REVIEW/ALERT/FAVORITE MANIA! Seriously, I have never gotten so many reviews on an indiviudal chapter before. Ever. (Unless you count my other story Reunion, but I don't because it's old and complete.) That makes me :).

Thanks toooo... WaveRider 53, AcrossTheWater, Peace-bookluva (yeah, Claire and James are dating), VoldemortHugger (I'm all about the L/J fics too :D), Narai9 (yeah, the present tense was difficult for me to get the hang of too, but I wanted to try something different. And don't worry, reading in English will only make you better. :), Super Cara (of course Claire does), yellow 14 (Amen!), ButlersTheJob, SpencerReidFan89, AriannaSafffyreMalfoy (I'm going to have to try to do that more, thanks!), Emullz (Petunia already knows Vernon, and I'm terrible, but I can't stand to include him in this, but yes, Nate is his name), Sammy-U, Red red red ribbon,Er-my-nee Weasley (end of summer), Rani Jashalithie, bookwormtsb (I love The Summer I Turned Pretty! It's a little inspiration from it, but mostly just the idea of coming back to a beach house every summer and having a different life, because I'm in love with the idea and just stayed at a beach house as well for the first time this summer), wingswordsandmetaphors, WickedCharm (noted :), worldnerd12, Starkidpotter13 (as of now, no sequel :/), urstory, thepotionsmaster7 (no sequel planned :/), softasthunder, Karen, starsandthings-s (thank you :D), Nightlight753, Marinewife08 (i love suggestions!), AshleyM15, lilybethluna, Tyem Marodyor, PenguinBoxers, youawitchornot, Kenzieloveify, bobbypingirl101, GossipGirl27, semperfortis (yes! thank goodness for ff!), JackieMooneyLestrange, PoohBearGoesGangster (yeah, but some of the chapters are a bit more serious, anyway, thanks :D), CookieDomination, Almost Genius (end of summer...What A's?), writergal24, percabethshamus, Stargazer2000 (thank you!), Sarahrules336, summertimewriter, nicole, chocomonkey1018, [blank], nicole (Google pottermore! It's JK Rowling's new interactive website!), YoungAndLiving (I thought that too for a while, but in the first book Hagrid tells Harry James and Lily were the top of their class and very nice, yadda yadda, and that they were both Head Boy and Girl),DanceDiva, PhoenixOfIce, and alohamora080, who left the most splendid review that made me smile from ear to ear. :)

Side Note: I never said thanks to the wonderful veterans in my last chapter, who I do think about every day.

Additional Side Note: James and Lily will get together near the end of the summer, and the story will end at the end of the summer, right before school starts. I always personally like the buildup more than the relationship anyway.

Side Note Number Three: Thanks to the alerters and favoriters too. :)

I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not still sleeping.

James is Head Boy? That's…that's…ridiculous!

"What…?"

James hurriedly scans through the papers until he's found a letter identical to mine.

Dear Mr. Potter, it says,

Congratulations on being chosen as Head Boy!

I stop reading after the first sentence. I blink. And then I blink again. Then I start laughing.

"You—Head Boy—James—responsibility!" I wheeze, practically doubling over. "Oho, good one, James. Very nice prank." After a moment, I place my hand on his bare arm and pull myself upright, still chuckling. "How'd you manage to make a badge identical to the one that belongs to the Head Boy?"

James doesn't respond. I nudge him in his side.

"Come on, you can tell me. That was a good prank, I must admit." My tired brain doesn't notice James's blank eyes and shocked expression.

He just stands there staring at the letter in his one hand and the badge in the other.

"This is a joke, right?"

James finally says something. "I wouldn't pull a joke this bad."

I turn to face him and look him head-on. "You mean you're really Head Boy?"

The supposed new Head Boy dumbly nods.

