Lily sat in Transfiguration class next to Freya. It was the second week of term and the lessons were beginning to get tough in preparation for the NEWT's. Lily was trying her best to concentrate on what Professor McGonagal was saying but she was still trying to get her head round her feelings for James Potter. Had he really changed so much, had he grown up over the summer or was it just that she had gotten to know him better in the last week. She was watching him as he sat a few desks in front of her. He was busily scribbling down notes as Professor McGonagal spoke. His left hand absent-mindedly ran through his hair while he did so. Lily had noticed that James always took interest in Transfiguration, it was one of the few lessons he rarely messed about in. At least until he had finished the set work. He sat next to Sirius who was staring out of the window looking slightly bored. Annoyingly Lily knew that even though Sirius never seemed to pay attention in class he always got good grades. Lily noticed Sirius grinning out of the window and looked out to see what he was looking at. The History of Magic classroom was across from them and Lily could see Mundungus and Talitha pulling faces out of the window at Sirius. She let out a small giggle and Sirius turned round and grinned at her. He nudged James who looked out of the window at his cousin, smiled as he shook his head and returned to his note taking.

Lily tried hard to concentrate on the rest of the lesson but when Professor McGonagal set them a practical task, Lily found she had no idea how to do it. Freya explained it quickly to her before Professor McGonagal noticed but Lily promised herself that she wouldn't think about James again in lessons

"What's up with you?" Freya asked her "You've been walking round in a daze since the beginning of term"

"Nothing" Lily muttered, smiling as James transfigured a leaf into a quill at the first attempt.

At the end of the lesson, Professor McGonagal asked Lily and James to stay behind. They waited as the rest of the students left the classroom.

"Professor Dumbledore has suggested that we have an Autumn Equinox ball for the seventh years. As long as you two don't mind organising it. You can get some of the other prefects to help. It will be seventh years only, the students from the lower years may only attend if invited by a seventh year"

Lily and James smiled at each other. This was going to be so much fun. Professor McGonagal dismissed them, saying that there would be an announcement made at dinner that night.

As they walked down to the hall for lunch, Lily was already planning the ball in her mind. Decorations, music, refreshments there was a lot to do and they only had a few weeks. She hoped James would be willing to do his fair share.

"Lily" James said sounding slightly nervous "I don't suppose you would go to this ball with me?"

Lily's mind was racing. He had asked her to go to the ball and she knew she was his first choice because no body else knew about it yet. She desperately wanted to say yes but she had spent the last week trying to convince herself and her friends that she didn't fancy him. She then realised she must have been silent for too long as James started to speak again.

"Ok, if you don't want to it doesn't matter. I'll easily find someone else" he said sounding a little hurt.

"No, I mean, Yes, I will go with you. Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you to ask" Lily said smiling at him. He laughed.

"Yes you were. I've asked you out about 48 times over the last year. It was obvious I would ask you again. You just weren't expecting me to do it quite so quickly"

"Yeah ok, you're right" Lily laughed along with him "Looks like catching me unawares has worked in your favour though doesn't it"

They had reached the hall by now and Lily headed off to sit with her friends. She sat down and watched as James walked casually along the Gryffindor table with the biggest smile on his face.

James sat down next to Remus, the only one of his friends already at the table. Remus looked up from his book to see James grinning madly at him.

"What are you looking so pleased about?" Remus asked, with a smile "You haven't been hexing Snape again have you?"

"No, something much better than that" James grinned as he told Remus all about the forthcoming ball.

"So I jumped in at the deep end and asked Lily to go with me" James said

"She never said yes did she?" Remus asked in disbelief. James nodded.

"The Potter charm has finally paid off". Remus looked along the table at Lily and grinned.

Lily saw Remus looking at her and quickly turned away hoping that he hadn't seen her watching them.

"Oh no, what have I done" she groaned and laughed at the same time.

"Come on tell us" Charlotte prompted.

"There's going to be a seventh year Autumn Equinox ball and I've just gone and told Potter I would go with him"

"I knew you fancied him" Freya giggled

Lily spent the whole of lunch watching what was going on at James' end of the table. The next to arrive was Talitha.

