Disclaimer: The characters etc are not mine. I do not own them. They belong to JK Rowling.

Once a Rival:

Meetings and tragedies

James Potter watched the young girl and her family closely. He was watching them from behind the shelter of a tree so he wasn't seen, he didn't want to seem like a stalker. James had been going for a walk when he felt something draw him to the area, so he stood and observed.

He watched as the red head ran and jumped out of reach of an older blonde girl, he assumed they were sisters. The red head girl looked to be his age and she seemed a little familiar, she was what had drawn him there he was sure, she seemed to have some sot of strange aura about her that attracted him. A blonde man and a red head women watched them laughing, he thought them to be the parents.

The family looked so happy together perhaps that was why he watched them. They were something he could only dream of for his family. Happy. The blonde girl had given up the chase and the red head was kicking her feet in the lake. He didn't know why, but he felt compelled to watch the scene.

They were having a picnic and talking happily as though they were the only ones in the world. While this wasn't true, they were oddly the only ones in that park which was highly unusual. Usually the park was filled with many families and it was a fine day so it was very strange only one family was there. He had a bad feeling, after all it was summer people should be there.

He ruffled his messy raven hair and straightened his glasses before turning to leave but his feet wouldn't budge. He tried to move but he couldn't so he gave up and turned to view the family again. The blonde girl was walking over to the red head that had stood up and stepped to the side. The two started talking and the blonde girl moved towards the lake. He saw the red head get a mischievous gleam in her eyes and she put on a smirk. He had seen that look before. That was how his friends looked before they did something that would get them in trouble. He noticed she had gorgeous, enchanting emerald eyes. The red head inched closer and pushed the blonde in the lake smiling.

"LILY!" The girl shrieked. So that's her name. Lily. Such a nice name.

Lily was looking innocent and he vaguely heard her say "What? She tripped," before breaking into a grin. This made James chuckle. The blonde man helped the girl from the lake and led her away, probably to get dry. The lady was talking to Lily when James felt a pang in his stomach. He felt as though something was going to go terribly wrong. He knew it. The sky was going darker and there was suddenly a crack. He looked on and saw a man standing before the two. It was not the blonde man, no, James recognised the man as Voldemort. He saw Lily's eyes widen in fear before narrowing to glare at him. She bravely stood in front of her mother.

"GO AWAY!" She shouted. James shook his head, he knew there was no way he could help and they were done for.

Voldemort was laughing cruelly at the girl. Odd, James thought, usually he sends death eaters to do the job, why would he go himself to kill two muggles?

"Get lost you disgusting piece of filth." Lily spat. James decided she was very brave, possibly very stupid. He wanted to go help but he was stuck. Voldemort talked very quietly to Lily before pulling out his wand.

"NO! YOU CAN'T" Lily screamed. Too late.

"AVADA KEDAVRA." James gasped as he saw the red head lady stiffen and fall to the ground dead. He saw Lily reach for something in her pocket but Voldemort smirked, whispered something and disapparated.

What? James thought quizzically, why didn't he kill Lily? That's weird. He turned up himself and he TALKED to her then he left her alone, only killing her mother. He couldn't have been warning her, she was a muggle, what could he want from her? He saw the girl lean down and grab her mother's hand. She wasn't crying which he though odd but that day had been weird all together. He felt really sorry for Lily and wondered if he should go help her. He wanted to help but he felt bad enough invading such a private moment. He wanted to comfort her, to hold her and sooth her but he couldn't find his voice. Lily was sitting by her mother, pale as a ghost, staring out to the lake when her sister and father arrived back. They were smiling but immediately stopped when they saw the scene before them. They ran over and said something to Lily before kneeling beside the lady. After a few minutes the blonde girl stood up and slapped Lily tears in her eyes. James felt as though she had slapped him as well. She kept slapping Lily over and over and Lily would just take it as though it was deserved.

James didn't understand. Why is she slapping her? Why is she taking it? Why doesn't their father care? The girl seemed to be getting more violent because Lily was on the ground and the girl was kicking her.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" The girl screamed. James was confused and he wanted to stop it all. He couldn't though. He couldn't suddenly he found his voice.

"STOP!" He yelled. The three all turned to look at the intruder. James felt their eyes on him and he locked eyes with Lily before turning and running. He got out of there as fast as he could but he knew the images would haunt him.

Poor Lily.

