heyy guys sorry its been kind of long since i've updated but it just kind of makes me sad that no1 ever review lol im like umm...is it not that great? should i start over with something else? i guess as most of u who are authors know that reviews n stuff make ur work feel appreciated. when i get ppl that give me a heads up even a word or 2 that they like or appreciate what im doin or whatever it makes me wanna get right to writing the next ch. if not i wonder if im doin the right thing. if its not too much to jus post one when ur done reading, it'd be appreciated, thanks! i love checking my email and being like omg yay ppl like what im doing lol. thanks bunches!

3 jrosie

ps thanks to the 2 of u who have reviewed thus far :-)

James awoke early the next morning, Lily still sound asleep on his chest.

"Lily," he cooed quietly. Blinking her eyes into the sunlight that was beginning to pour through the window, Lily groaned.

"Do we have to get up?" she asked groggily.

"Yes, dear. Double Potions this morning. And charms." That last part was difficult for James to say. He hated charms, with a passion. It was going to be difficult with Lily's mum for a professor, even if she wasn't really. But no one else knew that fact.

"Come on Lily you don't want everyone to find us here like this. Don't you think it might look a bit funny?" James asked her.

"Oh crap, you're right. I need to go shower and get dressed. In my uniform this time, I er, forgot yesterday and McGonagall wasn't too pleased. What time is Potions?"

"9:00 am sharp. Don't be late; old Sluggy hates it. He, er, doesn't care for me much. Actually he has his favorites, I'm just not one of them. A whole fan club of them really. it's a bit dodgy if you ask me at times though. I suppose his classes aren't too bad."

"Yeah, I like potions. It was my best subject at Owlhorns'."

"I thought transfiguration was your best subject?"

"Well, not really. I guess everything is my best subject. I hate people knowing about that though because then it seems like I'm bragging or something and that's the last thing I want people to think. I want people to like me, not hate me. What I meant was, I guess, that I had a really great potions teacher and she really taught me a lot about it. She made me like the class a lot. I was thinking about maybe being a healer, you know, at St. Mungo's. If I don't do that, though, I'll probably be an auror. I know it's dangerous but that's all right – I'm up for a challenge. Oh and, er, James?"

"Lily?"

"I don't have charms with you today. I'm taking a class all by myself with my mom, because during charms I have special lessons with Dumbledore. You see, at Owlhorn's, we had this class in the history of the universe. It's about how magic originated, and how the universe originated. I thought it was really interesting. I just hope Dumbledore is as good a teacher as my old one was. But I suppose I'll live regardless. Did you know there was a special section of the department of mysteries concerning the beginning of the universe? Since no one was actually there at the time, it's a very questionable subject, and the door to that branch is always locked. I always thought it would be an interesting branch of magic to pursue but it isn't enough action for me. They also handle communications with other planets and galaxies. Fascinating really. But anyways, I'll see you in a bit."

James looked taken aback. "Yeah, that'll do. And, oh, Lily? I was wondering if you wanted a little tour of the castle with me. I know this castle like the back of my hand in the dark. Every trick of it. It's quite amazing really. You'll see, if you're up to it? Maybe tonight? Or tomorrow morning? No classes tomorrow…"

"Sure, I'm up for it tonight after my charms session with…her… We should meet after dinner in the Great Hall. Deal?"

"Deal." And with that James watched as Lily ascended the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

"Where were you?" asked Amy. Lily glanced around the room, expecting to see Lacey, but she did not.

"I was in the common room. I couldn't sleep, and I was rather upset and didn't want to wake you. Is that ok? It's not against school rules is it?" Lily looked anxious.

"Oh, no, not at all," said a girl with brown hair that framed her face in ringlets. "By the way, I'm Aurora. Aurora Brigette. But you can call me Ari. Everyone else does."

"No, everyone else calls you Ari-ya-gona-sleep-with-me?" Lacey waited for Ari's reaction before shouting "JUST KIDDING" and bursting into fits of giggles as a pillow flew across the room at her via Ari's wand.

"Don't mind her," Ari told Lily. "She's just a prat who thinks she's funny. Oy Cassia! Malvina! The rest of you girls! Wake the hell up!" Ari proceeded to wake the six Gryffindor girls that remained under the sheets. One by one beginning with the furthest bed, the bedclothes flew off the beds and onto the floor at their feet.

Lily peered around the corner. There were eight individual shower stalls on the far wall. She blinked. She could have sworn there were eight. Yet she looked again, and saw nine. "Well, Lily," Lacey said, sounding surprised, "I guess the castle knew you were coming. We have an extra shower stall just for you."

