Yeah, so I decided to skip their fourth year. I wasn't really sure what would happen, and in the fifth year I can have the marauders adventures, which is better than nothing.

Again, pretty pretty please review. I love reviews. If you dont review, I wont know anyone actually cares enough to read it, and I'll stop writing.

Chapter 9

The next year and a half passed with ease. James Potter began to ask Lily out at every opportunity. She always said no. It was now widely known he liked her. He still hexed people in the halls, mainly Slytherins, occasionally Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. But never Gryffindors. Severus and Lily were still friends, although Lily got increasingly mad at him for his blood-status prejudice. He was still her best friend, but she knew it was a matter of time before he chose Voldemort over her. She grew even closer to Elizabeth and Kathleen, who still thought she'd end up with James, and she didn't dislike Margaret as much as she used to. And best, in the last month of their fourth year, James, Sirius, and Peter became very close to being able to change into their Animagus forms. They assumed they would be able to accomplish it by the end of September. And Remus still didn't know they were trying.

James and Sirius strolled onto Platform 9¾ on the first day of their fifth year at Hogwarts. They got waved at by friends, smiled at by girls who wanted them, and glared at by all the girls Sirius had dated the year before. He was quite a heartbreaker.

"This is the year," James announced as they settled into a compartment at the back of the train.

"The year for what?" Sirius asked, watching the platform move beside the train.

"The year for animagi, the year for us to pass our OWLs, the year for Snivellus to finally snap and Evans stop being friends with him, and most importantly,,,"

"They year for Lily to finally go out with you?" Peter asked, hauling his trunk into the compartment.

"Exactly," James smiled in satisfaction. "Wheres Remus?"

"He's a prefect, remember. He'll be up at the front." Sirius responded.

"I quite honestly don't understand how he got prefect over us Sirius. I mean, we're the brightest in out year."

"Maybe they couldn't decide which of us to pick, so they just chose third best."

"Makes sense."

Peter laughed nervously.

"It's actually a good thing Remus isn't here yet, we need to talk." James looked at his friends seriously, and they nodded.

"What if I can't do it?" Peter asked glumly, looking down at his feet.

"Of course you'll be able to. And if you can't, well James and I will be there to help." Sirius shook out his hair, and yawned. "I wish the food trolley would hurry up."

"We've been on the train like," James checked his watch. "Twenty minutes. How can you possibly be hungry?"

"I had early breakfast, then ditched."

"What did you do?" Peter asked, an air of awe in his voice.

"Went to various muggle coffee shops on hit on the waitresses." Peter's eyes lit up, but James just shook his head.

"Pathetic, mate." He told him.

"Well at least I haven't been asking out the same girl for two years, even though I know she'll never say yes." Sirius retorted.

"Yes she will."

"And I'm the pathetic one?"

"It's called optimism, you should try it." James ran his hands through his hair, messing it up even more than it already was. "And anyway, weren't we going to talk about our solution to Remus' furry little problem."

"You've got to stop calling it that, people are starting to think he's got a rbid bunny back home." Peter laughed.

"Would you rather I called it lycanthropy?" Peter stopped laughing.

"Well I think that'd be a little more obvious." He muttered.

"Anyway. After you guys left this summer, I was practising..." James started but was interrupted by Sirius.

"Underage magic? James Potter, I am very disappointed in you."

"And I'm going to be able to change properly soon, I can feel it."

"Do you know what your going to turn into yet?" Peter asked.

"You're never supposed to really know what you change into until you actually change. But I know I'll be something big. Maybe a stag, like my patronus."

"That would make sense, one of the books said that animagi forms are often the same as your patronus."

"Well if all of ours are the same, that would mean a stag, dog, rat, and werewolf will be walking around Hogwarts once a month." James smiled at the thought.

"Well it could be worse. We could turn into dragon. That wouldn't be very conspicuous at all." Sirius said, somehow managing to incorporate both seriousness and sarcasm into his comment.

The three of them burst out laughing. They stopped when the compartment door clicked, ready to slide open, and Sirius watched it hopefully, but it was just Remus.

"Oh," he slumped into his seat. "It's just you."

