Disclaimer: I own nothing…

A/N: Well, here's the better fic I promised… This is a story about Lily and James and all their friends… I hope you like it! By the way, for those of you who were disappointed that my last Lily/James fic only went until the end of Hogwarts, this one will go… all the way til death… By the way, I still need a beta reader, just email me a Cajun_Rogue@Hotmail.com

A/N 2: This story is currently being re-written and I won't be updating until I'm done… When I am done, the chapters will be much more descriptive and all that other stuff… When I'm done, I'll prob move on to *The Line…* etc…

Important: I know that the beginning and the character descriptions seem a bit boring, but the reason they're there is because of the prophecy. If you don't want to read them, just skip to the actual story part… Just, please, don't be turned off from the story by the prologue because the actual story is much better…

Prologue

One shady night on January 1, 1960, a little known prophecy was made that bound six magical individuals together for all time. No one knows for sure what the prophecy said, except for the person who heard it, but they refuse to speak of it. All that is known is that when the six individuals are grown, evil would consume the lives of all of them. Through this evil, they would all become the downfall of one another. But, before the individuals could fulfill their destiny, they had to be teenagers.

The first individual was James Potter, a pureblooded Gryffindor wizard of a prominent family. He was of medium height and medium build with a narrow face. He had hazel eyes and unruly black hair the refused to lay down in the back. He was brilliant in the subject matter of Transfiguration and was quite smart in other subjects.  James was the second most popular boy in school. Girls wanted to get to know him because he had a charming quality. Everyone loved him for he was the perfect combination of funny, serious, outgoing and shy. He hated disappointing people and could be quite self depreciative. He was the quidditch team captain by sixth year and was the team's seeker. He was an unregistered Animagi, he could transform at will into a beautiful stag. He was one fourth of the Marauders, a rule breaking group at Hogwarts. Another important fact about James was that from the moment he met Lily Evans, he was in love with her. Despite the fact that she despised him, he still loved her. He also had the great misfortune of making a fool of himself everytime he was in her presence. He would trip, faint, choke, and make a fool of himself in every way known to man when in her presence. Little did he know, he need not even bother trying to impress her seeing as how it was written in fate that they fall in love.

The second individual was Lily Evans, a short, slender and curvy girl with a creamy complexion, shoulder length bright red hair, and intelligent green eyes which lit up whenever she was happy and became dark and lifeless when she was depressed. She was a muggle born Gryffindor the most brilliant young witch alive at the time. She had been a prefect since fifth year. Everyone respected Lily. She had strong morals and stood up for others. No one ever doubted that she would make a difference in the world because she was just the type who never gave up on anything or, for that matter, anyone. She loved everyone she knew even if they had hurt her and always had faith that people could change if they wanted to. She had strong maternal instincts and was commonly found hugging and whispering comforting words into the ears of anyone who was down at the time. She secretly liked James Potter, but kept that secret locked inside because she could not envision giving someone her heart that would break it. Unfortunately, she falling for him was not her decision.

The third individual was Sirius Black a wizard of a prominent and pureblooded family who found him a great disappointment. Fortunately, no one else found Sirius a disappointment. He was tall and muscular with shaggy black hair, blue eyes that always held laughter, and doglike blended with slightly aristocratic features. He was effortlessly talented in everything. He was funny, mischievous, and loyal enough to die for those he cared for. Once someone became friends with Sirius, it was nearly impossible to get rid of him. He was the Gryffindor beater. His effortless talents spread to the subject of girls who flocked around him. He was infamous for dating more than one girl at once and for dumping a girl because she was not perfect by his standards. He was, in fact, looking for the perfect girl for him and didn't see any point in wasting time with the wrong girl. This girl would eventually be found, he just wouldn't know it until it was far too late. He was the second Marauder and an unregistered Animagi in the form of a large, black dog. He did not get along with his family and spent all of his summers at James' house who he considered his almost-brother. He and James had been best friends since they had met at a wizarding preschool at the age of four. Together, they had terrorized everyone including their teacher. His loyalty to James was above that of anyone else.