"How boring was that lesson" Talitha stated to her friend Lauren as they entered the hall. "I could hardly keep my eyes open. You would think that History of Magic would be interesting but the way he teaches and his voice just drones on and on"

Lauren, a tall girl with honey blonde hair, laughed loudly

"I know and he doesn't even notice that we aren't listening. He never saw you and Dung messing about at the window"

"Are you sitting with us" Talitha asked as they reached the Gryffindor table

"Erm, oh no, Remus is there" Lauren replied as she looked to where the Marauders group usually sat

"He won't bite" Talitha laughed. 'Not this week anyway' she added to herself.

"No, it's just I get all embarrassed around him"

"You fancy him don't you?"

"Well he's really cute and funny and nice. You won't say anything will you" Lauren pleaded. Talitha shook her head

"So come and sit with us then" She grabbed Lauren's hand and almost dragged her down to the other end of the table. They sat down across from Remus and James. Talitha grinned at Remus and Lauren poked her under the table as a warning not to say anything.

"James asked Lily out again" Remus told them not noticing Talitha's grin.

"What did she say this time?" Talitha smiled at her cousin "Did she hex you again?"

"Actually she agreed" James said proudly.

"Really?" Talitha and Lauren both giggled. Although they were a bit more subtle than Remus had been and didn't look over at Lily.

"Yep, there's going to be a seventh year ball and Lily has agreed to be my partner"

"Seventh year ball, that's not fair" Lauren said

"If you can get a seventh year to invite you, you're allowed to go" James told them. Talitha smiled

"So you'll be going then" Lauren said to her as she spotted Sirius coming through the door.

"We'll just have to get someone to invite you as well won't we" Talitha said as she nudged Lauren and tried to point subtly at Remus by nodding her head at him. Remus must have noticed because he stared hard at his book and went a bit flushed in the face. Lauren blushed slightly as well as she glared at Talitha, willing her to keep quiet.

"Invite you where?" Sirius asked as he arrived behind them. Talitha explained about the ball.

"James'll take you won't he?" Sirius suggested as he sat down next to Talitha

"He's already going with Lily"

"And does Lily know about this" Sirius laughed

"Yes" James replied "I asked her earlier and she said yes. Why wont anyone believe me"

"Might have something to do with the last 48 times when she said no" Remus told him

"Hey Evans!" Sirius yelled across the hall "Good to see you came to your senses at last"

