FINALLY! Woo-hoo. Half a year later and I've updated this... Granted, I've deleted 5 or so chapters and changed the plot pretty much, but it's not cliche anymore! (I hope.) I hate the fact that most of what I've written is extremely cliched. Like... an unecessary amount of cliche.

So without further ado... here is the most un-cliche story I can write...

Enjoy!

And, also, none of this belongs to me. Except one of my favorite characters (because I'm conceited that way), the newly introduced, Charlotte.

Lily Evans had befriended a lot of boys in the time that she'd been at Hogwarts. Of these, she'd gotten close to a fair amount, and even developed crushes on some of them. She'd even kissed a few. But what Lily Evans did not do was befriend, get to know, develop a crush on, or kiss James Potter.

And yet here we are, the voice in her head taunted. It had been harassing her since she'd started throwing things at James and forcing herself on him for the second time in 24 hours. She wanted to kill the voice. She wanted to put some sort of unforgivable curse on it until it bloody shut up. But then she realized that it was her head… and that might hurt. Though, at this point, she was ready to do anything to forget what had just happened.

She'd kissed James Potter. Like… on purpose. More than once. She'd forced herself on him. She'd slept in the same bed as him. Does that make me a whore? Lily groaned. For all she knew, he had another girlfriend. For all she knew, his girlfriend was one of her friends! They'd all admitted that, at one point or another, they'd fancied him. Except maybe Charlotte, her best friend. But even then, sometimes she couldn't be sure. Though you couldn't always tell, what with her shouting at them all the time, she'd grown up with James- with the Marauders as soon as he'd met them. They'd been close. They used to respect and trust her. Now was different, of course. Now they harassed her same as Lily, but with, if it was at all possible, respect. Well… except Sirius Black.

It could be worse. I mean, it could've been Sirius. He would've taken advantage of me if I'd have thrown myself at him like that. Or he would've humiliated me for doing it. She groaned inwardly once more.

But James didn't, the voice added maliciously. James helped you. He saved your ass and you owe him. After all the mean things you've said to him, after all the times he's chased you- Suddenly avada kedavra looked tempting.

She wanted- no, needed distraction, but she didn't want to leave. Then again, there was a good chance of James having to come back and get something. After all, he had left in his pajamas. Because of you. He would have to come back. She raced up the stairs, changed her clothes, and bolted for the door. Coward. The voice would not shut up, and Lily found herself growing paranoid. She could've sworn she'd heard the door open and shut no sooner than she'd gotten upstairs. But when she checked, there was nobody in sight. She shrugged and crept into the common room, ready to sprint to the library should any sign of a Marauder show up. To her relief (and mild surprise at her luck), however, the only person who occupied the common room from her year was her best friend, Charlotte.

Lily tilted her head slightly. Charlotte looked pale. True, she had fair skin, but she looked a sickly grey and her raven-colored hair was messier than usual. As soon as Lily approached the table, her head snapped up and Lily was met with the all-too-familiar gaze of someone who'd had very little sleep. The usual rather sneaky glint in Charlotte's blue eyes were gone.

"Are you alright?" Even as she stared at Lily, she looked startled to see that anybody was in the room.

"Yeah, just… didn't get much sleep," she laughed. "Important business, if you remember." Lily nodded. She'd forgotten about… that.

"Chocolate frog?" Charlotte tossed her one as she scribbled furiously on a notepad before her. "I've been eating 'em to keep me awake. It didn't work too well, but hey, it's chocolate. I don't need a reason." She let out a small, very exhausted laugh.

"Thanks," Lily gave a small smile as she took the chair next to Charlotte.

"So, how was the party?" She added brightly. "I heard some girl got drunk and left with James." Lily, who had been trying to get a look at what Charlotte had been writing, nearly choked on her frog. Thankfully, Charlotte seemed too tired to notice.

"Erm, did you? I…" Tell her! She's your best friend! "I don't think so. But, I wouldn't know... I mean... He's such a git! When would I ever pay attention to what he does?" Coward.

"Oh," Charlotte shrugged. "It's just something I heard is all." She eyed Lily suspiciously. "Elise told me you'd know all about it." Lily stiffened. Charlotte didn't sound like she was accusing her, so she supposed she didn't know. She just knew Lily was probably hiding something. But Elise! Elise knew, and she could tell Charlotte.

"Elise is full of it." Charlotte, clearly too tired to argue, let out an enormous sigh.

