DISCLAIMER: We do not own Harry Potter, the characters or anything related to it. However, we do own our imagination as well as our OC.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: We're back and we're back for good.

Don't worry, Peter will certainly be awake at some point in the story. What's more: he will even say something. He just had a bad and tiring day. Or a bad and tiring month, whichever one you like more:) So, from what we know, he is not a borderline narcoleptic (just sleepy) but we will check it.

Feel free to give us a Christmas present: a brand new shiny review. ^^.

Lily's story

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you!" Lily finally surrendered. "But you'd better sit down because it's quite a long story." She still seemed a little uneasy. It was just an ordinary diary after all; they couldn't understand what could be so frustrating about it. Excluding, of course, the idea of the others knowing your deepest, most intimate secrets, it couldn't be all that bad, could it? After all, you would get over it one day.

The Common Room was dimly illuminated by the flames playing cheerfully in the fireplace, the mysterious atmosphere of the castle a thousand times intensified. The pale light coming from the Moon was falling through the windows. Small rainbows were dancing on the stone floor, cast by the imperfections of the glass. The room was so much different compared to what the boys saw every time they turned up there after a game of Quidditch or just to do their homework. Those times the ever-crowded place seemed to be so dynamic that it turned to life. Every shadow seemed to move of its own accord and every whisper sounded like a scream in the eerie silence of the cold September night.

The group began to make themselves comfortable; James and Remus plopped into the crimson armchairs, while others sat on the large sofa in front of fireplace. Peter almost instantly closed his eyes, relaxing, and drifted off to the dreamland.

The redhead was sitting on the edge of the couch cushion, playing with her hands nervously, realising suddenly the absurdity of the whole situation. She, the Prefect of Gryffindor, was to reveal her deepest secret to them, the biggest pranksters in Hogwarts' history. And to share it with James Potter, of all people, the boy she detested the most. An arrogant and self-conceited idiot, whose presence she was not able to stand for more than five seconds. She never quite understood how he managed to be such an excellent student and complete moron at once.

Lily remained silent for such a long time that the boys finally began to shift impatiently in their seats. "Come on Lily, start already!" whined Sirius, "You're making us nervous." He was still pouting as he rolled up sleeves of his shirt and placed his hands behind his head.

How could he feel so comfortable when she was dying of embarrassment? It didn't make it any easier either to get started when they all were giving her such expectant looks. Before she even uttered a word she glanced fearfully over her shoulder as if to check no one interrupted her story.

"First of all, you need to know it's not just an ordinary diary." Her voice was trembling slightly, fingers clenching on the dark material of her robes. "I found it a couple of months ago. Well… Actually, I kind of stole it…"

"You, Lillian Evans, did something against the rules?" James interrupted her in a mocking tone. Or maybe it was just astonishment, she couldn't tell.

"James, I really don't think it's the right moment," Remus glared at the black-haired boy.

Lily chose to ignore that little interruption. "Anyway, it was tucked inside a Potions book Severus lent me just before summer break. The notebook seemed somehow familiar to me. At first, I couldn't recall where I had seen it. But then I remembered I'd seen Sev writing in it several times and he has changed so much since then. He's become more vicious. He avoids me and spends all his free time with his little 'Death Eater' friends. He won't even stop to say 'hello'. And I thought we were friends."

Lily wasn't finished yet so the boys didn't want to interrupt her, seeing how hard it was for her to talk about redhead paused, opened her mouth to speak and then shook her head, resigned. "Never mind, it doesn't concern you."

"I was curious," she said after a while in a more conversational tone. "I know it's wrong. But he is my friend, isn't he? I just want to know what's bothering him. And since he wouldn't tell me himself at least I could read about it, right? I just couldn't give up our friendship that easily." The words that came out next were just as astonishing and unexpected to her as to them; for the first time Lily started to realise her motives. "You would do the same if you were me!" she burst out all of a sudden, desperate, although none of the boys was accusing her. It took her a while to calm herself down.

"The diary was empty, you know."

The four looked at the girl wide-eyed. "Empty? Have you tried Aparecium?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Not even a single word written inside."

"Strange," Remus frowned.

"I couldn't understand it either," Lily continued. "I was sure that I had seen him writing in it. Then I noticed something else. On the cover there was a name written in golden letters. Tom Marvolo Riddle. I was surprised but then I thought that maybe I had mistaken something. Maybe it was just a random notebook that he had bought along with the book and not the one Severus was writing in. Or maybe he had signed it himself, I don't know," she added hesitantly. "Severus has always been a little strange."

"And now you've finally admitted it?" James gave Lily a triumphant look and grinned cheekily.

"Shut up, Potter," retorted the girl, scowling at him.

"Yes, Prongs. It's getting interesting," Sirius said with a mischievous smile.

"Which side are you on, Pads?" James smacked him on the head and a grin was once again plastered to his lips. They started to roll on floor, fighting. It was fake, of course, the wrestling, yet it didn't stop Lily from concluding that boys would always be boys. And teenage boys would always act as if they were children. It just brought them joy.

