi instead.

Lily felt sick. "James? God, no way am I ever going to go out with him."

"Thank god, too. I'd hate to see Lily with him", Elina said. For some strange reason that nobody knew, Elina and James always hated each other and never missed out on an opportunity to lower each other's egos. "Speaking of the devil, he's coming towards you from behind, Lil".

Lily rolled her eyes. "Wow, He does look cuter, not that he already wasn't cute", Gabi remarked.

"Oh why don't you marry him already?" Lily blurted, rather annoyed. Someone tapped her on her shoulder and she turned around to see a very handsome James smiling slyly at her.

"Hey Lil!" He said eagerly. His eyes quickly darted towards Elina, who was making a very rude hand gesture to him.

"Hey…" Lily replied, looking rather annoyed with his presence. Gabi and Nada greeted him cheerfully, while Elina gave him a look that said quite plainly that he wasn't wanted.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked Lily, who seemed to be ignoring him.

"Whatever", she replied, not at all wanting to talk to him. Elina gave her a sympathetic glance. 

"I'm going to go look for Sirius. Want to come with me, Gab?" Nada said, sensing that James wanted to talk to Lily alone. Gabi nodded and the two went looking for Sirius. Elina, however, remained with Lily. James gave her a pleading look, which caused her to smirk.

"Fine, Potter. Lily, if he asks you out, say no for me, will ya?" Lily blushed but didn't say anything. Elina went on the train, leaving the two alone at last.

*-*-*-*-*-

"So…" Lily said, breaking the awkward silence that had been caused by Elina's departure.

"You look beautiful", James commented, his voice barely above a whisper. Lily went slightly red, twirling her hair strands with her fingers. James slowly lowered his head towards her's and was about to unite his soft lips with her's, when Lily slapped him across the face.

"Oww!" was his only reaction. "That's harsh!" He put his hand on the cheek that she slapped and pretended to look very hurt. Lily rolled her eyes and walked off before he could stop her. James quickly took his hand off his cheek to realize that a lot of people were looking at him with quizzical looks on their faces. He gave them a look that plainly said "What?" and decided to look for Padfoot.

***********************************************************************

"So she punched you?" Remus asked curiously, taking his eyes off the fields that the train was passing by and looking at James instead. James seemed rather happy, and kept on touching his right cheek which was rather red.

"Not punched, Moony, slapped", he replied, putting a lot of stress on the last word. Remus couldn't help but smile and glance at Sirius to see what his reaction was. Sirius had a rather sly grin on his face.

Peter, however, wasn't as fast as Sirius and Remus in comprehending things, and asked bluntly, "but why are you proud of the fact that she slapped you? I mean, if I were you, I would have been happy if she kissed me, not slapped-"

"Right, Peter. At least I don't consider myself lucky when a girl asks me if I know what hygiene is," James retorted. Peter went red and Sirius smirked. Remus gave James a don't-be-mean look and turned his attention back to the fields. James went on telling Sirius exactly how it happened, and Peter muttered something about having to talk to someone and left the compartment.

"Well", James said after he finished telling Sirius his theory about how Lily really likes him but is under a spell created by Elina to make her hate him, "I better get going to the Prefect's compartment. After all, I am Head Boy." He grinned widely, pointing to the Head Boy badge neatly pinned onto his robe. He quickly left the compartment, followed closely by Remus, who whole-heartedly believed that James had become more narcissistic over the summer.

*-*-*-*-*-

Lily patiently strutted around the Prefect's compartment. She stopped a few times, looking down at her watch to see what the time was, and started walking again. After a few minutes had passed and there still was no sign of the Head Boy or the remaining Gryffindor prefect, she sat down in her seat and said, "I don't think they're coming. Does anyone have any idea who the Head Boy is?"

"Probably Remus," a fellow Gryffindor named Michelle stated, while trying to pin on her Prefect badge. Lily sighed and curled her auburn hair using her fingers.

After what seemed like an hour to Lily, the door of the compartment opened and a tall, good-looking young man walked into the room with a smirk on his face. He was closely followed by a sandy haired Remus, who closed the door and sat down beside Lily. James sat on Lily's other side and casually wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Lily rolled her beautiful dark green eyes and gave him a rather disgusted look. James, however, didn't seem to get the point, and his arm remained where it was.

"Finally", Severus Snape, the Slytherin Prefect muttered under his breath.

"What was that, Snivellus (A/N: I'm a big Snape fan, so I might portray him very differently than a lot of other writers…)?" James asked, a look that plainly said "this is going to be fun" spreading across his face.

Severus' eyes were flashing dangerously at James, and Lily noticed that one of his hands was inching towards his pocket where his wand was sticking out. James also seemed to notice this because he quickly put his free hand in his own pocket, and was smirking at Severus. "Stop it you two", Lily snapped. "Now that we're all here, why don't we each introduce ourselves to the others? After all, we have to work together for the next 9 months…"

James grinned at this. The thought of him and Lily having to work with each other for the next 9 months and possibly having many intimate moments was too good.

Lily began by introducing herself. "My name's Lily Evans. I am a seventh year Gryffindor, and the Head Girl".

