Author's Note: I've been a big fan of Harry Potter for several years. A few weeks ago I stumbled across some Tumblr posts for the Marauders Era, and I was immediately hooked. I've since gotten quite attached to Lily Potter, so this story was born. The premise is fairly simple. There will be one chapter for every year that Lily knew the Marauders. Each chapter will be divided into four parts that each look at Lily's growing relationship with a different Marauder. The Marauders may cross over into each other's sections, and certain other characters will also feature briefly as it goes on. But each of a chapter's four parts will have at its core a key moment in Lily's relationship with one of the four boys. The end result will hopefully be a broad view that shows the arc of each of those relationships through the years. This first chapter is fairly light because they've all just met. But as the story goes on, the chapters will get more serious and the characters will become deeper. This is my first time writing these characters, so hopefully it's okay. I'm trying to keep things canon, but if I do tweak something for the sake of the story, sorry. Also, the lyric I used in the summary of this story is from the great song "Living Louder" by The Cab, which seems to me like it could be a theme song for the Marauders. And now, without further ado, here is chapter one. Enjoy!


Hogwarts: Year 1

From the moment Lily Evans met James Potter, she knew she didn't like him. His pure arrogance alone would've been enough to turn her away. But he was also mean to Severus, Lily's best and only friend. And that made Lily angry. There was nothing Lily hated more than a bully.

Still, her parents had raised her to be the bigger person. So that's what she tried to be. She ignored James to the very best of her ability, something that was rather difficult since she had all her classes with him and the other Gryffindor girls kept carrying on about how dashing he was. In spite of it all, Lily managed to hold the high road for almost the entire first week. Which might not sound like much, but considering what an arrogant toerag James could be, Lily considered it a personal triumph.

It was the end of the first week and the first years were outside for broom practice when Lily finally retaliated. James was a natural on a broom. Which would have been fine, except that he knew it. He soared around the training grounds like a regular Quidditch star, clearly showing off for the benefit of his new mates. Lily was only decent with a broom. But since this was only their second lesson, she wasn't too worried. There would be plenty of time to improve. Severus, on the other hand, was having a bit of a difficult time. He could get the broom going just fine, but he had trouble staying on. Balance, it seemed, was not exactly his strong suit. And unfortunately for him, James had noticed.

Lily was hovering just above the ground giving her best friend a pep talk when James finally saw fit to land his broom and join the rest of the mortals on the ground.

"Having a bit of trouble, are we, Snivellus?" James called.

Severus lifted his head to say something sharp, but instead toppled off his broom. James and his cronies immediately burst out laughing.

"Are you sure you're even a wizard?" a boy with shaggy dark hair asked.

"Don't listen to them," Lily said, landing her broom beside Severus. "They're idiots."

Severus quickly pushed himself up off the grass and dusted off his robes. He glared over Lily's shoulder at the other boys as he angrily grabbed up his broom.

"Oh, are you gonna cry, Snivelly?" James taunted.

Severus reached a hand under his robe, instinctively going for his wand.

"Don't," Lily hissed. She shot out her hand and placed it on top of his. "You'll get in trouble."

"Listen to your girlfriend, Snivellus," the shaggy haired boy yelled.

"Let a real wizard show you how it's done," James said confidently.

He mounted his broom as his friends began to whistle and clap. Severus' jaw was so tightly clenched that it was a wonder it hadn't gone through his skull. Lily could feel him shaking in anger. And just like that, something inside of Lily snapped.

She began to cough furiously, her hand coming up to cover her mouth.

"Lily?" Severus asked in concern.

"Alright there, Evans?" James called from atop his broom.

"Maybe she's allergic to losers," a smaller boy said.

James' chuckle of agreement was abruptly cut short by his broom shooting off through the air. It was only sheer reflex that saved James from being flung off. Of course, then he was stuck clinging to a broom that seemed to have suddenly gone mad. It zigged and zagged madly across the grounds, climbing steeply into the air only to plummet toward the grass below. So James did the only reasonable thing for a proud Gryffindor from a long line of pureblood wizards to do. He screamed like a little girl.

"Help!" he yelled. "Somebody help!"

