November passed by without much incident, except for Dumbledore announcing that there would be a Yule Ball as Lily and her friends expected, and the few Quidditch games, between Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. They had an upcoming game of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

Lily was enjoying her fifth year, where as she expected, the lessons were harder and much more interesting, even in History o Magic, hence it was still boring, but she didn't find herself falling asleep as often as before. Charms was still her best subject, and was doing fairly well in her other classes. Quidditch practices were okay; Lily didn't care much for the game but for the flying.

James hadn't been attending the Prefect meetings every other Friday, and according to his friends, had no idea what went on during the meetings since he'd never been to one, but Lily, the smart girl she was, made sure not to miss any meeting and tried her best to come up with ideas. Her friends, new and old, were keeping her days filled with humor and stories that made her slide off hr chair from laughing so hard.

The Marauders were planning a big prank against the Slytherins, and they wanted Lily to help, since it involved some complicated charm work, at, they were doing a great job of annoying the Slytherins, and amusing the rest of the school, except Pringle. They were currently serving their forty- eight detention for fight Snape and Malfoy again.

Two days before the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game, during lunch before their Care of Magical Creatures class in which they were due to start learning about Jobberknolls, who weren't that dangerous, an important looking owl carrying an important looking letter flew through the doors of the Great Hall.

Everyone and everything went silent, for there was rarely any owls that arrived with a letter other than breakfast, and it usually carried a message of bad news, that someone else close in your family has been murdered by Lord Voldemort.

"I wonder who it's for.Hope it isn't me," Clara whispered to the pale Lily, who like all the other Muggleborns in the school, were frightened and motionless at the moment.

It circled the air a few times, looking for the receiver, and finally it landed, to a second-year in Hufflepuff. He looked horrified and everyone watched him open the envelope bearing two overlapping M's, the Ministry of Magic's sign.

"No!!" The young boy was given sympathetic looks as he gave a cry of anguish and ran from the Great Hall. Professor Sprout, his House's Head, went after him. Voldemort had struck again.

~*~

Their days went ahead and soon it was a week before the Yule Ball. Girls had been flocking up to James, Sirius and Remus and inviting them to the Ball. Each politely turned them down, well, as politely as you could expect from Sirius.

Lily still didn't have a date, though some guys had asked her out, including Severus Snape to Lily, she'd been teased mercilessly for a few days afterward. Clara had been fancied by a Ravenclaw, Ray Chang and Dana was invited by a Hufflepuff, Martin Flinch-Fletchely. (A/N: Is that how you spell Justin's last name? forgive the mistake if it is one then.)

Remus and Sirius weren't that happy with Clara and Dana's dates, considering they wanted themselves in Martin and Ray's positions. Sirius decided to go with a Ravenclaw, Marianne Cruz, that in his opinion, was a great snog but too much serious in studying (Dana had wrinkled her nose when Sirius announced this), not at all fitting for someone who had a reputation as Sirius. Remus was going with Clarissa Dunt, the Prefect from Hufflepuff (Clara wasn't that happy, either). Peter was going with Perpetua Drindone, the other Prefect from Slytherin.

There was to be another Hogsmeade visit soon, and Lily wanted to see what happened to the village after the attack.

"It's a wonderful day, nothing unpleasant has happened today! Quidditch is in five hours, I've been practicing my moves very well, I just passed Transfiguration with flying colors and Hogsmeade visit this weekened!" Sang out James, merrily after having a very easy time during a Transfiguration pop quiz, whilst most of his classmates were groaning about how they knew they failed it, the day of the Quidditch match.

Sirius heard James' comment, and was in a grumpy mood himself, conjured up some apple pie (a trick he made up, it was very useful to someone who had an appetite like him) and smashed it in James' face.

"Padfoot, you bastard! What was that?!" Yelled the now angry and pie-faced James, outraged.

The girls, Remus and Peter hadn't noticed this yet, still moaning about the quiz and lagging their lazy feet to the Greta Hall for lunch, but some Hufflepuff girls were shooting daggers at Sirius, whose mood was now lifted.

He grinned at them cheekily and ignored James. Remus was looking more tired than before, it was going to be a full moon tonight.

James suddenly remembered this and pulled the rest of the Marauders aside, giving the girls the excuse of going to the boy's restroom, as he also had to wash his face off. He dragged his friends to a corridor that was always abandoned and said, "Full moon tonight, eh boys? Well, the potion's nearly complete, we just have to add a little more lacewings to it and we'll be Animagi later. Think of all the fun we could have, Remus!"

Remus sighed contentedly, and said in a very grateful tone, "Thanks, you guys. You're the best friends I wished I had when I was a kid. Thanks for risking your lives for me."

