Thank you to those that have read so far! I'm hoping you're enjoying it. I really appreciate the reviews as well.  This chapter is coming out pretty quickly after the first one, but I can't guarantee that it will be as long or that ones after this will be as fast. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the year, but we'll see if that really happens. So here you have it! The next installment.

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I never have been and I never will be. If you recognize something, then it's hers. If not, it's mine. A few of the characters are my own and a lot of the characters are my interpretation of J.K. Rowling. So don't sue me. Thanks!

The World Isn't Really Perfect

Just Friends, Just Enemies

12:01 am, Boys 5th Year Dorm

Lily hushed Kristen as they snuck into the boy's dorm. She was hoping that everyone would be asleep or still down in the common room. Jess had been forced to go downstairs and distract while Kristen and Lily did the dirty work. They were better at Charms anyway.

It was shocking how messy the boy's dorms were. Nothing was put away, clothes were everywhere. Trunks were overflowing and books were stuffed mostly under the bed and already started to gather dust.

"Remind me to thank my parents for not having a boy." Lily whispered softly to Kristen who tried not to laugh in response.

"Whose is whose?" Kristen asked, looking around. It seemed as if everyone's clothes weren't in one area, but that there had been an explosion and just had to hope you were lucky.

Lily shrugged and started to grin while trying to look innocent. "I guess we'll just have to do everyone's. It is more fair that way."

Kristen nodded and pulled out her wand. Lily pulled hers out as well and stared to do the appropriate charms. By the time they were finished the regular Gryffindor colors had changed to the green and silver of Slytherin. After adding a few layers of protective charms to make it more difficult to undo, the girls went down to the common room to get Jess.

They found her talking to one of the other fifth year boys who was trying to help Jess do her homework.

"It's simple. We learned this second year. You move your wand to the left, say the words, and it's done." He looked at her like she was an idiot. "It should not take fifty-two times."

Jess looked up and saw Kristen and Lily sitting over by the fire. She wrinkled her brow at the paper and then opened them with the look of sudden enlightenment. "Oh! You mean like this?"

She did the spell perfectly.

"Yes! Now can I please go to bed?" He yawned.

Smiling at him thankfully and sliding her hand down his shoulder she looked at him coyly. "Of course, Mark. Thank you so much for your help. I don't know what I would have done without you."

Mark blushed slightly and shook his head with a small smile. "Well, you know, anytime you need me."

"My hero." And Jess gave him a small hug. "Sleep well!" Then hopped up to go over with Lily and Kristen.

"My hero" They teased her as soon as she sat down, while batting their eyelashes.

"Oh shut up." Jess grumbled. "Please tell me you did it."

Lily just grinned. "And you said I wasn't any fun."

Laughing Kristen said "The best part is they'll never suspect us. One, we're they're best friends who they think are fairly incompetent and wouldn't dare. Two, we're too prudish to go into the boys dorm." Lily laughed at that one.

"No one who knows you well would call you a prude."

Kristen glared at her but decided it wasn't worth a response. "And three, we can act innocent better than anyone else I know."

"True." Jess sighed. "So true."

"Can we help that we're perfectly behaved?" Lily said, a slight pout on her lips.

The girls bust out laughing and the common door swung open. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walked in laughing and talking but stopped quickly when they realized there were other people there. Their eyes opened even wider when they saw who it was.

"Do you realize how late it is?" James asked. "What are you doing out of bed?"

Lily stood up, her eyes hardening instantly. "And what are you doing up, James?"

"None of your business, Lily." They both had said the others name in a baiting tone and started stepping away from the friends on opposite sides.

Jess tried to grab Lily's arm to pull her back or as a warning that this wasn't a good idea, but Lily just shrugged her off. "Oh, that's right. I almost forgot. James Potter only tells people what he wants to tell them, when he wants to tell them. Regardless of what is common courtesy."

James laughed shortly. "Is that supposed to be an insult? You really need to work on that. Maybe you just need to learn that some things don't concern you and you have no right to butt your nose in where it doesn't belong."

Tension started to build in the room and Kristen tried to pull at Lily. "Come on. It's late. You don't want to do this right now."

"No." Lily said sharply. "I am sick of acting like I was the person who was wrong. Like it's my fault James is a heartless prick. I'm not going to hold back anymore and I'm going to say exactly what I want to."

James looked at her, his eyes darkening from their hazel to an almost steel grey. She'd never really seen him like that. "Go ahead." He said dangerously. "Say whatever it is you feel you need to."

