Thank you to whiskeygurl007 and alainn-chaser who also reviewed my fanfic. I really love reading your reviews so anyone else who wants to review I would love your comments and constructive criticism.

To those of you who have already read the first 3 chapters before the most recent update, I have replaced the first 2 chapters. I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience but you may want to re-read those chapters, especially ch2 as I have added/expanded on the story.

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Ch 4: A Nightmare Come True

It took James a few days to realise that he was actually angry at Lily. He had done nothing wrong! It was a harmless Halloween prank and she blew it way out of proportion. It's not like he had intentionally tried to hurt her. She had no right to be that angry at him and she had had no right to yell at him like that!

Lily had gone back to avoiding him as much as she always did and for the first time ever, James was avoiding her right back. Their patrols of the corridors were silent and sullen and neither could wait until they would leave each others' presence.

As it entered November, the weather grew steadily colder and the quidditch season drew closer. Fortunately for Lily, James was often at practices which reduced the amount of time to spend with him. As well as being Head Boy, James was also Quidditch Captain and appeared to take this title much more seriously than his one of Head Boy. James loved quidditch and was also exceptionally good at it. He worked his team hard but the work payed off when they won the trophy each year.

One Friday night at the beginning of November, Lily was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Marly and Clara when she heard a sniffling coming from one of the armchairs. Abandoning the game of wizard's chess, Lily found a first year curled up in a ball, her face damp with tears.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked the girl concernedly.

"M-my best f-friend and I h-had a fight." The girl said between tears.

Lily put a comforting arm around the girl and talked to her quietly. After a while the young girl's tears dried up and she managed to give Lily a watery smile.

"Just give her some space for a while. Just remember that talking and being honest is the only way to sort out your problem." Lily said as the girl hopped off the chair.

"Thanks Lily, you're the best!" She said as she gave Lily a quick hug and raced up the stairs to her dormitory.

Lily smiled at the girl's turned back and headed back to her friends as Marly smirked and said, "Lily Evans, everybody's best friend."

James, who had been sitting with the Marauders in the corner of the room, had been watching the whole event. How he wished Lily could be that nice to him. He wished desperately for her to at least be his friend but she was too good for him. She was kind and thoughtful while he was an 'arrogant, bullying toerag' to quote her. James had never heard anyone say a bad word about Lily, except for the Slytherins but even all they could ever come up with was calling her a mudblood. He had to be the only person in the whole school, again apart from the Slytherins, who Lily wasn't nice to. That had to say something about him as a person.

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The following day Lily slept through most of the morning only waking at close to 11:30am. Lily was definitely not a morning person and slept in late whenever she could. Having finished all her homework the previous day, Lily was thrilled to have the whole day for herself. With her brand new book that she was desperate to start, Lily headed down to the Great Hall to meet Marly and have breakfast.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. I thought I was going to have to find a new best friend since my current one looked like she was never going to wake." Marly greeted Lily as she sat down at the nearly empty Gryffindor table.

Lily yawned widely in reply and helped herself to a bowl of cereal. After spending 5 minutes picking out all the sultanas Lily finally started on her breakfast only to leave half of it in her bowl. Full and pushing her half eaten bowl away from her Lily looked over to see Marly looked at her in wonder.

"I will never understand how you can survive on barely enough food to feed an ant."

Lily was an exceptionally picky eater and even when she found something she actually liked she still ate barely any of it. She was tiny but not because she tried to be. While many girls starved themselves to be as skinny as Lily, Lily wished she could put on weight just to avoid all the accusations that she had an eating disorder. No matter how much junk food she ate, Lily still stayed as skinny as ever.

"I have so much homework to do!" Marly complained loudly.

"You should have done it yesterday with me. Anyway, I'd better be off. I'll leave you to tackle your mountain of homework while I enjoy reading my brand new book." Lily replied happily, watching Marly's sulky face.

"I'm not as organised as you." Marly sighed unhappily as Lily stood up to leave.

The library was too busy so Lily headed to the Head's common room to quietly read her book, it's not like James was ever there. To her surprise, as Lily pushed open the portrait she saw that James was indeed in there and looked very…erm…busy.

James was on the couch in a tight embrace with a girl with long light brown hair. They were kissing intensely as if glued at the lips. They looked pretty deeply engrossed that Lily doubted they had even noticed her enter.

"Erm, sorry. I'll just leave now." Lily said awkwardly as she turned around, blushing deeply. She always felt awkward around PDAs.

James tore his lips away from the girl who looked annoyed at the interruption and grinned mischievously at Lily.

