Lily kept her promise to herself. She barely paid any attention to Petunia and spend the days reading her new school books. She just picked them up with her parents and Severus from Diagon Alley. She remembered that day very well. Severus was so happy he could join them. Lily knew he dreaded going with his parents and she completely understood. Severus did not talk much about his situation at home, but what he told kind of shocked Lily. She could not imagine that a parent would be so horrible to a child, especially their child. Lily would hang out with Severus again this evening. Now that she read her new book for History of Magic she had so many questions about a lot of stuff. She read about so many creatures and events. Sometimes it sucked that she was not born in a wizard family. Whenever she had questions about something she read or about her homework she could not ask her parents. She wrote her friends about something in one of her last letters but she decided to stop doing that. Marlene and Alice were very nice and explained it to her, but Mary was a bit blunt and said literally: "I do not do homework in holidays, Lils and neither should you. Go out, enjoy yourself. You have a whole year ahead of you for this stuff." Lily laughed when she read it, she could almost hear Mary say it out loud.

Gosh, she did miss her friends. There were only four days left before she would head back to Hogwarts and she was counting down the days. Lily liked hanging out with Severus, he was one of her closest friends, but she missed giggling and gossiping with Marlene, Mary and Alice. She was interrupted in her thoughts by her mother who called her name for dinner. After dinner she went to the playground next to the hill to meet with Severus. He was already sitting on one of the swings. When he heard Lily coming he looked up and he started smiling. "Hey you." Severus said. "Hey, Sev." Lily answered happy. "Let me guess, you read your books already and now you have questions." Severus said. Lily was surprised. "Yes, but how did you know?" Severus looked at her. "The day you do not do read a book and you would not have any questions is the day that I would become headmaster of Hogwarts. So quite unlikely I would say." Lily laughed. "You know me too well, Sev. I have indeed a few questions." Severus looked into Lily's green eyes and his heart jumped a little bit. "Ask away. I am all yours." Lily felt a bit uncomfortable when he said this because she remembered Petunia saying that he had a crush on her. "Well, since you are my best friend and you knew you were a wizard your whole life you know a lot more than I do." Lily hoped to set some boundaries with her calling him her best friend. She observed him and tried to see if he looked disappointed, but she could not see anything change. Maybe Petunia was wrong and he only had friendly feelings for her. Well at least he knew it know, whether he liked her or not.

"Well, I read about a lot of stuff that happened in the past. But what intrigued me the most are the goblins. They were treated so badly in the past and now they work at Gringotts. Do you know anything about them?" Lily listened to Severus explaining his opinion about Goblins. He thought they were acting okay now, but they probably were not agreeing with it at all. "They try to stay out of every fight among the wizards and they see what they create as their own possession. Regardless who bought that product, you see. They are very, very possessive about their stuff. They might be nice to you in your face, but they would stab you in your back if they could save themselves with it." "You know so much, Severus! This is so interesting! Probably we get a lot more on goblins this year. I am looking forward to that. But I also had another question." Lily hesitated for a bit. "I read a really small part about something else. It is not really mentioned anywhere. But what do you know about Dementors?" She knew that this was something dark and sinister. "Well, not much to be honest. I guess they save it for when we are further in our academic career at Hogwarts. I know what I heard from my parents. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban." Severus looked down now "Azkaban?" Lily asked. She saw him swallow. "Yes, it is prison for the most gruesome wizards and witches, or at least that is what they say in the books I guess. It is on this island in the middle of the ocean and nobody has ever been able to escape it. And the Dementors, they guard it. But they are not human, not even close. They float, wear long dark robe. You cannot see a single body part. Nobody knows what they look like underneath those clothes. They do not lift their hood, unless they want to kiss you." "Kiss you?" Said Lily with a strange voice. "How can they kiss you?" "Well, a kiss of Dementor is not a real kiss. I do not know how it works exactly. I just know that nobody would like this kind of kiss. They suck out your soul and they leave you, well, without one. Sort of braindead I think." Lily looked shocked. She never imagined that creatures like that even existed in a world like this. Severus must have seen that fear. "But that punishment is only for the wizards and witches who committed the worst and most awful crimes. You have nothing to be scared about. You are way too sweet and way too good. You will never end up there." Lily felt that her cheeks started flushing. She saw that Severus was ashamed of himself for telling her such a thing. He could not bear to look in her eyes. But after a few seconds he quickly added: "There are enough murderers in Azkaban, so I have no idea what you have to do to get the kiss."

