Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

The Chronicles of Lily and James

I'm a horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible person! I haven't updated since who knows when and now probably nobody will want to read when I do update. I have 4 days off from school (actually 2 weeks but I went to Paris for a while woot woot) and I'm going to spend my time updating and writing, writing and updating so that I at least update every story once. I'm soooo sorry please do still read my stuff!

Chapter 3- Hogsmeade and a trip to the hospital wing

The next day was a Hogsmeade day. Peter (who I guess we haven't mentioned yet) was our other best friend. To give you a short summary of our lives at Hogwarts, James, Sirius, Peter, and I were known as the Marauders, prankers extraordinaires. We pranked everyone, went out with every girl (James and Sirius definitely held the more reputations of being players though), and had the most detentions.

Anyway, that day was horribly cold. Especially compared to the day before. After breakfast, we found our cloaks, and went outside to the carriages. Some students were in line to sign out with Filch, others were clambering inside the best carriage they could find, and others were standing around talking to their friends until they had to leave. We quickly cleared our names with Filch and ran to the nearest carriage, one of the last ones left.

Sirius and Peter climbed in immediately (both intolerant of the cold) but as I was going in after them I noticed James walk up to the front. He gently began stroking the air. I looked at him for a second before getting inside and a minute later he joined us.

James had told me about the Thestrals once. He had seen his favorite cousin die in a battle with a Death Eater, during one of his first missions as an auror. The Thestrals symbolized a kind of peace for James, a way to remember his cousin and a way to calm himself down. He often went to visit them in the Forest, late at night.

As the carriages lurched to a start a bright lightning bolt flashed through the sky, fallowed momentarily by a gigantic thunderclap. A second later, the rain started leaking from the sky. We tumbled down the little incline, the carriages' wheels magically missing the potholes. Well, except for one certain carriage.

Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins emerged from their carriage moaning and rubbing their heads.

We grinned.

"Bumpy ride, Malfoy?" called James. Malfoy glared at him and stalked away.

"Priceless," snickered Sirius and we walked down the path to Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks was, as always, our first destination. We entered the pub and sat down at our usual table. Without even asking, Madam Rosmerta brought over four cups of butterbeer. We paid her and sipped the drinks happily.

"Hey, do you think Lily will ever-" James started.

"James," Sirius interrupted. "We're not going to spend this day talking about Evans." James sighed and nodded. Two minutes later, Sirius added, "And no, I don't think she'll ever give you a chance." James grinned and punched him playfully.

The bells at the door of the Three Broomsticks jingled merrily as someone came in. We heard a groan and then resistant foot steps coming over to our table.

"Mind if we sit here? Everything else is full," grumbled an unhappy voice. A female voice. A Lily voice.

James perked up and stared at her.

"Are you sure you want to take that risk, Evans?" laughed a Hufflepuff seventh year from the other table, grinning at James. James smirked back at him. Chris, the Hufflepuff, had been our friend for a long time.

"Yeah, you sure, Evans? There's a price," James said. Lily narrowed her eyes.

"Which is?" Although she knew perfectly well.

"A date with me."

"Screw you, Potter."

"Will you?"

"No! Just slide over and make room for us." James did as he was told and Lily and her friend Misty sat down. Misty had chopped blonde hair and blue eyes. With a perfect figure she was one of the beauties of Hogwarts – some even argued that the only girl who was prettier (so barely it was almost unnoticeable) was Lily.

"Oi, Madam Rosmerta! Two more butterbeers!" called James.

"The world 'please' is in the English language you know," said Lily angrily. James ignored her. When Rosmerta brought over the drinks he slipped her a couple of extra sickles. She beamed and walked away happily. Lily rolled her eyes in disgust (not an unusual thing to see when she's around James) and took her butterbeer.

"So, how're things going with you guys?" asked Misty. I – hey, Sirius, what are you doing?

Sirius POV

Good God, Remus, I just want to write in the book a little bit. Stop glaring at me, everyone's staring at us!

Well, Remus doesn't look to happy. He was just in the middle of writing something…ok, here we go.

"So, how're things going with you guys?" asked Misty. Remus, (stupid sod that he is), blushed at her and smiled idiotically. He took a long swig of his butterbeer and, when he took the cup down from his face, spilled everything in his mouth down the front of his shirt. Wow, make it more obvious you're completely in love with her, why don't you?