Lily's friends all started laughing and Lily smiled as she felt herself go red in the face.

~~~~~~~~~

The day of the ball came. It was a Saturday so there were no lessons during the day. Lily sat in the common room talking to Freya after lunch. She noticed a distinct lack of older Gryffindor girls about as they were all up in the dorms, washing and curling hair and such. All of the seventh years girls were going to the ball and the majority of the sixth years had managed to get themselves invited plus a few of the fifth years. Occasionally one of the girls would come out into the common room with hair curlers in or wet hair. James and his friends were no where in sight.

Eventually Freya suggested they also should start getting ready and they headed up to their dorm. It looked like someone had let off a wet start firework in there. Make up, hair products and clothes were strewn about the place. In the middle of all the mess sat Bethany and Charlotte trying to fix curlers into Charlottes brown hair. With a quick flick of her wand Lily had the place looking relatively normal again.

An hour or so later Lily had her hair and make up done, all she had to do was put on her dress robes. She had an hour before she had arranged to meet James and she didn't want to crease them so she had an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt on. She wandered out into the common room to see what was going on. It was almost empty as the younger students had gone down for an early dinner so the hall could be transformed for the ball. Lily was sititng reading a book when the portrait hole crashed open and a group of students came flying threw. Lily looked up, it was James and some of his friends, all wearing Quidditch robes.

"Look at the state of me" Talitha was yelling "and I've only got half an hour to get ready now". Talitha was also wearing her Quidditch robes and was covered in mud, including her hair. James, Sirius and Remus ran off to the boys dorms.

"What on earth happened to you?" Lily asked.

"We were having a throw about outside and we lost track of time and to top it off I fell of my broom into the mud"

"Come on I'll give you a hand, I've only got to get changed" Lily offered. They both headed up to Talitha's dorm. Lauren was already in there getting ready. The other two girls from the dorm were no where in sight. Lily assumed they hadn't been invited to the ball and were down at dinner. Talitha had a quick shower and got most of the mud out of her hair. Lily put a quick drying charm on it and helped her tie it up. Luckily a bit of mascara and a slick of lip gloss were all Talitha needed to make her look even prettier than usual. Lily and Lauren helped her into her silver dress robes and they all hurried into Lily's dorm so Lily could put on hers. Two minutes after they were all supposed to be meeting their dates and they were ready. They all started laughing with relief that Talitha had managed to get ready in time. Freya, Charlotte and Bethany had already left the dorm and had promised to meet Lily in the hall. The final three girls made their way into the common room. Every one else had left, just James, Sirius and Remus were waiting. Remus was blushing slightly as he walked over and took Lauren's arm. They both headed out of the common room. Lily and Talitha stood at the bottom of the stairs to the girls dorms. James and Sirius stood in the middle of the common room, mouths open, staring at them. Slowly smiles broke across their faces.

"Hey, Jim. I didn't know we were going to the ball with a couple of Slytherins" Sirius grinned. Lily laughed as she realised her emerald green robes and Talitha's silver ones were Slytherin colours. Talitha walked over to Sirius who kissed her and then put his arm around her

"See you down there, Prongs" Sirius said as they left.

"Well what do you think?" Lily asked, giving James a twirl.

"Amazing. That dress matches your eyes perfectly" he replied. As he kissed her on the cheek, Lily felt her whole body tingle.

They walked through the school holding hands and they were last to arrive in the hall. It had been decorated to an autumn theme, at Lily's suggestion. Lily and James joined the table that Remus and Lauren were sitting at. Lily's friends were sitting at the next table with their dates. There was a live band up on the stage which James had arranged. The music had already started and a few of the students were up dancing. Lily was partly surprised that the music sounded remarkably similar to the popular muggle music of the time. It seemed that Disco was the thing in the wizard world as well.

"Where's the other two?" James asked them.

"Look" Lauren said with a laugh. Sirius and Talitha were in the centre of the dance floor, a number of people were watching them. Lily laughed, she had never thought of Sirius being a good dancer. She would have thought of him standing at the side looking cool.

"Talitha taught him over the summer" James told her, laughing as well "You should have seen them the night we snuck out to a muggle nightclub"

Sirius and Talitha had seen them come in and danced their way over to the table.

"Come on Jim, come and show us your funky dance moves" Talitha said. Sirius pulled a small flask out of his pocket and took a quick drink before passing it to Talitha. Lily saw it but decided as long as they didn't get too drunk she wouldn't say anything. Talitha took a drink and passed it back. She grabbed James' arm and pulled him onto the dance floor.

"You as well Lily" Sirius said as he put his hand on her shoulder and guided her over to where James and Talitha now were. Lily tried to protest but it was no good

"I can't dance" she laughed

"Rubbish, you've just got to let yourself go" Sirius shouted over the music. Lily let herself relax and went along with the music. She was relieved to see that James wasn't a brilliant dancer either. It made her relax more. As the next song started Lauren and Remus joined them. Remus very reluctantly as he was a bit embarrassed although now a lot more students were on the dance floor he didn't feel quite as self conscious. A few sips from Sirius' flask helped as well.

After about half an hour of dancing, the girls returned to the table while the boys went to get some drinks. Lily noticed that her friends had also started dancing, although nowhere near as exuberantly as they had been.

"Merlin's beard, it's hot in here" Lauren said as she flopped into a chair.

Lily and Talitha sat down as well.

"So, how's it going with James?" Talitha asked Lily. Lily smiled

"He was so sweet on the way down here" she said "and I'm having so much fun. I would never have thought I would have enjoyed spending time with him but now…" she trailed off as the boys were getting closer.

"I think we're here with the three most wanted males" Lauren laughed as at least four girls stopped the marauders on their way back to try and get them to dance with them. The boys arrived back with six bottles of Butterbeer.

"Would you believe Snape's actually got a girl to come with him?" Sirius laughed

"Who?" Talitha replied

"Don't know her name, a fifth year Slytherin"

"Probably only so she could come then" Talitha said.

"She's really ugly as well" James added

"James, that's a horrible thing to say" Lauren said

"Well she is, you didn't see her" James laughed.

After finishing their drinks Sirius and Talitha went back to dancing.

"Do you fancy going for a walk" Lauren asked Remus "I could do with some fresh air"

"Yeah ok" Remus replied. They got up and wandered out into the grounds.

"You know I could do with some air as well" James suggested. He put his arm around Lily as they walked across the hall. They both laughed as they saw Talitha trying to get Hagrid to dance.

"She's mental" Lily laughed once they were outside

"Life and Soul of the party, that's Tali" James grinned. "It's a family trait. We Potters love to be the centre of attention"

"Yeah I had noticed"

~~~~~~~~~~

Remus and Lauren were walking in the grounds, holding hands. Remus couldn't believe his luck. Lauren was really pretty and he had liked her for a while now. And she had actually agreed to come to the ball with him and now they were out here alone, holding hands. They came to a stop and as the moment took over him Remus leaned in and kissed her. She responded and kissed him back. Suddenly, Lauren pulled away.

