Okay, so here comes chapter 3. Would you believe that we had a hailstorm today? And SNOW! I mean, I know it's England but also ITS BLINKING APRIL! Grrr…

So anyway, this gave me little idea for next chapter (loving my little plot twisting fairy! I need to give her a name though… Tell you what, I shall dedicate the next chapter to whoever comes up with the best name for her!) Extra marshmallows and pink cakes with far too many E numbers for those of you kind enough to review this chapter! You have no idea how fantabulous it is to get reviews… unless you're a writer too, in which case you probably do. Anyhoo, on with the chapter. Sorry for the long, pointless and boring introduction.

Lol r xxx

Disclaimer- I don't own it yahdayahdayahda, all J.K.Rowling's yahdayahdayahda… you know the story.

3 years previously- Gryffindor Common Room

'Bloody potion,' muttered Sirius, as he scribbled out yet another sentence on his parchment. Then another. Then another. Then he tore it up, scrunched it into a ball and threw it into the fire… or he would have done if it hadn't hit Lily's head as she stood up from the sofa.

'Ow,' she said, more as a reflex action than out of pain. 'For God's sake Black, look what you're doing.'

Sirius raised his eyebrows at the fiery red-head. 'Sorry,' he muttered, rolling his eyes and turning back to his table.

'Arrogant prat,' muttered Lily, not all too quietly, bending down and picking up the offending piece of parchment.

'Sorry, didn't quite catch that Evans,' said Sirius, exchanging worried glances with James. They didn't need Lily to see that parchment.

'Arrogant. Prat,' she repeated very slowly and clearly.

Sirius raised his eyebrows even higher. 'Well that's not very pleasant,' he said, standing up and snatching the parchment out of her grip. 'It's only James and we both know he's been an arrogant prat for years.'

Lily let out a snort of exasperation as James muttered, 'Shut it Padfoot.'

'What is that?' she asked quizzically as Sirius opened up the crumpled parchment and crushed it in his fist again.

'Potions essay,' he replied smoothly, throwing it into the fire (accurately this time) where it lay for a split second before catching light, edges glowing like ashwinder eggs, and then disintegrating into ash.

'We don't have one,' she said, arching a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

'I know, it's from last week.' Lily rolled her eyes. Typical Black.

'Typical me as well, if you think about it' said James. Lily winced slightly as she felt James' mind enter hers.

'For the love of Merlin, Potter, stop doing that!'

'Doing what?'

'You know just what I'm talking about,' snarled Lily. 'It hurts.'

'It does?' Concern flitted across James' features.

'Yes.'

'It doesn't hurt that much Evans.'

'Shut it Black.'

Then Sirius opened his mouth to come back with a biting retort, only he couldn't, no sound came out of his mouth. His face was a hilarious picture of confusion- he closed his mouth, opened it again but yet again, no sound emerged. James started to snigger but an even louder, half-stifled laugh came from behind Lily. She turned to see a tall boy, with dark blonde hair, sapphire blue eyes and pale skin emerging from behind one of the large armchairs by the portrait hole, a smile spreading over his face.

'Remus!' Lily launched herself at the boy who wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

'Hey Lils.' His voice was deep but slightly harsh, raspy, as though he was recovering from having just lost it. 'I don't actually know a spell that would shut his mouth, so I think this'll have to suffice.' Lily giggled, Sirius looked livid, James was howling with laughter at the look on Sirius' face and Peter was looking confused. 'How was your weekend?'

Lily grimaced. 'The usual. James asked me out at least five times-'

'Can't blame a guy for trying,' James muttered from his corner. Lily threw him a look that could have scorched.

'Sirius tried to lock me in the library-'

At Remus' hard look Sirius looked all innocent and mouthed 'Did not' to which James replied, 'Did too'.

'And then Malfoy hexed me on the way into breakfast this morning.'

'Hair again?'

Lily nodded, dolefully. 'Bright green.'

'We did curse him back though,' put in James, hopeful to get a little appreciation.

'Yes, but you sent a total of eight people up to the hospital wing,' said Lily. 'I know you're clever Potter, but you might want to work on your aim, it's appalling.'

James looked downcast and went back to 'working', which was also classified as millimetre by millimetre shortening the hem of Lily's skirt until she noticed and transfigured his wand hand into a cabbage. Eventually, Peter took both James and Sirius to the nurse before they did anything else.

