Disclaimer: When in doubt. It's not ours.

Summary: A James and Lily Story. They both led seemingly perfect lives – appearing like flawless portraits. In 6th year, everything began changing drastically, forcing them to leave childhood, and their perfect images, behind forever. Follows The Marauders Era's 6th year at school.

Authors' note: This chapter contains more action that we promised. Specifically a Lily and James fight, "The train has hardly moved, and they're at it already." Squee!

Chapter 2: Insults, Attacks and Fiery Red Heads

Lily sighed contentedly as she walked onto the familiar platform, and saw the same hustle and bustle of activity going on as it had been ever since she had first come here. Younger students would cling to their parents, while the older ones would just sit nonchalantly around, waiting for their friends to arrive, or listened to their parents' endless warnings and goodbyes.

She pushed her trolley along, looking for three other girls about the same height as her. As she did so, she noticed James Potter staring at her from across the way, before turning a bright red and turning back to his three friends. Lily's face began constructing itself into a frown and she had half a mind t go over there and yell at Potter for staring at her like that, the arrogant git he was. She resolved to go do it and had begun walking towards him, when she heard a voice call out, "Lily! Lily, over here!"

Lily whirled around to see two of her friends coming towards her. On the left side was Hestia Jones, pink cheeked as always with her black hair almost to her waist. The other was Mai Xie, a petite girl whose eyes always held some mystery. They had hardly grown in height, but their faces shone with what seemed like collected insight. Lily returned their appreciative smiles as they neared her.

"Uh, Lils, why were you going to see the Marauders?" Hestia asked curiously as they began walking towards the train.

"I was going to yell at Potter," Lily plainly said.

"Why?" Mai asked, eyes lit with amusement. She had a secretive smile playing on her lips, as if reveling over some unknown triumph.

"Because when I walked in here he was looking at me." Lily said bluntly, and blushed realizing how stupid that sounded.

Hestia and Mai looked at her strangely and then burst out laughing. "You know, if he knew you had noticed that, his head might have swelled to the point of explosion. Poor bloke." Hestia said when she was finally able to stop laughing.

Lily laughed at this now, and thought what it would have been like if she came up to Potter and yelled that at him. He wasn't worth it. "You guys have changed so much over the summer, I can't believe it." She said merrily.

At that point, a blur of color jumped her excitedly, shrieking, "Lily!"

Lily grimaced and found herself looking up and gasping, "Kaitlyn…? You grew! It wasn't another Growth Solution was it?" she asked cautiously.

Early on last year, Kaitlyn Edwards had taken a Growth Solution so she could look taller and more mature in Sirius Black's eyes, but it had ended up going horribly wrong. She had grown to well over 8 feet and had refused to come out of the dorm room until it was past 4 in the morning to go see Madam Pomfrey, the new nurse for Hogwarts that year. A week later, Kat was back to normal, and swore she would never try to become taller by magic ever again.

"Of course not! My body suddenly decided to finally hit puberty, it's about time too. You should have seen Madame Malkin when I went to get new robes, she didn't even recognize me!" Kat laughed, her eyes twinkling.

"I thought you were saving us a compartment on the train." Hestia said, scowling slightly as they began walking again and neared the train.

"Don't worry; I've got it all taken care of," Kaitlyn answered good-naturedly.

Lily and the others shared looks of skepticism and tried not to groan. Kat's ideas were well known to get her and whoever else was involved into detention. Of course it helped quite a bit that she was on good terms with both Lily and Remus, who never bothered to give detentions to her. "Trust me, I just got that idiot 7th year Hufflepuff prefect Benjamin something or other, to jinx the compartment so that if anyone tries to steal it they'll – well, lets just say they won't look too pretty."

At this, the girls chuckled simultaneously; trust Kaitlyn to be able to persuade a prefect to break the rules. "As for detention, you can only give it out once we get to school, and not on the Express, so there." Kat added smugly seeing the apprehensive look on Lily's face.

Lily's look vanished and she concentrated on getting on the train without dropping anything. Kat quickly led them down a short way, into one of the compartments. Everyone looked shocked as they got in; somehow Kat had managed to get a spot right across from the Marauders' official compartment. Trust Kat to do that too; compartments near the Marauders were the most sought after because the Marauders themselves, could well be considered royalty of the Hogwarts social ladder – which meant that the best of the best was reserved for their likings. Not only was the compartment to have some of the first dibs of the food trolley, and enabled first choices to the horseless carriages, but also it allowed desirable privacy – as it was located away from the core of back-to-school chaos. The girls were definitely impressed.

"I knew you'd like it," Kaitlyn smiled as she plopped down on a seat beside Mai, while Hestia and Lily sat across from them. The girls settled in comfortably and chattered among themselves pleasantly as the train got ready to leave the station.

"Hey Hestia, how was living at Kevin's all summer?" Lily teased, making Hestia blushed and begin talking about how big Kevin's house was and how there was a beach practically in his backyard.

"Do you hear something?" Mai asked suddenly, interrupting Hestia. The three girls all strained their ears.

"It sounds as if there's a commotion outside; I better go see what it is." Lily said and got up, getting her wand out since she was a prefect, she was allowed to do magic on the train.

"We're coming too," Mai said firmly, as she, Hestia and Kat had gotten up and taken their wands out as well.

Lily nodded and stepped swiftly outside the compartment; she narrowed her eyes at the scene she saw before her. Lucius Malfoy and Mike Goyle, Slytherins for sure, were hexing muggleborn students and threatening to curse their families if they didn't jump off the train immediately.

"Watch yourself, Malfoy – we wouldn't to get you expelled now, would we?" Lily snarled quietly, stepping forward boldly.

