Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.

Three months later on September 1, at King's Cross Station on Platform 9¾, the shiny crimson Hogwarts Express waited, ready for its annual September journey. The whistle sounded its final call shrill and clear, cutting the crisp fall morning and then, soon after, the trip to school began.

While some young Hogwarts students were blowing kisses to the people they left behind on the platform, one young witch was walking down the train looking for the O.W.L. group. She had already stashed her stuff in the compartment with Marlene and Alice, and now she was heading to the meeting to summarize the summer's studying progress.

On her way there, she just happened to look into a compartment that held two boys that she had the extreme pleasure of being acquainted with, James Potter and Sirius Black, and of course four lovely ladies that were surrounding them.

Lily was about to roll her eyes and move on, when Sirius saw her and waved. This caught the attention of James, who strangely, didn't wave at all. Then, Sirius stood up and opened the door to the compartment and said, "Hey Lily, I haven't seen you all summer, why don't you come on in?"

Lily tried to protest, but Sirius ignored her plea and pulled her in anyways.

"Come on Lily; so tell me, how was the rest of your summer?"

"Terrible, I hated just about every minute of it except for about three weeks," replied Lily emotionlessly.

"No, Lily, you're supposed to say, 'my summer was great, how was yours Sirius?' No one is supposed to have a depressing summer, unless of course they live in the Black house. Now that makes for an awful summer," said Sirius jollily.

Lily smiled but didn't comment. An awkward silence fell upon the compartment. "I have to be going," Lily said finally.

"Going where? We're all stuck on this train for the next couple of hours, where do you have to go?" asked Sirius as Lily turned to leave.

"I have a meeting, I'll see you guys later," said Lily as she turned to go with a wave.

Sirius wasn't ready for her to leave just yet; something seemed off about Lily, and as her friend, he wanted to find out what it was. "A meeting? On the train?" Sirius said skeptically. "Oh I get it; you're Head Girl! I heard that the meeting isn't until later…" Sirius finished with a pointed look at James that Lily didn't understand.

"Actually I'm going to an O.W.L.s meeting," said Lily, ignoring the Head Girl comment.

James then spoke up suddenly from his seat between the two lovely ladies that had gotten to him first, "It's amazing how bad at lying you really are Evans," he said caustically. "We took our O.W.L.s two years ago."

"For your information Potter, I'm not talking about the tests fifth years take, I was referring to something else," she said coolly.

"Like what? How many things could possibly have the same initials?" James continued in the same disbelieving tone.

Lily sighed her newly perfected inaudible sigh, and said tiredly, "It's a study group."

"School hasn't started yet," James said.

"I know that."

"So there's nothing to study."

"It's just prep work right now," she said, her voice completely devoid of any emotion other than exhaustion.

James looked at Lily carefully. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked as he took in her drawn appearance and the thick layer of make-up that was trying to conceal it. James also couldn't help but notice that she wasn't yelling at him or giving him any of her usual biting remarks.

"I am afraid I have no idea of which you are speaking," she replied humbly.

"Okay Lily," said Sirius carefully. "I know this is meant to be a joke most of the time, but I am being completely serious, who are you and what happened to the real Lillian Evans?"

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"No you aren't," said Sirius.

"I assure you; I am perfectly fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend," said Lily as she left and walked quickly down the hallway.

"There's something off about her," Sirius commented as he sat back down between his lady friends.

"I didn't notice anything different about her," said the girl to Sirius' left jealously.

"Yeah," agreed the girl to his right, a friend of the girl to his left. "She's just being her stuck-up, snobby self."

Sirius looked at James, who hadn't flinched when Lily was insulted. Sirius was surprised, but he was downright shocked when James joined them, "I agree. You have to wonder who stuck a wand up her ass."

"I'm pretty sure she was just born that way," said unnamed girl number three.

"Definitely, she was just born under an unlucky star. No one is naturally unlucky enough to have hair that retched color, no friends, and such an awful personality," said the final female occupant.

