AN: I suppose I could list the millions of reasons on why it took me so long to update, but it would be boring and would involve a lot of lying, haha, so here it is, the final chapter. It pretty much ties up the loose ends and yea, hope you like it. Thanks to everyone who read my story :). Enjoy:

"Shh, be quiet Lily. You'll wake him up."

"Don't be such a wimp, Petunia. We could set a fire cracker off in his ear, and he still wouldn't wake up."

The small girl with straight blonde hair opened her light blue eyes even wider than before and gazed at her sister. "He's not dead, is he?"

"Of course not," said her twin, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear and gently resting a small hand on Petunia's arm in a childlike gesture of comfort. "He's just asleep."

"I'm not sure this is going to work…"

"Of course it will," Lily said, her bright green eyes flashing with determination. With a quick glance around the empty living room, she tiptoed over to the coffee table and gathered the empty bottles and scattered pills in her small hands, placing them quietly into an empty carrier bag.

"Lily," Petunia said, her voice worried. Raising her head, Lily saw her twin standing over the form of their father, out cold on the sofa in front of the television. "Lily, I don't think he's breathing."

"What do you mean?" she asked, a wave of cold panic flooding through her.

"I mean he's not breathing!"

Lily sat up suddenly, her breath coming in deep gasps. Her uniform stuck to her, damp with her own sweat and her fingers shook as she wiped a lock of dark red hair from her eyes. She was still sitting in the common room, stretched out on the couch by the fire.

"Are you alright?" asked a small first year, who had been watching her with curious eyes.

Distracted by the child's inquiry, James looked up from his work, and followed the small boy's gaze until his eyes rested on an extremely dishevelled Lily Evans.

Getting up and leaving the homework he hadn't planned on doing anyway, he crossed over to Lily and kneeled down beside the couch she was stretched out on. "You ok?" he asked quietly, brushing her hair back from her sweaty forehead. "You feel warm, are you sick?"

"No," she mumbled, pushing herself into an upright position. "Just had a bad dream that's all. How long have I been asleep?"

James checked his watch. "About five hours."

"Five hours!" Lily exclaimed in horror. "But I have so much work to do!" She attempted to stand and immediately swayed on her feet, her knees buckling underneath her. Luckily, James caught her just in time and picked her up, heading towards the girls' dormitory.

"No more work," he said. "You've exhausted yourself these last few weeks. You need rest."

"You can't go up the girls' staircase," Lily muttered, already nuzzling into James' chest, her eyes feeling heavy.

"Ah, there you're wrong my Lily-flower. Someone didn't read Hogwarts: A History very thoroughly, did they? You see, if a boy happens to be in contact with a girl and that girl wishes the boy to come upstairs, then said boy may ascend the stairs with no harm to himself." He got no reply however; Lily was fast asleep in his arms.

---

"Go away."

"Oh come on, don't be so upset." Sirius leaned lazily against a book shelf in the lamp-lit library and watched Sarah browse the dusty books. "It's sort of romantic if you think about it," he justified, a smirk playing on his handsome face.

"Romantic?" Sarah said, spinning around. "How deluded are you? It's about as far from romantic as you can get. It was perverted."

He shrugged. "Same thing."

"Leave me alone."

He frowned and took a step closer. "I'm sorry, alright? Listen, the truth is I only did it so I could spend some more time with you." She didn't reply so he continued. "I'm sick of being your fuck-buddy, Sarah, I want something more."

"Well I don't!" Sarah said, pulling a book angrily off of the shelf and stalking away from him. He hurried after her.

"Yes, you do. You pretend to be this cold bitch, but I know you're not."

Sarah opened her mouth as if to retort nastily, but she couldn't find the words. Instead she just shook her head in disgust at him and continued walking.

"I want to go out with you!"

She spun around to face him, almost hitting him in the face with her book. "Listen to me," she said coldly. "I'm not like Lily - I don't pretend to hate guys so they'll like me more – I don't need to do that. I actually hate you, Black, so fuck off and leave me alone."

---

Peter stood under the large tree, his hands thrust deep in his pockets and his shoulders hunched against the cold wind. Looking around nervously, he thought longingly of the warm common room and wondered for the umpteenth time why he was doing this.

Yes, his friends had the habit of treating him like dirt, but he, Peter, had always known the difference between right and wrong. He'd broken rules before, silly school rules at the will of the Marauders. He'd done it to be a Marauder, but he needed something more. Being popular wasn't enough.

He wanted power.

Sick of being the groupie he'd turned to others, in search of respect, not knowing that he'd find no respect there…only the addicting adrenaline of knowing he was standing up against his friends in a way no one had ever believed he would.

---

"And what happened then?"

"She told me she hated me," Sirius said, shrugging and flicking a wad of paper at a second year who was studying all alone by the fire.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Does she actually hate you or was she just saying that?"

