"Oh, James! We're so sorry we didn't believe you," his mother wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

The more James tried to wriggle from her grip the tighter she held him. "Mum? Mum? Mum!"

She still wouldn't release him so James glanced over at his dad, sending him a pleading glance.

"Mary, let him go. He can't breathe."

"What?" Mary raised her head startled and looked at her son. When she realised he was bright purple she hastily let him go. "Oh, my! Sorry."

"It's fine," James gasped for air. "Everything's fine."

"We really are sorry about everything," Mary repeated for the hundredth time.

"I know," James answered, sounding a little distant but neither of his parents seemed to pick up on it.

"And of course you're welcome home again. We never really believed it all, we were just in shock."

"You were," James muttered. "Mum, it's alright. Everything's back to normal." He gave a little sigh. "But I don't think I am going to be moving back in."

"What? Why not? You know you're always welcome."

"I know," James agreed. "But I think it's time I moved on and out, stand on my own two feet."

"But –"

Mary's objections were cut off as James' father, who until then had been stoically silent, spoke up. "Mary, it's time for him to grow up. Let him go."

"But Frank –"

"Mary," he silenced her with one gentle word. "It's time."

Small tears formed in Mary's eyes and James watched with a disjointed sympathy as they fell. Of course, this was his mum and he didn't want to see her in pain but she had so readily thrown him out without hearing his side of the story simply because of Magical prejudices and now that he was proven innocent she was acting like nothing had happened. It was too much for him to handle, he had to leave. His dad, at least, understood.

"I know," she sniffed. "That doesn't mean I want him to leave."

James rolled his eyes as he felt impatience begin to burn in his stomach. "I'll come to dinner on Sunday," he told her. "It's not like you'll never see me again."

She sniffed again while she nodded. "Good."

- - - -

Lily felt like she'd been driving forever. Maybe she had. In the past three days she had driven the length of three countries and back with a grand total of eight hours sleep and four hours break. She'd been played with, she'd been used and she'd nearly killed a guy. She sighed.

"Maybe the magical world wasn't such a bad place after all."

His voice made her jump and the car swerved slightly at her involuntary shaking of the wheel. It did, at least, serve to drift her thoughts away from the dark place they were headed.

"Leave me alone," she cried as she regained control of her car. "I don't want to hear from you again."

"Tough," Lee retorted. "You should have thought about that before you used the Orb."

"You should have given me another choice!" She spat at him angrily.

"What is your problem? I told you the truth."

"You shouldn't have had to because you shouldn't have messed with my life in the first place."

"It needed to be done."

"I don't believe you."

"Your choice," Lee answered casually. "But will you tell me one thing?"

"Why should I?"

"You shouldn't but I'd like to know."

Lily, against her better judgement agreed. "Fine, one question but then you leave me alone."

Lee made no agreement or disagreement to her proposal. "Tell me that you haven't had fun these past three days. That for just a little while you forgot about everything that had led up to this moment and were able to smile and laugh and be yourself for a change."

The words hit Lily fast and furiously and her eyes stung with tears she refused to shed. "I haven't and I didn't," she lied.

- - - -

"So," Frank spoke behind James. "You're really doing this?"

James stood up from under his bed, where he had been searching for his broom, and looked at his father.

"Yeah," he answered. "I really am."

Frank nodded. "I'm proud of you."

"What?"

"You heard me," Frank said, refusing to repeat himself.

James nodded. "I did, but why?"

Frank studied him a moment or two. "There's not many could have faced what you did and would have the nerve to show their faces again. But you have, it takes a strong man to do that."

James beamed at the compliment from his father. His father wasn't a very emotional man so when he came out with these kinds of comments they were to be valued immensely. Hearing it filled part of the emptiness James had been feeling since he got back.

- - - -

Nine that night, Lily was home but there was nowhere she hated to be more at that moment. To see these sadly familiar walls and hear the familiar humming of her freezer depressed her in ways it never had before. She needed to get out of here. She dumped her bag and left again, got back into her car and drove the fifteen-minute journey to Dave's.

"Coming," she heard Dave's voice shout through the closed door.

A small smile played on Lily's lips at the thought of seeing the things that had comforted her so much in the past two years; Dave and Sooty, her best friends.

"Lily," he sounded surprised to see her.