"Guys! Hey guys," Remus tried to stop them but unfortunately failed, getting punched with a pillow. "Cut it out! Don't you want to hear the rest of the story?" He threw the pillow back at the fighting two. They jerked their heads up, looking at him resentfully and roared in unison.

"Of course we do, Moony!" They got up, sharing a long suspicious look and set themselves in the furthest ends of the room, apparently still a little edgy. James ended up on the couch squeezed between Lily and the armrest. In the middle Peter was still snoring happily.

"Please, don't tell me he's sleeping again," James shot his friends a begging look. Sirius and Remus gave out a quiet snort. When the laughter faded Lily picked up the story again.

"At first I wanted to give it back but every time I went to his place he just wasn't there. After a few weeks I gave up and forgot about the notebook. I put it my drawer, planning to return it after the school started. It wasn't as if I was going to use it myself. But then I had an awful fight with my sister. Somehow I ended up taking the diary out and writing the whole thing down in it. I have never had a diary before. I have never written about my feeling anywhere. But once I did I felt better. Relieved. As if something heavy was lifted from my chest.

"The next morning Severus came and was really nice. Just like he was before. He acted like he hadn't done anything wrong. He didn't even apologise. I just couldn't stand it. Eventually I broke out. Said things I shouldn't have said. I was screaming at him like mad. I guess I took it out on him for all those months he had been ignoring me." She finished in a small guilty voice, looking down at the floor, obviously ashamed. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all this," she sighed. "You're such pains in the arse sometimes. Especially you, Potter." James didn't look offended at all. He was too busy making mental notes of how to act around Lily in order not to make her angrier with him than she already was. Maybe it would work this time, the black-haired boy decided to be optimistic.

"You must admit that we're not that bad," Remus started smiling lightly. "We haven't pulled any prank on you nor we have opened the diary, although the two jerks here definitely wanted to," he added in a theatrical whisper, tilting his head towards James and Sirius, and grinning fully. "Anyway, what happened later?"

"Well, I thought that writing a diary isn't such a bad thing after all; if it calmed me after the argument with my sister, why wouldn't it do this time? So I opened the diary again and, flipping through the pages, I noticed that something was wrong. Something was different. I hadn't written the things I was reading in the notebook. I –," James broke in, not letting the girl finish the sentence. He didn't even mean to be rude, he was just curious.

"What do you mean? What kind of things?" he asked.

"None of your business," said Lily turning her back at the black-haired boy. "What I mean is it was still my handwriting but not exactly my words," The three boys gave her a surprised look. "Every sentence was somehow upside-down, its meaning reverted. I thought it's just too twisted.

"I haven't opened the diary since then but every day I was becoming angrier and more frustrated. But I had to carry the diary with me all the time, because I was afraid that my sister would find it. It would just cause another quarrel and I wouldn't be able to stand her nasty comments again. I was afraid that I would lose control and do something I would regret later on.I was so relieved when the holidays were over. I could finally put the notebook away in my school trunk. That was when my frustration began to slowly fade and I felt free at last. Then I thought that perhaps it was the diary that had such a bad influence on me."

"That's why you act like a brat sometimes!" James couldn't help himself. The comment came out of his lips before he could think twice, or at all.

"Why, thank you, Potter," the redhead said ironically. "You know how to make a girl feel special."

"So, what you say is we cannot let others have any contact with the diary," Remus cut the little bickering before it had a chance to spin out of control. Now he had everybody's attention on him, which luckily prevented James and Lily from killing each other. "We have to hide it somewhere and then we'll think what to do with it," he paused, considering their options. Even though the castle was enormous there were only a few places where the diary couldn't be found, unless you knew where to look. "I think I know a good place," he finally said. "The Requirement Room. What do you guys say?"

"Are you sure no one else would find it there?" Lily looked a bit unsure.

"Yup, Lilykins," said Sirius mockingly, laughing at his own private joke. "Certainly somebody would just happen to be lingering in the corridors late at night looking for Tom Riddle's diary."

"Severus?" the redhead shot him down with one well-aimed scornful response.

"Good point, Lily," praised James with pure admiration written on his face. The girl gazed at him surprised. For the first time he called her by her first name. Was he was finally going to be nice to her? James, for his part, suddenly felt embarrassed and uncomfortable at his own daring. He turned his eyes to the other boys. "Then where else can we hide it?" Then another idea came to his mind. "How about my trunk?" he asked dreamily, already planning long evenings reading what Lily wrote, or didn't write, both options equally appealing to him.

"Not a chance, Potter," Lily snarled, all her hopes tarnished in less than ten seconds.

"But, Lily…" Remus started. "We don't really have any other choice…"

"We do have one, actually, " the girl insisted. "We can always give it to Dumbledore. He's the headmaster, after all. He would surely know what to do with the diary, wouldn't he?"

"Yeah, right. Old Dumbie has much more important things to do than having to handle a bunch of possessed adolescents," commented Sirius. "Where is your sense of adventure, Evans?"

"I just think it's too dangerous," Lily shook her head disapprovingly. "You can get us expelled!"

"For having a little black book? Not likely," cam the reply.