Her eyebrows furrowed and she took a deep breathe. She put her head down as if in defeat and then put it up again looking straight into his eyes. "Fine. I will. You're a jerk. You're conceited and big headed and whatever you may think, the world does not revolve around you. I don't care what other people seem to think about you, but you treat people like they're rubbish. You don't just discard people for no reason. And you don't just treat people anyway you want to because you seem to think you can." Her voice had gotten louder as she spoke and she was eventually yelling.

"So this is what it's always going to be about, isn't it?" He didn't even sound upset. He sounded like he thought it was funny. "You feel like I discarded you. Well guess what? That's life. People do that. Other things happen, people change. I'm not sorry for anything that's happened. I stopped treating you like my little pet. I stopped feeling sorry for you and feeling like I had to be there because you had no one else. I grew up. You didn't. Stop living in the past and move on with your life."

Lily stood there, torn between wanting to burst into tears and punching him as hard as she could in his face. Finally she just shook her head and looked up at him. "I can't believe that I never saw you for what you truly were. A coward and a fake." And she walked off.

"I'm a coward?" James yelled at her retreating back. "You're the one who always walks away."

Lily continued walking, but Jess glared at him. "You walked away first." And chased after Lily.

Kristen looked at him, and just shook her head and continued up the stairs.

James looked at Sirius, Remus, and Peter. They all looked like they were in shock, but Remus was the only one who looked slightly angry.

"What was that about?" He asked gruffly.

"I don't want to talk about it." James said, glaring back at him.

"James, are you alright?" Sirius asked, looking at him oddly.

"How many times do I have to say I don't want to talk about it? I had a ruddy rat run up my leg and then a psycho yell at me for no reason. But this is the best night of my life and I am not about to let some…I'm not going to let her ruin it."

They all just shrugged, trying to pretend like it hadn't happened and make jokes about what had happened earlier.

"I think your bloody antler has bruised me" Sirius said, rubbing his side slightly.

"It's not an antler. Technically it's…" He looked over to Remus for a better word.

"Branch? Prong? Hanger?"

"Prong. I like prong." He looked at Sirius smugly. "I have prongs."

Sirius laughed and nodded his head over to Peter. "Better than ol' worm tail over there."

James' eyes began to light up. "You've just given me a fantastic idea, mate."

Remus looked nervous. "What?"

Putting his arm around Peter he shook him slight. "This here is my good friend, Wormtail."

Peter looked up at him. "Wormtail? I have to be wormtail? What're you, short tail?"

People chuckled slightly. "I'm guessing James there wants to be Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"Surely." James responded, tipping his head forward.

"That leaves me with?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing. I'd call you Shaggy but that just wouldn't be appropriate."

The boys started to laugh as they walked up the stairs to their dorm. "Might as well call him Randy." Remus added, making them laugh even harder.

"Alright, alright. So we don't know about Sirius yet, but we'll think about it. How do you feel about Moony, Remus?"

Remus looked over at him and thought for a moment. Did he really want a nickname that would remind him of something he hated so much? But it was better than nothing. "Yeah. Moony's good."

They stood before the door to their room, arms around each others shoulders, grinning. "The new improved Mauraders. Moony, Wormtail, Shaggy, and Prongs."

They entered the area and their laughing came to a quick hault. The boys who normally would have been asleep where all awake and glaring.

"If I wanted to live like this I'd be in the dungeon." Mark grumbled.

Sirius just glared as he looked around the room. "I don't know how he did it, but I am going to kill Snape."

The boys in the room just nodded in agreement.

Next Day, November 20th 1975

Every fifth year boy in Gryffindor was furious that morning for breakfast in the great hall. They looked as though they were ready to kill anyone they saw, but more pointedly Slytherins. The mauraders seemed to be in conference as they thought of ways to get back.

Lily sat a few seats down and was playing with her food. She looked as though she hadn't gotten much sleep, but was savoring the fact that the boys were still upset over the little prank they had pulled.

"If I ever have to sleep in green sheets again…" Remus mumbled, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. It seemed to be a new nervous habit he was picking up whenever he was uncomfortable.

"I couldn't even pull them off." Peter added, rubbing at his eyes. "It seemed that ever charm I tried just made them brighter. It was awful."

"Don't worry about that. After spending all night working on it I cracked it." Then he grinned. "Nothing's too hard for James. H. Potter."

Lily heard the last part of his sentence and looked as if she was going to throttle him again.

"Lily, don't. Remember we talked about it last night. You just need to breathe. In and out, in and out." Jess said, rubbing her arm.

"I'm not bloody pregnant!" She shouted.