"Hey," she smiled at him warmly. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's great," he looked past her and out onto the street on which she was stood. "What are you doing here?"

She frowned at his odd behaviour. "You sure? You seem a little…distracted."

"Yeah, it's all good. Come on in."

"Thanks," she said unsurely but followed him in. "So, how's Sooty?"

At mention of his name, the grey and white cat stalked into the hall and curled his way through between Lily's legs. Lily bent down and picked him up, he purred contentedly in her arms making her smile.

"He's been good, been out most of the time, came back to eat."

"What?" Lily turned to Dave. "You let him out?"

"Yeah, that's what cats do."

"Not this one, Sooty doesn't go out."

Dave shrugged, "Seemed to like it enough when he was let out."

Lily ignored Dave and inspected Sooty closely, he didn't look injured. "Yeah, okay," she said, too tired to argue with him.

Dave nodded thoughtfully. "So, what happened?" He asked as he led her to the living room.

"When?"

"On your trip," Dave said in a rather condescending tone.

"Oh, yeah," despite the disappointment she'd endured a smile crept across Lily's face. "I met up with James Potter."

"Oh yeah? There was a report on him in the Prophet, claimed he was innocent." He sounded disbelieving.

"He is," Lily defended quickly. "He's changed, too."

"Yeah, okay then," he sounded scornful.

"He has," Lily repeated.

"I believe you," he really didn't sound like he did.

She huffed quietly. "Anything good happened while I was gone?"

"Well, uh –" He was cut off by the sound of knocking at his door.

He got up and all but ran to answer it. From her place in the living room Lily could hear Dave talking to another woman at the door and then the door closed and the voices got louder and closer. She stood up as Dave and the woman entered the room.

"Lily, this is Jeanne, my girlfriend. Jeanne, my best friend Lily."

"Hi," Jeanne answered pleasantly. She was tall, slim, had honey-blonde hair, green eyes and a warm aura about her.

"Hi," Lily said shaking Jeanne's hand with her free arm. "Look, I'm interrupting, I'll leave you two to it."

"No, don't be silly," Jeanne answered. "You two need to catch up."

"No, we can do it another time," Lily told her, turning to Dave. "Thank you for looking after Sooty. I'll see you soon." And then she put Sooty in his carrier, which was situated near the front door, and left for her car. She put Sooty on the passenger seat and stared out of the front window. "Everything's the same but really, really different."

"That's what happens when your life changes," Lee informed her.

Instead of responding she growled before putting her car into gear and driving away.

- - - -

"Welcome to the life of bachelorhood," Sirius declared, raising his bottle in a toast-like way. His three friends all clinked bottles.

"Yeah," James replied distantly taking a sip from his bottle. "Great."

Sirius frowned. "You sound like that's not such a good thing."

"No," James shook his head. "It's a wonderful thing." He still didn't sound convinced but the others dropped the subject as Peter proceeded to tell them about a man he had met at work.

"Be back in a minute," James interrupted quietly, standing up and leaving the room.

James walked into the small bathroom in Sirius', and temporarily his, flat and ran the cold water. He splashed some on his face and stared at his reflection for a few minutes until a figure appeared behind him in the mirror.

"Everything's the same," he said aloud as he turned.

"Well, yeah," Sirius answered with a smile. "What did you expect?"

"I don't know," James admitted. "But I've been gone a month and all this has happened and I just keep expecting everything to be different."

"In what way?"

"Well…I really don't know. I can't explain it."

Sirius nodded, "I get it."

"No," James shook his head slightly. "You don't but that's okay."

"You could tell me," Sirius suggested.

"No," James said once more, his smile becoming more like the one he had smiled a little over a month ago. "I don't need to. If you'd been there, you'd understand but you weren't and you're still willing to try. That's all I need to hear."

Sirius nodded. "This has really affected you, huh?"

"I guess I just see what everyone meant when they said there's a bigger world out there and we need to grow up to fit in."

Sirius was silent a minute as he considered James' words. "But we don't need to do it all at once, do we? It can be a gradual thing?" He sounded almost scared at the thought.

James laughed. "Of course."

"Good," Sirius answered, a small grin creeping onto his face. "Because Remus and Peter are in the middle of trying to see who can fit the most peanuts up there noses."