Sirius grinned. "No I think she actually hates me: that's what makes the sex so great."

"You didn't…" Remus said, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"Yep, she couldn't keep her hands off me. Did it right there in the library."

"That's disgusting! Don't you have any control?"

Sirius grinned. "Nope."

Remus shook his head and smiled in spite of himself. There was no changing him: Sirius would be Sirius, and as much as he was reckless, moody, disgusting and unbalanced, he was also loyal, caring, fun and one of the best friends Remus could ask for.

---

"I'm not saying I agree with what he's doing, Ellie, it's just, well I'm not all that bothered about Muggles, and he doesn't affect me in any way, so why bother fighting him?"

"He killed James' parents, Sarah!" Eleanor cried in amazement at her friend's attitude.

"Again, doesn't really affect me."

"I can't believe this. You're saying you wouldn't fight him? The most evil wizard of all time, currently running free, gathering supporters and brutally murdering hundreds of Muggles….You do realise Lily is Muggle-born don't you? What if he targeted her?"

"Then I'd kill him," Sarah said, turning the page of her fashion magazine. "But so far he hasn't touched her. All he's done is get rid of a few Muggles and attempt to bring back some nobility and pride to the magical community."

Eleanor shook her head. "And I thought I was naïve. You actually don't care do you?"

"Of course I care…I suppose. It just doesn't bother me that much. Not enough to go out and risk my neck fighting him. He's not going to touch me, I'm about as pure blood as they come."

"You're dad's Muggle-born," Eleanor pointed out quietly.

Sarah's eyes flashed as she looked up from her magazine. "He's not my father. I'm a pure Zabini, nothing else. No one will ever connect with the that loser Mark Taylor. I've changed my name and everything. I'm safe so just leave me alone, will you?"

---

Peter quivered in anticipation as the dark figure approached him under the old tree.

"Hurry up, Rat, I don't have a lot of time. You said you had information for me," the menacing voice of Severus Snape snarled from under a heavy hood.

It wasn't too late to change his mind, to make the right choice. He could still do it. But the thought of glory and appreciation made his chest swell with excitement: he'd never been appreciated before.

"Well, do you have the name of the tip-off or not? The Dark Lord wants to know who Potter's source was. He got information on his whereabouts no one but a Deatheater could have known."

Peter licked his lips greedily and took his first of what was to be many more steps down the path of evil, the path that would lead to his allegiance with Lord Voldemort and the deaths of his friends. But how could he call them friends, when they'd treated him with nothing more than sneering condescension?

---

James gently lay Lily down on her bed, carefully tucking the blankets around her. He sat beside her and gently pushed the hair back from her forehead before kissing her cheek. About to rise and leave her, he was stopped by her hand softly taking his.

"Thought you were asleep," he whispered, now kneeling down beside her bed so his face was level with hers. She smiled and opened her eyes. He cleared his throat nervously. "Lily…what is it you like about me? I mean, what qualities do I have that you like?

"What?" she asked quietly, confused by his question.

"Why do you like me? Because, if I knew what it was, I could emphasize those things, make you like me even more. Maybe," he coughed again and mussed his hair. "Maybe even…love me?"

Lily chuckled and reached a hand out to touch his face. "That's the sweetest and silliest thing I've ever heard." She moved over so her face was inches from his and gently kissed his nose. "I love it how you always put two different flavours of jam on your bread, you always subconsciously hum Greensleaves whenever Professor Sprout talks about a plant's "green leaves", the way you frown whenever you can't work out a difficult astronomy problem and then you roll your eyes when you realise how simple it was; how you tell me not to roll my eyes 'cause they'll get stuck and you don't want a cross-eyed girlfriend; how you manage to make me laugh whenever I feel like crying, how the mouth of your corner turns up after I kiss you and you breathe really deeply, then you kiss me again as though you couldn't bear to stop; how you look at me as though it's the first time and how you make me feel so beautiful even when I look like hell, and especially how you're the most generous, loving, beautiful person I've ever met, but you pretend you're nothing special." She paused for breath, and he took this opportunity to reach out, take her chin in his fingers and kiss her sweetly, so his warm breath mingled with hers, and his mind got lost in a tangle of thoughts too jumbled for him to understand, until she broke the kiss and he smiled, just the way she'd described. "And what I especially love," she whispered, gently stroking his face, "is that dimple, right under the corner of your mouth."

"So," he said. "Um, you do then?"

"What? Love you?" She grinned as he nodded. "Yeah I suppose so."

His small smile turned into a beam as she finally said the words he'd been longing to hear since he was twelve years old:

"With all my heart and more, I love you."

AN: Hope you liked it. Please, please review, and I'm considering a sequel or at least another story about Lily and James so please tell me what you think. Thanks! xxx