"James' house is big," I muttered to Sophie.

"You'll get used to it. It really doesn't seem so large after you're here for a while," she said cheerfully.

We had apparated to James' house with m possessions. I had to admit that James' house did, in fact, intimidate me. It was large, which most likely meant his parents were rich. They might be arrogant. This intimidated me to no end.

"Might as well go in. We'll look stupid if we stay out here any longer," Sophie suggested, picking up one of my bags and carrying it into the house.

I nodded and followed her. As soon as we entered Sirius, who stole my bags from Sophie and me, greeted us. He insisted that we shouldn't carry them, something I found oddly gentlemanly of him. Sirius then disappeared upstairs to put my bags away.

"Where's James," I asked.

"He's probably outside on his broom. I swear, he barely ever leaves the thing on the ground," Sophie complained.

I smiled sympathetically and followed her to where I supposed the backyard would be. On the way, we bumped into a woman.

Her hair was jet black, just like James'. She seemed a bit old, almost too old to be James' mother. She was dressed nicely and her eyes were deep purple. There seemed to be a no-nonsense air about her.

"Hi, Mrs. Potter," Sophie greeted happily.

I felt like someone had cast a spell on me. I froze. This was James' mother, right in front of me. I was meeting her for the first time and James wasn't even with me. It was disastrous.

"Hello, Sophie," she said before turning to me, "You must be Lily Evans. James has told us all about you. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Potter," I said nervously while shaking her hand.

My mind couldn't help but stray. What type of things had James been saying about me? Obviously, the newest things were positive, but what about past ones? I wasn't always the nicest girl to him. In fact, besides a handful of Slytherins, I was probably the meanest person to him. Had he told his parents?

"We're just going to see James and Remus outside. If you see Sirius, you can tell him that's where we are," Sophie explained before grabbing my hand and dashing off with me.

As soon as we were out of hearing range I spoke up, "She frightens me."

"She frightens most people," Sophie sympathized, "Oh! I see Remus! Let's go!"

I could see Remus through the glass sliding doors as well. We left the house and entered the backyard. Remus was sitting on the grass with a book on his lap. I could tell James was in the air without even looking up. The swishing noise his broom made was already a familiar sound to me.

"Hi, Remus," I said warmly, sitting next to him on the ground.

Remus looked up from his book and smiled gingerly, "Hello, Lily. Did you just get here?"

I nodded, "Just a moment ago."

Before either of us could say anything, I was tackled. James lay on top of me, a huge, playful smile on his face. I couldn't stop the faint blush from appearing on my cheeks.

"Lily-flower, you came!"

I smiled bemusedly, "Of course I did. Did you think that I was just going to blow you off?"

"Sort of," he teased before kissing my lightly and helping me up.

Sirius came into the backyard, and all five of us had a sort of weird reunion.

"So I hear you met James' mother," Sirius said with a smirk.

James' eyes widened and he looked at me expectantly, "Did you?"

"Oh yes," I replied, nodding my head vigorously.

"It went fine," Sophie said before anyone could continue the subject. I felt like she was trying to keep me as far away from anything involving James' mother as humanely possible.

"D'you want to go for a walk," James asked me.

"Sure," I replied, and he led me through the house back to the front door.

We walked down his street in a comfortable silence before either of us spoke. The streetlights just illuminating both of our figures.

"Sirius lost the marauder's map a couple days before we graduated," James said unexpectedly.

"Did he just leave it somewhere," I asked incredulously, "That thing is dangerous in the wrong hands!"

"No, he's not that stupid. Filch nicked it. It was blank though, and there are no instructions about how to make it work. I only hope that a good couple of troublemakers get a hold of it in the future. You know, someone to put it to good use," James explained.

"The teachers should know about it. It's a great tool for patrolling," I retorted.

"Spoil sport," James teased playfully.

"Stuff it, Potter," I replied, nose in the air.

James raised an eyebrow, "Oh really now?"

He picked me up in his arms bridal style and spun me around until I was sure that I was going to be sick. When he put me down, I couldn't stop giggling. We continued walking, hands clasped together for a while before we decided to head back to his house.

"Well, if it isn't Potter and his little mudblood girlfriend," a shrill voice cackled.

My nose wrinkled in disgust as I turned on my heels to look behind me quickly. I was greeted by an eyesore of a sight. Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, and Severus were standing together. Lestrange and Malfoy had their wands drawn. Severus seemed to be wary about how quickly he pointed his wand.

"Bugger off. We're not in the mood right now," James snarled.

"But we are. You best watch the way you talk to us. We don't take kindly to blood traitors," Lucius replied coolly.

"What do you even want," I asked with as much hate as I could muster.

"We were hoping to find that little friend of yours, Sophie. We wanted to give her the same treatment as her brother. Obviously, she's not here. We'll have to settle for you two," Bellatrix laughed.

I paled when I saw the wild look in her eye. I knew that tonight she was out for blood.

BLAH! Crappy chapter. Deal with it. Next one will be better. I just needed to get this set up. The next chapter is too important to combine with one. Besides, it would be far too long.

The cute fluff in this chapter is dedicated to Tori, otherwise known as FaithfulHPReader. She seriously deserves it. I hope things become easier for you!