"Hey Evans!" a voice called out making Lily turn around and roll her eyes. This was all she needed. She got one day out, under the watchful eye of her parents, and she had to see him.

"What do you want Potter?" she asked coldly. She could feel the gush of air as her mother spun round to look over him critically.

He shrugged. "I'm just saying hi."

"Well hi, and 'bye." She turned to walk away but was stopped by her mother.

"Where's your list sweetie? Your dad and I will buy your things. You spend some time with your friends."

"Potter and I aren't friends," Lily reminded her, knowing it was pointless.

"Of course we are," James argued with a grin as he put his arm over her shoulder.

Lily glared at him before looking at her father, silently pleading him to argue. It didn't come.

"Well, make sure you look after her James. We'll meet you back here in a couple of hours Lily." Kathryn smiled as she watched her daughter being led through Diagon Alley.

"Get your arm off me Potter," Lily ordered when they were out of earshot of her parents.

"Now Evans, if your mother can bring herself to call me James, nice of you to tell her about me by the way, then why can't you?" he asked in his cocky way.

"Potter-"

"Uh-uh, James," he corrected.

"Potter," she continued, giving him a sigh as the only sign she had heard him talk. "We've been through this. I don't like you and am not your friend. As I only call my friends by their first name then it makes no sense to you call James. Speaking of friends, there's Alex, so 'bye." She started walking away, unaware that he was following her.

"Alex!" she called to her friend, running to catch her up.

"Lily," Alex responded, hugging her when she arrived. "Uh, what's he doing here?"

Lily turned around. "Potter, will you go away?"

He ignored her, answering Alex's question instead. "I have been enlisted by Mrs. Evans to ensure that her daughter is safe whilst in Diagon Alley."

"She wants her daughter to be safe yet she asked you? Well there's a big contradiction," Alex stated making Lily giggle.

Five minutes later the three were sat outside Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlour. The girls were discussing what they had done during the summer up until now whilst James looked around for his friends, a bored expression on his face.

"I haven't done anything," Lily told them. "I've been grounded for the last three weeks for fighting with Petunia."

"Really?" James asked with sudden interest as he signalled for his friends to come over. "Little Miss Perfect needed punishing?"

Lily nodded, ignoring his remark as he saw Sirius, Remus and Peter heading over.

"Remus," she hugged him when he came over. She ignored Sirius and Peter's presence completely.

"Oh yeah, Remus gets his name used," James muttered.

"Well Remus is my friend," she stated as though this were obvious.
"Whatever"

Lily smirked at this response. The rest of their time was spent sat at that table. Lily had a whispered conversation with Remus before they joined in with the group discussion.

This was interrupted when James suddenly stood up. "We have to go Evans."

"Excuse me?"

"You've had nearly three hours. Your parents will be wondering where you are."

"Oh. Well I can go on my own. I don't need your help."

"Tough luck, I promised." With that his arm was over her shoulders again and he was steering her through the crowds.

"Sorry she's late," James apologized to Lily's parents. "We met some friends and time just ran away."

Kathryn smiled, though Jack looked at him with what can only be described as curiosity-hiding-suspicion.

"It's not a problem," Kathryn told him, still smiling warmly. "I just hope you two kids had fun. Maybe you and your parents can come over one night next week?"

Lily scowled. "I'm sure they have more interesting things to do."

He words were drowned out by James who jumped in with "We'd love to. I'll tell my parents tonight and send an owl." Kathryn nodded at this, making James grin and Lily scowl even more. "See you later Evans," he said with a wave.

When he was gone Lily rounded on her mother. "What did you do that for?"

"Do what?" Kathryn asked innocently.

--------

"Hullo Evans," James' grinning face spoke on the evening of August 31st. He was ignored by Lily, who's only recognition of his presence was an unfriendly look before pulling him into the house. He saw her smile politely at his parents who were looking at her curiously due to her odd behaviour.

"Hi," she said shaking their hands in an obvious attempt to get them to stop looking at her like that. "I'm Lily."

"Joanne," his mother said.

"And I'm Henry," his father smiled at her.

"Joanne and Henry, right. Would you like to come through?"

Lily led them into the lounge where they were to wait. James looked around in amazement at the muggle items and the cosiness of such a small house whilst his parents were involved in a polite conversation with Lily's parents.

He could feel two sets of eyes on him. Turning to face them he saw identical glares, one he expected. He was used to Lily scowling at him by now. The other though he had no idea why he was getting. It was from a face he had never seen before. A long neck and horse-like face under dark hair and set on a tiny frame, James found it hard to believe this was a relation to Lily, let alone her sister.

Both women left the room; Joanne insistent on helping Kathryn serve the food. A few minutes later Kathryn came back and announced it was time for them to eat. As they all walked into the dining room, James struck up his first conversation with Lily.

"What's up with her?" he was aware that beside him, Lily had tensed up.

"Who?" she responded shortly.

"Your sister, what was she called – Daisy?"

To his surprise Lily laughed. "It's Petunia, just ignore her, I do. She doesn't like people from our world."

"How come?"

Lily shrugged and was about to answer when a voice from behind them jumped in.

"Because you're all freaks," it hissed.

James faked hurt. "Ouch," he muttered before continuing in a semi-interested way. "Tell me Petunia, are you always this nosy or do you just feel that with a neck like that you should be?"

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Lily fighting back the laughter that threatened to spill. Petunia gave him the dirtiest look she could muster before seating herself at the table. He noticed with a twinge he couldn't place that Lily was scowling again as they sat next to each other.

