Disclaimer: If I owned the characters, then I would be J.K. Rowling, and I wouldn't waste my time writing fanfics then would I?
Chapter 1
Lily Evans brushed her fiery red hair out of her eyes, and stared out the car window at the bleary rainy sky. She was on her way back to Hogwarts. Her home. Her life as a Muggle held too many dark memories. Too many nightmares. She had to get away from that life. She needed to hitch a smile on her face, and pretend like her life was perfect. Only her friends knew the truth.
"Are you excited about the new term?" asked her mum, Maggie.
"It's you final year at Hogwarts," added her father, Harry.
"I can't wait to see my friends," she said. Her two best friends' faces appeared in her mind. Sweet, but loud and out-going Caitlin McGinty, with her long brown hair, petite body and bright blue eyes made her one of the prettiest girls at Hogwarts. Also, Muggle-born Samantha Ortiz with sleek black hair, dark skin, and big brown eyes made her as pretty as Caitlin. But Caitlin was the opposite in personality. She was very athletic, and fit. She was raised a Muggle, so she was involved in Muggle sports. Years of hard-core dance lessons had created her toned body. She didn't care much about clothes, wore little make-up, and her hair dark hair was always thrown into a messy bun, but Caitlin loved beauty and fashion and spent many hours every morning making sure she looked just right. Both Lily and Samantha had tempers to match, but their tempers were saved for two people only. The Marauders.
The Marauders were made up of James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. They had another friend that tagged along with them, but Lily and her friends didn't know his name. The Marauders were extremely popular, charming, and good-looking, and it was always a game as to which one was the most eligibly bachelor. They had many admires, mostly of which were giggling girls that swoon, if one of them so much as looked at them.
James Potter was tall, with dark hair, hazel eyes, and the Seeker and Quidditch captain on the Gryffindor House Team.
Sirius Black was shorter than James, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in muscle. His beater days had made him strong and tanned, and he was all to willing to show off for the girls. He had long dark hair that fell softy into his dark brown eyes.
Remus Lupin was not arrogant like Sirius and James. He preferred to read, and could be seen most of the time pouring over a book, while James and Sirius were either busy pranking innocent students, or snogging whatever girl they could get their hands on. He had light brown hair, and gray eyes that always seemed to hold sadness, even when he laughed along with James and Sirius.
The Marauders thought they could have any girl they wanted. And, for the most part, they were right. That is except for three special girls.
Lily, Caitlin, and Samantha were the only girls that seemed to not fall for their charms. Sirius and Samantha had always fought with each other ever since that day in first year when Samantha (who was always klutzy) set his precious, perfect hair on fire. Sirius and Samantha had both yelled themselves hoarse, Sirius yelling 'How could you set my hair of fire?' and Samantha yelling 'What's so great about your hair anyway?'
Lily had always hated James for his arrogant, big-headed; charming through life ways ever since she had been the victim of one of their pranks the second she stepped on the train for their very first year at Hogwarts. Lily would always get so worked up whenever James teased her. He was the only one who could really bring out her amazing temper to match her fiery red hair. The whole of Hogwarts knew of the rivalry between them. How James had fallen head-over-heels in love with her ever since that very same first train ride, how he would always ask her out in front of everyone, and how she would always reject him. The whole school always wandered when Lily was going to face facts, and give James a chance. Lily, however, was not.
Caitlin and Remus had always gotten along for some reason, even though their friends didn't, but Remus and Caitlin had always been the more mature ones out of their small group of friends. Lily remembered just last year, when James and Sirius had given her a niffler for a Christmas present as a joke. The niffler had completely destroyed the dormitory Lily shared with Caitlin and Samantha on its enthusiastic search for anything shiny. Lily had chased Sirius and James all over Gryffindor tower, while Remus and Caitlin watched as Lily pointed her wand at Sirius's head, and threatened to set it on fire if they didn't get rid of it.
Lily smiled at the memories. She had only one last year to be with her friends. If only the Marauders would leave them alone. But, Lily thought, that like asking Sirius to shave his head. His amazing hair was his most prized possession.
"Lily, get out you sweater, it's freezing outside and we're nearly there," said her mum from the front seat.
"Mum, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself," Lily grumbled, but she did as she was told anyway. As she unzipped her bag, her eyes fell on her Head Girl badge lying on top of her robes. Enclosed her usual Hogwarts letter, she had found this badge with a letter congratulating her on becoming Head Girl. She wondered who the Head Boy is. Probably Remus, she thought. He's the only one with any sense. I can't imagine any of the others being Head Boy. She shuddered at the idea of James or Sirius having the privilege of giving out punishments, when they themselves were the ones needing to be punished.
She moved aside her robes to get out her sweater. When she pulled it out of her bag, a photograph fell into her lap. It was Lily and her friends at Hogsmeade in front of the Shrieking Shack. There was Samantha, Caitlin and Lily. All bundled up, cheeks pink from the frozen air. The three girls waved up at Lily as it began to snow. Suddenly, a dark-haired handsome boy stepped into the picture and put his arm around Lily. It was James. Lily watched as her photographic self pushed James off of her, and then muttered a spell in his direction. His hair turned pink. The real Lily smiled at the memory as the photographic James and Lily started yelling at each other.
Lily closed up her bag and pulled on her sweater as they pulled into Hogsmeade station. Lily got out of the car, and stepped out into the pouring rain. Her dad grabbed her trunk and they hurried to the station.
Lily turned to say bye to her parents before entering the platform.
