AN: So I'm back again with another chapter that I just wrote today. I think I'm getting the hang of this. Hope you take the time to read and enjoy!


Lily and James both went down to the Great Hall for breakfast at separate times. Lily arrived before James and made her way down to the end of the table where her friends sat. She had to laugh when she saw Sirius stuffing his face and the disgusted faces of Rachel and Simone who were sitting across from him and Remus. Remus had the Daily Prophet propped up against a jug of water and was biting into an apple as he looked up at Sirius and raised an eyebrow. He turned and grinned at Lily who laughed and sat herself down next to Rachel.

'Morning Rachel, Simone. Has McGonagall come past with our timetables yet?'

'Ah now Lily that wasn't very nice!' Rachel teased. 'No, Hey how are you, how was your night without me?'

'I'm sorry guys. How was your night?'

'It was hilarious!' Simone blurted out, spitting bits of her cereal over Rachel.

'Eww, Simone!' Rachel complained, trying to wipe the mess off her formerly clean robes.

Lily couldn't help but laugh at her two friends. 'So why was it hilarious?'

Simone swallowed this time before answering. 'Well Melissa was talking to Alana about how she was finally going to seduce James this year. I couldn't contain my laughter!'

'Yeah and I had to cast a silencing charm around your bed so they wouldn't hear you! They thought we were asleep you see.' Rachel pointed out to Lily who nodded her head, eager to hear the rest of the story.

'It's not like I was the only one laughing! You, as I recall had a hard time containing yourself!' Simone snapped back at Rachel who grinned sheepishly.

'Ok, so we were both laughing our heads off… Better?'

'Yes much better, I am satisfied.' Simone smiled.

'Anyway. Melissa was saying all the ways she was going to try and seduce James and there were things like…'

'Cornering him in the changing rooms after Quidditch practice.'

'Or in amongst the shelves of the Library.'

'Or asking for a private word with him and dragging him off to some broom cupboard on the fourth floor'

All three girls doubled over laughing and Remus looked up at them. 'Well she's going to have to think of something better than those.'

The girls stopped laughing and looked quizzically at Remus.

'What do you know that we don't hey Remus?' Simone asked.

'Yeah, care to share?'

'Just open your mouth and…'

'Well I would tell you, but you'd all have to be quiet first.'

'Ok, sorry Remus.' The girls laughed.

'Well let me think… Madison in the year below us in Ravenclaw tried to seduce him in the changing rooms… Crystal in Hufflepuff tried to seduce him in the Library… And Tamara in the year below is in Hufflepuff, she tried to drag him off to the broom closet.'

The girls started giggling and Sirius took a break in shoveling food into his mouth to say 'Yeah… And didn't Melissa already try to drag him behind a tapestry on the way to class last year?'

Lily almost choked on her pumpkin juice, but Rachel slapped her back and turned to Sirius. 'She did what?'

'Yeah Melissa has been doing heaps of things like that, James tells me each and every time. It's been what… about 20 now?' He added, looking over to Remus.

'Yeah that, or more.' He replied, not taking his eyes off the Daily Prophet.

The girls laughed again but had to stop when James walked in and sat down next to Remus.

'Hey Remus, what are ya reading?'

James' hair still hung flat on his head, his eyes were dark and gloomy and held only a small sign off life. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and took and apple from the bowl on the table and took a bite into it.

'There's been another attack' Remus whispered, loud enough for the three girls, Sirius and James to hear. 'Listen to this… Last night, after returning home from work, Michael Hayden – Head of the Department of Mysteries, discovered the dark mark hovering over his household. He found his wife Tessa aged 34 and his young son Mark aged 9, dead on the floor of the living room. Evidence shows that both mother and son were tortured before the killing curse was bestowed upon them. Our sympathy goes out to Michael and his family for their loss.' Remus finished.

'That evil man, he's-'

'I don't think that calling him a man is the right word Lily. I mean he's killed hundreds of innocent people!' Simone interrupted.

'Well how about despicable, loathsome, fu-'

'Well good morning Rachel.' McGonagall interrupted before Rachel could finish her sentence. 'Here are your timetables.' She said, tapping each one with her wand before handing them out to the six students in front of her. 'I'd like to congratulate you all for making it into my NEWT Transfiguration class.' She said with a small smile before heading off down the table.

'God that was close!' Rachel sighed before looking at her timetable. 'So who's been unlucky like me to get Potions first?'

In answer, Rachel received five answers of 'Me.'. She smiled. 'Well that's good. I don't fancy having to do the class by myself!'

'Well come on you lot!' Simone said, dragging Rachel to her feet who pulled Lily up with her. 'Class starts in fifteen minutes and the dungeons are quite hard to get to in rush-hour traffic! Let's go!'

Sirius stood up and saluted her. James and Remus then stood up and grabbed their books. The three girls linked arms together and walked out of the room laughing at a comment Rachel just made.

James started walking slowly back down the table before Remus grabbed his arm and turned James to look at him. 'Where'd you get that cut over your eye?' Remus whispered, trying not to draw attention to them.

'Oh, that.' James said, gently tracing the line with his finger. 'Well last night I… well I…'

Remus just nodded. 'You had that dream again, didn't you?'

'Yeah. But this time it was worse. Anyway Lily woke me up and stopped the cut bleeding and we just talked till it was time to get ready.'

'Well if you ever need to talk about it…' Remus trailed off and James nodded. 'Well come on! Off to class. I daresay Slughorn will be most pleased to see us again, no?'.

