Disclaimer: I wish I owned the characters, but unfortunately, I don't. JK Rowling does.

Summary: We begin the sixth term, Lily and James are already going at it, and it's sure to be an interesting first night at Hogwarts.

When the World Turns Upside Down

By: Rowena Paolini

Chapter One: Something Else…

"You are the most insufferable prat I have EVER the misfortune to meet!" Lily Evans practically yelled.

It was only the first day of the sixth year term, and already she and James Potter had already begun to fight. It seemed that their year long tete a tete was going to start early this year. No one even knew why they fought. The fact that they both had fiery tempers had something to do with it, but on the whole, if their tempers were in check, they got along quite well. In truth, Lily Evans and James Potter were rather good friends. The problem was, half of the time they were fighting.

"I can't believe that you'd say that!" Lily continued. "I don't even know how you would know that!" She immediately shut her mouth, knowing that her admittance had cost her dearly.

"So it is true! And to think that I called you two my best friends!" James stormed out of the Great Hall, knowing that he would have to forgive their betrayal sooner or later. James Potter was rarely without his right side, Sirius Black, who, as he just found out, was dating his other dear friend, Lily Evans.

The three were nigh inseparable, and the rest of their bonny group included Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Aremysia (sounds like air-uh-miss-ee-uh) Riley (preferably called Aremys), and Rowena Thompson. It was true that Sirius and James had been friends nearly since birth, and thus, were the closest, but the group was close-knit.

James didn't know why his newly acquired information bothered him so much. The two people who understood him best deserved each other certainly, but James had a feeling in his gut that anything between Sirius and Lily would end quickly. They weren't suited for each other at all. Sirius constantly made jokes and light of everything under the sun (A/N: Pardon the pun), whereas Lily, who enjoyed fun enough, was slightly more reserved and studious. Oh, Sirius was intelligent, he had scads of brains; he just never cared about school work. There was no way this was going to work out. There was something else nagging at James's mind, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Meanwhile, Lily was actually feeling quite terrible. She hated the fact that she had deceived James, but on the other hand, he could have taken the news in a calmer way. She couldn't be a hypocrite; she had a terrible temper too. But she had dated Remus last year, only to end in the friendship that continued to this day. Lily could not for the life of her figure out why James was so angry. There was something else that was nagging at her mind, but she couldn't figure put her finger on it either.

Later… Lily was lying awake in her bed, staring at the ceiling, and just wishing that James Potter would disappear in thin air. All he ever did was add complications, she thought. At one moment, he was loyal, funny and sweet. But at all of the other moments, he was a typical teenage boy; obnoxious, annoying, and rude were all of the qualities that fit James to a't.'

Lily wandered downstairs, hoping that sitting in front of the fire in the common room would cure her insomnia. And what luck, James was sitting down there too, with his fellow Marauders (a group which consisted of Remus Lupin, the brains of the operation; James and Sirius Black, the one's who thought up their various pranks; and Peter who seemed to just be along for the ride, but often helped Remus with the ways to carry out the devilish pranks). That was all she needed, the Marauders asking her what she was doing up; and she certainly didn't want to encounter Sirius or James at the moment, so she contented herself by sitting on the steps and listening to the murmurs of some of her best friends.

"Hey! Evans! What the bloody hell are you doing on the stairs? That's no place for anyone to be. You could get tripped over," Sirius inquired, as he nearly fell over Lily on his way up the stairs.

Lily was instantly jolted out of her sleep. Miraculously, she had managed to fall asleep. She hadn't counted on falling asleep, so now she would have to speak to both of those she wished to avoid. "Huh?" she said sleepily.

Sirius heaved Lily up off of the step she was on, and brought her down to the common room. He set her on one of the couches, and surprising, she got no snide comments from any of the boys, and they merely walked up the stairs, that is, all of them except for James.

"What is it James? Aren't you tired?"

"Yes, but talking to you is more important at the moment," he replied seriously, and continued. "Why is it we fight so much Evans?"

Straight to the point was not James's style, so Lily took him seriously. "Well, I suppose it's the fact that we're so opinionated, and just can't help it. I mean, we don't argue with anyone else really; I guess it's just because that's what we've always done. Besides, if you didn't act like such an idiot all the time, I wouldn't get angry, and the fights would never start in the first place."

"And therein lays our problem! We're both so determined to be right, that we attempt to incite the other's anger!"

"I don't do it consciously," Lily protested.

"Neither do I."

"I guess we just try to watch ourselves more often, I suppose."

"I think the best bet would be to just watch our tempers."

Lily laughed at that one. There was no way on the planet that they would ever fight less, but at least they could make the attempt to make things better. They would go at it tomorrow, same as usual.

"Ok, ok, I know that won't happen. Anyway, I really am sorry about earlier. I don't know what came over me."

"Me neither. You had a perfect right to react the way you did. I am going out with you r best friend after all." Lily managed a sheepish smile for his sake. She still didn't know why he was so angry. He hadn't had a problem with her dating Remus, so she didn't know what the problem was. Well, it was too late to discuss anything else.

Lily got off the couch and started upstairs. "Goodnight James," she called. "I'll see you in the morning."

" 'Night Lily."

Author's Note: Please Review!!!