Lily had to stop herself from running to the common room. She was furious. She wanted to throw something. Smash things. Rip James Potter's hair out and give him a good kick in his 'special' place.
"Password, deary?" The overly cheerful portrait asked her.
"Gobstones." Lily said drearily.
"What was that?"
She looked up. "Gobstones. That's the password!"
The fat lady shook her head sweetly. "I'm afraid it changed,"
"Since when!" Lily shouted.
The fat lady looked away, then back. "Around 10 minutes ago if I'm correct."
Lily glared at the painting. "You've got to be joking."
"No, sorry! You'll have to find a fellow Gryffindor."
Lily moaned and kicked the wall beside the entrance with her foot.
"Careful!" The surrounding paintings said. "You nearly put a hole through my canvas!"
"Sorry!" Lily said sarcastically. "I'll just be leaving then."
She turned to walk away when a group rounded the corner.
"Oh bloody hell." Lily sighed.
James freaking Potter and his arsehole friends were approaching, laughing.

"Lily!" James smiled as he noticed her. "I wondered where you'd got to!"
She gritted her teeth together. Seriously? Was he really pretending nothing had happened? Or was he just too stupid to realise. Lily twisted her head slightly; probably the latter.
"Don't even, Potter."
He frowned. "What?"
"Oh, you don't even know?"
Sirius stepped forward. "Evans, what's wrong now?"
"Shut your mouth Black or I'll stuff it with Pettigrew's dirty underwear."
Peter jumped at the sound of his name as Sirius yelped.
"Merlin, not even Snivelly deserves that torture." He paused.
"Well, couldn't hurt to try. Moony; write that down!"
Remus looked over at Sirius.
"You do realise, that when you ask me to write something down for you…I don't actually do it. I'm not your scribe!"
"Moooooonyyyyy!" Sirius groaned. "You haven't been writing what I'm saying? What about all those girls I thought were hot?"
Remus rolled his eyes. "You'll just have to work it out for yourself."
Sirius huffed. "We'll talk about this later."
"Yeah sure Padfoot. Anyway Lily, what is wrong?"

Lily, who wasn't used to Sirius Black's clear insanity took a moment to register she'd been spoken to. "What? Oh yeah, this complete arse," She pointed to James. "Spiked my drink earlier." She smiled. "And please don't stop me when I murder him."
Lily stepped forward right as James took two steps back, looking scared.
"I did not spike your drink!"
"You did! Madam Pomfrey told me I was drunk! How embarrassing do you think that was? I'm a bloody prefect, Potter. I have to set an example for the first years!"
Sirius sniggered. "That is embarrassing Evans, but to tell you the truth, it was kind of stupid to go to the hospital wing when you were drunk."
Lily glared. "I didn't know I was drunk! I've never had the experience before."
"Wow, you must be a lightweight Evans; there was probably about one shot of Firewhiskey in that Butterbeer and you were totally out of it!"
"I can accio Pettigrew's underwear right now Black, if you really want me to."
"No, no Lily darling. There won't be any need for that…" He had stepped back to beside James, seeming to think he was safer there.

Remus was trying to prevent a fight.
"Lily, can we talk about this rationally? James, did you spike her drink?"
James shook his head. "No!"
"Good." He looked at Sirius. "So, why'd you spike Lily's drink?"
Sirius inhaled dramatically. "I am offended! I did not spike her drink!"
Remus turned to Lily. "Yeah, it was probably Sirius."
"It wasn't! I'm innocent!"
Lily nodded, ignoring Sirius. "Well, if it definitely wasn't James, Sirius would be my next guess and-"
"IT WASN'T ME!" Sirius screeched.
"Who was it then?" Lily shouted.

Peter stepped forward, looking extremely guilty. "Er…James? It w-was me."
James turned to the smaller boy. "Pete, you don't have to cover for Sirius."
He shook his head. "No…it was me. Prongs I'm so sorry!"
James looked at Lily, then Sirius and finally to Remus.
Remus shrugged.
"What the hell Peter!" James said, moving towards him. Peter turned beetroot.
"I-I'm sorry! I thought it was a good idea!"
"Well it wasn't!"
"Sorry James, please don't make me leave the marauders!"
Peter begged. Lily reckoned Peter would even get on his knees if James asked him to.
"Don't talk to me right now Wormtail," James said. "I really don't want to break your nose…but I might not be able to help it if you piss me off anymore." Peter nodded rapidly, before swiftly turning and running down the corridor.

