A/N: I can't decide how long to keep these chapters. I almost included the next section, Hogsmeade weekend, into this chapter but I feel like that'd be overkill and waaaaay too long. Also, I'm trying to find the fine line between remembering these are h*rny teens and also probably more well behaved than I imagine them to actually be... we'll see how that goes.

Like I said, next chapter will be Hogsmeade weekend and we'll be seeing a lot more of different perspectives - Lily, James, Remus, Peter, Snape, Marlene, and Alice's to be exact (I think... I haven't finished it yet. But it's gonna be a good one!).

Ok, I'll stop talking now. Enjoy!

September 1976

"Bugger off," Lily muttered, her head hanging low between the palms of her hands.

Alice smirked as she sat down next to her. "I didn't say anything."

Lily looked up and gave her a pointed look. "You didn't have to."

Alice dug through her bag and pulled out a little vile with light yellow liquid in it, dangling it in front of Lily's face. "Suppose you'll be nice to a gal since she has the potion you need to kick your hangover?"

Lily breathed a sigh of relief as she grabbed the liquid from Alice, tilting it down her throat. She winced as she reached for her goblet of water to wash it down.

"Rather nasty little potion," Lily said, the pounding from her head slowly lifting.

"Right well it's not going to to taste as good as that fire whiskey you were slugging back last night," Alice said as she reached to pour herself a glass of pumpkin juice. "I can't believe you were out until 2 in the morning, so unlike our star Prefect to be partying until the wee hours of the morning."

Lily smiled as she buttered up a piece of toast, her appetite slowly coming back (rather ravenously, in fact).

"Just trying to let my hair down these days. What's the point of being so serious all the time if people like Potter and Black can run around causing havoc in Hogwarts and come out of it smelling like roses each time?"

Alice snorted a laugh. "I'll say, those two could get away with murder if they pleased."

"Speaking of murder," Lily said. "Was Frank pissy at you for showing up drunk to his dormitory last night?"

"Well," Alice said, a smile spread across her cheek. She placed her own piece of toast down and turned towards Lily, lowering her voice. "I think I told him that I love him last night."

Lily's mouth dropped open. "Alice!"

Alice sighed, shaking her head, the small smile still on her face. "I mean, he's such a good bloke, he'd never mention it to me because he knows how drunk I was. But I remember it, he was so giddy. It's been on my mind for a while now and I wanted to tell him during our next Hogsmeade weekend but I suppose my drunk brain couldn't hold it in any longer."

"Are you going to bring it up with him?" Lily asked, still shocked that Alice had let the l word slip to Frank.

Alice pressed her lips together. "No, I don't think I will. I want to say it to him, really say it, when the time is right. Hogsmeade is right around the corner, I think he can wait a little longer to hear it again."

"Did he say anything back?"

Alice shook her head no. "He told me he was flattered but that the first time he was going to say I love you to me was not when I had fire whiskey oozing out of my pores."

Lily laughed, shaking her head as she turned her attention back to her plate. Her hangover had substantially lifted and she could feel her body filling back up with energy.

It was no surprise to Lily that Alice was so dead set on not bringing it back up. If it were Lily, she'd explode with the secret before she made it to Hogsmeade weekend in October. But that was Alice. She was calculated, poised, elegant. It was a rare sight to see her so unabashedly declaring her love for Frank while drunk off fire whiskey. That was a move more reserved for Marlene's style and one could argue after last night more on par with Lily's doings than that of Alice's.

It was while she was lost in thought that Emmaline Vance, a 7th year Gryffindor, took a seat firmly next to Lily at the Great Hall. It wasn't odd per say, she and Lily had exchanged plenty of pleasantries over the years as fellow Prefects, but it wasn't particularly within the norm either for her to forgo sitting with her friends in favor of chatting up Lily first thing in the morning.

"Morning Lily," she said, her voice cheerful but held a tinge of nervousness to it.

Lily smiled at her. "How's it going, Emmaline?"

"Right, it's fine, it's going," she stammered, a small blush spread across her cheeks. Her blonde hair hung in waves, framing her delicate face. "It's just, I have a question for you is all. I know we don't know each other well and I have no right to ask, but…" she sighed, looking up from wringing her hands. "I'm just wondering if anything happened with you and James last night?"

Lily's eyebrows shot up as Alice spit out her pumpkin juice beside her.

"You and Potter?" Alice exclaimed, unable to control herself.

Lily quickly shook her head, looking back and forth between Alice's bewildered expression and Emmaline's nervous face. "No, no, no." She looked more firmly at Alice and narrowed her eyes. "No."