I don't know what to say. James is actually Head Boy? But who in their right mind would make James Head Boy? I know plenty of people have said that Dumbledore's a bit off his rocker, but I never actually thought he'd be barmy enough to do something like this! When has James ever shown Head Boy qualities? All he does (or did, I suppose) is go around pulling practical pranks on people and hexing people that annoy him and stealing Snitches. Alongside Sirius, he's probably broken more rules than the rest of the seventh years combined! Head boys aren't supposed to be rule breakers; they're supposed to be good, and want the best for their school and be a leader everyone else can look up to and help the younger kids.

Actually…I must admit that James has the leadership thing down. He's always been able to captain the Quidditch Team with surprising ease. He certainly has no problem taking over things in class or in day-to-day life.

And James generally wants the best for people. People he likes at least. He's definitely loyal.

There was also that one time when he caught a couple of third year Slytherins bullying a first year Muggleborn. The four boys had knocked all of her books out of her hand and then cast harmless but embarrassing jinxes on her. James had made them leave, promised to report them to McGonagall, and then gave the girl they were bullying a Chocolate Frog and helped her gather her things. That's one solid example of James being willing to help others. And this is just the first thing that comes to my mind, since it happened in the last month of our sixth year, not too long ago.

But still…the rules! A Head Boy is supposed to want to enforce the rules, not break as many as possible! I've broken a few rules (I still make regular midnight pie runs to the kitchens with Marlene), but I don't go and use magic in the halls, vandalize teacher's property, or Charm the Hogwarts' plates, silverware, statues, and desks for my amusement.

However, considering a few of the other seventh year boys (particularly Mulciber or Winston), James is hardly the worst choice for Head Boy. The thing is, though, that there are other boys to choose from. There's Remus, Wes, and Xavier, and those are just the past Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw Prefects.

I'm still pondering how awful this is on a scale of one to ten when James asks, "Why would Dumbledore make me Head Boy?" He sounds as perplexed as I feel, maybe even more so.

While I can think of reasons as to why this isn't bad enough that I should go bang my head in the wall, no reasons come to my mind as to why Dumbledore and the other professors would purposefully sit down and say 'James Potter should be Head Boy.' I give James my honest answer: "I don't know."

There's another long pause.

But maybe there's something else… Maybe there's something the professors see in James that I can't see yet. Is there a possibility he could be a good Head Boy? If he stayed the way he is now, yes, but…

"Well, uh, congratulations." I awkwardly pat his shoulder.

"I guess I should go tell my parents," James finally says. He walks over to his closet and pulls out a t-shirt. I try not to stare at his upper half. It's a bit difficult, only because it's like my brain says "Don't stare at James, don't stare at James," so my eyes naturally have to do it. I think James saw me gawking while he was rifling through his closet, so now he's taking his precious time putting his shirt on. Oh, now he's all smiles and rainbows. I suppose he forgot that fact that he, Marauder, rule breaker, not-a-Prefect, has just been made Head Boy since he's now smiling as if he had won the lottery. All because I may or may not have stared at him. Stupid git.

Changing in front of me seems to bother him so little, I'm almost afraid that any moment he'll take off his pajama bottoms to put on some pants. I blush and force myself to look at the beds, the floor, the windows, my shoes—anything but James really—and try not to think of his lower half.

James eventually puts on his shirt (and only that) and we walk out of the room.

"Mum, Dad, I've got my letter for school," James tells Mr. and Mrs. Potter once we join them in the kitchen.

"Good," Mr. Potter absentmindedly says.

"Isn't it wonderful that Lily got Head Girl, James?" Mrs. Potter gushes. "Hogwarts sure is lucky!"

"I don't know about that," James says. I agree on the inside.

James's mum turns to look at him. I notice that there are a lot of lines in her face. Or does is it just look that way to me because I know about her husband?

"Don't be a prat, James," Mrs. Potter admonishes, and if I was properly thinking at the moment, I would laugh at Mrs. Potter calling her son a prat. "All the students, professors, and the Head Boy are very fortunate to have Lily as their Head Girl."

"I'm sure the Head Boy is ecstatic," James dryly says.

