And here it is chapter 16. After re-reading the last chapter I came to the conclusion that it sucked goat ballz, but sorry it couldn't be helped. A lot of crap was going on and that was why it took so long to update. Sorry about that. Hopefully this one makes up for it. I want to thank everyone for the wonderfully fantastic reviews I have been getting. No flames in almost a month, although I haven't updated in almost a month, but who cares about that? Don't worry, I won't abandon this story, I have lots and lots more in store for Lily and James.

I don't know if I have said this but I am making this story into two parts. One part is about Lily and James' life in school and the other part is their life after school. Right now there are maybe 5 chapters left in part 1, so I am really excited about 2. I may add another chapter just for more time. Also once I finish part 1, I MUST take a little break so I can catch up with life. I just thought that I might as well warn all of you about that now.

Disclaimer: I own nuttin'. Zip, zilch, nada. Not even a penny. The Weasley's have more money that I do.

With no further ado here is the next chapter.

XVIVX

Luckily for Lily her birthday fell on a Saturday, and it was on the same day that all of the 7th years were allow to leave for Hogsmead to get ready for the Graduation Ball. Lily needed a few hours away from Hogwarts and from James. She planned to spend that day with Dorcas, Amberle and Anthy; it would be a nice break away from reality. Even though it was her birthday, she had nothing special planned mainly because of her family. Petunia hated Lily's birthdays and she would make it known. Her parents on the other hand acted as if the world was coming to an end if they didn't throw their daughter a huge party. So with a combination of the two, Lily just wasn't all that much into birthdays. That morning she did receive a card and package of sweets from her mother and father for her 17th birthday.

Lily met Dorcas and Anthy by the lake on the way to Hogsmead, and they would meet up with Amberle around an hour later; apparently she had to take care of some family business. Dorcas and Anthy waited by the lake and greeted their friend ecstatically. Both had been looking forward to that particular Hogsmead visit as a way to cheer Lily up. Both said that they would get her whatever she wanted in Hogsmead as a birthday present. Little did she know what was brewing in the Gryffindor Common Room. The three friends proceeded down to Hogsmead walking and talking animatedly, "So what do you guys want to buy first?" Lily asked.

"Well, I had wanted to go see Amberle's new Quidditch supplies, but I think I can hold out for a while," Dorcas said with a slight smile. Lily knew that she was going to say that; having a friend with both Quidditch and Quodpot connections such as Amberle did was something that Dorcas would never easily over-look. Plus Amberle could get her exclusive discounts. "But seeing as how that this for that stupid graduation ball I guess that we have to go get our crap for that first. This is our last chance before the freaking thing," Dorcas said.

"I thought you weren't going," Anthy said.

"I could never miss our Head Girl's ball that she planned with all her hard work. Besides, she'd curse me into oblivion if I didn't," Dorcas replied.

"Damn straight," Lily joked. "How dose that sound to you Anthy? Get all the dance stuff out of the way before it is too late. Besides it won't be packed because every other girl in 7th year has already gotten their stuff three months ago," Lily suggested.

"Sounds fine with me," Anthy replied.

The three marched down the street to Fine Robes by Madam Sillen. It was the only place that Hogsmead had that would provide the sort of outfits needed for such an occasion. Just as the three thought, the store was practically empty save for a dark looking woman behind the counter. She had thick shiny chocolate brown hair and dark eyes. She sported teal green robes and wide array of necklaces and bracelets were draped on her body. She greeted the girls kindly, "Hello and welcome to my shop. I am Madam Sillen and how can I help you?" her voice was deep and rich and gave off the impression of an Arabian Dancer.

"Yes, we need dresses for the Graduation Ball at Hogwarts. All three of us," Lily said politely.

"Well it looks like you three got here just in time. We just restocked several hours ago and before that we were wiped clean. Come this way," Madam Sillen said. She slipped gracefully out from behind the counter and led all three to the wide selection of dresses. "Why don't we start with you," she said to Dorcas. Dorcas had a slightly shocked look on her face as she stepped forth, not expecting to be called forth so quickly. Madam Sillen gazed at Dorcas' features and the counter of her face as well as her figure. When she was done Madam Sillen began pulling at random dresses, all of them were a different color; one was cobalt blue, another pink (Dorcas cringed at the sight of it), one was even orange! Dorcas did nothing to disrupt Madam Sillen's search for the perfect dress, although Lily and Anthy snickered when she looked at the pink one. Dorcas hated the color of pink in any and all ways. At last Madam Sillen stopped a beautiful black satin dress. She picked it from the racket and held it to Dorcas. "Perfect," she exclaimed. "The shape of the dress is perfect for you and the color contrasts your pale complexion," she said. Then Madam Sillen instructed Dorcas to go try it on.