There was an awkward and heavy pause as each girl processed the moment before them. Lily turned back to Emmaline, a forced smile on her face as her insides filled up with dread of all the soon to be rumors that would flood across from last night.

"I promise you, Emmaline," Lily pressed. "Absolutely nothing happened between Potter and I last night. Nothing. I was embarrassingly drunk, drank way past my limit, and he was kind enough to walk me back to our dormitory once I had realized how late it was. I swear on Merlin's beard."

Emmaline breathed a sigh of relief, grasping Lily's hands and giving them a small squeeze. "Thank you, Lily. I mean it's no problem at all if something had happened, it's not like James and I are anything at all, I just-I…. Thank you."

Lily pressed her lips into a smile as Emmaline got up and walked back to her own section of the table, her friends waiting eagerly for the latest update.

From across the table, Lily's eyes caught James's. She hadn't been aware that he'd been watching them and Lily felt a small blush creep up her neck as the thought of her involvement with him last night causing this scene. She was highly too aware that for someone who supposedly had a fling with Emmaline, he was spending an awful long time staring at Lily and not Emmaline.

Lily turned her attention back to her plate and Alice while a memory swiftly ran through her mind, the same one that had kept replaying itself over and over again in her head this morning when she'd woken up.

"It never ceases to amaze me of how stubborn you are in your determination to get the only girl in school who says no to you to say yes."

"Is that all you think of me? Of us?"

"What else is there to think about?"

As hard as she tried, the next part was a blur. Like trying to hold sand in her hands. The memory kept growing fainter, softer.

Lily pushed the thought away, untangling herself from the emotions wrapped in them. She didn't like James, not like that at least, and the thought of he and Emmaline didn't bother her the slightest… but there was something there she couldn't quite wrap her head around. She couldn't make sense as to why every little thing he did, whether it was to annoy the living daylights out of her or trying to ask her out or even just trying to be a friend, always found a way to wrap itself tighter around her memories than anything else.

"So," Alice said, breaking her away from her thoughts. "You gonna tell me what's going on with you and Potter then?"

Lily shot her a dirty look. "Oh you can't be serious, you know perfectly well that there is nothing going on between Potter and I."

October 1976

The weeks were flying by, much as they always did once they were back to their studies and the course load took over their lives. This year in particularly was heavy, each Professor piling on the assignments as they prepared them for an increasing workload and the inevitable N.E.W.T.'s exam that 7th year would bring.

Lily found herself spending much of her free time at the library, her nose pressed into books and her quill to her parchment, furiously trying to master every thing that was thrown at her. With the growing threat of war engulfing the Wizarding world, she'd decided the past year that she wanted to pursue being an Auror after leaving Hogwarts. But with that decision meant perfecting Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms… the list seemed to keep growing.

Accompanying her most days of the week was Remus and Alice. Out of all the students in their year, they were easily the most studious and most determined. Lily knew she had a lot to prove, given her status as a muggle born and was determined to wipe the smug look off of each Slytherin's face. Remus was naturally smart and talented, but he seemed to fall ill quite often and as a result was always playing catch up. Alice on the other hand had her cousins Fabien and Gideon to compete with and Alice was never one to back down from a competition.

Recently, she'd found James accompanying Remus to the library as well. Certainly not each time, but almost once a week he'd sit across from Lily at the Library with Remus next to him, diligently working on his studies.

Once, Lily asked him about the change in his attitude towards school.

"You're not the only one who's decided to become an Auror," James said with a smile. "And, Potions has always been my weakest suit."

She didn't mind this change in him. In fact, she'd realized that James was indeed living up to his promise of growing up. He no longer was asking her out every chance he got and not once so far had she seen an altercation between him and Severus. While he was still the infamous prankster and Marauder to boot, he seemed considerably less like his old arrogant self.

On countless occasions Lily found herself helping James, giving him tips and tricks on how to perfect his brew. Over the weeks, he went from being a slightly above average student in Potions to being one of the top performers, alongside Lily and Severus. Every time that he excelled at a potion that Lily had helped him with earlier that week, he'd shoot her a small wink.

This was no feat that had gone unnoticed by Severus Snape, who soon went from finding Potions to be one of his favorite courses to least favorite. While he carefully noted that neither James nor Lily seemed to interact much in class, he couldn't help but notice the small exchanges they did share here and there.

Every time he saw that stupid wink on James Potter's arrogant face, his insides coiled with red hot anger. Twice, he found himself missing a step in making his potion which only added fuel to his anger.

