Disclaimer: I'm sitting on my couch watching My Super Sweet 16 on MTV with my laptop on my lap. With that said, I'm not JK Rowling and Harry Potter does not belong to me.

A/N: Oh my gosh! All of you who reviewed are simply amazing!! Thanks a million to Amber Tinted, Isolde Eris, Ruby89, daydreamin' angel, armygundamgirl, Moonstone, Gloryofthesilent, Mouse and Stupid Productions, pigs can fly, james-s2-lily, potterchik, hermione-G-wanna-be, freakishlyobsessedwithmovies, kluvhp, lilalex13, SparklingEyesWithACrazyMind, cosmopolitan, and VirgoTheVirgin. You have no idea how shocked I was when I saw that I had recieved 18 reviews! Thank you so much! It means so much to me!

So, I actually had this chapter written at the same time the first chapter was posted, but I kept re-reading it and changing it until I got this. I hope you all like this chapter! This chapter is mostly an explanation chapter, so I hope it's not too boring.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Bloody Quidditch Gear

"And it's James Potter who takes possession of the Quaffle," Sirius Black's voice rang throughout the stadium as a player dressed in robes of red and gold whizzed by the stands on a broomstick, a red ball tucked securely underneath his arm. All eyes were glued to the black haired boy as he zoomed in and out of the opposing team, dodging any sign of interference.

In a matter of seconds, the Gryffindor spectators had erupted into screams of approval while the opposite side, adorned in blue and silver, groaned. "And Potter scores!" Sirius yelled into the megaphone, pumping his fist into the air. "No wonder James was given the Captain badge this year, along with his new Headship!"

Back in the stands, a seventeen year old girl with wavy red hair clutched her head in her hands as she moaned angrily. "Why do people always have to remind me of that fact?" she asked desperately, dropping her hands from her freckled face and looking towards her best friend. It was hard enough finding out that Potter would be her fellow Head Boy the first time!

Marlene McKinnon laughed. "Oh, come on, Lily. Enough of the drama," she said good naturedly, pushing her long dark hair out of her face so she could better observe the game.

Lily huffed, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes as James Potter flew right past the Gryffindor section of the stadium. For a split second his eyes traveled from the game and sought her out; he smiled and nodded off towards her when his eyes finally met her green ones. Rolling her eyes, Lily moaned again.

"He thinks he can just come over here and look at me…" Lily trailed off, grumbling to herself before she felt a rather large hand on her shoulder.

"He is trying, you know," Remus Lupin said earnestly from behind her.

Scowling, Lily shrugged Remus's hand off of her. Despite the fact that he was one of James's best friends, Lily had always gotten on well with the sweet, light brown haired bloke. Though, that didn't mean she always liked or agreed with what Remus had to say. "Why, you're right, Remus. He's already scored about four goals," she replied sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," Remus laughed, all too familiar with Lily's antics.

"Although," Marlene broke in, her eyes never leaving the match, "he is doing exceptionally well in the game today as well." She booed loudly as a Ravenclaw beater whacked a bludger towards James, causing the Gryffindor chaser to drop the quaffle.

"Hear, hear," Peter Pettigrew, another one of James's little miscreant posse members, spoke up as he waved his red and gold rosette around in the air. The cold air only made poor Peter's already watery eyes tear up even more, and the large jacket he was wearing only amplified his chubbiness.

"Why must you always take his side?" Lily grumbled to Marlene.

Finally taking her eyes away from the fourteen players hovering in the air around large golden hoops, Marlene looked towards her friend, her brown eyes confused. "Whose side? James's or Remus's?"

"Is there a difference?" Lily asked.

"Hey!" Remus objected, "I take offense to that."

Marlene cursed silently as the Gryffindors around them erupted once more into cheers. "Darn it! I missed something!" she exclaimed, as she craned her neck in order to see over the heads of the people who had gathered in front of her, blatantly ignoring her best friend.

"I still don't understand why Dumbledore didn't make you Head Boy, Remus," Lily continued, still annoyed at the fact that not only did the headmaster have to appoint her worst enemy as her partner, but also that Marlene failed to see the huge problem with it all.

"I guess he decided I didn't do that good of a job as Prefect," the sandy haired boy answered, shrugging.

"Rubbish," Lily encouraged, "You were—" But what exactly he was, Remus didn't get to find out as a large hush seemed to fall around the stadium.

The uncommon silence was slowly broken as one person after the other began chanting and cheering and soon the whole audience was on its feet. Excitement began to radiate throughout the stands and Lily, because some sixth year guy had rudely decided to stand right in front of her line of vision, wasn't able to figure out what was going on in the game.

