Disclaimer: It all goes to JK!

Author's Note: Sorry I took so long to post this, I have actually been done with it for about two weeks now. But I was in Chicago and then had a lot of rehearsals (I'm a theatre nerd).

Year Five: Out on the Grounds

Boy did he mess up. It was such a nice day too. The fifth years were almost finished with their O.W.L. testing for the end of the year and he headed down to the lake to relax with his friends. They sat underneath the beach tree and laid back. Remus sat reading, Sirius was checking out a few fourth year Hufflepuffs, and he was playing with the snitch he stole from the game a few weeks ago. Peter of course was watching him in awe. It wasn't until Snivelly Snape came towards James that he realized how bored he was. So, James and Sirius decided to have some fun with old Snivelly, little did James know that Lily Evans was close by and would hex James to oblivion if he laid a wand on Snape.

He wasn't even really planning to pull out his wand; he just wanted to tear the boy down a bit. Unfortunately for James, Snape wasn't going to take it. Snape went for his wand but James was faster and disarmed Snape. A crowd was forming around and James only gave what the crowd wanted, so he forced Snape upside down. He would have left it at that but Snape just had to swear at him. So James thought it be a nice treat for the crowd to wash Snape's mouth.

James was quite happy to see Lily approach but not so happy that it was to scream at him. He tried calming her by cracking a few jokes but it didn't seem to be working. So then he perked up some courage and asked her out. But of course he was rejected by her for the billionth time. James was going to end it there, but again Snape just couldn't let James walk away. Snape shot a curse at him which cut the side of James' face. James heard the "Ohhh!"s in the crowd and treated them by hanging Snape upside down again. Everyone cheered him on except for Remus who was in trance in his book and Lily who glared at James ready to burst with anger.

All Lily had to do was to tell James to stop, so he did. But yet again, Snape hadn't learned his damn lesson. Snape shot up ready to hex James when Sirius stepped in and froze him. Then Lily took her wand out, it was the first time she was actually willing to hurt another student. James did as she asked and undid Sirius' spell. And that's when Snape called her that word! A mudblood! Now of course James wasn't going to let Snivelly get away without apologizing to Lily but Lily didn't want James to interfere. Apparently James is just as bad as Snape and like always Lily recited the speech she always gave him about how horrible he is. She stormed away and didn't turn around when he called her name. She was the only one to ever act like that around him; maybe that's why he was intrigued by her.

This time though James wasn't in a good mood after seeing Lily, he was hurt and furious. So, he did the one thing that would cheer him up. He teased Snape some more. But after Snape had escaped from the Marauders, what was James supposed to do. Go show off to some seventh years and hope Lily would get over it? Get something to eat and hope Lily would just forget? But he knew Lily too well. She would not just get over it and certainly wouldn't forget. He had to go apologize.

"I'm going to talk to Professor Slughorn about that Potions essay," James lied knowing how much the other three hated Slughorn.

Sirius checked him over, "You sure that's where you're going, Prongs?"

"Yes, I'm sure," James glared.

"Okay," the three Marauders chimed as they headed down to the kitchens.

Just as James started to make his way for the Library where he was sure Lily would be, Sirius grabbed his arm.

"Going to apologize to Lily, aren't you, mate?" Sirius smiled.

James glared at him, "Sod off, Padfoot."

"Fine, but I hope you know you can't lie to me. I see right through it," Sirius patted James arm and caught up with the others.

James glared at Sirius until he turned a corner at the end of the hall. James started walking up to the Library passing a lot of strangers who deemed it necessary to say hi to him. After every "hello", "hi", or "HEY JAMES!", he just smiled and nodded his head politely.

"Potter!" someone shouted behind him.

He turned around to see Frank Longbottom striding out from the Heads of Houses Common Room. It was where the Head Boy and Head Girl of Hogwarts moved to instead of their old Houses Common Room. This year two Gryffindors, Frank Longbottom and Alice McDonald, were the Heads.

"Hey, Frank," James smiled.

"Come here," Frank gestured to him and James did so, "what year are you?"

"Fifth," James said confused.

"So, that means you'll be in sixth next year," Frank thought allowed.

"Well, yeah, Frank. Six comes after five," James laughed.

Frank glared at him, "If you want to be Quidditch captain next year, you better suck up to me."

James had been floored. Quidditch captain? It was something he had been hoping for but didn't really expect since Benjy Fenwick would be a seventh year and was a pretty decent player himself.

"What about Fenwick?" James asked.

"Look," Frank sighed, "Benjy's good but you're better. Benjy's nice but we need a leader. You're going to be the leader for them next year. That is of course if you want it."