James makes a motion that indicates he's leaving, and I realize that he's not going to tell his parents. Before I think about what I'm doing, I blurt out, "JamesisHeadBoy."

James's face is full of astonish as he looks at me.

"What was that, dear?"

"Oh, er, well, James just had something to tell you…" I look at James and try to convey a look that says Tell them, you prick!

"I'm Head Boy," he finally says with an air of difficulty.

His parents look stunned. James holds the badge for them to see and Mr. Potter wordlessly takes it. No one says anything, but then Mrs. Potter bursts into tears and runs forward to hug James.

"My baby boy! Head Boy! Oh, I'm so proud of you, Jamesie! You and Lily will be the best Head Boy and Girl Hogwarts has ever seen!"

Mr. Potter gets up and stands next to his wife and son. When the woman finally releases the abashed looking boy, he claps him on the shoulder and says, "Congratulations, son."

"Thanks, Dad," James says.

I look at my feet and pretend to be invisible. I have the feeling that I'm intruding on a family moment that they'll look back on for a while, and I'd rather they not remember a girl with disastrous morning hair staring at them.

Mrs. Potter then moves towards me and sweeps me up in a hug. "This is such good news, Lily!" I hug her back and can feel a smile on my face. "At least now we'll know that the Head Girl is able to keep our James in line."

I laugh along with her, but then I think behind that sentence while she plans how our families should celebrate.

When we get on that train the first day of September, I don't know who I'll find.

I may find James, and he may stay James the whole school year. We could have a fun and peaceful seventh year as Head Boy and Girl, and we could stay friends, and the school would have no idea why James Potter changed for the better, but just that he did.

Or I could step into the Heads compartment and find Potter, who would flirt with me, tease others, and disregard the rules for the entire year. We could go back and forth with our bickering, and the school would remember us as the Head Boy and Head Girl who had dueled during a Prefect meeting.

Before we had gotten our letters and badges, I had actually thought about what I would do if I was greeted with Potter on Platform 9 ¾. I would be polite, but I would follow the brilliant tactics I perfected our sixth year: Don't yell at him. Reject him with a curt no. Avoid him at all costs.

But now that we're Head Boy and Head Girl, it won't be so easy to steer clear of him. It was hard enough to evade him last year, and now that in addition to having classes and meals together, we would have Head meetings, Prefect meetings, rounds, and our own Common Room and dormitories in Gryffindor Tower with no one else to give us space.

Part of me thinks it is unlikely that he would change into Potter once school started, but at the beginning of the summer he was able to so suddenly turn into a person I liked, it should be no problem for Potter to reappear. And back at school he'll have Quidditch to brag about, friends to prank with, boundaries to push, more freedom to exert, Slytherins and others to jinx, fawning girls to flirt and snog with…

How in the world will I be able to survive the year if he turned back into Potter?

Over the next week, I become increasingly aware of Mr. Potter. When my family and James's family go out to dinner to commemorate James becoming Head Boy and me Head Girl, like James, I tense at every noise that shouldn't be made.

James also tells Claire and me he's spending the day with his family more and more. Claire doesn't know why, and I don't tell her. She just knows that James can't come out.

The Potters don't go out as often either; they usually just stay inside their house. Or at least I don't see them out anymore. I do know that Sirius comes over a couple times. I know that Sirius is there for two reasons: to be there for James, and because of Mr. Potter. It seems so odd now, that I hadn't really ever given the thought of Sirius and Mr. and Mrs. Potter. I typically thought he was just there because of James. I never pondered over how Sirius regards Mr. and Mrs. Potter as his own parents. I expect he's here to say goodbye to Mr. Potter…

At first I think I am just being paranoid concerning the Potters and their activities, but then my suspicions are confirmed while my dad and I are working on one of his puzzles.

"So how is James?" my dad asks as he digs through the box of pieces.

"Okay," I say. But then I think about how he'd snapped at me quite a bit and how he had seemed more annoyed and tense the few times I saw him, and say, "Actually, he's not good. He's just… I don't know, Dad. I don't know what to say or do."