By eleven thirty, the common room was empty but for Lily, Remus and Lily's cat, Jynx, all three of them curled up on the sofa in front of the dying embers of the fire.

'Why did you have to go away, this weekend of all weekends?' complained Lily. 'I really missed you.'

'I was only away for two days!'

'Oh yeah, of course, how was your grandmother? Is she okay?' Lily asked with a face of concern. She was just glad James wasn't around to do his legilimency on her- she didn't need him reading her mind at the moment.

'My grandmother?' Remus faltered slightly before recovering. 'Oh, yeah, she's fine really. Bit of a false alarm,' he replied, his hint of confusion evaporating quickly to be replaced by a wan smile.

Lily paused and looked up at friend from her position lying on the sofa. 'Can I talk to you?' she asked quietly. She knew she had to ask him now, otherwise she'd never gear herself up to doing it again.

'Well, if you're not already, you certainly have my permission to do so.'

'It's about…' she sat up, eyes meeting his straight on. 'Re, I… your grandmother…'

'She'll be fine, I told you,' said Remus, his brow furrowing slightly.

'Remus, she died three years ago.' There was a long, stagnant and very pregnant pause.

'What?' he whispered.

Lily looked very embarrassed, and deeply apologetic. 'Don't you remember in first year, when you had to leave to go to her funeral, and you were so upset because you were telling me how she was t last grandparent you had left. That was quite soon before your mum had to go to hospital, before your sister got dragonpox, and then your dad…' Lily trailed off, staring at Remus. She had only just begun listening to herself. How many people in his family had gotten ill, or had died or had… done anything that warranted Remus having to leave school?

Remus was looking anywhere but at her, the ceiling, the fire, anywhere.

'Remus, what's going on?' Lily whispered, drawing back slightly. Her words seemed to echo around the empty common room.

He said nothing, he didn't really need to. He looked up at her, seeing her drawn away from him and his heart sank. He didn't know whether he could do this.

'Re? Why do you always leave?'

He knew the time had come for her to know, but he didn't know how to tell her gently enough. 'I think,' he answered slowly, 'the question is when do I leave?'

'What do you mean, when do…,' Lily started. She looked into Remus' eyes, pleading with her to understand. She averted her eyes to the window behind him where the moon, not quite spherical, shone through, illuminating everything with a luminescent light. And then the comprehension dawned. Lily let out a sharp gasp and looked back to Remus for confirmation. He looked so ashamed, as though he hated himself, which to many extents, he did. She could have rejected him, hated him, feared him, run away or a million other things. But she didn't, and he would always love her for that.

She crept along the sofa to where her friend sat hunched over his knees and crawled into his lap. He looked at her with pained eyes, but she smiled. Then her eyes filled with sudden tears. She put her arms around his neck and cried softly into his shoulder. He brought his arms around her, desperate to cling onto this, his saving grace in a time of need.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered. 'I must have been blind not to notice.'

And that was how they fell asleep.

Back to the present- Hospital Wing

Lily smiled to herself, not a lot had changed in three years… apart from the fact that she had now made her peace with all the Marauders, rather than having petty fights with them day after day. As she lost herself in memories of the past she heard a crash from the general direction of the Hospital Wing entrance. She jerked out of her trance and saw the tall boy, now even taller, with his piercing blue eyes glinting like iced fire and a thunderous expression.

'RIGHT!' he shouted as he marched over to Lily's bed. 'Where is he! I'll kill him!'

'Re! You're back, I-'

'WHERE IS HE!' he shouted, looking around at all the beds, searching for someone..

'Re, calm down,' said Lily, grabbing his sleeve and yanking him down to sit by her bed. 'Where is who?'

'MALFOY!' he shouted. 'That evil git! I'll kill him! Look what he did to you!'

'I'm loads better.'

'I don't care. It's the principle of the thing.' He paused, and then backtracked. 'No, I mean, I'm glad you're loads better, but still! That puffed up, slimy twerp and his gorillas traipsing around after him. He deserved a hell of a lot more than suspension!'

'Well, he got his arms cursed off.'

A slight pause. 'He did?'

'Yeah, James did it when he heard what had happened.'

'Ah so that would explain why he's-'

'Why he's what?'

'In detention,' said Remus, pointing a thumb over his shoulder and at that precise moment, James and Sirius both traipsed into the hospital wing, both covered head to toe in a sticky, orange paste.