Lily nodded and freshened up for her first official class as a Hogwarts student. Finishing quickly, she followed the other Gryffindor students to her first classroom, ready for an interesting session. She scanned the crowd searching for James. He wasn't there. As class began, Lily realized that James still hadn't arrived in class. She also noticed she was in a room with several green-robe clad students, and as she counted she found the same amount as red-robe clad students. Green, she thought, wasn't that the Slytherins who are obsessed with bloodline that James was talking about? Oh no, this will be a nasty class I think. Lily rolled her eyes, but she suddenly realized that the Slytherins were all crowding around a certain greasy haired boy, and were all whispering excitedly together amidst choruses of giggles.

"Hello everyone, as most of you – would the fourteen of you hooligans please settle down and take your seats? What is all of this hubbub about anyways?" asked Professor Slughorn, sounding a little bit more than irritated. A rapt knocking sounded from somewhere within Slughorn's office. Obviously perplexed, Slughorn turned towards his office door, immediately drawing his wand and forgetting about the whispering Slytherins in the corner. He crept towards his office door, and, turning it slowly, muttered Lumos and his wand illuminated the dark bowels of his office quarters. "Who's there?" he asked gruffly. He sounded a bit nervous, as if he expected someone to jump out and shout "Avada Kadavra" at him.

"Er, Professor?" a minute yet familiar voice came from a wall within the room. Shining his lighted wand in the direction of the voice, Slughorn was anxious to know who was in his office. There, on the wall, was a portrait of a wrinkly old woman sitting on a rocking chair in a garden full of green. Or, at least, it was supposed to be a wrinkly old woman. Instead the 3D image of James Potter stood before him in front of the rocking chair.

"James? Someone painted a portrait of you did they? Who would have done that? How much did you pay? If it was under a million galleons, Potter, they must have been intoxicated by firewhiskey or something of the sort. cough I mean, well, what do you want James?"

"Professor, I'm not a picture. Snape did it. Some, I don't know, bloody spell that the… bloody bastard invented. Can you…can you get me out of here? That's why I'm late. I can't get out! He's got a book of them, I swear it."

"Mr. Potter for this I don't know a counter spell. If you would like I could call Severus in here to fix it for you? I'll ask him if he has a book of spells he's invented. I can always tell when someone is lying."

"O.K. Are you going to punish him?"

"Er, of course Mr. Potter. I can't let a deed such as this to go unpunished." With that Slughorn turned and waddled back to the potions room a few feet from where James was stuck in the portrait.

"Severus, a word if you will."

"Professor, is there something wrong?"

"Of course there is something wrong I am asking to see you in my office now get there immediately. As for the rest of you," Slughorn instructed the remainder of the classroom, "turn to page 362 and proceed working on the tooth straightening potion. I shall return momentarily." A few sniggers erupted from the Slytherins, but the Professor ignored this and returned to where Severus and James were awaiting him.

"Severus," the Professor said rather quietly, "what do you have to say for yourself? What do you call this!" He pointed at the picture hanging on the wall. James was livid. Severus began to giggle.

"Snape!" James hissed. "Get me out of here ya bloody prat!"

"Now, now, Jamesie, you expect me to get you out with an attitude like that?"

"Don't call me that!" James erupted.

"Severus," Slughorn interrupted, "I suggest you do it and you do it right now or else instead of a week of detentions you will receive 5 months worth. How do you think this will make our house look to the headmaster? Twenty points from Slytherin. You should know better. Now get Mr. Potter out of this mess. Oh, and Severus? Do you have a book of these…strange spells that you have invented?"

A very placid look spread over Severus' face. "Why of course not. I've never invented a spell. Anyways, very well, Professor. I'll get him down." He flashed a greasy grin towards James. "Corpulus Regali." A whooshing sound was heard and James reappeared, whole, in the office. He collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"Are you ok, Potter? Do you need Madam Pomfrey to see you?"

"No, no, I'll live. I'm ok." The reply was slightly muffled. "Just give me a few seconds to straighten myself."

"Very well. I'll see you in your seat in five minutes. Severus, you get in your seat as well. And not a word once you arrive there. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Snape scowled. He trudged to his seat followed by the Professor. A few minutes later James emerged from the office covered in dust. He also took his seat a few rows behind Lily. She turned and smiled at him as she worked on her potion. The liquid in her cauldron was already beginning to turn the whitish color that a perfect mixture procured. James sighed as he glanced in her direction. Gosh she's really something, he thought.

"Erm, Professor?" James looked towards the place where Professor Slughorn was standing. "What would you like me to do? Everyone else is pretty much done with their potions and class is almost over. Is there something I can make it up with?"

"Okay, Potter. Two feet of parchment about why one shouldn't tell lies." The Professor doled out his assignment rather loudly, and the class sniggered. James' cheeks burned. He met eyes with the other three marauders. They all knew that the Slytherins would pay, they just weren't quite sure how yet. James was also worried about what Lily would think, because she told him to be nice to Snape.