The girls then proceeded to further bash Lily about everything; how her hair always looked like McGonagall's because it was in such a tight bun all the time, how she was a teacher's pet, and how she spent way to much time in the library are just a few examples of the many topics that were covered by the girls.

James and Sirius were a bit put off by how cruel the girls were being, but didn't say anything to contradict then directly. So, the hour until the Head's meeting, which James, as Head Boy, was required to attend, passed slowly, yet was unnoticed by either James or Sirius.

As Lily walked into the large front compartment fifteen minutes before noon, right after her OW.L. meeting, she sighed with relief. No one was there yet. It gave her plenty of time to go over what she needed to talk about at the meeting. Just as her letter had said, everything she needed was in a pile on the podium at the front of the room.

Lily had just finished reading through the instructions when the first couple of Prefects started to filter in. Lily could tell that they were fifth years because they looked scared and had entered in pairs according to their house. Lily smiled warmly at them and asked them to take seats in the large compartment. They did as they were instructed and sat down on the nicely cushioned benches.

By noon everyone was present and accounted for except Remus Lupin and James Potter. At two past twelve Remus showed up. Familiar with the drill he took a seat next to the other seventh-year Gryffindor Prefect that had replaced Lily, Jennifer Daniels.

Lily walked over to Remus at ten past noon and asked, "Remus, where's Potter?"

Remus shrugged, "How should I know? It's not like we're friends or anything."

Lily looked at Remus concerned. "I thought you guys had resolved everything," she said with the first bit of real emotion in her voice in seven weeks.

"Yeah so did I. But I haven't seen them at all yet today; they didn't come to the usual compartment. And, they didn't invite me to go to Diagon Alley or anything all summer. So, I'm assuming that they only pretended to solve things to get us out of that room our mothers locked us in," said Remus bitterly. Lily could tell that he hadn't had someone to talk to all summer.

Lily looked at him with pity. "After the meeting, you can come sit with Marlene and Alice and me if you want. Peter's welcome as well."

"I think I'll take you up on that offer Lily; thanks, you're a great friend. And now, dear Head Girl of dear old Hogwarts- congratulations on that by the way- you might want to start the meeting," said Remus smiling.

"I suppose you're right Remus," said Lily with a sad smile.

Lily turned to walk to the front of the compartment, but Remus caught her wrist; Sirius wasn't the only one who noticed the not-so-subtle change in Lily.

"Something wrong Lily?"

"Not at all Remus," said Lily with a fake smile. "Everything is perfect."

Remus let her go, but wasn't convinced.

"Okay everyone, thank you for coming," said Lily as she stood behind the podium. "And without further ado, I will begin this meeting. My name is Lily Evans and I am Head Girl this year."

"Where's the Head Boy?" asked a Hufflepuff sixth year. "Isn't he supposed to be here too?"

"He's probably on his way, but I'm sure everyone has better places to be, so I'm just going to start the meeting now," said Lily. Then she continued, "I know that this is going to sound dumb, but we should get to know each other so that we can work together better. So we'll go around the room and just tell us your name, house and year. Remus please start."

"Well, I'm Remus Lupin," said Remus Lupin. "I'm a seventh year Gryffindor."

"Jennifer Daniels," remarked the girl to his left. "Also a seventh year Gryffindor."

On and on it went until everyone had introduced themselves.

"Now that that is done, we can get down to business," said Lily. "As Prefects this year, you are given a set of duties. This includes patrolling the halls at night, watching out for any trouble-makers, and planning school events. Any questions so far?"

Lily looked up from her parchment and when she didn't see any hands, she continued. "Okay then. Let's set up patrolling duties. Everyone needs to take one night a week. You patrol in pairs with people of your house, and there has to be two different houses patrolling every night. Another rule is that fifth years can not patrol by themselves. They must patrol on the same nights as either a pair of patrolling sixth years or a seventh years. Also, patrolling every night will be teachers and the Head Boy and I will patrol three nights a week. So now everyone sign up under the day of the week you would like. This is to be done in order of seniority. Seventh-years go first and then sixth years and so on. There is to be exactly two pairs of people to all seven days of the week. I will try to arrange the schedule so that everyone is happy, but it's unlikely, so please indicate alternative choices along with your first picks."