"Mr. Potter isn't getting any better," my dad seriously says. I can't help but think that the real way to phrase it is "Mr. Potter is getting worse."

"I know. And James is directly linked to his dad: The worse Mr. Potter gets physically, the worse James gets emotionally and mentally and everything else."

Dad is quiet for a minute, during which I turn a puzzle piece upside down to try and connect it to another piece.

"He's lucky to have you, you know," he ultimately says.

"Yeah, and all his friends are there for him, I'm sure. And Claire. She's a good distraction, I think."

"That's not what I meant."

"Huh?"

"I meant that he's lucky to have you," my dad says, looking me in the eye. He has the same emerald green almond shaped eyes as me. "A bloke needs a girl as remarkable as you in a time like this, Lily."

I smile up at my dad. "Thanks, Daddy." And then I realize how blessed I am to have parents like mine. I hope I'll have them with me for a long, long time.

Dear Lily,

Fantastic news!

Dad's giving me the next two days off, so I can come see you. Mind if I spend the night tomorrow? Where is it safe to Apparate? Would it be better if we met up somewhere? Write back as soon as possible!

Can't wait to see you,

Marlene

I hold Marlene's letter in my hand while running down the stairs, skipping every other step.

I walk into the kitchen and no one is there, so I walk into the dining room to see Petunia with some papers. "Oh, hi," I say. "Have you seen Mum?"

"Upstairs in her room, getting dressed."

I hasten up the stairs yet again. "Come on in!" my mother says when I knock on her door.

I see her leaning over and searching through her jewelry box.

"Hi, Lily."

"Mum, can Marlene come over tomorrow and spend the night? This is the only time her dad will let her off of work. We'll stay outside and go to the beach or something."

"That's fine, Lily. How's she going to get here?"

"Umm… I don't really know. Can I meet her in Diagon Alley and then she can Apparate into my room? I would Side-Along."

I really need to get my Apparation license.

"How would you get to Diagon Alley?"

"Er, could you drive me a little bit out of town and then I can take the Knight Bus? I just don't want to risk anyone here seeing the bus. The bus could then take me right to Diagon Alley. "

"All right," my mum says. "Just…be careful when you go," she advises.

"I will, I promise. And it's Diagon Alley, so there will be plenty of people around. And I won't talk to strangers. I'll just go and get Marlene and then we'll come home. Okay, maybe we'll stop for ice cream at Fortescue's, but he's a really nice man and—"

My mum's laugh cuts me off. "Breathe, Lily! I trust you, just don't do anything foolish. Now, which earrings look better with my shirt?"

She holds up one creamy pearl earring and round diamond earring against her light blue blouse.

"The pearl," I confidently say.

Mum sets the diamond back in the box and then carefully puts the pearl earrings into her ears.

I always loved going through Mum's jewelry box. She has the most intricate and beautiful jewelry I've ever seen. She's got pounds of earrings, enough bracelets to go all the way up her arm, and a few rings she'll wear alongside her wedding ring.

Years ago, my mum would supervise Petunia and I as we dug through her box and picked out our favorite pieces. Once we each had on about three rings, a pair of earrings, ten bracelets, and two necklaces, Mum would then bring out her makeup box.

I have makeup of my own now, but back then, Mum's makeup was the most fascinating thing. Petunia and I would look at all the eye shadows and lipsticks and pick out our favorite colors. I still remember that Petunia's favorite lipstick was a light pink and mine was a vibrant red that almost matched my hair.

Petunia's second favorite eye shadow was a pale pink to match her lipstick; my second favorite was a bright blue. Our first favorite eye shadow, however, we could agree on. We had both decided that the sparkly, glittery, and smooth looking silver eye shadow was the very best color, although we've only seen our mum wear it a couple of times.

