2015, Alice's Bedroom Floor.

The first time Lily had heard of The Marauders, she had been sitting cross-legged on her childhood best friend's bedroom floor. She was fifteen and with her oldest and closest friend, Alice. She remembers this distinctly because this was when Alice was going through quite an excessive 'My music taste is better than yours' phase, and Lily also noted that this was when Alice had forced everyone to only refer to her as 'Ally' because it, quote:
"Sounds a lot more grungy"

Naturally, Lily had bullied her about this soon after Alice had become aware that it was quite ridiculous, but back then, Lily went along with it quite happily, she didn't mind appeasing Alice - she knew it was just a phase, like how Alice had a rather memorable phase about being entirely one-thousand percent certain she wanted to become an Olympic ping-ponger, (That phase only lasted about three days, ending quite soon after her father refused to buy her a ping-pong table.) Lily had always adored Alice and her bonkers phases, which always kept her rather entertained.

But back to the bedroom floor, and another detail to note; Another thing that was quite notable about Alice Fortescue, was that she had always been completely and utterly boy-mad. So when she'd learned about this brand-new up and coming boy-band, Alice had obviously gone nuts.

"Lils, you don't even understand. They are... Ahh! I'm completely ob-sessed!" Alice giggled, clicking the CD into place on her player.
"Alice-" Lily started, which made Alice give her a stern look.
"Sorry, Ally" Lily smiled, "You're always completely obsessed with one boy or another, I can't keep up."

Alice rolled her thickly lined eyes, (another phase.) "It's because you aren't obsessed with any boys, I have to harbour twice the amount of boy-love, ya see?"
Lily smiled and nodded, always amused with Alice's apparent 'philosophical' observations.

"So this is only their debut, so don't be too critical," Alice defended, giving Lily a look that meant Don't be a bitch . "Also, they're only sixteen, which is basically our age - so before you go all," Alice pulled a snotty looking face, which only mildly offended Lily.

"I do not go like that!" Lily laughed, pushing Alice slightly.
Alice shrugged with a smile, before passing Lily the CD.

The album was called ' Mischief Managed' which Lily wanted to snort at, but then she remembered the face that Alice had pulled and she rearranged her features back to normal. She flipped over the CD, to view the tracklist, where there were only 10 songs. Lily thought the names sounded a bit generic, but she didn't want to be that judgy.

"They started the band only a couple of years ago, apparently in their shared dorm room!" Alice giggled, clearly enamoured.
"Dorm room? So they're private school twatters? No wonder.." Lily smiled, inspecting the four boys on the cover - clad in posh school clothes that were worn quite ruggedly.

The boys were all positioned on a sofa, reminding Lily of a posher, more wankier version of Friends . She decided she probably would hate any of these boys if she met them in real life. Alice could probably read her thoughts from her face, as she snatched the CD back and rolled her eyes.

"Don't be so judgy, I doubt you could get a record deal at sixteen!" Alice said, slightly huffily.
Lily smirked and leaned forward, "Ally, anybody can get a record deal, especially if Daddy's money is paying for it!"
Alice smirked back, but turned the CD, allowing it to play.

"Well I love them, Lils, and I will marry one of them, and then you'll have to be around them all the time!"
Lily rolled her eyes and sat back, leaning against Alice's bed, believing that Alice could/would marry and have any pick of these Marauders.

Oh, how wrong she was.

2021, The Office

Lily hates her boss, and Lily doesn't usually hate anybody, but there was something about Bridget Matthews that just got on her last nerve. Like right now, when she was making some really passive-aggressive comments about her outfit.
"You're just so confident , I could never be! Especially someone with your…" Bridget trailed off, looking down at Lily's body like it was some alien lifeform.

"Fatness?" Lily said, decidedly unphased, she had always been bigger than most - so she was definitely used to these kinds of comments. However, her bluntness made Bridget's fake smile turn into one of panic, giving Lily just that smidge of satisfaction.
"Oh god honey no! You're not fat at all, don't-'' Bridget started immediately.

Lily laughs in pity for poor, uncomfortable Bridget, secretly loving the way she was squirming, "No I am, and I'm happy with it." Lily said truthfully, she knew that if she truly wanted to be skinny, she probably could - but it honestly didn't bother her too much. Lily had found that her weight only seemed like a problem to other people, she had never been inconvenienced by it - but she had to admit, people's reactions to it were the only thing that still stung sometimes. It was like being fat personally offended other people, which Lily found laughable, it was her body - not theirs.

"Good for you!" Bridget said awkwardly, clearly wanting to escape this situation.
"Alright then, see you tomorrow then Bridget?" Lily said, tugging her coat on, flicking her long red locks out of the collar.
"Yes, erm tomorrow! Goodbye Lily!" Bridget said even more awkwardly, giving Lily an over-enthusiastic thumbs up, which was enough for Lily to suffer from pretty heavy second-hand embarrassment.