'Good God!' shrieked Madam Ingram, the nurse. 'What in Merlin's name happened to you two?'

'Claudius,' they muttered, both wincing slightly. Madam Ingram rolled her eyes.

'Honestly, you two. You ought to think more carefully before you go attacking people.'

'It wasn't a person,' muttered James. 'It was Malfoy. Big difference.'

As the boys were ushered over to a bed each and their burns, (which hadn't been tended to all that carefully by Hagrid, the only person around at the time) were cared for by the nurse, Remus turned back to Lily.

'So where is the slime ball?' he asked.

'I think he's already gone home,' she replied, glad he had calmed down slightly. 'More's the better, I don't want you getting into detention as well as those lot,' she nodded over to James and Sirius.

'It's okay,' he smiled at her. 'I'll get him when he gets back.'

'Remus-' said Lily warningly.

'Now, do I curse the legs off, or the facial features-' he muttered, trying hard to conceal his grin. 'Or maybe I should just give him a good bite, that'd teach him.'

'But can you imagine being stuck in the Shrieking Shack wit just him for an entire day?' asked Lily quietly. 'Plus, he's a nasty enough person as it is. I hate to think what kind of a werewolf he'd make.'

Lily exited the hospital wing the next day, fully cured with a sworn guard of at least two Mauaders/Nick at any one time. Not that the Slytherins would have tried anything without Malfoy, they were shit scared of everyone in the guard now.

James and Sirius had been let off the rest of their detentions because of the injuries they had sustained. The fact that they had been cured within five minutes hadn't seemed to hinder this much; they were playing it for all it was worth.

In Transfiguration- 'I'm sorry professor, could I please not have a salamander. I seem to have developed a temporary fear of fire.' (Sirius)

In Potions- 'May I be excused, the flames are making me feel faint.' (James)

In Care of Magical Creatures- '…' (they skipped this lesson completely)

And so on.

On Friday, it was Quidditch practise for the Gryffindor team. Although Lily wasn't on the team (she had a fear of heights, onset by her sister hanging her favourite teddy out of the window so that Lily had had to climb onto the narrow windowsill to retrieve it and had fallen and broken an arm a leg and her collarbone), she turned out to watch the team do their stuff in preparation for the match against Ravenclaw next week. She also brought her book to hide behind when it got a bit too much for her.

James, as captain, spent a bit of time on the ground going over some tactical moves, before instructing his team to get in the air. Lily watched him kick off from her seat high in the stands. She had to admit, that boy was a legend on a broomstick, with a body to match the skill as well. Lily shook her head a little; bad, arrogant, not boyfriend material no matter how many times he insisted on asking her out.

She watched Remus grab the quaffle and pass smoothly to a fifth year girl called Rachel Griffiths who promptly dropped it as James whizzed passed her, flashing her a dazzling smile as he did so. Lily rolled her eyes- that was the James she knew and didn't quite love. Having retrieved the quaffle, Rachel sped up the pitch with Donny Goldstein and Remus flanking her. Sirius came speeding from above to hit a bludger away from Donny's face. Now there was a boy who definitely looked good on a broom, and wasn't (always) an arrogant twerp.

Lily's dreams were interrupted by a tall figure who cast a shadow over her in the weak light from the setting sun.

'Still think I look better on the ground,' said Nick grinning and taking a seat next to Lily.

'Coming to spy on the practise?' asked Lily. 'Hoping to find some last minutes tactics that might come in handy?'

'Oh yeah, like how to drop the quaffle when my team captain smiles at me like he's in an advert for shampoo or something-'

'You saw it then?'

'Yup,' he grimaced. 'Quite sickening really. I don't even need to smile to have them falling at my feet.'

'Prat,' said Lily, hitting him on the shoulder, perhaps a little harder than she would normally have done.

'I see you're fully recovered then.'

'Quite recovered thanks.' Lily grinned, and then wondered aloud, 'Who am I going to cheer for on Tuesday?'

'Me of course,' said Nick, with a look of mock shock. 'Why on earth wouldn't you?'

'Of course, how silly of me.'

'OY! WHAT'S HE DOING HERE!' yelled Sirius, pointing at Nick.

'GET OVER YOURSELF BLACK, YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO SPY ON ANYWAY!' Nick yelled back.

'LILS!' yelled James.

