Lily loved her new friendships with the marauders, she always had someone to talk to that she knew would treat her like they had been friends for years. The fact she knew all their secrets, and they knew all hers, strengthened her relationship with James and the two were bonded together more than either had been bonded to anyone before – much to James' delight. Lily felt like she belonged for the first time since she had fallen out with Severus. Speaking of whom, he was still apologising every time he saw her (unless James was with her) and she was choosing to simply ignore him, especially when he had just left his friends who were bullying first year muggle-borns.

Within a few months, she had figured out the schedule of what to do and when. She knew when the next full moon would be without even looking at her charts (something that helped her a lot in Astronomy). When the full moon appeared, she helped to care for Remus as he began to get sick on the day of and was ill sometimes for a few days after, depending on how bad it had been. When he was unable to come to class, she made sure to take enough notes for the both of them and pick up any homework before hand-delivering it to him in bed.

"Moony?" She asked as she knocked on the door to their dormitory. Whilst boys couldn't even go up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, it was well known that the same was not true and so Lily could walk up easily. Remus grunted in reply and she walked in to where he was laid underneath his duvet and a few blankets. "I've brought your notes and homework. I'll leave them on your table." She placed them down and walked over to him. "I missed you in potions today, but I know that you'll be back, making better potions than me either tomorrow or the day after." Remus' eyes were barely open but she knew he was listening. "Get some rest." She whispered and left the room again.

She had only just carefully shut the door so that it didn't bang when she heard the voices of James and Sirius as they walked up the stairs towards her.

"Were you in my bedroom?" James asked with a confused smile.

"Just dropping off some notes for Remus." Lily smiled and planted a kiss on James' lips.

"We were just going to check on him now actually. How is he?" Sirius asked. Lily always loved how much they all cared about each other.

"About the same as usual." Lily shrugged. "He didn't speak to me, so he's not really awake, but I don't think he was fully asleep either."

"Well, I'll meet you in the common room in a few minutes then?" James asked and Lily nodded.

"OK, see you there." Then they parted ways and Lily headed back down the stairs to the warm common room.

Now that it was almost Easter, the fire wasn't lit in the fireplace until the evening as the heat was simply not needed. Because of this, the best light in the common room was now by the windows which was where Lily chose to sit. She got out her transfiguration book and began working on her essay for McGonagall about the effects of transfiguring a human being. It was incredibly tedious as there are no adverse effects if the spell is cast correctly but the effects can be anything if done wrong. Suddenly, she couldn't see her book, or her parchment, as everything went dark and she could smell James' aftershave.

"Guess who!" Peter squeaked enthusiastically, happy to be involved in the game.

"Well, Peter spoke but I know that it's James covering my eyes and I'm assuming that Sirius is there too." She stated, hiding the amusement from her voice but she was still smiling. James uncovered her eyes and leant down to kiss her cheek before clambering over the top of the sofa to sit beside her.

"Whatcha doing?" He asked, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm working on my transfiguration essay but it's more boring than the last one." Lily said. She put down her things and turned to lean back into James. Sirius was sat on his other side and Peter sat opposite them.

"I'm sure you'll do it and get top marks like always."

"Oh, I'll do it. I just don't want to. What are you guys up to today?" She asked.

"Well, we have to go to lessons soon, and we have to get ready for tonight – some of us can't stay up late to finish our homework!" Sirius fake complained.

"If you're hinting that I should do it, Black, then you're sadly mistaken. You guys are better at transfiguration than me and I'm not writing one essay five times." She sighed, knowing she was going to give in a little. "I'll finish mine after dinner, you can sit with me and we can do them together."

They sat and chatted for a while but all too soon, it was time for charms – which was something they all had together – and before they knew it, Lily had forced the boys up to the common room for a couple of hours to work on their essays before they grabbed a bite to eat and headed out to look after Remus. Lily kissed James goodbye and sent her love before they headed off into the darkening grounds. Whilst Lily wanted to go with them, she knew that she would be useless and just be in danger if she tried.

Instead, Lily trudged back up the stairs to the common room and looked over her essay one last time. Whilst it wasn't her best attempt, she was pretty sure that it would at least pass. Bored, and a little lonely, Lily decided just to go straight to bed where she found an owl sitting on her bed. She instantly recognised it as one of the school birds and was confused as to who could be writing to her considering everyone that she knew either had no idea how to use owls, or lived at Hogwarts. Lily took the letter from the bird which had EMERGENCY written in large red letters on its front but took the letter from the bird which instantly flew off.

Her hands shook as she tore open the envelope and pulled the letter out of it.

Lily darling,

I'm afraid I have very bad news. Your father had a heart attack and died last night. The funeral is next Thursday. I hope you can make it and I hope you get this letter.

All our love, hope to hear from you soon,

Mum x

Lily's whole body shook as she read the letter three or four times to make sure she had understood. She felt the sobs move her whole body and she collapsed onto the bed, dropping the letter which fell to the floor.

Yay! New chapter! I know this one is pretty short for this fic but I thought that it would be better to split it here and get the next chapter up quicker. Sorry for my disappearance, I will try to do better! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will try to update my other stories ASAP but please leave me a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter and anything you might want to happen.