"Meadowes and Chang are racing for the snitch," Sirius was yelling wildly. "Come on, Dorcas!" Sirius urged, pushing the Gryffindor Seeker on.

Marlene began jumping up and down on the spot. "Come on, Dorcas!" she cried frantically, mimicking Sirius and cheering her friend on.

Finally realizing what was going on, Lily stood on a bench in order to see above the heads. The whole stadium seemed to be holding their breaths, everyone hanging over their seats in order to get a good view of the racing Seekers streaking through the air. They were neck and neck and from her spot it was hard to tell who would actually catch the tiny winged ball.

All at once an uproar arose from the stadium, causing a group of startled birds to fly out of their nest and into the air. The sun beamed down onto the pitch as if the weather was even celebrating the outcome of the match. "Dear Merlin!" Sirius screamed himself hoarse, "Dorcas has done it; that girl sure does have style! Gentlemen, that girl is a catch; you can find her in the Gryffindor—" Sirius's voice broke off as the strict Transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall, attempted to wrestle the megaphone away from the commentator.

"Sorry, Professor, sorry," Sirius apologized, grinning widely as the group of red robed players all huddled together, celebrating their win. The megaphone back in the hands of Sirius Black, the boy continued to scream madly. "Gryffindor wins! In your face you smarty-pants Ravenclaws—"

Professor McGonagall, determined now to stop Sirius before he could further insult another Hogwarts house, pried the megaphone away from him, ignoring his scream of protests. "Gryffindor wins," Professor McGonagall re-announced, a wide smile on her face—though she didn't know that Sirius had currently pulled a sign out of nowhere that read in large, flashing letters "Lions prey on birds".

OOO

By the time Lily and Marlene had fought their way through the crowd of students all attempting to get back to the castle and had finally arrived into the Gryffindor common room, the party was already in full swing. Sirius's banner from earlier was waving happily across the room and all of the Quidditch players were already bathing in their glory. Music was pumping around the room and a long table full of delicious smelling food and drinks lined the side of the wall nearest to the girls' dormitory.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Going a bit overboard, huh?"

"Nonsense," Marlene replied excitedly. The dark haired girl was always up for a nice, loud party.

Being more reserved than her friend, Lily normally didn't like letting lose. In her mind, parties were considered a nuisance; she knew, as Head Girl, she'd have to be down here at three o'clock in the morning ushering everyone off to bed. Such a petty task was hardly worth her time; she'd much rather sleep.

"I bet Potter is behind this," Lily began, scanning the crowd for the bespectacled boy, "Honestly, it's only the first game of the year…"

"Never too early to celebrate though, eh?"

Speak of the devil. Lily spun around and came face to face with none other than James Potter. His messy black hair stood up in all directions, still windswept from the game, and he hadn't bothered to change from his Quidditch gear. Glinting silver on the front of his robes was a badge that read 'Quidditch Captain'. Next to it was another badge, similar to the one Lily wore, that said 'Head Boy'. As if people need reminding of all of his achievements, Lily thought savagely, determined to start off on a bad note.

"Boasting much?" she asked, just now noticing that Marlene wasn't by her side anymore. Her eyes quickly searched the room only to find her friend dancing crazily with some random sixth year.

James grinned, following her gaze as Lily seemed to take in all of the decorations with a disapproving stare; yet there was an admiring glance hidden behind her emerald eyes. "I would love to say I made all these party arrangements myself, but sadly all the credit has to go to Sirius and Peter," he explained easily, chuckling.

"Someone say my name?" Sirius asked, appearing out of nowhere and standing by his best mate's side. "Hiya, Evans," he greeted.

"Black," she responded, acknowledging the presence. For some reason, Lily had never gotten on with Sirius Black; perhaps it was simply because he and James were practically brothers separated at birth.

She had spent much of her Prefect career tracking those two down, whether to simply scold them for their poorly timed pranks or alert them that one of the Professors had given them a detention for their periodic fights with the Slytherins. James Potter and Sirius Black; the most popular boys in school and quite possibly the most handsome, not to mention the most trouble making prats Lily had ever met.

Accompanying the two partners of crime were Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. It was clear the Remus was the brains of the group while Peter was simply the admiring fan. Remus was the one who tended to turn a blind eye to his friends' behavior; he chose to rather stay out of the trouble than intervene and stop it. On the other hand there was Peter who acted as Sirius's and James's moral support—though they had no morals to speak of—the guy that stood in the background and cheered, never really intending to join in. Together they had dubbed themselves the Marauders. Lily had dubbed them as the most idiotic, criminal fools she'd ever set eyes on.

"So, Evans, what do you think of my artwork?" Sirius asked, motioning towards the banner that now portrayed a rather glorious looking lion with a crown sitting atop his flowing mane while he viciously feasted on a weak, small black bird. Obviously the deranged boy had been trying to go for some sort of symbolism.