"What's wrong" Remus asked softly

"Did you hear that?" she said quietly

"No, what?" It was unusual for Remus not to hear something, he had exceptionally good hearing due to his animal nature.

"Listen"

Remus stood quietly until he heard it as well. He could hear someone shouting

"No leave her alone" the voice shouted.

"That was James" Remus said, sounding slightly worried "It came from over there" he added, pointing towards the forbidden forest.

~~~~~~~

James and Lily were standing at the edge of the forest chatting. They were looking over at the view of the lake. James had his arm around Lily's waist and she rested her head on his shoulder. They were both distracted and didn't hear a scuffling noise behind them. James heard someone speak and looked round just in time to see the red sparks of a stunning spell hit Lily and she fell to the ground.

"You're coming with us Potter" Lucius Malfoy told him. Rodolphus Lestrange stood next to him. James hadn't seen them since they left Hogwarts a few years before but he knew that they had joined the Dark Lord.

"Lord Voldemort will be pleased with us when we bring you to him" Lestrange added

"What does he want with me?" James asked

"You'll find out soon enough" Malfoy replied "I think we'll take the mudblood as well"

"No leave her alone" James yelled.

"Listen to that, Potter wants us to save his dirty mudblood girlfriend" Lestrange laughed as he took hold of Lily's arm. Malfoy grabbed James and the two death eaters crossed over the grounds with their prisoners

~~~~~~~

"What are we going to do?" Lauren asked nervously

"You go and get one of the professors" Remus told her as he pulled out his wand. Lauren ran as fast as she could back to the castle. Remus ran towards the forest.

Sirius and Talitha were outside the main door as Lauren got there.

"Lauren what's happened" Talitha asked

"We think James and Lily are in trouble" she said and told them what they had heard. Sirius and Talitha had their wands out before she had finished.

"Get Dumbledore" Sirius told her and they too ran off. They caught up with Remus who was standing at the edge of the forest

"Did you find anything?" Sirius asked.

"The whomping willow" he said quietly. "I didn't see who it was but I saw two people being dragged down the tunnel. They knew it was there and how it worked"

~~~~~~~~~

Malfoy fought with James all the way along the tunnel. He had been ordered not to stun him unless absolutely necessary. James was struggling and trying to kick or punch Malfoy. He could see Lestrange in front of him dragging Lily along. How had they known about the whomping willow and the tunnel? Some one must have told them.

They emerged in to the shrieking shack. Still holding onto their respective prisoner, Malfoy and Lestrange apperated. James felt himself jerk forward and his feet lifted from the ground. His body felt as if was spinning.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Right, let's go then" Sirius said and the three of them set off to the whomping willow. Remus found a stick and they managed to press the knot. They could have done with Peter to do this but they didn't know where he was and it would take to much time to find him. They all clambered down the hole and began running along the tunnel. They all had there wands out ready, unsure of what they were to find at the other end of the tunnel. Sirius climbed out first, they all looked round the room. Everything looked as normal. Remus ran upstairs but again nothing out of the ordinary. The door to outside was bolted from the inside so they knew no one had gone out that way.

"We better get back and tell Dumbledore" Remus suggested and they all climbed back into the tunnel.

"I'll go ahead" Sirius told them and he transformed into a big black dog and ran down the tunnel.

~~~~~~~~~~~

James landed with a thud on the floor as Malfoy pushed him down. He saw Lily still stunned lying near him. He looked up to find Voldemort standing over him. They were in what appeared to be an old disused warehouse. Behind Voldemort stood four more death eaters. Malfoy and Lestrange stood to one side.

"We have brought him to you Master" Malfoy said proudly.

"Quiet" Voldemort told him as he walked in a circle around James and Lily. He stopped once he was back in front of the death eaters. James looked him straight in the eye.

"What do you want me for?" He asked, sounding much braver than he felt.

"You are a powerful wizard Potter, I could use someone like you" Voldemort told him

"You want me to join you?" James couldn't help himself laughing.

