Author's Note:

Hey all! This is the Beginning of Year 3, where the action really starts! This year is going to be great! I hope you like it! Please read and review!

Love, Kristy

~*~ Year 3: A Discovery of Powers ~*~

~*~Chapter 1~*~

"Lily," said Mr. Evans while they were driving home from the train station. "You've been unusually quiet and are wearing a giant grin on your face. You're anxious about something, so spill the beans."

"Oh, I didn't realize I was being so obvious."

"Well...?"

"I wanted to wait until we were home to tell all of you, but...I GOT SENT UP TO THIRD YEAR!" She shrieked.

Mr. Evans swerved the car from her scream.

"Amazing Lily! We're so proud of you!" Her mother congratulated her.

"Well done, my flower! Great job! Rather remarkable actually...considering that just 3 months ago, you were close to failing. What happened?"

"James, Sirius, Remus, and I got into a stupid fight and it got really depressing. We didn't talk to eachother for a couple of months and our grades just...slipped a little. But then, as you know, I got really sick and went into the coma and James was reading to me when I woke up. We made up and our scores went through the roof. And can you believe that the four of us got the highest scores on our exams ever and the boys didn't even study! They're lucky they're natural geniouses."

"Did you study?"

Lily blushed. "Since January."

"Humph." Petunia rolled her eyes.

"Jealous, are we Tunia?" Lily taunted. "Too bad you don't just happen to be the smartest person to come to your school in hundreds of years."

Petunia stuck out her tongue childishly, knowing that she couldn't ever top Lily.

As soon as they got home, Lily ran up to her bedroom. Everytime she walked in it, she beamed with pride, for she had designed it herself. It was all different shades of yellow, her favorite color. Her bed was a queen-sized four poster with sheery, transparant lemon yellow satin material draped around the sides. The carpet was light yellow and the walls had white wall paper with little yellow liles. All the furniture was cherry wood.

Her room was definently her pride and joy and she hadn't been in it for a year! She cleared out a space on the bookshelf for Ignatius' cage and placed Viggo on the window sill.

"Lily! We'll be having supper in an hour and the Potters are coming over to eat with us, so make yourself look nice!"

"Yes, mother," she rolled her eyes. Her mum always had to make everything more formal than expected.

After unpacking and redressing, she picked up Gone With the Wind and flopped down on her bed to read.

A half an hour later, her father yelled up the stairs, "Lilian! James is here with some of his friends!"

"Thanks dad! Send them up!"

She could hear what sounded like a stampede coming up the stairs and Petunia shriek, "AHH! What are you freaks doing here? One weirdo is enough in this house!"

Lily chuckled. Her sister was the one weirdo.

"Hey Lils!"

"Hey guys! Come to inflict disaster on our household already? I've only been home for 30 minutes! I thought I just got rid of you three." She teased.

"Very funny Lily. But...we do need to do something about that sister of yours. She's very disrespectful to guests," Sirius said.

"I quite agree," said Lily. "Any ideas?"

"We'll work on it."

"If you can, do something to run her out of the house permantently."

"That drastic?" Remus laughed.

"You have NO idea what it's like to live with her!"

"I'll leave it to my imagination and not experience, if you don't mind."

They hung out in Lily's room until Mr. Evans called them down for dinner.

"Hello Minister Potter," Lily politely greeted James' father in the dining room.

"Hello Lily. James told me all about what happened to you this spring, but I see you are doing well and are as beautiful as ever."

She blushed. Mr. Potter had a way with complimentary words toward her, usually causing her to go a deep scarlet. "Thank you sir."

"Come now," Chloe Evans ushered everyone to their seats. "We can talk at the dinner table. Musn't let the food get cold."

Frank said grace and they all dug in...literally. Lily could see why James always ate like a wolf: his father was no different. They both had their plates piled up, along with Sirius and Remus, as if it were a feast. She glanced at her mum who was smiling happily, seeing that they clearly liked her cooking.



