A/N: Hello! This is our first Marauders Story. It will follow the Marauders (and a few others) through most of their seventh year. ~greenkittycat and tawnyangel

Rating: K+/T for mild language

This chapter was writen by: Greenkittycat & Tawnyangel


Lily POV

The day started out like any other. James was poking the back of my head while I walked to the great hall.

"What do you want Potter?" I finally yelled, tired of the nonstop poking.

"Hey, Lils are we back to last names?" he asked playfully.

"Well if you keep poking me then yes!"

He stopped, and put his arm around my waist protectively.

"James, uh, not that I mind, but why are you holding my waist?"

He leaned down gently and whispered in my ear, "Snape."

I nodded and leaned into him a bit.

He was about to tell me something when Sirius came stomping in to the great hall. He looked mad.

James looked at me, then at Sirius. "Go James. He's your best friend." James nodded and kissed my forehead, running off to help Sirius.

As James walked off, I remembered what I had to take care of. I walked out in to the hall and soon heard footsteps behind me.

"Lily?" the person asked. I knew that voice.

I took a deep breath and turned around. "You have one minute to tell me what you want." I said crossing my arms.

"Listen Lily...I know things have been rough between us but..." he started

"No shit Severus!" I covered my mouth. "Oh my god... I didn't mean to say that..."

He laughed "its fine lily, and Severus...what ever happened to Sev?"

"That died with our friendship." I said in a cold voice.

"That hurts Lily." he said, putting a hand over his heart. "Does it hurt you too?"

Thankfully, before I could hex him, Remus came over to us.

"Uh Lily, I hate to interrupt, but your needed in the Great Hall."

"Oh okay. What happened?" I said walking towards the great hall with Remus, leaving Snape standing there all alone.

"Lots of things. First, James followed Sirius in, and they both left. Then, Frank and Alice came in fighting. On parchment. Lastly, I knew you needed someone to end that conversation."

"Okay well one, where the hell did James and Sirius go? Secondly, parchment fighting? Really? And third, thank you." I said, slightly mocking his long list.

"Hey, don't mock my list!" he said while sitting down. "And I don't know. Yes, really look." Remus pointed to Alice and Frank.

Frank angrily passed Alice a scrap of parchment and she picked it up and read it "Oh you did not just go there!" she yelled, writing something of her own on the paper and then passed it back to Frank.

This went on for a few minutes before I decided to ask what was wrong.

"Alice, Frank, what's wr-"

"Stay out of it Lily!" they both yelled.

I turned to Remus. "I think we should stay out of it."

"Oh it can't be that-Alice that is not a nice word!" Remus yelled as he looked over her shoulder.

"Shut up!" she screeched standing up. She took the parchment and left, with Frank close on her heels.

"I wonder what they were fighting about." I said. Remus was about to reply when James came running in the great hall.

"Moony. Come. Now." James said, slightly out of breath, when he reached us. Remus just shrugged and followed him out of the great hall.

"And then there was one." I mumbled to myself. The owls came, and dropped of letters. One was for me. I just stuck it in my pocket for later. I finished my breakfast and then left. Peter surprisingly hadn't shown up today. He was probably with the boys. I decided I would head back to the Head's Common Room for a little while.

While I was walking up to it, I bumped into someone.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked. Why was this day turning out to be so odd?

I looked up, and there was Peter.

"Peter? Why aren't you with the others?"

"I don't know where they are. Come to think of it, the only one of us I've seen all day was Sirius. He got an owl this morning. When he read it he got really mad and stormed off." Peter said, looking down and shuffling his feet.

"Oh. I'm sure everything's all right. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"No."

"Well come on. I'll sit with you, if you want me too."

"Really? Oh that would be great! No one ever really sits with me, not even the guys..."

"Aw, Peter, that's awful! I'll talk to James about it if you want."

"No, no, no don't do that! Really its fine, I understand," he looked down again, "but maybe if you could help me look for them after we eat...I mean you don't have to! If I wander around the castle long enough I'll probably find them..."

"Oh sure, it's no trouble. And I have to talk to James about something before Remus does."