"And we're missing it? Come on!" James led the way back to the living area where they had all been sat and, sure enough, Remus and Peter were competing to see who could fit the most in their nose. It wasn't long before Peter was declared winner and James and Sirius began trying it. Laughter filled the room; James' soft but masculine tones, Sirius' barking laughter, Remus' deep and calming sounds and Peter's squeaky giggles. It was like music to the ears as the sounds mingled, reminding them all that together they were home.

- - - -

When Lily got back to her flat she flopped down onto her bed, she was asleep almost instantly. Her dreams started peaceful but they soon became infected with memories and fears. Right back to the night her parents were killed to their funeral when Petunia had disowned her. Her life since then in flashing images, the drudgery she'd lived and the hardships she faced. And then there were images of Lee; covered in blood, looking scared and finally with a bright smile. Next were images of James. He was on the ground, arms and legs sprawled, head at an odd angle. Another of him in the car, looking peaceful as he slept and a final one, a sad, sorry look on his face as they said goodbye. Another image, this time of the Orb and Lily choking on the mist it created and a final one before Lily awoke. The scene played in her mind as she slammed on the brakes to try and stop from slamming into the animal before her. Animal.

Lily awoke to a light-filled room but the image of a stag hovered darkly behind her eyes for a few moments.

"It's not…Unless…But no…"

She got up and grabbed the bag she had travelled with, spilling its contents onto her bed. Somewhere in the messy pile was her wand. She took hold of it and found a scrap piece of paper.

"Locari James Potter," she said quietly. On the paper an address appeared; Flat 34c, Dreham House, Faldron Road, London.

She considered for a moment what to do next and then the answer hit her loud and clear.

"Do it," Lee agreed, not that his opinion mattered much to Lily anymore.

- - - -

"…So how about tomorrow we go out and really celebrate your return?" Sirius asked jovially a little later that morning.

"Well, I have plans for tomorrow but tomorrow night sounds good to me," James answered, equally as happy.

Remus glowered at them both from behind a mug of coffee. "More drinking? You two must have hollow legs or something. My head feels like it's going to implode."

"Nice image there Moony," Sirius commented with a rub of his hands. "Who's for choc chip, blueberry pancakes?"

"Sounds good to me," James remarked as a knock sounded at the door.

Sirius was too busy in the kitchen to hear abut Remus gave a moan of pain at the sound. Peter was still in bed so James rolled his eyes. "I'll get that then, shall I?"

James opened the door and a brighter smile lit up his already happy face. "Lily!" He cried sounding like they'd been apart for a year, not a day.

Lily returned his smile equally. "James, hey. Are you doing anything?" She asked him cautiously, commenting about the two men stood in the background, looking surprised and interested and with hints of amusement.

"No," he said, ignoring Sirius and Remus. "Come on in, Sirius was just about to make pancakes, do you want some?"

"Uh…" She looked inside and around, eyes landing on Sirius and Remus again. "I'm not –"

"Sure you do," James said, taking hold of her wrist and pulling her into the room. "Guys, this is Lily, she's staying for pancakes."

"Hey," Sirius waved a spatula at her before heading back into the kitchen.

Remus, who seemed to have sobered up as his amusement grew, seemed to be studying her closely. "Lily? Lily Evans?"

"Yeah," she answered shyly.

"Hey, you probably don't remember us. I'm –"

"Remus Lupin, and that's Sirius Black. You were part of the Marauders, with," she looked around the room. "Peter Pettigrew. Did you guys ditch him? He always creeped me out."

From in the kitchen Sirius could be heard laughing, James chuckled and Remus gave a smile. "Actually he's asleep next door, we had a late night."

Lily blushed at this. "Oh, well obviously what I meant…"

James' laughter got louder. "Don't worry about it," he told her. "You're not the first person to say it, I doubt you'll be the last."

She nodded but she still felt guilty.

Remus sat back at the counter between the kitchen and the main area but sat leaning on it, facing James and Lily. "So, what brings you here?"

"Well, James and I are meant to be meeting up –"

"But not until tomorrow, right?" James interrupted her, wondering for a minute if he had the wrong day.

"Right," Lily answered him before turning back to Remus. "We're meant to be meeting up but I needed to talk to James first and I had no plans for today so I came up here."

"'Up here'? Where've you come from?"

"Sussex," she answered just as Sirius came out of the kitchen with a plate full of pancakes.

"Remus, leave the poor girl alone. At least until after pancakes," Sirius swatted him with the spatula just as he set the pancakes down.