'WHAT?'

'IF YOU DARE EVEN THINK ABOUT CLAPPING FOR RAVENCLAW ON TUESDAY I WILL PUSH YOU OFF THE ASTRONOMY TOWER!' Lily responded by sticking her tongue out at him and turning back to Nick who was now playing with a snitch.

'Where did you get that?'

'Flew past my ear about ten seconds ago.' He let it go and then caught it a split second later before it flew away. Lily shook her head, she hadn't noticed the little ball. And with Nick and James head to head in the match next week, things were going to be very very close.

'HEY YOU PIECE OF CRAP!' came James' voice from the other end of the pitch, 'I CAN SEE YOU FROM HERE! LET THE BLOODY SNITCH GO!' and Nick complied.

'Need to let him get as much practise in before Tuesday as possible,' he explained. 'Can't have him making a fool of himself.' Lily grinned. She really didn't know how she was going to cope on Tuesday, especially as she had the job of commentating as usual.

'IF YOU'RE BIASED, I'LL TURN YOUR HAIR GREEN LILS!' bellowed James as he flew by.

'Don't do that!' she yelled back, wincing at the pain.

'He really should have that ability taken away,' muttered Nick.

'You know that's not possible.'

'Worth dreaming though.'

'Hmm.'

'Where's Peter?' asked Nick, looking around.

'I'm not sure,' replied Lily. She hadn't really noticed his absence, but as he didn't play Quidditch there was little reason for him to be there anyway. Just then, Remus flew over for a quick chat while Sirius tried to stem the flow of blood now emanating from his nose where he had accidentally clobbered himself with his bat.

'I think he's doing his extra potions,' Remus said, practising his sloth-grip roll while Lily winced, chanced a look down to see how far they were from the ground, swallowed and sat down. While this was happening, Nick was beside himself with laughter at the spectacle going on on the pitch.

'Ow, dat bloody well hurd,' said Sirius, his eyes watering.

'You are such an idiot,' muttered James who got out his wand, dropped it and dived to go fetch it.

'Beak for yourself,' muttered Sirius. Then Rachel, the keeper, Becky and the other beater Melissa all flew over to coo over Sirius who didn't stop them in their activity. Funny how a guy can be so attractive even with blood all over his face…

'Maybe you ought to support this lot,' Nick said, trying to control his laughter. 'They're going to need all the supporters they can get.'

Remus looked around at the commotion behind him, turned back, and nodded slowly.

'OY!' yelled James, listening in on their conversation.

'FRATERNISING WID DE ENEBY!' shouted Sirius from somewhere in the crowd of simpering girls.

Lily rolled her eyes for possibly the fifteen thousandth time that week. 'WELL, HERE'S MY SUPPORT. I'LL GIVE A KISS TO THE CAPTAIN OF THE LOSING TEAM!' she yelled.

'No fair!' called James. 'That means I want to lose as well as win. How about you go out with the loser?'

'Nice try Potter.'

'I'm happy with the arrangement,' Nick said. 'Or, no wait, am I..?'

Lily smiled happily. That might shut them up for a while and let her read her book in peace. But this was going to be very interesting…

'WHAD ABOUT BE!' shouted Sirius.

'You'll just have to kill James to get captaincy,' said Remus grinning. 'However, I'd like to claim a kiss right now.' He proffered his cheek to Lily who pecked it daintily and then grinned at him. And then, before she knew it, his arm was around her waist and she had been put on his broom (assisted by a giggling, yes giggling, Nick) right in front of him. Lily screamed and screamed until they let her down five minutes later. And she was not happy about it.

At least she would have her feet firmly on the ground on Tuesday…

Wow, quite a long'un. And quite pointless too, but I hope you like it. Actually, it is quite relevant, but you'll have to see how…

What you should now be asking yourselves is:

1. What made Lily make peace with the Marauders and become their friends.

2. Why is Sirius so fit in the books and this fic but so utterly minging in the film?

3. How long a review do I think I can leave..:D

Meh, you know I was just going through the folder where I'm keeping all of the chapters for this story, and chapter 4 has gone missing! Which means I need to rewrite it:( However, it was in fact the chapter that I enjoyed writing most last time, so maybe it won't be such a chore after all! And hey, we have Quidditch people- I repeat, Quidditch! Yay- I love Quidditch… happiness…

Luv y'all ;)

R xxx