As Lily handed the sheet of parchment to a Ravenclaw seventh-year, a Slytherin sixth year by the name ofRodolphusLestrange said haughtily, "There are seven days in a week, correct?"

Lily nodded, not sure what that had to do anything.

"And there are 24 prefects, right?"

Again Lily nodded, not knowing what Rodolphus' point was.

"Well then that leaves one night without any people patrolling, now doesn't it?" sneered Lestrange.

"No it doesn't, because the Head Boy and I will also be patrolling on any of the days that only have two prefects," answered Lily coolly.

"Don't you mean that you will be patrolling?" asked Rodolphus trying to regain some of the dignity he had lost when a muggle-born had proved him wrong.

"Excuse me?" she asked calmly.

"I don't see the Head Boy anywhere, how can you be sure that he'll show up to patrol?"

"Wait a minute," said a Ravenclaw sixth-year. "Who is the Head Boy anyway?"

Just then James decided to grace the room with his presence. The time was 12:41, which Lily duly noted.

Lily introduced the Prefects to their Head Boy, whose identity had been made known to her by the packet on the podium which was addressed to the both of them, "Everyone meet your Head Boy for this year, James Potter."

James bowed, but no one clapped. "Tough crowd," he mumbled. "Now where were we?" asked James brightly.

"We were just discussing your level of dedication as Head Boy," said Sandra, one of the Ravenclaw seventh year prefects testily.

"Why would you doubt me?" asked James.

"You were forty-one minutes late," said the same Ravenclaw coldly.

"So I was fashionably late, big deal. This Head Boy thing is going to be a piece of cake."

"Potter, just resign now and let someone who is qualified take over," said Rodolphus Lestrange.

"Like you Lestrange?" challenged James.

Rodolphus pretended to think it over a minute and then said, "Yes, I suppose I would accept."

"I wasn't offering," said James scathingly.

Luckily Lily stepped in before it got ugly. "Potter, Rodolphus, both of you please stop it right now. Let's get back to business. I will finalize the patrolling schedule and give it to all of you at out next meeting. The last point on my agenda is to tell you that we will have meetings every other Monday at seven o'clock in the Library starting next Monday. Any questions?"

A handful of people raised their hands. Lily called on Ben Sander, a Gryffindor fifth-year who asked, "What time do patrols start and end?"

"They start at eight and end at ten," answered Lily.

Then she called on the next person who asked, "Are we planning any events this year?"

"We will discuss that at our next meeting," replied Lily.

"When is the first Hogsmeade weekend?" asked the next person.

"Potter and I will discuss it with Professor Dumbledore and get back to you so that you can post it in your common rooms."

The last person asked, "When do patrols start? Like what day, not what time."

"Monday," answered Lily. "Until then the Professors will patrol. Well I think that's it, Potter any closing statements you would like to make?" asked Lily.

"Nope, I'm good," said James, his tone casual, but his body was tense and he continued to stare at Lestrange hatefully.

"Good, then everyone I will see you on Monday."

After Lily's closing statement, everyone left except for Lily, who was waiting for Remus, who was waiting for James to see if James would explain his recent behavior.

"You coming Remus?" asked Lily as she gathered her stuff.

Remus looked at James directly with a cold stare and when he noticed that James was not going to be forthcoming with any apologies, said, "Yeah Lily, let's go."

James looked back at Remus in disbelief. Then he looked at Lily spitefully as she and Remus reached the door.

"And where are you two off to?" he asked nastily. "To find an empty compartment to go snog in?"

Lily turned around sharply, as did Remus. She opened her mouth to retort, but Remus got there first.

"Go take a long walk off of a short cliff Potter," spat Remus. "Come on Lily, let's get out of here."

James' jaw dropped as Remus put his arm gently around Lily's waist and directed her out of the compartment.

