Author's Note: I did not write Harry Potter and therefore do not own the rights to the character names and places in which my story takes place. My plot and a few select characters are my own, so please don't steal them.

"Lily, calm down. I think if you slam one more cupboard, the entire room is going to collapse." Vivian told her friend, wincing once again as yet another drawer was shoved into place. Lily had been in moods like this before, mostly at the hands of Potter, but Vivian could tell that this time there was something behind her customary front of anger that was never there before. Vivian was forced to put her thoughts aside however as she heard another slamming noise, this time it was the door to their dorm.

"Lily, this isn't fair," she pleaded, practically running to keep her friend in sight. "You shouldn't let him get to you like this, and you shouldn't be taking your anger out on the furniture. Think about it, what did the dresser or the closet ever do to you?" Viv feebly joked.

"Vivian Deirdre O'Connor!" Lily said, causing her friend to wince at the use of her full name. "This is not a time for your jokes. I would have thought that you would have taken a hint after getting a detention that there are some times when you just need to shut up!" Lily said, her face turning red with anger and lack of oxygen.

The words hit Vivian like a hammer, and she was left with a stunned look on her face. In her mind she was weighing the situation, she could either walk away, something that looked mighty fine at the moment, or she drop the subject and let Lily blow off her steam somewhere else, avoiding a confrontation.

"I'm going to go find Sirius," Vivian said cooly, excusing herself as quickly as she could before Lily could make some scathing remark about that as well. She was almost through the portrait when she noticed Remus just entering. She muttered a few words of caution to the perplexed boy as she made her escape, and prayed that he would fare better with her. Good Luck, she thought, you're going to need it.

"No Sirius, I will not let you shave off my eye-brow," James said in a deadpan voice. He was still in no mood to face either Remus or Lily, and Sirius' constant bombardment about which body parts James would allow him to shave was not helping. (No dirty places, get your mind out of the gutter!)

"Aw, come on James! It would make you feel so much better!" The shaggy haired boy pleaded, trying to cover her devilish grin with a pout.

"You mean it would make you feel so much better," James smiled. It was something about the absurdity of the matter that made me push aside his thoughts and grin. "I might be willing to consider it if you would let me shave that faint tuft of peach fuzz that you like to pass off for facial hair."

Sirius gasped at even the thought of letting go of his carefully cultured facial hair, bringing his hand up to unconsciously hide it from view as if to protect it by keeping it out of sight. "You wouldn't dare," he hissed.

"Do you seriously know me so little?" James asked.

"It took me years to get this far." Sirius pleaded.

"Well, when you get to become a real man like me, Padfoot, you'll have no problem growing a little scruff." James joked as he puffed out his chest.

Sirius punched James on the arm, but there was still a tint to his eye that managed to say that something was coming, but wouldn't give away exactly what.

"You're unusually distant this afternoon. Still brooding over the little…incident this morning." Sirius said, abandoning his grin and turning a serious face to James. There were very few times Sirius was ever serious, but when he decided to grace you with his wisdom, it meant that the matter was important enough to take him away from his jokes. Only concern for his friends, or the safety of his family, including even his crazed pure-blood mother, shook him from his pranks. (hint hint…maybe something about this in later chapters? Hmmm?)

"I think that you should just suck it up and apologize before things get any worse. You have to admit that you were a bit tackless in the word department this afternoon, my friend."

Although James was still in thought about various revenge plans to play on the red headed demon, and werewolf pal, he thought on Sirius' words. Hs eye caught Vivian making a mad dash for the portrait, and cursed under his breath when he saw who it was that nearly collided with her. It's now or never, he thought, making his was to Remus, while still battling the voices in his mind that were screaming "Run away, run away!"

"………Remus?" James asked, as he intercepted the sandy haired boy at the stairs leading to the dorms. His voice sounded weak and dry as if he hadn't drank anything for a week.
"What is it James? Come to make fun of me again and cause Lily to cry? Weren't satisfied with having her run off to the dorm, you have to finish the task?" Remus fumed. James had never seen his friend be so fired up over something. It hurt him to hear his words, although he did commend Remus on abandoning his constant politeness for once in his life. They could make a man out of him yet, James smiled.