"Eh, it figures. She's always trying to start rumors about everybody else. Like, remember what she said about me and James? Oh my god, remember what she said about Si-" She stopped, looking rather troubled. "Doesn't matter though. I believe you. Anyway, do you fancy some breakfast? Breakfast sounds good. Yeah... breakfast. Right. I'm starving." Her stomach growled before she'd finished her sentence.

"Sounds like it," Lily laughed, ignoring her friend's sudden jumpiness; it was only fair, really. After all, Charlotte wasn't exactly interrogating her. "Yeah, I haven't gone to breakfast yet either. Come on."

And then it hit her. What if James is at breakfast? It's not as if I can tell her I want to go back now! I mean, really! It'd just look too suspicious. Crap! With my luck, the only seat left is going to be right between him and Sirius or something...

As luck should have it, Lily did see James, but only for a moment. No sooner had she turned the corner to enter than she saw him racing out of the Great Hall in his pajamas, Peter jogging rather comically behind him.

"Are you alright?" He was calling after James. "You nearly left the map!"

"Alright then…" Charlotte glanced at Lily.

"How should I know?" Lily snapped suddenly. "I mean... w-what a moron. Apparently he's forgotten how to change his clothes again." They were approaching their usual spot and Lily, her thoughts obviously not on the bench, nearly missed it altogether.

"Coming from the girl who forgot to sit down," Charlotte smirked.

"I'm just tired is all."

"Yeah, I heard you had a pretty rough night," Sirius Black chimed in. Crap.

"Nobody quite likes to hear themselves talk like Sirius," Charlotte mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

"Lily, how can you eat so little? You'd think after all that... exercise you had last night, you'd be ravenous." Charlotte shot him a look. "Like an animal. A beast-" He paused but recieved no responce. "-thirsting for-"

"Listen you bloody pervert, whatever you're on about," Charlotte growled, "Keep it to yourself. Nobody really fancies hearing about your sicko fantasies while they're eating." He scowled and Lupin whispered something rather viciously to him. "What an idiot," she grumbled before scarfing down a plateful of eggs. Lily nodded, never taking her eyes off her plate. She felt rather guilty, especially after Charlotte had told him off, but she didn't want Charlotte picking up on it. For the next half an hour, they ate in complete silence, with the exception of Sirius' occasional attempt to bring up the previous night and Charlotte and Remus yelling at him.

"Erm..." Lily began finally. "After this, you should sleep. You look like crap." She grinned as Charlotte looked up at her.

"Yeah well... You look like shit too." She was grinning back. It was amazing how food fueled Charlotte. She was so short, and not in the least bit fat (though, in all fairness, she wasn't as thin as Lily), you would've thought she was immensely malnourished- and she probably ate as much as James or Sirius.

"Should we... head back?" Lily asked. Charlotte nodded as she gulped down the rest of her pumpkin juice.

"Yeah, I think we should," Sirius grinned to Remus, who glared at him, but followed him out.

Charlotte, who had also shot Sirius a rather nasty look, replied calmly, "Yeah, I've got a bit of work left still and I want to sit around on Sunday."

"Yeah, me too. Tomorrow we can just... sit." She laughed nervously and Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

"Erm... Did somebody spike your pumpkin juice?" Lily stopped walking for a moment, until she realized it was a rhetorical question, and continued on her merry way.

"Pst," Sirius was whispering rather loudly across the common room. "Pst... Psssst... Pst... EVANS... PSSSSSSSSSSSSST!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Will you shut UP?" Charlotte slammed her books on the table.

"Are you Evans?" He shot back. She glared at him and he tried to avoid her piercing gaze. "PSSSS-"

"SIRIUS!" Charlotte snapped.

"Hey, look, normally, I wouldn't mind, but please don't get all pissy with me today, Charlie-baby." She was glaring at him again. "Erm... Charlotte." He grumbled, before regaining his usual, extremely cocky, tone. "Because today, I have every right to disturb Miss Evans."

"Why is that?" she snapped. He walked over to her and ruffled her dark hair. She slapped his hand away.

"Because," he smirked. "I needed to give her these." And out of his robes, he pulled Lily's clothes, stained with the potion from the night before. "Couldn't find the bra." Lily wanted to run, hide, and die in some little corner. Or explode on the spot, which she very well could've.

"You broke into her room?"

"James', actually."

"You are such an idiot!" She snapped, snatching the clothes and thrusting them at Lily, eyes never leaving Sirius.

