Chapter One

Going Back Home

"Lily!" a blonde, skinny long-necked woman shrieked at the top of her lungs. A very beautiful girl of about sixteen walked out to meet the woman.

"What's wrong, Petunia, finally looked in the mirror?" the redheaded girl taunted at the already furious woman. The woman's pale skin turned red at the younger girl's taunt.

"Lily . . . if . . ." the woman managed to stutter before turning an even darker shade of red. She balled her fists and let out a breath before continuing. "You are lucky that Vernon and I decided to take you in. We could have sent you to an orphanage where you didn't have your precious school."

Lily rolled her eyes and glared at her older sister, Petunia Dursley. She hated when Petunia went all out on her about how it was her fault that their parents had died and that she should be grateful that she and her atrocious looking husband, Vernon had taken her in. In truth, they really didn't have a choice. Petunia was scared stiff of anything to do with the unordinary things that Lily had associated herself with. So when the Ministry of Magic had actually come calling to Petunia's fire place she looked at them in fear and agreed to do whatever they said. After all Petunia knew nothing about the wonders of Floo powder.

"Petunia, for once, would you get the stick that has been eternally lodged up your ass out of there and listen to me," Lily said sighing and looking at her sister. Petunia looked as if she wanted to tear her younger sister apart limb by limb.

"Fine, Tuni," Lily baited using the name the Vernon called her when they were, erm, busy. Petunia blushed furiously and scowled. Lily could actually hear the overgrown horse teeth in Petunia's head grind in anger. Lily laughed at Petunia's anger and continued, "you can try to kick my ass and end up in the hospital for a couple of years or you can leave me alone until I go back to Hogwarts. You know as well as I do that I can take you even without the help of my magic."

Petunia flinched visibly at the word 'Hogwarts' and 'magic'. Lily smirked and turned on her heels and walked away.

"I hate that bitch," Lily muttered as she ran up the stairs and into her small room that also served as a storage room for all Petunia and Vernon's old things. Books, old clothes, dusty furniture littered the room. But Lily, being Lily, made the best of things and had moved everything so that the room looked like it was supposed to look that way. Lily was lucky that Petunia hated anything that was more than two years old. Petunia was always into the 'fads'. Lily loved being original. It set her free redoing that room to her own liking and style. Petunia, of course, had screamed at her for moving the furniture making up the excuse that she had everything in place. Vernon even yelled at her with his wife. Lily had calmly told both of them that if they were going to use any of the furniture to take it out of there and put it in the place that they wanted it to be. Petunia had stormed out and Vernon had followed his red face turning a lovely shade of plum purple.

Lily closed the door behind her and locked it. She walked over to a floorboard and wriggled it up so that she could reach underneath it and take out her most prized possessions.

A hard cover brown book with the faded gold letters 'Photographs' on it emerged first. Lily smiled and sat cross-legged on the floor. She flipped through the old book and found several pictures of her family. Tears sprang unbidden into her eyes. She blinked them away furiously. She would not cry, she refused to. She closed the cover and set the book on the ground beside her. Reaching into the hole her hands encountered another thing. She grabbed at it and pulled out another book this time even older and it's once bright red cover was now faded to a pale rust color. The black letters titled White Fang. Lily didn't know why she loved that book so much. Her and her father used to read this book together before it was time for Lily to go to bed before they had died at what she thought was almost literally her hands. After all had Lily not become a witch the threat of Voldemort would be non-existent and her family would all be together. At least, Lily and her parents would be together. Petunia on the other hand would still be married to Vernon.

Lily opened the cover and red the first paragraph of the yellowed page:

'Dark spruce forest frowned on either side of the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.'

As she read it she remembered times when she and her father would discuss the writer's words and their meaning. Lily sighed deeply at all the memories that haunted her life. Memories that she couldn't seem to get rid of. Guilt haunted her. If only she hadn't become a witch then her parents would still be alive.

"Stop it, Lily," she ordered herself firmly. Her parents were overly happy and bursting with pride for her when she had received her letter of acceptance from Hogwarts. She could still remember the happy looks on their faces when she had showed them her letter.

She shook her head to rid herself of those kinds of thoughts. It did her mind no good to dwell on the fact that her parents died at the hands of an evil wizard. Lily decided that it was time to put the two books away and focus on the task at hand, which happened to be packing for Hogwarts.

