Disclaimer: I don't own anything you may recognise. It belongs to J.K Rowling.

A/N: I Know a Mark (Evans) appears in book 5, but whenever I tried to write Lily's boyfriend's name, Mark just wanted to be put in. It means nothing, and Mark Evans is in no way related to this character.

The beginning of 4th year…

O and thank you to my only reviewer, I love getting reviews and any feedback I get is really appreciated. I don't mind if you hate it, I'd just really like to know that you have actually read it!

'Ha! Lily, look at those little kids. We were never that small',

Said Gem, as the year's batch of first years trailed into the hall behind Professor McGonagall. Lily looked over at Gem with a suppressed grin on her face. She was about to say something but McGonagall began to talk and Lily quickly shut her mouth.

After a few minutes, and the usual song, the Sorting began. And, after a few minutes, it was over. The usual number of students had joined the Gryffindor table where Lily and her friends now belonged. Soon enough, mountains of food had appeared on the table and Lily reached for her favourite food, steak and kidney pie. Unfortunately for her, someone else had had the same idea and just as she was reaching for the serving spoon, another hand had beaten her to it. Too late for Lily, however, as her hand landed on the other.

'Wow Evans, looks like you've changed your mind about me over the summer then have you?'

Lily looked up to see whom the voice belonged to, although she already knew. It was Potter, James Potter to be more precise. She quickly tried to pull her hand away, but he had now gained a strong hold on it. She looked to the left, finding the face of her current boyfriend, Mark. He looked over at James, anger obvious in his voice.

'Potter, keep your hands off my girl!'

James sniggered and glared at him, let go of Lily's hand, then served himself some food. When he was done, Lily got herself some and turned to talk to Mark. They talked about a manner of boring things, like how their summers' were. Mark soon turned the conversation to schoolwork, a subject that Lily had always hated.

Mark was so focused on marks, maybe that's why he had asked Lily out in the first place. It had been just after they had found out how they had done in their exams last year, and after seeing that Lily, as usual, had come top of every class but Transfiguration, he had come over to her. And before you could say, 'I hate James Potter,' it was done.

Lily didn't really know what she had done until the holidays and she had told her parents. They were, of course, quite pleased, as Mark was very studious and was, in their opinion therefore a very good choice. Lily soon convinced herself that he was wonderful, and had returned to school telling her how lucky she was to have him.

Mark was still talking about how important their marks would be this year because O.W.L.s were next year. Lily just wished he would shut up. This was getting old. Fast. Instead, she decided to look up and down the table, seeing how much people had changed over the summer. She could see that numerous people had had haircuts. Lots of people were rather brown from the sun and many had grown an alarming amount.

Her eyes fell on the Marauders, first looking at Peter, with a shiver. He was still as hideous as ever. Next was Sirius. Lily wasn't exactly blind. She could see Sirius was very attractive. But she wasn't really interested in him. She had been last year, and they had dated for a little while. But it didn't really work and now they were happy just being friends, or dutifully ignoring each other, depending on who was around at the time.

Besides, Lily suspected James' jealousy had a lot to do with Sirius calling it quits. After Sirius came Remus. He wasn't nearly as good-looking as Sirius, but he was a lot better than Peter. Besides, Remus was really nice, not that Lily would ever admit it out loud. The less her and her friends had to do with the Marauders, or rather, James, the better. The Marauders liked pulling pranks on Lily and her friends, mainly because James wanted Lily's attention.

Lily suspected that her friends would have really liked to not hate the Marauders with a passion, but James' obsession with Lily meant Lily had to pretend to hate them, or at least James, though she wouldn't't have really minded being friends with them had it not been for James. And of course, whatever Lily wanted, her friend's were happy to do.

That's just the way things were for them. And they all knew what her real problem was. James Potter. He was forever pestering her, annoying her, and worst of all, his bigheaded behaviour did nothing to improve her attitude towards him. He did whatever he felt like, just because he thought he could. Lily just couldn't stand it.

Today, when she looked at him, she felt the same surge of anger and annoyance towards him, yet something was different. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but feeling it could be nothing good, she tried to avoid the thought, and instead turned back towards Mark.

She tried to pay attention to what he was saying, but really, in all honesty, he sounded a lot like her parents. Ever since they had realised how bright she was, the pressure was always there. She felt thoroughly disappointed whenever she didn't get top marks, because her parents were thoroughly disappointed in her.

After all, all they had left was Petunia, and whilst she would make a perfect housewife for someone, she was quite lacking in any academic-related intelligence. But now there was Mark. He put more pressure on. Sometimes it even felt like a competition between them. Who could answer the most questions in class? Who could do their homework fastest?

It never stopped. And now that Mark was spending more and more time with her, she felt that even her friends were drifting away from her. However, she knew her parents really liked Mark, and what he was doing for Lily. And if her parents liked it, Lily was happy to oblige them. Most of the time anyway.

Lily had now stopped eating, along with the rest of the school, and Dumbledore stood up to deliver a few notices. After that, the sounds of hundreds of feet could be heard. Lily's friends had raced off without her, making her seemingly bad night worse.

However, Mark was there, and feeling obliged to carry out girlfriend duties, she walked with him. They walked in silence for a minute or so, until they reached the marble staircase. Deciding to break the silence, Lily said, trying to be bright and cheerful,

'So, did you see anyone from school in the holidays?'

'No,' Mark replied. 'I was too busy reading all our textbooks as well as doing some extra reading.'

Lily felt her mouth drop open in amazement. And horror. Was he serious? Surely, you couldn't spend all summer reading? She asked something different.

'Did you go anywhere? Overseas?'

She asked. He shook his head. They fell back into silence. After a minute or two, they had reached the portrait hole. Lily, realising she didn't know the password, asked Mark, who didn't know either. Then, luckily (or was it unluckily?) the Marauders turned up. Remus knew the password, and within five minutes, Lily had headed up to bed, after biding Mark goodnight. She tried to sleep, but she was too preoccupied with Mark. She couldn't decide what she should do.

Keep her parents happy or follow her instinct and break it off with Mark. She couldn't handle all the pressure. She was losing her friends and her sanity. Lily couldn't ask her friends, as half the problem concerned them. She couldn't ask her parents, because she knew what they would say.

She had no idea what to do. In tears, she headed down to the common room, not wanting to disturb anyone. She was overcome with a sudden bout of first-night homesickness and doubt. But there was someone else in the common room. The last person on earth she really wanted to talk to, or even see. She was at her most vulnerable, and he would be ready to make fun of her. It was Potter.

Ok. I know it seems pretty cheesy, but its one of those spur of the moment things you do when your at home on a Friday night, babysitting you little sister. Please review it anyway, and feedback is much appreciated.