Once they were out of James' sight, Remus immediately dropped his arm from Lily's waist and said, "Ummmm, about all that…"

Lily just gave Remus a sort of half-smile and said, "Don't worry about it Remus."

They walked on in silence for a moment until Remus looked over at Lily and said, "You know I didn't mean anything by it, right? I mean, I just really wanted to hurt James at that moment and that's what came to me."

"Yeah I get it," said Lily strikingly. "We're just friends."

Remus looked at Lily more closely. "Yeah, we're just friends," he said slowly as he looked into Lily's haunted eyes.

"I'm glad we're friends Remus," said Lily suddenly and without precedent.

"Me too Lily," said Remus. Then he felt conflicted. Should he tell her that he was a werewolf? She was a close friend of his, and she was there for him after the whole Snape incident in June…

Lily noticed how uncomfortable Remus had become all of a sudden. "I wasn't looking for a confession Remus."

"Huh?"

"I wasn't looking for you to reveal your secret when I said that I'm glad we're friends," she clarified.

"What secret?" he asked her nervously.

"If I knew it wouldn't be a secret then, now would it?"

"No I suppose not, but what kind of secret is it if you know that it exists?"

"Still secretive. I know that you have a secret Remus, call it intuition if you will. But, if you don't want to tell me, then that's okay," Lily noticed that Remus suddenly relaxed. "So don't sweat it," she continued with a smile. "Tell me if you want to, if you ever want to, not because you think I want you to."

Lily gave him a small smile and then opened the door to the compartment which housed Marlene and Alice. Remus soon followed in after her; he had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed that they had arrived at their destination.

Remus stayed with the three girls for the rest of the train ride. Occasionally other girls stopped by, and even a few guys. It was the guys who interested Remus, especially because of the murderous and jealous looks that he got from them. One really interesting event involved a fifth year named Gilderoy Lockhart…

Mid-way through the train ride Gilderoy Lockheart sauntered into the compartment where Lily, Marly, Alice, Remus and one of the Ravenclaw sixth year prefects, Greg Williams, were sitting without knocking. Immediately he was met by the stares of all. He took the surprised looks that were aimed at his rudeness the wrong way; he had the audacity to think that they were shocked and excited to see him.

"Hello all," he said as he tried to impress them all with a huge grin that he considered flattering. To his credit, many of the girls at Hogwarts did consider him easy on the eyes and swooned at his feet. However, this mostly applied to the lower classmen; not the seventh years he was currently trying to impress.

Needless to say, Lily, Marly and Alice were far from impressed. They did manage to mutter greetings though out of politeness.

Their willingness to be polite just about evaporated when Gilderoy promptly took a seat between Lily and Marlene without being invited.

All restraint that the girls were clinging to didn't totally disappear until Gilderoy put an arm around Lily while smiling cheekily and triumphantly at Remus and Greg, who were sitting across from Lily and Marlene.

"Can we help you with something?" said Lily icily as she forcefully removed his arm.

"Yes I am sure that you could," said Gilderoy in a voice he considered sexy. Lily just found it obnoxious.

"Sorry, I have a boyfriend," said Lily in a voice that came off as sickly sweet and totally rehearsed.

"Does he go to Hogwarts?" persisted Gilderoy.

"No," said Lily.

"I'm okay with that then. I don't mind being your man on the side!"

"Man?" scoffed Lily. "What are you? 14?"

"I'm 15!" he said as his voice cracked.

The rest of the compartment laughed.

"It's not that much of an age difference!" he squeaked.

Remus and Greg laughed even harder. Alice's quiet giggles became full-out chuckles. Marlene was almost in stitches.

"Look kid," said Lily sternly. "I think you had better just let this go, because it is never going to happen. Try for someone more your age."

Gilderoy refused to admit defeat. "I'm mature for my age!"

"So am I," said Lily annoyed. "Which is why we really wouldn't work out. I don't even know who you are!"

