Author's Note:

Hi again. So, I know many of you have added the story to your alert lists and stuff, but I have only gotten one review. Many thanks to Jenny129, who submitted it, the very first review to the story! Yay! I can assure you it really brightened my day, and I am very happy for that. I have been busy over the last few days but since I have a friend staying over for the next week I decided to update now, since I wont be able to when my friend is over. This chapter is a bit of a filler but you do get an insight of the friendship between Anne, Heather and Lily. But this chapter is still very exciting! For me, anyways! I'm very eXcItAbLe O.o!!!!

And the next chapter is even more exciting! YAAAY.

Anyways, as always, hope you enjoy, and please, please REVIEW! It makes me happy :) Thanks,

XxMissJacobxX

Disclaimer: Of course I didn't invent the Harry Potter world, that was JK Rowling! I would love to have done so, though.

James woke up on Sunday morning in a very bad mood. Yesterday had not exactly been his polished-perfect Saturday. As if the small fight he and Lily had had before their names were called out as the contestants wasn't enough, another three fights had occurred after dinner in the common room. Lily had accused him of being a stuck up Quidditch jerk, and he had accused her of much worse. And after all the shouting and yelling, James was exhausted and in need of sleep. And it didn't help that Remus and Sirius were poking him and throwing chocolate frogs and pillows at his face.

"Cut it out!" he grumbled into his own pillow, swatting them away as if they were flies.

They kept on hitting James. One chocolate frog hit James' head and bounced off elsewhere. Sirius and Remus' laughter erupted suddenly as they watched James expression change from a confused annoyance to a deep scowl,

"I'm going to set a couple of Tebo's on you two if you don't stop!"

"What the hell is a Tebo?" Sirius laughed.

Remus grinned, "A Tebo is a creature that you normally find-" he stopped talking as soon as Sirius threw a pillow in his face. Remus cursed and started attacking Sirius once more, just to receive another hit. He fell to the ground in mock humour, feigning injury.

Recovering from the blow he had just received, Remus addressed his friend: "James, you've got to go meet the rest of the contestants in half an hour. I mean, from the other schools. McGonagall told me yesterday after you won but I forgot to mention it" Remus said sheepishly.

"Shit!" James yelled, "I'm going to be late and it's your entire fault!" He picked up a pillow and banged Sirius on the head with it.

"Ow!" Sirius whined, "It's not our fault that you and your future wife hate each other"

James aimed another hit at Sirius and missed this time, because Sirius jumped out of the way with a smile on his face.

"She's not my future wife!" James insisted

"You only wish she was" Sirius said

James hit him again, but this time, much harder.

"Remus back me up here!" Sirius whined, pouting with a puppy-dog look on his face.

"Sorry, but I don't want to be hit with that pillow, Prongs looks extremely vicious today," Remus said with a grin.

"Traitor!" Sirius yelled in a mock voice

"That's right" James said, while looking for his robes. He found them were he'd left them last night, crumpled up in a corner. Quickly pulling them on, he turned to Remus.

"Where am I supposed to meet everyone?"

"In the transfiguration classroom"

"I better get going then" he said, and with a quick glance in the mirror, he left.

He wasn't so sure why he felt so miserable. Maybe he could try to be curt and polite and friendly with Lily today. They could try to make friends. What was the point, really? She hated his guts. He hated hers. But he would try, for his own sake. It wasn't everyday a girl like Lily walked into his life.

Sirius, Peter, Remus, Anne and Heather were sitting at dinner later on that day, discussing the last night events and wondering whether Lily and James would ever be able to work together on each of the tasks they would be given soon. Well, Anne, Peter and Sirius were, Heather and Remus, on the other hand, were completely going at it in front of everyone, knocking over Anne's orange juice in the process.

"Hey guys," James greeted, sitting down at the table by Sirius, "I see someone's busy today" he added, noting Remus' one on one activities with Heather.

"They've been like this all morning" Peter said, glancing in their direction.

"I don't think they even realize we are talking about them," Sirius joked, adding some more bacon onto his plate, "So how was the meeting, Prongs?"

"The usual. They explained the rules to all of us, and then gave us some time to mingle with the other contestants. They all arrived this morning. I only really talked to one, she's called Yarra, and she's pretty cute"

"Oooh, I call her!" Sirius yelled suddenly.