"Merlin, James." Remus said, watching the chubbier boy turn the corner. "He won't dare talk to us for a month now! You know what he's like!"
James didn't look as if he cared that much. He had already turned back around to Lily.
"Lil's, I'm sorry about him but it wasn't my fault."
Lily clenched her fists. "Oh no, it could never be your fault! James Potter can do no wrong!" Her voice was raising and Sirius walked over to Remus.
"Should we, leave?" Remus liked that idea. He grabbed the other boy's arm and they both disappeared through the portrait. Not that James and Lily noticed; they were both now yelling at each other.
"You need to give me a break, Evans!"
"I'll break your arm! How's that?"
"See! There you go again! Stop treating me like a child!"
"You are a child, Potter!"
"I'm the same age as you!"
"You have the mental age of a badly behaved toddler."
"Do not! I get the same grades as you in all exams!"
"Only because you flirt with all the females and intimidate the male ones!"
"Rubbish Evans! I'm smarter than you and you just can't admit it!"
"Whatever makes you sleep at night Potter!"
"Why don't you just grow up?"
"Why don't you just piss off?"
"I live here!"
"Doesn't mean you have to talk to me!"
"FINE THEN!" James was breathing heavily and his face was red. "I won't bother you again!"
He turned and stomped away, leaving Lily even angrier than before.
She walked back over to the fat lady.
"Can't let you in madam." She smiled. "I'm afraid you still don't know the password."
"Oh BLOODY HELL!"

"Stupid, immature prat. Frog-faced arse. Arrogant git." Lily mumbled to herself, massaging her head as she walked to the great hall. Dinner was over by now, but she was hoping that one of her friends might still be there.
"Who does he think he is?"
"Who does who think he is?" A voice said from behind her. Lily jumped. She knew that voice…crap.
"Hi Melinda." Lily said slowly.
"Alright Lily?" The blonde girl was looking at Lily hungrily, craving for more gossip.
"Yeah, fine." Lily said, faking a smile. "And you?"
The older girl pouted. "Well, to be honest, not good. A couple of people told me today that Marlene McKinnon and Hestia Jones said they hated me. It's really upset me."
Oh dear.
Lily bit her lip. "Oh, don't be ridiculous! They don't hate you. In fact, Marlene told me just the other day how…how nice and funny she thought you were!"
What utter hippogiff dung. Marlene had said something, but it wasn't exactly anything Lily wanted to repeat.

Melinda looked up. "Oh really Lily?" She looked almost tearful. What was up with that? Lily nodded and Melinda leaned closer.
"I don't know if you'd realised this, but I'm actually very insecure. I mean, people always seem so hostile to me and I don't even know why."
She frowned. Lily, unsure what exactly to say, nodded again.
"Enough about me Lily…how are you and James?"
Warning signals flew up in front of her eyes. She had to be careful.
"I, uh…I think he's okay."
Melinda grinned. "Awesome. But how about James and you?"
"Er…well, I wouldn't want to…say anything…um, without Potter-I mean James's permission…" Lily wished she could just Avada Kedavra herself right there.
"It…I mean…um…" She trailed off, not being able to think of anything else.
Melinda stared at her. "So, James doesn't like you talking independently?"
"N-no…he…I…we…er…"
"Is James good to you, Lily? He doesn't hurt you, right?"
Lily could of laughed. "What-oh, no..um…listen Melinda…I've really got to go now."
Melinda nodded, looking too excited for Lily's liking.
"Nice talking to you, Lily!"

Lily reckoned that, if she walked fast enough, she could get to and jump off the astronomy tower before anyone noticed.
Or maybe she could take a memory loss potion so she could forget the last 48 hours.
No good, Lily thought. Other people would still remember.
Maybe she could pay the house elves to put some potion in the whole school's pumpkin juice. She tilted her head, considering.
It wouldn't work either; that would take a hell of a lot of potion.

She continued to the great hall and on arrival, could of danced; Alice was sitting at the Gryffindor table with Frank. She began to walk forward before pausing; they looked pretty comfy…did she really want to disturb them?
Deciding that Alice could have a billion more moments with Frank and her needs were more important, Lily resumed walking.
As she got nearer, she heard their conversation and it almost made her want to throw up.
"Oh Frank," Alice said in a weird voice. "The way you tackled that plant today, it was amazing! You saved me!"
"It's okay honey-boo, I'll always save you."
Alice blushed and leaned in to kiss Frank. They got closer and closer, unfortunately for them, so did Lily. She had arrived beside them.
She cleared her throat loudly and Frank jumped up. "Whoa, um, Lily!" He said in a high-pitched voice. He coughed.
"Didn't see you there." Lily fiddled with her wand in her hand, avoiding Alice's death glare.
"I was wondering if I could talk to Alice for a moment?"
Frank frowned.
"Yeah…Yeah of course, sure." He looked at Alice and kissed her cheek before walking off.

Lily took Frank's place and looked at Alice. She was still glaring.
"Lily! I can't believe you just did that!"
Lily pulled her ponytail tighter. "Sorry Al, we really need to talk!"
Alice folded her arms. "Fine," She sighed. "What is it?"
"What's the new password?"
Alice screwed her eyes up. "That's it?!"
Lily nodded. "Could you tell me?"
"Absolutely not!"
"What? Why!" Lily raised her eyebrows.
"I'm going to find Frank," Alice got up. "And explain to him what an arse you are."
"Come on Alice!" Lily pleaded. "Just tell me!"
"NO!" Alice shot Lily a look before running out of the hall.

Lily looked around. There were no others from her house at the table; no one she could ask.
She put her head against the cold, wood table.
All she wanted was to go to bed. Was that really too much to ask?