The fourth individual was Remus Lupin. Remus was of medium height and looked aged beyond his years. He had light brown hair and blue eyes. He too was a Gryffindor and was known for being a great friend. He was sweet and helpful and everyone loved him for it. He was also very smart and studious, a prefect since fifth year. Remus was mostly quiet and introspective and afraid to get too close to anyone. Unbeknown to most, Remus was a werewolf which made him apprehensive of relationships. His biggest fear was that someone would find out and reject him. Because of this, he was a bit too nice and let his friends get away with things that his instincts were telling him he shouldn't allow them to get away with. He was also the third Marauder and the reason why his friends were unregistered Animagi. When the other three Mauraders found out his secret, instead of rejecting him, they found a way to help his monthly transformations to become more bearable. As people, he could harm them, but when they were in animal form, they could spend time with him and communicate. Their doing this meant more to him than they would ever know. Remus would also willingly die for his friends safety. Unfortunately, Remus would not find the love he so badly wanted until much later in life.

The fifth individual was Ava Labeau, a Gryffindor. She was tall, slender, and graceful with a golden tan, golden brown hair, and chocolate colored eyes. She was outgoing and not too quick to trust people. She was known as a bit of a boy's girl and dated many lads, never cared about them, and dropped them because she had a bit of a fear of commitment. She was of pureblood descent and her family and the Potters were best friends. Ava and Lily had been almost like sisters since the moment they had met on the Hogwart's Express at the beginning of first year. Even though Ava was slightly unstable when it came to matters of the heart, she was always there when her friends needed her. She was insanely loyal to Lily and insisted that James and Lily were meant to be together, something that Lily fervently denied. Ava was known most around school for her insane levels of confidence and her lovable, outgoing personality. With a French father and a British mother, Ava was fluent in both French and English. Ava was always meant to fall hard and deeply in love with somebody, but unfortunately, the love would never be stable or any of the other things needed to make a relationship work.

Peter Pettigrew was the sixth and final individual spoken of in the prophecy. He was a short, chunky, dim-minded Gryffindor. He was shy and squeaky and the fourth Marauder. He was an animagi in the form of a rat. That's right, a rat. He had brown hair and beady blue eyes. Most people just plain didn't like Peter because he seemed untrustworthy. The Mauraders would not hear of this and accepted him into their tight-knit circle without questioning it. People always wondered what he was doing hanging around with such people as James, Sirius, and Remus. Most figured it was because they protected him—something he badly needed. Unfortunately, Peter would never find love because he finds some things more important.

The Story

"Is this seat taken?" James had heard a beautiful, angel-like voice ask him. James turned around. Standing there was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He had to check twice to make sure she was not an angel. She had beautiful, pale skin, bright red hair, and insanely beautiful green eyes. He was surprised that she wasn't wearing billowing white robes with a halo over her hair.

"I-it-I," James had stuttered, hands darting to his hair to ruffle it—something he always did. He always thought that ruffled hair made him look far more desirable.

"I suppose that's a yes?" She had said, smiling and sitting down. James' mouth fell open. Just being around her gave him a nice warm feeling in his stomach. He noticed that she had dancing green eyes.

"Will-will-will you go out with me?" James asked. She looked back at him, thoroughly confused. She had thought she asked him to go out, but that was preposterous. They had just met moments ago. She thought he was cute, but they were, after all, only eleven.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" She had asked with a sweet smile that made James' stomach do flip-flops when he realized it was directed at him. He tried to gain control of his mouth.

"N-nothin," James stuttered. He could not seem to control what came out of his mouth when he couldn't believe his eyes. Lily just looked at him in question for a moment and then turned back to the group of people surrounding them including Sirius, Remus, and Ava.

"My name is Lily Evans," The angel said, smiling at James, Sirius, and Remus. "I was so worried I would be sorted into Slytherin." She said with a nervous laugh. After a bit of research, she had discovered that Slytherin produced many dark wizards. James was not sure, but he thought he felt something falling down his chin. He looked around nervously to see Remus and Sirius looking as though they were trying very hard to contain their laughter.

"I'm Remus Lupin and this is Sirius Black and the one who can't seem to shut his mouth is James Potter." Remus said, gesturing to Sirius and James. Lily smiled at the them (Causing James' stomach to start juming) before looking awestruck around the room for the first time. When she had first walked in, she had been to nervous to take in her surroundings, but now, she truly saw the castle for the first time.

