Chapter 18 "Underneath it all" by marauderyears

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to it, J.K Rowling does.

Note: Thanks reviewers. Thanks to my betas. This is the last chapter of sixth year. I've decided to keep their seventh year in the same story so this isn't the end of this story!

Pranks Are So Siriusly Padfoot: Thank you so much for updating for all the chapters, you have no idea how much I appreciate that! I'm also SO happy that you like the chapters. And I totally feel bad for putting cliffhangers, so when ever I have a cliffhanger I try to update ASAP.

Evil Pillow: Here's the update!

Hello? Mary: I feel so pathetic that I can't remember what happens in my own fic, lol. But Lily's parents are dead. James' are still alive. I'm going to show a little more about his background in 7th year.

Danu 3: Thanks so much! I try to update asap. Plus it helps that I had all the chapters already written, lol.

Slytherinbabe05: Thanks! It is freaky that James is mature! Maybe Lily will notice...

James POV

I've been going out with Lena for two and a half weeks now. She's been a bit happier but I've been miserable. Lily looks happier since she's apologized to Lena. I'm glad she took heed of my words of wisdom. Although I have to say taking my own advice has gotten me into this mess in the first place. I shouldn't have said yes to Lena. Now I'm stringing her along because I don't want to hurt her feelings.

"Potter!" My head snapped up to Brody's irritated voice. He finally noticed that I'm not paying attention to him.

"What are the characteristics of a werewolf?" Hmm...Let me see now...

I easily name them. I can see Sirius smirking across the room. Peter seems to be laughing, but Remus has smacked him to get him to shut up.

Brody gave me an irritated glare. It's not fun when the teacher tries to get you to answer a question incorrectly only for the student to rub the correct answer in their face. Ha-ha!

Exams are coming soon, and the teachers and students are stressing. Including Lily. I've seen her awake at 2 or 3 in the morning, studying.

"You should get more sleep Lily. I know you know the material, you don't have to study that hard."

I don't know if it was her regular temper or the stress of the upcoming exams, but she snapped. "Not everyone is born brilliant like you Potter. Some of us have to actually study and do our homework to pass."

I felt a little hurt at this comment, but she's right. "Well I was born into a Wizarding family so I had a head start."

Lily nodded. But I continued, hoping to make her feel better. Or smile. I love her smile. "For being Muggleborn, you're doing one helluva job." I think I saw a small, but happy smile on her lips.

"Prongs, we've barely gotten to prank any Slytherins this year." Sirius whined. Remus rolled his eyes, but nevertheless nodded.

"Well you can't forget about our End-of-the-Year Feast Prank. Or for short, the 'EOTYFP'." I said, smiling at the thought.

Later after dinner, I'm walking with Sirius and Remus when we hear whispering... suspicious whispering. I give Sirius and Remus a look and we all stop and listen quietly.

A first voice spoke. "...so she hasn't figured it out yet? And they call her the brightest witch in our year...Ha."

A second rough voice answered. "Well Evans hopefully got the message while she was hanging around that she is a worthless piece of-"

I felt the anger boil and as one, we stepped out of the shadows.

"Fancy meeting you here, Black." I said, menacingly.

Sirius smirked but Remus spoke next. "Snape, Black, as a prefect I'm going to have to take points away from Slytherin for the harming of Lily Evans, a fellow student. I'm also going to talk to the Head of Slytherin-"

Black and Snape stepped closer to us, pulling out their wands. Too bad that we have quicker reflexes...

Lily's POV

"I heard that Bellatrix Black and Severus Snape were in the Hospital Wing for the last week of school."

It's the end of the year and Lena, Frankie and I had managed to get out own compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Yes, I'm sad to be going home, but I'm also a little relieved. No more homework, classes (although I do like them), teachers, or James Potter. What could be better?

I looked up, interested. "Really? Why?"

Frankie shrugged. "Probably James Potter and Sirius Black decided they needed to. You know it's been awhile since they last did any pranks. Except for at the End-of-the-Year Feast of course, that was great." We all laughed at the memory.