"Oh she-" He paused as his eyes met Charlotte's. Lily wanted to throw up. "She left them behind the heat of the moment and James asked me to return them," he said cooly.

"Right."

"And he'll be wanting his clothes back," he growled. "And Petey will be wanting his back," he said as he turned to Charlotte.

"Then he should ask you for them, shouldn't he?"

"Jealous?" Sirius laughed. Lily felt herself breathing again...

"Only that you have a bigger chest than her," Alice Longbottom grinned as she joined them at the table.

"That's probably the only thing," Charlotte laughed.

Sirius looked down at his pants suggestively. "That too?"

"Oh, right! Sorry. Of course you're a bigger dick than me," she laughed.

"You hurt me, both of you," he said with mock saddness.

"You'll get over it." Charlotte turned to get back to her work, but he stared at her expectantly. "What?"

"I need a word," he said.

"How about... leave. Or... now... or moron?"

"How about you, me, bed-"

"What do you want?" She spat. "I have work to do."

"In all seriousness- no pun intended," he added quickly, "I would like a word with you."

"Alright." She glanced at Alice, avoiding Lily's gaze as she followed him out of the portrait hole.

"You want to talk to me about last night, I take it?" He nodded. "Yeah, thanks for uh... shutting up about that... in front of her."

"No problem. You have things you can still blackmail me with, so until you say anything, I'll keep my mouth shut- except when I, you know, want to piss her off."

"Whatever."

"So, did she tell you yet?"

"No."

"Alright," he sighed. "Last night, Elise got Lily to erm... drink. And, okay, I'll admit it. I... pointed her James' way for a bit of a laugh. Well, I did get my laughs, as you heard when you went with us this morning-"

"You're such an idiot! You got her drunk?"

"Well you-"

"I didn't tell you to get her drunk!"

"Hey, in defence for me? Lily, from what I've gathered this morning and what James' told me, was trying to get pretty cozy with James."

"Of course she was! She was drunk!"

"What difference does it make? She was cleary acting on something, but was it her subconcious or her-" Charlotte, shooting him a disgusted look, flung her hand over his mouth as a few first years walked by, closely followed by one Remus Lupin, rather engrossed in his book. Charlotte almost didn't trust herself to breathe. Please don't see us. Please be really that oblivious. Live up to the Marauder name and be an idiot...

"Imna-ick-er'-and!"

"If you lick my hand, I'll cut your tongue off and force feed it to you," Charlotte snapped, more on impulse than anything else. She instantly flung the hand over Sirius' mouth over hers. Remus' head jerked up.

"Erm..." His face went from puzzled to amused. "You know, Charlotte, that's almost the equivalent of kissing him." Charlotte's hand remained where it was for a moment. Her gaze met Sirius'. They shared a look of pure disgust before she dropped her hand and whiped it Sirius' as if it were contaminated.

"We were talking about last night," Charlotte mumbled. When Remus' amused look spread, she added quickly, "Between James and Lily!"

"I know," Lupin responded innocently.

"She's toying with him!" Sirius started. "She thinks one day she can be rubbing up against him and moaning his name out and the next she can treat him like crap!"

"She wasn't rubbing up against him! Or-"

"Charlotte, that's what James said. I don't think he was making this up-"

"Maybe not conciously! She was doing it in her sleep sure, but she still did it, didn't she? It took every bit of decency he had not to touch her."

"She moaned his name out?" Charlotte looked caught between laughing and yelling. Much to the surprise of both boys, she said in a near whisper, "Look, she's a wreck- I'm trying to protect her same as you're protecting James. Please, don't tell her. I know James is your friend and this is really hard on him- harder than it is for Lily maybe, but you've got to understand, she's so dead set on denying any feeling for him at all. She's still pretending she hasn't woke up snuggling with him- she's probably still scared something more happened. I know Remus won't tell, but Sirus," she looked him dead in the eye. "Don't tell her." It was a strange moment, Charlotte sitting there, asking Sirius for something instead of screaming and hexing him.

"Charlotte!"

"Sirius."

"Al-alright." He nodded.

"Erm... thanks." They exchanged small smiles.

"I'm going to leave you two to have your moment," Remus muttered, clearly unnoticed. (No hexes flew his way.)

As Lupin walked off, they seemed to come to their senses. "And what about this morning, hm? Her forcing herself on him and then throwing him out of his own room? You heard her! You were right there with me and Remus! You want to tell me that's an accident too?"

