September 1, 1977
"James!" an angry voice called out.
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were making their way to the carriages up to the castle, joking around, when his name was called. He sighed as he recognized the voice and turned exasperately to see Lily glowering at him, pointing to the sheepish-looking first years.
"Don't wait up." James grumbled as he made his way over to them, ignoring his friend's snickers from behind him.
"Take these first years down to Hagrid at the lake. I'll take the ones who get lost." she muttered, her eyes following a tiny first-year boy who was looking around wonderously, tripping over tree roots as he went in the complete wrong direction.
He didn't get a chance to reply as she hurried over to the tiny boy, ushering him over to the rest of the little rascals.
"Alright, then, follow me!" James ordered, waving his hand as he headed toward the lake.
Hagrid's huge, bulky figure was to be seen in the distance, and he was tempted to tell them it was a mountain troll, but thought better of it, Lily flashing through his mind.
"Here're the youngsters, Hagrid."
James grinned at him, urging the first-years toward the boats. They stared wide-eyed at Hagrid, anxious, but headed towards the boats, none the less.
Hagrid grinned broadly back at him. "How're yeh, James? Not gettin' into too much trouble, are yeh?"
"Ah, don't count on it, Hagrid." chuckled James.
Hagrid laughed heartily, making a couple first-years glance over at him nervously. "Same old, same old fer yeh, righ'? Well, get on up to the castle, James, the feast should be startin' soon."
"Right. See you later, Hagrid."
"Bye! All righ', four to a boat, first years. . . ."
"There's a full moon tomorrow night." Sirius said lightly as the Marauder's made our way up the staircase to the Gryffindor common room.
Remus's head whipped over to look at him, glaring. "Not here, Sirius!"
"Relax, Moony," Sirius scoffed, "No one knows what we're talking about."
"Yes, well, I'm fully aware." Remus hissed back.
"Don't worry, it won't be a problem," James assured them, rumpling his hair.
"You still remember what you have to do, Peter?" Sirius checked.
Peter nodded his head vigerously. "Yes."
"Good, mate."
"Pheonix feathers." Remus recited when they made it to the Fat Lady.
"Welcome back, boys." the Fat Lady said before swinging open.
"Well, how about a game of Wizarding Chess, James?" Sirius asked as they made thier way into the half-full Gryffindor common room.
"Alright with me." James murmured, his eyes finding Lily sitting in one of the arm chairs with Dorcas and Emmeline next to her.
Sirius followed his gaze, then grinned, sidling up to the pair with his hands in his pockets. "Well, well, if it isn't the Head Girl and her lovely best friend."
James followed closely behind while Remus and Peter backed off and sat by the opposite window, Remus rolling his eyes exasperately. The girls looked up, startled. Dorcas raised an eyebrow, Emmeline looked up innocently and Lily glared.
"What do you want?" Lily asked irritably.
"Just came to congratulate you on your new title, that's all," Sirius shrugged, "James is certainly excited to share a dormitory with you."
James aimed a kick at his leg while keeping innocent eye contact with an angry Lily. "What Sirius is trying to say is that I'm excited to share the responsibility of this great honor with you." James corrected, nodding.
She glared. "Well, that's wonderful, but you interrupted our conversation, so if you could just - "
"What were you talking about?" Sirius asked, and James knew it was just to irk Lily.
Sirius laid his forearms on the back of the couch, beside Dorcas and Emmeline, and James leaned aginst Lily's armchair. Lily gaped at Sirius and was about to either slap him or insult him excessively - James wasn't sure which - when Dorcas actually answered.
"The war." she said simply, looking up at him challengingly.
Sirius immediately sobered up. "Oh. Have you been affected?" he asked hesitantly, looking between the two girls.
"No." they murmured.
"We were just talking about the Order, too. Lily wants to join after we graduate." Emmeline explained.
Lily's head snapped up to give her friend a withering glare - which she was quite good at, he realized. He was rather used to those general type of looks from Lily.
James looked down at her in surprise. "You want to join the Order?"
Lily scowled. "Why do you look so surprised?"
"You just don't - I mean, I wouldn't have guessed it, that's all." he muttered lamely.
"You wouldn't have guessed that I would actually like to take action in something like this." she corrected him.
James grimaced. "I - never said that." he replied lamely.
She scoffed, flipping open one of her books. "Whatever, Potter."
James gave Sirius an exasperated glance and he snorted.
"I heard Dumbledore started it." Emmeline offered.
"I wouldn't doubt it." James murmured.
"Hey! You two gits coming back over here or what?" Remus called, raising an eyebrow at them.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch, Remus, we're not hitting on your girlfriend!" Sirius said back, making several people who had overheard either roll their eyes or chuckle.
"Sirius, I do not wear - whatever." Remus grumbled, shaking his head at his friend.
Sirius and James turned back to the girls. "It's hard to be so popular." he said in mock-weariness.
Lily scoffed. "Yes, well, you can go be popular somewhere else. You don't need to grace us with your presence, I assure you." she muttered.
"Lily." Emmeline warned, frowning.
Lily sighed, but said nothing more. Sirius winked at Dorcas before straightening.
"Well, I guess we should be getting back to Remus before he gets especially angsty. See you later, ladies."
James raised an eyebrow at Lily, and, when she looked up, he grinned mischieviously before sauntering over to his friends.
Lily
Lily hadn't wanted to start the new year off fighting with James, after what happened last year, but - it just came naturally, and after she'd yelled at him for the first time, it was like everything was back to the way it was. And she didn't want it that way anymore. She wanted to be James' friend.
And, as he loped off to his friends, she stared at him as he left, and as he played Wizard Chess. And when he caught her staring in a moment where he was concentrated on his next move, he did a double take, and then smiled. He didn't wink or smirk - he smiled. And Lily smiled back.