But he watched them, diligently, and he never saw them sitting together in class or The Great Hall. Once or twice he saw them at the same table in the library but that wasn't particularly unusual to him as he'd always know that Lily and Remus studied together and attributed it to Remus's presence. He, with utter disappointment, did not know what was going on in the Gryffindor dormitory but with relief he'd heard rumors around the castle of James Potter and Emmaline Vance spending time together.

But he still watched them because something in his heart told him that there was something different between them now. James was no longer humiliating her every other day by asking her out publicly and she no longer seemed to actively avoid his presence every day. There was something there, Severus knew of it. He could always tell throughout the years even when Lily swore she was annoyed by him, he could tell. There was a part of her that enjoyed the attention from James Potter. This had always been a countless starter of arguments between them and each time Lily swore up and down that she was just as revolted by James Potter as Severus was. He never trusted her on that.

"Word has it Fabien Prewett is planning on asking you to Hogsmeade next weekend," James said one day, carefully eyeing Lily's reaction. She looked up from her textbook, slightly taken aback by Jame's point blank statement.

She, Remus, and James had been studying for the Potions exam the following day and it was only when Remus got up to use the loo that James had turned his attention towards her.

"Oh?" Lily inquired.

James shrugged, leaning back in his seat. "Thought you might want to know," he said, keeping his tone nonchalant. "He told a few of us after Quidditch practice the other night."

And by that he meant that Fabien had approached James on his own accord and asked him if it was alright to ask Lily. Something about how last year James benching Stebbiens for the remainder of the Quidditch matches after he'd asked Lily to Hogsmeade seemed to have him quite nervous and rattled.

"I suppose that'd be nice," Lily said thoughtfully, then returned to flipping the pages in the textbook.

James frowned and sat up slightly. "Yeah?"

Lily shrugged, not looking up. "Well Alice is going with Frank and although Sirius hasn't asked Marlene officially I'm sure they'll be locking lips in the corner of the Three Broomstick all day. I think even Dorcas has plans with some 7th year Ravenclaw." She paused, then looked up at him. "It'd be nice to not go alone."

James nodded, pondering the thought.

"Say, Lily," he said, an idea blossoming in his head. "Why don't you come with me, Remus, and Peter? That is, unless you're interested in Fabien and reckon a day with him would be nice."

"Well, that's a thought," Lily paused. "Aren't you going with Emmaline Vance?"

James looked slightly taken aback. He cleared his throat. "Oh, that, well, yeah… I'm not sure. I don't really think of her like that. We're just mates."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Mates you snog with?"

"What's a bloke to do? Sirius told me to stop trying to snog him on account of Marlene," James said with a smirk, shrugging his shoulders.

Lily laughed, shaking her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if you two ended up running into the sunset together."

"As dashing as Sirius is," James replied. "I prefer someone who doesn't smell like a wet dog."

"Er, what?" Lily asked, confused.

James smiled. "Never mind. Just a little joke between us."

"Well," Lily continued. "I hope you've talked to Emmaline yourself about not asking her, she seems rather keen on you."

"Like I said," James pressed, his tone a little harder. "It's not like that between us. Anyway, if you do decide to not go with Fabien you're always welcome to come with us, like I said."

Lily gave him a small smile. "You know what? That actually sounds quite nice. I'm not sure how much I'm in the mood for small talk and I certainly don't feel like dodging advances all day."

She was about to return to her book before she looked back up and cast him another look with her eyes narrowed, pouting her quill at him. "Don't tell him I said that, he's a nice bloke and all being Alice's cousin. I'm just not in the particular mood to deal with male hormones."

James chuckled, his heart soaring with victory. "Don't worry your pretty little head, Lily. I won't say a word and I promise the three of us will keep our hormones in check."

As he watched her smile and look back down at her book, he couldn't help himself from letting his mind wander to all the ways he could get Remus and Peter to suddenly have to leave halfway through the day, leaving he and Lily to themselves….

Remus plopped down next to them, breaking James's train of thought.

"Lily's going to be joining us at Hogsmeade this weekend," James announced, catching Remus off guard.

"I thought you were going with- ow!" Remus clamped his hand down on his shin.

James rustled his foot back into place. "With Peter? Yeah, I told her. Just me, you, and Peter."

Remus narrowed his eyes, avoiding Lily's confused ones. "Right, yeah. The three of us at Hogsmeade." He turned his attention to Lily. "Well, that'd be great Lily, we're always happy to have you around. You help keep the rest of the boys more in check than I ever do on my own."

Lily laughed. "They really wear you down, don't they?"

Remus nodded. "You have no idea."