Lily stared at it for a moment. "Very…er…morbid," she said, turning her gaze away from the poster in a disgusted manner as the raven's head began spurting blood like a blocked up fountain that had just been unclogged.

Sirius stuck out his chest proudly. "All in a day's work."

"Impressive," she replied, her nose wrinkled up in disgust, signaling that she clearly did not find the piece of artwork to be anywhere near appropriate and definitely nowhere close to impressive.

"I dunno, Padfoot," James started, cocking his head to the side in order to get a better view of the picture, "I find it to be a very powerful and accurate statement," he told his friend, grinning.

"I knew you would, mate," Sirius replied, clapping his friend across the back happily, looking upon his creation with something that closely resembled a father observing his newborn child.

Sighing as if there were no hope for the two boys—which there probably wasn't— Lily raised her eyebrows. "Only you two..." she shook her head from side to side out of pure disbelief. "Now, excuse me," she said, sidestepping the two boys who were now talking about how they should add a dying snake to the drawing as well.

"What do you think of the serpent idea, dear Lilykins?" Lily distantly heard Sirius's voice call out after her, but she promptly ignored it with an indifferent wave of her hand.

Sashaying her way throughout all of the students, Lily kept her eye out for Marlene, or any one of her other friends. "Hey, Lily, have you seen James or Sirius?" Remus asked with Peter at his side.

She could barely hear him over the noise from music and the incessant chattering. "Yeah, they're over there talking about drawing dead animals," Lily rolled her eyes yet again. Remus nodded a thanks and he and Peter pushed their way through the crowd.

Jeez, how many people could the common room possibly hold? She vaguely wondered if it was physically possible for a room to split open at its seams before a fast tempo song began pumping out through the speakers. The drum beat seemed to synchronize with Lily's heart beat, as if persuading her to move her hips to the music, before all of the rhythm was lost as she jumped about a foot in the air. A pair of unidentifiable arms had grabbed her and whoever it was pulled her out onto the small clearing that had been turned into a temporary dance floor and spun her around.

"Dance with me, Evans."

Her stress level shot upwards and her heart flipped uncomfortably.

Knowing that voice anywhere, Lily's head snapped up and met James's hazel eyes that were gazing down at her. Her heart raced angrily at their close proximity and she wanted nothing more than to walk away from him. A girl in front of them glared at Lily, her eyes full of jealously that Lily was the one being held by James and not her. It made Lily sick the way girls fawned over boys with such horrible personalities. Just because Potter may look hot in his tight Quidditch robes—

Oh Merlin, who spiked my drink?!

Wrenching her thoughts out of dangerous territory, Lily came back to her senses. Just because he was cute didn't give Lily any reason to change her perception of bloody James Potter; he was still a cocky git. "In your dreams, Potter," she replied, trying to walk around him, but he took a hold of her arm.

"Just one dance," he said with a wide smile that would make any normal girl fall weak at the knees. "What's the harm?"

Lily stared at him hard as if weighing her options before removing his hand from her waist. "You don't want to find out."

His grin faltered slightly and he sighed, dropping his other hand from her arm and stepping to the side in order to allow her to escape. "Next time I won't take no as an answer."

"We'll see about that," she replied.

The normal smirk had returned as had the mischievous glint in his eyes. "Good."

Had she missed something? "Er…excuse me?"

James smiled at her. "Well, that means that there will be a next time," he winked subtly at her before bowing chivalrously.

"I never said—"

"—After you my dear." Lily glared at him as he stepped aside to allow her a passageway off of the dance floor.

Realizing that if she stayed any longer she'd only indulge herself in a long argument with the vain of her very existence, Lily quickly walked by and away from James bumping into his shoulder purposefully. When he didn't respond or even try to get her to stay again—as what was expected—Lily glanced back at him curiously.

Something wasn't right with Potter, Lily thought to herself as she watched James head of off the dance floor and back to his fellow Marauders; Sirius clapped him on the back as Remus and Peter shrugged. He had just let her…walk away? Just like that?

Nothing was ever that easy with James Potter. The boy had been practically obsessed with her ever since the time back in their fourth year when Lily had been handed that unpleasant and doomed dare. After that day, James had taken the challenge of trying to woo her over and had asked her out as many times as humanly possible to the point where Lily had seriously considered accepting him once just to get him to shut up.

He had spent that past two years stalking her, hexing people just to get her attention, annoying her to no end, and yet he had just allowed her to…walk away from him? What was that about? She glanced back at him quickly. Why was he being so…un-Potterish?