Anne laughed, "You can't just call girls, Sirius"

"They seem to like it when I do that though" Sirius stated, wiggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"I think we all know that, Sirius" James said, "We hear what goes on when you bring those poor girls into our rooms"

Anne and Peter laughed

"So where are the contestants staying?" Sirius asked.

"They all have rooms somewhere in this castle, right?" Anne asked James.

"Yeah"

"Then how come no-one has seen them yet, I mean, I think we'd notice if they were eating in the great hall, right?"

James smiled knowingly, "It's a Golden Wizards tradition. You guys," he pointed at the people in the great hall, "don't meet them until the first task has started."

"That sucks!" Sirius moaned, "I have a necessary need to meet my future friends!"

"Friends?" James asked, "I thought you had called those girls as girlfriends."

"I meant FWB"

James grinned at Sirius' comment. "Nice".

"What's FWB?" Anne asked, curious.

"Guy stuff" James said

"Tell me!" Anne insisted, a smile creeping up on her gorgeous face.

"FWB. Friends with Benefits" Peter cleared out.

Sirius winked as the rest of them laughed.

"They also told us when the first task will be" James explained after stifling one last laugh, "It'll be in the grounds, next week-end. They will be testing our partnership-" (Sirius laughed at the idea of James and Lily getting along), "and our abilities to deal with finding things. I'm guessing we'll have to search for something in a given time" James shrugged.

"That sounds fun" Anne commented, watching as Remus placed his hand a little lower down Heathers' leg. Sirius watched his friend with a grin.

Sirius wolf-whistled. James chuckled.

"I can't believe our little Moony is finally getting it" Sirius said.

"He's had lots of girlfriends before" Anne pointed out.

"But he's never made out with them in full daylight," Peter squeaked, "normally he's too caught up with his prefect business".

"True" Sirius nodded.

"So is Lily still mad at you?" Sirius asked, changing the topic a bit.

"Yes" James sighed.

James tried to join the conversation but his mind was too fixed on how Lily had ignored him throughout the whole meeting. He had even tried to get her a drink from the refreshments table but she had just walked and got one herself. He knew she was angry at him, so was he, she was still the same girl as she had been yesterday. But he really didn't think he could take any more fights, because they were just so exhausting. He and Lily already had a reputation around school for not standing the sight of each other.

"She has every right to be mad" Anne pointed out

Peter, James and Sirius turned their heads in her direction.

"Well," Anne continued, "It's not like you were exactly nice to her. I heard you guys whispering about her during the speech, and I'm pretty sure Lily did too, but she doesn't show it."

James suddenly felt realization sink in as he realized why Lily had been acting so mad

Heather, who was still busy kissing her precious boyfriend, paused for a second to listen to the others conversation. She seemed to have come to her senses as soon as someone had mentioned her best friends' name.

. James just shrugged, "I was just telling the truth. It isn't exactly a lie that she's an uptight, bossy know-it-all that has no friends and no life. She can't insult me, on the other hand. I'm Quidditch captain, good looking and I have-".

Heather didn't look pleased at what he had just said. Not pleased at all. Struggling to be unleashed from Remus' grasp, she murmured angrily:

"I love Lily, Potter. I normally don't have a problem with you but now you're taking it too far."

"Mind your own business, won't you?" James started.

"Come on Heather, we do like Lily, it's just Potter here has a problem with her, not me and Remus and Peter!" Sirius interjected.

Heather had already struggled out of Remus' lap and was towering over Potter now.

"Tell Potter to stop being such a self-centred bastard!" she yelled, grabbing Anne's hand, "Let's go!" she yelled at her friend, yanking her out of her seat

"But, Heather" Remus moaned, reaching for her out of reach arm, "Stay"

"James was going at Lily again" Heather explained to him, it seemed he hadn't caught on.

"Oh" comprehension dawned on Remus' face, "I'll see you later hon'"

As Heather charged out of the great hall with Anne at her tail, she exhaled air angrily. She looked furious.

"How can that bastard be such an idiot and not watch what he says? If it weren't for Remus I wouldn't even hang out with the Marauders!"