Automatically, as soon as Lily got into her car, she opened her phone to text Alice about it, before her stomach dropped as she clicked onto the text thread. She could never text Alice again. She felt the tears already welling up in her eyes, the pure sting had been worse than a thousand little snide comments about her weight. She dropped her phone, it landed on the carpet next to the pedal, creating an unhealthy clunk as the side smashed.

"Fuck!" She cried, bending down and picking up her phone, inspecting the significant crack that the phone was now sporting, she felt like kicking something. Instead, she clicked on her phone and dialled her Mum, needing to talk to someone who would understand.

"Lily-pad!" Her Mum happily chirped, and Lily knew she was probably outside in the garden since she could hear the birds tweeting loudly behind her.
"I just- I just went to text Alice about something and I realised that I can't tell her anything anymore," Lily said, the silent tears streaming down her face.

"Oh baby, that's horrible." Her mother soothed, she had picked up the phone now and was walking inside of the house. "What did you want to tell her? Can you tell me instead?"
Lily gasped and choked down a tear, only then realising how hard she was crying.

"It's nothing just my boss being an arse, but I just smashed my fucking phone, and I now wished I had listened to Alice and paid the extra tenner for insurance." Lily thickly said, hearing her Mother sniffle slightly.

"Sweetheart, why don't you come round for dinner? Dad and I are going to eat an overpriced takeaway and rewatch How to get away with Murder. "
Lily thought this sounded awfully tempting, but she didn't want to face that house right now, the house she and Alice practically grew up in.

"No, it's alright Mum, thanks though," Lily said weakly, trying to convince her mum that she was alright when she was clearly anything but.
"Your welcome honey, offers always open if you change your mind."
"Love you."
"Love you, take care of yourself!"

Lily hung up and placed her phone in the cupholder, letting out a long sigh.
How the hell am I supposed to do this without you, Alice?

August 2015, Lily's Living Room.

"I think Remus would be the best in bed since he's so lowkey ya know ?" Alice always ended her sentences with, 'Ya know' and Lily found herself not actually knowing most of the time.
"Care to elaborate?" Lily asked, looking up from her chemistry book, she had a test tomorrow and she needed to beat Severus.

"No, I won't - use your own imagination, Evans!" Alice said and Lily burst out laughing, which also made Alice laugh even louder.
"But I don't think I'd marry Remus, maybe I'll marry Sirius, I do love a leading man," Alice said dreamily, which made Lily hit her on the head with her textbook.

"Ouch! Abusive much?" Alice said, rubbing her head defensively.
"Horny much?" Lily retorted
"Wouldn't you like to know Evans?" Alice smirked and jumped on Lily, almost making her fall off of the sofa. This obviously made Lily burst out into a peal of fresh laughter, wondering how her best friend got to be so mental.

2021, Lily's flat.

Turns out, Lily ended up ordering herself an overpriced takeaway, and she also started rewatching New Girl. She'd also put on her pyjamas as soon as she could. She loved her flat, it was small but cosy, and all of the taps worked - which was a huge plus - However, what she didn't like, was her across the hall neighbours, the loudest people in existence. They had just moved in that previous weekend and Lily saw a shitload of music equipment being carried into the tiny four-bedroom flat, by fancy-looking moving people. She still hadn't gotten a glimpse of them, but she had heard them all right, playing music until late.

Lily knew that she was twenty-one, and she should be out partying or doing something other than wallowing in her own pity, but she found that going out just wasn't the same anymore - not without Alice holding back her hair as she puked out her soul in a pub toilet. Also, she did have a full-time job, and she wasn't exactly amused at being kept up past 12 am on a Thursday night.

She tossed and turned in her bed, stewing in her hatred, she wanted to march over there and tell the douchebags to shut the fuck up. Lily noted that they didn't sound entirely awful and they were playing some songs she actually loved, specifically " Forget Me Not" by The Marauders, which was one of her favourite songs ever. She remembered how madly she screamed when she and Alice went to go see them, probably the only time in her life she had acted truly boy-crazy, but how could you not? It was The Marauders after all.

Talent aside, the music was truly bugging her now, and she needed to be in early tomorrow, she needed to finish up her article before it was published. She worked for The Times, her life-long dream of being a journalist being fulfilled at such a young age. She remembers how mental Alice had gone when she had found out, she threw Lily a huge party and had they had gotten absolutely smashed, she couldn't remember most of it, actually.

Some time passed, and the music didn't seem like it was disappearing anytime soon, so she sat up, determined to head over and give them a proper talking to. She checked her phone, and when it flashed at 1:34 am, she was positively fuming. So fuming in fact she forgot she was in her pyjamas, (A rather cute pink set she had got at Primark for a fiver.)

