Thanks to the reviewers: laxrules18, szabatka2, american nymphadora, xo-MidnightSun-ox, messyblackhair66, STonks, Michela.77, Emotionalized (thank you so much! Your review was really nice and I'm so happy that you liked it so much), chickibabe46 (thank you for the great review! It made me smile to know you have enjoyed it so much).

Sorry again for the long wait between updates. I could make up some amazing excuse which none of you will probably believe, or I could just stick with the truth which is that I've been a slacker and haven't gotten around to writing.

This chapter kind of goes more into the friends (sorry Emotionalized, again it tends to revolve around Lily's friends a bit more but I will try to put in more of the Marauders. They are awesome characters but sadly, I don't think my writing skills give them the credit they deserve, but still… I'll try) rather than Lily and James, but it does come back to them again later.

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Ch 21: A Very Bad Day

"I had my first ever snog in a broom cupboard!" Lily proudly announced to her friends later that evening.

"Lily Evans, did I just hear you correctly?" Marly gasped with a fake start of surprise.

"Congratulations Lil, you have now continued to carry on a Hogwarts tradition." Natalie smiled.

"What was it like?" Clara asked interestedly.

Lily scrunched up her nose. "Well, to be honest, it wasn't anywhere near as good as everyone proclaims it to be. I mean, it's bloody uncomfortable in there. It's all dark and squishy and I had a stupid broom digging into my back the whole time." Her friends nodded understandingly.

"It's true," Clara, who by far had the most experience, agreed knowingly, "it's not all it's cracked up to be. But still, it's a tradition at Hogwarts. You just haven't lived if you leave Hogwarts without a single snog in a broom cupboard." The others all nodded and Lily felt a new sense of belonging.

"So, which one did James take you to?" Clara asked. Lily looked surprised at the question.

"Who said anything about it being with James?" Lily said raising her eybrows. A collective gasp could be heard around the room.

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" Lily giggled at the appalled and shocked expressions on her friends faces. "It was the one on the sixth floor by the portrait of that witch in the blue gown who sings all the time." She answered with a confused shake of her head.

Clara nodded approvingly. "Well, the guy has taste, I'll give him that. He must like you a lot." The others laughed loudly. Only Clara would care what broom closet a guy took a girl to and use it to judge how much he liked her from it.

"What about you Marly? What's going on between you and that guy I've seen you hanging around recently?"

To everyone's shock, Marly blushed. If it had been Lily, no one would have blinked an eye. But Marly never blushed. Marly was the girl who would stand up for herself no matter what. The girl who, after being yelled at for 'talking at an inappropriate time' and asked sneeringly if she was embarrassed now in front of all her friends, declared loudly that she did not in fact get embarrassed. The said class had roared with laughter and the sour faced professor had awarded her a detention for her 'cheek.' It had just been a stroke of luck that the highly unpopular DADA professor was in no condition to teach the next year, without putting too fine a point on it.

"I… uh… met someone." Marly said in an uncharacteristically soft voice only serving to make Clara, Natalie and Lily peer closely at her as if wondering whether she was running a fever.

"I hadn't figured that out." Natalie replied sarcastically. But to even further surprise she didn't receive the usual glare or sarcastic, witty reply from Marly.

"I… uh… think I really… uh… like him." Marly mumbled uncomfortably.

The next sarcastic remark, humorous taunt was also wasted on Marly. While deeply fascinated, Lily was a little put out that Marly hadn't mentioned anything to her about some new guy. I mean, they told each other everything, right?

Feeling bad, Lily realised that it was probably her own fault. She'd been too wrapped up in her own problems, dramas and James to have noticed anything different about Marly.

"Maybe love him." Marly spoke in barely a whisper yet no one in the room missed a word. They all stood stock still, not quite sure if they heard right yet knowing that they did. Did Marly just say –

"You love him?" Lily asked in shock. Like, maybe. But love? Love was big, huge, enormous, gigantic… Marly didn't fall in love without even telling her best friend.

"How long has this been going on for?" Natalie asked without her usual demanding tone. She wasn't the only one to have noticed the generally weird atmosphere of the room.

"About two weeks I guess."

Lily's mind was reeling. Nor was hers the only one. No one can fall in love in two weeks! It's impossible, absurd.

"Are you sure it's love?" Clara asked with unusual cautiousness.

There was far too much unusualness for Lily's liking. Lily didn't like change. Well, some change was okay, but not big, surprising changes that… well… changed everything. And there was far too much change and unusualness and weirdness in the room at the current time. Marly was blushing and being shy and not answering back. Natalie was being polite and completely not-overbearing while Clara was being cautious and thoughtful.