"Potter's okay, Heather"

"We all know you fancy him, Anne, no matter how well you hide it"

"I do NOT!" Anne swore defensively.

"Do too"

"Do not"

"DO"

"NOT"

"DO"

Anne blurted out, as if thinking of an excuse, "He insults my best friends, Heath!"

"I know, Anne! Then how could you fancy him?"

"It's just that- he's an outright bastard, I know, but he's- James Potter" Anne winked, "And you know what the Potter's do to me" she giggled

Heather did know. Anne had been in a relationship with two of the three Potter brothers, and the only one left to date James. Jason had graduated from Hogwarts last year, and Roger had done so two years ago.

"Lily will murder you" Heather stated matter-of-factly. The thing was, Heather didn't exactly hate Potter. She just knew that somewhere deep down, Lily Evans and James Potter would make the greatest couple. And she didn't like the fact that Lily's so-called friend Anne fancied him. Whatever Anne wanted, she got, no matter what. Was it because of her beautiful looks? All that golden billowing hair must have some use. And Anne's piercing baby blue eyes? They could hypnotize most any boy at this school. Heather felt safe in just knowing Anne didn't have any particular interest in Remus. Heather was happy with him, and no way was anyone taking her happiness away. She only wished Lily could have the same gorgeous happiness for herself.

"So I won't tell her then" Anne replied, as if it was the simplest thing ever.

Heather sent a glare in Anne's direction.

Anne and Heather had approached the portrait of the fat lady. Heather muttered, "Lacewings" and watched as the portrait swung forward to reveal a medium sized hole. They scrambled through, and headed straight for the girl by the fireplace with the furious red hair and light green eyes.

Lily glanced up from her Potions essay as soon as her two best friends dropped their bags beside her and took the empty armchairs. They had a look of awkwardness among them that quickly alerted Lily that obviously something was wrong.

"What happened?" Lily asked, resting her silver quill down and tucking a loose strand of copper hair behind her ear.

"Nothing" Anne responded, and while Lily bent to pick up her quill again, she missed the hateful glare that Heather shot at Anne.

"I think that what Anne wants to say is that-" Heather started, defiantly, but stopped in mid-sentence once she saw the counter-glare shot in her very own direction.

"So tomorrow I learn what the first task is going to be, so I can be able to prepare." Lily commented, oblivious to the sudden tension.

"I know, Sirius and James told me, the task is next week-end, right?" Anne chattered away as if nothing was wrong.

"Yes. But tomorrow," Lily paused, "I have to prepare, plan and study for the task," she frowned, "for two hours".

"At least you get to miss class. I'll be in Transfiguration or History of Magic or something" Anne sighed in jealousy, "You are so luck-"

"But I have to plan everything with Potter", Lily grumbled in disgust.

Anne seemed a bit annoyed when Lily mentioned Potter, and Lily was glad to think that her best friend also thought Potter was a jerk. Well, I mean. He was a jerk. The worst jerk, even.

Heather smiled. "Well I think her working with Potter is a great idea!"

Anne, instead, grimaced. "If you're uncomfortable with him, Lily, then I could join you" Lily was surprised at the willingness to help Anne had suddenly gained. Normally Heather was the more helpful one.

"You would do that? For me? Awe, Anne, I love you"

Lily bent forwards to hug Anne fiercely. It was unusual to have Anne volunteer to help, and Lily knew she was the best friend she could ask for. Anne seemed to be excited; her twinkling blue eyes were alight with joy and happiness.

"Yes, yes, and help Potter- I mean help you and Potter- plan".

Lily grinned, "Thanks".

Heather pointed out the obvious, "You have classes Anne!", hoping Anne would remember and change her mind.

"I can arrange that" Anne said with a small smile on her lips.

Anne stood up, tall and graceful, tossing her blonde hair behind her back in a simple flick of her wrist. Had Lily tried this, or Heather, their hair would have tangled into knots instantly. But no, not for Anne. Anne's hair would always stay perfectly in place. Anne was perfect and beautiful in every single way, and she had everything Lily had always envied in a girl. But hey, they were best friends. And supporting each other was what best friends were for, right? And after all, it wasn't as if anyone would ever hear Lily complain.

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