"Shit happens," murmured Lily. The boys shot her amazed looks. They were dimly aware that a girl could actually know any swearwords, even one like Lily. Although very often she came up with sophisticated expressions to describe James. Every time she spoke, no matter how rudely, he wouldn't even notice. The very sound of her voice calling him with such creativity was enough. That was why the black-haired boy just couldn't have got himself to feel offended in the slightest, the word just sounded so nicely in her lips.

Then Remus spoke again, intelligence beaming from his words. "But think rationally: if we had it in our dorm, no one but us five would know about it. No one would have a chance to find it and steal it," he looked around, hoping to get some more support from his friends but they only looked at him, blank expression in their eyes.

Lily for her part was considering the concept for a brief moment. "I guess he has a point," she admitted reluctantly.

"Of course he has, he's Remus!" Sirius tried to smile while yawning. He slowly sat up from the huge armchair he was almost lying in for the past hour and stretched. "I don't know about you but I'm exhausted and I'd rather be conscious in tomorrow's test in Transfiguration."

The comment brought them all back to the earth. Sirius looked at his wristwatch. "We'd better go now. It's almost one-thirty," he said and walked toward the stairs leading to the Boys' Dormitories. "Goodnight, Lily."

James and Remus stood where they were, the black-haired boy smiling sheepishly at the redhead, the other taking the little black book from the table.

"I guess Sirius is right, it's very late," Lily said looking at the floor, slightly intimidated by the way James was now gazing at her. "I hope you'll take good care of our little secret. Just…" she trailed off.

"We won't read it," said James firmly while Remus was giving her a reassuring smile. "I promise," he said, a bit too strong than he intended, his true feelings now taking over him. Then he realized that both Lily and Remus were staring at him, obviously surprised with his declaration and cleared his throat, embarrassed. "Well, I – ,"

"Thank you," interrupted Lily. And smiled. That beautiful smile that had won James' heart so long ago. Then she left the Common Room.

James was still beaming when he turned to look at Remus, who was still standing by the table. "You did great, Prongs," The golden-haired boy smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder with his free hand. In the other he was holding the innocent-looking diary. They looked at it hesitantly. "Whose trunk?" asked Remus quietly. James was silent for a moment then said, "Yours, I guess. It won't lure me that much, this way."

Suddenly a quiet sound came from the couch. Peter propped to his elbow and covered his eyes with his other hand. The flames burning in the fireplace were blinding him a bit. His voice was still blurry after sleep as he mumbled, "I must have drifted off. Did I miss something?"

"No, Pete. Of course…" not, before James could finish the sentence a loud snoring filled the Common Room once again. So they just left him where he was and went up to their dormitory.

Sleeping after such an eventful evening was now the last thing the three could think about. Nevertheless they changed into their pyjamas and obediently put off the torches. After a minute or so James spoke.

"Sirius, are you asleep?"

"Nope," the reply came after a while. A sound of short struggling with the bedding could be heard then Sirius muttered a spell and the torches went on. Both James and Remus were still sitting and not seeming to be tired in the slightest.

"What was the whole reassurance thing about?"

The black-haired boy couldn't help but ask and Sirius almost immediately began to regret that he had said anything at all. He could have pretended he was already asleep. He could have pretended he did not understand the question, yet somehow he couldn't make himself say a thing. The silence was getting more and more frustrating as Sirius was staring blankly into the space, silent. He was wondering what had actually gotten into him to say something like that to Isabelle. In front of his friends, moreover. To say that kind of things at all.

"Well?" James' voice lost all the playfulness and a note of impatience took its place. "Pads?"

"It's just about a stupid deal we made," Sirius answered vaguely. "That's nothing, really."

James shot him a sceptical look but said nothing. Yeah, it's surely nothing. Seeing his expression Sirius felt a little guilty, yet for an unknown reason he was still against telling his mates about the date with Isabelle. And he still didn't know why. None of them spoke for a while. Somehow it was clear that the subject was over and there was no point in starting a discussion.

"Well, what do you think about it?" said Remus finally, setting a pillow under his back, obviously meaning the diary not Sirius' behaviour.

"It's weird," decided James wiping his glasses. Then he put them on again and blinked few times as his eyes adjusted to the sudden sharpness of the vision. "If it wasn't Lily who said it I would never believe it. Just imagine - a diary? Changing everything you've written in it? They definitely don't sell such things in the Diagon Alley."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius. "Someone must've charmed it. Snape maybe?" He threw his friends a questioning look.

"I don't think so." Remus was frowning, thinking about something intensively. "None of us knows such charms, let alone Severus. And this Tom Riddle," he paused. "I'm sure I've seen that name somewhere, but I can't recall where."

They were silent for a while then James looked up at the golden-haired boy and asked hesitantly: "Did you hide it? I mean the diary."

"Yes, and don't try to take it out!" warned Remus and quickly added in a much softer tone. "We promised Lily that we won't read it, remember?"

The statement sounded convincing enough for James, so he smiled at his friend, grateful for preventing him from doing stupid things. "You're right, Moony. Let's get back to sleep," he said putting off the torches.

"By the way, we're Marauders from now on," Sirius' words rang long after they had been said and the two could almost hear him grinning in the dark.