Disclaimer:  I own nothing but the plot of this story.  Harry Potter, Lily, James, Sirius and Remus all belong to Joanne Rowling and Bloomsburry books.  Please don't sue.  I have no money

  Then he ordered James to stay with Lily and he turned to face Voldemort.  Five other Aurors apparated right behind him, ready to avenge Harold Potters death and each pulled out their wands.  Then they all advanced on Voldemort when Albus Dumbledore apparated in front of the Aurors.

Everyone seemed to let out a breath at that point.  Dumbledore motioned for Orion and the other Aurors to get Lily, James, Remus and Sirius to a safe house and to leave Voldemort to him.  Two of the Aurors stayed behind to help Dumbledore while Orion, Peter, Frank and Will picked up a separate Marauder and apparated.  Orion ended up with Lily and he extremely carefully took her from James unyielding arms and apparated before he knew what was happening.  This had to be done very delicately.

  Both Aurors apparated at the same time.  The one that was holding a distraught James and Orion both simultaneously apparated to the safe house which ended up being the shrieking shack in Hogsmeade.  Lily was placed in James arms once again but not before he growled angrily at Will and Orion.  Orion accepted it as keeping his friends and family very close.  But Lily was something else.  The boy could barely bare from having her leave his sight for a mere three seconds.  James moved to a cushioned lounge and sat down laying a still shivering Lily's head on his lap and laying the rest of her petite figure along the couch.  Sirius came and sat with them, pulling Lily's feet onto his lap, reading somewhere that muggles elevate the feet to get the blood flowing to the brain.  Then as James combed his fingers through Lily's blood red tangled hair, he felt his stress level begin to deflate.

  He looked up at Orion and carefully replaced his lap with a cushion and stood up.  Orion noticed that it took a lot of effort to get up off the couch where Lily lay and come over toward him but he did it.  Orion watched as James pulled his dark brown eyes off the carpeted floor and said aloud "I'm so very sorry Mr Black, so very sorry.  I knew that you were trying to protect her and myself, but she is my rock at the moment.  To loose her to anyone would kill me slowly and more agonisingly than anything else in the world.  She has been so sick for so long and to think that she still managed to help me when I needed it makes her so selfless and me so selfish to take her help.  I just want to take her home so that she can sleep properly."

  But Orion just shook his head wondering how James was going to take this.  "James, I am sorry to relay this but you can not go home for the remainder of the holidays.  Tomorrow morning the rest of the Aurors are going to apparate to your home to collect your and Lily's trunks, then Sirius's and Remus's and then they will bring them to Hogwarts.  Dumbledore is coming later tonight to take you there.  You will have everything worked out from there.  But don't give up hope.  Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards ever.  He can protect you and from the looks of your magid powers, you are most certainly capable of protecting both yourself and Lily. 

Now go back to your family and get some rest.  Dumbledore will be here shortly to collect you.

  James smiled at the word family and headed back to Lily and Sirius.  He shortly fell asleep with Lily's body pressed up against his own and his arm wrapped tightly around her midsection.  When James woke up he was in the Gryffindor common room.  He recognised his dormitory room straight away but the emptiness in his arms saddened him to the point of tears brimming his cheeks.  But when he opened the drapes on the four poster bed he was surprised to see another four poster bed beside his that hadn't been there last year.  He went to open it and was elatedly happy and surprised to find that Lily was lying there.

  He grinned before quietly creeping into the bed beside her and wrapping his once empty arms around her and falling asleep once again in the heavy drapery with red hair dancing in front of his heavy black eye lashes.  That was where Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall found them several hours later along with the other two marauders.  None of the small group had slept much in the past three weeks and knew that it was because of Lily.  They were all connected.  So, smiling Dumbledore left them to sleep until the school year started.  It was currently August the third so they had a while to wait.  The Marauders slept fitfully for almost three days straight.  Remus slept until the morning of August the fifth.  The staff table was having breakfast one morning when the doors to the great hall opened and a scruffy and tired Remus Lupin walked in and sat down at the Gryffindor table, completely unaware that there was no one else there.

  Professor McGonagall looked at Dumbledore sympathetically before rising and walking slowly toward him.  When she eventually arrived at the empty table, Remus looked up and in his eyes was the deepest sadness that Minvera had ever seen in a child.  This was what this spectacular group shared.  Their losses, their gains and their triumphs.

  Remus ended up eating at the staff table with the rest of the teachers that day but when both Sirius and Remus turned up to the Gryffindor table the next day, they were given their own table full of food.