What mild structure the class might have possessed immediately dissolved as all of the students herded together and stared up at the bucking broom. James was truly a sight to behold as he clung to the wild broom for dear life. Madam Hooch, who had been helping Bertram Aubrey, finally took notice of what was happening. She had her wand out in a flash. A few hurriedly shouted spells were all it took for the broom to grind to a halt in midair. It hung there suspended for a long second before dropping the short distance to the ground and spilling James across the grass in a very undignified manner.

Madam Hooch was beside him in an instant, quickly assessing him for injuries. The rest of their class eagerly gathered around as James sat up with a moan. Only Severus and Lily remained where they had been standing.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Severus said quietly so only Lily could hear. "You weren't coughing. You were hexing his broom."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lily said innocently. But the corners of her mouth were twitching.

Lily would never tell anyone what she might or might not have done that day on the training grounds, mostly because she didn't view it as one of her finer moments. James himself wouldn't figure it out until their fifth year when Avery cursed Mary MacDonald and Lily proceeded to have another coughing fit during his next Quidditch match just before his broom went wild and crashed him into the stands. Avery would leave the Quidditch pitch with a concussion and a broken arm. James, on the other hand, would walk away convinced he was in love with Lily Evans. He would never tell her that he knew she had hexed his broom in their first year, just as she would never tell him that she had done it. But on the day that it actually happened, they were still only eleven and had no idea just how entwined their fates would prove to be.

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Homework piled up quickly for the first years. Some of them complained about the workload, but Lily loved it. She wanted to know everything she could about the magical world she had stumbled into. That desire would have dissipated by her second year, although the wonder of magic would never truly leave her. But right then it was all still new and bright and, for lack of a better word, magical. So in the rare stretches of time she wasn't running around with fellow Gryffindors Mary Macdonald and Marlene McKinnon, Lily was in the library reading up on anything and everything magical.

About a month into school, she picked up a few books on hexes. A group of older Slytherins was getting extremely irritating in their treatment of Lily's fellow first years, and she had decided it was high time to do something about it. She was about to take her stack of books to one of the carrels to read on her own when she caught sight of a boy sitting alone at a table pouring over a star chart. Lily hardly knew anything about him except that he was a Gryffindor, fairly quiet, and tended to keep to himself. Which made him exactly the sort of person who needed a friend. And Lily was nothing if not friendly.

She walked over to the table and set down her books on the end. The boy looked up in surprise.

"Mind if I sit?" Lily asked.

"I… no," the boy stammered. He grabbed a large book that was spread out on the table and scooted it over to make room. "Please."

"Thanks," Lily said with a grin. She held out her hand as she sat down. "I'm Lily Evans. We're in the same house."

"Remus Lupin," the boy said.

He took Lily's hand, and they shook.

"What are you reading?" Lily asked, looking down at the open book Remus had pushed aside. It was currently open to a drawing of a werewolf. "Werewolves. That sounds depressing."

Remus quickly flipped the book closed.

"It's sort of a hobby," he said. He looked away, his lip held firmly between his teeth.

"Most people think they're scary," Lily said. "But I think they're sad. It's not their fault they're like that. They didn't ask for it. Just like I didn't ask to be a Muggle-born."

Remus looked up with a strange expression on his face.

"You're a Muggle-born?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lily said. "Got a problem with that?"

She had quickly learned that some of the other students thought there was some kind of blood hierarchy among wizards. Children from pure wizarding families were somehow better than those born to Muggle families. Lily thought it was all a load of rubbish. If a magical child could be born to a Muggle family, then didn't that prove that magical ability had nothing to do with blood? Still, she had already received her fair share of insults, and she was all set to defend her honor. But instead of calling her one of those horrid names some of the other students tossed around, Remus actually grinned.

"No," he said quickly. "I think it's brilliant. I'm a half-blood."

"Brilliant," Lily said, returning his grin. "Let's be friends then."

"Friends?" Remus asked. His eyes looked about to leap out of his head. "I've never had a friend."

"Never?" Lily asked in surprise. Remus shook his head. "Well, you can be mine."

"Thanks," Remus said. Lily had never seen a smile as big as the one on his face just then.

"You're welcome," Lily said as she flipped open the first book from her stack. Remus looked down at the star chart in front of him and sighed.