Potions ended and James waited for Lily as she put her perfect draught into a flagon and placed it on Slughorn's desk.

"Lily, dear?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"A word?"

"Er, I have a meeting with Dumbledore in a few minutes, well, a class actually so if it's quick?"

"Well, actually Lily I wanted to congratulate you. Only young Severus has talent that goes anywhere near yours. I was amazed at the skill you demonstrated this morning. Incredible, really."

"But Professor it was only one – "

"My dear Lily, I can tell these things. Lunch in my office today?"

"Oh, I'm soryr, like I said I do have a class. Maybe some other time."

"Yes, some other time. Run along now. I wouldn't want you to be late for Dumbledore."

By the time Lily turned around, James had already cleaned her cauldron area for her. "Oh James, you shouldn't have! You're going to be late."

"Poppycock I'll be just fine. You're going to be late too and Dumbledore's way more important than er… well I guess I shouldn't have said that."

"Nah, that's ok. Don't worry about it."

Lily walked slowly along the corridor towards Dumbledore's office. "Chocolate frogs," she mumbled toward the stony gargoyle and it leapt out of the way. About to knock loudly on the headmaster's office door, something abruptly stopped her. She leaned in close to the oaken door and listened quietly.

(A/N: this might look slightly familiar lol)

"Good evening. Tom," came the voice of Dumbledore. "Won't you sit down?"

"Thank you," came another voice, but Lily wasn't sure whose. "I heard that you had become headmaster, a worthy choice." It was a high, cold voice that made Lily's hair on the back of her neck prickle.

"I'm glad you approve. May I offer you a drink?" Dumbledore spoke again. It seemed he was a very polite type of person. Lily wondered whether he expected this meeting with the mystery 'Tom' inside his office, or if it had been a rather unpleasant surprise. Did he forget about her? Lily did not know.

"That would be welcome. I have come a long way." The other voice sent shivers down Lily's spine once again. She heard footsteps and held her breath, but the door did not open. Breathing freely once again, she listened close to the door. She wondered who on earth the mystery guest called Tom could be.

"So, Tom…to what did I owe the pleasure.?"

"They do not call me 'Tom' anymore. These days, I am known as – "

Upon hearing this, Lily wondered whether she had known the figure by his nickname of which he spoke.

"I know what you are known as, but to me, I'm afraid, you will always be Tom Riddle. It is one of the irritating things about old teachers. I am afraid that they never quite forget their charges' youthful beginnings"

The name sounded vaguely familiar to Lily, and she assumed it was something her mother, if one could call her that, had mentioned before in passing.

"I am surprised you have remained here so long. I always wondered why a wizard such as yourself never wished to leave school."

Lily, too, pondered this idea. Why would anyone ever want to stay permanently in school? She thought.

"Well, to a wizard such as myself, there can be nothing more important than passing on ancient skills, helping hone young minds. If I remember correctly, you once saw the attraction in teaching, too."

Lily's eyebrows raised. To her knowledge, Dumbledore didn't teach any classes, and there had never been a Professor Riddle teaching at Hogwarts.

"I see it still. I merely wondered why you – who are so often asked for advice by the Ministry, and who have twice, I think, been offered the post of Minister – "

"Three times at the last count, actually. But the Ministry never attracted me as a career. Again, something we have in common, I think."

"I have returned, later, perhaps, than Professor Dippet expected…but I have returned, nevertheless, to request again what he once told me I was too young to have. I have come to ask that you permit me to return to this castle to teach. I think you must know that I have seen and done much since I left this place. I could show and tell your students things they can gain from no other wizard."

Lily wanted to know even more, now, who this mystery wizard was. She now knew he was after a teaching position, and he seemed, to her, very dark. She assumed he had a fancy for the dark arts, just from the tone of his voice and a vibe she sensed from within the room she knew all too well was not Dumbledore's. What things is he talking about? I wonder if my old school was better, then, if there are things that this mystery Tom Riddle says that Hogwarts lacks.

"Yes, I certainly do know that you have seen and done much since leaving us. Rumors of your doings have reached you old school, Tom. I should be sorry to believe half of them."

"Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies. You must know this, Dumbledore."

"You call it 'greatness,' what you have been doing, do you?"

"Certainly. I have experimented; I have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed – "

"Of some kinds of magic. Of some. Of others, you remain…forgive me…woefully ignorant."

From this Lily sensed that her deductions from before had been correct.

"The old argument. But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore."

"Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places."

"Well, then, what better place to start my fresh researches than here, at Hogwarts? Will you let me return? Will you let me share my knowledge with your students? I place myself and my talents at your disposal. I am yours to command."

"And what will become of those whom you command? What will happen to those who call themselves – or so the rumor has it – the Death Eaters?"

"My friends will carry on without me, I am sure."

"I am glad to hear that you consider them friend. I was under the impression that they are more in the order of servants."