She stormed out of her flat, and walked directly across to the flat that was causing her all this distress, and she started thumping the door with all of her might. She was angry, and she had, had an awful day, so she was pretty much at her tipping point. So, when someone answered the door, she immediately exploded, her anger taking over.

"Who the FUCK do you think you are? Playing that crap at THIS time? Are you actually fucking kidding me? You are all a bunch of ignorant TWATS. One, you never answered the door when I tried to introduce myself, I brought cookies, FUCKING cookies! Two, you are playing the cunting DRUMS? At this time? IT IS ONE O' BLEEDING CLOCK IN THE MOTHER FUCKING MORNING. News alert asswipes, some of us have JOBS, that we have to get UP for, so SHUT THE FUCK-"

Lily suddenly silenced herself, as she realised through her blinding rage just who all was standing at the door, looking at her with their mouths agape. She blinked once before it registered, standing in front of her was no other than the four time grammy-winning, - Alice's favourite band in the entire universe - The Marauders.

She had just screamed bloody murder at The Marauders. Standing at the front was James Potter, the lead guitarist and occasional vocalist, and next to him was Sirius Black - the lead singer. Behind him (Towering over him.) Was the bassist, Remus Lupin - and next to him was the drummer, Peter Pettigrew.

"Holy shit," Lily said, all of her rage-filled confidence gone.
The Marauders stayed silent, looking back at her with equal shock, apparently, none of them has ever met an angry redhead.

"Are you-"
"Jesus Red, we should hire you if we ever wanna do screamo," Sirius said, laughing and scratching the back of his head. Behind him, Remus rolled his eyes and began speaking, his welsh accent sounding a lot more prominent in real life.
"We're really sorry, we were told that the only other person on this floor was a student, and we figured.."

"Clearly if you had bothered to meet me, you would have learned that I graduated this summer and I'm no longer a student!" Lily said, some of her anger returning.

This was obviously amusing to James Potter, who chuckled lowly.
"Oh, so this is funny to you? You guys think that because you have four Grammys you can be arseholes?" Lily said, surprising even herself.

"No, not at all, we're so sorry.." Remus said, and Lily was already starting to warm up to him.
"Lily, Lily Evans," Lily said in a light huff.
"Remus Lupin," Remus said humbly, which almost made Lily laugh because he certainly knew his name, Alice would never shut the fuck up about him.

"He's Welsh Lils, and it's a known fact that Welshmen are good at sex."
"Well known by whom exactly?"
"Well, by me and now... You!"

"Why are you guys even here, shouldn't you be in a mansion or someshit?" Lily said, feeling more embarrassed underneath their curious gazes.
"We're writing our new album." Peter piped in, but Lily couldn't see him too well, he was short and James' body blocked his.

"Well, could you write your new album between the hours of 9 am-11 pm, please and thank you!" Lily said, turning around to make the walk of shame back to her flat.

"Evans?" James called, his slightly scouse accent surprising Lily. Secretly, as a teen - Lily had always fancied James, but that was gone now, he was clearly a supreme wankpot.
"Yes?" Lily said, turning back around, trying to sound more annoyed than flustered.

"Nice PJ's." His cocky expression and tone that reminded Lily of all the boys in Secondary that made fun of her and asked her out as a joke, making her feel like she would never have a boyfriend, or be loved just because she was fat.

So, she decided she absolutely despised James Potter and The Marauders by association.
But Lily wasn't in high school anymore, and she wasn't that insecure girl either, so she stuck up her middle finger and said,

"Go fuck yourself, and be quiet." She flashed her own cocky smile while going back into her flat and slamming the door behind her.

December 25th 2015, Alice's Living Room.

"Are you going to finally tell me what you got me?" Alice said, tucking her knees in and resting her head on them, she was still in her PJ's as it was her own Christmas tradition to, (another) quote:
" Do fucking nothing!"

Lily smiled and pulled an envelope out of her bra.
"Really? In your bra?" Alice laughed, and Lily handed it to her, already feeling smug.
"I was keeping it warm for you!" Lily laughed, watching nervously as Alice ripped open the envelope. She inspected the contents, but clearly couldn't make out what they were, so she plucked the two tickets and read them, realisation raking over her features.

"NO FUCKING WAY!" Alice screamed, looking at the now beaming Lily.
"WAY!" Lily screamed back and Alice sprang towards Lily, hugging her ferociously.
Alice's Mum, Dae, smiled at Lily before teasingly asking Alice,
"What did Lily get you?"
"TICKETS TO SEE THE MARAUDERS, OH MY GOD, OH MY GODDDD."

Alice then started excitedly chatting in Korean to her Mother, probably swearing mostly. Alice's Mum spoke back, smiling happily at her daughter, and Lily just wished she could capture the moment, and never leave it.


2021, Lily's Flat.

Lily leaned against the front door of her flat, sinking down and sitting on the floor, the tears already streaming down her face.

Oh Alice, if only you had lived long enough to see this.