"Have you done the astronomy homework yet?" he asked, looking back up. "I'm trying to learn the stars we were assigned, but there's too many and I can't keep them straight."

"Marlene taught me a trick to help remember them," Lily said. "I can show it to you if you like."

"Okay," Remus agreed.

He pushed the star chart closer to Lily, and they bent over it together. As the minutes steadily turned into hours, they ended up talking far more about Muggle things than the stars. But if they were really honest, neither of them really minded it too much.

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It didn't take long for Lily to become known as something of a master with hexes. She was particularly good with the stinging hex. And she had no qualms whatsoever about using it on bullies. In fact, she quickly became something of a defender of victimized students, especially when they weren't purebloods. Since her own victims rarely wanted to admit to being hexed by a young girl and most of the professors liked Lily too much to believe it anyway, she had yet to get in trouble for it.

It was early afternoon, and Lily was heading to Potions when she caught sight of three older boys in Ravenclaw colors gathered around a corner where a boy in Gryffindor robes was hugging the stone wall. He was a small, scrawny lad who had taken to tagging after James and the Black boy. But right now neither of his champions was in sight. And he looked downright terrified.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lily asked, marching up to the group.

The Ravenclaw boys, third and fourth years, turned around in mild surprise at the interruption.

"What does it look like?" the biggest boy asked with a cruel smile. "We're giving a lesson in respect."

Lily squared her shoulders and looked up at them with as much anger as she could manage. And considering she was a redhead, that was quite a lot.

"Leave him alone," she said dangerously.

"Oh, look who thinks she's tough," one of the boys chuckled.

"Maybe you need a lesson too," the biggest boy said.

He took a step forward, clearly meaning to grab her. But he never got the chance. Lily's wand was already in her hand, and it only took a split second for her to fling a stinging hex. It struck him right in the face. The boy howled and clutched at his face as it began to swell.

His two mates made as if to move forward, but they stopped when Lily leveled her wand.

"I know plenty more if you're feeling left out," she said fiercely.

The oldest boy pulled one hand away from his face, revealing that his left eye was already swollen shut.

"You're gonna regret this," he hissed.

"I doubt that," Lily said flatly.

The older boy gave her a deadly glare before storming off down the hallway. His two cronies hurried after him, leaving Lily alone with the Gryffindor boy.

"Thanks," he managed in a shaky voice.

"You can't let them get to you," Lily told him. "They pick on other people because they don't like themselves. If you stand up to them, they'll leave you alone."

"I'll try," the boy said. He didn't sound too sure.

"I'm Lily, by the way," Lily said. She smiled, and the boy tentatively smiled back.

"Peter," he said in a slightly stronger voice. "Peter Pettigrew."

"Come on, Peter," Lily said warmly. "We're going to be late for class."

She started off down the hall, and after a brief hesitation, Peter followed after her.

Word of what had transpired in the hallway did eventually get back to Professor McGonagall, who called Lily to her office for a stern lecture on the proper use of magic. She took ten points away from Gryffindor for using a stinging hex on a fellow student. And then she proceeded to give fifteen back for standing up to bullies. She also threw in a biscuit just for good measure, thereby forever securing her position as Lily's favorite professor.

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One of the downfalls of being a smart and talented witch was that the popular boys were always trying to get Lily to do their homework. Not help them with it. Actually do it for them. James in particular tried it more times than Lily could count. It wasn't that he couldn't do it. He was certainly smart enough. He just had better things to do with his time. And saying no only led to more nagging and bribery attempts. So when self-proclaimed bad boy Sirius Black finally tried to give it a go, Lily decided it was time to put an end to it once and for all.

She was sitting in the common room doing homework with Mary and Marlene when Sirius came in and dropped himself dramatically onto the couch.

"Evening, ladies," he said as he kicked both his feet up on the end of the couch. Marlene smirked a little at his attempt to be cool. Lily, however, was not amused.

"What do you want?" she asked without looking up from her essay.

"Actually, Evans, you're just the person I need," Sirius said in a sickly sweet voice. "See, I started on my History of Magic essay, and I realized I just don't fully understand the material. Not like you do. And since you're so smart and good at it, I wondered if maybe you would help me get started on it."