"It's great to meet you guys. This place is amazing," Lily said, looking around in awe.

"James! James!" Sirius said, snapping a finger in James' face. Sirius had become well acquainted with James' tendency to drift off into his own world, but just because he was familiar with it didn't mean he liked it. Afterall, he was Sirius Black and all attention should be on him. Especially if he's telling a rather amusing story concerning his mum, a motorcycle, and a trip to St. Mungo's.

"What? Huh?" James asked, disappointed to be pulled out of his favorite memory and find out he was instead in the Great Hall, eating breakfast on his first day of sixth year. Ah, back at Hogwart's. Now he could see Lily every day and looked forward to it greatly. He had only seen her once over the summer when she was staying at Ava's—his neighbor—house and that meeting had not gone well. Lets just say that what had happened had made Lily less than pleased.

"You were doing it again," Remus said with a sigh as he took a bite of oatmeal. Like Sirius, he was familiar with James' tendency to drift off and it tended to irk his nerves a bit. That was James for you, daydreaming about Lily Evans instead of listening to his friends. Not that he took them for granted, but…

"What? Huh?" James asked, still confused with half of his mind on his first day at Hogwarts. That was when he had fallen for her. She was like an angel. Her eyes. Her hair. Her…

"You were day-dreaming about Evans again," Peter squeaked. He too found James' tendency to drift off a bit annoying, but he would never voice it. James, Sirius, and Remus could kill him if they wanted to and if they didn't then without them around, someone else would.

"No I wasn't," James said sharply as his face turned slightly red and denying it a bit too quickly to be believed. James racked his brain to try and think of what the lads were speaking of.

"You were drooling," Sirius said as he stuffed more food from his plate turned mountain of food into his mouth. James' hand flew up to his chin.

"I was not," James said, checking his chin with his hand for any drool. So what if he was? It's not like Sirius didn't have food dripping so far down his face that it would soon touch his neck.

"Anyway, as I was saying, we really need to leave our mark on Snivelly this year," Sirius said. Snivelly—AKA Severus Snape—was the Marauders' favorite person to prank. He was a greasy hair sixth year who was obsessed with dark arts. No one liked him, but the Marauders' were the only ones who constantly tortured him.

"I thought we did that last year when James turned him over and… you know? And then when you tried to… you know?" Peter asked, confused. James and Sirius looked at him sharply and he felt embarrassed for having asked. Of course they hadn't tortured Snivellus enough in their opinion.

"No, that was just a bit of fun, right James?" Sirius said, shoving more food in his mouth. James continued look confused as he was currently trying to stare at Lily in a very un-obvious way. He was failing miserably at listening and staring at once. "James! I swear, you never listen to me!" Sirius whined in annoyance as he ate more. He felt that James took him for granted way to much. Whether that was the truth or that it was just the Sirius needed constant attention, no one knew.

"Yes I do," James argued, still not really in the Great Hall for breakfast as he stared at Lily, kept half his mind focused on the most perfect day of his life—the first day of school, and tried to follow the conversation with his friends.

"What were we talking about?" Remus asked calmly. James always claimed to be listening, but the only way to know for sure was to test it. James swallowed and looked around like a deer caught in headlights.

"Sirius' new girlfriend?" James asked hopefully. It was a pretty good guess seeing as how Sirius was quite a lady's man and got a new girlfriend every few weeks. Unfortunately, Sirius didn't have a new girlfriend on this particular week.

"No," Sirius said. "You know, I don't know why you're so obsessed with Evans. In her own words, if she had the choice between you and the squid, she'd chose the squid." James ignored Sirius and went back to his favorite hobby: staring at Lily. Sirius sighed and wondered when his best mate would realize that if he would just lay off, he and Lily would be together.

"Damnit! Potter's staring at me again with that creepy look on his face!" Lily said, slamming down her toast. Her best friend Ava gave her a look. James commonly stared at Lily during mealtimes with a dazed look on his face and it was no surprise that he was doing it. Afterall, it was the first day of school and he had an entire summer's worth of staring to make up for.

"Well, that's because the two of you are secretly in love," Ava said, giggling. James talked about Lily all the time. Lily talked about James all the time. Sure, it usually wasn't about anything good, but he was still always on her mind.