The whole table got quiet and looked over at her. Some with eyes of shock, some curious, some trying not to laugh. Her eyes locked with James' and his mouth moved into a slow smile, his eyes lighting up. This is what he needed this morning. A better way to start his day.

"I didn't realize you were trying, Evans."

Lily glared at him. It wasn't as if they'd never called each other by their last names before, just never with that tone. Never sounding so impersonal. But if he was going to move on that quickly and forgot anything that had ever happened before then she'd be damned if she was the one being left behind.

"Of course, Potter." She grinned sweetly. "Why would you assume anything more than me being a two penny whore?"

People stopped eating their lunch and started moving further away from the couple. It seemed as if their arguments were getting more and more frequent and more and more personal.

James shrugged, "Well, if that's all you think you're worth."

Remus glared and elbowed him slightly in the stomach. "Come on mate. Not here."

"I'm not the one who started it." James raised his arms innocently. "I didn't shout out my business while eating breakfast. If she's the one who wants to tell all of Hogwarts her private business then I'm allowed to comment."

He then looked over at Lily who was steaming. This was power, he decided, and much better than being ignored. She was staring at him, clenching and unclenching her fists.

"If you want to have a go sometime, I've heard you have extra astronomy classes. I can meet you up there afterwards." He walked closer and stood about a foot way. The closest he'd really been in months. He'd forgotten the way she smelled. If she did anything less then hit him he'd be surprised, but her eyes were shinning and her cheeks were turning a soft pink. She really did look beautiful when she was upset.

Lily wanted to hit him. It was the umpteenth times in weeks that she'd wanted to slowly put her hands around his throat and tighten them. He was looking at her with some sort of satisfaction. He didn't even feel sorry. She turned her head and continued to look at him for a few moments. Who was this person? She shook her head and looked at him sadly. "You know what," she stated softly. "You aren't worth it." And again she walked away. She really had been doing that a lot lately.

Remus grabbed his books as well as hers and glared at him. "You're making a right arse or yourself." And chased after her.

James sat back down on the bench and put his head in both of his hands. What was he doing? He hadn't even been thinking, it had just come out like some monster had taken over his body. He'd been everything today she'd said he was. He started to get angry again. Who was she to judge him? She didn't know anything, and if that's who she thought he was then that was damn well who was going to be

"Lily, wait up." Remus shouted, running down the hall half running into people and trying to push them out of the way.

She slowed down slightly but was still walking. "What do you want, Remus?"

He pulled her into one of the unused classrooms that they were nearby. She continued pacing; she just had too much energy to stop.

"Look, I'm sorry. He was a git and was daft."

Lily looked at him as though he was crazy. "You're sorry? You didn't do anything. It was…it was him."

Remus walked up to her and held both of her arms to get her to stop moving. "Lily. I'm sorry that you're upset."

Looking up she rolled her eyes. "He just infuriates me! He's the most unloyal, cowardly, spineless, arrogant, bigheaded, idiotic—"

Cutting her off, Remus put his hand over her mouth. "I know that you're frustrated, and I know that he treats you like shite. And don't think that doesn't make all of us upset. I don't know why he does it, and he may seem like those things. But he's not, Lily. He's the best friend I've ever had."

She put her head down and bit her lip. "I'm sorry I make this so hard for you. I should find new friends. Go be with the ravenclaws and study, since apparently that's all I'm good for."

He pulled her in and put his arms around her, hugging her softly, his arms rubbing her back and his head resting on hers. After a few moments she softened and rested her head on his shoulder, her arms going around his waist. She tried to hold it in but a few tears escaped and she had to snuffle.

"It's going to be ok." Remus said softly into her hair. "Somehow it's going to all be ok."

Lily didn't want to look at him, didn't want him to see her like this. She sighed and pulled in closer. "Why does that prat have to be your friend?"

He chuckled and pulled away slightly. "He shows it differently, but this is just as hard on him. Maybe if you tried talking to him—"

Pulling away all the way she started pacing again and Remus sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Ok, talking obviously isn't going to work."

"It's time for class. I'll talk to you later. Thanks for getting my books." She grabbed her stuff and walked out.

Remus sat on one of the desks and groaned. What kind of best friend was he?

History of Magic: Later that afternoon

In her quest to ignore James, Lily almost paid attention in class. But her mind kept switching back to the blow out that morning and then to Remus. She'd felt something as he was holding her. Something she was pretty sure she didn't want to. Her stomach tightened as she thought about him again and her cheeks started to go a light shade of pink. She sighed and then started to get frustrated with herself.

Why is it that every guy who pays attention to you, you seem to start to like? It's ridiculous. It was just a hug. He knew you were upset, he hugged you. It didn't mean anything.