Petunia and I would look into Mum's makeup pouch for as equally long as the jewelry box, but we never touched it. We once made the mistake of trying to give each other makeovers while our parents were downstairs making dinner, and we looked like a mixture of clowns and tramps. Not to mention we also ruined some of Mum's best makeup. From then on, we let our mum do the makeup. We looked twenty times better when she did it anyway.

I smile fondly at Mum's wooden jewelry box and turn towards the door when Mum calls me.

"Lily!"

"Yeah?"

"Come here."

I walk over towards where she's standing in front of her dresser with a jewelry box. There's a mirror hanging beside the bureau.

Mum starts rummaging through her jewelry box, opening and closing all the many drawers. She finally pulls out the necklace I liked to look at the most when I was younger. It has a silver chain and a tiny silver pendant in the shape of a tear drop. Inside the silver tear is a single, gorgeous emerald stone.

"That doesn't match, Mum," I say.

She smiles and says, "Well, I'm not wearing it!"

I'm confused. She must know it for she says, "You are."

I gasp a little. "No, I can't, I'd ruin your necklace," I protest.

"Oh, come on. Don't be an old stiff. Just wear it. It would look lovely on you since it matches your eyes."

"Yeah, but it's really important to you and valuable."

And it is. Mum had told Petunia and I that Dad had given it to her while she was pregnant with me and he had to go away for two weeks on a business trip.

"When I asked him what it was for," my mum had told my sister and me, "he said, 'It's so you can always remember me,' because the emerald stone was almost identical to his eyes."

Petunia and I had giggled at this, before I had gotten my Hogwarts letter, and Petunia said, "Dad said this? Our dad?"

Mum had laughed and said, "Yep, your father did. Although I expect he really just wanted to make sure I didn't make him sleep on the couch when he got back."

All three of us had laughed and giggled at that, and I remember thinking how I wanted a man to give me something like that and be just as romantic—if it even meant slightly cheesy.

"Just wear it, Lily." Mum holds it out to me and the corners of her blue eyes are slightly crinkling from her smile.

I hesitate.

"If you don't take it, it will hurt my feelings and I'll feel sad whenever I look at it from now on."

Ah, the old guilt trip. Sneaky, but effective.

"Fine, I'll only wear it today."

"And tomorrow." At my incredulous look Mum says, "What's the point of wearing something if no one's going to see you in it? Wear it to Diagon Alley and Marlene and anyone else you run into can see it."

"Fine, tomorrow too. But I won't go swimming in it. And I'll be extra cautious and give it back to you before I go to bed tomorrow. Promise."

Mum laughs. "You're such a worrier, Lily. You just need to calm down."

I pointedly look at her. "Will you at least put it on me then?" I ask.

I turn around and lift all of my thick hair up. Mum puts the necklace around my neck and I feel her connect the clasp to the chain. I let down my hair when she's done and look into the mirror. The necklace looks even prettier than when I was little, and it does match my eyes.

"I told you it would make you even more beautiful."

I roll my eyes and tightly hug my mum. She hugs me back. "Thanks, Mum," I say.

She gives me an extra squeeze and then releases me.

"Now go write back to Marlene or else she won't be able to come!"

As I leave the room, I hear her say, "You know, I think you should even take it with you to Hogwarts…"

I'm standing in front of Ollivander's Wand shop scanning the crowd for a sign of a head covered with wavy blonde hair when someone taps me from behind and says, "Boo!"

I jump and turn around to see Marlene.

"Marlene!" I throw my arms around her and hug her. "When'd you get here? I've been waiting for ages!"

"I just got here," she says, smiling, "and when I saw a redhead jumping up and down to see through the crowd, I knew it was you."

I laugh because I'm sure I looked pretty foolish. "Come on."

We go to Florean Fortescue's ice cream shop, where we tell him "the usual" (chocolate and raspberry ice cream with nuts and raspberry Bertie Bott's jelly beans for Marlene, mint with Chocolate Frog bits sprinkled all over for me) and sit outside and talk.