"Ava!" Lily said crossly. "I'm not in love with that over-inflated ego prat." Lily got sick of insisting upon this. If Potter wasn't asking her out on a date then Ava was insisting that they were in love. It never stopped. Lily usually had patience with everyone, but her patience with Potter was wearing thin.

"Or maybe you just don't know it yet?" Ava asked. "He's definitely in love with you, he talked about you ALL summer." Ava said, she and James' families were best friends. Ava and James had known each other since birth. Call it women's intuition, but Ava just knew that her best friend would end up with James. He practically worshipped the ground she walked on and if he knew that that wasn't what Lily wanted, he would stop in a heartbeat.

"Could you like go over there and distract him or something? He's starting to creep me out," Lily said, annoyed. The first day of sixth year and it had already started to go bad.

"I'm not getting in the middle of true love," Ava said with a half-grin knowing that Lily this comment would not make Lily happy. Lily told her something very rude. Ava laughed and Lily pouted.

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"So, the goblins…" Professor Binns, the ghost who taught History of Magic, droned on and on. Lily was sitting in the front of class, taking notes just like always. Ava was looking around in a daze as she chewed her gum. Remus and Peter were taking notes as well. Well, Remus was taking notes and Peter was attempting to write quickly enough to get everything Professor Binns was saying. Sirius was sighing and trying to come up with a way to interrupt the monotony of History class—though it was boring, it was his favorite class because creating chaos in it was easy. James was staring at Lily's head as so took notes.

"I'm bored," Sirius muttered out of the corner of his mouth. He was bored. Trying to make Sirius not move or talk for an entire class period was like telling a dog not to bark or wag its tail. It simply could not be done without duct tape for his mouth and rope to tie him to the chair which Dumbledore, the headmaster, would not allow.

"You could try taking notes," Remus said, annoyed at his friends lack of care for school work. Sirius never took notes and James rarely took notes and when it came time for exams, they always begged Remus for his notes.

"Then what would you do?" Sirius asked as he laughed about the mental picture in his head—Remus begging Sirius to copy notes before the exams. "Besides, I have something more interesting in mind." Sirius said, shooting a sidelong glance at James. James sighed. For some reason, he always ended up in the middle of Sirius' horribly constructed plans. Not that all Sirius' plans went badly, but the ones in class usually ended up with the two of them in detention.

"No, Sirius," James began. He couldn't pull something crazy like that now. Not with Lily a few seats in front of him. She always said that the reason she wouldn't date him was because he was too immature… Or was that his ego was too large? Wasn't it Remus who said that that was her reason? Anyway, he couldn't do it now. He had vowed to win Lily over this year. Pulling a prank in class would not be a good start.

"But it would be fun," Sirius protested. Yeah, Sirius' pranks were always fun when they were being done, but the results…

"It's our first day of class, don't you think Binns would get a bit suspicious if we did this too many times?" James asked as he silently prayed that Sirius would agree with him and just sleep. Classes were so much more simple when Sirius slept through them.

"Come on, he's too thick to notice," Sirius argued. It was true. If Binns even noticed that something was wrong, he would never figure out who had caused it. He was simply too thick.

"No, not here…" James said, trailing off. Not here. Not now. Not on the first day of school. Not with Lily two seats in front of him.

"Because Evans is here?" Sirius asked with a smirk. He knew James way too long to think that he wouldn't want to create chaos simply because it was the first day of school, but because Lily was there.

"No… Yes… I don't know," James said, knowing that Sirius would know the truth no matter what he said. Sirius knew him like the tip of his wand.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Sirius argued. At first, he couldn't believe that James could be so whipped by a girl he wasn't even dating, but after years of it, he had grown used to it. Now he just tried to convince James to go along.

"You're not the one getting stunned," James argued. That was normally how they got out of class. Sirius stunned James and then rushed him to the hospital wing.

Even though they had been speaking in hushed tones, half the class had turned around, anticipating another infamous Sirius moment. Sirius and James' many pranks were usually the only thing that got the class through the many boring History of Magic classes.