James made a small smile before walking towards Sirius who was tapping his foot impatiently at the door. James shrugged and the three boys headed off to potions class.

Lily, Simone and Rachel were sitting down on the cold stone next to the door to the potions room.

'So how was your night with James?' Simone asked suddenly.

'Oh, it was umm…' Lily wondered if she should tell them about the incident this morning. She opened her mouth to tell them, but then thought better of it. 'It was fine! I have a nice room and a beautiful common room. We'll have to do a sleepover on the weekend, what do you say?'

Rachel grinned. 'Absolutely! Our girls' nights are always so much fun!'

'Apart from the fact that Melissa always interrupted them.'

'Even so, they were still fun!'

'But this one will be better!'

The three girls smiled at each other. It was only the first day back and already they were planning out their weekend. Girls' nights were always fun between these three. It was the one night every fortnight that they could relax without Lily pressuring them about homework, which Simone and Rachel were thankful for. They always got out their chocolate and candy and Simone even got a bottle of Firewhisky from some unknown source. They couldn't wait for the weekend.

Seconds later, James, Sirius and Remus rounded the corner to find the girls sitting on the floor. They leant against the wall opposite them in silence. Not long after their arrival a further ten students from various houses arrived as Slughorn opened the classroom door.

It must have looked funny to the other ten students when James, Sirius and Remus all simultaneously offered their right hand down to one of the girls sitting on the floor. It must have looked even more odd when each of the girls took their right hand and were pulled to their feet at the same time also. They all turned and faced the doorway. James, who had pulled Lily to her feet, was still holding her hand. When he realized this he dropped it immediately and allowed Lily to enter the classroom before him.

James was about to follow her in when Snape brushed past him, shouldering him as he did so. James stopped, wiped the spot where Snape had touched him and then continued into the room where he sat down next to Gordon Cameron, a chaser on the house Quidditch team and the other boy housed in their dorm.

'Sure to be a good season this year hey James?' Gordon commented as James sat down next to him.

'Yeah absolutely, Jacquie had better not be as bad as Nathan.'

'Jacquie got captain did she? That's good. Yeah Nathan was a bit tough. But he did manage to lead us to victory by winning the Quidditch cup three times, didn't he?'

'Yeah I suppose you're right.' James agreed.

'Now everyone quiet down!' Slughorn said cheerfully. 'Welcome back students! It is nice to see you all back safe and sound after the holidays.'

At these words James rolled his eyes and rested his head in his hand.

'Now this year you will be creating the most complex potions I have ever seen, but never fear, I and your fellow classmates will be able to assist you if ever you go astray. Now, if you will open your books to page nineteen, we will begin with today's potion. I have set you a simple one to get you back into the swing of things before we go tackling the harder ones, chop chop!'

Everyone opened their books and went about the room, collecting ingredients and lighting their cauldrons. Halfway through class Slughorn went up to Lily.

'Ah Miss Evans. It's wonderful to see my top student back!'

'Thanks Professor.' Lily smiled.

'I rather hoped you would come to my office for a start of year party with the other Slug Club members tonight?'

'Oh, umm…' Lily always hated these parties. The club was made so Slughorn could get in contact with people who had famous relatives or students that had talent in a subject like herself. 'I'm actually busy tonight professor. James and I have our head duties to attend to.'

'Well that's a pity, never mind. Just make sure you're at the next one!' he laughed happily and moved on to the next student to check on their potion.

At the end of class Lily rushed out of the room and didn't stop until she was at the bottom of the stairs. Rachel and Simone soon caught up with her.

'Gosh Lily, what did you have to run for?'

'Slughorn.' Lily panted in reply.

'Oh yeah. Annoying isn't he?' Rachel added.

'Unbelievably'

'Well, what have you got now? Simone asked.

'Well I've got Divination' said Rachel

'And I've got Ancient Runes.' Said Lily.

'So I'm on my own for Muggle Studies then?'

'Looks like it. How about we meet in the Entrance hall after the end of class? Then we can go down to the lake and relax during our spare?' Lily Suggested.

'Sounds like a plan!' Well shall we make our way to class then?' Rachel suggested.

The other two nodded and they made their way up the stairs. Simone left them at the second floor and Lily left Rachel at the fourth floor, leaving her to climb all the way up to Trelawney's stifling hot classroom.

James and Sirius left Remus at the fourth floor and continued up the stairs to Trelawney's classroom.

'Hey Rachel.' Sirius greeted the girl with a smile which she politely returned.

'Hi boys, sticking with the mumbo jumbo this year are we?' she asked them.

'Sure are! It's easy to pass and you can even fall asleep and the old bat won't notice.' Sirius replied.

Rachel laughed. 'Yep, it's always good to have Divination first off so I can catch up on some sleep.'

'Hi Remus.' Lily greeted the boy as he sat down next to her. 'It ought to be challenging this year right?'

'Class? I daresay it should.' Remus replied. 'As long as Professor Alden doesn't behave like he's got a stick up his-'

'Morning Professor!' Lily butted in, elbowing Remus in the ribs to make him quiet.

Professor Alden passed their table and made his way to the front of the room. Remus and Lily shared a laugh between them before turning their attention to him.


AN: Well that was chapter 4! I don't know when i'll next be able to update but i'll really try! Some reviews would be nice if people would be kind to submit them. Not complaining! Just letting you know i'd appreciate them.

-X-Nefertiri-X-