Two nights later, it was a Thursday and smells of roast chicken were wafting up to Lily's room from the kitchen. Petunia had spent most of the day worrying about whether the chicken in question would be large enough for Vernon, who was visiting that evening for the first time since Lily had come home for the summer.

Lily had spent most of the day pouring over books trying to write a History of Magic essay. The question 'Could modern magic have prevented the ice age? Discuss in relation to your knowledge of Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures.' was the most difficult of all of Lily's holiday essays. She had spent most of the day scouring her textbooks for information but despite pages of notes about anti-freezing charms and warming solutions, she was yet to form a position on whether or not modern magic could have prevented the ice age.

She looked up from her work to see a dark brown owl fluttering outside her window.

'That's odd,' she thought, 'I had a letter from Alice yesterday and Marlene never writes more than a paragraph in the last few days of the summer.' Hastily, she pulled open the window and detached the letter tied to the owl's leg. She did not recognise the messy scrawl that read Lily Evans on the front of the letter. She opened it and began to read.

Lily,

I know you probably don't want to hear this but I'm really sorry about what happened between you and Snivelly.

Snivelly was crossed out and below it was written Snape.

Lily's brows creased together as she read on.

I never meant to ruin your friendship, even though I don't really understand why you were friends with him in the first place. I hope that summer is treating you well. My summer is grand, Sirius has moved in and we're flying everyday. Although I do miss seeing your stunning face at breakfast though.

James

Lily tossed the letter aside immediately after she finished reading. The nerve of James Potter, she thought to herself. As if she would want his crudely scribbled apology. As though that could make up for her ending her friendship with her best friend. She had a good mind to send James' owl back and give him a piece of her mind. She had already begun mentally composing the letter when she thought better of it. What was the point of writing an angry letter to Potter; it would not undo what had passed. It could not bring Sev back. She did not want back him anyway. Lily looked at James' owl now perched on the edge of her desk, before she could change her mind, she opened the window and shooed the owl out. The bird looked at her reproachfully for a second and then sped off in the direction it had come. Lily tossed the letter into her trashcan and resolved to think no more about James Potter.

James was indeed having a splendid holiday. He spent most of his time flying with Sirius and occasionally Remus and Peter or hanging about the muggle town he lived closest to. On these outings, Sirius flirted shamelessly with the local girls, who flirted back with such a shameless disinhibition that it made Peter and Remus uncomfortable. Sirius' flirting never progressed into any form of concrete relationship. Both Sirius and the girls in question knew that these were merely summer dalliances and neither party was upset when the summer fun had run its course.

Like at Hogwarts, the gang were frequently at the centre of any mischief and havoc in the town. The local sweet shop was ransacked of everything except peppermint lollies and it was a mystery to the police how the intruders had got into or out of the shop. The police chalked the lollies disappearance up to the owner's poor stock keeping. In reality, however, it was Sirius who had picked the lock with his trusty pocketknife. The marauders never took their pranks too far. Remus, the voice of reason, insisted that they go back and pay for the sweets the next day and under the invisibility cloak James slipped the money into the till.

It was a week after the great lolly heist that James decided to write to Lily. It took him seven attempts to get a letter he was happy with. After he had finished, he hurriedly sent the letter off with Trapeze his owl. He expected a reply within the next two days but after Trapeze returned on the third day with no reply, James began to worry.

'What if she'd made up with Snivelly,' he brooded. 'No, they couldn't possibly have made up. After all, he had called her a mudblood. That was the worst kind of racial slur that the Magical World had come up in over 400 years. She couldn't possibly forgive him after that. She was intelligent. Beyond intelligent, she had topped the year in potions, herbology, and charms, and only come a narrow second to him in transfiguration. Everyone said she was funny too. Remus had mentioned several occasions that she had the entire prefects meeting in hysterics with her impressions of Professor Slughorn.'

'Maybe she's fallen severely ill with Dragon Pox and is undergoing treatment in St Mungo's so she can't write to me,' mused James. 'Maybe her dog has chewed all her quills. Maybe...'

As the afternoon wore on James' predictions of why Lily had not replied to him got more and more preposterous. His favourite theory proposed that Lily was still in fact writing a long confession of her undeniable love for him, which she would send back with her owl in the coming days. He continued to daydream about the arrival of such a letter until Sirius knocked on his door and suggested a brutal game of wizard's chess, to which James enthusiastically agreed, anything to take his mind off the absence of Lily's reply.