She sighed again and Jess looked over at her, obviously concerned because of what had happened. Lily just looked at her and shrugged. She wasn't sure what was wrong. Well, besides the fact that it was the end of November and they would be having midterms soon to help prepare them for their OWLs, Potter was a prat, Sirius was annoying the hell out of her because he was completely on the prat's side, and Remus didn't like her.

Remus looked up at her and smiled slowly. Lily's stomach tightened again. He nodded his head and mouthed 'Are you doing alright'.

Lily tried to look nonchalant and shrugged again.

Sirius seemed to notice Remus and part of the exchange, which made James look around and see it too. Instantly the smile left his face and his eyes hardened.

Lily tried as hard as she could not to look over, but Remus had lost eye contact and she didn't have anything else to look into. James' eyes were cold and aloof, his back and shoulders stiff. So he was upset too. That made Lily bristle a bit. What reason did he have for being upset? She glared at him, not wanting to be the first person to look away. Not wanting to appear weak.

A girl sitting next to him, from the back of her head it looked to be Chels Bennet who was a fellow member of Gryffindor. She slowly put her arm around James shoulder, her finger trailing across his upper back. James turned quickly and looked over at her. Chels leaned over and whispered something in his ear, and he laughed softly. Lily's stomach clenched at that as well and she felt her blood boil as well. She used to be the girl who made him laugh. Chels didn't stop there. Her hand trailed up his neck and she ran her hands through his hair. She said something again, with a stupid smile on her face. Lily thought it was sickening. Looking down at them, with what she hoped looked like disgust and not jealousy; she went back to writing her notes.

Well that's obvious then. If your stomach clenches about James then you must not have feelings towards Remus.

…Unless you have feelings toward James as well. A second voice added in her head. Lily didn't really appreciate that one.

That's impossible.

…You did before

Yeah, but that was a long time ago. I've grown up. Feelings have changed.

…His or yours?

Oh shut up.

…You just don't want to admit I'm right.

I told you to shut up. I'm telling myself to shut up. I'm going crazy! What have boys reduced me to?

She tried not to think at all, waiting until class ended. Looking forward to studying more than she had her entire life. Anything to get anyway from confusing thoughts.

Girls Dorm: Later that evening

Kristen draped over her bed, her head hanging over the edge looking over at the door.

"Please, let me escape!" She groaned.

Lily rolled her eyes. "You have to study sometime. We have tests next week."

"You're problem, Lily, is that you study too much. Don't you want to have fun?" She had moved and was crouched out on her bed looking at Lily earnestly.

"Oh no. Not that again. We practically started a war between Gryffindor and Slytherin."

Jess chuckled, looking over her Charms book. "It wasn't like they weren't fighting and pulling pranks before that, Lil."

"Yeah, I know. But I really want to do well. Don't you realize how important this is? Our—"

Kristen finished her sentence. "Whole future depends on these tests." She threw a pillow at her head, hoping for any distraction. "I know."

"Well don't you want to have a future?" Lily said in jest.

"Honestly, I don't think I'll have much of one."

The girls all hushed and looked over at Kristen with a mixture of confusion and pity.

She rolled her eyes in response. "If I knew you'd get all dead with me saying that, I wouldn't have. It's not a big deal. It's just hard to have the same focus you do with what's going on in the world."

Jess glanced over. "People have only gone missing. They assume something has happened, but they don't really know anything yet."

Lily didn't say anything. She'd heard rumors, but she didn't like the news. It always seemed to be depressing. Rather than hear about different people's view on things, she liked to make her own assumptions. And being a muggle born it meant she was left out a lot of what was going on in the wizarding world, but after getting the Daily Prophet all summer she'd decided she didn't mind. It was always sickly sweet, as if they were trying to cover and not make people panic. Lily felt that if she wasn't going to get the truth, it wasn't worth reading.

Kristen had parents in the Ministry, and always heard rumors and different things before anyone else. "Yeah, I guess. But you do have to admit that it makes you nervous."

Shrugging Jess looked back at her book. "Not enough to worry. We're at Hogwarts. Our own little world. Nothing can go wrong here."

Lily wanted to lighten the mood and decided to throw a pillow back at Kristen. "Alright, I'm promising right now that no matter what happens, we'll stick together as friends."

She put her hand out, like they normally did when they had an agreement. Jess moved to put her hand on top, but Kristen stopped her.

"You can't promise that. I know you wish you could, but we're fifteen. So much can happen in so little time." She turned her head and gave Lily a piercing glance. "Think of you and James."

