A/n; I'm debating with myself whether or not to write out the entire first year and skip to third year or just write the years out step-by-step. It's so hard! Happy Reading! P.S. – Elijah Wood is hot :-D

Sorry to my beta reader and to the fans for a) the wait and b) The Elijah Wood reference! * cackles *

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Before Lily could believe it, the first year at Hogwarts was over. She and her other roommates were packing their things into trunks the night before they all had to board the Hogwarts Express and go home. For her, it meant facing problems that had gradually grown over the past few years. Not least of these was the "breaking out of her house in the middle of the night and sneaking out only to fly to Kings Cross with Danny" fiasco.

"Lily! Are you paying attention?" Arabella hollered across the room. Lily snapped out of her depressed thoughts and tossed a few more rolls of socks into her trunk.

"I'm listening, honestly. What were you saying?" Lily asked, ready to tune her out again.

"Are you going to James' house over the summer at all? I'm sure he'd be ecstatic if you did," Arabella said with an exaggerated wink.

Lily rolled her eyes. Secretly she'd enjoy it more than she could express if James invited her over for the summer. Lily imagined her stretched out on a lawn chair with Sirius and James and Arabella sipping lemonades then swimming until the sun went down. After that, right before they went to bed, Lily and James would-

"LILY! ARE YOU PAYING ANY ATTENTION, GIRL?" Arabella yelled again. Irritated that her daydream had ended abruptly Lily threw a pillow at Arabella.

"I'm listening! I'm just really distracted!" she snapped and threw her Muggle clothes into the trunk.

"About what?" Arabella, suddenly interested, asked.

"Are you talking about going to James' house this summer? I hope I get to go!" Misty said excitedly, barging into the room on her own usual bad timing.

Lily smiled guiltily. "I hope so, too."

"Where's Sabby?" Lily asked, remembering Sabrina's detested nickname.

"Saying goodbye to all of the fifth year Ravenclaw boys, no doubt," Misty said dryly. She picked nonchalantly at her nail polish and cast a bitter look at the other two.   

Lily directed a weary sidelong glance towards Arabella, who shrugged and tossed three packs of mint chewing gum into her purse.

"Oh shoot! I forgot I lent James my Remembrall for when he packed! I should get that back…" Lily said, snapping her fingers. "Be back in a minute!" she called over her shoulder before sauntering out the door.

She slid down the staircase (one of the many mannerisms frowned upon in the Gryffindor House) and ran up to the boy's dorm room.

"James! Are you in there?" she asked urgently.

She heard the shuffling of feet and a few seconds later James poked his head around the door. "Lily? What are you doing here?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I need my Remembrall back. I'm afraid I'll forget something."

James grinned and tossed it into her hands. "Already knew you'd be coming for it. I've finished packing already, how about you?"

Lily's jaw dropped in shock. "You-you finished something early?"

"Really now! That's not fair… I just want to get out of here and go home and play Quidditch all day," James said, sounding offended.

"I didn't mean it like that! I just meant… wow, you finished something early instead of procrastinating," Lily said defensively.

"I know what you mean Lils." James smiled and ruffled her hair. She scowled and tried to flatten it before punching him lightly in the shoulder.

"So – what are you doing for the summer?" James continued talking slowly and carefully as though he'd planned this situation to come up.

Lily stopped smiling slightly as his question caught her off guard. "Nothing, actually. Although I don't intend to spend the summer with my dreadful family. So if you're inviting me to spend some of that dreadful family time with you I'd be most obliged to say yes."

It was James's turn to be speechless. "You knew I was going to ask you that, didn't you? Has Arabella got spies everywhere?"

Lily shrugged. "Friends invite friends over to their houses. I guess I felt we were on friendly terms."

James chuckled. "So is that a yes?"

Lily nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yes! I'd love to!" and with a little nod of her head and a half-smile she turned and went back downstairs to the girl's dorm.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"So long, Hogwarts! Goodbye to tacky uniforms and hello to babes in bikinis!" Sirius yelled out the window. Professor McGonagall, who had stood at the platform to see all the students off, gave him a stern look. Sirius gulped and stuck his head back into the train.