Lily shivered a bit. The compliment that Severus made had already vanished from her mind. "That sounds awful. Getting your soul sucked out." "It kind of does, doesn't it?" Severus said. And then Severus and Lily heard something shuffling behind them. They both turned around, but they could not see anything. They looked at each other and shrugged. "Must have been a bird or a cat or something." Lily said. This reminded her of a beautiful cat she saw in the pet shop in Diagon Alley, "I would love to have a cat, you know. Maybe I should ask for one for Christmas." Severus laughed. "You know, that would be a great idea. You can bring it to Hogwarts with you. But would you not rather have an owl?" For the next one and a half hour they discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of having a cat or owl.

It started to get darker and Lily shivered a bit from the starting cold. "Do you want my hoody?" Severus asked. "No thank you Sev, that is really nice but I think I will go home." Severus looked disappointed and he also seemed a bit scared. "Are you okay? You do not want to go home, do you?" Lily picked up on this. He nodded. "Is it bad?" He nodded again, avoiding her eyes. Lily felt a wave of sympathy wash over her and she felt so bad for him. "Sev, you could maybe stay the night in our guest room if you really want to?" He shook his head. "That will make things only worse. It is alright. You can go home, I will walk with you." Lily nodded and they stood up. Lily had no idea what to say to Severus and he did not feel like talking. So neither of them said anything on their way back. When they arrived in front of Lily's house they looked at each other. "Same time tomorrow evening again?" Lily asked. Severus smiled relieved. "Yes, you better have some more questions for me." Lily laughed and then did something she had never done before. She hugged him. Mostly because she had the feeling he really needed it and she also wanted to do something to comfort him. Lily felt him stiffen, but then relax a little. His hands creeped up her spine and stopped in the middle of her back. "Thank you." He whispered. "No problem. Sleep tight and I will see you tomorrow." Lily answered. Then she walked to the door.

Once inside Lily said goodnight to her parents and went up to her room. But in the passage to her room she bumped into Petunia. "You got yourself a little boyfriend, Lily?" Petunia said snarky. Lily ignored her and walked to her room. She was better than this. She heard Petunia walk away to her room and she felt so proud of herself. There were only three days left and then she could finally return to Hogwarts. Sure, Lily would miss her parents like crazy, but she was happy to not see Petunia again for quite some time. Petunia was starting at the high school in the next village after the summer. Two nights ago at dinner Petunia was bragging about it and Lily got a little bit mad. At one point she said: "Well, I am already in high school. I will start my second year already." Petunia turned around and looked Lily dead in the eye. "Well, some of us follow the normal path in our life and not the unusual one." Lily scolded at herself that evening room. Once again she had let Petunia get to her. Well not anymore and now she was feeling darn proud that she ignored her comment about Severus being her boyfriend. She decided she would brush her teeth the next morning, since she had no desire running into her sister.

The last few evenings she spend with Severus hanging in on that playground. And before she knew it was time to head back to Hogwarts. Lily left with mixed feelings. But mostly she was excited to go back to school. This year things were going to be different, she thought. Now I know what I can expect from the classes, I know the castle and I have friends. This is going to be my year.