Hestia blinked surprisingly and turned back to the other two girls. Lily never snarled at anyone unless it was at Potter and Black, which was very unusual for her. Mai looked on with deep disgust, while Kaitlyn looked like she was ready to curse Malfoy's arse to oblivion.

Malfoy stopped what he was doing, and the muggleborns who were being hexed, fell to the ground limply and had to be helped up by terrified onlookers. "Is that so?" he asked coolly, exchanging a look with Goyle before stepping forward to look down on petite Lily.

"Well, due to the fact, that there were several eyewitnesses who are willing to testify that they saw you hexing muggleborns and threatening to, oh what was it? Ah, yes I remember now, to 'personally go after their families and hang them on the school grounds unless they threw their unworthy arses off the train at once', I say we stand a pretty good chance." Due to the fact, that she often heard her father talk like he did in court, Lily had gotten accustomed to exercising a lawyer's vocabulary and did it quite often.

"Not a chance, you filthy little mudblood," Malfoy sneered.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" a deep voice yelled behind Lily, and before she could turn around to identify the person, Malfoy and Goyle's bodies were both on the ground.

"That oughtta teach them not to mess with Evans while I am around," James Potter's arrogant face popped up beside Lily.

"What, did you do that for?" Lily asked, in a hostile tone as she turned to face him.

"To save your good-looking arse, Evans. How about a thank you kiss?" James knew that it was doubtful he would get one, but sounded hopeful all the same.

Hestia, Mai, Kaitlyn, and Remus, who had just appeared out of the compartment, tried not to groan. Sirius got ready to whoop loudly, and Peter stayed back in the compartment – dreading for what was coming. "The train has hardly moved, and they're at it already," he muttered to himself.

"I'd rather kiss Snape thank-kiss you!" Lily yelled.

"Ouch." Sirius muttered, which made Kaitlyn aware that he was there and caused her to turn a bright crimson.

"What were you thinking, jinxing those two like that?" Lily hollered so piercingly that several people peeped out from there compartments to watch the two fight.

"B... but he called you a…a you know what!" James stuttered weakly.

"He calls me that all the time, Potter! I'M USED TO IT! You shouldn't have helped unless I asked you to, which I didn't and won't ever do!" Lily shrieked again, and turned bright red, suddenly realizing that there was a lot of people watching her and James.

"I would have thought you would only be glad that I stepped in!" James yelled, glowering at the fact that he was looking like an idiot in front of so many people.

"Glad! Why the hell would I be glad?"

"Because if I hadn't stepped in, Malfoy would have pulverized you!"

"He wouldn't have dared to with a bunch of people watching! I'm not a damsel in distress! When are you going to learn, Potter, that you're NOT BEING A HERO!" And with at, Lily turned on her heel and stormed off into her compartment, while James stood stupidly in front of a bunch of on-lookers, before recoiling off into his own.

The crowd quickly dispersed to return to their own business, ready to gossip over what had just happened, leaving Remus, Sirius, Hestia, Mai, and Kaitlyn standing around, looking at the two frozen bodies on the floor. "They look as if they were dead," Hestia whispered suddenly.

Sirius just grinned and turned towards the girls, "You two are looking exceptionally well this year, what are your beauty secrets?" he winked, turning his charm onto Hestia and Mai, and ignoring Kat as usual.

Mai just rolled her eyes and headed into the compartment despairingly as Hestia giggled foolishly. Kat, with an injured look, left silently to disappear back into the girls' compartment as well. Remus frowned when he saw this, but said nothing and listened while Sirius and Hestia flirted for a while.

"Padfoot, I'm leaving." He said after a few minutes of too much giggling, and began heading back before Sirius went after him, and the remaining girl slipped back into her own compartment to join her friends.

James groaned just as Remus and Sirius stepped into the compartment. "Aw, c'mon Prongs, it wasn't that bad." Sirius said as he flopped down next to Peter.

James just glared at him. "Okay, so maybe it was. But it's not like it was your fault; if you hadn't stopped Malfoy he would have Avada Kedavra'd her!" Sirius cried, hoping James would feel better after that.

"What did I ever do to make her hate me?" He said to no one in particular.

"Lot's of things." Sirius replied a little too cheerfully.

"Padfoot?"

"Yeah Moony?"

"Shut up."

Sirius did just that, as Remus turned to James and explained sympathetically, "Prongs, maybe if you listened to what she said… er…yelled rather, she would like you better."

"Like what?"

"Like just now, for instance. If she's ever in a situation like she was with Malfoy, don't rush immediately in to curse him, but just let her handle it. See, the problem with you mate, is that you think she can't manage on her own. Just like she said, she's not delicate. Lily's an extremely self-sufficient woman, she doesn't like to have things done for her."

"I realize that Lily is independent, that's one of the reasons why I like her. But I was merely being a gentleman! Is that a crime nowadays?" cried James defensively.

"James, there's a difference between being a gentleman and being overprotective," explained Remus patiently. "You should just stop jinxing people as a resolve for conflict, stop trying to act like a knight in shining armor, and most of all, stop messing up your hair and trying to flatten it."

"Moony?"

"What Prongs?"

"That sounds like a lot of work."

"It is, but if you really want Lily to like you or be able to merely tolerate you even in the slightest, than you're going to have to do it, and it will be worth it."

James nodded, leaned back and agreed that making Lily like him was the only cure for his broken heart. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" a kind voice asked, opening their compartment door.

Of course, the only other thing that could cure him at the moment was…well, food. James grinned and took out his generously filled moneybag.

Thanks for the reviews guys! An authors' first reviewers are always cherished closed to the heart 3 Next chapter: It will be longer, featuring arse-pinching and hurricanes! Cheers.

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