We (meaning James, Remus, and I) came back from break, ready to begin our 6th year, with much gusto. This was going to be our year, we had declared. However, when we arrived a day early (James's parents made us because they didn't want us alone at the house and they had to leave for a mission), we discovered that we weren't the only Gryffindors back. The three of us sauntered into the common room, fully expecting it to be completely empty, only to stop in complete shock at the sight of Lily sitting on one of the couches in front of the fireplace reading. She didn't seem to notice our entrance, so finally Remus stepped forward and said hello. When Lily turned toward us, her face seemed to set the tone for the entire first semester. She looked sad, despondent, and not at all like herself. The grief of losing her parents, her grandma, Hestia, and Marlene was apparent as she stared back at us. After murmuring a quick, quiet hello, she went back to her reading and ignored us.
The three of us were so stunned by the new Lily that we just continued on to our room. The next day, when the rest of the students arrived, we Marauders pulled off our usual beginning of the year prank. Much to our surprise though, we didn't get in trouble and Remus even saw Lily give a small grin at our antics. This once again, affirmed to James that Lily was the one for him and that she would come around eventually and accept his prankster side as a part of him. I wasn't so sure, but I was hopeful.
We marauders mostly stayed out of trouble that year – more due to our sneakiness than stopping our pranks. But even when we were caught, most of the time by Lily (she always somehow showed up at the most inconvenient time), all she ever did was inform us in a bland tone of how many points we lost and how many detentions we received. There was no fire in her eyes at her triumph of catching us and restoring order. That spark that she had had for the last five years was gone. So, we tried harder, especially James, to get her to back to her usual self. We broke the rules in front of her more often, not big ones, but enough that we would needed to be reprimanded according to school rules.
Remus spent almost as much time with Lily as us guys and it seemed that he quickly became her new best friend. Besides me, he was probably her only friend at this point. Alice didn't return to school this year, so Lily had no roommates and she had never really needed friends outside of Alice, Hestia, and Marlene. James became increasingly jealous of Remus, and eventually demanded that Remus stopped hanging out with Lily altogether. He tried using the excuse that Lily would find out about Remus's lycanthropy, but we all knew it was because he didn't want Remus and Lily hooking up. It was a big fight, ending with James and Remus ignoring each other.
Thus Halloween rolled around with James and Remus fighting, no grand marauder prank, and Lily still not being herself. Finally, once Lily found out the reason the James and Remus were fighting because of her (her words, not mine), she fixed it. That was the year we found out that Lily had known about Remus being a werewolf since first year. She also told James that there was no way she and Remus would ever end up together because they were much too similar and they didn't even like each other that way. In the end there was a bit of shouting, a bit of arguing, a few more accusations, maybe some name calling, but eventually things went back to normal. The marauders were together again and Lily wasn't quite as anti-social.
And then, right around the end of November, there was "The Moment"…
It was officially dubbed as "The Moment" by James. One night, when we boys came back from our adventures really late, Lily was still awake. She was sitting in one of the chairs, crying. We all exchanged glances before James told us that he was going to comfort her and that the rest of us should head up to our room. Apparently it went really well, because James came upstairs about two hours later glowing with happiness. He proclaimed that he and Lily were finally friends and that she was a step closer to falling in love with him. At this moment, I knew for sure, that there was no way that James was ever going to get over Lily. I knew that James would spend the rest of his life working to make Lily his because he was completely head over heels in love with her. It was somewhat ridiculous and somewhat amusing, but it gave me hope for the future.
By the time Christmas break was about to begin, James was freaking out. He wanted to get Lily a present, but he didn't know what. His parents wanted him to come home for the holidays, but he didn't want Lily to be alone over break. Finally, Remus knocked some sense into him and told him to invite Lily home with him for the holidays. Since both Remus and I were going to be there, she didn't really object all that much to going along for the holidays. Over the holidays, she pretty much became one of the gang. She was already one of Remus's closest friends, but that break she became one of mine and she became one of James's.
I'll never forget that December 27th. That night a strange feeling woke me up, like something was sort of wrong. I started walking around the Potter's house making sure everything was okay. A while into my search, I found Lily sitting in front of the fireplace in the library, staring blankly into space. I sat with her and after a while she began talking to me. She told me how happy she was that she had friends again and how losing so many people had affected her. She told me that having no one left almost had made her want to give up being a witch and go hide out in the muggle world somewhere far away for the rest of her life. We must've talked for four or five hours that night. I told her stories about my childhood that not even James, Remus, or Peter knew. For some reason, it was easier to tell her than the guys. By the time the sun was rising, we were just drifting off into sleep in the chairs. That was when James, in true James fashion, only covered me up with a blanket when he found us, but carried Lily off to the room she was staying in and tucked her in. He stayed there with her while she slept, reading quietly, waiting for her to wake up.
When we got back to school, everyone noticed the change in Lily, and in us. Lily was out of her room more often, she was at meals more often, she smiled more often, and most noticeable, she was friends with James Potter, her once rival. This of course caused some severe jealousy and hatred from Snivellus, but we kept that from Lily as much as we could; she didn't need to get hurt any more. The marauders somehow unofficially became her protectors. We kept pure blood supremacists away from her, we kept the Slytherins away from her, and we made sure she was safe. James even took his protection detail of her a little far, and made sure boys wouldn't ask her out, but I'm pretty sure that was so he wouldn't have any competition, rather than for her protection.
By Easter, Lily was in love with James. It was clear for the entire world to see. But she kept denying it. She stated over and over again that she and James were only friends and would only ever be friends. James was as much in love with Lily as ever, if not more so. But still, I could see the hurt and pain in his eyes every time she denied liking him or turned him down. Finally, it came to a point where James couldn't take it anymore. There was some shouting from both Lily and James. He was frustrated that she wouldn't admit that she loved him and that she refused to see how much he loved her. She was angry that he kept forcing the issue. In the end, the truth came out. She loved him, but was afraid to lose him like she had lost everyone else. He said it didn't matter and said he wouldn't stop fighting for her, that he would always love her.
This little interaction caused a frosty couple of days that were filled to the brim with awkwardness. Finally, Lily said okay….and they finally (finally!) became girlfriend/boyfriend. It was almost the happiest day in James's life. He was over the moon with joy. He was so ecstatic that he had to scream "Lily is my girlfriend" in the middle of breakfast the next day. It was slightly embarrassing to Lily, but the entire student body (and I think even Minnie and Dumbledore) cheered.
The end of the school year arrived quicker than we liked, but we were so happy that it didn't matter. Life was great for us at school. All of us were happy and Lily was back to her old self (for the most part). The Potters had arranged with Dumbledore to have Lily stay with them over the summer. They said it was fitting as Remus and I lived there already too. They were happy to take in another child and Lily happily accepted. When the school year ended, we all apparated to the Potter Mansion, rather than take the train, and the craziest summer of our lives began.
Author's Note: Hey all. I'm sorry it took me so long to update. Quite honestly, life got busy and I forgot about fanfiction entirely. Now I'm back! So, if you enjoyed this chapter leave a review. I'll try and get the next chapter up within a week (but no promises, college is busy after all).