"Oh okay." Peter said. With that we walked off to the great hall. Peter ate quickly and then we headed off to find the boys.

"Maybe we should check the dormitory." I suggested after about ten minutes of wandering. He nodded and we walked to the Gryffindor common room.

We walked up the stairs, and Peter opened the door. "Uh, guys?"

James turned around and stood up. I glanced at Sirius and saw him crying.

"James, can I talk to you, please?"

He nodded. When he came out, he nodded for Peter to go in there with the boys.

"What do you want lily?" James snapped.

"I'm not going to talk to you until you cool down." Lily snapped back.

"Look I'm sorry. It's just that Sirius is having...issues with...stuff and I'm a little tired because last night was a full moon and..."

"It's okay. I understand. And, I have a pretty good guess as to what's making Sirius upset. Is Remus ok?"

"Why would Remus not be okay?"

"Think about that for a second James..."

"Ohhhh! That. Yeah he's okay. A few scratches and all but other than that he's good. And how do you know what's up with Padfoot?"

"I don't know, I have a guess though. Also, he tells me more than you think. Not to mention, some people talk in their sleep..."

"Pssh...I don't know what you're talking about..."

I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I want to tell you something, but I don't want to make you mad."

"Lils you know you can tell me anything." he said, putting his arms around my waist.

I sighed. "Help Sirius, then we'll talk."

He kissed the top of my head and smiled "can't we stay here...just for a minute?" he asked.

"No James!" I said with a laugh, pushing him off me.

"Urgh, fine. After Sirius though, I'm taking you to Hogsmead. I mean, it is that weekend. "

"Awww, okay. But right now you have to go in there." with that I opened the door and shoved him in. I was about to walk away when I heard a bit of their conversation.

"Sirius, it was just a bluff. She didn't really burn you off the family tree." Remus's reasonable voice said.

"Yes they did!" I heard Sirius yell, he sounded as if he was crying. That was when I realized I had never, ever seen Sirius black cry.

I thought I had intruded enough, and ran down the stairs. In the common room, I saw Alice and Frank passing notes angrily. I ran outside, and walked quickly to the Head's common room. When I got there, I pulled a letter I had gotten at breakfast put of my pocket. It was addressed from home.

As I opened it I was overwhelmed with homesickness. The letter was in mom's handwriting and it smelled of her perfume.

Dear Lily,

We miss you so much! I hope your seventh year at Hogwarts is going well. How is it being Head Girl? Hopefully you where paired with someone with a good personality.

I hope that Potter boy isn't being too much trouble this year. I know how much he troubles you.

Tuney has a new boyfriend. You'll most likely hate him. I do. Whereas your father loves him.

Write me back soon, Lily Flower.

Much love,

Rose Evans

I smiled and put the letter down. I noticed there was another one in there. I had a feeling it was from Petunia.

Guess what Lily? I've got a new boyfriend! He's absolutely positively amazing! Father loves him and so does mom...well she didn't come out and say so but I know she does!

Anyway, how's it going at that freak school of yours? Learning new spells to use on me are you? Hahaha.

Can't wait till you come home, you can meet Vernon! Just...no witch stuff okay?

-petunia

It was surprisingly upbeat from my sister, and unusual. Just then, I heard the door open.

"Hey Lils, watcha reading?"

"None of your business." I replied with a slight smile.

"C'mere, let me see it." He said playfully. I grabbed my letters and stood up, preparing for a chase.

"Nope." I said, running out the door, and into Snape.

"Whoa, hey there lily." he said.

"Let go of me!" I screamed.

"Lily?" James asked from behind me.

"Lily listen, I'm really sorry-" Snape started to say but James cut him off.

"Oi Snape, get off my girlfriend!"

"You should be saying the other way around. She was the one on me." he looked at me and smiled. "Not that I'm complaining."

I pushed against him, and he let go of me. "Ahrg! You are disgusting!" I felt James wrap his arm around my waist.

Snape muttered something and looked down at his feet. He then turned around to walk away.

When he was gone, James turned me to face him, and put both hands on my waist. "What did he want?"

