A/N: Merry Christmas, everybody! I hope you all have a wonderful day(s) celebrating with family and friends. I hope you enjoy this update!

Disclaimer: As I have said time and time again, I am not J.K. Rowling and the majority of this fic is using her characters, world, themes, ideas, plot, etc. Anything you don't recognise is still probably hers in some obscure way but if it's not on the HP Wiki or Lexicon or in the books or films, then it's mine.

Chapter Nine
Break-Ups and Make-Ups

As Lily stepped into her dormitory, having parted with Potter in the common room, a flash of light practically blinded the Head Girl. Once her sight was returned to her, Lily could see Mary and Marlene sat on her bed grinning from ear to ear. The witch glared.

"What?" Mary piped up, "You didn't think I wasn't going to get a snap of our Lil returning from her first ever detention? I need something good for the scrapbook." The girl giggled and a smile crept through Lily's stony glare. The evening had been a surprisingly good one; she had had fun, sort of bonded with the Head Boy and proved James Potter wrong about something. All in all, a general success.

"Uh, Lil," it was Marlene this time who spoke, "is there a reason why you look like you just tumbled out of a bed?"

"What?" the witch questioned, blushing at the mere suggestion of what that would have entailed considering the girls were well aware of who she had just spent the last two hours with. Lily headed over to the mirror and took in the sight before her. Her hair, which she had attempted to dry so she did not catch a cold, was frizzy and a complete mess; her uniform was terribly rumpled, although also dry, and her shoes were muddy from the walk back to the castle.

Mary and Marlene burst into laughter as Lily blushed an even darker shade of pink; she did look like she had just rolled out of bed.

"No, no, no, shh. Stop! Guys, come on…" Much to the Head Girl's dismay, her friends did not stop at her protestation so she turned to a different tactic, "I won't tell you what happened if you don't shut up." Instant silence. Result, Lily thought, taking a seat on her bed behind the girls, who turned to face her as she began to explain the detention.

"You mean to tell me that Lily Evans started a water fight? With you?" The disbelief that rang through Sirius' voice was impossible to miss.

"Tell me about it, Pads."

"I've been telling you for years that Lily knows how to have fun," Remus chimed in, "she just never wanted to have fun with you. In fact, she more or less hated your –"

"Yes, thank you for the reminder of the bridges I have to mend, Moony."

Peter frowned, "But I thought you were going to get over her. That's what you said last year… Plenty of plimpies in the pond 'n' all that?"

James smirked, "That was before I became Head Boy and realised I was going to be spending a hell of a lot of time with the witch." It was a rare occasion when the Marauders would lie to each other, in fact, it was firmly against their unwritten rules, but James figured this was a tiny lie, a lie by omission even. He would never have gotten over Lily Evans, hell, the blokes probably even knew that, but he had decided to fight for her before he even got the badge. But that was beside the point.

"Well, mate, sounds like you're well on the road to recovery," a smirk covered Sirius' face to match that of his best friend, "she seems to be loosening up with you."

"In all honesty, I don't know how you did it," Remus sighed, almost in awe. "I've known the girl for years and, while she never spoke to me about her distaste for you out of respect, it was bloody clear. Merlin, it's the third day of school! You can have a civilised conversation! It's like a bloody miracle!"

"Yeah, but remember the summer," Peter added.

"Wormy has a point, they did have that rendezvous in the 'Cauldron." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

James rolled his eyes and laughed, "That was nothing. I told you, I just didn't want her to hurt herself or end up in the wrong place with the wrong people." Then he turned serious, looking pointedly at his friends, recalling another incident of the summer, "Especially if there are Death Eaters hanging out in bars and pubs."

His point was made and the subject of the summer was dropped. Silence filled the room until Wormtail spoke up, "So what are we going to do to help?"

"Nothing."

"What?" Padfoot cried. "You expect us to sit around a just watch? What happened to plotting and planning and scheming?"

"That doesn't sound all that helpful, Pads," Remus added.

"Are you trying to tell me you can't plot, plan and scheme for non-mischief?"

"Yes."

"But –"

"Why not?" Peter joined in.

"Because you just can't, okay?"

"No."

"Not okay, I think –"

"Shut up!" James called over his three friends' argument. "I do not want your help, clear? No scheming, no plotting and no planning. For neither mischief nor non-mischief involving Lily Evans. NO HELP. Comprende?"

