It took a few moments for the foursome to get out of their shock and sprint out of the door and round the corner before they burst out laughing. They were laughing so hard James fell on to the floor taking Lily down with him as she had been leaning on him to stop herself from falling. Of course, it being Lily and James, it ended up being awkward. James had ended up lying on his back and Lily had fallen on to his stomach so their noses were only an inch from each other. Their laughing stopped. Lily's breath caught, she wasn't used to this. Come on, it had only been a day since she had seen James and started being nice to him, and now she was lying on top of him with no intention of slapping him. Something had definitely changed inside of her over the holiday.

Noticing that two of his friends had suddenly decreased in height and stopped making so much noise, Sirius shouted,

"Doggy pile!" causing Lily to panic and scream before shoving her head into the boy below hers shoulder to stop herself from yelling too much.

A long five minutes passed for Lily and James at the bottom of the pile before their best friends removed themselves. Seeing James' face, Lily quickly got herself up before giggling and offering a hand to the boy making him take it and rise. An agreement to quickly get back to the Tower before they were all given a detention (a second one in Sirius' and Marlene's cases) came up causing them to start walking back, talking.

"That went well then, I thought we'd get more than a detention and yelling at. Minnie must be really dreading the year or really really tired" Sirius mused.

"Or she's really really really tired of dreading the year when you Marauders are here, that might be the answer, huh Marly?" Lily teased.

"Shut it Evans, you know she loves us thats why we're still here you know"

"Oh yeah, Black, I reckon there's a higher chance of you being kicked out this year because of NEWT's and everything"

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure, I'm confident. Name the terms"

Sirius' and Lily's mocking went on the whole way back to the Tower leaving the brother and sister to chat easily about what they wanted to happen during the year and what they were dreading most. When Lily unconsciously glanced back towards the duo behind her, she couldn't help but realise how well her best and new friend got along without trying; James' arm was casually hung over her shoulder and Marlene's arm around his waist while they chatted about random things, jumping from topic to topic so easily that anyone else wouldn't be able to keep up. Lily's mouth quirked up at one side further and further with each unintentional look she took at the two people, but she didn't realise when Sirius realised the new focus Lily had adopted.

"You know, I don't think you know how much James wants... well not wants, rather needs you to be a part of his life"

"What are you on about?" Lily genuinely confused asked, turning back to the smirking Marauder.

"You're so dense Evans, you really don't see it. I get that you're making an effort, I appreciate it and I like it, but come on, you've put him through hell these past five years so please don't be friendly and then suddenly turn off of him after a while. It'll break him. I don't want to see that and I think you don't want to either with the way you keep stealing glances when you think I'm not looking. I want you to be friends with us, hell it would be brilliant, but I'm looking out for my best mate and I know you're the thing that will make or break him. So just... you get what I'm saying, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I do, don't worry. I don't plan on breaking him, Sirius. Honestly. I want to be his mate as well as you other three like I am now. I know I'm the reason the Marauders and the girls aren't friends at the moment, and I want to change it. I want to prove it to you, I swear"

Sirius gave Lily an evaluating look before deciding,

"You don't need to, Lil. I believe you, just please don't let him down, if not for him or me but for you"

The group finally reached the Gryffindor Tower a few minutes later, having not come across anyone to catch them. Entering through the Portrait, the rest of their friends bombarded them with questions about how it all went and how their Head of House reacted. Soon after, Lucy let out a huge yawn, alerting Lily to just how tired the First Year was. Seeing as James and Sirius didn't hear their sister, Lily shuffled over.

"You look tired, Lu. Can I call you Lu?"

"Yeah of cou-" she yawned slowly, "se you can. Yeah I am, I just don't want today to end its too perfect to end" the girl replied with large eyes pleading with the Sixth Year to undertand.

"You know, you have the other girls in your dorm to make life long friends with and you now have our group here. You're never going to get a boring day around here at all. The Marauders especially will make sure of that. There will be all kind of awesome things for us to do this year and then next year as well. You don't need to worry about today ending, because other days will be better and you'll end up getting used to them" Lily winked at the end.

During her speech, everyone had become silent and started watching her, James more so than the others. Noticing that she was the centre of the groups attention, blushed heavily and mumbled self consciously.

Sirius frowned slightly and added, "Lil's is right Lucy. There will be other amazing days but there will also be sad and horrible days because of this war with the purity bastard which will affect a lot of the school and most likely a lot of us. But that will only make the good days more special and prominent in our thoughts. We'll all have fun here no matter what, ok? We aren't going to let anything bring us down and ruin Hogwarts for us"

Everyone stared at Sirius stunned before Remus cracked a smirk and muttered, "Well done Pads, lots of big words there" effectively breaking the tension and making everyone bar Sirius laugh.

