Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

They're in: Sixth Year

Recap:

Before her inner battle had seemingly come to an end, a single tear fell down her cheek.

"So, what do you think of it, Prongs?"

Paying attention once more to his friends once he heard his nickname he replied, "Er, yeah sure."

"I said," Sirius said, his eyes sparkling mischievously, "'let's pants James!'"

"Oh, well I'm still all for it!" James joked.

"I, for one would not like to see James in his underpants..." Sirius trailed off, "but I know plenty of girls who would be delighted to." They all laughed and James had momentarily forgotten Lily.

THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN (7/05)

Chapter Three: Burned

After dinner, the four Marauders returned to the common room. Sirius looked around the room and observed the different students. The words they dreaded coming from Sirius's mouth most was said, "I'm bored."

The other three boys exchanged looks and were wary of what Sirius might choose to entertain himself. "Well," Remus started cautiously and slowly, "what do you want to do?"

"Snog senselessly?" Peter smirked, well, he wanted it to be a smirk but it didn't quite work.

"Shut up Peabrain!" Sirius snapped, rounding on Peter.

Change.

James awoke early for a strange and unusual reason so he decided to go down to breakfast early. It must have been really early because there were hardly any people in the Great Hall except for all of the teachers.

He looked for someone to sit with at the Gryffindor table: He saw some First Years, trying to cram in a few extra minutes of studying, a few Fourth Years looking quite bored, and a Seventh Year who looked as if she needed a friend.

He decided to go sit with her. He walked in between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables down to where Lily was sitting. "Hello!" he said brightly as he sat down across from her. He watched her as her eyes opened wide in surprise.

Lily looked around her and deciding that he was, indeed, speaking to her, said uncertainly, "Me?"

"Of course, you silly goose!" James said playfully as he began putting food on his plate.

Lily began thinking. Why is he sitting with me? We're not friends... maybe he needs my homework. "So what do you need? Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, or Astronomy? Those are the only things we had due today," she said absentmindedly pulling out the assignments as she named them.

"What are you doing?" James said perplexedly.

"Aren't you going to copy? That's the only reason I could think of as to why you're sitting with me." She looked sad.

"Well, no. I came just because."

"Oh," she put her assignments away and muttered, "sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry. You didn't offend me." Was she always like this? James thought.

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but just then, "Prongs! I woke up and you weren't there! I got scared!" Sirius walked swiftly toward James.

James smiled apologetically at Lily, "Sirius is a tad bit off his rocker..." He stood up, "See you, er, Lila."

James walked away and the small bubble of happiness inside Lily burst. He didn't even know her name. "It's Lily," she whispered.

Change.

Later that night, Lily sat on her bed writing in her diary. She had written almost a full page before being interrupted.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Lily snapped her diary shut and tried to put it away. "Nothing."

"That's what I thought," Anna, a popular girl, smiled evilly, "I mean, what would a nerd like you be doing? Besides reading or homework, of course," she laughed as if what she had said what hilarious. "Well, I didn't mean to interrupt you..." she laughed again and snatched the diary away from her.

"Give it back!"

"'Dear Diary,'" she mimicked in a high-pitched voice, "'Sometimes I wish I could just die,' You're not the only one who wishes that. 'I don't think anyone realizes that they really hurt me when they say something mean to me. They don't realize I don't like their type of "jokes." ' Well, why not? They're extremely amusing. 'I hate everyone and everything,' Well, we hate you too."

"Stop! Please! Just give it back to me!" Lily whined, tears now pouring down her cheeks.

"Alright, I'll stop." Lily reached out to get her diary back but before she could close her fingers around it, Anna threw it into the dormitory fireplace. "Oops," she sneered.

Lily shrieked.

Downstairs, the four boys heard the shriek.

"Should we go see what's going on?" Remus inquired.

"No, I don't want to," Peter said, afraid of what he might find upstairs.

"Stay here Petey," Sirius said. "She could be in danger!" Sirius shouted, sounding uncannily like Superman.

With their tricks, they got upstairs and threw open the door to the dorm in which they thought they heard the scream. James saw that Anna had been standing by Lily, laughing at her while Lily was on her knees crying and staring at the fire.

"What's going on?" Sirius said, getting more confused by the second.

Anna looked up and said brightly, "Hi James!" and on a second thought added, "Hi guys!"

"What's going on though?" Remus echoed Sirius.

"I accidentally dropped her diary in the fire. I didn't mean to. It was accidental, honest," she said. It sounded much too innocent for the boys to believe.

"It wasn't accidental! You did it on purpose!" Lily screeched from the floor. "You don't understand! You don't understand anything," she repeated quietly, sobbing on the floor.

Anna mouthed to the guys, "Psycho!"

They all nodded, though all were unconvinced that it was an accident and that that was all there was to it. Why is she crying so damn hard? James thought, watching Lily crying on the floor. It was just a diary...

Sirius, James and Remus slid down the staircase and down to the common room. Once they had left, Lily turned to Anna, "Why do you have to be so mean to me? What did I do?" The tears were still streaming down her cheeks. "What did I do?" she repeated more strongly.

"Chill out!" Anna shouted at her, "It was just a joke! Nothing personal, geez."

"But you don't understand! How would you feel if I threw a special something of yours into the fire?"

Anna smirked again, "You don't have the guts to." She turned to leave and was almost at the door when she heard a whisper.

Lily's whisper sounded so sad and so hurt, "Why do you hate me?"

Anna pretended she hadn't heard, pretended that she did not feel guilty.

She pretended that she didn't care.

spotted kitten: Um, thanks for reviewing. And review! Ha. Thanks to those who reviewed the first version: Miss Lady Marauder, Amandinka, Swishy Willow Wand, and DerangedButMagic.