"James Potter, you get your ass down right NOW!" Euphemia yelled at him. James looked down and saw his mother waving angrily at him. He could not help to grin. He flew down on his broomstick to her. "What is it mom?" He said innocently. "You know darn well why I called you down. Do you want to be seen? What are thinking flying up so high?" James shrugged. "Well, this is a wizard village. What are the chances that a muggle sees me?" Euphemia threw her hands up in the air. "James, I warned you several times already this summer. And this time I am done. Give me your broom. If I have to explain to you why this is wrong you do not deserve to have a broom for a while." James' mouth popped open. "No, mum! Please mum, I need my broom. I want to make the Quidditch team this year and I need to practice." James started begging. Sirius now appeared next to James. "What is going on? Are we still playing after this?" Euphemia turned to Sirius and said seriously. "You two will not be playing anymore until James deserves his broom back. You should thought of your try-outs earlier, James." She turned around and marched back into the house.

James said a word that made Sirius snort out loud. "You would never have said that if your mother was still around." He laughed. James shrugged and sat down in the grass. "I need my broom, I need to practice." Sirius sat down next to him. "Mate, you will be fine. Please, give a rest. You will get your broom back before we go back to school. Plus you will make the Quidditch team. You know that you are good enough." James smirked a bit. "Well it did help that I already had access to a broom since I was born." "It looks like you were born a broom. You are a natural. Well, what should we do now?"

James was thinking. Before this Sirius threw balls had him that his father had enchanted. James caught them and flew with them, trying to score between two trees. After a few good catches James his confident boosted and he urged Sirius to throw harder and more difficult. He flew higher and higher and was just about to dive down for an awesome catch, but then his mother came outside. But what could they do know? Suddenly James remembered something. "Okay, I have something. But it is kind of risky. We could go with the Floo Powder to Diagon Alley. I still have some Galleons in my wallet. But my mum cannot catch us and we have to return before my dad gets home." Sirius his face started to light up. "Well, how could she catch us if she cannot see us?" James gave him a sneaky smile. "Exactly. You go grab the cloak and I will ask my mum to make something else for dinner. She will need to hit the grocery store since we do not have those ingredients. That will give us a good one and half hour in Diagon Alley." Sirius high fived James and stood up. "See you in front of your fireplace in 15 minutes. Well, I see you there." Sirius winked and walked off to the house.

"Mum, could you maybe get me something from the shop?" James asked his mum. "James, your broom is locked away. You will not get it." Euphemia sighed without turning around. "No, it's not that. It is just that I saw that you are cooking and I know that Sirius does not like this food. He says it gives him a stomach ache." Now Euphemia turned around and she eyed James suspiciously. "You do know that we already ate this twice this summer right? Why is this the first time I hear about that?" James looked his mum straight in the eye and said: "Well, he is so grateful that he can stay here that he is afraid to say something. He just eats is and sits through all the pain his stomach will give him later in the evening. He says it tastes really good, but that it is just hurting him. Probably one of the ingredients." Euphemia's expression softened. "That poor boy. Of course, I do not want him to be uncomfortable here. Well, I will just put this on hold and go to the store. I do not have any other ingredients left here. I wanted to go to the store tomorrow anyway. You two be good, your father will be home in approximately one and a half hour, as will I." She grabbed her purse, the car keys and walked to the door. After a few minutes James heard the car pull out of the driveway and drive away. He grabbed his wallet from the dresser and darted to the living room. "Sirius are you here?" He hissed. "There is no need to whisper, we are all alone." Sirius said 3 centimeters away from James' ear. James cursed for the second time that day. "James, you impress me with your language. A boy who lives in a house like this should never speak like that." James ignored him. "Just give my cloak. We will only need this when we return." Sirius his head appeared mid-air and was now floating in his living room. James grabbed the cloak and started stuffing it in his pocket. Sirius took some Floo Powder. "Ready?" He asked. James nodded. Sirius threw the powder in the fireplace and the green flames appeared. Sirius stepped in and said: "Diagon Alley". He disappeared and James set his foot in the fireplace. He threw the powder, waited until the ash was gone and said: "Diagon Alley."

