By the time Lily woke the next morning, she was alone. The girls in her dormitory had left almost an hour ago, leaving Lily to sleep in. In fact, she slept until quarter to nine and was only awakened by the tapping of an owl on her window. The sunlight was already streaming in through the small window and after Lily had adjusted she opened it to let in the bird. He held out his leg just long enough for Lily to untie the note attached before it flew back outside.

Lily. Didn't see you a breakfast. Hope you are ok. Our first lesson is transfiguration.

-James

Lily looked at her clock quickly and saw that it was quarter to nine and lessons started in fifteen minutes. Never had she gotten ready so quickly as she did that morning as she dashed through the bathroom, brushing her teeth with impeccable speed and then quickly dressing, grabbing her bag and books and rushing out the door. The common room was silent and with a quick look at her watch she saw that she had five minutes to get down four flights of stairs to Professor McGonagall's transfiguration classroom.

By the time she ran into the classroom, with a minute to spare, everyone had already chosen their seats leaving only one, next to James and behind Remus (who was sat next to Peter and Sirius was on James' other side). Quickly she slipped into the seat at the back of the class, praying that no one would notice her bright red bed head that was the same shade as her face. Thankfully, Professor McGonagall had her back to the class, writing on the blackboard.

"Slept in on the first day, did you Evans?" James said softly so that only Lily could hear. She simply scoffed and turned her attention to the teacher at the front of the class who was explaining what looked to be a difficult spell that seemed to transform balloons into goldfish. Soon, she handed out the balloons and bowls filled with water to put the fish into and told the class to begin.

Lily stared at the balloon, trying to remember the charm but the twittering of the boys around her stopped her from concentrating as well as she had in the past. She looked up to tell them to be quiet and was astounded by the fact that there was already one goldfish in hers and James' bowls and there were to on the table in front of her. Peering round James, she noticed that Sirius too had managed a complete transformation.

"How did-" she started but stopped mid-sentence and turned back to her own work. She didn't need them, she got an E in transfiguration, surely she could manage it.

"You know if you just-" James tried to explain it to her but she cut him off with her death glare and he sat quietly, although she could feel the silent laughs that were coming from the boys, Lily wanted to do it herself. She had never needed anyone before and sixteen was not the age in which she planned to start.

Quarter of an hour before the end of the lesson, Lily managed it and her red balloon turned into a golden fish which she quickly scooped up and put in the water next to James'. Then she turned to him and cleared her throat to get his attention (as he was talking to Sirius).

"Have you decided you need my help after all?" But with one quick look at the fish in the bowl, his face dropped slightly for a second before brightening again. "Well done, he looks great. What do you need?"

"My timetable." Lily told him, putting out her hand and scowling. James laughed at her efforts.

"Tell you what, Evans, I'll make you a deal. You have potions with Slughorn next and then, at lunch, meet me at the tree by the lake and I'll give you the timetable. That way, we both gain something from this." James told her. Lily sighed and then nodded, folding her arms and leaning back in her chair as James turned back to Sirius.

Finally, the bell rang and Lily ran through the corridor towards the main staircase, needing to rush upstairs to grab her copy of 'Advanced Potion Making' from her dorm but stopped when she heard someone shouting her name. As she turned, she saw Remus making his way towards her, looking even more dishevelled than he had done last night.

"Hey. I have potions, too. I'll walk with you." He said, trying to sound bright and cheery, but his face was pale and he looked like he might be sick.

"Ok, I just need to run and get my book. Is that ok?" She asked. At his nod, the pair sped through the crowd, zig zagging through the tiny gaps until it cleared near the common room entrance. "Draconis." Lily said quickly and the Fat Lady opened the door happily as Lily bounded up the stairs. Thankfully, it was the first book she came across as she had been checking her work for the lesson just last night and so it had been on her bedside table. She sped down the stairs again and, without a word to Remus, the two of them pounded down the eight flights of stairs into the dark dungeons.

By the time they got to the classroom, there were only two spaces left but they didn't appear to be too late. The two spaces were next to each other at the front of the class on the side nearest the door but it wasn't until Lily sat down that she realised that she wasn't only sat next to Remus, but Severus as well. She cursed her bad luck silently but tried to pretend that she hadn't noticed him, deciding that her silent treatment had been working for her so far and there was no point in acknowledging him now, not when she would probably have to hear him talking to his friends about the immorality of muggle-borns in the same classroom as pure-bloods in a moment. Instead she turned to Remus.

"Are you alright, you look a little off today." Lily asked, trying to sound concerned but still thinking about Severus on her other side. If it was possible, Remus managed to go an even paler shade as he shakily nodded his head.

"Y-Yes." Was his simple reply as at that moment, Slughorn also began talking.

"Well done to everyone in this class for achieving Es and Os at OWL level and choosing to take it forward to NEWT. Now then, today I am going to carry on a little tradition in which I ask each student to create a potion of living death – as found on page 48 of your books – and the most effective cauldron will receive a phial of a miraculous little potion Felix Felicis. Or more commonly known as Liquid Luck. Your time starts. Now." Slughorn started his stop watch and walked back towards his desk starting to mark the essays he had just taken off the students. Meanwhile, there was a commotion at the supply cupboard as all the students attempted to get their ingredients. That is except for the three students at the front of the class on the left.