The Marauders looked solemn and shrugged their shoulders. "Fine," Sirius said grudgingly. "But we still need to plan the start of term prank." The four boys began to smirk their trademark smirks. The scheming began.

The first week passed relatively simply as most weeks would. The students woke up, had breakfast, went to class, had lunch, went to class, had dinner, went to detention, did their homework, slept and started it all over again. Prefects patrolled, teachers taught and house elves cooked and cleaned. It was an almost normal week. In fact, the most unnormal thing about the week was, to most students, that Lily Evans and James Potter seemed almost friendly to one another.

They did not argue in the corridors. They did not appear to bubble with hatred at the mere sight of one another. They did not talk about one another nastily to their friends. Actually, they may have smiled at each other when passing in corridors. They may have been seen having civilised conversation in the Gryffindor common room. More to the point, Lily Evans may even have been overheard laughing at something James Potter said.

And so that rusty old gossip mill that had been temporarily closed over the summer holidays began churning once again.

It was unsurprising that a Marauder was talk of the school, but the cold stares Lily was beginning to receive from some of the girls in the older years, specifically Emmony Kurver, a sixth year Ravenclaw, and her gaggle of girlfriends, was beginning to unsettle the Head Girl. She was not usually the talk of the school. The last time she recalled being so was the last time she had most famously rejected Potter's advances and being subjected to emotional abuse by her then best friend.

However, being the person she was, Lily did not rise to the bait. Instead, she continued as usual; going to classes, eating meals, doing homework, going to detention, doing patrols. That was, until the next Wednesday morning rolled around.

It was inevitable that the pleasantries would not last forever, but one hopes it would last longer than a week and a half. Evidently, it did not. That morning, Lily had been sat at the Gryffindor table reading the Prophet and eating her breakfast as per usual. Nothing seemed out of place; that was, until the Great Hall was bustling with students and strange things began to occur.

It all started at the Slytherin table when a second year turned a vibrant shade of green. Not long after that, a few of his housemates did the same, but more notable was the Ravenclaw sixth year whose skin went so blue she could have been mistaken for a blueberry. It is not difficult to guess what happened next and before long almost every pupil in the Great Hall was a brilliant shade of their house colour, apart from the Gryffindors of course. It may have been mildly amusing, especially when the Hufflepuffs started sniffing and squeaking every time they tried to talk, the Ravenclaws began screeching and the Slytherins hissed.

Amidst the raucousness, a familiar bird flew into the hall and dropped a letter beside Lily. The witch swiftly opened the envelope and proceeded to skim read, still watching the madness unfurl around her. She wavered between mild amusement and slight annoyance at the presumed culprits of the mayhem, but the annoyance escalated to anger when the Gryffindors, including Lily herself turned a wonderful shade of scarlet. But what caused the Head Girl's unrestrained wrath was when the four wizards, untouched by whatever spell, hex or potion, stepped onto the table to bow and she started towards them in ire.

James froze, shocked at her appearance, while his companions chuckled. Ready to give them a piece of her mind, Lily opened her mouth but all that came out was a room-shaking roar. Laughter erupted from Sirius' mouth first, but Remus and Peter followed pretty swiftly, unable to contain themselves. If she could turn any more red that she already was, Lily would have at that point. Instead, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room just as McGonagall stood and attempted to calm the pandemonium. Potter made a move to go after her, but Remus grabbed his arm to stop him.

From that moment, Lily and James were not on good terms.

Wednesday passed swiftly with the school still buzzing over the Marauders' start of year prank, Lily still avoiding James and James still searching for Lily. In most lessons, the Head Girl would sit between Marley and Mary, as usual, promptly evading eye contact with anyone but the professor, especially males who habitually frequented the back of the classroom.

Thursday passed much the same as Wednesday, minus the raucous breakfast. There was definitely something missing though. Something skinny, tall and Mary shaped.

It shamed Lily to realise that it was not until she and Marley were taking their seats in Defence Against the Dark Arts that she noticed she had not seen Mary all day. In fact, apart from in class, she had barely seen Mary since they got back to school. The girls had had a few chats and eaten a few meals together, but generally the third witch had been absent. Lily's head had been all over the place what with her Head Girl duties, classes, the damned Marauders and other things, that she had not even noticed one of her best friends' disappearance.