--------

Sure she'd scowled when she sat down but that didn't mean she wasn't enjoying herself now. As the evening passed, Lily found herself remembering why she'd been friends with James when she'd started Hogwarts last year. Just like he was then, he was now. Funny, entertaining, friendly, not quite so preoccupied with pranks and bullying. More importantly he was talking to her as though she were an equal and not as though he were better than her because of who he and his friends were. Although, she noted with a kind of sadness, he was still calling her Evans.

"So how's Narcissa?" she asked politely. Dinner was over and the seven people had moved into the back garden to enjoy the warm summers evening.

She thought she saw his face darken, but when he smiled she decided she imagined it. "She's great, as far as I know."

Lily frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

James shrugged. "Nothing, forget I said anything. Look, Tuna's all on her own. I might just go and talk to her…Build bridges, that kind of thing."

Lily wanted to protest, to tell him to stay with her a little longer but she didn't. She couldn't. 'Get a hold of your-self,' she thought soothingly. 'You're not even supposed to like the guy. Remember?' She nodded, whether in conformation of what James had said or to what she'd thought she wasn't sure.

After a boring half hour listening to the adults discuss the finer points of French cuisine, which Lily supposed she should probably have found more interesting considering her parents had never been to France, Lily excused herself to go looking for James and Petunia. Neither had been seen since they disappeared into the house 20 minutes ago.

She searched each of the rooms downstairs but to no avail. Curiosity got the better of her as she searched upstairs, though she had no idea why they would be up there. First the bathroom, no sign. Petunia's room? Still no luck. They weren't in her parents' room either; there was only one place left.

She opened the door of her own bedroom and let out a small gasp, though she wasn't particularly sure why. She'd suspected something like this. Maybe it was because they were in her room, or maybe just because Petunia made her hate so widely known that it was odd to see her lips locked with a wizard. Whatever the reason, the sight was making her sick.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lily demanded angrily.

--------

James jumped, how could he not? She was so sudden and angry. "What are you doing here?" He asked her back casually.

He didn't expect the reply. He'd expected something like "I was looking for you" or "I came to tell you your parents are leaving." But the response he got was so cold and casual it chilled him.

"Well, gee, let me think. Could I possibly be here because it's my room and I want something from it?"

He got over his scare quickly. "This is your room Evans? It's…" He looked around it as though for the first time. The walls were a mix of baby pink and sunshine yellow, dotted with posters and hand-drawn pictures. The carpet, a colour, looked soft. "Cute," he finished for lack of a better word.

Lily didn't appear to be listening though. She was staring at her sister with an intense hatred bordering on malice. To his surprise Petunia was giving it back twice as much.

"What do you think you were doing?" Lily asked again, this time James realised she was talking directly to Petunia and stayed quiet.

"Well your room is so clean and perfect," she smiled nastily. "And there's a lot more space in here. Plus I know how much you like James."

James looked over at Lily when he heard this, breaking contact with a broken chain he had seen. He could have sworn he heard a growl coming from Lily's side of the room but she said nothing, she did nothing, not to her sister anyway. She just walked out of the room at a normal pace after declaring that she liked James as much as "Petunia likes acne." So looking back he figured he'd imagined the growl.

He followed her out of the room, Petunia behind him looking pretty proud of herself. When he reached the bottom of the stairs his parents were already there, preparing to leave.

"Oh, there you are James. Been having fun?" Henry asked.

"You could say that," he answered with a grin.

His father rolled his eyes; he knew only too well what James had probably been up to.

"Are we leaving now?"

Joanne nodded as she said goodbye to each of the Evans' individually.

"We should do this again," he heard her tell Kathryn. "Just the four of us, when the kids are back at school."

He heard Kathryn agree, saw his father and Jack nod in agreement and he saw Petunia get an unreadable look on her face that soon turned to disgust when she realised she'd be seeing more of them. But mostly he saw Lily's face, an expression of mixed emotions that was going to stay with him for a while. Anger, sadness, resentment, hate and, for a reason unknown to him, happiness.

His parents left the house. He stepped towards the door. "See you tomorrow Evans."

"Oh, I can't wait," was the sarcastic response. He grinned at it and chased after his parents.

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A/N: As second year is due to start in the next chapter I want to take this time to thank everyone who's reviewed and read the last 16 chapters. I try to answer everyone's review personally by e-mail, but I just want to take the time to do it again here, just in case I haven't e-mailed you yet.

Tinkerbell86 Hey, if you're still reading. As my first reviewer I really hope you are. Yes, that was her first year; I'm going from first year to their death, so enjoy it.

Krueger2 Thanks sis!

Mommiedearest Thanks mum!

Samli I fixed up the summary for you, and I took it all very gracefully. There were only a few broken things! I do hope to publish something one day, and you're not alone with being a "delighted, dedicated, and self-declared bookworm".

Dreammergurl2007 I'm glad you find it interesting. Hope you still are.

Miss Lady Padfoot My biggest reviewer so far! Here's the update you wanted, it took a while though didn't it? Oh well, it's your enthusiasm that encourages me to write more!

Kellyak Like I've already said, I do hope to take up writing as a profession. I've read the reviews you've sent to my mother, I'm touched. I'm glad you like the story; maybe it'll encourage you to read Harry Potter, eh? hint hint

Chrissy8887779999 I know Sirius isn't that friendly, but he will be. He was just…shall we say upset that James was getting close to finding out what his life was like. But I'll try to make him a lot funnier and friendlier from now on. Oh and there'll be times when James and Lily are getting on.

Ok, I think that's everyone, to anyone who's reading but hasn't reviewed: Why not?! If you have any questions or just want to tell me how good, or bad, you find this story then don't hesitate to review and tell me.

Rae.