Their guests didn't clear out until midnight, for they were all buzzing with tales from Hogwarts, gossip from Chloe's new catering business, and good news from the new Potter and Evans Quality Quidditch Supply business firm in Diagon Alley. Lily was amazed at how her father's and Mr. Potter's business was booming. From what she could tell, it was rapidly becoming one of the largest and most popular money-making businesses around.

~~~~~~
"Wake up sweetheart," Chloe turned on Lily's closet light the next morning like she always used to do.

Lily glanced at her clock hext to her, which was decorated with stars and moons. "But it's only 7 o'clock! Just on the first day of the summer I'd like to sleep in until 9, if you don't mind."

Chloe chuckled and pulled the pillow off Lily's head. "Rise and shine sleepy head! You have company!"

"Mum...who in their right mind would visit me at 7 in the morning?"

"I'll give you one guess."

"Ugh...I should have known." She groaned, rolling out of bed. She put on a t-shirt and some slacks, thinking it was a good thing she had crazily decided to take a shower before going to bed at 1am.

"Hey Lily! Good morning!" The three of them said. "Welcome to the wonders of the waking world!"

"More like the horrors of the waking world." She threw her hair into a ponytail. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Thanks for making us sound so welcome," said Remus sarcastically. "But we thought we'd come invite you to play some football with us. We need another player."

Lily was immediately awake. "Yeah! Sure!"

"But we don't have a ball. James did, but we encountered a little sports-equipment mishap this morning involving dungbombs and destructive pebbles," Sirius explained.

She giggled. "I can only imagine. Well, we have a football somewhere out in our garage, unless Petunia fell on it and it blew up."

Her mother snorted as the boys began cracking up.

"Don't talk about your sister like that, Lilian." Mrs. Evans scolded half-heartedly.

"Sure mum. What do you think she says about me all the time? I'm not sure you can even call her my sister anyway. And another thing, please don't call me Lilian."

"I can call you whatever I want expecially when you're in ---"

"Bye mum!" She interrupted, not wanting her to finish, and pulled the boys out of the house and into the garage.

They eventually found a football, but not before marauding through every box, cabinet, bin, and crevice. It ended up being in the very back of the storage closet of their boat. After all, her parents didn't use it and it wasn't as if Petunia would do anything that consisted of work and the possibility of breaking a nail, so they didn't expect the ball to have been used for almost a year.

"Hey! Where are you off to?" Mr Evans said cheerily, ready to give their 40-foot Sea Ray speedbaot a good waxing.

"We're heading over to the football field. We'll be back around lunch."

"Hold on. There's something I need to tell you before you leave. Lily, remember how we promised that if you got your grades up, we'd take you to Disneyworld?"

"Yeah dad! Of course I do! Though, I just thought it was fraud blackmail or something. You mean we're actually going?" She shrieked.

"Yes, in fact. We're leaving tomorrow morning, and I bought 3 extra tickets."

"For who?" she asked. Surely her ancient grandparents weren't going...they probably couldn't even remember her...they were going senile.

"If their parents agree, James, Remus, and Sirius can tag along with us."

Their eyes lit up. "Are you serious!? YES!"

"Thank you Mr. Evans!"

He chuckled. "The pleasure's all mine," he bowed, jesting, and left.

"Why'd your dad bow to us?" asked James, quizzically.

"Oh, he's always playing around. He has a slight obsession with King Arthur and the medieval ages. He used to be a great swordsman when he was a teenager."

"Really!? Maybe he can teach me!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Naw, he's out of practice. Believe me, I've already asked."

They left, ball in hand, towards the park; they whole way, Lily told them all about her father's history in Renaissance Festivals winning awards for swordfighting and jousting. The boys were in awe. They had no idea that Mr. Evans was so cool. Before they knew it, they were on the field.

"Ok, we need to pick teams." Lily instructed. "Who wants to be my partner?"

"ME!" They all yelled, grabbing her arms.

"Woah...there's only one of me! And in that case, I'll pick...Remus."

"Remus!? Why would you want him?" James wondered outloud.

"Hey!" He was insulted.

"Remus is a really good football player! Better than you two probably."

"I resent that and am willing to make a wager on it," Sirius said.

"What kind of wager?" Lily didn't like the sound of this.

"If James and I score the first goal before you 2 do, they Remus, you have to kiss Lily."

"On the lips!" James added, making the situation juicier.