"Where's Mary?" Lily asked Marlene. Her friend shrugged and made a non-committal grunt, too busy flirting with Angus Mattingley from across the room. Instead of sighing and turning away which she may have done on another such day, the witch elbowed her best friend hard in the ribs, drawing the girl's attention away from the relatively attractive Ravenclaw and back to Lily with a loud complaint being issued from her mouth.

"He would have been a contender for my Hogsmeade date if you hadn't gone and fudged that up!" Marlene protested but there was a hint of serious concern on her face when she turned to her friend and housemate, "What's wrong with you anyway? You have your knickers all in a twist for the last two days about something and don't tell me it's just about the Marauders and their silly prank because even you don't get that het up about things like that."

As much as Lily loved the girl sat beside her, she sometimes wished Marlene did not know her so well. She had done all she could to forget the real reason why she was so tense and annoyed and why she had overreacted about the prank. Lily's thinking was, if she put all over her anger and focussed it on Potter and the Marauders she would not have to think about the letter which had arrived shortly before she had erupted in the Great Hall, which was now burning a hole in the pocket of her robes.

The red headed witch frowned, pulling the letter from her pocket and dropping it on the desk. Professor Silthe, the new Defence professor was mumbling on about something insignificant and did not notice the girls' lack of concentration. He was a kind man, not very old and apparently left Hogwarts shortly before they had joined, but he had no idea how to hold the class's attention. Not like Binns in the way he droned on, but more that his theory lessons were so full of waffle that it was hard to distinguish what was the useful information.

Marlene read the note quickly and shoved it back on her friend's lap. "We're discussing this later," was all she said in a stern tone that assured Lily there was no getting away from it before tuning in to Silthe and attempting to concentrate.

Even after a serious discussion throughout their final and free period of the day, which had left neither Lily nor Marlene in the most stable of moods, the Head Girl had still not gotten to the bottom of Mary's location. Marley was being oddly evasive and kept managing to find ways of subtly changing the subject so she dropped it. For now.

However, after leaving her friend and heading to the first floor for her extra-curricular Ancient Studies lesson, the dread began to set in. In fact, Lily barely listened the whole period and if she actually took anything away from that lesson, it would be that there was no way to get out of patrols with Potter that evening.

Lily had gone through every possible excuse and, though she had successfully avoided the wizard up until this point, he would see straight through any alibi she gave for not attending rounds. Besides, she was Head Girl; she was not going to shirk her duties. It was, therefore, with great reluctance that when ten o'clock rolled around, Lily was awaiting James' arrival in the Gryffindor Common Room to begin their rounds.

"Evans, hey," James began upon his arrival, "I, umm, didn't know if you'd come or not."

"Not everyone is like you, Potter," the witch replied flatly, heading straight for the portrait hole, "I would never neglect to do my job due to your presence. I was sure I had made that clear on the train." A derisive laugh escaped Lily's lips, "Then again, you never can be certain with you as most things go in one ear and out the other."

With that, she stepped through the portrait hole and headed down the seventh floor corridor leaving James in her wake to try and catch up.

"Evans, come on, listen." He was not going to give up; there was no way in Salazar Slytherin's green flamed hell he was giving up. After over six years of knowing and obsessing over the girl James had barely scratched the surface of who she was and within one week of being on averagely good terms with her, he had come to learn far more than he could imagine. He was not planning on giving up all that without a fight. "It wasn't supposed to happen that way."

Lily continued to ignore him, walking as fast as she possibly could, trying to keep an eye out for anything untoward but the wizard tailing her was highly distracting. Even more so when he was able to catch up with her in a mere four strides. Damn her short legs.

James grabbed her shoulders so she would not try and dodge him. "You weren't supposed to be there," he said sincerely, but that only riled the witch more.

"And you think that makes it okay?!" Lily tore herself away and continued down the corridor, now fuming.

Sighing, James ran and hand through his hair. Nothing he could say right now would make it better, which only annoyed him so he did what he always did, he spoke without thinking, "For Merlin's sake, Evans, no one got hurt!" His voice began to rise as his annoyance built. "It wasn't a prank that harmed anyone; it didn't isolate a single person or house or intend to humiliate anyone! The whole school was brightly coloured all of breakfast for fuck's sake but do you see anyone else complaining apart from you? No! Because no one fucking cares! No one apart from you and your prissy fucking goodie two shoes arse!"