She then glanced at Remus who got up and said, "And I'm Remus Lupin. Seventh year Gryffindor, and Prefect". Next came Michelle's turn to speak. "The name's Michelle Smith. I'm in my sixth year, Gryffindor prefect". The person on her left introduced herself quickly, and in a clockwise direction, everyone got a chance to tell the rest who they were. The last person to get up and introduce himself was James.

"As you all already know, I'm the James Potter", he said, flashing his million dollar smile at a few of the girls. "There's no need to tell you what year or house I'm in, since all of you must know. I also happen to be the Gryffindor Quiddich Captain, and a marauder. My hobbies include doing pranks on Snivellus as well as-"

"That's more than enough info", Lily loudly interrupted him, almost bursting with anger at how arrogant he was. James smiled at her and sat down.

"Anyways," Remus said, seeing a need for changing the subject, "Now that we all know one another, I believe its time to give each Prefect the password to their common room." He got up, walked over to a table that had parchments lying on top of it, and called the Prefects for the different houses to come and get their passwords (the passwords were written on the parchments).

**********************************************************************

"How bad was it, Lil?" Nada asked once Lily had come back from the meeting.

Lily sat down beside Elina, who had a look of satisfaction on her face. "What do you mean?"

"Well, who was the Head Boy?"

"Oh. It was James", Lily replied dully. She opened her trunk and took out a copy of *Witch's Weekly* magazine.

"And…?" Nada asked, knowing that Lily wasn't telling them everything.

"And he was being a complete jerk!" Lily shouted, bursting with anger. "He thinks he owns the world!"

Elina couldn't help but smirk. "Its ok Lily, we know", she said caringly, pulling Lily into a hug.

"It's just that…I don't understand how he can be so bigheaded!" Lily remarked.

"Yeah, he is quite arrogant", Gabi commented. "But truthfully, Lily, do you think he's cute?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Well…he is good-looking, but that's not what I want in a guy", she said, choosing her words very carefully. Elina's smirk quickly turned into a frown, and Nada grinned.

*-*-*-*-*-

Meanwhile, in a compartment not too far away, the Marauders could be found surrounded by admirers.

"Yes, of course you can have my autograph", Sirius said, flashing his charming smile at a sixth year Hufflepuff. Peter was giving him envious looks and ignoring his own admirers, which only happened to be two second year girls. James, however, seemed to be enjoying the attention he was getting from the all the girls, and didn't miss any opportunity to flirt with them. Remus, being the only sensible member of the group, was sitting in a corner reading a book.

"Hey James…" one of the girls said. She looked around his age. "Are you and Elina going out?"

James laughed at this question. "No, Teresa". Teresa grinned at him and was about to say something before she was interrupted by a bodiless voice, which announced that they were nearly at Hogwarts. The girls quickly got up and left the compartment to change into their uniforms.

"Melanie, Emma, and Victoria want me", Sirius commented, once the last few girls who were giggling at Sirius left.

James snorted. "Right." Since he was already wearing his school robes, he decided to use his time for thinking up a prank to use on their first day back.

"So how are we gonna make our big entrance?" Sirius asked, once he finished getting dressed. Every year, the marauders would make a spectacular first day entrance, which gave the first years the impression that the marauders were "the best".

"I was thinking that our big entrance should be something along the lines of seduction", James grinned slyly.

Sirius smirked and glanced over at Remus, who had put away his book and had a confused look spread across his face.

*-*-*-*-*-

As the train slowly came to a stop, Lily got off, and, making sure that her Head Girl badge was pinned on neatly, walked towards where Hagrid was standing, helping the first years into their boats. "First years this way!" he bellowed.

"Hey Hagrid", she said. Hagrid looked down at where she was standing and grinned.

"Good day, Lily. Mind helpin' me with the firs' years?" Lily nodded. She started shouting "First years, come here!" and pointed to where the boats were located. A group of confused first years headed in her direction, and when they spotted Hagrid, a look of fear came on their faces. Lily chuckled, remembering when she was new.

"Need help, Lil?" A deep, familiar voice cooed. Lily rolled her eyes and turned around to see James flashing his very charming smile.

"Not really," she replied dryly. She opened her mouth to call the first years towards the boats, when she felt someone's hand on her waist. "Listen, Potter" she growled, turning around and getting ready to slap James. However, she noticed that James wasn't the one who had his hand on her waist. It was a first year boy, who seemed rather lost.

"Um, Miss, where do I go?" he asked timidly. Lily pointed to Hagrid, and the boy, letting go of her waist, walked off in that direction.

"You thought I had my hand around your waist?" James asked, grinning mischievously. He was standing on Lily's left, viewing a group of sixth year girls. Lily ignored him, focusing on what she was to do.

"Excuse me", said a deep voice on Lily's other side. She turned around to see the handsome boy she saw at the platform standing in front of her with a smirk on his face. "Can you tell me where seventh years go?"

So he's in my year, Lily observed. Her heart beat faster. She noticed that he looked very fine from close-up. "Well, the second year students and above have to go to the school via carriages. The carriages are over there", she said, pointing to where the older students were. He smiled charmingly at her (which caused her to blush) and walked off. Lily couldn't help but watch him until he was out of view, not knowing that James was doing the same thing with a look of envy on his face.

Well I'm not crazy I'm just a little unwell, I know right now you can't tell, but stay a while and maybe then you'll see a different side of me. I'm not crazy im just a little impaired, I know right know you don't care, but soon enough you're gonna think of me and how I used to be.