She packed everything that she could fit into her Hogwarts trunk. Her beautiful barn owl, Delia unfolded her wings and flapped twice as she sensed Lily's excitement about going back to Hogwarts, her home.

Later on that evening after all her packing was done Lily watched the sun set from her open window. As the wind blew her fire-red hair out of her face Lily sighed. These were the times that she loved. She could think clearly for once.

Lily sat there until the sun had long since set and darkness had blanketed the sky. She sighed and stared at the stars. "Goodnight, mum and dad," she said to the stars hoping that they were up there looking out for her. She rose to her feet and changed for bed. After she had climbed into bed and turned off the light she whispered softly, "I love you."

The next morning Lily awoke to the sun shining brightly through her still open window. She shook her head groggily. One glance at her watch forced all of the sleepiness out of her head.

"Oh my god," Lily almost screamed as the digital numbers told her that she was going to be late for the train to Hogwarts in exactly twenty minutes.

Lily wasn't sure how she got herself ready in the time that she took to throw on some clothes grab her school stuff throw it in the trunk of Petunia and Vernon's new car in the ten minutes that she took to do it but oddly enough even after yelling and screaming at Petunia to get her lazy ass moving, Lily was finally at the train station with five minutes to go.

A few minutes later she found herself in a bone-breaking hug. She laughed and hugged her best friend, Arabella Fig, with the same amount of strength and within seconds they were seated in one of the compartments of the Hogwarts Express.

"Whew!" Lily said as she let herself collapse on one of the plush red seats of the train. Arabella followed suit and did the same.

"So, Lils, how was your summer?" Arabella said and laughed when she saw the sour expression on her best friend's face. "That bad?"

"It was terrible. Every time I tried to do something Petunia would blow up," Lily said disgustedly. She shook her head as Arabella patted her on the back. Lily looked at her best friend gratefully.

"So Bella how was your summer?" Lily said after a moment of silence. Bella looked at her with a smile.

"Boring. I had nothing to do except schoolwork," Bella said with a grimace. Lily laughed and started to say something but was interrupted by four boys running into their compartment, laughing. Lily rolled her emerald eyes when she saw who they were. Or saw who one of them was.

The shortest of the boys was Peter Pettigrew. A small pathetic-looking boy who seemed to think that something or someone was out to get him as his small black-looking eyes kept looking to each side of him. When the boys entered, his eyes settled on Lily. Lily found this very uncomfortable and nerve wrecking as she had an uneasy feeling when she was with Peter. As if he couldn't be trusted. He was the tagalong of the group. Nobody really wanted to include him but did because they felt sorry for him.

The blonde-haired boy was Remus Lupin, the peacemaker of the group, or more of the referee between Lily Evans and James Potter. Remus was tall and had blue-eyes that looked as though they understood everything that you said or did. Lily loved the fact that she could tell Remus everything and not have to worry about the fact that he would laugh or say something discouraging. Although, he was the more cautious member of the group he was always up to any prank that Lily, James, or Sirius suggested.

The tall but stockier member of the group was Sirius Black. Sirius' personality totally contradicted his name. Sirius was one of the leaders of the small group. He was way more wild and daring than Peter, Remus, or Bella. He was also one of the eligible males in the school. Lily could see why but what she couldn't see was how any girl could put up with his player lifestyle for longer than a day. He, James, and Remus were all lookers but Lily didn't feel anything for any of them. Sirius' long, black hair was pulled back in a ponytail down his back.

Last, and certainly least in Lily's opinion, was James Potter. James was among Remus and Sirius the most eligible male in the school. Although Lily couldn't imagine what possessed girls to call him a male, after all nobody really knew what species he was actually from. He, too, was a player. And, like Sirius, couldn't keep a steady relationship longer than a few weeks. His longest relationship might have been three weeks. If even that.

Sirius made a mock bow to Lily and Bella, pretending to take off an imaginary hat. Lily raised an eyebrow and Bella rolled her eyes. Sirius looked at them, feigning hurt.

"What no hello for Sirius," he said pouting. Lily giggled at how pathetic he looked and told him so.

"What? Me? Pathetic? I think not my dearest flower," he said charmingly. Lily rolled her eyes and glanced at the rest of the Marauders.

"So how was your summer?" she asked them. Remus shrugged.

"Alright, I guess. We really had nothing much to do."

"Nothing much to do, Moony!" Sirius practically screamed. "We had the best time. We went to Africa and did a lot of stuff there. Not to mention the pranks we pulled!"