James snorted. "Oh cut it out Remus, don't act like such a saint. We all know that half the time you're the mastermind behind our pranks and you get Sirius, Peter, and I to do your dirty work while you come out smelling like roses. 'Knock it out you three, McGonagall will have our head!' as if you're not the one that snuck into Hogsmeade to get the dungbombs."

Remus glared at him as Lily laughed.

"Trust me," Lily said. "We all pretend like Remus is innocent but we all know he's not."

"Hey now!" Remus retorted.

James ran a hand down his face. This was bad, he knew it was. But he wasn't sure which route to proceed. If he was honest, she would hate him. If he lied and she found out, she would hate him. And as much as he knew he didn't really care about their future he also didn't want to go pissing off the girl that was willing to snog him with no strings attached. At least, no strings on his end.

He just couldn't help himself. He saw the perfect opportunity with Lily and he went for it. And she said yes. He couldn't pass up on this now, this was his chance to show Lily what a future with James Potter could look like.

Remus had been right - if James just stopped asking her out every chance he had and just became her friend instead, he had much better odds of winning her over. Remus also told him that it was a bad idea to start snogging another girl on the side but let's be honest, James was a teenage boy and teenage boys had needs. He couldn't keep charming his bed curtains shut and sound proof every night…

But now he was in a pickle.

"Look, I'm sorry Em, I really am," James said, exhausted. "I don't want to hurt you. I just don't think it makes sense for us to go together, we're just mates."

Emmaline narrowed her eyes at him. "You asked me, James."

James sighed. They were standing down the hall from the Gryffindor common room. Originally he had wanted to talk to her there, but he quickly realized how messy that could get with all the ears listening in. Instead, he'd asked her to go on a walk with him and only made it down the hall before he had blurted out that he couldn't go to Hogsmeade with her anymore.

"I promised Remus and Peter we would have some quality time together, we've all been so busy with school these days," James tried weakly.

"Mary Macdonald said Peter asked her out only to tell her this morning that he suddenly had a change of plans that he couldn't get out of," Emmaline pointed out.

"For Remus's sake, really," James tried.

Emmaline took a deep breath as she ran a hand through her hair, eyes closed. He could tell her patience with him is wearing thin.

"What's this all about, James?" She asked, her eyes searching him. "One minute your spending all summer with me, the next you're jerking me around and avoiding me at all costs around Hogwarts. Save for a few nights here and there that we sneak off to the Room of Requirements. Stop stringing me along, James."

James stood quietly, staring down at his feet. He felt like shit. Truly.

"Em, I told you," he said, softly. "I told you I didn't want this to be a thing. I'm just… I'm not ready. I don't want a girlfriend."

Emmaline shook her head at him . "I don't get you, James. I really don't."

She was about to turn to walk away from him but then stopped. She couldn't help herself, she really couldn't.

"Is it because of Lily Evans?"

James's eyes shot up at her and the look on his face said everything.

"It's not," he insisted. "I don't think of her like that, not anymore."

"You don't have to lie to me, James," Emmaline responded. "You've already made it clear that you're not interested in me beyond just a snog here and there. Just tell me the truth, is this about Lily?"

James was still for a moment then shook his head. "No, it's not."

Emmaline stared at him hard, then nodded her head. "Alright. Well. I'spose I'll see you around, James."

And with that, she walked back to the Gryffindor common room and up to her dormitory. She didn't stop until she got to her bed and angrily drew the curtains around her then let her face sink down into her hands. She wasn't going to cry, partly because she always had a sinking feeling that no matter how hard she tried nothing would change between her and James. But it didn't stop her from feeling like a bloody fool for getting her hopes up when he'd asked her to Hogsmeade.

It hadn't even been romantic, she thought to herself. They had been walking down to the kitchens one night after she had accidentally stumbled across him sitting by the fire in the common room. They'd chatted for a moment before he asked her if she wanted to grab a bite from the kitchens and it was during the walk that he had casually asked.

"You're going to Hogsmeade, right?" He had asked, not looking at her.

"Yeah," she responded, her heart rate slightly picking up at the mention of the weekend.

He looked at her briefly, his hands in his pockets. "Maybe we can meet there," he said, as if the idea had just dropped in on him. As if she hadn't spent all term wondering if he'd ask her.

"Yeah," she said, trying to keep her tone casual. "That'd be nice."

And that had been that. Later that night he'd kissed her softly before they'd parted ways to their dormitories and the kiss lingered with her long after as she laid in bed, wondering if maybe he was starting to change his mind about them.

She buried her face into her pillow. Clearly, he had not changed their mind about them.