Lily and Alice woke up the next morning at seven a.m. to the sound of raindrops pattering against the window.

"Good morning, Lils," Alice said sleepily; Lily just yawned in reply. Alice slowly started heading towards the bathroom and then sped up as she saw Leah heading that way; she slammed the door in Leah's face, evidence of the contempt between the two seventh year groups. Ten minutes later Alice came out, her blonde hair soaking wet from the nice hot shower she had just taken. She got dressed into her school uniform and she and Lily walked over to where Becca and Emily were still sleeping soundly.

"Well, are you ready to do our normal routine wake up call?" Lily asked smiling evilly at Alice.

"I've been waiting all summer to do this," Alice replied. Both girls muttered 'Sonorus' while pointing their wands at their own throats.

"Emily, Becca! Quick, you guys better get up and fast!" Lily's magnified voice echoed throughout the room causing Emma to fall out of her bed in a tangle of bed sheets.

"Yeah! Hurry, you guys will be late for your first Quidditch match," Alice's equally loud voice shouted. Becca and Emily both shot out of bed. Becca tripped over her trunk and fell onto the floor while Emily started pulling on her Quidditch robes at top speed.

"Oh, my gosh! I can't be late for the first match," Emily was shouting.

"I know, James will go absolutely insane if we're not at the pitch by…" Becca began. "Hold on. We don't have Quidditch today. It's only the first day back," she said, a confused expression appearing on her face. Lily and Alice started bursting out laughing their voices now back to normal; Emily and Becca scowled at them.

"I could still be asleep—breakfast doesn't start for another hour," Becca said laying back down on her bed and pulling the covers up over her face.

"Oh, come on, Beck. Get your little butt out of bed so we can go check our schedules," Lily exclaimed. Emily was busy taking off her Quidditch robes when she spoke.

"Jeez, I should have remembered your wake up calls," she laughed. "You guys are bloody annoying, do you know that?" she asked pulling her own school uniform out of her trunk.

Leah then walked out of the bathroom and joined her friend Emma.

"Could you guys stop fooling around?" Emma said rudely. Leah nodded her head agreeing. The other four girls ignored them.

Half an hour later, after much protesting from Becca and Emily, they were all dressed and showered and started walking out of their dormitory. Leah and Emma were standing in front of the mirror by the door and attempting to shorten their uniform skirts using a simple spell. They obviously thought they looked good because they were squealing excitedly about how none of the guys would be able to keep their hands off them this year. However, Lily, Alice, Emily, and Becca thought they looked like complete sluts screaming 'I don't mind if you can see my knickers'. As the four of them walked out, Emma and Leah looked after their retreating backs.

"How come they can always look so bloody good, no matter what they wear?" asked Leah, a hint of jealousy in her voice. Emma glared at her friend, slapped her, and then resumed to putting on huge amounts of make up.

As the four seventh year girls came down the stairs, the Marauders were there waiting for them along with Frank.

"Well, good morning, my little ray of beautiful sunshine," greeted James eagerly, rushing over towards Lily. She moved just in time, causing James to run into the wall.

"Don't even think about trying something, Potter," she exclaimed while heading towards the portrait hole, running her hand through her wavy red hair.

"Lily, you just ran your hand through your hair!" exclaimed James happily.

"And your point is…?" she turned around.

"I know I'm perfect, Lily, and everybody envies me, but running a hand through your hair is my thing!" he said his arrogant grin in place. Lily looked like she was about to start one of her famous I-hate-you-Potter arguments, so Alice, Becca, and Emily ushered her out of the Common Room. It was way too early for anybody to have to deal with another Lily-James screaming contest.

As they entered the Great Hall, Lily looked up at the ceiling, which was a mass of dark clouds; thunder could be heard outside.

"What a beautiful day we're going to have," stated Lily sarcastically. They took a seat at their table and were soon joined by Frank and the Marauders. Frank walked over and sat next to Alice as the rest of them sat down in various places. James, was of course, trying to sit down next to Lily even though she had propped her foot up beside her so he couldn't sit there. However, her plan failed as James plopped himself down on top of her leg and began reaching for the porridge.

"Potter, get off my foot," she screamed agitatedly. "Why can't you just leave me alone for five seconds?"

"I did leave you alone for five seconds. Last night while you were sleeping, this morning when you were getting dressed, when you walked down here, when…" Becca reached over Lily, who was looking appalled, and covered James's mouth with her hand. He licked it in retaliation and Becca shrieked just as Professor McGonagall came over to give them their schedules.

"Miss Daniels, please refrain from disturbing the other students with your unnecessary noises," she said fixing Becca with her well-known stare; everybody snorted into their breakfasts. As McGonagall continued handing out the timetables, the Gryffindor seventh years began looking over theirs.

"Ugh, double Transfiguration first thing this morning. What are they trying to do? Kill our brains the first day back?" announced Sirius.

"What brain, Sirius?" asked Emily innocently as she continued eating her toast. He glared at her.

"Sirius, you're still taking Divination, right?" Becca asked.