Suddenly realising the absence of something important, Lily asked the question that would change a lot. The question everyone was dying to ask but weren't sure they would like the answer of.

"Who is he?" The room was loaded with anticipation and Marly avoided the gaze of her friends.

"Will Rutgers." A shocked silence filled the room.

"What?! Isn't he –" Clara gasped.

"A Slytherin?" Natalie roared. Slightly regretting her earlier dislike of weirdness, right now, Lily would have preferred any amount of weirdness to Natalie's temper.

"Marly, how could you?" Natalie yelled angrily. Neither Lily nor Clara particularly liked Slytherins much, but few were tolerable some even enough to be considered almost human. But Natalie hated them. Almost it seemed, as much as Sirius Black and James Potter.

"They're not all that bad." Marly said as defensively as she could manage yet her voice still sounded feeble.

"Yes, yes they are. They are sly, cunning, manipulative, lying, untrustworthy, evil, slimy scum not even worthy enough to be stick to the sole of my shoe." Cried Natalie.

"Professor Slughorn's alright and he's Head of Slytherin." Marly said meekly.

Natalie ignored her and continued to rant and rave. However, after a while it all came too much.

"Enough." Lily said with a strength that startled Natalie, just for a second. "Leave her alone now. You've made you're point now just let her be."

To be honest, Lily did not like the idea of Marly seeing a Slytherin one little bit. But one look at Marly's face and she looked close to tears, not a regular occurrence by any means. She would save her own opinions on the matter for later. Right now, Marly had had enough of a roasting by Natalie.

So, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the atmosphere of the seventh year girls dormitory was a tense one that evening. Marly was unusually subdued (more of the weirdness that Lily didn't like), Clara seemed to be in too much shock to say much (Clara had dated more people than one could count yet not even she had gone near a Slytherin) and thankfully for everyone Natalie didn't feel the need to share any more of her opinions and wandered around shooting narky looks at everything she passed. Lily escaped to the library to try and, unsuccessfully, shake off the strange feeling that seemed to be hanging around her. Yet it wouldn't leave and Lily too was left in a slightly less than happy mood.

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"So…" Lily said awkwardly as her and Marly walked to breakfast the next morning. Natalie had left the dorm early without a word to anyone and Clara always took the longest in the shower and was far from ready.

Marly stayed silent and Lily felt more uncomfortable. She hated awkward silences. They were so… awkward. Even more, Lily hated mistranslating normal silences into awkward silences, saying something awkward in an attempt to break the awkward silence only to realise that it had indeed been a normal silence which was now awkward because neither party knew how to act. Did that even make any sense?

"Did you do your herbology assignment?" Lily asked at another stab at conversation. Had she really just asked about school work with Marly? Her best friend, the one she never ran out of things to talk about with, the one who she could always count on to never have a silence, let alone an awkward one, or even worse a normal silence that then turned awkward. What was happening?

"Not yet." Marly said. No expanding. No trying to make conversation. No laugh at Lily. No light hearted joke. No gossip. No nothing.

"Right." Lily said back. They continued their walk to the Great Hall in silence. And there was no doubt about it. It was awkward.

"Are you okay Lily?" James asked worriedly as Lily sat down next to him at breakfast. Lily didn't normally sit next to James at meals or in classes for that matter. Not because she didn't want to, but she didn't want everything to change just because she had a boyfriend. She didn't want to suddenly move away from her friends like she had a better offer now.

But this morning she did sit next to James. Lily didn't know why things had suddenly changed that morning. To be honest, she hadn't even thought about it until she sat down. Marly's blank look didn't give away if she'd even noticed, or cared.

Lily gave a casual shrug to indicate that she was fine yet it went far from convincing James. Still, he didn't push her not wanting to be on the receiving end of her anger again. He also felt kind of weirded out that Lily was sitting next to him at breakfast. Not that he minded in the least. It had more to do with the lost look she had on her face. Like she didn't quite know where she was or what was happening.

"Ready to go?" James asked softly. Lily nodded without looking up and stood. She glanced quickly at Marly who appeared to be deep in conversation with Clara who had now joined the table before following James.

The seats that had become something like tradition to sit in were now in a mess. Natalie had moved away from where she normally sat with Clara, Lily and Marly in favour of a group of Ravenclaws. James and Sirius were still refusing to talk to each other. Clara and Marly seemed to be constantly in deep conversation and Lily was left in a pickle. It was like a repeat of first year when everyone was claiming their seats for the first time. Where did she sit?