Anyway, at that point I thought it'd be appropriate to take The Book from Remus before he got the pages all wet with drool and butterbeer. Apparently Remus thought (wrongly) that it would be appropriate to mention something to the rest of the group.

"Aw, look at that, Sirius just can't live without his diary," he cooed. I glared at him and shut the book quickly.

But not for long since there was some James/Lily action that I needed to record. While Remus, Misty, and I were talking I noticed James nudge Lily. She sighed and, for some reason, allowed him to take her into the corner of the pub. Unnoticed by anyone, I slipped into the booth nearest them and looked over the top.

"Lily I –" James faltered and gave a short laugh. "I don't even know how to say this."

Lily narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Go on."

"Right. Um, I, uh, I just wanted to, uh, say that I, um, heh, I –"

"Just say it, Potter!" James' eyes widened.

"Oh. Right, um, never mind." He walked away back to our booth. "Hey, where'd Sirius go?"

"Probably to the bathroom to be alone with his diary, I expect," laughed Remus. Great, now I had to get back. I was about to make it look like I had come from the bar when I noticed Lily was still standing where James had left her. She had a…I don't even know how to describe it; her expression looked like she had lost all hope. Remus and I knew she had had a crush on James earlier on, which was part of the reason we were inspired to write this. But could she still have those feelings? This was about to get interesting…


We got back to Hogwarts right at dinner time. No one was really hungry but James, Remus, Peter, and I managed to eat a little bit anyway. And I mean a little bit. I only had five chicken wings, three plates of mashed potatoes, and two pieces of carrot cake. But don't you worry about me, I'm perfectly all right, not sick at all. Just stuffed from Hogsmeade.

Anywho, after dinner us Marauders found ourselves walking back to the Gryffindor Tower with Lily and Misty. On the way up the stairs Lily tripped and fell down the steps. James rushed after her and stopped her halfway down. Still, it looked like she had a broken arm.

"I'll take you to the hospital wing," James said. She winced in pain and let him lead her away. I then decided I would hand The Book over to Remus for the rest of the evening, since he is better at being quiet than I am.

Remus' POV

I quickly ran towards the hospital wing until I caught site of Lily and James. They were walking silently which made it harder for me not to be heard. The two didn't speak for the whole walk to the hospital wing or while Madam Pomfrey was fixing Lily's arm.

"You can go," she said after about ten minutes.

"Thank you," Lily said.

"Of course, dear." Madam Pomfrey bustled off and left James and Lily alone with me looking through the crack on the side of the door, where the hinges are.

Lily sat on the bed for a moment, while James waited, standing up, next to her, for her to make a sign that she wanted to leave. Finally, Lily spoke.

"Thank you for helping me," she said quietly.

"No problem. You would have done the same – oh wait, no you wouldn't have," James said jokingly. Lily let out a small laugh. They were quiet again for a minute or two.

"You know what, James?"

"James? No Potter, tonight?"

"Guess not."

"Interesting. Anyway, what?"

"You've acted tonight how you used to act. When we first met."

"Really? How's that?" James asked, sitting down next to her.

"You're – you're not arrogant and self centered and mean and –"

"Is this 'list all the things you hate about James' hour or something?" Lily grinned.

"Sorry," she said.

"It's perfectly understandable. Keep going."

"Right. Well you're not all those things right now. You're being nice and sweet and caring. Funny even. I guess I just wanted to tell you that." Again, silence for a minute.

"Thank you for that, Lily," James said so quietly, I could barely hear him. After five more minutes of silence, with unspoken consent, they both got up and made for the door. I turned and quickly ran to Gryffindor Tower. When I got to the common room, there was nobody there. I hid behind an armchair, waiting for Lily and James to get there.

They did, two minutes later. James immediately sat down and started staring into the fire. Lily went to the girls' staircase. Before climbing up, she paused.

"You shouldn't change who you really are for an image, James. If you're only happy because of that image you change yourself for, you're not really happy at all." She left him there, to think over what she said. I sat for another minute also, trying to find a hidden meaning in her words. Finally I silently tiptoed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory and went to bed. It took two hours until James finally came up. For the whole time until I fell asleep, I could hear him stirring and rustling in his bed. I couldn't see him, but I knew his eyes were wide open and he was biting his lip, like he always did when he was lost.