It seemed that it took Dorcas nearly twenty minutes to try on the dress. But Lily and the others were in no hurry. Besides, Dorcas had never worn anything that even compared to the formal outfit she was trying on. Lily remembered only one other time that Dorcas wore a skirt, and that was at Christmas when she meet Lily's parents. Apparently Mrs. Meadows, her mother, had threatened her daughter's life if she didn't wear the skirt. A wide variety of weird sounds and "you bastards" were being emitted from the dressing room, but the others ignored it. Soon after Amberle entered the store to join her friends, "I thought you were going to wait for me," Amberle wined.

"Sorry about that. But this is our last chance to get something for that damn graduation dance, so we wanted to hurry up and get it out of the way," Lily said.

"Oh and by the way, Happy Birthday Lily," Amberle said.

"Thanks. What can be taking Dorcas so long?" Lily asked to no one in particular.

"It sounds as if she is having a wrestling match with that dress," Anthy responded with a gleam in her eye. At that moment there was a "shit" coming from the dressing room, however Dorcas emerged looking stunning in the dress.

The dress flowed all throughout her average figure and along the back there was a criss-cross pattern, much like an old fashion corset, up to her shoulders with the delicate black fabric. Small silk hand gloves were on both of her hands and Dorcas sported small heels on her feet that also had the same criss-cross pattern up to her ankle. The dress was a round neck that didn't show off too much cleavage, but just enough to get the boy's attention. If Dorcas hadn't been wearing a scowl she would have looked like a super model. Lily was amazed that Dorcas could look so beautiful and feminine.

"Holy crap! That is perfect," Lily said.

"Ok," Dorcas responded. Not wanting to be seen like that any more, Dorcas quickly turned around and emerged less than a minute later with her regular cloths on. "This will have to do because I am not going through the hell of putting another one on," she said grumpily.

"Good, because that is perfect on you," Madam Sillen piped up. "So, who shall be my next victim," she smirked. "You!" she shouted at Amberle.

"WHAT?" Amberle shouted.

"Yes, you. Come here," Madam Sillen hissed. With a sulk on her face, Amberle went forth. "Let's see, what have I got to work with? Tall, great legs but no cleavage, that is going to be a problem, " a dangerous flicker came into Amberle's eyes ,"Hmm…a round face, beautiful eyes which more than make up for your chest and quite an unsual hair color," Madam Sillen remarked at Amberle's hair, for it was a firm mixture of chestnut brown with beautiful streaks of auburn. The Arabic woman went back to her many isles of dresses and soon picked out a dress of fiery ember. Amberle shrugged and went to try on the dress.

A few minutes later she emerged. Again, all of the girls were shocked with out lovely their friend looked and Madam Sillen's wonderful eye for color. The dress was form-fitting yet if flowed out at the bottom, like the pictures of medieval fae and faeires. The dress showed off Amberle's back and it also had a round neck, just a little lower than Dorcas'. Around Amberle's neck was a gorgeous black and silk scarf that gave her the appearance as being lovelier than a swan. The look on Amberle's face was a neutral one; naturally she had never seen herself in such an expensive and high quality dress. And again, she disappeared into the changing room and reappeared in normal attire.

It was at that moment that Anthy announced that she had to leave. The black-haired girl smiled softly at her friends saying that she would see them later. Lily, Amberle and Dorcas all waved goodbye to their friend as they saw her disappear into to busy-body of Hogsmead village. Amberle and Dorcas smirked at each other. "Well my dear, it seems that it is now your turn," Madam Sillen pointed at Lily.

Nervously Lily stepped forth. She really didn't know what to say about Madam Sillen or the fact that she was to be fitted into a formal gown; something that Lily never imagined herself doing. Surely Madam Sillen would outfit her just as splendidly she did her friends. However Lily was nervous. "Yes, yes, you are most indeed a beautiful girl. I should like to see the young man who will have you as his bride," Madam Sillen said. Lily did nothing but blush, marriage was the very last thing on her mind. "Now then let's see…you have a very nice and petite figure, a round face, beautiful hair and by God, the most brilliant eyes I have ever seen in my existence," Madam Sillen smiled. Again, Lily blushed even harder. The only other person who even mentioned her eyes was her father and James; even then she never believed that her ordinary green eyes were that vivid. "How about a nice green to bring out that already magnificent sparkle in your eyes," Madam Sillen continued. She began rummaging through the hundreds and hundreds of formal dresses and picked out a silk dress, the color of a young pine tree, still in its youth. "Perfect".

