Fulfilling Destiny

Disclaimer: I don't own Lily or any of the Marauders. I just own the idea, Adelaide and Kali. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: My fist Harry Potter fan fiction. Kind of a comeback for me. I haven't written in a while. I hope you like it. And if you think this is good enough, please review. I would like to know what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Constructive being the key word here, hehe.

Preview: Lily, James and the Marauders are ready for their last year at Hogwarts. Between career decisions, dangerous times and teenage problems, will they be able to see what's right in front of them? Will they fight for what they really believe in? Will friendship be strong enough to survive everything life throws at each of them? Romance/Humor/Drama (some).

Rating: T, just to be sure.

Things to consider: I have read many James and Lily fan fictions, some good, others not so much. I know the idea of writing about them isn't exactly original. But what I intent to do here is to be real about what I think happened, sticking to everything J.K. Rowling has already said. What I mean is that, if you are looking for a fic in which James and Lily hate and scream at each other for six years and then just suddenly realize that they are madly in love and can't live without each other, this is not for you. I'm a firm believer that love/hate relationship do exist, but they often aren't as extreme as they seem. No one can hate –truly hate- a guy for most of their lives and then marry him –truly in love- in space of a few months. Life just isn't like that. There has to be something there that just wasn't visible at first but was definitely there the entire time.

Ok then, having bored you enough, I expect you to like this. Reviews are welcome as I already said.

The Beginning of the End I

Lily Evans didn't hate James Potter. Not really. Everyone thought she did, but it wasn't like that. She had spent most of her previous six years at Hogwarts yelling at him for pranking their classmates or younger students. She had docked more points from him in her two years as prefect than all the other prefects combined. She had constantly refused his advances and invitations to Hogsmade since fourth year… But it wasn't because she hated him, it was because she hated that he didn't live up to his full capacity.

She knew that James Potter acted as an arrogant, self centered, spoiled brat. But she also suspected that he wasn't really like that. She had seen him, when he thought no one was looking. She had seen him help a second year get up from the floor after tripping with something Peeves had left there. She had seen him smile to a rather ugly third year old girl that had a crush on him just to make her happy. She had seen him talk to Hagrid out of some really stupid stuff –like getting a dragon- to keep the half giant out of trouble. She had seen him at the Quidditch pit training with the team and letting them in on every secret he had to become a better player.

Because of all this, she knew that James Potter wasn't as conceited as he appeared to be. Because of all this, she knew she didn't hate him. But that didn't mean that she liked him. Oh no. She disliked him intensely, that was for sure. Mostly because she knew he'd put up the act of popular Potter every time he was in the spot light and she didn't like people who wasn't true to their nature… who lived for appearances sake only.

The first time she had seen him, a few days into first year, he had smiled and waved at her. She had thought that the way his black hair stuck in all directions was funny, so she had smiled back. She thought that one day she would be friends with him because he seemed like a nice boy. She was wrong. The second time she had seen him he had smiled, winked, and preceded to call her 'carrot'. She had stormed out of the Gryffindor common room and hadn't seen him again until Charm lessons the morning after. He had smiled again, and when she didn't return the smile he had frowned and scratched his left eyebrow with his left index finger. His hazel eyes confused.

"Lily", he had said once the class was over, "Uh… Hi".

"Potter". She had acknowledged him and he had frowned again sticking his hands deep into his pockets.

"Look… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you carr- that last night. I was just trying to make Sirius laugh… he had received a howler from his mother", he had said, hoping that she didn't stay mad at him for too long.

"What's a how-…" she had been about to ask but had stopped herself because she was angry and he wasn't going to get away with it that easily, "so what? I'm your way of amusement now?".

"No… you're not. I just didn't know what else to do. I'm sorry". She looked at him for a moment and decided that he was truly sorry.

"Whatever James. Just don't do it again".

And that had been it. She hadn't hated him after that, just like she didn't hate him today, so many years after that. But she had avoided him. James Potter was trouble, and she could smell trouble a mile away. She didn't like trouble. Trouble meant detention and detention meant less study time, and she couldn't afford that. She was determined -since the first time she had heard the word mudblood spill out of Lucius Malfoy's mouth- to prove that being muggle born meant nothing. That she could be just as good as them, if not better. She had succeeded so far.

So that was really it. Lily didn't hate Potter. She just preferred to keep away from him and his notorious group of marauders. After all, James hadn't kept his promise of never calling her carrot again. And he hadn't fulfilled his promise of never hexing younger students again –he had hexed Sirius' brother quite a few times in the last four years since the weird boy started attending Hogwarts-. And even though he liked to say he was in love with her, he kept flirting with his rather large group of fans. Fans that fancied him for many things, specially for being so handsome –yes, Lily was well aware of that fact, she wasn't stupid- and for that badge on his robe that said he was Quidditch Captain.

No, Lily didn't hate James, but she didn't trust him either. And trust was essential for Lily in any kind of relationship, whether it was friendship or something more.