"No way!" Lily protested.

"And if we score before you?...which we will by the way." Remus asked.

"Ummm..."

"Then on September 1st, the first day back at school, you both have to get up in front of everyone in the Great Hall and flirt and swoon with Malfoy." Lily suggested.

"Yes! Great idea!" Remus agreed.

"You have got to be joking...that is far worse than kissing Lily."

"Hey! Excuse me! Does no one care how I feel right about now?! I don't WANT to be kissed by any of you either!" Lily argued.

"That's better than swooning over Malfoy...ugh. Sickening..."

"Then you had better make sure you score first, huh? Cause the game starts NOW!" She yelled, dropping the ball and dribbling it down the field.

People walking by stopped to watch the 2-on-2 game, which was more like a life or death game. Pretty soon, there were quite a few kids watching the match.

Neither team progressed very much; they were both so equal in skill. Lily used to be so much better than she is now, but after a year of not playing, she got a bit out of shape.

Lily'd get the ball, pass to Remus, then would be stolen by James who'd be caught off guard by Lily and lose it. It went on like this for 20 minutes, none of them willing to give up.

Lily was kicking it down the field, about to pass to Remus for the goal, and then all of a sudden, Sirius appears out of nowhere and steals it.

"Remus! Get the ball!"

"What!? I'm way down here! Go after him!"

"Argh!" She ran as fast as she could, but Sirius had a good 20 foot lead and easily scored a goal.

The onlookers cheered and booed as Remus sighed and Lily buried her face in her hands. This was going to be humiliating.

"YES! We won! Ok, time to have some fun...you two know what to do!" James tormented them way too enthusiastically.

"But in front of everyone!?" Lily wined.

"Yeah, now hurry up and do it."

"Alright, fine. But Remus, if you tell me afterwards that you enjoyed it, then I will have no choice but to hurt you."

"No sweat...I'll keep that in mind."

Lily closed her eyes and just as Remus was an inch from her lips, someone shouted.

"There you all are! I've been looking EVERYWHERE!"

"Hey Petunia!" Lily had never been so happy to see her sister before.

"Yeah, well, I really don't care to further know what you and this fellow freak of yours were about to do, but dad sent me to tell you all to come home. That they need to ask their parents if they can go to Florida too..." She sighed.

"You sound thrilled to be escourting us!" James said as a joke, noting her hate towards them.

"Oh yeah...excited beyond all comprehension that you'll be disgracing me with your foul presence..." she sneered and walked away.

"Oh don't worry...we'll make sure that us 'foul graces' will keep something special in store for you," Sirius muttered to her retreating back, convinced that she was going to pay for that last comment.

"Ok, I'm scared..." Lily said, terrified at what they were going to do; Disneyworld was a muggle place.

"We'll liven up the American experience for ya, Lils. Never is there a dull moment when we're around!"

She giggled. "That's what I'm afraid of!"

Upon arriving home, the boys all went back over to the Potter mansion to floo to the Black and Lupin homes to get vacation permission.

While they were gone, Lily sat on her bad, thinking of a way to not have to kiss Remus. He was one of her best friends, and she loved him dearly, but not in that way. She'd rather not include kissing as a part of their friendship.

After almost an hour of pondering, an idea finally occured to her.

Just then, she heard them coming up the stairs. "Lily! We're back! And guess what!" They ripped open her door, thankful that she didn't happen to be dressing. "We can go!"

"That great! But do you know that we're leaving tomorrow at 5 in the morning, right?"

"Of course!"

"Well, are you packed?"

"Ummm...no, we're not."

"Good! Then go home and pack! It's going to take me a while to get ready." She attempted to shove them out the door.

"Woah, hold on there. Before we leave," James grinned evilly. "You two need to finish your losing end of the bet."

"No! I'm not kissing her! She's...well...she's Lily!"

"Thanks for noticing," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "But anyway, James, we don't have to kiss."

"What do you mean you don't have to? You lost the bet."

"Maybe we didn't score the first goal, but there legally wasn't a bet to be lost."

"Legally???"

"We didn't shake on it! Therefore, the bet wasn't made final."

"That's not fair!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh yes it is!" She smiled triumphantly.

"James pal, always remind me in the future to shake when I make a bet."

"And remind me never to underestimate the sly mind of Lily Evans."

"The one and only!" She grinned. "Ok, now that we've cleared up the situation, OUT!" She pushed them and closed the door, adding "I'll see you at 4:30 tomorrow morning!"