A/N:  My first Hate/Love fic.  Hope you enjoy it!  Please review!

Disclaimer:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

*LOVE'S LAST BATTLE*

~Chapter 1~

Lily walked furiously through the corridors. Frustration flooded her mind as the day's activities kept arising one after the other as if for no better purpose then to annoy her.  This was her fifth year at Hogwarts and James Potter, her worst enemy, had done nothing but make those years miserable. Today was no exception.

As she rushed down the halls, Lily thought back on her encounter with James earlier that morning. As usual, his three stubborn friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, accompanied him. These four had a big reputation for getting into trouble.  To themselves they were amused by their own actions, but to the school of Hogwarts, they were no better then that of a ferocious tornado.  Where ever these four went trouble always followed. Lily stopped abruptly in front of the pack as James swiftly jumped in front of her.  He grinned mischievously at her.

"What do you want?" asked Lily.

"Hello to you too," said James, "I don't want anything.  Just on my way to the Great Hall, that's all.  But now that you mention it, I was hoping to talk to a little porky fire ant I know."

"Oh so in other words you wanted a one on one conversation with yourself, is that it?" asked Lily unamused by his innocent tone of voice.

He looked at her with a hurtful expression. 

"Hey now that's no way to talk to your fellow classmates!"

"Yes well I wouldn't consider you a classmate.  You're more of annoying fly that won't go away.  So why don't you leave me alone and go to the Great hall to retrieve your bib.  Try not to lose it again or you might make somebody gag when they watch you eat like a slob.  I think I saw the little yellow ducky bib in the lost and found." 

Quiet laughter arose from people passing in the halls.

"Shut up," said James as his face contorted with fury.

Lily tried to push past them, but James grabbed her arm tightly and swung her around. Lily's books and papers flew from her grasp and landed loudly on the stone floor.  Adrenaline rushed through her veins and she was barely aware of the fact that her fist rose with lightining speed and collided painfully with James.  She took a deep breath and jumped back away from him as he fell to the floor, his arms splayed out before him.  Lily watched as he lay there for several seconds recovering from the shock of the hit and then he quickly got to his feet. He shot her a venomous look and then turned to look at his all too quiet friends behind him. 

Sirius put his hand up over his mouth to stop from laughing but as soon as James turned around he could hold it no longer.  Loud laughter poured from him and it quickly became contagious as the rest of James's friends began to laugh as well. 

"Oh and it looks as if the scruffy dog loses the battle to the victorious and deadly punch of the cats claw," said Remus in between hiccups of laughter.

Peter doubled over with laughter and fell to his knees laughing uncontrollably. 

A small smile curled around Lily's lips and the sharp pain from her hand was slowly lessening to a dull throb.

"James, dear, you may want to watch who you make enemies with.  Not all of us girls are like the weak and pitiful ones you date," said Lily with amusement.

James's dark eyes sharpened and pure resounding hatred flowed to his features.

"You…you mud blood!"

The laughter ceased, and dead silence echoed off the walls.  People walking by stopped in their tracks and looked sternly at James.  Anger rushed into Lily and she let go of any mental restraint that she had as she leapt for James's throat. 

Suddenly Lily was caught in mid air by two strong arms and her sharp nails swiped dangerously close to James's face as he speeded backwards, pummeling into his friends to avoid her anger.  Hagrid continued to hold tightly to Lily as she tried to struggle free.

"LET ME GO HAGRID!! I NEED TO KILL HIM!!"

"What's goin' on here," asked Hagrid as he cautiously released Lily from his grip.

"Why don't you ask James," replied Lily hatefully as she dropped to the floor to collect her scattered books and papers.

"Well?" asked Hagrid looking directly at James's guilty face.

"What are you looking at me for?" asked James innocently. "She is the one who punched me."

Lily stood up, and eyed James with wild green eyes, and then stomped off towards the library.

"Ye see what ye done!" said Hagrid as he ran off down the hall towards Lily.

"Whoa, talk about aggressive women!" said Peter as his laughter finally subsided.

"Yeah, you aren't kidding. Looks like you have got your work cut out for you James.  But personally if it were me, I wouldn't go near her again.  Geez if Hagrid hadn't been there just now she might have chocked the living daylights out of you.  Although it's not like you don't deserve it.  What the heck was going through your head, James?  You disappoint me.  We never insult people like that!" said Sirius and then as an after thought, "Mr. Grumpy, I think you need a time out."

James looked at Sirius and gave a harsh laugh. This was war and Lily Evans was going down.

Lily continued to walk furiously down the hallway. Her vibrant red hair flew back and her papers fluttered, as she hurried toward the library hoping to escape all sight of James Potter.