  Then for the next three days onward, James and Lily still slept on.  They were checked up on by their best friends as well as their teachers and on the morning of the ninth of August Sirius and Remus were talking quietly amongst themselves about what they were going to do until the beginning of term when the doors opened quietly.  There stood the most beautiful sight.  James Potter and Lily Evans were standing side by side with smiles on their faces.  They walked into the great hall and sat down beside their friends.  McGonagall and Dumbledore turned to each other and smiled.  The world was a better place after all.  The second years turned out to enjoy their last month of summer at Hogwarts.  All four of them still managed to play pranks on the teachers, play lots of Quidditch and, to sum it up, make themselves known.

  The day came when the school term was due to start.  The four marauders had been wearing muggle clothes mainly while they were on holidays and now that the school term had started, they were dressed in their black uniform robes once more.  Not that any of them minded.  Lily stayed in the boys dorm which only consisted of James, Sirius, Remus and a second year boy named Peter Pettigrew who had followed them around a lot last year.  But this year he seemed to have known right from the beginning that it wasn't a good idea.  Lily was extremely terrified of him and never stayed in the dorm alone with him.  James thought it rather strange and promised himself to investigate, but was otherwise occupied with Sirius's pranks when a dance was announced on the third of September.  It was to all ages and it was fancy dress. 

James looked around at the other tables just to see what everyone else's expression was but found most of the boys staring at the girl that was pretty much sitting underneath his chin.  He met the stares of the boys angrily and they turned away like a toddler whose hand had been caught in the cookie jar.  But then he looked at the women who also seemed to be looking at Lily, but this time, in anger.   James turned his head back around to pay attention to Dumbledore while bringing his best friends head around with him.  They looked like boyfriend and girlfriend to anyone who might not know them, but to Sirius and Remus, this was just the way that James protected the woman he loved.  No matter how corny it looked, James had really outdone himself, Lily was surrounded by him here and anyone that might want to send an unforgivable her way like the impervious curse, would have to get through him first.

  She was completely protected, including the heavy winter cloak that was drawn tightly around her petite body.  James and Sirius had noticed her shivering slightly the past couple of days, especially in Sutton's dungeons for potions, so the cloak went around her almost all of the time.  Lily had given up trying to argue with the two of them.  When all three were together it was utterly impossible to talk them into letting her do anything.  But when she was with Remus alone, he let her do small things like walk outside once in a while, sometimes touch the snow, take off her winter cloak when she was right in front of the fire and really toasty warm, but she was never left without a marauder escort.

  Many boys had asked to talk to her alone, obviously to ask her to the dance, but James and Sirius would have none of it.  They knew what was going on, they were boys too, but unfortunately, they weren't known as the smartest second years going through Hogwarts for the last 104 years for nothing.  The three boys had devised a plan that embarrassed the boy that asked her and hopefully seriously dashed other ideas that other boys might have to ask her to the dance.  She knew that she had no hope.

  The three marauders were standing right outside Potions and Lily a bit behind them talking to Bella when Colin Hammersmith came up to her.  Bella and Lily smiled and greeted the boy and when he looked up at her and blushed, Lily knew there was trouble afoot.  Sure enough, James, Sirius and Remus were looking behind them and beginning to move.  She motioned for them to stay there, pleaded even, but they shook their heads, mock sadly and moved to flank Lily.  Colin tried to say what he wanted to but James beat him to it.  Colin wasn't really known for his bravery, being in Hufflepuff and all but he surprised James.  James spoke "Colin, Sirius and myself are quite aware of what you're going to ask our surrogate sister, and as her surrogate brothers, it is our responsibility to remind you that she lives in the same dorm as us, eats with us, lives with me and trusts me.

  I hate break something to you that Lily doesn't want to do to anyone, but we aren't letting anyone take her to the ball.  She's coming with us, whether she likes it or not." 

This was what Colin said that shocked James "But James, you have to realise, that as her older brother, sometimes you have to let her go.  She is her own person you know.  So how 'bout letting her make her own decisions hey?"  Lily beamed at the third year's courage but James and Sirius were not to be beaten so easily.  Sirius replied with "Okay then Colin, when you spend three weeks at her bedside watching her tear her own palms open when she sees her death over and over again in her sleep, then we'll allow you or anyone else in this school to date her, but until that point and let this be known to everyone, she is not dateable.  Not to anyone."

  Lily looked down in shame.  She knew that this was coming.  Then she felt two sets of arms lock themselves around her waist and she was led into the potions room.  Sirius and James glared angry glares at any boy game enough to look their way during the lesson, even Professor Sutton received several evil glares from James, Sirius and Remus and Lily knew that one day someone would stand up to them.  And they too would be pulled down to earth, until it was someone that Sirius and James approved of.