Author's note: I REALLY hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it! So what do you think? REVIEW and let me know. I thrive on reviews. I think I could actually live on them!

Disclaimer: As you know characters like Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, etc belong to J.K. Rowling and as you also know characters you DON'T recognize like Phoebe, Tara, Alyson, Shannon, etc are mine. The plot is also mine but I don't know if that's a good thing or not. (That's basically another plea for reviews!)

"Lily!" squealed Shannon, waving her cousin over.

"Hey Shan!" exclaimed Lily, bounding over to her cousin. "It's great to see you. You look fabulous!" She hugged her cousin.

"I look fabulous?" laughed Shannon. "Look at yourself." Lily smiled, consciously.

Lily knew well she was pretty. This had absolutely nothing to do with conceit it was simple fact. It had nothing to do with her, since she had inherited her fair skin, emerald eyes and luscious golden/red hair from her mother who was still pretty and glamorous looking.

"How's Darryl?" Shannon asked. Lily made a slight face.

"We broke up," she told her cousin. "Ages ago actually. He was just a phase." Shannon also made a face.

"Aw," she said. "I liked him. He was better than Juan anyway." The two cousins exchanged a knowing smile.

"That's true," Lily said. "So how's, James, is that his name? Are you still together?" Shannon beamed.

"Yea James Potter. Of course we're still together," she reprimanded, jokingly.

"I can't wait to meet him," Lily said. "Finally," she added.

"You'll love him," Shannon foresaw.

"I hope so for his sake," Lily replied, laughing. "Listen I'd better go. The girls are waiting for me." She gestured towards her three new friends who were waiting by the great hall door. Shannon nodded, watching as Lily ran off. She had always been somewhat jealous of Lily. Lily had always had everything she could want. A perfect family, perfect looks, any boy she wanted and now she had become friends with three of the most popular girls in school after only being here for one day. Nevertheless, it was hard to be jealous of her cousin. They were so close and Lily was so friendly and caring towards her younger cousin.

Shannon walked to her Potions class, arms linked in both of her best friends, Mena Jordan and Kaye Thomas, when James materialized in front of her. She kissed him flippantly on the cheek.

"Hi," she said, softly, her eyes twinkling.

"Hey," James replied. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come to Hogsmeade with us tonight?" "Us" was, no doubt, the Marauders and probably Phoebe, Alyson and Tara, which meant that Lily would also be there that night.

"Sure," Shannon said. "I suppose Phoebe and them will be there?" James nodded slightly. "That's great. You can meet Lily. You haven't yet, have you?" she asked.

"Not formally," James acknowledged. "Although Sirius is doing everything in his power to get an introduction. He's mad after her," James laughed. "I'll see you tonight then?" Shannon nodded and James sauntered away, waving.

"Lily, you have to come tonight!" proclaimed Tara. "You'll love the lads! They're so sound!"

"Especially Remus, eh Tars?" Alyson said, elbowing Phoebe, who was spluttering with laughter.

"Ok, ok, I think he's cute, so what?" Tara said, a pinkish colour spreading across her face. "You're not one to talk, Phoebs," she accused. "You'd wouldn't say no to Sirius, would you?" she said. Phoebe shrugged and pulled on the heels she was never seen without.

"Maybe I wouldn't," she said. "But it's not like he's interested. Lily would be more his type. I bet he was wriggling like a bitch in heat when he saw you, Lils." Phoebe, Alyson and Tara laughed, bitchily, as Lily smiled, decorously.

"Anyway we'd better get going," Phoebe said. "It takes almost a half an hour to get to Hogsmeade and we don't want to be late now, do we?" Phoebe led the group, Lily trailing behind as the slipped behind a statue and made their way down a long, winding, muddy pathway. All four were gasping by the time they had reached the cellar of Honeydukes. By the time they had reached the shrieking shack (their, sort of, hang out) even more so. At the top of the hill was, Sirius, James, Remus, Peter and Shannon.

"Fashionable late again, eh, Phoebs?" Sirius asked, grinning wickedly.