Lily grasped the dress shakily. She was nervous at holding something of such obvious and high value. Surely if she damaged it in any way the price of the dress would be enough to feed the entire village of Hogsmead for a year! Slowly Lily slipped into the dressing room and tried on the delicate silken gown. When Lily looked at herself in the mirror she was amazed at what she saw. The dress was strapless and curved to her body perfectly. A sexy little slit was cut in one side that showed off her legs. Around her neck was the emerald tear-drop necklace her father had given her. The necklace alone seemed to tie the whole outfit together perfectly. On her feet were some slight heels that also had the criss-cross design up to her ankles. It was then she heard, "Lily, get your arse out here! We want to see," from Dorcas.

"Fine," Lily snapped back. She walked out impatiently with her hands on her hips.

"Hot damn that is good" Amberle burst out.

"You think?" Lily said.

"Would we lie to you?" Dorcas blurted out.

"There was that time in my second year when you lied about copying my homewo…"Lily began but she was cut off. Lily smirked.

"Oh shut up! We wouldn't lie about something like this," Dorcas said quickly, knowing the truth. She had lied about copying her friend's homework, on more than one occasion, but it was never a major assignment. More to the point, Dorcas thought that Lily never found out. Dorcas and Amberle never noticed Lily sneak back into the dressing room and come back out with her normal attire on. She and her three friends all ventured up to the register and paid for their outfits. All of them eventually left the shop with their money bags so light that any other further shopping in Hogsmead, unless it was at Amberle's family shop where they got ultra-low discounts, was out of the question.

As the three of them were walking back up the main road to the castle they could see the faint outline of Anthy coming down again. She had a slight smirk on her face which suggested some underlying mischief but everyone let it alone. "Anthy, I thought you had to go back up to the castle," Lily said. Why would her friend just all the sudden come back down?

"I did. I was late turning in my essay for Professor Lantis and you know what he's like. And I also had something I wanted to ask Professor McGonagall about," Anthy said. This time Amberle and Dorcas smiled silently too because they knew what Anthy was really up to. She had obviously asked McGonagall for permission about having a party in the Gryffindor Common Room. Apparently McGonagall had granted permission or else there would be a large sullen look on Anthy's face. Lily was obviously lost as to why Anthy had any business with the stern Professor, but she held her tongue.

Somewhat satisfied with the answer she got, Lily said nothing and her friends marched back up to the castle. But Lily was not as clueless as she let on. She knew something was up, but just as to what that something was, she didn't know. When Lily had gone up to Madam Sillen to pay for her dress, Dorcas and Amberle flat refused to let her pay for it because it was her birthday. With as much arguing and bickering that Amberle and Dorcas put up, Lily gave in. That dress was too much for her birthday. What would they do when they needed the extra money for a later emergency? 'Might as well ignore it with as stubborn as those two are. Anthy was most likely in on it too', she thought in her head. 'Well if you can't beat 'em, join 'em', or so they say. Once they were back up inside the castle they were greeted by the sneers of glowering Slytherins. But even that couldn't dampen the four friends' mood. Naturally Bellatrix Black and her group of Slytherins were among that group, but some of them were smirking dangerously and others were scowling. Bellatrix herself looked like a cat that had just found its unlucky rat and was grinning in evil glee. 'Yeah, but the dog can bite that cat's ass any day of the week,' Lily thought as she saw Sirius rushing up to the Common Room. "Guys, just ignore them," Lily softly. "They're not worth it".

"Not worth what mudblood," Bellatrix sniggered with her evil smile.

"Let's see, where shall I begin? How about a life for starters, and human decency. Oh and let's not forget regard for you as anything but the low-lives you are," Lily said coldly. Two of the more bulky members of the group flexed their muscles and began to charge at Lily and her friends when Bellatrix made a motion to stop them.

"Don't. She is obviously deaf to what is in her face. Let us wait and watch the little mudblood find that out the hard way, shall we?" she purred dangerously. Rodulphos Lestrange smirked as well and nodded in agreement. "May your time come mudblood," she continued. Then she turned around with the rest of her group and walked away. Snape on the other hand didn't immediately follow; he was not so much her lapdog as the others were and Bellatrix knew that. She monitored Snape constantly, knowing full well that his nature was dangerous. The black-haired, hook-nosed boy stared at Lily with an unknown expression on his face and turned in the other direction.