"Bye mum," she said, giving her a hug.
"Bye dad."
"Bye Lily," they called as she entered Platform 9 ¾.
Suddenly she was standing in front of the scarlet train. Steam was billowing out of the steam engine.
"Lily!" someone shrieked, and she turned to see Samantha running at her, her black hair coming out of its loose bun and flying everywhere.
"It's so good to see you!" she squealed as she gave her a bug hug.
"It's good to see you, too," said Lily grinning. "How was your summer? You haven't written in week!"
"Terrible," said Samantha, her huge grin falling. "My parents took me to France, and they took away all my ways of communication! They said 'This is a NO friend trip'! It was terrible."
Lily knew exactly how she felt, being trapped with her family for the whole summer. It was even worse when she had Petunia for a sister. She hated magic, and did everything in her power so that Lily had a terrible summer.
"Have you heard from Caitlin?" asked Lily.
"No," said Samantha, looking around the platform for their brunette friend. "I haven't talked to anybody."
"Lily! Samantha!" It was Caitlin, or Caity as she was called by her friends.
"Caity!" said Lily and Samantha at the same time. The three girls grabbed their trunks and drug then unto the train, already sharing their equally horrible summers, all glad to be finally going home.
"Oy! Prongs!" yelled Sirius, referring to James's nickname.
"Padfoot!" called James, referring to Sirius's nickname.
They hugged like brothers after spending a whole two days apart from each other. Sirius had spent almost the whole summer at James's house, but he had to return due to the death of one of Sirius's family members that Sirius neither knew, nor cared about.
Sirius came from a dark family, who were heavy in the dark arts and followers of the Dark Lord. They hated Muggle-born, or even half-bloods for that matter, and anyone who was involved with them is considered a traitor in their mind. Sirius fell into this category. The second the Sorting Hat had sorted him into Gryffindor, they had him considered a blood traitor. This was perfectly fine with Sirius, who hated his family, the Dark Arts, and everything that reminded him of them. He spent the summer at the Potter's house, where he was considered family.
"Where's Moony?" asked James looking around for their werewolf friend. Remus had been bitten as a child, and suffered the transformations once a month. His friends found a way to make things a little easier for him. In their third year they became animargus, and they could turn in to animals. Sirius could turn into a great black dog, and James could turn into a beautiful white stag. For this, he was mocked by Sirius.
"And what mischief are you two planning now?" came a teasing voice from behind them.
"Moony!" they yelled, turning around to embrace their friend, Remus.
"Oh, we're just greeting the students," said Sirius as a group of fourth year Ravenclaw girls walked by, all giggling like mad at the sight of the Marauders. Sirius and James winked and grinned at them. They giggled again, and walked off. Remus shook his head smiling.
"What am I going to do with you two?" he asked, his arms folded over his chest, shaking his head at the two who were grinning.
"What?" asked Sirius. "It's not our fault we're devilishly handsome, and every girl who sets their eyes on me and Prongs falls in love with us."
"Not every girl," Said James quietly, thinking of Lily and her friends.
"Who? Flower, guinea pig, and Oreo?" asked Sirius, referring to Lily and her friends.
They had received this far from affectionate nickname in third year. It was Sirius who had come up with them, and Sirius who used them. "Flower" is Lily, because a lily is a type of flower. Caitlin is guinea pig because her last name, McGinty, reminded Sirius of a guinea pig, and Samantha is Oreo because James, who has an aunt who is Muggle-Born, showed Sirius the Muggle sweet, Oreos, which he had got from his aunt. And of course, Samantha had walked in the compartment, James called her by her last name, Ortiz, Sirius looked at the Oreo, then at Samantha, then back to the Oreo, and finally to James said "You know what, her name sounds like "Oreo"!", and it stuck, so the poor girls were have to listen to Sirius make fun of their names, but they usually got him back by either slapping him across the face, or jinxing him, whichever seemed more appealing at the time.
Remus shook his head to the nicknames, but James didn't say a word, he didn't even seem to have heard Padfoot at all. He was staring with his arms folded, leaning against a pole, staring at the ground, apparently deep in thought.
He actually was deep in thought. He was thinking of the one and only Lily Evans, the girl he had been in love with since he first set his hazel eyes on her green ones. She's so beautiful, he thought. So graceful in the way she walks, the gentle way she treats everyone, her innocence of the world around her. He loved to watch her read, while she studied in the library, with her brow furrowed, her petite body bent over her large book. She was so zoned out. He was once watching her, she was reading in the library, one of her Muggle books that her Mum sends her, and a full-blown out duel started between a two 6th year Hufflepuffs. Spells were flying, books knocked off shelves, people screaming, Madame Pince, the young librarian, yelling her head off at the two boys, even after they had stopped dueling. Lily never once looked up from her book. She was completely absorbed in her story, in her fairy-tale land where no harm could come to her. James had watched her with amazement, that someone could be so absorbed in a book.
He knew from that moment on that he loved her. Not, a crush, not lust, not even puppy-dog love, but deep, gut-wrenching, passionate, head-over-heels, all or nothing deep in love with her. And he made a promise with himself that he would never let anything her hurt his precious angel, his Lily, if it was the last thing on this Earth he did. He was willing to die just so he would know she would be safe. Little did he know, many years later, his wish would be granted.
Author's note: Sorry if this has doesn't have anything going on, but I had to get all the information out so I can write the story now. I promise, I won't babble on and on about their history anymore. I'll just have two flashbacks in the next chapters. Please read and review!