Lily was taken aback by what she had just heard. Death Eaters? Why would anyone want to be called a Death Eater? What exactly did they do? Servants? She wondered if they were house elves, or related to the house elves in any way.

"You are mistaken."

"Then if I were to go to the Hog's Head tonight, I would not finda group of them – Nott, Rosier, Mulciber, Dolohov – awaiting your return? Devoted friends indeed, to travel this far with you on a snowy night, merely to wish you luck as you attempted to secure a teaching post?"

This was obviously a dark man. Her mind wondered for a moment. Why would anyone want to immerse themselves in the dark arts? She thought. When her mind slowly reground itself to the present, she found that Dumbledore and Riddle were still talking.

"If you do not want to give me a job – "

"Of course I don't. And I don't think for a moment you expected me to. Nevertheless, you came here, you asked, you must have a purpose."

"This is your final word?"

"It is."

Lily heard the scraping of chair legs along the floor and her heart began to pound. In a few minutes the door before her would open, and the mystery guest and Dumbledore would find her. She doubted very much whether Dumbledore would mind her presence, since she was supposed to be there, yet she was increasingly uneasy about the second character present in the room with the headmaster. Her gut told her that he would not take a liking to an eavesdropper. She shrank back against the wall. Clutching her wand to her self, she pointed it at her chest and hoarsely whispered a highly advanced, human transfiguration spell that instantly turned her into a fly. Attaching herself to the wall, she tried to turn her body to get a better look at the strange man, but was unable to do so quick enough to see more than the black mass of robes with a head and feet attached making their way down the corridor. She waited for him to exit down the hall completely before transforming back to her original state. She waited a solid ten minutes before knocking loudly on Dumbledore's door.

James crept down the hall towards the Gryffindor common room, donning his invisibility cloak. He knew that if he was caught that he would be in serious trouble. Skipping class, especiallyProfessor Evans', was a death wish if he had any intentions of impressing Lily, and it didn't do wonders for his marks in the class, either.Professor Evans did not take attendance, feeling that it was a student's responsibility to show up, but in-class assignments were heavily weighted. He was sure that Sirius and the rest of the Marauders would be wondering where he was, and whether Snape had gotten a hold of him once again. But this was something that he, alone, had to plan for. Snape had done it alone, and James was no coward. He would pounce on the prat when he was least expecting it – by himself – seeking his revenge.

Suddenly, James heard footsteps coming down the hall towards him. He checked the map in his hand, the Marauders' map – three years work of careful investigation, and planning on the part of himself and his three best friends. Now that's odd, James thought. It can't be Filch, he's on the third floor with Mrs. Norris. An unlabeled dot? That can't be. No person is unplottable! Is the map malfunctioning? The boys wouldn't like this news.

James glanced up from his map to look at the figure that was nearing him. It was a man in a cloak with a long, sallow face and beady eyes. Not much hair on the head, he noted. Gee, he could really use some hair-growing draught, I suppose. But the man was not old. This was another oddity that James surmised from his gauging of the strange man. He sensed that this man did not belong in the school. Thinking Dumbledore might like to know about this, he paused wondering whether he should go and alert the headmaster. He decided against it, and instead decided to silently follow the mystery figure.

Treading along behind, James listened to all sounds that echoed the halls, so that he would not be caught by anyone around. He heard faintly the sound of the man's voice, slight in a whisper.

"No one will hold that position permanently. Curse it! Curse it I say! Dumbledore thinks he can deny Lord – ? He is sadly mistaken. Sadly. It is mine. I will have it one day, whether the old crow thinks so or not. Hmph."

Lord? Lord who? James thought to himself. He felt a funny vibration come from the fleeing man as he cursed the position that he spoke of. James wondered what, exactly, the position was. He assumed it had something to do with teaching, but wondered which one. He hoped it was Professor Binns'. It was worse than Professor Evans'.

PLOP

The man dropped a small booklet, it appeared, but did not seem to notice his error. James stopped when he realized that he had come into the entranceway, and the mysterious man was leaving through the great doors that were the exit to the great school. He walked toward the book and picked it up, turning it over and over. He opened it, but no words were found in it; it was completely empty. That's odd he thought once again. Too many strange things were going on. Something wasn't right, and James could feel it all over his body.

The doors slammed and he winced, wondering whether Mrs. Norris had heard and would come lurking soon. He did not know whether the man had been a welcomed guest or not. Lost in thought, James made his way back toward the Gryffindor common room to plan an excellent revenge against his arch enemy at Hogwarts. No, he thought aloud. Not just against Snivvellus. For this, his whole lot shall pay.

The booklet, though it might seem that way, is not Riddle's diary. I figured people would pick up on that and get mad or something. lol well that was my beta's idea anyways :-P i hope you like it, and of course, REVIEW:-)