AN: I'm pretty excited, to be honest. AU that follows the Marauders' seventh year at Hogwarts, but James is actually female. Uh, the plot credit basis goes to 'lesbianladydi' on tumblr/ 'fabiansgoldwatch' on here, but I'll copy and paste the original post again: 'au in which james is female (jane because why not) and she's the leader of the mostly male (¾) marauders and she is like the baddest mama bear around and everyone kind of assumes that she's got something going on with sirius but like no she's 100% gay and 100% in love with lily evans'.
Chapter 1 (Prologue) - And I built a home for you (and me)
Lily Evans is five when she decides Tuney is her best friend and they were never going to part. She doesn't mind when her sister makes her do things she doesn't want to do, because it's nice to have a role model and it's nice to rely on someone.
She's ten when Severus, the boy nearby that her sister is always sneering at, tells her she's a witch. She's offended, and thinks he's weird, at first. But he's nice to her and makes her smile, and he's there for her that time Tuney threw her favourite doll in the bin because Lily changed the hair colour without touching it.
She's eleven when she loses Tuney on the platform to a make-believe world, and it's like their relationship is hanging on a loose thread that the latter is trying to cut.
She's almost twelve when she meets an immature girl called Jane. It's the same age she finds another best friend for the first time since Tuney and Severus, and the stark contrast makes her smile.
She's thirteen when she finds it in herself to give 'the Marauders' a chance, and, actually, they're not half-bad as friends. It's been a long time since she's able to feel like she can actually belong.
She's fourteen when she spends Valentine's Day locked in her dormitory with Mary, Dorcas and Marlene after a particularly bad break-up. It's the day she confesses that she was attracted to Anya Patil, just as much as Gilderoy Lockhart. Mary bursts out laughing in relief and high-fives her, the words 'thank God, me too-' spilling out of her mouth.
She's just turned fifteen by a few months, and there's a massive row over something or another, and it tears her circle of friends in half. It makes her angrier than she has been in a long time, and it's the same year her father dies.
She's still fifteen when she loses another important person of her life, and she probably should have seen it coming, but she cries until one in the morning on Mary's bed, knowing that the broken friendship was damaged long before she had tried to fix it anyway.
She's sixteen and, suddenly, the war becomes very real. The death toll is rising, more kidnaps, and she thinks it's time to say sorry and build bridges over things that life could easily rip away from them. It's the eight of them again, the stupid group of reckless Gryffindors against the world.
She's seventeen and Headgirl, yet she feels like twelve when she dissolves into blushes and stammering in front of a girl she never thought she'd fall for, and there's a ridiculous smile on her lips every time she talks to her.
She's eighteen when she finds herself in love, and it's scary and exciting, but she thinks she likes it.
Jane Potter is six when she realises that she lives in a happy household, that her mother and father love her with an undying passion and she thinks that how it should be.
She's seven when she sees families of other Purebloods with unhappy children and it's then she finds out that the world isn't like that, how she's one of the lucky ones.
She's eleven when she doesn't find one brother, but three, on the way to Hogwarts. Her parents have always been able to provide her with almost anything other than this, and she decides that she's never going to let any of them go.
She's still eleven when she looks at a redhead girl with the eyes of broken glass, and she doesn't know what she feels her for her yet, but it's something.
She's barely twelve when she learns one of her best friends was a werewolf. She spends the next three years secretly learning to be an Animagus because, law be damned, nothing would tear the Marauders apart.
She's fifteen when an argument spills over, but her pride has always been a flaw in her person. It takes a few months for her to work up the sense to apologise, but she's turned away and she's hurt. It's the year she asks out Lily Evans in a moment of desperation, after barely a year of a crush, but her stubbornness makes her scoff and it hurts a little more than before.
She's sixteen when the same girl apologises to her, a mumbled apology that ends up turning into a half-hour long speech. When she looks at the taller girl expectantly, there's a big grin on Jane's face as she hugs her, and things almost go back to normal after that.
She's seventeen by a few months when someone starts up the rumour again that she and Sirius have something going on, and some of her friend are indignant on her behalf, but the rest of the Marauders and herself find it ridiculously funny.
She's seventeen when she falls head-first into love, and she thinks it should be terrifying to care about someone this much, but she realises she's been doing it for years.