"We could achieve great things together" Voldemort continued, seeming slightly uncomfortable that this young boy was laughing at the Dark Lord.

"Me? Why me" James replied.

"Surely you know who you are? Who your ancestor was?" Voldemort said. James stared at him blankly, having no idea what he was talking about.

"Two of the greatest wizard in history were Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin" Voldemort told James as if he was giving a history of magic lessons "I am the heir of Slytherin and so possess many of his powers. One thing I have always planned to do is to join forces with an heir of Gryffindor. This left me with four options. Four people that were ancestors of Godric Gryffindor. All members of your family. Unfortunately for her, Kate McKenzie, your aunt, was unwilling to co-operate with me"

"You killed her" James yelled.

"Not personally" Voldemort replied, before continuing "And it seems unlikely that your father will join me. So that leaves you and your half-blood cousin, making you the preferred choice"

"I'm the heir of Godric Gryffindor" James said in disbelieve.

"Together the two heirs can achieve great things"

"I will never join you" James yelled

"Crucio!" Voldemort yelled back. James thought he was going to die there and then as the intense pain hit him, In fact he would have been quite happy to die as that would have ended the pain.

"Maybe you need a little time to think about my proposition" Voldemort said as he turned away from James. Two of the Death Eaters walked over and pulled him to his feet. They dragged him towards a door.

"Put the mudblood with him. I'll deal with her later" Voldemort told them. James was thrown into a small side room. Lily was thrown in after him. James sat on the floor, his mind racing with what he had just heard. The only good part he could grasp from it was that Voldemort wanted him so it was unlikely he would be killed, at least not straight away. He had some time to play with. He was unsure about Lily though, he had a bad feeling Voldemort wouldn't be quite so tolerant with her. James pulled out his wand, glad he still had it with him, Voldemort wasn't as thorough about taking prisoners as he was thought to be. Likely, Malfoy and Lestrange would be in big trouble when Voldemort found out they had not disarmed James.

"Enervate" He said quietly, not sure if any one would be listening. Lily started to come round from the stunning spell. She looked around in confusion. The last thing she remembered was being in the Hogwarts grounds chatting to James. Now she was in a small, dark damp room.

"Sssshh" James said to her before she had chance to speak

"Where are we?" Lily whispered "What happened?" James explained what had happened since Lily as stunned.

"And you-know-who wants you to join him" She repeated once he had finished. James nodded.

"We've got to get out of here" James said trying to think of a plan.

"How did we get here?" Lily asked him.

"Malfoy and Lestrange apperated with us. It's possible to transport someone when apperating but not many people learn how to do it. Normally it's only Aurors who do it. My dad can" James explained.

"So it seems the death eaters can as well" Lily said.

"Hey, if they can apperate here then that means there's no anti-apperating charm activated" James said.

"And"

"Can you apperate?" James asked her.

"No, I'm not of age yet. I've been reading how to but I've never done it. Can you?"

"Well, I'm not of age either but I think I know how"

"But we aren't allowed and we could get it wrong and end up any where"

"Lily, anywhere would be better than here right now and I think if it's a choice between getting in trouble and what Voldemort has planned for us then, I'll take my chances on getting in trouble"

"Ok" Lily agreed "it's worth a try"

"Right, try and aim that field outside of the school ground. Nice big open space and there shouldn't be any people around. Less chance of hitting something" James said. "You go first"

Lily mustered up all of her energy and concentration and then disappeared with a loud crack. James smiled slightly. At least she was out of there away from Voldemort. He ran quickly through in his head what he had to do and then Crack.

He found himself in the middle of the field.

"Lily!" He shouted, no answer. "Lily"

Once he had come to the conclusion that Lily wasn't around he quickly headed towards the school, shouting Lily as he did so.

"LILY!" he called as he entered the school grounds

"JAMES! Is that you" Sirius yelled back. James looked round and saw his best friend running towards him from the direction of the whomping willow.

"What happened" Sirius asked "Remus said he heard you shouting and then saw you being dragged away"

"I've got to find Dumbledore" James said "I'll explain later. You've got to look for Lily. She should be around here somewhere"

"Ok mate" Sirius said as James ran off towards the castle.

James met Dumbledore and Lauren hurrying out of the castle. He explained everything quickly to him.

"We've got to find Lily" James said after he had finished the story. They all continued out into the grounds and were relieved when they saw Sirius, Remus and Talitha walking towards them with Lily, following behind.