"Thanks for being so excited." Remus responded sarcastically, lifting his drunk into the overhead racks.

"Don't be offended. Sirius was hoping for food." James explained.

"Well you'll have to wait a little longer, the food trolley's only halfway down the train." Remus told him.

"Why do always have to sit at the back of the train?" Sirius moaned.

"Patience is a virtue." Remus said wisely. They all looked at him.

"What?" James finally asked, incredulous.

"Never mind." Remus mumbled, grateful for the arrival of the lunch trolley that took the attention away from him a few minutes later.

James bought some of everything from the trolley. Half an hour later, just after they had finished eating and all four boys were rubbing their very full stomachs, the compartment door opened. James sat up immediately, it was Lily.

"Hey Evans, how was your summer?" He asked, but she ignored him.

"Remus, would you mind patrolling the corridors for a bit? I haven't had a chance to eat lunch yet."

"We still have plenty of food, you can eat here." James offered, but Lily just looked pointedly at Remus until he stood up.

"I'll be back in a bit," He told them, then walked into the corridor with Lily, shutting the door behind him.

"Sorry about James…" He started, but Lily just shook her head.

"It's okay, I'm used to it."

"He's convinced you'll come around one day."

Lily laughed. "I seriously doubt it." She waved goodbye to Remus, and then headed down the corridor to the compartment where her friends were. She actually liked Remus. He was smart, sensible, and nice. His main fault was his two best friends. The biggest trouble makers in the school and he didn't even bother trying to control them. Lily opened the compartment door and found Mary, Elizabeth, Kathleen, and Margaret on the other side.

"Please tell me you have some food left, I'm starving." Lily settled into the seat between Mary and the window, and Mary handed her a pumpkin pasty.

"We were just talking about our summers," Kathleen informed her. "How was yours?"

"Same as usual. Petunia barely talked to me."

"What did you do?" Margaret asked.

"Nothing, my parents couldn't get any time off work."

"So you spent all summer alone?" Margaret asked sceptically.

"No. I spent a week at Mary's in July, and Severus lives right by me." She stopped talking when she saw the looks on their faces. "What?"

"We can't believe you're still friends with him, that's all." Kathleen explained.

"Yeah, we thought you finally would've dumped him like the dark arts loving, greasy haired jerk he is." Elizabeth said.

"Guys, I've told you before. He's my friend. And he's not going anywhere yet."

"Yet. She said yet. She knows the inevitable," Margaret said, and Lily glared at her.

"Shut up." Mary opened her mouth to speak, but lily shot her a look, and she shut it. You didn't want to get on Lily's bad side. Not only was she amazing at charms and potions, but she was in the Slug Club along with Severus, and all she had to do was mention something to Slughorn and they could be shunned for life. He had the power to put their futures on hold.

"So what did you guys do with your summers?" Lily asked sweetly, taking a huge bite out of her pasty. She wasn't really listening as Elizabeth rambled on about her time in France. She went every summer, and did the same things every summer.

She was instead thinking about what Remus had said, about James thinking she'd come around. Lily had been shocked to here that. James had so far become increasingly arrogant each day. She spent a fair amount of time avoiding him, especially when Hogsmeade weekends were approaching. She didn't think she could have made it any clearer she wasn't, and never would be, interested. But apparently James had hearing problems. Or ego problems. Probably both.

Lily dozed off in her seat, still inwardly ranting about James Potter. Mary woke her up just before the train pulled into to Hogsmeade station, and Lily hurriedly pulled on her robes. She glanced around the compartment as she left, smiling at her new owl, Rue, that her parents had bought her for becoming a prefect.

Once off the train, she followed Mary into one of the horse-less carriages. They were joined by Remus and Sirius. Lily smiled at Remus, and nodded at Sirius. She really didn't have anything against Sirius either. He was still arrogant, but not nearly as much as James.

Remus seemed tense though, Lily noticed. She glanced out the carriage window towards the moon, and saw it would be full in a few days time. She had her suspicions that Remus was a werewolf. Nothing was confirmed, but between him disappearing every month at the full moon, and James talking about his 'furry little problem', it seemed like a pretty good guess.