September 1st-

Lily Evans stepped through the barrier that would lead her to the Hogwarts express. She was in her 6th year and she knew it would be different than all the past years. Firstly, she hadn't been to Hogwarts since her 3rd year. Her father had moved and she was forced to go to Beauxbatons. She had missed Hogwarts and her best friend Abby. They kept in close touch and visited each other occasionally but it wasn't the same. At least we'll see each other again. She sighed, the second reason it would be different was her mother had died that summer and her family blamed it on her. If she wasn't a witch then Voldemort wouldn't have killed her. Lily felt it was strange that Voldemort hadn't killed her he had left her merely whispering, "Your time will come, but I need you just yet" then he left. There had been a familiar boy there also but she couldn't put a name to the face. She regained her sense as she was knocked by a student they simply glanced at her and walked off. Story of my life, she thought. Lily was quite invisible to the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons population, she was simply not there to most. She never got any attention from students or even teachers when she was at Hogwarts. Well, she got attention from Abby but they were best friends so it wasn't the same. One good thing was that she was never pranked by the Marauders. She wondered if they were still the same. Lily crinkled her nose at the thought of them she couldn't remember them much because they were just attention seeking prats. They thought they ruled the school. They were in her year and her house yet she found it very easy to ignore the four boys. She tried to remember their names…Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and…James Potter. That was it. She had talked to Remus once when they were paired together for Herbology in first year, he seemed nice but his friends were gits. She had become very observant in her time there and while she ignored other Marauders she noted that Remus disappeared every full moon. She knew he was a werewolf, but it didn't really matter.

She stepped onto the train and was embraced by Abby. Abby Miller. She was a card. She had black hair usually worn in a ponytail, blue eyes and light freckles covering her semi-pale face. She was different from the rest of them. She spoke her mind and laughed a lot. She wasn't afraid of what people thought. She and Lily were a lot alike except in that way. Lily didn't care what people thought but she was quiet and only talked to Abby. Abby claimed she was 'a turtle waiting to come out of her shell'. Which Lily thought meant she just needed something to happen then she would be let loose. Lily knew Abby would be the same as when she left her.

"Lils, what's wrong? Your hug is sloppy and you seem distracted."

"Nothing Abby, I'm just…thinking." She wasn't going to tell her about her mother, it didn't matter. Lily could hide her emotions, she had practiced for years, so why not use the talent.

"Ok, just don't do it too much, your brain will explode." Lily laughed as Abby lead her to a compartment. The first hour of the trip was spent catching up but Lily could feel in her stomach something was about to happen. She noticed Abby had fallen asleep and suddenly Lily thought she should do the same. She dosed off almost immediately and noticed she was in very dark place.

With James-

He strutted through the platform and greeted his friends on the train just as the train was leaving. He winked at a few girls causing them to blush and swoon. Sixth year is going to be a good one, he thought to himself. In the compartment he noticed Remus was looking paler than usual it must have been a full moon last night. Remus had sandy hair and amber eyes and was known as the 'nice, sensitive marauder'. He was quite smart, second in their year in fact.

Sirius was playing wizarding chess with Peter and due to the fact that the two were both horrible at the game it was an even match.

Sirius Black was always the charmer. He had almost shoulder length ebony hair and icy blue eyes. He was able to make almost every girl swoon even a few seventh years. He had a prankster attitude to match James' but he was a little more immature. He was a beater on the Gryffindor team so he could get violent when he was VERY angry.

Peter Pettigrew was a tubby boy with blonde hair and watery eyes. Most people wondered why he hung around with the marauders but they didn't care. He was always picked on and as the only other Gryffindor boy in their year they felt they should stick up for him, thus creating their friendship.

James slumped into his seat warily, he had been having a few nightmares of the day at the lake when he saw that women killed. He felt so bad bout it and was embarrassed when they noticed him. Luckily he wouldn't see them again or that would be awkward. James had Raven black hair that wouldn't lay flat and hazel eyes teamed with gold rimmed glasses. He was very smart, 1st in their year (not for long) and he's a chaser on the Quidditch team. The ladies went crazies for him and he knew it. He had a prankster attitude but was a tad arrogant, not that anyone would tell him that.

"Hey Prongs." Sirius greeted him concentrating on his game. They were trying to become anamagi and James had almost gotten it, only a week or so more. He had transformed into a stag but he couldn't stay that way. Sirius and Peter were having the same problem, they couldn't stick as the animal. Sirius was a black dog and Peter a filthy rat.