"Yes, mum," Remus muttered as he headed into the kitchen, coming back a second later with a bottle of maple syrup.

Each of the boys grabbed themselves some pancakes. "Help yourself," Sirius told her welcomingly. "And tell me, what was it you wanted to talk to our little Jamesy-poo about?"

James scowled at him but his eyes danced happily, Lily laughed. "I'd rather ask him in private."

"Ooh," Sirius jeered.

James rolled his eyes, offering the syrup to Lily.

The rest of their meal passed well enough. Conversation was light and easy, Lily fit in well with the bantering between them and conversation drifted to past times a couple of times. Not long after they had finished Peter woke up and came into the room.

"Aww, I missed pancakes? Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Sirius looked at him sympathetically. "Sorry, Wormtail. You just seemed dead to the world."

"Yeah, I'm sure," he huffed quietly as he headed to the kitchen.

- - - -

"So, what did you want to ask me?" James asked a little later.

They were both outside, walking around a small park close to the flat.

"Well, I'm not really sure how to ask and of course you're allowed to refuse to answer me or call me crazy but…"

"Lily?"

"So, I'm rambling again. Okay," she took a deep breath. "Are you an illegal animagus?"

James' smile faltered for less than a second but it was still there. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "It's just something I've been thinking. I mean, the night I knocked you over, I really am sorry about that, but I swear it wasn't you I knocked over. It wasn't even a person, it was an animal. A deer…with antlers."

"A stag," James corrected.

"Sorry?"

"It was a stag. I can turn into a stag."

"But you're not registered, how come?"

James studied her for a moment. "That's something I'm not going to answer right now."

She nodded, "Fair enough."

"You'll find out soon enough," Lee told her.

Lily let out a strangled cry of annoyance. James looked at her oddly.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"Yeah, it's just…I need your help."

"What is it?"

"I feel so cheeky asking you this, after everything that's happened."

"After everything that's happened that's exactly why you shouldn't, so go on."

"Alright, um, it's this Orb."

"What about it?"

"I need to get rid of it," she told him. "Break the connection."

"Lily, you know how dangerous that is?"

"I don't care."

"It could tear you apart, separate your soul from your consciousness. You'd become a shell of a person."

"I don't care," she repeated more defiantly.

James nodded; worry etched across the frown lines on his face. "We need to talk to Remus." He put his arm over her shoulder, bringing her closer to him when she shivered. He led the way back to the flat, breathing in the scent of lemon and chocolate that surrounded them.

- - - -

"I can do it but it's not going to be easy," Remus told her softly. "It's very –"

"Dangerous, yes, I know," Lily said irritably. "But I need to do it." She almost laughed at her words, need to do it, how many times had she said that in the last couple of days?

"Okay, well first we need to go back to your place."

Lily nodded but stayed quiet.

- - - -

"This is where you live?" James asked, slight hesitation in his voice.

Lily turned to him. "I forgot how much of a snob you are."

"I'm not a snob!" he protested. "It's just that, well, it's a little small, isn't it?"

She shrugged. "It's cosy."

"It's a sardine can," Sirius put in as he passed Lily to inspect the flat himself. "And kind of drab."

Lily shot a look at James and Sirius and then turned to Remus. "While those two discuss interiors how about you and me get this done?"

Remus beamed at her, "Sounds good to me. First off, where was the spell cast?"

"My bedroom, through there," she pointed to the door that concealed her bedroom. "Do we need to be in there?"

"Yeah," Remus nodded, striding off.

James' head whipped up and he watched the two of them walk into her bedroom and close the door behind them.

"I think we should be in there, too. Offer support and all that."

"Whatever you say," Sirius teased.

James shot him a confused look and followed Remus and Lily through the door.

"Okay, what spell did you use?"

"Um…Ostendestri."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Sit down."

Lily did as she was told, Sirius and James sat either side of her at right angles, James took her hand. "I'll make sure you're safe," he promised her, she smiled at him weakly. Remus lit four candles placing them all infront of each of them as he sat opposite Lily.

"Put the Orb in the centre."

Lily did so, Lee's face hovered in the glass for a moment.

"Are you really going to go through with this?"

Lily ignored the voice, she wasn't going to let it have any effect on her any longer.

"You got your wand?" She waved it at Remus in response. "Okay then, point it at the Orb, you want to say Renolestri."