"What?" asked Gilderoy aghast. Did someone really not know who he was? Was that even possible?

"Sorry, I have no idea whatsoever."

"I'm Gilderoy Lockhart! I'm a fifth year (this sent Remus and the rest of the gang back into hysterics) in Hufflepuff."

"Look Gilderoy, I've tried being nice about this but now you're really starting to tick me off, so you had better go before I get really nasty."

"I'd move if I were you mate," said Remus, trying to stifle his laughter. "Ever heard of James Potter?"

Gilderoy nodded. Remus continued, "He's a pretty average dueler right?"

Gilderoy nodded furiously, "He's the best."

Lily scoffed.

"She," said Remus pointing at Lily. "Sent him to the Hospital Wing last year. He ticked her off too."

Gilderoy quickly scampered out after that and rejoined his little fan club whom he had told to wait for him outside of the compartment.

The whole compartment, sans Lily, burst into laughter once more.

"A fifth year Lily! You just got hit on by a fifth year!" gasped Marlene while she was laughing.

"Yeah, yeah," said Lily dismissively. "He's not the youngest one."

"He's not?" asked Greg.

"Nope."

"So what's this about a boyfriend?" asked Alice slyly.

"That was just a ploy to get Lockhart out of here," stated Remus.

Lily looked down at her hands and couldn't help but smirk to herself.

Lily's smirk did not get by Marlene.

"Lillian Evans! Do you have a boyfriend?" asked Marlene loudly.

"Yes," said Lily quietly.

"What?" asked Greg and Remus at the same time.

"That's great Lily," said Alice kindly.

Marly laughed and said, "Oh how the mighty have fallen!"

"What do you mean Marlene?" asked Remus, very confused.

"You didn't know that Lily is like the female version of Black and Potter put together?" asked Marly.

"I am not!" protested Lily as she hit her friend playfully. "Don't tell them that! They'll get the wrong ideas!"

"You're telling me," said Greg. "Wow, weird mental images."

"Try living with them," said Remus. "Then you'll hear about their escapades."

"I am not like them!" said Lily fruitlessly.

"Sure Lily," said Remus pretending to be unconvinced.

"I'm not!"

"Don't worry Lily, we don't think any differently of you!" said Greg.

"Good," said Lily sulkily.

Remus could not let the subject drop. "So, Lily, if you're not like Sirius and James, then why would Marlene say that you were?"

"Ask her," said Lily.

"Well," said Marly slowly and tauntingly. "In the muggle world, Lily has quite a reputation."

"What kind of reputation?" asked Greg, his brow furrowed. He liked Lily, as more than a friend. They had been rather close for a few years, ever since Lily had helped him out with a Potions essay his third year.

"Lily's been known to make guys cry," said Alice simply.

"Hey!" said Marlene. "I was having fun there!"

"Far too much fun," scolded Alice.

"I haven't even gotten started yet," said Marlene with a Cheshire cat-like grin.

"I think I'll go for a walk," said Lily as she abruptly rose from her seat. "By all means go on talking about me and my very personal love life while I'm gone," she added sarcastically on her way out.

"Well, little Miss Lillian is very well known in the muggle world and very desired. Her father is a lawyer and a couple of years ago he got a big case, a really, really big case," began Marlene.

"It involved the royal family and everything," Alice piped up.

"Well, he won it and got a lot of money and fame and stuff from the royal family. Lily got this great big house in northern England, and her father nearly retired. He only does small local cases now. Her family also got thrust into the limelight, the social limelight. Ever since then, it's been nothing but parties and dates for Lily."

"Her mom sets her up on tons of dates all the time. She's just hoping that Lily will find some rich guy and settle down," said Alice.

Marlene muttered some obscenities under her breath and then continued, "Yup. Mr. Evans isn't too thrilled; he forbids Mrs. Evans from forcing Lily to marry anyone. So, Mrs. Evans just sets her up with guys only of her choosing and figures that Lily is bound to like one of them enough one day."

"She's only seventeen for Merlin's sake!" shouted Greg.