Peter had some tears forming in his eyes, James was touched and Sirius, being Sirius, ruined the mood, again. "Aww, don't turn on the waterworks on us, Moony, old pal!"

Laughing, hearts much lighter than before, they went to eat lunch with the girls.

~*~

"Good afternoon, Hogwarts!!! Welcome to this season's fifth Quidditch match, Gryffindor against Ravenclaw!!" A sixth-year Gryffindor, Judd Patil was commentating. Professor McGonagall loomed closely, to watch and warn the very much biased Gryffindor. "It's a great day, with the blue shies, few fluffy clouds and our favorite team facing against Ravenclaw!"

Two doors on the ground burst open and Patil excitedly announced the Ravenclaw team. "And from Ravenclaw, Chang(Seeker), Santos(Keeper), Abela(Chaser), Boot(Beater), King(Beater), Andrews(Chaser) and Captain Alisa Hunter(Chaser) They only have two new players, Abela replacing his older brother for Chaser and King replacing our star Beater, Lance Valencia!!!"

One side of the pitch cheered madly for their house mates. "And from Gryffindor, we have Wood (Keeper), Dence(Seeker), O'Donnell(Chaser), Thomas(Beater), Evans(Chaser) and Captain James Potter(Chaser)!! This year, Lily Evans for Chaser, Patrick Wood for Keeper and Sean Thomas for Beater!! Lions rule!"

Professor McGonagall sighed, "Patil, judge fairly and don't be too biased or I will take that magnified phone from you personally."

"Aww, Prof. McGonagall, I was just expressing my support for my House," he yelled in the microphone. "And Madam Quince releases the balls, there goes the Quaffle, watch out, Bludgers and finally, the tiny golden Snitch! And they're off, potter of Gryffindor catches the Quaffle- nice, James- and passes it to- oh, no, Hunter of Ravenclaw intercepts it and gives it to Abela. Ooh, dropped the Quaffle as a Bludger nearly misses his chest, caught by Evans of Gryffindor, nice Bludger work there, Black, next time hit the target!"

"Patil, I'm warning you!" McGonagall eyed the excited boys warily.

"Sorry, Prof, McGonagall, no harm done, I presume, back to the game! Evans heading straight for the Ravenclaw goalposts, she moves to the left and quickly swerves to the right, and scores! Santos, didn't see that coming, did you? Better luck next time- O'Donnell has the Quaffle, ouch, Bludger there to her left arm sent by Boot and King. Nasty cheating bastar- oops, I meant gits really Professor. Anyway, Quaffle taken by Hunter again, passes to Andrews, to Abela, back to Andrews and to Hunter again and she shoots, she scores! 10-10 score!"

James hadn't been actively playing but now he was pumped up for the game. Weaving in through Hunter, King, Lily and Mantra, he stole the Quaffle right out of the unsuspecting Andrews' hands.

"Whoa, go James! Right out of your hands, Andrews!" Patil shouted out gleefully. Andrews, who had quite a short temper, flashed the rude finger at him, and luckily, McGonagall wasn't paying attention as she was fixing her hat, which almost got whisked away by the hurrying Bludger.

James took his chance of scoring and aimed at the middle goal, fooling Santos that he was about to shoot to the left.

"Great work their, Potter! Score is 20-10 to Gryffindor!"

The game continued for some fifteen minutes and sometime later, when the score was 70-50 Ravenclaw, Patil jumped up and swore so suddenly.

"Holy sh--! Damn! Isn't that the Golden Snitch?" He roared, pointing.

The crowd went deathly silent as the two teams' Seekers dove for a particular spot near a Hufflepuff stand. Nobody noticed the dark-cloaked man who had appeared and muttered an incantation to bewitch a Bludger.

Both Seekers were neck to neck and Summer was reaching out her hand but then, it suddenly disappeared.

The students gave a disappointed sigh and the players resumed their game.

"Too bad, and score is still 70-50 Ravenclaw, oh not anymore, O'Donnell scores. Now, 70-60 Ravenclaw. A Bludger seems to be following Evans, here."

The teachers present were frantically worrying, as Bludgers were only supposed to unseat as many players as they can, and not follow a particular person. Madame Quince had called time-out but no one saw her signals, they were too enthralled watching Lily try to avoid the Bludger.

Lily had never been more terrified than she was now in her whole entire life. The Bludger behind her was speeding fast, and she could hear its wheezing sounds. She flew to the right, to the left anywhere, except it wouldn't leave her alone. She flew behind a Gryffindor stand, and even that didn't stop the Bludger from trying to kill her, it went straight through the stands, causing the students on it to cry out in alarm.

"Lily! Watch out!" James yelled, he'd been keeping contact of Lily, flyin as close to her as the Bludger would allow.

Lily turned to him too late, the Bludger hit her straight in her head.