A/N: Hello Everyone! This story is written in it's entirety and is about 15 chapters long with a sequel brewing in my head. The Rating is for later chapters. Also, I'd like to make it known that I have nothing against the Vatican...I am just stating the fact in this chapter that they do not approve of witchcraft, which is obvious considering it was said they called Harry Potter evil or whatever. In any case, please enjoy my story and of course, let me know what you think! Thanks!

"All right Mum! I promise to write as much as I can, but I am Head Girl and will have a lot of responsibility this year!" Lily Evans exclaimed, wrestling herself from her mother's grip. Her mother smiled and stepped back.

Lily crossed the barrier for the last time onto platform nine and three quarters. A head of long blonde hair and another of brown immediately assaulted her.

"Alice, Emmy! How are you?" Lily asked.

Alice Jones and Emmeline Vance were Lily's two best friends. They smiled at her quickly and Alice answered, "We're great! How was Italy? Congrats on making Head Girl!"

Lily laughed and replied, "Italy was excellent, I'll tell you more on the train. Now I must go meet the Head Boy and deal with the prefects. Save me a seat and I'll come find you."

Alice and Emmy gave Lily a quick hug and hurried off. Lily made her way to the Head's carriage. She held her breath as she opened the door, but released it quickly when she found the carriage empty. She was anxious to see who the new Head Boy was. While she waited, she ran down the list again. Remus would be all right, but he was gone so often that Lily seriously doubted it would be him. The Slytherin prefect, Nott was too thick. That left Ravenclaw's Anderson and Hufflepuff's Macmillan, as candidates. Lily thought they would both be good at the post. Her train of thought was interrupted however, when the carriage door slid open and she was face-to-face with-

"POTTER! What are you doing here?" Lily shrieked.

James smiled in an award winning way and tapped his chest. "Now, now Evans, is that any way to treat your partner?"

"My... my... part... what?"

"Your partner, Evans. It seems Dumbledore has either gone mental or come to his senses and appointed me your counterpart. So we better start acting like reasonable people, we have an example to set."

Lily stared at James dumbstruck for a moment before she let out a sarcastic laugh, "When have you ever set an example? Is this another one of your pranks?"

James' smile faltered a bit before he replied, "Afraid not, Evans. You are stuck with me all year. Now, what's first on our to do list?"

Lily groaned inwardly. "What did I do to deserve this?" she mumbled.

"What was that?" James asked.

"Nothing... All right Potter, we have a meeting with the prefects to tell them what they need to do. Here is the Patrol schedules and passwords. Once we explain the rules and hand these out we are free for the rest of the trip."

James followed Lily into the Prefect's carriage and they conducted the entire meeting without yelling at each other. Afterwards, Lily went to find Alice and Emmy. She didn't have to go very far, before she found them sitting with, to Lily's dismay, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. She knew James would not be far behind. She slid open the door and entered the compartment.

"Why Lily! What a pleasant surprise! How was your summer?" Sirius asked when he saw Lily.

"Sirius Black! Get stuffed!" Lily replied sweetly.

Sirius laughed and countered, "Do mine ears deceive me? Did the Head Girl just insult me?"

"I believe I did."

Sirius faked a look of heartbreak that made him look constipated. Lily laughed. "Sirius dear," she said, "I had a wonderful summer in Italy. I will spare you the boring details. How was everyone else's summer? I see none of you boys ended up in Azkaban. Pity really, I was looking forward to a peaceful year."

"Well," Sirius said, "I had the honor of watching Prongs the entire summer. We all know he can't be left alone for long periods of time. He might hurt himself thinking too hard about-"

"QUIDDITCH!" James yelled as he walked in the door.

"No Prongsy, I was going to say- OOMPH!"

James had just elbowed Sirius rather hard in the stomach while plopping down next to him. The three girls watched, intrigued as the two boys wrestled around. Remus on the other hand, decided to steer the conversation elsewhere for James' sake.

"Hello, Lily. Italy you say? I unfortunately, had to stay in England this summer. I would have loved to see someplace like Italy. Congratulations on Head Girl by the way. I figured it was you."

Lily smiled; she had always liked Remus the best of the Marauders.

"Thank you Remus. Italy was wonderful. We were in Rome nearly the whole time. Beautiful city really. Although, I did feel a bit awkward walking through the Vatican."

"Why's that Lils?" Alice asked.

"Well they don't exactly accept our type. I felt like someone was going to jump out at me and try to burn me at the stake. It is an amazing place though. The Sistine chapel was breathtaking."