Stopping in her tracks, Lily slowly turned around. Her voice was low and so chilling that it could freeze a warm summer breeze, "How dare you?" She licked her lips and closed her eyes, trying but failing to calm herself down, "How bloody fucking dare you?"

"How dare I what? How dare I speak my mind? Are you the only person allowed to do that or something?"

"No, Potter," Lily spat, now absolutely livid, "how dare you presume that everything in everyone's life is about you!" Leaving the wizard alone once more, she span around and stormed down the corridor and turned the corner, breaking into a run as soon as she was out of his sight. As she ran, tears began to stream silently down her face and, searching for somewhere to stay out of James' sight, stumbled through the nearest door and into what seemed to be a disused bathroom, sliding down the wall and to the floor.

As much as she tried to calm herself, the tears refused to stop falling down Lily's cheeks. Potter, his actions, the prank, nothing mattered, it all just led back to the letter. The letter which made her inside churn and want to eject the contents of her stomach, the letter which may as well have been another twist in the knife that had been puncturing her heart since the day she received her Hogwarts Acceptance Letter.

After a few moments she felt a presence beside her. Nothing was said, no sound was made, just a presence that wrapped its arms around Lily as her tears continued to fall, this time onto its chest as opposed to her cheeks. Minutes passed until she pulled away, fully acknowledging the being that she had been crying upon. James Potter.

"I-I'm s-," Lily started, trying to push away, but her voice was silenced immediately by the crushing force of being pulled back into James' chest.

"Don't apologise," he said softly, but sternly as his strong arms held her while she finished her tears. They sat like that for a while until the witch was done and it was only then that he let her go. "My mother always told me not to bottle up my feelings so I suppose she'd tell you to just cry it all out." He rubbed her back, unsure of what to say next but in desperate need of lightening the mood.

"She really likes you, y'know? My mum, that is. I believe you made quite the impression over the summer." The wizard began to smile, recalling fractions of the time in which Lily lived at his house, "I think she sees a lot of herself in you." Now his smile spread into a full grin, "I mean, she didn't like me either when she first met me."

An unladylike cross between a laugh and a sob which ending up coming out like a snort fell from Lily's mouth. Mrs Potter was a wonderful woman and had been nothing but brilliant for her; she also did not have an unkind bone in her body and loved James with all her heart, making the statement obviously untrue, though it amused Lily all the same.

"Thank you," the witch said quietly, wiping the tear tracks from her face and staring straight ahead across the disused bathroom.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, James probed lightly, "Want to tell me what's going on?"

"Nothing," Lily replied, "Can we just forget this ever happened?"

"I don't think so, Evans. I know even you wouldn't get that upset over some stupid prank."

She nodded slowly but refused to look at him while her hand fingered the edges of the letter that was still residing in the pocket of her robe. As much as she hated talking about it to anyone, she had to admit Potter had been nothing but supportive the last time Petunia had been brought up. Lily still despised the fact that he was even aware of their relationship, if it could even be called that anymore, and the fact that he had seen her at her weakest.

Petunia.

As ever, it all came down to Petunia. Her loved ones would always be her weakness and her strength. Her fierce loyalty and bravery in the face of anyone who tried to harm them was something that had made her the perfect student for Gryffindor. However, the fierce loyalty made her weak when it was thrown back in her face. Petunia. The big sister she had always idolised had thrown eleven years of friendship and sisterhood back at her the moment she got the Hogwarts letter, if not before that. The letter that now inhabited her pocket was just the signed confirmation note, the stamped validation, the sealed and delivered endorsement.

Slowly and with a shaky hand, Lily gave the letter to James.

Tuesday 13th September

Dearest Lily,

I know it's only been a week and a bit since you've been back at school but I had some urgent news that I thought I should make you aware of. Really I'm writing on behalf of Petunia – she's simply too busy to write to everyone with all the plans she needs to make, so I thought it'd be best if I broke the news to you instead.

Petunia's engaged! Oh, Lily, my dear, you really should have been there! Vernon came around for tea and it was simply wonderful. He got down on one knee right there in our living room. The ring is stunning and suits your sister right down to the ground. The wedding is planned for December and will be a fabulous one. I've included an unofficial invite from Petunia; she just had time to write you a quick note.

I know the two of you aren't on best terms but I really hope the wedding can bring the both of you back together. If not how you were before, then maybe at least just a little? Here's to wishful thinking, hey?

Anyway, I hope your term is going well so far and you're working hard. Drop me a line when you have a free moment or when you need a care package from home.