'How could he be so inconsiderate,' Lily thought to herself. 'But then again he has always been like this.'

She shook her head in frustration, and tried to erase all the unwanted thoughts floating about in her head. After several minutes of fierce walking, she finally made it to her destination. She plopped down in the closest library chairs and began to pull assignments from her books. Lily's eyes clouded but she bravely held back her tears.  She opened one of her books and started to read the first line when suddenly Hagrid came bustling into the room. 

"Lily, what's the matter with ya?"

"What do you mean?" asked Lily quietly.

"What do I mean? Lily ye nearly knocked James Potter unconscious!"

"Don't get your self in a jumble," said Lily calmly.

Hagrid began to lose his temper at her remark.

"Lily, ye could have been expelled if ye had really hurt him!  Now I know that I don't always know whats going on with the students during school Lily with me being the gamekeeper and all, but please try to restrain yourself!"

Madame Pince, The librarian, whispered loudly "Shhh…!!!"

"Hagrid lets go outside, okay" said Lily. "I don't want to get kicked out of the library.  I have too many things to do."

Hagrid sighed with dismay and then nodded.

He followed her outside into the hall, and Hagrid immediately began to pace back and fourth. He opened his mouth to say something to Lily when James and his friends walked over.

"Next time Lily, maybe you should try fighting me without a babysitter!" said James smugly. 

Lily starred at him for two minutes and James began to squirm in her sight as her bright green eyes appeared to be burning a hole right throw his very image. 

"I can fight my own battles unlike you," replied Lily and then pointed to his three friends that cowered behind him for fear that her wrath might fall onto them.

Lily took a step closer to James until his face was inches from her own, and everyone knew trouble was brewing.

"Would you like to see?" Lily asked James quietly.

James was about to respond but abruptly a thought jumped into his head and he had an overpowering urge to pull her close and kiss her.  He quickly shook his head of such a horrifying thing and began to feel sick. 

Hagrid moved forward, ready to grab Lily if something bad happened. James looked uncertainly into Lily's eyes, and saw that she was sincere to her word. Wanting to avoid another knock out he took a step back towards his friends hoping both to avoid a fight and be free from the terrible spell of thoughts. Sirius looked uncertainly at James and gave him a questioning look. Lily sensed something was wrong, and looked about cautiously. She spotted Peter and Remus reach slowly for their wands, from the corner of her eye.

"You know what," said Lily smugly. "I'm not about to get down to your stupidity level and fight you, Potter, so get out of my way!"

With that Lily walked straight through James and Sirius, while Hagrid followed closely behind. James quickly turned around just in time to see Lily sit down at a table. Something small and shiny fell from her neck and onto the floor beside her. Inspiration struck James and he immediately formulated a plan to retrieve the object. Sirius, Remus, and Peter had already started to walk away but James stopped them.

"Wait a second guys."

"What are you doing? Are you crazy?" asked Peter, as James walked towards Lily.

"Be quite, and follow my lead."

The four silently crept into the library. James slowly approached Lily's seat, when Hagrid turned around and spotted him.

"What are ya doing?" asked Hagrid.

"I need a book for class," James replied swiftly, and his friends nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well go look somewhere else.  I think you've cause enough trouble for today."

Hagrid turned back to Lily and without thinking James bent down next to Lily and snatched up a shiny locket. Lily felt his presence and automatically looked up just in time to see James holding something small and gold.

 "Oh no," she groaned as she reached up to her neck where the locket had originally been.

"My locket!"

James ran for the hall and Lily stood up and racked her brain for a spell to use. Finally it came to her and her hand went flying into her pocket pulling out her wand.

"Erisedante!"

James flew up in the air still clutching the locket, and then he began to spin, slowly at first and then faster and faster until the James could see nothing but a blur of color. He spun so many times Lily thought she would get sick if she looked any longer. Abruptly James stopped spinning and was flung against the library wall, causing the shelves to rattle and several large books to land with a heavy thud on the floor. He landed in a heap and then disappeared.

"Lily what…what happened?" asked Hagrid, shock clearly evident in his voice.

"Don't worry about it Hagrid, James needed a time out and I gave him one."

Lily bent down into her backpack and pulled out a small glass jar. She walked over to where James had been and scooped something tiny into the jar. Remus, Peter, and Sirius stood with their mouths hanging open, and Lily let out a small laugh. She put the lid back on the jar and then knelt down onto her knees and picked up her locket from underneath a dusty book.

Lily smiled maliciously at the three remaining marauders.

"There is nothing better then good old fashioned fun."