James and Sirius had finally calmed down and joined the conversation. James was curious; he had always been intrigued by Roman culture. He ran a hand through his hair and asked, "What else did you see there Evans?"

"Oh well the Pantheon, the Colosseum, St. Peter's square and Basilica. I spent a lot of time on the beach though."

"We can tell," Emmy said, "You're more tanned than I've ever seen you. Meet any cute and mysterious Italian guys?"

"I did. My third day there, I met Matteo Sucini. He was gorgeous. Spent the rest of the time showing me around. They have the best nightclubs there. He took me to all of them! But it was just a summer fling. I'll never hear from him again."

"Oh! Why not?" Alice cried.

Lily laughed and said, "Alice, I never left him a way to get in touch. I'd rather not see him again. Like I said it was just a fling."

James was looking extremely put out. He had spent his entire summer pineing over Lily and she was having flings with Italian boys. He quickly disguised his feelings though and listened closely as Emmy asked, "Did you kiss him?"

"Yes, many times," Lily replied. Normally, she wouldn't have discussed this in front of the Marauders, but she was enjoying watching James squirm.

"My romance with him was brief, as it should be. He was wonderful while it lasted, but it would never last. He's Muggle and lives hundreds of miles away! I need something more real. Something close. We're adults now, I can no longer worry about silly flings."

"Lily, you act as if you want to get married tomorrow! We're only seventeen!" Alice exclaimed.

"Oh yes, Alice, you're one to talk. You're planning your wedding to Frank already and he hasn't even asked. How is he by the way? Still in training?"

Alice blushed but replied, "Yes he has one more year. But who cares about Frank right now, we want to here more about Matteo. Do you have pictures?"

"No, but he looks a little like..." she trailed off and looked around at the guys, trying to think of how to describe Matteo. It came as a shock when she looked at James and realized, "Well... he looks a bit like Potter really. Only he's taller, tanner and with neater hair. Plus he doesn't have glasses and his eyes are a bit darker. And he definitely doesn't act like you, Potter."

Alice and Emmy exchanged a glance and James turned a bit red. Lily was staring at him. 'Good Lord! How did I not notice it before? I spent my entire summer with a guy that looks like him! Oh I must be out of my mind! I just admitted it in front of the Marauders. I will never live this down!' Lily thought.

Sure enough, Sirius let out a bark like laugh and said, "My dear Lily, were you missing Jamesy here so much you needed a substitute? Certainly, this Italiano is nothing compared to our dear James. You may even want to give James here a shot this year; he's not that bad really. I mean-"

"SHUT IT PADFOOT!" James said blushing.

"What? I was only trying to plead your case," Sirius said innocently.

"Look, Lily doesn't want to be bothered by you about that. So let her be. We're almost to the station. Let's just go change. Coming Evans?"

Lily looked at James in complete shock. She couldn't believe that James was blushing and standing up for her. She finally shook herself out of her thoughts and stood to follow James. Once they left the compartment, he turned to her and said, "Don't pay any attention to Sirius. He can be a right git sometimes. Umm, I'm glad you had a good summer and found someone to share it with. Sorry it didn't last."

Lily raised an eyebrow at James and replied, "Oh, well like I said before, it's for the better. He and I really had nothing in common you know. I'm sure I'll live and find someone more suitable. Anyway, how was your summer?"

"It was okay I suppose. Nothing too exciting. I was stuck with Sirius all summer. You can imagine how that went," James replied with a laugh.

Lily laughed along with him. James opened the carriage door for her and followed her in. He pulled off his jumper, which happened to pull his shirt up a little and Lily caught herself glancing at his stomach.

'Wow' she thought, 'He has a really nice body. Ugh wait! This is James Potter we're talking about here! No Lily; bad thoughts, bad thoughts.' She turned away quickly blushing. She pulled off her jacket and had a rather tight fitting shirt underneath.

James chanced a glance before he pulled on his robe. 'Damn' he thought, looking at her chest. He quickly turned away before she noticed.

Lily and James made their way to the carriages and onwards to school. They noticed a thicker presence of adults on the platform.

"What's that about?" Lily asked James pointing to a man with his wand drawn, looking around suspiciously.

"Oh you haven't heard? Well no I suppose you haven't not being home this summer. Well, Voldemort is getting worse. There's almost an attack a day now. The Ministry has put extra protection up for the school."

"I can't believe I didn't hear about any of this," Lily exclaimed.
James just shrugged and led the way to the Gryffindor table.