"I thought that I might owe you an apology. I should have never said those things to you." James told Remus. "Friends?" He asked, clearing his through to make his last comment sound less sensitive. If there was one thing he was not good at, it was expressing his feelings. No matter how many girls he had been with, he eventually found himself not being able to find the words, or sincerity, to say how he felt. Most of the time however, he was just trolling for a piece of ass so it never got around to talk of feelings and the like, but there was something about a friend that both lightened the effort and increased it none the less. You didn't have to say as much, but the words you did say had more meaning than with others. (that was a little sappy, but come on….cute as well?)

Remus looked James up and down, searching for any clue that might help him decide to take the apology as sincere or not. He could tell that James meant what he said, and decided that if they were going to be planning any big pranks to kick off the year, it would be best if the two smartest Marauders were on speaking terms.

"Sure, but just lay off Lily because next time, it's going to take more than an apology to get me to even glance in your direction." The two boys shared a quick hug, and jumped apart when they heard Sirius say over their shoulders, "What about your leg hair?"

Page Break (these things always get cut out when it get posted, so I thought I would just write the words out and hope for the best.)

The charms classroom was as usual very loud. Since Remus and James were once again on speaking terms, there was not reason for the Marauders no to scream at each other across the room as one person commented on the others' ability. Lily was starting to get a headache, not added to her bad mood, but she was convinced that she would survive until after the period to go to the hospital wing to get a potion. She couldn't help but notice that Remus had forgiven James although she didn't blame him. They were best friend after all.

It wasn't until the silence was becoming particularly awkward that Lily decided she owed Vivian an apology. They had not been speaking to each other after Lily's outburst in the dorm earlier, but the spell they were learning wasn't giving them much time to talk anyway. As always, Lily was the first to master it, being the top student in every class except transfiguration and divination. She and Remus were tied for the top in defense against the dark arts grade wise, but she secretly thought that he would be able to beat her in a duel if it came down to it. There was something about being able to perform complicated charms in class, and curses that was distinctly different.

"Listen Viv, I was thinking about earlier and I just wanted to say that I had no right to blow up on you like that," Lily apologized.

Vivian was silent a minute and then said, "I don't know if I can forgive you. You really hurt my feelings back there." Vivian turned away quickly to hide the smile on her face, and Lily was left babbling, attempting to find something to say that would get her best friend to forgive her.

"I didn't mean it! It was just my frustration at James…..wait a minute. Are you laughing?" She asked as she began to hear a slight snorting noise from the girl in front of her.

"Sorry Lil, but it was just too easy. I know it was James, it's no problem" Vivian said smiling. "So thought anymore about what I suggested for your party?"

"Yes," Lily groaned. Birthdays were never very fun since it seemed that year after year the Marauders had thought it would be funny to pull some stunt on her every birthday at Hogwarts. Last year it had happened to be a dancing half naked house elf they had managed to con into getting into her cake. If seeing a skinny elf jump out of you cake wasn't scary enough, he had proceeded to sing the song, "Happy Birthday, Ms. Prefect" no doubt something either Sirius or James had taught him the words to. If Marilyn Monroe could have seen it she would have rolled over in her grave from shame. Lily had been mortified, and was not eager to have a repeat. This year she was going to play it safe and have a small gathering of just her Vivian, Remus, and maybe a few select others, and James was not on the "select others" list. Nothing was going to get her convinced to pull whatever Vivian had in mind.

"You aren't still hung up on that big party are you?" Lily replied, eyeing her friend suspiciously.

"Noo! I mean it's not like it's a big deal or anything. You are only going to be sixteen and all."

"How big?" Lily asked, cutting to the chase.

"Well, let's just say that I was thinking along the lines of a fifty of your closest friends." Vivian said, while carefully not taking her eyes of her subject to gage her friend's expression.

Lily sighed and knew that the debate wasn't going to be solved easily. "We'll talk about this later," she said.

The rest of the period passed quickly, much to Lily's disappointment. The two girls left the classroom arguing over how many people would really be invited to the party. They didn't even notice when the boys headed down the corridor and disappeared.

AN: sorry for taking so long to update but this damn computer has taken it's time getting fixed, not to mention getting all my storied deleted on my mac. I had to rewrite this entire chapter, which sucked but what are you going to do? Review review review! And if you have to time, then check out my new story, After Tragedy.

Elyse