"That's our story and we're sticking to it," Phoebe said, firmly. "So how are the Marauders?" she asked emphasizing Marauders, as gentle ribbing to the name of their group.

"Good," Sirius answered for the group, ignoring her good-natured teasing. It was only now he caught sight of Lily, leaning against the fence, tediously. "She's even better looking up close," he said, eyeing her up. Lily turned to face him, impassively.

"Why don't you keep you're perverted thoughts to yourself?" she asked. "As for undressing people with you're eyes, try to do it a little more subtly." She smiled sweetly at the flabbergasted young boy standing in front of her. Everyone burst into loud, disorderly laughter.

"I presume you've never been rejected before?" Lily said confidently. "Pity." She shrugged. "Maybe if you had you wouldn't be such an ass," she suggested, brazenly. Phoebe sniggered behind her. Sirius definitely needed that!

"Lily this is Remus Lupin," Tara introduced, dragging the lean, sandy haired boy over to Lily. He grinned at Lily, keeping his eyes on her face the whole time.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Remus," drawled Lily, lazily holding out her hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," Remus said, smiling hotly.

"This is Peter Pettigrew," Tara said, hurriedly shoving Remus out of the way, before he succumbed to Lily's charms. The smallish, slightly overweight boy rushed forward, his hard blue eyes, full of anxiety.

"Hi Peter," Lily said, feeling instantly sorry (although she didn't know why) for the boy. Shannon and James came from around the side of the shack, holding hands.

"Lily you're here!" Shannon said. "This is James Potter, my boyfriend." Lily and James looked at each other and something was passed between them. A bolt of electricity or something similar. James looked at the ground and the electricity was gone. Lily leaned forward, confidently.

"Lily Evans," she said in her own Southern drawl. "It's great to finally meet you." She shook his hand. "I've heard a lot about you."

"You too," James said, slipping his arm around Shannon's waist, casually. Lily grinned and winked at her younger cousin who beamed back.

"You'd swear they had never seen a girl before," Tara exclaimed, indigently, to Phobe, Alyson and Lily, when the whole introduction thing was over with.

"I know," Lily said. "Are all British boys like this?" she asked.

"Probably." Phoebe shrugged. "You're not a veela, are you?" Lily laughed and shrugged.

"Not completely. My great-great-great-great-great granny was a half veela but I don't see how I could have inherited it after a couple of centuries." All three shrugged.

"It's either that or you just have a hell of a load of sex appeal," commented Alyson. Lily pooh-poohed this proposal.

"You know boys. They see someone even remotely pretty their hormones start raging like an out-of-control forest fire." The girls laughed.

"So, Lily, what do you think of the boys?" Alyson asked.

"They're . . .interesting," Lily said, tittering a little. "No seriously though they seem ok. Sirius is a bit twisted maybe but I'd say he could be normal if he tried. Remus, I liked him. He was friendly and he looked at my face instead of my chest." The girls roared with laughter as Lily shrugged. "Peter he's well a bit shy or something. Weird? And James, well, he's mad about Shannon, which is the most important thing, but he seems nice."

"Nice?" Phoebe's scoffing voice came from inside her wardrobe where her head was buried in a huge pile of clothes. "James is a sex god! He always has been and he always will be."

"Phoebe!" rebuked Lily. "He's with Shannon."

"Unfortunately for the female population of Hogwarts." Phoebe sighed. "Found it!" she exclaimed, triumphantly, emerging the closet with a huge bar of milky chocolate gripped in her hand.

Phoebe, a certified chocoholic, had junk food stashed EVERYWHERE. It was quite possible to find a packet of something or the other in between all her school papers and homework.

"Do you really like James?" Lily asked her, seriously.

"Well duh, Lily. There isn't a girl in this school who doesn't fancy the pants off him," Phoebe retorted, opening the bar and offering it around.

"But . . ." Lily started before Tara interrupted.

"Lily, you really don't have to worry about it. Everyone has fancied James since, well, forever but no one's planning to take him off Shannon. And anyone who has tried hasn't succeeded. James is crazy for her. He'd never ever do anything to hurt her or make her feel bad. She's really lucky to have him."

