A/N: I gave up at the end of this chapter and decided to use my seemingly permanent mental blanks to my advantage. Everyone has mental blanks, why not Lily? Read and review!

I can't remember a happier few days than the ones we spent in The Leaky Cauldron with James and Sirius. The time at Sam's place had freed me just a little, broken through a brick wall I had once thought could never be breached, just a tiny bit, like someone had drilled a peep hole through it and I had caught a glimpse of the life I was missing. On my side was the dull grey misery, a life without family, life as an orphan. One glance through that hole at the light, the colour, the friends, the happiness and something had smashed that wall down. Now, suddenly, I found myself in a mix of both worlds, with the odd greyness creeping in and reminding me of my parents, but the colour and happiness ruled. I was getting my old self back and damn, it felt good.

The last night we were all huddled together on James bed. I could feel my eyes closing, after all, it was midnight and I'd been up until three the morning before. Of course, with Sirius there it was almost impossible to sleep. It was like the guy was taking hourly drug injections, he was constantly doing something. And if it was time to sleep he'd do a powernap and be up and five in the morning, rushing around and causing chaos. Just one year ago I'd have found that so irritating. Now, the boy had me in stitches. Once or twice I caught him writing in a little book of his, the fact that he was nearing the last few pages told me that he'd been doing this for quite some time. But Sirius Black, writing in a diary? Ha!

My head felt like it was full of cotton stuffing and I tipped over sideways, half curled up, one arm as a pillow for my head, my hair tumbling over the edge of the bed. I glanced up at James and he grinned down at me. Damn, I must have looked little and sweet and innocent... damn.

Time must have skipped forward because I opened my eyes slightly, sleepily, my eyelids heavy. The others had moved and somehow it wasn't a shocked to see Sirius sitting on the floor, leaning back against the bed, his chin resting on the top of Sam's head, her cheek resting against his chest. I think I blinked and shivered, then the blanket tightened around me. Blanket? I was tucked into bed. James was lying beside me, thank heavens on top of the blankets and at that slight shiver he'd woken up just enough to pull the sheet over my shoulder. Then everything went dark and I slipped back into oblivion.

The badge was weird. I mean, seven years before I was standing there on the platform, right there, staring at that bloody train, thinking I hadn't a hope in the world learning magic and now here I was with a Head Girl badge clinging to my robes. I hadn't told the others and now, staring out of the window as the northern country zoomed past, Sammy, Hannah and Aoife sitting nearby playing Wizard Chess, now I had to be the responsible one. My friends had all responded with the tradition congratulation but I'll tell you one thing... I was not looking forward to telling the Marauders. That was just a big disaster waiting to happen. Or so I thought.

'Yo, ladies!'

'Now, why does that not make sense?' Sam said, cocking her head but not raising her eyes from her pawn, who was belting Hannah's rook. Sirius blinked.

'Huh?'

'You can't use 'yo' and 'ladies', it just doesn't work. Either you're a bad boy or you're a gentleman.'

Sirius just stared incredulously and, thankfully, decided not to reply.

'Hey! Lily's Head Girl!'

Here we go...

'Ooh, maybe the Head Boy and Head Girl will get together in the Astronomy tower for some sweet lovin'...'

Huh?

I looked up and James was staring at his feet. I couldn't believe it! There, sitting proudly on his robes, was the Head Boy badge. The poor guy looked mortified and I almost laughed. Well, all it meant was he couldn't mess around anymore. Then again, was that a good thing? I hadn't quite made up my mind about him and his buddies' antics. Then again...

'Hey, I'm not changing or anything!'

He laughed when I groaned and dropped my head in my hands.

Well, I don't know what to write anymore. I mean, I know what happens, of course, but how are you supposed to put it all in words? I'd bet a thousand galleons anyone else would find it hard and somewhere along the line would stop, drop their quill, lean back in their chair, push their hair out of their face and think... 'oh, crap, what now?' Or, in my case, something a little worse. My husband actually leant around the doorway, looked and me and laughed, saying 'wow, never heard you swear like that before' as I heaved myself up, belly first, walked over to the sink where my broken quill had landed, and trudged back to my seat. I can feel the baby in my stomache give a little kick, as if to tell me it wants to jump out and play some Quidditch. No doubt our bubby will love the sport. Oh! That's what I need to write about! The most spectacular Quidditch match I've ever seen.