A few minutes later, everyone bid the others goodnight and headed to bed meaning that Lucy reluctantly hugged everyone and stumbled up the stairs to find where she would be living for the next seven years. Eventually Lily, Alice, Dorcas, Marly and Mary found themselves in their dorm and started changing before Mary spoke up.

"This year is going to be different isn't it? Friends with the Marauders and then the War raging outside the castle?I wonder who we're going to lose"

Dorcas hugged her best friend and whispered, "Yeah it is going to be different but it will be a good different. Maybe less James and Lily fights in the halls!" she shot Lily a teasing look, "But, hopefully we won't lose anyone, if we do, we'll get through it, we're all strong enough"

The conversation stopped as everyone finished changing and retreated into their beds and heads. Lily was the last to fall asleep due to the thoughts racing through her head.

Well, today was eventful. Start of sixth year, Befriending of the Marauder I vowed to hate forever. Meeting said Marauder's little sister who is actually amazing. Sirius being serious and using big complicated words. She chuckled quietly. Dorcas is right, this year will be good and I'm going to make the best out of this War. I refuse to let anything bring me down. NEWT's are are next year and I've got to do well. And now I've got five more friends to help me get through everything, I'll be fine. The Marauders will help me laugh and stay happy and my girls will be the solid foundations that I've had since the first day. And little Lucy will be this exciting new experience. Especially being James' little sister, so she'll be tough. She'll be amazing for helping me annoy James!Everything is changing and I like the sound of it.

With a small smile on the redheads face, she fell asleep.

The next morning, Lily awoke first to the loud shouting and then to the gentle shaking from Alice on her shoulder. Grumbling, the girl pulled the covers over her head trying to block out the loud voices from the Common Room before she heard the words, or rather names, being called.

"EVANS, MCKINNON, PREWETT, MEADOWS AND MCDONALD GET YOUR BEHINDS DOWN HERE BEFORE I COME UP THERE!" Sirius was bellowing.

Typically, Marly was leaning out of the door shouting back, "NO SIRIUS, WE HAVE A CHOICE WHETHER TO SEE YOU OR NOT AND WE CHOOSE NOT. GO TO BREAKFAST AND SHUT UP" before turning and slamming the door.

Lily smiled at Marly gratefully and snuggled further into her covers before the door burst open again.

"Surprised girls?" Sirius smirked causing the girls to stare at him confused as to how he got there. The stairs should have turned to a slide!

A second later the other three Marauders barged into the room and stopped dead. James and Remus immediately started apologising.

"We couldn't keep him from coming up"

"We tried to stop him from shouting but"

"He got past us, sorry"

Alice finally shut the boys up by shooting them a lot causing them to be quiet from the fierceness, "Black, what do you want?"

"And how did you get up the stairs without activating the charm? Do you have something to tell us boys?" Lily teased.

James finally realised Lily was in the room and stared distractedly at her, unconsciously starting a staring contest with the girl.

Well fuck. I didn't mean to start this! Her eyes are beautiful today, a really light green on the edges like spring grass and a dark evergreen on the inside by the pupil. Beautiful. She's beautiful even with messy hair and not fully awake! How is that even fair?! Am I... Is someone speaking to me? Oh shit.

James finally turned away from the girl he fancied, possibly was in love with, and turned to face Peter who was tugging on his wrist insisting that they had to leave and that they would meet the girls in the Great Hall in a few minutes. James looked around, surprised to see that the other two Marauders had disappeared and the five girls in the room glancing at him amused and smirking slightly in Lily's case. Stupid feelings getting me into embarrassing situations yet again.

Still grinning from James' blunder, the girls made their way down to breakfast ten minutes later, and seated themselves in amongst the Marauders and started up conversations whilst helping themselves to food. A few minutes before the first class, McGonagall arrived and gave everyone their NEWT level time tables before moving on down the table. Comparing with each other, Lily found she was in every class with James, Sirius and Marlene and in the majority with the others. One thing is for certain, my classes this year aren't going to be boring, the prefect thought happily as the four friends headed down to the dungeons for double Potions with Slughorn.

A/N I'm back! Like I said in the last A/N I forgot I had to carry on because I didn't get any emails from Fanfiction. Net and so I've only just remembered... Yeah so what do you guys think? Am I writing it ok? I'm still looking for a Beta to proof read this for me as I'm really bad at it:L Yeah so PLEASE REVIEW MY LOVES!