"See, uh, James, this is what I wanted to talk to you about. See, while you were with Sirius, Snape started talking to me. He keeps bothering me. But, I don't want you to do anything about it."

"I can't just not do anything about it! If Sirius didn't have so many freaking problems with his stupid family-"

"Thanks James." A voice said from behind us. It was Sirius black.

"Sirius I didn't mean-"

"Save it." then Sirius stormed off.

James was about to go after him, but I stopped him. "Let me handle it."

James rolled his eyes "No offense lily, but if anyone knows how to calm him down, it's me."

"James, trust me. Please."

"Okay whatever." he said, walking off.

I sighed and ran off to find Sirius.

I found him in an abandoned class room punching a wall.

"Sirius? Can I talk to you?"

He turned around and I gasped. His eyes were blood shot and he had tear tracks going down his cheeks. His hair was messy and his knuckles were bloody. This wasn't the Sirius I knew.

I shut the door and locked it. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really, but I will."

Sirius sat down on the floor and I did the same. "I shouldn't even care, you know? So what if they burned me off the family tree, they never cared about me anyway. But it's just...I don't know. "

"Maybe I can explain what you feel. You think that even if they don't like you, they should still love you, even if it's just a little bit. After all, they are your family. And your family's job is to protect and take care of you. But, they won't do that. So, you ran to a family that would. The Potters. And now, your family has done the unthinkable, remove you from their lives. And that hurts more than anything else ever could."

"I guess...I guess that really is kinda how I feel. You know when I was a kid I was the favorite child. I was really close to Bella and Cissy too."

"Bella and Cissy? You don't mean..." I said my eyes widening

"Yes. Bellatrix and Narcissa Black. They were my favorite cousins. I looked up to them. Hard to believe isn't it?" Sirius replied, a sad smile on his face.

"A little. But, not completely hard to believe. Did that change when you where sorted?"

"Yep. You should of seen their faces...Bellatrix looked about ready to murder someone. Same with my mother. Suddenly everyone from my family stopped talking to me...I was officially the 'problem child'" he said with a small laugh.

"Well Hogwarts hasn't brought me much luck with my family either."

"Really? I always thought you had a perfect family. No one can really tell. You're always so happy and upbeat."

I laughed. The kind of bitter laugh that some does when something's ironic. "You'd think that wouldn't you? No, my life is not perfect. My sister hates me because I'm a witch. I've been called every name in the book. Demon, horrible, freak, and so many more. My parents love me, but treat me like I'm fragile. Like at any moment I'll get upset and hex them. Not to mention, all my family and Muggle friends think I'm in a boarding school for mental patients. That rumor was spread by my sister. Also, coming here has messed up my friendship with Severus. We used to be the best of friends. Now, we can't even talk without the other getting angry. It's awful."

Sirius scoffed "That stupid blood traitor doesn't even deserve to be in Slytherin, he's-"Sirius stopped as a horror stricken look crossed his face. "I can't believe I just said that. I'm just as bad as my family, aren't I?"

I, on impulse, hugged him. "No Sirius you aren't, you're better than them. Do you know why?"

"No." he mumbled in my shoulder.

"Because you know it's wrong, not only that, but you care that it's wrong. And that, Sirius, makes you better than them; it makes you, you and not them."

He started shaking, and it took me a minute to realize he was sobbing. I just hugged him tighter and rubbed his back.

"S-sometimes I j-just wish I w-was in Slytherin." he said through sobs.

"Sirius, you're perfect. No matter what anyone says. You want to know why I'm glad you're in Gryffindor."

"Why? It's not like you care. You only care about James...he's all anyone cares about."

"Sirius, that's not true. And you know it's not. I care about you too! If I didn't, I wouldn't be in here, James would! If I didn't care I wouldn't be planning to prank Bellatrix and Narcissa with Remus!"

"Prank them? Sounds epic!" he yelled suddenly happy, but his face dropped just as quickly. "Just...don't be too mean okay?"

"Want to help plan it?" I said, glad that he's feeling better.

"Totally."