So, by some chance that had nothing to do with either of them, Lily and James found themselves sitting next to each other, not only at breakfast, but in all their classes too. And again, neither of them minded, but it was still weird. Lily felt so completely lost without Marly sitting next to her, passing her notes and generally lighting up the dull atmosphere.

Why am I obsessing over this? Lily asked herself silently as she stared around the room, oblivious to what Professor Slughorn was teaching. Why am I worrying over something as trivial as seats? But it was more than that. It wasn't just the seats, it was the hidden meaning behind the seats. It was the absence of her best friend, the awkwardness that seemed to have come out of nowhere and settled itself comfortably into their relationship.

"…and Miss Evans." Startled, Lily looked up at the mention of her name. She hadn't been listening to a word Professor Slughorn had been saying.

"It there a problem Miss Evans?" Professor Slughorn turned and looked at her curiously.

"Umm, no." Lily mumbled as her cheeks burned. This wasn't like her. This wasn't like her at all.

James watched her curiously as Lily stared around the room utterly lost, confused, like a child separated from their mother in a shop.

"We're about to practise antidotes again." James whispered to her. "He just put us into partners. You're with Sirius." His face tightened slightly but he otherwise gave no indication of the rift between him and Sirius.

If things had been normal, James would have jumped at the opportunity to tease Lily about the one time she didn't pay attention. But things weren't normal. She looked so helpless and confused that he just didn't have the heart to tease her, even in a friendly way.

"Thanks." Lily whispered back as she gathered her books and moved to sit next to a surly looking Sirius. She'd never seen Sirius as grumpy as she had over the last few days. His usually light overenthusiastic manner was more than just dampened and his frown had recently become a more permanent fixture to his handsome face.

"I'll just go get the ingredients, shall I?" Lily asked. Sirius did little more than grunt in response and continued to stare stonily at the table.

Lily was confused. Not that she knew him that well, but this certainly wasn't the Sirius she was familiar with. Casting her mind back, she remembered the stiffness between him and James over the past weeks. They weren't still fighting were they?

The lesson seemed to drag on forever and for once, Lily was incredibly thankful for the bell to ring. Her potion was far too gluggy and not at all up to her usual standards. Sirius had contributed exactly nothing the whole lesson and had been surly and unpleasant whenever he spoke to her.

"Hey James." Lily called out as they all filed out the door. He paused and waited for her to catch up. "You and Sirius aren't still fighting are you?"

A surly look, similar to the one Sirius had been wearing all lesson, passed across James face. "He's being a prat." James replied huffily. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"What was the fight about anyway?"

"Nothing." James said shortly, not meeting her eyes.

"Well, if it's nothing then I think you should make it up with him. He's clearly as down as you are about it." Lily said.

"You don't know what you're talking about. Just drop it." James replied irritably. Lily looked shocked at his outburst.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean –" Lily stuttered, but he was already gone.

Feeling hurt, even more confusing and in an even worse mood than she was, Lily walked down to lunch slowly. It's the pressure of NEWTs. Lily told herself firmly. That's what is bothering everyone at the moment. We're all stressed out and irritable, don't take it personally. But even as she told herself this, the pang of hurt was still there.

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Lily didn't really feel very hungry, so she spent her lunch hour in the library. The quiet relaxed her as she pulled out her book from her bag. Halfway through the first page, a soft giggle nearby interrupted her concentration. That sounds like Marly. Lily thought in surprise. Why was Marly here? She hated the library.

In curiosity, Lily walked around the book shelves to investigate the source of the noise. And spot on, there was Marly, hidden at the back of one of the stands. At first Lily didn't notice the second person with her.

"Marly?" Lily asked. Her friend's head shot up.

"Oh, hi Lily. What are you doing?" Marly said between giggles. Lily's brow furrowed. She couldn't really see what was so funny. Then she noticed the shadow of another figure next to Marly. Clearly, she had walked in on something.

"Oh, right, sorry to interrupt." Lily said hastily, her face growing hot.

Marly shrugged. "Will, this is Lily. Lily, Will." The figure emerged from the stands and moved closer to Lily.

He was tall, very tall, with dark hair and eyes. From a distance, Lily supposed he could be considered attractive.

Five minutes of stilted conversation later, Lily could not honestly day that she liked him at all. He was exceedingly arrogant and clearly thought himself to be far above everyone else. Despite Marly being there, he talked as if she was so lucky to have him, like he was better than her. Marly, of course was completely oblivious.