Lots of love,

Mum xxx

James folded the letter up again and handed it back, not entirely sure what had made the girl quite so upset. So that horrendous sister of hers was getting married… was that not a blessing? His slightly confused look was clearly obvious to Lily as she then pulled out another piece of paper. Written in an untidy and rushed scrawl were the words that had upset the witch the most.

Vernon and I are getting married. As my sister, you are required to be at the wedding; however, you are not going to be a bridesmaid. I haven't told Mum and I'd rather you didn't, you know how she gets. You're not invited to the Hen party either. I'm also keeping your abnormality from Vernon a little bit longer. I will tell him but not now.

Don't make a fuss about this. You may be my sister by blood but that's all you are.

"Ah." James finished reading and put the note to one side. He looked at the witch beside him, still focussed on the wall opposite her and unmoving. "Your sister wasn't worth your upset back in the summer and she sure as hell isn't worth your tears now," he said firmly refusing to look away from Lily.

Slowly she looked down into her lap. "Thanks," she repeated quietly.

"Now, if I didn't know Miss Lily Evans, Head Girl Extraordinaire any better, I'd say she was skiving off of her duties," James said loudly with a grin, "I think we'd better remedy that." He jumped up and held out a hand to the girl who was now looking up at him, half in awe and half disbelievingly. "Come on, girl, I haven't got all day!"

A smile gently broke across her face as she took James' hand and headed off to patrol the castle in search of wrongdoers, couples in broom closets and exceedingly lost first years in need of pointing the right direction.

The pair wandered the castle for the remaining hour of their patrols mainly in silence; one trying to forget the last two days happened and the other analysing them and what they meant. James wondered whether it was a good sign that Lily was opening up to him, it meant she trusted him with some of her closest of secrets, but he was also the person she had directed all of her anger at. Was he getting somewhere with her or did it just mean he was that bloke she could take everything out on?

When the silences became too awkward for either to bear, they filled it with small talk; lessons, essays, friends, anything that could draw their minds away from the incidents of the last few days. Anything to get back to the acquaintance-to-almost-friends relationship they had. It had suddenly all become too personal for Lily and James had begun to overthink things. However, when the small talk fell onto Quidditch, both seemed to perk up.

"How did trials go last weekend?" Lily brought up the topic; hopeful that it would get them both out of the awkward rut they had somehow fallen into.

James nodded thoughtfully, "Promising, I must admit."

"I hear you made everyone try out, including last years team and Black."

"Yeah, they were none too happy about that but I think, or at least, I hope they accept that we won't get anywhere by staying with last year's team," the wizard shrugged. It was the right thing to do, of course, and no one doubted Potter's captaincy, but having been friends and teammates with him for years, few were delighted. Marlene had raved to Lily for hours about it. "I think that's where I went wrong last year. I should have made everyone re-try."

"Any great finds?" She questioned, interested but also not wanting the silence to consume the Heads again. "I doubt anyone could possibly be a better discovery than Den was last year."

"He's actually one of the few that has improved over the summer," James said, perking up at the mention of their keeper, Denison Frisby, a third year who the Head Boy had scouted in his first year of being Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain. "Admittedly he still has the worst attitude I have ever seen on a player but –"

"Worse than yours was when you joined the team?"

James looked at her pointedly, "Touché, Miss Evans, touché." He paused, a smile forming slightly on his face as he recalled his early years on the team, "I think I could make a captain out of him yet. No quaffle is getting through those hoops this year."

Lily broke into a smile to join his as they continued to walk, having made their way down to the fourth floor. "Did you find someone to replace Trev as seeker?"

Licking his lips and narrowing his eyes, James thought for a moment. He had not yet fully decided on the final line-up but had provisionally posted the squad of twelve players that would be whittled down to either nine or ten. "There are possibilities but I haven't made a final decision yet. Between me and you, that fifth year witch, Peakes, is looking promising."

The depth in which James thought about the team made Lily smile. Even though he had asked them all to re-try, she knew from what Marlene had always told her that the team was more or less like a family and that could only mean good things for Gryffindor's chances that year. "I told you before and I'll tell you again: you had better bring us back that cup, Potter."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Evans."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Whether you've found a spare moment in your Christmas Day, or you waited for another week to read this (in which case, Happy New Year), I wish you the happiest holidays!

xoxo Andromache