"Fine, you stun me this time," Sirius said, annoyed. He was getting out of class if he had to stun himself. Sure, it would be more fun if he had the afternoon off to spend goofing around with James, but…

"Ok," James agreed, pulling out his wand, pointing it at Sirius, and muttering the stunning spell. He knew Sirius wouldn't quit until he got what he wanted. If James didn't stun him… Well, he was scared to imagine what would happen if Sirius stunned himself.

Sirius' body seized up and he fell to the floor with a bang as the rest of the class burst into laughter. It had been done many times, but it managed to break the monotony of Binns' voice. As they laughed, the teacher droned on and on. Finally, after some times, Professor Binns looked up in annoyance.

"If you could please turn your attention back to the subject matter—" He began about to start droning on again.

"Please, sir, Sirius' has fainted," James said, trying not to laugh. He doubted laughing would give them away, but he didn't want to cause the teacher to be suspicious.

"What?" Professor Binns asked, looking around in confusion. His class was rarely interrupted. He then noticed the body on the floor. "Is that Potter?"

"Sir, I'm Potter, that's Black," James said. It was not an uncommon thing for James to be called Sirius and Sirius to be called James, but it was usually just an accident. Professor Binns did it because he had never—in six years—taken the time to learn the names of the sixth years.

"I suppose we should just leave him there," Professor Binns said, looking back towards his lecture notes. James wondered for a fleeting moment how Binns didn't have his lecture memorized yet.

"Sir, I think he needs to go to the hospital wing," James said nicely.

Lily was looking at him with an annoyed look on her face. She hated their immaturity.

"Fine, bring him, Black," Professor Binns semi-shouted, his annoyance quite obvious. "Just don't interrupt my class again!"

"How?" James asked thinking that Sirius was no pixie. Professor Binns ignored him and continued to drone on. James looked at Remus who just shrugged. James then flicked his wand and levitated Sirius, running out of the class with Sirius floating along behind him.

Lily watched them leave and shook her head in disgust; they were so immature.

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"James seems to have grown up a bit over the summer," Ava said that night when she and Lily were in the common room doing the mountain of homework that their teachers saw fit to pile on them during the first day of classes. In all honesty, James had hardly grown at all, but Ava thought it would be a good idea to try and convince Lily that he had.

"Yeah, adults always stun each other during class," Lily said sarcastically. Stupid immature gits. Ava was just trying to get her to admit that she liked him, but Lily never intended to.

"Bloody hell, why don't you just admit that you love him?" Ava asked, annoyed. According to her, it was obvious that Lily liked him. Lily vehemently denied it. A little to quickly in Ava's opinion.

"Bloody hell, because I don't," Lily said, turning away from Ava and back to her notes on goblin rebellions. She subconsciously stabbed at the notes with her quill. James just annoyed her so much. She did like him, but she couldn't be with him. Today's events had just proved that in her mind.

James Potter sat across the crowded common room, staring at Lily. Again.

"You know what?" James asked, still not taking his eyes off of Lily. She was so beautiful. Perfect, in his opinion.

"You're in love with Lily?" Remus asked, not looking up from his charms homework. The four boys had had this same conversation countless times over the past few years and it always ended with James insisting that he would win Lily over before the end of the year. Years had come and gone and he was yet to win her over.

"Other than that," James said. Sirius, Remus, and Peter looked up. The conversation was going differently tonight.

"You want to be her love monkey?" Sirius asked with a grin. James and Remus rolled their eyes and Peter got confused.

"What is that?" Peter squealed. Sirius was just about to make something far fetched and hilarious up when Remus cut him off.

"Nothing," Remus assured him in a calm voice. Peter looked content and went back to listening to James.

"I'm going to somehow convince Lily that I'm not an immature git and I'm going to date her," James said in a determined voice. Apparently, tonight's conversation was the same as every other one.

"Sure you are," Remus said as he looked back down at his work. James would never prove to Lily that he wasn't an immature git unless he wasn't one. Lily had a way of seeing through people.

"How about you start off by going over to talk to her?" Sirius suggested hoping to get James to go talk to her and quit distracting him from his game of exploding snap.

"Because there are too many things to trip on between here and there." James said with a sigh.

~~Well, there it is… I know it's seems similar to "Unconditional Love", but as the story goes on, it is VERY different… Now, go REVIEW!!~~