Marlene tells me about how glad she is her mum made her take almost every class except Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, and Ancient Runes her sixth year. Now she can take all the N.E.W.T. classes to become an Auror, which she's now sure she wants to do.

I tell her about my mum and dad and Petunia. Marlene says she's not surprised that Petunia is still being a "frigid, stubborn Muggle."

I tell Marlene it's not all Petunia's fault she's angry and jealous, and Marlene makes a pitying face and says, "You're right, Lils. It's totally your fault you were born with magical powers that you couldn't stop from getting. Damn you."

I laugh.

We talk about Claire, me being Head Girl, and James. Marlene's interested in this new James.

"So you like him now?"

"Yeah," I say, "he's a good friend. He's stopped asking me out and we hang out quite a bit with Claire. Sometimes without."

Marlene thoughtfully takes a bite out of her ice cream. "I told you he wasn't that bad."

"This James isn't too bad. The school one is."

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there is," I assure her. "This one is nice and funny and not a bullying prat. The school one is not nice or funny and is a bullying prat."

"And there's not a possibility that you actually just got to know James and found out that you like him?" For some odd reason, Marlene kind of likes James and Sirius. She does talk badly about them with me when they're being gits, of course. Well, she listens. Sometimes she'll tell me that I'm being too harsh, but whatever.

I finish off the last of my ice cream and stand up to throw the cup away. "Nope, no possibility. Are you ready? I hear the beach calling my name!"

Marlene throws away her empty cup as well, and then she Disapparates to my room at the beach house with me on one of her arms, her overnight bag on the other.

After my mother fawns over how wonderful Marlene looks and they chat about the summer thus far, Marlene and I head up to my room to change into our swimming outfits. As I'm searching about my room for my sandals, the doorbell rings.

"It's for you, Lily!" my mum calls a minute later.

Marlene looks at me. "Is this the new and improved James Potter?" She wiggles her eyebrows at me. "Because I think I'd like to go say hi." She bounds off my bed and out the door.

"Marlene! What are you going to do?" I dash after her. She skips down the stairs giggling, reminding me of a five year old. "Come on, Marlene, he's still James! Don't make a fuss about it!"

"Moi? Jam—Who are you?" She blocks my view of who is standing in front of the closed door, but I can assume it's not James. Which makes me believe that it's…

"Claire, hi," I say.

"Hi, Lily," Claire replies. With a look at Marlene, she says, "Hi."

"Hi," Marlene says.

"Claire, this is Marlene. Marlene, this is Claire. Marlene goes to school with James and me, Claire."

"So this is the Claire you told me about, Lily?" Marlene asks. "Nice to finally meet you."

"You too," Claire says. "Except neither James nor Lily told me about you," she says a bit snootily, "but I'm sure that doesn't mean anything."

The smile disappears from Marlene's relaxed face. "Oh?" She looks at me.

"Er," I uncomfortably say, "I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Marlene before, Claire. Maybe I haven't told you everything about her, but I know I've mentioned her before."

The brunette ponders this. "I'm sure you have, sometimes I can just be a space case. I know James hasn't, though. I know I would have remembered!" She laughs and I politely chuckle as an instinct, but Marlene does not make any appreciative noise.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Because I'm dating James, of course! I know Lily told you about that, and I'm sure you would remember." I cringe. Truth is, I did tell Marlene, but she would rather dance on the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall during dinner than admit it.

"Nope, I think she left that out." Her tone is unmistakably rude.

"Oh." Claire looks a bit hurt, but with a cheerful smile that reveals her white teeth she says, "Well, I'm dating James."

"Right, got that."

"Just checking that you did. Some people need to hear things twice."

My jaw drops. Did she…did she just say that? Claire smiles so sweetly at Marlene, she might as well be oozing caramel. Yes, yes she did.

Marlene gives a thin smile back.

"Sorry that I can't do anything today, Claire, but Marlene—"

"How long have you been dating James?" Marlene asks. Oh, God. I nervously tug on the necklace Mum gave me yesterday.

