Chapter 1 – Those Hazel Eyes

Lily Evans sat quietly in a spare compartment on board the Hogwarts Express, her nose buried in Theology of Magic. She was glad that she was a Gryffindor Prefect. It was so much easier reading in the prefects' compartment with no one to bother her, than in her friend's compartment. She enjoyed the company of her friends, especially after the holiday break, but she did not enjoy the company of the Marauder's. Finishing her chapter, she put her book on the empty seat beside her and began to think about her friends.

Natalie Mercury, or Nat as her friends called her, had shoulder length blond hair, that often had coloured streaks through it and brilliant blue eyes that changed with the colour from blues to greens depending on her surroundings. Her father was a famous Quidditch player and she was currently the only girl on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She had previously lived in France, Canada and America and had moved to England at 6 years of age. She was an only child, but never acted spoilt or conceited. She was very loud and always talking and much of the time, she never knew when to be quiet. Natalie had not understood why James and Lily had hated each other and continuously tried to make them friends. She had still not succeeded.

Sarah Topaz had medium brown hair and hazel eyes. She came from a family where her father was a wizard and her mother was a muggle, but she had spent her whole life in the wizarding community. She had an older brother called Daniel who was 23 and a younger sister called Anna, who was 13. She was a Quidditch fan but she didn't like flying and she was happy to sit and watch Nat play. Sarah had grown up with the Potters and Prewett's and they were still close friends. She was quiet and loud at the same time. She was quiet and shy around people especially when she didn't know them, but with her friends, she was always happy and bubbly.

"Hey, Lily," called Nat, poking her head into the compartment, "The food trolleys at our compartment and Sarah said I should come and find you."

"Ok," replied Lily, picking up her book and standing up, "I'm kinda' hungry." And she followed Nat down the hallway.

In the hall, Lily found that she was glancing into the compartments as they passed and not paying attention to anything else. Thus, she bumped into someone walking in the opposite direction.

"Ouch!" cried someone from nearby.

She looked around to see James Potter sprawled near her feet, where he had fallen when they had collided.

"Sorry James," began Lily, crouching on her knees and picking up her fallen book. Her hand reached the book at the same moment James' did and his hand rested for a moment on top of hers. She was surprised and abruptly moved her hand. She knew that James had a small crush on her but she had never managed to convince him that she didn't like him. Through out the whole of 5th year, he had insisted on asking her out. Every worth while conversation between them had seemed to end in him asking her out. At first, she had thought that it was just something that would pass in time, but she had given up on that theory halfway through last year.

Suddenly, she was pulled back into reality by James hand coming into her range of vision. She must have looked surprised, because James grinned.

"It's just a hand," he said, still grinning.

Placing her hand on his, she allowed him to pull her to her feet.

"Thanks," she replied, when she was back on her two feet. She noticed that her hand was still in James and quickly removed it.

Grinning once more, James turned and made his way to a compartment down the hall. He stopped before he entered.

"You're friends are in here too," he called down the hall and then he disappeared into the compartment.

Smiling slightly herself, she made her way to the compartment through which James had just disappeared.

When she arrived in the compartment, she found a heated discussion about Quidditch in full swing.

"They are definitely not going to win!" said James, crossing his arms.

"Yes they are," replied Sirius, "They're the best team in the comp this year."

"Ok, cool it guys," said Nat, from the other side of the compartment, "Are we going to eat this food or not?"

Everyone dug into the food newly purchased from the food trolley and it was gone within minutes.

A while later, Lily found herself with her nose buried, once again in her book.

"Come on Evans," called Sirius from the seat next to the window on the other side of the compartment, "Don't you even put that book down?"

"Lay off Sirius", said Remus good-naturedly, who was sitting next to him, "You don't know what it's like to have a good book to read. One that you can't put down… one that is just too good that you…"

"Hey, before you get all misty eyed talking about your precious books, I was only joking!" Sirius quickly retorted, looking slightly offended. "And I DO know what it's like to have a good book in front of my face. I just have the sense to put it down"

"Ha, what sense?' remarked James, who was sitting across from Lily.

"Exactly, and Sirius… those magazines that you read, they don't classify as "books!" added Remus, a smirk playing across his face.

"Yes they do and I'll have you know …" out of the corner of her eye, that James was staring at her. She looked at him and he quickly glanced away, a small smile playing across his lips. Was it her imagination or had there something different about the look in his eyes when he was looking at her?

Lily's thoughts then turned to James and his friends. They had aptly named themselves the 'Marauder's of Hogwarts' in 3rd year, as they went around pulling pranks, tricking teachers, students and ghosts. Lily found them very annoying but everyone else seemed to find them charming. James had jet black hair that was always messy and deep hazel eyes that you could get lost in. His family were pure blood, but weren't like most pure blood families, who thought that if you weren't a pure blood, you were worthless. He was an only child and lived with his parents in a large house near in the same neighbourhood as Sarah. James was the slyest of the four Marauders and was often out in the castle late at night yet somehow managed to never get caught.

Sirius Black had shoulder length dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and also came from a pure blood family, most which were Slytherin's. Many had been surprised, none more than Sirius himself, when he had ended up in Gryffindor as instead of Slytherin, where his whole family and younger brother Regulus had been. Sirius was the boldest of the group. Neither James nor Sirius took school seriously and they never paid attention in class, yet somehow they had managed to pass all their exams to date.

Remus Lupin had sandy blond hair with light brown eyes. He often joined Lily in the library and was the most sensible of the four boys. Lily thought that Remus was probably the Marauder that she liked, as a friend, the most. He was Gryffindor Prefect with Lily and often had to find a way to get all the boys out of trouble.

Peter Pettigrew had light brown hair and eyes and was considered by many to be the 'hanger-on' of the Marauder's. However, Lily knew that the four were all close friends. Peter was the quietest of the four and only occasionally spoke up when he thought it necessary.

"Come on James," said Sirius, standing up and stretching, "I think the trains slowing down and we need to get changed." Reaching the compartment door, he glanced back at the three girls and added dramatically, "Sorry girls, but you'll have to survive the remainder of the journey to Hogwarts without us"

"I'm sure they'll be fine'," replied James pushing Sirius between the shoulder blades to make him move. And they left the compartment, with Remus and Peter following closely behind.

"I think we'd better get changed too," remarked Sarah, "For once Sirius was right. They train is slowing down."

"All right," replied Lily, standing up and turning towards the luggage rack and their trunks, "Let's get changed."

ooooooo

Meanwhile, at the other end of the train…

…a group of Hufflepuffs were also having a discussion about Quidditch, although not quite as heated as the Gryffindor's. There was only one Hufflepuff not involved in the conversation because he was too caught up in his thoughts about a certain girl. Her waist length red hair… her emerald green eyes…

"Hey Amos! Sorry to bring you back from whatever fantasy you were living in, but…," began one of his friends.

"THE TRAINS JUST PULLED INTO THE STATION AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOT CHANGED YET… finished another, "And you know what McGonagall's like if you show up not in your school uniform", he added as an after thought.

"Not exactly what I was going to say but", began Friend 1

"Oh well whatever but we DO have to get changed," said Friend 2

"Yeah, yeah I'm going," replied Amos

The Hufflepuffs quickly changed from casual clothes to school uniform and gathered their belongings. As they stepped into the line of people already swarming in the corridor, they found themselves almost right behind Lily and her friends. The only thing separating them was a large group of second years. As they watched the girls jump off the train onto the Station platform, Amos found that he couldn't stop looking at Lily.

But little did he know that his eyes weren't the only pair of hazel eyes glued to Lily Evans.

The other pair belonged to James Potter.