A/N: Heyy I am sooo sorry this took so long! I wanted to make a longer chapter so.. I did! ;D Ok, gonna shut up now! Enjoy~~

Chapter 2

Paris. City of Love… Or hate.

James and Lily finally managed to climb into the train but was stopped by the adult from five years ago, now known as the nice candy trolley lady; nice if she hadn't seen you dangerously climb onto a moving vehicle. She barked at them about personal safety, responsibility, and stuff like that, repeating the speech she gave five years ago. Surprisingly, she was completely oblivious of the fact that she lecturing the same kids of five years ago, but James and Lily were trying their best not to laugh out loud at this. He even began muttering the lecture along with her and feigning annoyance. As she rattled on and on, James couldn't help but remember what had transpired in the train all those years ago.

~FIVE YEARS AGO~

"Are you alright?" little James asked the girl beside him who had dug her nails into his flesh. Her eyes were on the brink of tears and her breathing came in quick, shallow breaths. "Don't cry," he said, not wanting her emerald pools to be tainted by the tears about to come down. "Next time blame it on me! Tough guys like me always get away with things!" He flexed his imaginary muscles to prove his point. The girl beside him immediately erupted into a fit of giggle at the sight of the rather awkward boy in front of her. Sensing her warming up to him, James asked, "I'm James. What's yours?"

"Lily. Lily Evans." the girl replied softly. James smiled, squeezing her hand before letting go. He contemplated inviting her into the compartment beside him but was interrupted by a greasy haired boy walking straight for them. "Lils! There you are!" the stranger exclaimed. Lily's eyes brightened up at the sight of him and James grew a bit jealous of this lanky stranger. He wished her eyes would brighten up like that because of him, not the awkward, greasy boy making his way over.

"Sev!" she exclaimed, happy to see a familiar face. She turned to face her new friend and said apologetically, "Sorry James, I'm gonna go talk to Sev, ya? See ya once we reach?" Although her words were painful, James couldn't help but give a small smile at her voice, it being the first time she had said more than one-word sentences to him. He watched her as she walked away and towards the smug boy a few meters away. James glared at 'Sev' and grabbed Lily's hand abruptly, giving her a quick hug and walked in the opposite direction, hoping to find a compartment.

James was fuming at the memory of the prick who took away Lily, his only friend so far. He was so angry that he slammed the door behind him after entering what he thought was an empty compartment. He flushed in surprise and embarrassment when he realized that the compartment was already occupied by two other boys, both whom were staring at him curiously. "Who r'you?" the boy sitting nearest to him asked. His charcoal coloured eyes burned into his as though searching his mind for the answer. James gulped before regaining his composure and answered confidently, "James Potter. What's up with you?"

The boy in front of him lost his cool for a moment at James' tone but quickly regained it, eyes narrowing slightly. "Potter, eh? Hmm…" After a moment's thought, his face broke into a grin and the previous tension was gone, leaving him with a light and friendly aura.

"Pleased to meet your acquaintance! I'm Sirius. Urm.. Black." He spat the last part out but still managed to sound friendly. The other boy nearest to the window with a book in his hands smirked at Sirius' sudden change in attitude before facing James, smiling. "I'm Remus. Don't worry about Siri over there. He gave me the same eye interrogation when I stumbled in here." Sirius frowned at the awful nickname and the two ended up wrestling on the compartment floor. Somewhere along the way, James was dragged into their little fight but was interrupted by a mousy boy hoping to find a place to sit. Apparently his name was Peter and he soon ended up joining their little group. By the end of the train journey, they were huddled up together, discussing the pranks they planned to pull throughout the year.

Coincidentally, Sirius had brought a few magical fireworks and their first prank as a group was pulled. Despite it being totally amateur, it was significant due to the fact that the four boys pulled it together, momentarily forgetting their fears of the new school they were approaching, their adventure waiting to happen.

"Earth to Potter! Are you there?"

James snapped out of his little reverie and turned to face Lily.

"So.. It's back to Potter, eh? I thought we managed move on to first names?"

He smiled and wrapped his arm around Lily's shoulders, in an absolutely friendly way of course. Lily merely shrugged and the two walked towards the usual compartment where they would meet their other friends.

Normally, if James were even a tad bit friendly to Lily Evans, he would most likely get jinxed very, very badly. Surprisingly, the two were now quite good friends. Ever since Lily found out about Remus'… furry little problem, things had begun to improve. Lily started seeing James as who he really was inside. Not just the annoying prat who jinxed Slytherins for the heck of it, but as a loyal friend, one who follows his heart and was willing to even save 'ole Snivellus from a horrible death despite hating his guts.

Lily has never actually said that out loud of course, but it was obvious she was warming up to the messy-haired boy.