"About four weeks."

"Mmm."

"Why?" Claire defensively asks.

"I just wouldn't get used to it, is all. I don't know if Lily's told you this, but James has never dated anyone for more than six weeks. And since this is a summer thing, I expect the inevitable is just right around the corner…"

I groan internally. What is happening?

Claire's eyes flash. "I'm sure we'll be just fine. I know how to keep a bloke. Thanks for the warning, though." I hope Marlene doesn't detect the sarcasm.

"My pleasure," the blonde-haired girl beside me says venomously. Or not.

Claire opens her mouth to retort, but my brain and mouth seem to be capable of functioning together again, so I cut her off. "Marlene, why don't you go upstairs and find a pair of sunglasses you can borrow?"

"Fine." She turns without even saying good-bye to Claire. Claire simply rolls her eyes at Marlene's retreating figure.

When Marlene is gone, I say, "Um, yeah, sorry, Claire, but I haven't seen Marlene the entire summer, so I'm going to be spending today and tomorrow with her."

"Don't know why you would want to," Claire mutters.

"Sorry?"

"I said, that's disappointing but understandable. I'll see you soon, right, Lily?"

I nod and show her out the door.

"Why did you have to be such a bitch to my only Muggle friend this summer?" I ask Marlene when I'm upstairs in my room again.

"She started it," Marlene tells me. "Besides, why would you want to be with her anyway? And James too, for that matter. Not when he's always—Anyway, I didn't like her."

"Yeah, I got that. But why?"

"Something about her is off to me. Not to mention all her snide remarks to me. I mean—hullo! Best mate here! The least she could do was be nice!" Marlene begins to braid her blonde hair to the side.

"Yes, but so could you when you stop to realize that I have a few more weeks here and she's going to forever think that you're a swot!"

"So?" Marlene says. "She's just a Muggle."

I glare at her.

"Oh, come on, Lily. You know I didn't mean it like that. I meant that it doesn't really matter because I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'll never see her again. I didn't mean she deserved it because she's a Muggle. You know I'm not like that. Anyway, I suppose I was just crushed that it wasn't the "New-And-Improved" James. Considering how you talk about him, he might as well be a gift from Merlin sent to bless you with endless smiles and—"

"Sod off," I say while rolling my eyes.

Marlene only beams up at me.

We eventually make it to the beach, where we spend the day there, lying about and swimming in the water. We walk through town and Marlene admires some gaudy beach jewelry until I buy it for her since she has no Muggle money. She promises to pay me back and treat us to Butterbeers our first Hogsmeade trip of the year.

Even though we had written each other almost every other day for the entire summer, we talk the entire time, cutting each other off and different conversations flying faster than the new Cleansweep broomstick. I think we only get about three hours of sleep.

All too soon, it's the afternoon yet again, and we're standing on my front porch saying good-bye.

Marlene hugs me tightly and says, "I'll see you soon. Only a few more weeks and then we'll be the top of the school!"

"That's right." The thought sounds amazing. I grin despite all my uncertainty about the future.

Marlene and I hug once more before she Disapparates to her home.

I walk into my own house feeling much happier and more satisfied. Some time with my best mate was exactly what I needed.

Lily's ignorance and obliviousness are annoying me. But I really enjoyed writing Marlene being a kldhfdsf to Claire. That was fun. ;)

So, I'm not into that whole "here's a link to show the EXACT dress she was wearing in Chapter X!" because it kind of gets rid of the reason to describe it and creativity, and I'm not really a fan of putting characters to faces of celebrities personally, but I WAS interested in seeing who James and Lily could be, and I've joined the crowd with Karen Gillan being the best Lily that I know of (but not exactly how I pictured her) but James, on the other hand, I can not find anyone who looks like him. At all. Not even who everyone else uses. I guess someone as good looking at James Potter can't be recreated. ;)

Anyone have any really good opinions on real life James and Lily?

Thanks for the reviews, alerts, and favorites,

MG