"Man Lily, you really shouldn't go messing around with them. You never know what that girl can conjure," Amberle said. Lily nodded, as well as the others. All four of them walked the stairs up to the Gryffindor Common Room in silence, save for when Nymphadora Tonks walked by, sporting wild electric green hair. The older girls waved and went back on their way. When they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady Dorcas shouted the new password. When Lily walked in, the common room was entirely dark save for the embers sparking out of a dying fire. She pulled out her wand and muttered "lumo-"when she was cut off by a bright flair of light and a loud course of "SURPRISE". Lily jumped in place as every member of the Gryffindor House sprang out of absurd hiding places. A wide grin from cheek to cheek spread across Lily's face. "So that explains all the funny looks," Lily said to her three friends, "and why you had to talk to McGonagall," she said to Anthy who smiled.

"Happy Birthday Lils," Sirius and Remus exclaimed. "Sorry bighead isn't around. He's probley off sulking in a corner after losing such a hot babe as you," Sirius joked with his charming smile that lit up the room. "It sure was a pain in the ass keeping it a secret too," he added. But of course he and Remus and Peter were in the league with Dorcas, Anthy and Amberle for planning the party. Using the one-eyed witch passageway, they managed to nick a bunch of food from Honeydukes and two giant flagons of Butterbeer. Sirius also knew perfectly well that James was not at Hogsmead "checking out new Zonko's products", as he claimed, but actually looking for a gift for Lily. James had been 100 miserable without Lily, even with the girl from Ravenclaw, Ariana. Well then again, Sirius knew that he was only with Ariana so that he could take his mind off of Lily. But he had a skull thicker than a muggle.

For the rest of the evening, everyone from the Gryffindor house spend partying their brains out. The Marauders had managed to steal enough food so that even the first years could have seconds of everything. Lily received a large number of great gifts from all her friends and even people she had no clue as to who they were. Her three friends had snuck down to the kitchens and convinced the house-elves to bake an extremely large cake, big enough to feed everyone who worked at the Ministry of Magic. Once the party was over, which was around 11 PM when everyone finally went to bed to their dormitories, Lily sat right in front of the fire surveying her new gifts. Dorcas and Amberle had already bought Lily her dress but still did manage to buy Lily two large chocolate balls filled with custard. From Sirius and Remus came a bulging bag of Dungbombs ("You never know when you will need them" said Sirius) and a book of very advanced Charm Work. An owl had flown in during the middle of the party, bearing hastily scribbled 'happy birthday" from Petunia. Lily suspected that she had given the letter to her parents to send with an owl because Lily knew that Petunia would have nothing to do with owls of any sort. From her parents Lily was given a thick muggle fictional novel. Lily was happy beyond belief that so many people had pitched in for her birthday, even the Marauders. She had actually hoped James would show but after their argument, but Lily doubted that. He had been so angry with her. 'Well I acted like a fool, being outside that late,' Lily said to herself. James had a right to be angry. His best friend's secret was at stake and anyone would be angry given the came circumstances. At that moment Lily resolved to apologize to James the next chance she got.

She had been acting stupid since they broke up and Lily knew it. She wanted to slap herself for over-reacting the way she did with Ariana. Ariana had done nothing wrong. Nothing was going to change if she just moped around the castle wishing that she hadn't been so stupid as to go out ad midnight during a full moon. Checking her watch Lily nearly jumped out her seat, realizing that she had to do the hall patrols for two hours before she could head off to bed. Lily quickly ran up to her dormitory and grabbed her cloak and badge, and headed out into the dark corridors. After all, someone had to stop all those rule-breaking couples from snogging each other in the dead of night. Although Lily had found some rather peculiar couples snogging in some odd places; Sirius Black for example was caught in the middle of a heated snog session with some random girl from Hufflepuff the previous year. After a wide variety of hexes and name calling, Sirius had convinced Lily not to give him detention and keep it a secret from James.

Lily laughed at the thought of Sirius face when she walked in on them as she walked out of the Common Room. "Have fun," the Fat Lady whispered tiredly. When Lily began walking down the stairs she ran head-first into a very solid mass. "Watch where you're going," she snapped at the person who happened to be none other than James Potter. When Lily realized who it was she blushed, turned her head and said "Sorry about that. But shouldn't you be helping me with the hall patrols?" Lily joked up at James.

"You're right Lils, as Head Boy I have the official obligation to oversee these dangerous halls for damsels in distress such as yourself," James joked. Although it was dark, Lily could see the faint outline of his boyish grin.

"James, there is something I want to talk to you about," Lily began.