"Lily knows how to get things out of James, I suppose! Boys are easy to manipulate. It's not our fault you're stupid that way."

"Stupid that way? He's got the girl of his dreams- whom, let's not forget, has convinced herself she hates him- throwing herself at him and you're calling him stupid?"

"Remus?" A rather nervous looking Lily was looking up at him desperately.

"Yeah?"

"Did you... er... see Charlotte?"

"Yeah, she was outside with Sirius."

"You didn't happen to catch what they were..."

"Talking about?" He gave her a kind smile before saying, "He hasn't told her. Don't worry. They're just fighting about the usual."

"Oh." She looked shocked for a moment until she remembered he'd been there that morning. "Erm... thanks." He nodded and walked up to the dorms feeling like just as big of a liar as Lily had with Charlotte. But it's for the best.

"What was that about?" He heard Alice ask her curiously.

"Oh... erm... Hogsmeade," she said lamely.

"Lily, if you don't want to talk about it, just say so."

"I'll tell you later," Lily sighed. She wasn't sure why she'd tell Alice and not Charlotte. Alice would tell Frank, who, of course, was a very close friend of theirs, and whom Lily trusted. He wouldn't tell anyone either. But Charlotte wouldn't tell anyone. So why didn't she want to tell her?

"All I'm saying is, I've never seen him look at a girl like that."

"Like how? Taking a good look at her face before checking her cup size?"

"I'm not kidding! Charlotte, if you could see him! He's been moody all day. It's awful. If James did something to make Lily act like that, you'd have ripped us all new ones, involved or not, but never mind James and his feelings!"

"That's not true," Charlotte grumbled. "I've known James Potter longer than you have. He was like my second family. I see it too, alright?"

"Yeah?" He shot back, though not quite as harshly as before, "Then what do you propose to do about it?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You won't let me do things my way, so let's hear your way. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. What? You don't have something to say to that, Smartass?"

"I planned everything for you guys for a reason," she snapped. "Dumb ass."

"Yeah, cause you knew-"

"That's not the reason and you know it!"

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I know what you're going to say!"

"Because-"

"Shut up. Do you want to hear my idea or not?"

"First, how many rules are we talking about breaking?"

Charlotte looked up at him, a small amount of worry etched in her face. "About half."

"Perfect," he smirked.

"And-"

"There's an and?" He knew it. Of course she'd know he didn't care about a few stupid rules...

"We have to er... get into the tournament."

"You've gotta be bloody kidding me." She shrugged. "Well," he sighed, "I guess it's gotta be worth a shot- this had better be good." He caught her eye. "Erm... please."

Okay, so I've written the damn thing! lmao.

I'm rather proud of this chapter, as I've written it, 3 months of grueling writer's block later, all in the time span of this one sitting. Which was, if I'm correct, a good 4 hours long. I've edited and re-edited this thing (and fit a few fights or two from about 7 different very long, completed, drafts, believe it or not), so hopefully it makes sense. I still am feeling so out of it when I write this, but I'm trying to get it done well and not so much as soon (though I really do need to pick things up, don't you think?). But I thought it was pretty decent, and hope somewhat that it, and the chapters that follow it, are fit to compete with the first chapter.

It's really long, but I had to fit in all in here. Lots and lots of dialogue. I had to be really annoying about how I worded everything.

AH. And, btw, the tournament she's talking about is the Tri-Wizard tournament. I've decided they get to go through that. I think I'm going to make different events for it than the ones in the book. Not sure. Cause, I mean, if they had the same events every year it would sort've lessen the fear a little, wouldn't it? They'd be prepared for it. So, even though I'm keeping the second task regardless, I'm thinking of changing the first and tweaking the third. My imagination has yet to allow me to do so though. So we'll see.

Also, does anybody know whether or not Dumbledore was headmaster yet by then? That's sort've important. Haha.

Mkay, well, that's about it. I hope you liked it so far. As the plot thickens, hopefully it won't stay as confusing... did this chapter make any sense at all?

Okay, well regardless, REVIEW. Please please please review. Or I will cry. I have a very very high number of people who've read the story but not reviewed. Like a ridiculously high amount. And anonymous people can review now too (I sound like I'm selling something... lmao.)... I just realized I had that blocked. lol. So, okay, PLEASE review. I can't stress that enough. )

Okay, thanks. The next chapter should be up soon... after maticulous (sp?) planning on which direction, exactly, I want this to go.

So... that's enough of me talking to myself. Hope you liked it. :)