Lily Evans was not the most confident girl in the world.

Her hair was far too bright red for her liking, she was forever pale no matter how much she tanned, and she was extremely short for a witch of sixteen years old. However, going into her seventh year at Hogwarts, she was determined to make the most of it. No more letting Slytherins walk all over her, no more letting James Potter make her lose her temper. Because Lily was actually one of the nicest girls in school; she offered to tutor students in her spare time and never gossiped like most girls at school. Though if one person set her off, it was ruddy James Potter and his stupid friends. WhoevengivesthemselvesanicknameasstupidastheMarauders?So Lily's goal this year was to ignore Potter and persistent requests for a date to Hogsmeade and enjoy her last year at school.

Lily sat in the Great Hall, reading a Muggle novel and waiting for her best friend Liz to join her for breakfast, and praying that she would show up before Potter and his worshippers. No such luck, Potter came and sat across from Lily. He gave her a small smile before making two cups of coffee. He handed the first one over to Lily, which she accepted with a confused look.

"You know how I take my coffee?"

Potter laughed. "Lily, I am a pretty observant guy. Plus I reckon I've bothered the shit out of you for a few years now. I know you pretty well."

Lily smirked. "Oh Potter, you don't even know me at all."

Potter raised an eyebrow. "Really now? How do you reckon?"

Lily took a sip of coffee and piled some fruit on her plate. "You think you know me. You know the me that everyone in school knows which is to say that you don't really know me since that's only a small part of me and who I really am. Catch my drift?"

"Not at all. But I accept the challenge."

"Potter, are you daft? I didn't challenge you to anything."

"On the contrary, you said that I don't know you when in fact I know you better than anyone else." James took a deep breath. "Except maybe Lizzie," he added as an afterthought. "So that's it... for the next month, you have to show me the real you. No pretending, no whatever it is that you do. I want to know the real Lily Evans."

Lily shook her head. "What if you don't like the real me?"

James took a piece of kiwi from her plate and ate it. "Let me be the judge of that." The rest of the Marauders- Sirius, Remus and Peter- had walked up behind Potter. "Challenge accepted." Sirius snorted while Remus rolled his eyes as the guys sat down to eat their meals.

Sirius sat next to Lily and began to pick off her plate. "Why would you ever challenge Prongs here? He never loses a challenge. Never. Except that one if third year... how I wish we had never challenged him to that."

James crossed his arms and looked pointedly at Lily. "Technically that challenge is not yet completed. Still to be determined."

Lily looked between the guys, obviously missing something. "So what was the challenge then?" Remus shook his head. However, Peter shrugged and simply said, "Marauder's secret."

Lily rolled her eyes and stood up. "Well, as interesting as this has been, I am going to find Lizzie and drag her to Charms. See you there. Save you a seat, okay Potter?"

James simply nodded and smiled, too surprised to speak. Looks like this next month is going to be a whole lot more interesting...