"Is that the case?" Lily's eyes flashed dangerously. "I bet . . .wait what am I doing? She's my cousin and I love her." Lily took a deep breath. "Never mind," she said. "Sorry sometimes my competitive nature gets the best of me. I'm so used to doing whatever I want and not having anyone care about it."

"What were you gonna say?" Alyson asked, fascinated.

"I was gonna say that I bet I could make James fall for me by graduation." Lily shrugged. "It's a given thing. If we were in Texas people are used to that sort of thing. It's no biggie. If you have a boyfriend you've got to be ready to fight for him. In fact if it were anyone else I'd do it but the fact that she's my cousin and . . .well it's different."

"Interesting," Phoebe said, gulping down a couple of squares of her chocolate.

"That's a bit mean though," said Tara.

"I've never really thought about it," Lily said, taking a square of the chocolate Phoebe was offering her. "My motto was pretty much Take what you want!"

"And do you want James?" Alyson chipped in.

"Not really," Lily responded. "But he's a challenge and I love challenges. The best ever, I'd have to say was, splitting up Keith O Donnell and Caroline O Mahoney, voted "best couple" for three years in a row. Now they were madly, crazily in love. I mean totally head over heels. As it happened my best friend, Shauna, had an infatuation with Keith and another friend, Egan, had a thing for Caroline. Of course I, being the faithful friend, had to see to it that they got together. Best time I ever had." She snapped off another piece of the chocolate, grinning crazily as she, obviously, replayed the scene in her mind.

"Ok, now THAT'S mean!" Tara said.

"Maybe a bit," declared Alyson. Phoebe just made a slight face as if she didn't really think much of it.

"Nothing was said about it," revealed Lily, shrugging her shoulders, in a carefree matter. "Keith and Shauna went out for two months until Shauna decided she liked Keith's best friend, Billy. Egan and Caroline lasted quite a bit longer, if I recall correctly," Lily told them, scratching her forehead and furrowing her brow in thought. "About a year I think it was. Believe me Keith thanked me for breaking them up afterwards. And that was when I dated him," Lily announced, triumphantly.

"God I wish my love life was as interesting as that," groaned Phoebe, swallowing the last piece of chocolate. "The most exciting thing that's ever happened in that area of my life must have been, God I don't know, when Ian O Driscoll cheated on Marcia with me, I suppose," she expressed, whining slightly. "That was the biggest mistake of my life! Believe me having a bunch of raging Hufflepuffs trying to scratch you're eyes out every time you pass them is not the funnest thing ever!" She winced at the memory, while Alyson and Tara collapsed in spluttering giggles.

"Oh my God, Ally, remember when you were going out with Sam Morris?!" exclaimed Tara, gasping with laughter. Alyson groaned.

"Don't remind me!" she said. "I wasted two whole months on him!"

"Why what's wrong with Sam Morris?" inquired Lily, eagerly.

"What's wrong with him?" gulped Phoebe, tears of laughter streaming down her cheeks. "I think the question is what's right with him?" Herself and Tara broke down in laughter once again, this time to the extent that they were rolling on the ground, trying chronically not to wet themselves.

"He was a total psycho!" shrieked Tara. "He asked Ally to measure his, well, his y'know!" Lily, too, broke into cachinnation. Alyson moaned and sank her head into her arms, dejectedly.

"Look I fell for his image, ok?" she yelled, when the loud laughter got really out of control. The other three settled for sniggering slightly behind their hands. "He was, like, totally cool. Anyone would want someone like that as a boyfriend," she defined. "In fact as far as I can remember until he turned out to be a total lunatic the two of you were dead jealous that I was dating him and you weren't." She looked at the other two smugly. They both held up hands containing crossed fingers.

"I never liked him," they said in chorus, before bursting into another fit of uncontrollable giggles.

"You so did!" Alyson importuned.

"Maybe so," Phoebe accepted.

"But at least we never dated him," she and Tara both said, in harmony.