"Well, nice to meet you." He was dismissing her. Taking the hint, Lily left abruptly.

Once outside the library, Lily leaned against the wall. What did Marly see in him? Sure he was okay looking. But other than that, Lily couldn't see what else he had going for him. He was arrogant and pompous. Lily knew she used to say that about James too, but it was completely different. James was infuriating because he was a show off and all too aware of his many talents. But Will, it was his sneaky arrogance that got her. The self-importance behind the polite words and impassive face.

His words were polite but their meaning was entirely different. He was an actor. Everything about him seemed false. His polite exterior masked his ulterior motives. For Lily was sure there was more to him than met the eye. More to him than Marly saw.

But most of all, it was his eyes that struck Lily. They were so cold, so unfeeling, so dead. It was like looking into the eyes of a corpse. They held no emotion whatsoever. Blank as a cold cement wall.

And still, there was something else. Something that Lily couldn't quite put a name to. But it made an unpleasant chill down Lily's spine, an uneasy feeling occur in the pit of her stomach.

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"What did you think of him?" Marly asked when she caught up with Lily that evening.

"Well…" Lily swallowed. Marly was her best friend. They always swore they would be honest with each other. But did she really want to spoil the happy glow that Marly seemed to have acquired?

"You don't think there's something…well…creepy about him?" Lily asked carefully.

"Creepy?" Marly laughed. "Hardly. Don't you like him?" She watched Lily carefully, monitoring her reaction.

"Umm…"

"You don't. I can tell." Marly seemed to deflate a bit and Lily felt terrible.

"No, it's not that. I'm sure he's really nice… I just don't get a good feeling from him. He seems really… arrogant."

Marly scoffed. "You used to say that about James too, and look what happened there."

Lily had thought about that earlier too. But it was different. "And he's really cold."

Marly looked surprised. "Not at all. He's so sweet and caring. He always tells me how gorgeous I am and brings me presents." Marly seemed to disappear back into her happy little world.

"Just be careful Marly. There's more to him than meets the eye. I just don't want you to get hurt." Lily said eventually.

"You don't know him like I do. You just don't like him because he's a Slytherin." Marly said sounding slightly accusatory.

Lily felt stung. How could Marly say that? Whether he was Slytherin or not, she would feel exactly the same way about him.

"No –" But Marly wasn't listening. She simply walked away, leaving a dumbfounded and hurt Lily behind her.

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"Could you please pass the pumpkin juice?" Lily asked Sirius who had just placed it down beside him.

Sirius scowled. Picking up the jug he thrust it at her roughly, causing the bright orange liquid to spill over her lap.

Remus, who was sitting on the other side of the table, glared warningly at Sirius who shrugged.

"Thanks." Lily said with a forced smile.

James and Sirius had a fight over me. Lily thought suddenly. She didn't know why it had just occurred to her but now, she realised that she had been stupid to have missed all the signs. That must be why Sirius was so nasty to her at the moment and why James was so touchy about the whole thing. Sirius must have said something bad about her and that's why James was so angry.

But why doesn't he like me? Lily thought. She didn't mean to sound full of herself, in a way that said 'who could possibly not like me?' She just didn't understand. Lily didn't profess to know Sirius really well, but they had gotten on pretty well at Christmas. Why did he suddenly not like her now?

In an attempt to try and prove to Sirius that she wasn't all that bad, she made a stab at friendly conversation.

"How's quidditch going?" She asked amicably. Sirius loved quidditch almost as much as James did and was also on the Gryffindor team.

"Fine." Sirius replied shortly. Lily tried again.

"When's the next match again?"

"Why don't you ask you're boyfriend?" Sirius said nastily. Lily felt that all too familiar pang of hurt again. It definitely seemed to be appearing more than usual today.

And worse than that, Lily could begin to feel tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. She was sick of everyone sniping at her. What had she done wrong? First things had been awkward and distant with Marly which had been bad enough, then James had snapped at her 9she still hadn't seen him since), then the argument with Marly and now Sirius.

Getting up from the table quickly, Lily left the Great Hall leaving her plate of food virtually untouched. She wasn't going to cry. She told herself firmly as she walked briskly to the common room.

Lying on her bed in the empty dormitory minutes later, Lily felt terrible. This had certainly been one shitty day.

Closing her eyes, Lily let her mind wander. 'Things always seem better in the morning', her mother had always used to say to her. And with that one last thought, Lily drifted into sleep, hoping that her mother was right. Things would be better tomorrow.

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