"Of course I do," James shouted.

"Good," Frank laughed, "See you, mate."

"Yeah," James smiled.

He wanted to whoop and cheer. He wanted to run around the castle and scream at the top of his lungs. But something was tugging at his heart; Lily. James still had to apologize for being "an arrogant, bullying toe- rag". He made his way to the Library.

Walking in to the Library, Madam Pince was scolding a few second years for being too loud. A group of third year Hufflepuffs sat at a table gossiping while a group of sixth year Slytherins was glaring straight at James. He didn't acknowledge them and walked straight to the back of the Library. There were a few tables back there and James recalled Lily always sitting at the one in the corner.

James spotted the red head sitting at that table her eyes on a book with her hands on her forehead pushing back her hair. There was one problem, Severus Snape had beaten James to the Library and was now standing over Lily begging for forgiveness while she ignored him.

"Please, Lily," Snape begged, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

Lily didn't respond which made James smile.

"Please, talk to me," he went on.

No response. James trying to act casual grabbed a random book on the closest shelf and made his way towards the two.

"Look, I'm an idiot. I know that. But please Lil-"Snape stopped, "what do you want, Potter?"

"Hmm?" James asked looking up from his book, "oh, hello Evans, hello Snivelly. Just reading, don't mind me. Continue on with you're whole 'I'm an idiot' speech."

"Go away, Potter." Lily glared.

"Oh so you were just ignoring Snivelly. I thought you'd gone deaf. Nice to know, you two know how to communicate, you know being best friends and all," James smiled sitting down at the table across from Lily.

"We are not best friends," Lily turned her glare to Snape, "we're not even friends anymore."

James smiled but Snape was shocked.

"Lily, please," Snape begged.

"Pretty sure she made it clear that she's ignoring you Snivelly," James smiled.

"Sod off, Potter," Lily and Snape spat at him.

"Whoa, there. I'm on your side Evans," James defended.

"I don't need you nor do I want you on my side," Lily said.

Snape looked down at his watch, "Lily, I really am sorry, but I have to go meet Avery. Please just think about what I said. And I didn't mean to call you a- a you know what."

Lily ignored him again and Snape trudged out of the Library dragging his feet.

"And then there were two," James joked.

Lily glared at him, "Really, Potter, I am not in the mood. Can you, please, annoy me another time?"

"Well only because you said please," James smiled.

"Sod off," Lily sighed.

James looked closely at Lily. She really did look upset. Although he knew it was because of what Snape said, he couldn't help but feel guilty. He was glad that it looked like a final end to the Lily- Snivelly friendship but he did know how much the git meant to her.

He took a deep breath, "I'm sorry."

"I don't care," Lily snapped.

Slightly taken aback he continued, "I didn't mean to break up your friendship but-"

"Yes you did," Lily said matter of factly.

"What?" James said confused.

Lily stared at him clearly irritated, "Potter, you've been trying to break up my friendship with Severus since the first time we met on the train."

"True," James smiled, "but I didn't think he meant that much to you."

"He doesn't," Lily lied.

"He does too," James said seeing through the lie.

"Shut up, Potter," Lily yelled standing up, "you don't know anything about that friendship. You don't know anything about Severus Snape. And you sure as hell don't know anything about me!"

"Whoa, calm down," James said trying to avoid getting all the attention.

"No! You always bloody do this! You always bloody strut around acting like you own this bloody castle and expect everyone to kiss your bloody feet! But I don't bloody care and Severus doesn't bloody care! So, of course, you just had to bloody pick on us! You just had to break up that bloody friendship! Potter, never once have I let you bloody influence that friendship; not once! But be bloody proud of yourself because that bloody friendship is over, you bloody git!" Lily lowered her voice, "and you weren't exactly subtle coming over hear, were you. You have a love potion book in your hands, dumb arse."

James looked at the cover blushing but quick to recover, "Just looking to see which potion to use on you."

Lily gave him a final glare and stormed out of the Library.

"Damn it," he sighed.

Why did Lily hate him so much? He really didn't mean to upset her. He didn't mean to break up the friendship. He didn't mean to get her to get so frustrated that she had to use bloody eight times in every sentence- hmm she did use bloody a lot, didn't she? Maybe he should give up on Lily. Maybe he should let her go…. No, he couldn't do that. He still had feelings for her.

"Fuck my life," James whispered to himself.

Okay, okay, okay. This is the final chapter before we actually get into the story! I hope you enjoyed it. I hope to have Chapter Six up in a few days. (It's not yet done, but I don't have any plans besides rehearsals so...) No reviews, still have some followers on this story. Let me know if you like it :)

xx. FionaJoyce.