"Heya Padfoot." James replied. "Whatcha reading?" James asked Remus.

"A stupid book."

"Gasp did I hear Remus J. Lupin insult books? The horror!" Sirius swooned.

"Ha ha, funny Paddy." Remus said sarcastically.

"Don't call me that." Sirius grumbled returning to his game.

"So…anything interesting happen in the holidays when we weren't there Prongs?" Remus asked putting down his book.

"Na…nothing." James lied. He didn't thin it was his business to talk about Lily it was her business. Their little secret. It

calmed him to know he was sharing a secret with a stranger.

"You're lying." Sirius said, all his attention gone from the game. He could always tell.

"What?" Damn, I should have known Sirius would see through it.

"You. Are. Lying. I can tell, you hesitated between words, your tone was quieter, and when I looked up you had a small dimple, plus I could tell you were crossing your toes." He smiled.

"What? That means nothing."

"Yeah it does. You always get a dimple when you're lying or hiding something. You slightly hesitate and you have STUPID habit of crossing your toes."

"It's not stupid."

"Yeah it is Prongs. So what happened?" Remus asked curiously.

"It's not stupid." James said avoiding the subject.

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

"Right I'm…er…going to the bathroom." He knew his friend would ask him later but they would wait a while and he could think up a cover story.

When he got back Sirius and Peter were playing again and Remus was reading, although James noted he kept shooting him glances. After a while James drifted to sleep.

James appeared in a dark place but somehow he could see in the dark. He looked around and saw someone with their back facing him it looked like a girl.

"Hello?" He said quietly. She jumped and turned around. He saw it was the red head girl, Lily, and she could apparently see in the dark too.

"Hi…do you know how we got here?" She asked timidly.

"Er…I thought I was dreaming, I probably am. I've had heaps of dreams of you and you know…that day."

She gasped remembering him. "I know you…you're that boy…the one who was at the park…I'm sure I've seen you some where before."

"Yeah...you look familiar yourself maybe-" He was interrupted by a crack sound and turned to see a man before him. He heard Lily growl and recognized him as Voldemort. What a weird dream.

"Hello, you two. Enough of your chat, I suppose you wonder why you're here?"

"Er…this is a really weird dream." James stated.

"Get lost you prick." Lily spat at Voldemort.

"Feisty, ay? Hmm, I can use that. Ah you boy, you say you think this is a dream, you are quite right however if I hurt you, you will still feel. Watch…" He pulled out his wand and made a quick flick at Lily and James and the two had a cut along their left arms slashing their clothes.

"What the hell?" James asked covering the cut.

"I needed to prove a point, anyway the reason you are here. You see that day at the lake was not meant to be seen by the likes of anyone. Especially you boy. It was a very big mistake that you saw. Anyone else would be fine but you…oh, you have wrecked my plans. I cannot have you and the girl knowing each other so I tried to get you. Unfortunately, your house is well guarded and I could not so I decided to get you in your sleep. I have no idea why the girl is here but she will not die…yet, she is needed first. But you must die or else there would be problems."

"Leave him alone you idiot." Lily stood in front of him. "It's not his fault he's just an innocent boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Voldemort laughed. "Do you not recognise him? I thought you were smart, girl obviously not. You are brave no doubt but not smart sometimes."

"Get out of the way." James said pushing her aside.

"No." She stubbornly refused.

"You're not getting hurt for me, you don't even know me."

"I don't care. I feel like I should save you, so I will."

"Don't be stupid."

"Don't call me stupid, idiot."

"Oh real mature. Move." He tried to push her.

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Enough, I cannot believe you two are arguing before me. It seems quite silly, does it not? The boy will die it does not matter. You two are both trouble so say goodbye."

"NO!" Lily said stubbornly. If James weren't so scared he would be amused. Here was this girl, this muggle girl, standing before a wizard who killed her mother and she was acting like a child and wasn't appearing scared at all.

"I'll move you myself." Voldemort drew his wand and moved her to the side. "Goodbye boy. AVADA KED-" he cried but was cut off by two loud screams which pulled the two back to earth.

James woke up screaming and noticed he wasn't the only one. He could hear a high pitched scream coming from the compartment next door. He felt the need to go see who else was screaming and ignoring his friends' questions he scrambled out of the compartment. He saw he had a slash along his arm and he stumbled out the door. He noticed he wasn't the only one and as he looked up he saw the redhead girl looking at him and recognition passed over both their faces.

"YOU." They said together.