"Wondering what you're missing out on Evans?" He asked smugly. "Don't worry Evans, we can try later."

The girl looked appalled and hurt at James' suggestion of kissing another girl later. Her eyes filled with tears and she turned her face away from James.

Trying not to make a scene in front of the girl Lily settled for saying, "You're a jerk, Potter." before leaving the room.

Lily was fuming at James as she stormed off to the Gryffindor common room. He really was just an egotistical jerk. As well as suggesting that she would be so desperate that she would make out with him, he had also hurt and embarrassed that poor girl.

About an hour later, just when Lily had finally been able to start her book, James entered the common room. Spotting her, he immediately headed in her direction.

"What are you reading there Evans?"

"None of you business, Potter. Please leave me alone."

When he continued to stand there, Lily closed her book, set it aside and looked at him expectantly.

"Did you want something Potter? As you can see I am busy right now and would appreciate it if you would leave me alone." She turned back to pick up her book before adding, "And for future reference, please don't use our common room as a make out location. In other words, no snogging in the Head's common room." She opened her book and was about to start reading again when James interrupted her for the second time.

"What, are you jealous Evans?" James said with a cocky smile.

"Don't flatter yourself. I couldn't care less who you make out with Potter. Just don't do it in our common room."

"Fine. Whatever you say Evans." He turned to leave just as Lily stopped him.

"How old is she anyway? She didn't look any older than about 4th year. A bit young for you don't you think?" Lily didn't know what possessed her to ask that. Her curiosity got the better of her.

"I thought you didn't care who I made out with, Evans?" James asked with a wink.

"I don't." And she really didn't, she was just curious. "I just thought she looked awfully young."

"Well, I have no idea how old she is. I can't even remember what she said her name was. She was very boring to listen to. Very good kisser though." James said nonchalantly.

"You haven't changed at all and you never will." Lily hissed angrily at him. That wiped the smirk off his face. "Girls aren't just there for your entertainment, Potter. They are people and they have feelings too. You just use them and treat them like useless, brainless idiots, which they're not. You didn't notice or care how upset that girl was when you offered to make out with me later, which by the way I would never do even if it was a choice between you and the giant squid." With that Lily grabbed her book and stormed up to the dormitories leaving behind a stunned James with his mouth hanging open.

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When Lily was sure that James was no longer in the common room she crept down, deciding to go for a walk to calm her down. Potter was so infuriating! She walked in silence until she stumbled across Professor McGonagall coming out of the staff room.

"Ah, Miss Evans, there you are. I've been looking for you. Professor Dumbledore would like to see you in his office immediately." Professor McGonagall looked worried about something.

"Of course, Professor." Lily turned around and hurried back in the direction she had just come from. In her rush, Lily walked straight into James Potter. Luckily, James caught her just before she fell.

"Where are you going to in such a hurry, Evans?" James asked interestedly.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see me." Lily said quickly, hoping to avoid a conversation. James was the last person she felt like talking to at the moment.

"In trouble are we Evans?"

"It's probably just Head's business." In fact, Lily had no idea what it was about but that seemed the most likely.

"Well, in that case I'd better come with you since I am Head Boy." Damn, Lily was most displeased at this but didn't have the time to argue. She walked past James and continued to the Headmaster's office on the 7th floor.

Lily already knew Dumbledore's password from earlier on in the year so she hurried past the ugly gargoyle and up the moving staircase. When she reached the big wooden door she knocked loudly and waited.

"Come in Miss Evans." Professor Dumbledore called. James tried to come in as well but the Headmaster stopped him.

"Please wait outside, Mr Potter. This does not concern you." Taken aback, James waited outside while Lily shot him a curious look and proceeded inside.

When she closed the door behind her, Professor Dumbledore motioned for her to take a seat opposite him. He looked much graver and older than usual and the usual twinkling light in his light blue eyes had gone out.

"Miss Evans, I am afraid that I do not have good news to tell you and this may come as a bit of a shock." Professor Dumbledore looked sad as he peered at her through his half moon spectacles.

Lily suddenly felt cold all over and her hands shook. This wasn't what she had been expecting. She had been expecting something relating to her duties as Head Girl. Lily couldn't meet the Professor's eye and instead looked at her shaking hands.

"Miss Evans, I am desperately sorry to have to tell you that your parents were involved in a car accident early this morning. A drunk driver ran into them and the car went up in flames. All involved in the crash were killed. I'm so sorry Miss Evans."

In that moment, Lily's whole world came crashing down on her, suffocating her and causing her only pure unadulterated pain.