That one and half hour in Diagon Alley was passing by really fast. They got some ice-cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, they looked at some animals at the pet shop and drooled in broom shop. "We need to head back now. We only have a fifteen minutes left." James looked down at his watch. Sirius nodded. "Yes, this was a nice afternoon. Let's go!" They returned with the Floo Powder to the Potter Mansion. "Okay, I will go under my cloak and I will block the view from the fireplace with it. So when you step you arrive, you will be invisible as well." James said. "Got it, let's do this." James put the cloak around him and stepped in the fireplace. "Potter Mansion." He said and the flames drew higher. As soon as he arrived at his house James took of the cloak and held it up to the fireplace. He heard the flames go higher and Sirius appeared. Quickly he stepped aside and Sirius was now next to him. He lowered the cloak and looked in the room. "I think we did it. Neither my mum nor my dad is back yet." James ran up the stairs to hide the cloak again. He came back downstairs and Sirius was sitting on their couch reading the Daily Prophet. He looked a bit worried.

"Are you okay there, mate?" James asked. "Yes, I am. It just that I read all this stuff about the things that are happening right now. Did you know that this week another muggle family has been found dead in their house?" James shook his head. "That is just sick. Those poor guys never knew what hit them." Sirius looked at the newspaper again. "And do you know what the worst of all is? My family agrees with all of this. Well most of them, you know. Did you know that my niece is probably participating in all of this? And my other niece, her sister Narcissa, is at school with us?" He heard that name before. "Wait, Narcissa. I heard her name before." Sirius nodded. "When we were hiding for that Prefect, Lucius Malfoy. The other girl said that Narcissa was waiting for him." James fell quiet. He never heard Sirius talk this much about his family. "Is that why you do not want to be home? Because they think like that?" Sirius shrugged. "I think that has to do with it as well. But mostly because my mum always favored my brother over me. And now even more since I got into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. He will start Hogwarts upcoming year and probably end up in Slytherin. That will make my mother proud, but she would rather see that all of us ended up in Slytherin. That kind of makes the black sheep of the black family. Ironic, isn't it?" James had no idea what to say, but he did not had to. Sirius kept on talking. "You know, I never agreed with their opinions. My parents do agree with the opinions of all these dark wizard, but I do not know for sure if they would ever participate in murdering innocent Muggles. But they do think wizards are superior to Muggles."

James swallowed. He knew his parents did not think like that at all. "Well, for all that is worth it I think your parents do not define who you are. You make your own decisions and so far you show them and everyone around you that you do not agree with them. That is a very brave thing to do. A true Gryffindor." Sirius smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, probably." James just let it go for now. Maybe when Sirius was ready to talk more about his family, James would ask some questions.

After a week James got his broom back. His mother could never stay mad at James for too long. She urged him to stay low, because she would do it again and he would not take it with him to Hogwarts. James and Sirius kept practicing in the backyard for James his try-outs. "Why don't you join the team as well, Sirius?" He started laughing. "Nah, good offer though. I like watching more than playing, but I would make it if I tried out." James huffed. "Well, right after me of course. It is obvious that I am the better one of course." James had to dodge a ball that was particularly hardly thrown at him.

The last days of the summer holiday flew by and on the morning of the first of September Sirius and James stepped into the Hogwarts Express. "Ready for another year?" Sirius asked. "More than you think!" James answered. "Especially now that we have this cloak. We are going to roam the castle." They found Remus and Peter in a carriage and they joined them. The ride back was filled with stories, laughter, candy and jokes. When the night fell they arrived at the castle. Now that they were second years, they had to get to the castle in carriages instead of the boats. This was way better, since it was warmer and faster. "I cannot wait for the feast to begin. I am starving." Peter said. "Same here!" Sirius said. The carriage stopped and they got out, walked to the doors and entered the castle. James sighed happily. He was back again.

Author note: Hi guys! It's getting harder to post regular. I worked in advance on some of the chapters for busy times like these, but I am almost done with my advanced work. But I am trying to post more often now, just bear with me guys!

I am working on my final thesis with school and things are busyyyyy! I love doing it, but it is so much work. I do have a holiday in less than four weeks, so I should be able to write more. Feel free to give some feedback, comments or compliments and the best way to stay up to date is to just follow and/or fav my story!