Sirius glanced over at James, who had been staying suspiciously quiet for the whole exchange. James was standing with his arms crossed over his chest glaring at Lily who was giggling hysterically.

"Did I miss something?" Sirius said looking over at the two enemies. Lily could only point, as James' hair seemed to be sucked into his head. The now bald James stood standing there as two horns sprouted out of where his hair used to be. Sirius looked at him and started to laugh with the now hysterical Lily.

To add to James' humiliation at losing his precious hair huge purple spots popped out of his skin. James sputtered at Lily before lunging at her catching her by the arm.

"Let me go, Potter," Lily spat at him as she regained her control.

"Take this off of me," James screamed at her. Lily laughed and looked at him innocently.

"Me? I didn't put that on you. Why would I do something like that?" Lily said between giggles. James' brown eyes were hard as he shook Lily in anger.

"Let go of me, Potter!" Lily yelled at him pushing him away from her. As soon as Lily was away from him she walked out of the compartment calling out to James from over her shoulder, "The spell with wear off right after the feast today. After the prefects and Head Boy and Head Girl are announced."

James turned pink in anger and turned an even brighter shade of orange when he turned to find Sirius, Bella, and Remus rolling on the floor, laughing so hard that they were clutching their stomachs.

"She got you there, Jamsie-boy. Aren't you a prefect?" Sirius managed to gasp out. James groaned as he realized that there was no way he could get out of the feast. Sirius looked at him through tear-filled eyes.

"She got you there!"

James glared at him and put his head in his hands, "Traitor."

"Hey," Sirius said shrugging his shoulders while grinning, "I'm a Marauder."

James rolled his eyes and groaned again as an amplified voice resounded throughout the train.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Five minutes."

At that moment, Lily walked back into the compartment. James glared evilly at her before muttering something under his breath. Lily glared back at him. She opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was Snape's voice saying, "Slytherin Sucks! Gryffindor Rules!"

Lily gasped and glared even more furiously but forced her mouth to add something to the short sentences. When she opened her mouth this time what came out was, "Slytherin Sucks! Gryffindor Rules! James Potter is a Prick!"

James laughed dryly. Bella glared at James with Lily who couldn't say anything without the sound of Snape's voice.

Sirius was watching this exchange with much amusement.

The train lurched to a stop and the whole gang got knocked over with the sudden and unexpected. Everybody was tangled up with someone else. Bella was trying to push Sirius off of her without success, as he was laughing so hard.

"Get off me you bloody idiot!" was her angry warning. Sirius looked at her with puppy dog eyes.

"What you don't like me or something?" he said with a lop-sided grin that usually worked very well with the ladies. It didn't work with Bella.

"I said get off of me, you moron!" Bella yelled again. Sirius grinned again.

"No, you said 'Get off me you bloody idiot'," he said infuriatingly. Bella pushed him off of her and got to her feet. Bella laughed as she saw where her best friend had landed. Lily had flown into James and they were in a heap of black robes and different colors. Lily's flaming red hair with James' purple polka dotted skin. She could tell by her friend's angry red face that Lily had been trying to get James away from her.

Lily finally managed to shove James off of her and stumble to her feet. She grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her out of the compartment leaving a stunned James, a laughing Sirius, a confused Peter, and an also laughing Remus.

"He is such an asshole!" Lily fumed as soon as they were out of the compartment and Bella had taken off the spell.

"I know! Sirius is so annoying!" Bella agreed with her putting emphasis on the word 'so'.

They both looked at each other and back at the door. Lily pretended to cackle.

"Are you thinking what I'm hoping you are."

Bella grinned in response and raised her wand. After she was done casting the spell that would certainly embarrass the Marauders she whispered to Lily.

"I thought the Marauders were supposed to be number one in the pranks division."

Lily giggled and nodded in response. She glanced around and spotted Hagrid standing by the lake yelling, "Firs' years over here!"

"Wanna go for a boat ride?" she asked Bella who was looking distastefully at a passing Slytherin.

"Well," Bella said hesitantly but heard a roar of anger from the train and pushed Lily into one of the boats, "on the other hand it will be harder for the Marauders to find us in here."

As the boats approached the castle, Lily smiled and whispered, "I'm home."

A/N: Hey this is my first L/J fic so be kind with the reviews. Pleez, pleez, pleez, review. Don't make me beg………….

Kiliara