Lily's resolve to think no more of James Potter and his apology was tested in the last week of the holidays when Severus Snape arrived on her doorstep.

'Lily!' Her mother called from the kitchen where she was baking cookies. 'Sev is here to see you.'

Lily glowered into the mirror where she had been brushing her auburn hair. She had no desire whatsoever to see, talk to or even think of Severus Snape. Deciding that she could not simply hide in her room, she stomped down the stairs to the front door.

Severus was taken aback by the intense loathing that filled Lily's face. He had grown up accustomed to the gorgeous, glowing smiles that Lily gave almost everyone in her acquaintance. The look on her face was nothing like he could ever remember her giving anyone, even when James Potter had sent her a howler professing his affection for her in third year, she had not looked this angry. Maybe he had made a mistake in coming, the advice of Ways to Charm Witches had been to give time in order to allow the witch in question to get over the fight. The book had then suggested a memory charm and a good dose of love potion would be enough to make any witch forgive you. Snape had briefly considered this, but then decided that it was a tad manipulative and that another apology would have to do.

In the seconds Snape stood in silence thinking, Lily was evaluating her former best friend. Severus Snape was tall, lean, and greasy like stringed cheese. He smelled musty to Lily, as though his clothes had not been washed recently. Lily wondered whether his parents were still fighting, but then remembered the afternoon by the lake and reminded herself she no longer cared about Severus' welfare.

'What are you doing here?' she demanded, her voice cracking slightly on the last word, failing to hide all the resentment and the hurt she had squashed down in the last few weeks, that was suddenly bubbling too close to the surface.

'I … I miss you, Lily,' Snape choked out. 'You're my best friend, and I…'

'I was your best friend,' Lily snapped coldly. 'You can't seriously think I would want you as a friend after you called me a mudblood.

'But…'

'Look Sev, I can't forgive what you did. You chose your path, and I'm choosing mine. I'm sorry. That's the way it is.'

Severus Snape's face went slightly pale at Lily's words but then snapped into the mask of indifference he adopted when talking to his father.

'Fine if that's the way you want it', he stumbled over the words in his hurry to get them out. He then turned and stormed down the garden path towards the gate. Lily watched his retreating back from the front door, feeling as though one chapter of her life had been closed for good.

A few days later, Sirius barged into James' room where he was lying on his bed reading Quidditch Through the Ages.

'I have news for you,' Sirius announced to the room at large.

'What is it then?' James asked closing his book and stretching out on his bed, which was now mostly occupied by Sirius' lean, muscular form.

'Well,' Sirius began in a confident tone, 'I heard from Remus who heard from Frank who heard from his girlfriend Alice who heard from…'

'Will you get to the point already?' interrupted James.

'That will ruin the anticipation of the story!' exclaimed Sirius. 'And I was just getting to the good bit too.'

'Fine, go on.'

'Anyway, as I was saying I heard from Remus who heard from Frank who heard from his girlfriend Alice who heard from one Lily Evans directly.'

James' head snapped to attention when Sirius mentioned Lily's name. 'What about Evans?' he asked impatiently.

'Well, apparently Snivelly turned up on her doorstep a couple of days ago to apologise again, the git.'

'What did she say?' asked James, holding his breath for the answer. 'Did she accept? Are they friends again?' James' voice was low and intense.

'Nah, she didn't,' said Sirius. 'She probably told him she would go out with you before she'd forgive him,' Sirius sniggered.

'Don't even talk about her forgiving him,' said James angrily. 'I swear if he so much as looks at her the wrong way I'll do more than hex his pants off.'

'Yeah I'm sure she'll really appreciate your protection,' said Sirius sarcastically. 'So, I was thinking…It's been a while since we had a midnight excursion and there's only a week left of the holidays... What do you say we go and visit the love of your life and see what she thought of your letter? You've been moping for weeks since she didn't reply.'

'I have not been moping,' said James irritated.

'Look mate, it's pretty obvious you have it bad for Evans. All I'm suggesting is we pay her a friendly visit.'

'At midnight?' James interjected.

'Sure, girls dig that. Remember that muggle movie thing we watched last year about Roberto and Julie?'

'Romeo and Juliet.' James corrected.

'Tomato, tomato.' Sirius replied. 'Any way you in or what, midnight flying and Evans?'

'I guess' murmured James, hoping desperately that Lily had meant to reply to his letter and simply forgotten.

'That's the spirit,' replied Sirius 'We'll go tonight.'