Lena laughed. "You're half true, though. I heard that Remus Lupin helped them beat up Bellatrix and Snape."

I glanced at her sharply. "Are you serious? I can't imagine him ever doing anything like that! He wouldn't do that, he's a Prefect."

"Oh yes I would." The three of us looked up to see Remus Lupin (who just spoke), Sirius Black, and James Potter standing in the doorway to our compartment.

Lena smiled at James. "Hi James honey, how are you?!" I looked down at my feet when she said this. Frankie rolled his eyes and stood up.

"Well I'm off to visit Alice." He said, blushing. "Bye Lily, Lena." He nodded at the Marauders, who nodded back. Frankie left the compartment. Sirius and Remus sat down, taking his side of the compartment.

James looked at me (I carefully avoided his gaze) and then looked at Lena. "Lena, can I talk to you for a minute?" She nodded, excitedly and exited the compartment with James.

They're probably off to snog somewhere. I glared at the door that just slid shut. Sirius must have noticed because he laughed. "If you glare at that door hard enough it's going to break, you know."

Remus smiled, but I just gave Sirius the same icy glare. Sirius gasped. "Now I'm going to break...ahhh...look away you fiend!"

Remus and I laughed as he flattened himself on the floor. Then I remembered...

"Remus did you really help beat up Bellatrix Black and Severus Snape?"

Remus nodded, turning a little pink. "I didn't beat them up per say..." Sirius snorted.

I glared at Remus. "Why? They haven't done anything lately. You know as a Prefect you can't-"

"Like hell they didn't." Sirius said. "They're the ones who've been picking on you this entire year. We just got back at them."

I frowned. They did that for me? Remus must have read my mind because he said, smiling. "James was furious when he found out that they had done that to you..."

I blushed, but they just smiled. That goofy, annoying smile that makes me want to punch them. It really does.

"Stop that smiling, it's so annoying! Stop, stop it! It's SO annoying!" Oh how I wanted to punch them. They just burst out laughing at the look on my face.

"I'm going to miss Hogwarts." I said, staring out the window as the scenery rushed by. I could see trees, grass, cows...

Sirius smiled sadly. "We'll be back next year."

Remus stared out the window with me. "Yeah, but that will be our last year."

"Yes, but after that we'll be able to do magic outside of school. Than Snape will really wish he hadn't been born..." I didn't want to ruin the mood, so I didn't reprimand him.

Remus looked over at me. "What are you going to do when you get out of school?"

I said without hesitating. "I want to be an Auror."

Both their eyes widened. "Really? We didn't know you wanted to be an Auror."

Sirius nodded. "Remus, James, and I are going to be Aurors too. Fight evil and such. You know that there are very few girls that are Aurors. But I bet you'd make it. Everyone knows that you're the most brilliant witch in our year. Heck, probably school."

I blushed, but was very pleased at this.

The rest of the train ride went by fast and I was having a great time, but before I knew it, we were gathering our trunks to get off the train. I looked back at the brilliantly red train that I had learned to love and smiled. Of course Sirius had to break the moment.

"Move Lillers, you're blocking the way. You can reminisce later." Sirius said, giving me a light push out of the way.

Sirius, Remus, Frankie, and I were all standing in a circle, talking. No one really wanted to leave just yet. It wasn't until Frankie asked where James was that I realized I didn't know where he was either.

Remus looked at me and smiled. "I'd say breaking off loose ties."

I looked up quickly to see James getting off the train after a sobbing Lena. I smiled. Yes, even though my best friend is sobbing her poor little heart out, I am smiling. James looks up and meets my eye. For the first time, I don't blush and look away, I just smile at him. A genuine smile. If he was surprised he didn't show it. He just gave me an adorable smile back that made my heart flutter.

I think Remus and Sirius were waiting for me to say something because they were looking at me as if waiting for something. I blushed when I noticed this.

"Wait, I'm sorry what were we talking about?" They both just looked at each other, looked back at me and smiled. I swear one day I'm going to punch them.