It scared her, to be completely honest. At least with the old James Potter, who would constantly dangle mistletoe over her head even if Christmas was seven months away, she knew what to expect and how to react towards him. Something strange was up and for some odd reason she just knew the Marauders were written all over it, whatever it was.

"Lils! There you are!" Marlene cried through the crowd, swinging a bottle of Butterbeer in her left hand jovially some of the contents splashing over the side. "Come on, you have to hear what happened to Alice over the summer!"

Pushing thoughts of James Potter from her mind—for Lily was positive that it couldn't be good for her health—Lily allowed her friend to pull her towards a couch by the fire where a couple of girls sat, all of them seventh years like herself.

A girl with long blonde hair and a round, happy face was currently sitting in the midst of a group of three girls. A bright smile illuminated her friendly features as the girls around her took turns gazing at her left hand. The setting sun from outside drifted through the window and something on the girl's hand glinted brilliantly in the light.

"Lily!" One of the girls exclaimed the moment she and Marlene had approached them, "Alice is engaged!"

Alice Calvier blushed slightly but grinned nonetheless at Lily. "Frank proposed," she restated happily.

"Are you kidding?" Lily asked eagerly, immediately rushing to her friend's side and grasping Alice's hand where an elegant yet simple silver band bejeweled Alice's ring finger. So, that is what had sparkled. "Oh! Congratulations!"

Marlene settled down on the couch beside them. "I still can't believe you kept it a secret from us for the past month," she grumbled jokingly, nudging Alice happily in the arm.

"Well, we promised we wouldn't tell anybody until we told his parents," Alice said, shrugging contently as she observed the ring again.

"So, what happened? How'd it happen! We want details," a girl in Quidditch robes exclaimed, Dorcas Meadowes. Her blonde curls bounced excitedly as she bobbed her head up and down.

"Well," Alice began, unable to keep the grin off her face, "it was just before the school term started back up again. He took me out for dinner and he just…did it," she broke off, a glazed look in her blue eyes as she sighed happily. "We've talked it all through, though, and decided to hold off the wedding until after I graduate."

"Oh, that's so wonderful," Lily stated, hugging Alice.

The group of girls all looked up as a shadow draped over them. "Heard dear old Longbottom finally popped the question," Sirius exclaimed, kneeling over the couch to examine the engagement ring, the other three Marauders close behind.

"Heard, as in you were eavesdropping?" Marlene asked suspiciously, pushing the boy in the chest.

Sirius stumbled back, catching himself, and sweeping his elegant dark hair back into place. "I'm shocked that you think I'd listen in on conversations, as if I don't have a life," Sirius smirked, winking at her.

The other surrounding girls all sighed hopefully at the wink, but Sirius paid them no attention. If James was handsome, Sirius was practically considered a sex god, yet he never got himself into many relationships. Unlike James, Sirius seemed to completely ignore the large amount of Hogwarts' girl population that compulsively pursued him. Many people thought that perhaps he was just afraid of commitment.

Marlene threw a smirk right back at him. "I'm shocked that you're shocked that I would think you have no life," she stated. Sirius grinned, sticking his tongue out in a spontaneous act of immaturity.

"So, I miss old Frankie. He was an awesome Keeper," James exclaimed, remembering his former Quidditch ally. Quidditch; that was probably the only thing that Potter could even have hopes of remembering about anyone.

"And great at Herbology," Peter piped up.

"Yeah," Remus agreed, his tired blue eyes observing the girls, "how is Frank these days, Alice?"

While Alice carried on about how Frank had begun Auror training, Lily saw James sneak a glance her way. When he noticed that she had caught him looking, he grinned. "What are you looking at, Evans?"

"Me? You were the one perving on me!"

"No I wasn't," James fought back, pushing his glasses further up his nose. The rest of the group around the two of them tuned them out, all too familiar with their arguments.

"I saw you!"

"Maybe you need glasses."

"I do not need glasses," Lily retorted, annoyed.

"Don't deny the fact, Evans. I can show you where I got mine."

Lily stared at him, an incredulous look across her face. Why was he denying the fact that he'd looked at her? Usually he would admit to it right upfront and then follow his pronouncement with an invitation to go to Hogsmeade with him. She could feel her temper rising for what seemed to be no reason at all; no matter what, Potter always seemed to know how to get her riled up.

And sweet Merlin, couldn't he just take off those bloody Quidditch robes? Everyone knew he bloody well played the stupid sport. She wished someone from the English National Team would just come and take him away already.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review! More reviews make a happy author and a happy author makes more chapters. lol

Next chapter: James needs a favor and the girls have a chat.

Have a wonderful day! I'll try to reply to all of the reviews this time around. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

--HeyLookTheSnitch