Lily was confident enough in her own skills, having achieved an 'O' at OWL and so had decided to use a little trick that she had been taught that if you begin to heat the cauldron before collecting your ingredients, it means that the temperature will be hot enough when they are used. She had been taught this by Severus, who had also stayed at the bench, and a slightly confused Remus stayed and copied, knowing that Lily was better than him in this subject.

Lily and Remus walked to the cupboard just as everyone else was leaving and weighed and collected the ingredients that they needed. They were almost ready to go when Severus walked in.

"Potter not with you Lupin. I'm surprised he let you out of his sight, isn't he your master?" Lily felt Remus tense beside her, she patted his hand gently and turned to him.

"You know, Sev. I don't think you know what friendship is. You see, James is actually ice to his friends, therefore they are willing to talk to him and help him with homework. Maybe if you tried the same thing, you could have some as well." And with that the two of them walked out of the cupboard, leaving a scornful looking Severus alone.

"Thanks." Remus said as they sat down and began following the instructions from their recipes.

"No worries. That's what friends do. Anyway, you had my back on the train and now I have yours."

"Ah. Wait until James hears that I am friends with you. He'll probably punch me." They both laughed slightly at this. James had always been a little over-protective of Lily (especially considering that they weren't even friends for a long time) and had once punched one of the Ravenclaw boys who lent Lily a quill when hers broke – after the lesson had finished of course.

Remus and Lily worked on their potions together, sharing the knowledge that the two of them had and came in tied second for the prize at the end of the class – which Severus won. For the first time, however, it seemed almost unimportant. They might not have won the prize but the two had strengthened their bond of friendship in the last hour and a half and this seemed more important to both of them than even Felix Felicis.

"Ok, I'm going to head up and drop my bag off, and then I'll meet you lot by the tree to try and wrangle my timetable off James." Lily told Remus as they climbed the dungeon stairs.

"I'll tell him to go easy on you." Remus chuckled as they split off in their separate directions. "See you in a few."

Lily climbed against the rush of people who were trying to get out into the glorious sunshine that only came about for the first two weeks of September after being cooped up in classrooms for the whole morning. This meant that when Lily got up to the tower and entered the common room, it was deserted. Most people didn't have enough homework on the first day back to warrant spending yet another hour inside. Lily was planning on enjoying the sunshine too (especially as she had spent most of her summer shut inside her bedroom) and so quickly put her bag down on her bed and peered out the window to check that the boys were still at the tree – which they were.

Secretly happy, about spending lunch with the so called 'marauders' Lily walked down the stairs quickly, eager to get out into the sunshine. But when she finally got there she was horror-struck. James Potter, the boy who she was just beginning to warm to had Severus in the air and upside down. It was his signature trick – levicorpus – but this didn't mean it was a good thing.

"Let him down now!" She called, shocking James so much that the spell stopped and Severus dropped from mid-air. She ran over to the crumpled mess of black hair and robes that was lying on the floor. "Are you ok, Sev?" She asked trying to help him up, but he simply pushed her away.

"I don't need help from a mud-blood like you." He hissed. Lily had had enough she stormed back up towards the castle, trying to get away from everyone before she really started crying. She wasn't sure if Severus knew how much calling her that hurt her or if he knew and that was why he used it.

Wiping her eyes on the back of her hands, she heard James' thundering footsteps as he chased after her calling her name.

"Go away James." She yelled and faster than she had ever managed it before, she was back in her dormitory, lying face down on her bed. She must have only been there for a few minutes before she heard a grunt and then the sound of something falling. She poked her head out of the door and saw that the stairs had been turned into a slide, which James laid at the bottom of.

"James." She called, still slightly tearful. He looked up at the sound of her voice and smiled. Lily smiled, too and slid down the stairs, landing next to James. She helped him up and the two of them walked over to sit in the armchairs next to the empty fireplace.

"I'm sorry." James said softly. "I know that Snape is your friend, it's just…" he sighed. "he's just not mine and I can't stand it when he calls you that…that."

"Mud-blood?" Lily finished for him and he nodded. "I know, and he's not my friend. Not now. I keep trying with him, he keeps telling me he's changed but then…he hasn't. And I know that he's just as awful to you." The two sat in silence for a moment before James reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment.

"Here. A deal's a deal. Even if you didn't make it all the way to the tree." It was, of course, Lily's timetable.

"You circled all of the Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark Arts, and Charms lessons." Lily commented, noticing the red ink that surrounded each one.

"They're the lessons we have together." He said looking away, Lily could almost hear the embarrassment in his voice as he turned away. "I don't know why I did it…"

"James. Look at me." James turned and when she was looking into his eyes. Lily did something she never expected herself to want to do when she woke up that morning. But she did it anyway. Lily kissed James and James held her as though he may never let her go again.

After a moment, however, he had to as she pulled away and began to speak.

"Tell no one." She started with a stern voice. Her heart was beating so fast and so loud with the thought of what she was about to say that she wondered if James would be able to hear it. "But I'd like to see how it goes, if you'd like." Lily said quickly and this time it was her turn to turn away embarrassedly until James stroked her cheek and nodded before kissing her again.

Yay. There's chapter two. Please review. By the way, if you couldn't tell, I had no idea for the transfiguration class so please don't judge the balloon/goldfish thing. I racked my brain and that's the best I came up with. Hope you enjoyed it anyway and I'll see you next time – Chescaannie x