Lily just almost said no right there. But just before the words left her mouth, an idea struck her. A way to silence this particular irritant once and for all. She set down her quill and looked up at Sirius.

"I have a better idea," she said through narrowed eyes. "Wizard's chess. You and me. You win, I write your essay. But if I win, you stop treating me like an encyclopedia."

Sirius sat up on the couch, a devilish grin on his face.

"Evans, I was raised on Wizard's Chess," he said. "Have you ever even played?"

"I've played real chess," Lily told him coldly.

A ripple of murmurs ran through the common room. Almost all of the students were watching now. Even the older ones seemed intrigued. And Sirius was never one to disappoint his audience.

"You're on," he said.

Peter was sent upstairs to get Sirius' chess set while Marlene and Mary quickly cleared their things off the table they had been sitting at. Sirius sauntered over with his usual swagger and sat down across from Lily. Several of their fellow Gryffindors quickly gathered around to watch. Peter came running down the stairs with the chessboard a moment later, nearly tripping over the bottom step. Lily and Sirius set up their respective pieces in silence. Then Sirius motioned across the board.

"Ladies first," he said with that infuriating grin.

Lily made her first move, silently resolving to knock that stupid grin off his face. Sirius moved his own pawn to mimic Lily's, and they were off. While the invisible power struggle between them had drawn a quick crowd, Wizard's Chess was hardly as entertaining as Quidditch. The slow but steady pace of the game did little to help matters. Bit by bit, the crowd wandered away until only a small handful remained. The rest of the room merely glanced up every so often to check on the game's progress.

Lily and Sirius were completely oblivious to any of this. For them, the game was all that existed. Each move was carefully calculated and executed. It turned out that Sirius was actually quite smart. Far smarter than he let on. In terms of foresight and strategy, he and Lily were a remarkably even match. Not that it was some grand strategic spectacle. They were only eleven, after all. But it was still a good game. Lily had played a lot of chess with her father, but he was a bit set in his ways and she had nearly mastered the art of beating him. Sirius, however, kept him on her toes. He was good, and he knew it. But he was also cocky, and in the end, that proved to be his downfall.

It was an hour and a half after the game had begun that Lily's knight finally smashed through Sirius' king. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.

"Checkmate," she said triumphantly.

James had entered the room at some point during the game, and he groaned.

"Come on, Black," he said. "You lost to a girl!"

Sirius was still staring down at the board as if he couldn't quite believe what had happened. Lily waited in silence for the snide remark sure to come. But when Sirius finally looked up, there was a strange expression on his face that Lily had never seen there before. It took her a moment to finally recognize what it was – respect.

"Good game," he said. A twinkle entered his eye as he quickly added, "For a girl."

"You too," Lily shot back. "For a boy."

Sirius grinned. Then he held out his hand over the chessboard. Lily hesitated briefly, suspecting a trap. But finally she reached out and took his hand. They shook firmly.

"Come on, Sirius," James said impatiently as their hands separated. "They're having Quidditch practice on the pitch. I want to go watch."

Sirius ordered his pieces to put themselves back together before quickly sweeping them onto the board. He handed it over to Peter, who had been standing there dutifully the whole game.

"Take that up, would you?" Sirius asked. He was already out of his seat and halfway to the door with James before Peter even managed to nod.

After the boys were gone, Mary and Marlene made their way back over to the table.

"Okay, what just happened?" Marlene asked in confusion.

"I won," Lily said innocently.

Marlene put her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand.

"That's not what I mean, and you know it," she said with a grin. "There is serious chemistry there. Maybe not romantic chemistry. More like 'let's hex all of Slytherin house in broad daylight and somehow get it blamed on someone else' chemistry. But it's definitely there."

"Shut-up and do your homework," Lily muttered as she turned her attention back to her essay.

Marlene just laughed.


So there you have chapter one. Hopefully you guys liked it. If you did, please take a few seconds to leave a short review and let me know. I'm really excited about this story, and I've really put a lot of work into it. So feedback would really mean a lot. I'll try to have the next chapter up somewhere around Sunday. Hopefully you'll come back to see what happens next. Thanks for reading!