"Say no more, you are heartbroken that you lost the savage man who had filled her heart with passion. You lay awake at night thinking of me and muttering my name in your sleep," James said dramatically, sounding like he was narrating a cheap muggle romance novel.

"If I was Ariana Alveraz that might almost be true "Lily said back with a smile. Which might as well will be the truth. The Marauders were well known for breaking the hearts of girls all over Hogwarts. "Back to what I was saying, I'm sorry for…what happened earlier," Lily said. She hoped that James would forgive her.

"No Lils, I'm an asshole. I over reacted. You did nothing wrong I am the one who should be apologizing," James replied. "Hopefully this will say that I am sorry. Happy Birthday Lily," he said extending his hand and there was a small package in it. Lily smiled and took the package, which was poorly wrapped, and opened it. She smiled, if possible, even more at the contense of the small parcel. It was a small ball of chocolate from Honeydukes. Lily always liked the simple things compared to what money could buy.

"Thanks James. I think I'll keep you a bit longer," Lily said. She bit into the chocolate, which was filled with strawberry cream.

"Good, because I'm not ready to give you up yet," James said. He leaned over and kissed Lily sweetly on the cheek. "Well, off to Head duties," he said with a smirk; head duties meant two hours of them by themselves with free reign to prowl Hogwarts.

"Don't get any funny ideas now," Lily said quickly, knowing full well what James had in mind. "Men, you all think alike," Lily said.

"The same can be said here, women make no sense because they all think differently. There is no figuring them out from a guy's standpoint," James said practically. James and Lily were walking down to the Great Hall, for their first inspection.

"Not really, it just takes a few insiders tricks," Lily responded.

"And what would some of these tricks be?" James replied mischievously.

"Beats me, I just read that in a book somewhere," Lily laughed. James broke out in laughter. Only Lily would say something like that. That was why he loved her.

VIV—two days later at breakfast.

"Well it's about damn time you two got back together, "Dorcas said. It was Sunday morning and everyone was up late for breakfast in the Great Hall. "We were beginning to wonder how long it would take you to finally say 'screw it' and make up," she said while buttering her toast.

Lily blushed slightly at her friend's very blatant way of putting it. Always leave it up to Dorcas for a smart remark of any kind. "You could be a little more discreet about it, but yes we got back together," Lily said, poking at her bacon and eggs. It was Monday and time for another day of classes. To make maters worse, it was Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing in the morning with the Slytherins. Professor Flynn, the teacher, had announced during their last class that on Monday they would be participating in practical duels for their N.E.W.Ts . He would be grading everyone according to the same standards as the N.E.W.T testers would. At that moment the Marauders took a seat next to Lily and her friends.

"Dueling with the Slytherins for Defense Against the Dark Arts. An oxymoron if I ever saw one," Remus said. He was looking somewhat pale and peaky, 'the full moon?' Lily wondered. In just three days it would be the next full moon. Well at least this time Lily knew not to go out onto the grounds.

"What's worse, Flynn is choosing who will duel against who. We all know that he will pair every Gryffindor with a Slytherin," Sirius complained.

"How is that a bad thing Padfoot? That means if you get paired with Snivellus or my bitch of a cousin, we can kick their ass without getting points deducted or detention," James grinned.

"Yet another reason I am eternally grateful I am not in N.E.W.T. Defense," Peter piped up. "I can't duel to save my ass," he complained.

"Come on Peter, we have enough crap to worry about without your whining this morning," Sirius said. Peter said nothing, he just stared at the ground and sulked (A/N: take that, two timing bastard)

When the bell rung all of the students quickly dispersed and ran along to their classes. The Marauders on the other hand trudged to their class, along with Lily and her friends. Dueling with the Slytherins was not going to be a pretty picture at all. All of them could see already what was going to happen; the Gryffindor was beat the crap outta the Slytherins and out of sheer anger they would fire illegal spells and injure someone. Then Professor Flynn would get pissed and deduct house points and the Slytherins would blame the Gryffindor for losing points when it was really their own fault. It was like clockwork, it happened every time.

XVIVX

END CHAPTER. Well this certainly took a loooong time to get out. Well at least I didn't have everyone flaming me about the temporary break up and I think they got back together in a really sweet way. I also thought I might add that I had my birthday two weeks ago and that was one of the reasons this took so long to type out then Christmas was right after it. Needless to say I have been busy. I am thinking about starting another fanfic, this one about Tom and Ginny. Just an idea, don't know if I am going to go through with it. Any thoughts?

Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year! Best wishes for everyone in 2005!!