Sabrina and Misty couldn't be found anywhere on the busy train so Remus guessed they were probably hanging out with some of the drug addicted hippies that were at Hogwarts.

"Remus that's an awful thing to say!" Lily chided him.

"What? It's true!" Remus exclaimed.

"Who's betting Sabrina gets kicked out by our fourth year?" Arabella chimed in over the top of her Teen Witch magazine.

Lily turned around in her seat. "Not you too! Look, she might be a bit of a…-"

"Slut?"

"Hooker?"

"Bitch?" 

"Look, she's my friend, ok? And she's one of the only friends I've ever had! So if you're going to completely cuss her out please don't do it while I'm around," Lily said hotly. She slouched way back into her seat and crossed her arms.

"So anyway, who's going to James' house?" Sirius asked happily, in the brainless manner he often had. He stretched across the seat Arabella was sitting on with his feet on her lap. With a disgruntled sigh and a roll of her eyes she shoved Sirius off and he landed in a heap on the floor.

"I am! I am! Ooh Siri pick me!" Lily said in an annoying voice.

"You are, are you? Have I mentioned-" Sirius started but was distracted by the sudden telltale swooshing sound of the opening of the compartment door.

James entered along with two other boys: Troy McFadden and Greg Davis, two of the most sought-after boys at Hogwarts. Troy was the captain of the Ravenclaw team and in his fifth year at Hogwarts and Greg was the Seeker of the Gryffindor team, also in his fifth year. Troy was your average golden boy: cropped blonde hair (A/N: think Elijah Wood in Flipper but with blonde hair and abs * laughs *) and intense hazel eyes. Greg was a bit shorter than Troy but still had the same athletic build with near-shaved brown hair and watery blue eyes. Lily had seen Sabrina and Misty hang out with them while the rest of the group packed together at Quidditch games.

"Oh, hey you guys! I didn't realize you were in here…" James trailed off. He looked at Troy and Greg uneasily and all they did was shrug and turn to leave.

"Where you guys going? There's room in this compartment!" Sirius said loudly and awkwardly.

All Lily could do was gaze from Troy to Greg. She couldn't believe James was hanging out with them. Why would they be hanging around with a lowly first year?

"O-oh, ok Siri. Thanks," James said shiftily and sat down next to him.

"James, you going to introduce us to your friends or what?" Troy asked grinning. Lily could feel her heart beating faster as his deep gaze trailed to her.

"Yeah, don't leave us hanging dude!" Greg said lightheartedly.

"Greg, Troy, these are my friends: Lily, Sirius, Remus and Arabella," James said nodding to each one of them.

"Lily? That's a pretty name," Troy said smiling warmly in her direction. Lily felt her eyes glazing over as she melted like butter on a hot day. She was surprised her body was still intact, instead of a puddle on the floor.

"She says thank you. Her eyes glazing over means she's thinking," Sirius said after a few awkward seconds and waving his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of it and grabbed his wrist, pulling his hand out of her face.

"So what brings you guys to the slums of the Hogwarts Express?" Remus piped up.

"Slums? The back of the train is always where the girls are!" Greg replied, slightly confused.

"Right. We were just wondering… what you were doing with James…" Sirius trailed off, hoping he hadn't said the wrong thing, as he'd been famous for doing that.

"James is our pal, man! Our future Seeker!" Troy said enthusiastically.

"Future Seeker? Really? Have you seen him on a broom?" Sirius cried incredulously.

Arabella punched him in the arm to keep him from saying the wrong thing.

"Yeah, he's amazing isn't he?" Greg asked.

Lily exchanged looks with Remus and Arabella.

"Well we think he's brilliant. He's going to the pros, I'll bet you," Troy said confidently.

"We're spending the summer with him," Lily's heart sank suddenly. She wasn't spending the summer with James and her friends? "We're going to help him train for next year. The both of us want to see him on a Quidditch team."

"James…? A word, if you please," Sirius said his face turning rather red. Lily guessed it meant trouble and decided to keep her mouth shut.