"Of course I am. Second class of the day today," he grinned.

"Brilliant! We have it together again," Becca exclaimed, jumping up and leaning across the table to give Sirius a high-five.

"I honestly can't believe that we passed the O.W.L.'s for Divination," Becca said.

"Same here. I honestly made everything up during that exam," Sirius laughed as Becca nodded in agreement. "Except for when I wrote my name on my paper."

"Why do you two even take that class?" asked Lily. "It's a complete bowl of rubbish if you ask me."

"Because it's wicked funny and you can make everything up," said Becca, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, and not to mention a great napping period," Sirius added. "Man, we have had some good times in that class, haven't we Beck?" he asked, smiling and remembering all of the dull hours they had spent in that overheated classroom.

"Yep, we sure have! Like last year when we were supposed to write that stupid dream diary and you made up some hilarious story involving Snape in a ballerina costume dancing around Slytherin's common room. Professor Froddic totally bought it!" She began laughing hysterically. Remus, who was sitting next to her, subconsciously put his arm around her waist to keep her from falling backwards off the bench. As soon as he realized what he'd done, he pulled his arm away quickly, staring down into his porridge.

Twenty-five minutes later, the seventh years walked out of the Great Hall towards Transfiguration. Frank and Alice were lagging behind, his arm around her waist, while the rest of the group made a bet on how many lectures they were going to have about N.E.W.T' s. Soon the seventh years reached their classroom. They all filed in and took their normal seats in the back. Lily refused every year to sit in the back saying that 'you learned so much more if you sat in the front', but she always gave in and sat with her friends. The only draw back with sitting next to her friends was that it also meant that James was nearby, not to mention his three friends that were almost as annoying.

The seventh year Ravenclaws started entering the classroom a couple minutes later.

"Becca! Hey, mind if I sit here?" Ryan asked pointing to the seat in front of her.

"No, of course not," she said smiling at him; she had to admit he was pretty cute.

"Hey, guys," exclaimed Ryan addressing the Gryffindors. A chorus of 'Hey' followed. All of the sudden the door opened emitting Professor McGonagall into the room.

Their first class of the day went along pretty smoothly. Professor McGonagall took up the first hour lecturing the class about how their N.E.W.T.S would strongly affect their life after Hogwarts. All the Gryffindors, except Lily, spent that time passing notes while Lily glared at them. James attempted to impress Lily by looking like he was listening, but it didn't work as the whole class could hear obnoxious snoring coming from behind his book. The last thirty minutes of class was taken up by reviewing basic spells. Sirius "accidentally" set Alice's robes on fire when his spell missed the bird he was supposed to be turning into a water goblet, and in response Alice turned his hair red.

"Hey, look, Lils. We can be cousins now," Sirius exclaimed, borrowing Emily's miniature mirror from her book-bag and examining his new look.

"The day I'm related to you will be a very sad day indeed," Lily said while helping Becca get the right wand movements.

"How do you like my new hair, Em?" asked Sirius, winking at her flirtatiously.

"Oh, it's very sexy, Sirius," she said laughing.

"Yeah, why don't you just bring that hot head of yours right on over here," said James scooting his chair closer to Sirius, who decided to play along. They began wiggling their eyebrows at each other. Peter started laughing hysterically until Professor McGonagall asked if she would need to give him an extra lesson on how to not disrupt a class, which shut Peter up immediately. The bell soon rang and everyone made a rush towards the door.

"Well, Sirius and I should be heading up to Divination now," Becca said checking her watch. Sirius kissed Emily on the cheek, linked arms with Becca, and the two skipped off down the hall. Emily, Frank, James, Alice, and Peter started heading in the direction of Arithmancy while Remus and Lily walked in the opposite direction towards Ancient Runes.

"Bye, Becca!" Ryan called after her. She turned around, gave a wave in return, and continued on her way.

"Mate, you're trying way too hard," Remus stated sourly to Ryan. He took hold of Lily's arm, pulled her away from a Hufflepuff guy she was talking to, and marched up the stairs to their next class. Their conversation soon turned to James.

"Lily, at least become friends with James this year. Please. I don't think I can stand another year of him sulking because you have rejected him again," Remus said.

"I don't know Remus," she sighed. "I know he's a nice guy—very occasionally, mind you—but…"

"But what?"

"I don't know. Ever since he first talked to me back in our first year he's annoyed the heck out of me. He always bullies the Slytherins, especially Severus, and he isn't responsible at all; he's always pulling pranks and getting into detention," Lily continued listing off all of his bad qualities as Remus just walked beside her listening intently.

"…He also has good qualities though, but his bad ones pretty much rule those out," she finished. She looked over at Remus and smiled. "Thanks for listening to all that Remus. You're a great friend."

"Anytime, Lils. But have you ever thought that maybe the Slytherins deserve what they get from James?" he asked, letting Lily dwell on this new thought for a while. They walked into Ancient Runes, took a seat in the front, and began listening to the second N.E.W.T lecture of the day.