"We are not going to end up like me and…him." She groaned and stood up. "I can't even say his name anymore. Just saying it makes me so upset that I can hardly breathe and nothing I seem to do makes any sense anymore and the only way that I feel the tiniest better is when I'm talking to Remus which is crazy because it's not like he can really do that much but then he hugs me and—" Finally she had to breathe.

Kristen and Jess grinned at her, their eyes sparking with mischief. "You like Remus, huh?"

Lily looked at them, trying her best to not have any emotion on her face. "No. I don't. We're friends. Just friends."

Kristen nodded sympathetically. "That's what you always say. It's what you said about James…Potter…Him…whatever it is we're calling now as well."

Now Lily glared and Jess hit Kristen with a pillow. "You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut."

Kristen threw the pillow back at Jess. "Well you do as well. It's not like you weren't thinking it."

A full blown pillow fit started between the two, with them both laughing back comments at each other about who was the worst blabbermouth and needed to learn to think before they spoke. Lily just sat on her bed, her ancient runes book sitting on her lap. They were right. She had been 'just friends' with James…him…Potter, and not they were 'just enemies.'

Patrols: Last Week of School Before Christmas Holidays

"I'm so tired of studying." Lily moaned as they moved up another stair case to another floor. "And Kristen just keeps trying to distract me. She's getting clever too, bring ice cream into the mix."

Remus chuckled. "You aren't going to fail. You're doing brilliantly."

She wasn't sure why, but she blushed. That had been happening a lot more lately. Stupid thoughts kept coming into her mind, and she was noticing Remus more and more. She had been excited for this last patrol, but now that they were out all she could talk about was school. She'd been on about it for almost an hour.

She ran a hand through her hair, and looked partially up at Remus. She hadn't realized that he was taller than she was. She went up to his shoulder, which made hugging him perfect. But that wasn't something that she was going to think about now. Only now that she had butterflies entered her stomach again.

"Sorry…I know I've been talking a lot." A lot about something stupid. She added to herself.

He grinned at her and shrugged. "I don't have a lot to say. I like hearing you talk."

"Why didn't we ever really talk before?" She stopped walking and looked at him.

His eyes strayed to the floor, as if he didn't really want to answer her question. Hair falling into his eyes as he tilted her head towards her he had a half smile. "I guess you were just…busier."

The words 'with James' sat like a heavy weight between them. It was true. When she'd been close with James she hadn't made time or really cared to talk to anyone else. She'd talked with the girls, because they shared a room and could talk about things she couldn't talk to James about, but when they were all in a group he'd been her focus. She felt sick again. No wonder everyone thought she'd been in love with him.

She leaned against the wall and tilted her head back. "I was self centered."

It wasn't a question but Remus answered back anyway. Resting against the wall sideways so he could still look at her and placed his hand on her shoulder, softly stroking. . "Not self centered. Just, occupied." The stood there for a moment, him softly rubber her shoulder and her refusing to look at him. Finally he broke the silence. "Did you like him? I've…Well I've always wondered."

Sighing she turned her head to look at him. "I dunno. I thought I did." She chuckled softly. "As much as a fourteen year old can I guess." She slid down the floor and sat with one knee up and the other tucked around it, her head resting on her knee. Remus slid down next to her, closer than he really needed to.

"I feel so much older." She looked over at him again, softly laughing at herself. "Does that make any sense?"

He nodded. "I've always felt older."

Smiling she kept her eyes locked with his, but still wanted to change the subject. She'd learned that being a werewolf wasn't something that he liked being reminded of. "We always talk about…well you know. I want to hear more about you."

He looked at her as if no one else had ever asked him that question. Then he smiled back, a full smile and she noticed he had a small dimple on the side of his cheek. She'd never seen him look like that. It was nice. Something about his expressions always seemed sad, but this was the first time she'd ever seen him look at her with total trust. He stood up and put a hand down to help pull her up. "What do you want to know?"

Grinning back at him she took his hand and was surprised when he didn't let go, but she continued to hold as well. He interlocked fingers and pulled slightly as they continued on they're patrol. Looking down at their hands then back up at them she smiled. "Everything. Absolutely everything."

Alright, so that's it for now. I was going to keep this going until Christmas Break, but I really liked that as a stopping point. So you'll just have to wait and see what happens. Once again, I know this is a Lily and James story. Promise. But we also have to remember that it doesn't happen until 7th year. I'm excited to put out how I think it grows and develops and changes. I hope you all enjoy and I'll be writing more soon! Thank you again to all those who review and I really appreciate feedback and hearing what readers think. You're who I'm writing it for, so if you don't like it isn't as worth it for me.