She nodded, aimed her wand and cried, "Renolestri!"

A small crack formed in the glass, spreading and getting wider by the second. Grey mist seeped through getting thicker and thicker, Lee appeared.

"Leave," Remus said boldly. "Go back to your plane and let this girl be."

"My work here is not yet done."

"Yes, it is." James was speaking this time, with rather a lot of force for man who had only really known Lily for a couple of days.

"No, my work is not done until –"

"Your work is done," James reiterated.

As they spoke the mist got thicker, heading towards Lily. A now familiar feeling came over her as her breathing got heavy. She tried to take in air but it was like inhaling cotton wool. She couldn't breathe, it began to get dark. She could hear voices but it was just noise as darkness took over.

- - - -

"Is she awake? I see her moving."

"Let me see."

Lily's eyes slowly fluttered open. The first thing she saw was James' face. "Hey," he greeted. "How're you feeling?"

She opened her mouth to speak but was hit by a coughing fit.

"Moony, get some water," she heard Sirius say in the background. Half a minute later she was being handed a glass of water. She took a sip and then another.

"Where am I?" She knew it wasn't her flat.

"Just Sirius' couch, I'm afraid. You passed out and there was a lot of smoke damage at your place. Besides, we decided you shouldn't live there anymore."

"You what? What happened?"

"Everything got sorted out, Lee's going to leave you alone and we sent him off with a warning that if anything else happened that could be traced back to them they were going to hope we never died."

Lily looked at him in amusement until she realised he wasn't joking. "Sooty?"

"The cat? Over there," Lily wriggled into a sitting postion and saw where James was pointing. Sirius was playing with the cat.

"I always imagined Sirius as a dog person," she commented lightly.

"More than you know," Remus muttered.

"So, why am I here?"

"I told you, smoke damage at your place."

"And...?"

"Yeah, we thought you'd prefer it here with us."

"Why would I do that? It can barely fit you three."

"Well, Remus doesn't live here and I'm just crashing until I get my own place. I was hoping..."

"Yeah?"

"Well, do you want to get a place with me? We make a good team."

Lily didn't even have to think about, "Sounds good to me."

"Aww," Sirius said to Remus while looking at Sooty. "Doesn't it just make you sick to see something so cute?"

And so it all began. Lily would once again become a part of the wizarding world and she and James would begin dating and later marry. They would have a child and be killed in saving the world. Their child, Harry, would become a champion of the people. Sirius would be best man and later a godfather, he was to be arrested for their murder, though his innocence would later be proven after he, too, was killed. Peter would betray them all to his master, Voldemort. He would later die at the wand of one Ron Weasley in a bloody battle. Remus would spend a long time suffering being the only of his group left, after the war was finally over he would marry and have several children. Dave and Lily would lose touch, though he would mourn her death, he would marry Jeanne but no child would be born for she would die during the first of the two great wars. Lee and the committee would no longer meddle in the affairs of individuals. Committee members would be selected after careful consideration to ensure no such situation would arise again. Deaths would happen and loss would be experienced on a greater scale than ever before but for just a couple of years there was happiness for the Marauders and their one female member.

A/N: Well, this ended up longer than it was meant to be but I like it. That's the end:'( Did you like it? I did. I want to thank everyone who's read it and eveyone who's reviewed. I'm giving you a poem to read just before I finish completely (And I know it's bad, but tough :P):

Rain streams the window like tears down her face.
She tries to think back to the time, the place,
Remember the days when things were easy
When life didn't make her quite so queasy.

His life should be perfect in every way,
But it seems to get worse with every day.
Can't seem to find happiness in a world of fear,
Can't see what he wants is oh, so near.

Things get too much, she runs away,
Fear turns to doubt, he must get away.
Two souls, so very different but also the same
About to start that which cannot be tamed.

Apart they could be anything,
Together they are everything.
Their turn to see what was always clear,
To get that which they both hold dear.

She'll give it all up in a moment,
He'll accept her like she's heaven sent.
And the time will come, later than should be,
And the world will see, they'll all be free.

Sorry, I'm not sure what made me write the poem but I just had to. Review the story for me, I don't care about the poem, I just want to hear what you all thought. No reviews for the last 4 chapters so I'm getting a little worried... Yeah, hope you enjoyed it!

Rae