"Lily-flower! Oh how I've missed you so! How was Paris darrrling? D'ya recommend any French birds to moi?" the booming voice of Sirius Black echoed as the two entered the compartment. Lily ducked as Sirius went in for a bone crushing hug; James, she was warming up to, Black... Not so much.

James smirked as he patted his best mate on the shoulder before sitting next to Lily. Sirius made a noise that sounded distinctly like a whining puppy and pouted next to Lily's best friend, Marlene Mckinnon.

"Marls! Lily's being a meanie!"

Marlene rolled her eyes and thwacked his head, laughing at the cross between a glare and puppy dog eyes he was giving her.

"Well, if you must know, Paris was… Paris, city of love, Eiffel Tower and all that… I read all about cathedral Notra Dame, the Napoleonic Ac de Triomphe and especially the famous Eiffel Tower of course. I expected Paris to be magical, wonderful in fact. Did you know that the butte Monmartre is 130 metres high and is known for its white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit? In the past many artists like Salvador Dalí, Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had studios or worked around there! It is so French, that it has been the setting for many hit films like La Môme and Amélie Poulain! And you can't forget Ile de la Cité! Aww romantique en effet! Paris was just… "

Everyone rolled their eyes as Lily rattled on about how romantic, magical and beautiful Paris was, but surprised when she wrapped up her little speech.

"Basically Paris was just crap. Honestly."

With that, Lily sat with her arms crossed and remained silent, her lips set in a tight line, very closely resembling Professor McGonagall. There was an awkward silence before Sirius spoke up, being ever the thick one.

"So, anyone else'd like to elaborate on their holidays?"

Fortunately Peter Pettigrew walked in at that moment, preventing Lily from killing Sirius because of his stupidity and serious lack of empathy. This, however, did not prevent everyone else from thwacking poor Sirius on the head, making it a total of 8 thwacks. Even normally clueless Peter thwacked him, seeing Lily's face turn purple when he first stepped in.

~~ L&J ~~

Lily smiled broadly when she stepped into the prefect's compartment with Remus. Just as she had hoped, Alice Griffiths and Frank Longbottom were head boy and girl! Alice was like the older sister she wished she had; encouraging and helping her along in her first years at Hogwarts.

Moreover, Frank and Alice had been dating since their 5th year, fulfilling the myth of head boy and girl eventually getting together (in this case, got together). Lily had always wanted to be head girl, but she never thought she was good enough. Now, having been a prefect since 4th year, she was confident in getting head girl next year. Until then, she would be working hard to achieve perfect scores and being the best head girl candidate she could possibly be. The only thing she couldn't prepare for was next year's head boy (who she was really hoping would be Remus!).

This year, Adam McKinnon was her partner for rounds. Although she would have much preferred Remus, she didn't mind having Adam as her partner after having worked with him for a Potions assignment last year. After the meeting, she and Adam began making the first round, laughing and talking along the way.

"So, how was your holiday? You don't wanna know mine.. Long story short, Paris sucked."

Adam chuckled a bit before replying, "Well, I spent holidays at home. Babysitting Maya and all.."

Lily smiled, remembering Maya, now a year one also in Gryffindor.

"Hey, you're now quite okay with the Marauders, right?"

That question took Lily by surprise. Thinking back, Lily realized that she was actually cool with the Marauders for once. No jinxing, hexing, cursing, screaming, beating, nothing! She was actually close friends with Remus, friends with Potter (now James) and Peter a familiar face. Black was... just an acquaintance of course. To think, Lily spent about three years hating the Marauders, mostly because of Potter and Black. She never truly hated them of course, especially not James. He was the first person she met at Hogwarts (not counting Sev, *cough* Snivellus, ofcourse), and the first friend to make her laugh!

Well, the… lake incident definitely didn't help improve things with her and James at the time, but in the end all was good!

"Ya, I guess! What do you think their annual start-of-year-prank will be?" Lily asked. Unlike most of the Marauder's pranks, Lily quite enjoyed the start and end-of-year ones, considering they were mostly harmless, funny and Gryffindor-based! What could she say? She's a Gryffindor, through and through!

Adam thought for about a minute before hanging his head in defeat.

"You can never tell with those four! I've been living with them for almost six years now and I still don't know their secrets to success! Guess we'll just have to wait and see, eh?"

~~ L&J ~~

A/N: So that's Chapter 2! Hope you enjoyed it I find it choppy though… :/ Sigh 3 You know I just realised that in the previous chapt, my arrow thingy in my 3 (heart) was missing! Grr… So now Im using '~'s ;) Seriously, hoped you liked this ^^ Just to let you guys know, I will update at least once a week (latest by a Sunday :D). Wish me luck guys! I've got a Math paper next wk and I haven't studied - I need to chioonngg!