"Sure Sirius. What about?" James asked perfectly naturally. If he was uneasy about the circumstances he didn't show it.

"Excuse me, I have to go discuss something with my colleague." Sirius said stiffly and yanked James out the compartment by his collar.

"You're spending the summer with James?" Arabella said softly, her brown eyes big and questioning.

"Yeah, how come?" Greg asked.

"… Well, we are too. James never mentioned anything about two of Hogwarts' most prestigious Quidditch players coming to reside with us," Arabella cooed. Lily had to refrain from blanching. Going about flattering people with an ooey-gooey voice sickened her almost as much as her family.

Greg and Troy's chests both seemed to swell with pride.

"Thank you… Miss-?" Greg asked questioning Arabella to finish the sentence.

"Figg. Arabella Figg. But you can just call me Bella, everyone else does," Arabella said, batting her eyelashes suggestively.

And if there was another thing Lily couldn't stand, it was being overly sweet.

"Is Lily staying too?" Greg asked turning his gaze to her.

"Of course, you twit!" Arabella snapped, trying to get his attention back on her.

Greg looked startled. Arabella quickly regained her composure, smiled sweetly and the checked her tone. "I mean, of course she is… honey!"

Lily felt the impulse to run and barf. Instead she smiled at the two boys.

Just then, Sirius and James came back. Sirius looked oddly satisfied, as though he'd used his childhood friend for a punching bag. James on the other hand looked quite disgruntled and his glasses were at an odd angle.

"If you guys wouldn't mind… we'd like to be alone for a little bit. As you can see, my friends haven't quite gotten it all together yet," James said uncomfortably. Sirius pressed his foot on James', causing James' face to turn red and for him to bite his lip extremely hard.

"Yeah, so if you wouldn't mind getting your butts out of our compartment we'll be sure to catch up to you when the train stops," Sirius said sounding forceful.

Troy and Greg exchanged looks but got up and slinked out of the compartment. As soon as the door shut Sirius, Arabella and Lily all tackled James.

"YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU INVITE THEM OVER WITHOUT TELLING US?" Sirius hollered, trying to take a swing at James.

"I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST US! TROY'S BEEN GIVING ME WEIRD LOOKS!" Lily yelled as well.

"GREG IS SO HOT! GOD, THANK YOU JAMES!" Arabella said hugging James tightly.

Remus stood surveying the scene. Sirius and Lily both had their hands wrapped around James' neck and Arabella was yelling praises while hugging him. He whistled through his teeth, calling for silence.

"Ok, as much as I'd love to see James hang right now we can't act like Neanderthals," Remus said with an amused sparkle in his eye.

"And why the hell not, Remus?" Sirius asked not releasing his grip on James.

"Because… we just can't. That's why!" Remus said.

"Well we should at least give him the cold shoulder for not telling us Mr. Popular 1 and Mr. Popular 2 were going to be spending the summer with us!" Lily said still seething.

"I'm sorry," choked James, "but I thought you guys would be happy and as the phrase goes 'the more the merrier!'"

"And there's another saying called… um… 'Thou shalt not…lie to thou… friends! Yeah, that's it," Sirius said defiantly.

Lily, Arabella and Remus all looked at him.

Sirius smiled wolfishly. "Isn't someone going to agree with me?"

A resounding 'no' echoed in the compartment.

Sirius looked very put out and Lily slowly loosened her grip on James, for Sirius had ruined the moment of strangling someone.

"So what're we going to do now?" Arabella asked quietly, getting out her latest Witch Weekly.

"Ask dear James," Remus said.

"I honestly didn't know it would be that big of a deal! I thought maybe Lily and Arabella would amuse themselves with Troy and Greg we could play Quidditch and stuff," James exclaimed.

Lily immediately stood up in anger. "You're just trying to get rid of us! How dare you! I thought we were friends!"

"You, James Potter, are an insensitive little brat!" Arabella said and stormed out of the compartment with Lily.

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A/N: Uh-oh. Trouble's starting and summer hasn't even started yet. Again, sorry about the delayed chapter!