"That was two years ago when it all started," said Alice. "She has blown them all off until now. I wonder what was different about this one…"

"And she makes them cry?" asked Remus with a small chuckle.

"You don't believe us?" asked Marly harshly.

"Well, no, not really," said Remus slowly.

"Not everyone is quite as taken with her as Potter is," said Marlene. "And only half of them are as egotistical. Therefore, many of them can not stand up to her razor sharp comments."

"I do remember seeing her intimidate some guy at her birthday party," said Remus thoughtfully.

"She invited you to her birthday party?" asked Greg skeptically.

"Invited is such a loose term," said Remus in the Marauder tone; the one used to escape punishment from McGonagall.

"You crashed her birthday party?" questioned Alice.

"Yeah kinda," said Remus sheepishly.

"Remus Lupin! I, for one, am shocked!" said Marlene playfully. "And all this time I thought you were the good influence among the Marauders."

"That's what most people think," said Peter as he entered the compartment with a load of candy in his arms and Pumpkin Pasties spilling out of his pockets.

"I see you found the trolley lady," said Marlene with disdain.

"Yup!" said Peter through a mouthful of chocolate frog. "Did you know that if you buy twenty chocolate frogs, you get the twenty-first free?"

"No, I had no idea," said Alice kindly as she saw that Marly was about to say something cruel.

"Where's Evans?" asked Peter as he noticed the compartment's missing occupant.

"Went for a walk," said Greg simply. "In fact, I think a walk sounds like a wonderful idea. I think I'll join her. See you guys later!"

As soon as Greg had left the compartment, Remus commented, "I think he has a crush on Lily."

"Who doesn't?" snorted Peter as he ruffled through his purchases.

When Peter looked up, he found everyone's eyes on him. "What? You have to admit she's one hot girl! Come on, back me up here Remus! You know you think so too!"

Gazes shifted to Remus, who looked uncomfortable. He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully and looked down at the floor. Then he mumbled something incoherent.

"What was that Remus?" asked Marlene sweetly. "I don't think we heard you."

"Yes! Alright! I think she's incredibly attractive! Are you all happy now!" Remus shouted.

Marlene squealed girlishly and wore a large grin. "You'd be the perfect couple! I love this idea!"

"Only problems are that James would kill me and just a few hours ago, I told her we were just friends. And that's exactly how she feels about me and how I feel about her. We aren't cut out for dating Marlene; we're just not that compatible.

"Sure, sure," said Marlene still with a wicked look on her face.

"Don't get any ideas Marly," warned Alice. "Look at where your last matchmaking scheme ended up!"

"It wasn't a match-making scheme… at first," she added when she saw Alice's look of disbelief.

"Well according to Lily, it really messed stuff up between her and James!" Alice put her hands over her mouth as she realized two seconds too late that James' best friend was sitting right next to her. And when she looked, she saw Remus' eyebrows quirked questioningly.

"Did she also tell you about the row she and James had at her birthday party?" asked Remus.

"It was a rough one," Peter contributed. "Me and Remus heard it all the way down the hall."

"Yeah, she told us about that too," said Alice.

"It should make for a very interesting year with them both being Heads," said Remus.

It finally dawned on Marlene and Alice. They both gasped and Marlene said, "I had heard that Potter was Head Boy and Lily wrote to me saying that she was Head Girl, but I never connected the two!"

"Me neither!"

"What was the meeting like?" Peter asked Remus.

"Well, he came in forty minutes late, so they weren't together for long and after that she and I just left. She called him 'Potter' the whole time though," said Remus.

"Are you people done talking about me yet?" asked Lily as she returned to the compartment alone.

"Yeah, you're not that interesting of a subject," lied Marlene.

"Where's Williams?" asked Remus curiously.

"Yeah, did he ask you out?" asked Marlene shamelessly.

"Marlene!" scolded Alice.

"Yeah he did, how did you guys know?"

"It was soooo obvious that he likes you!" said Marlene. "He didn't come in here to see Remus!"

"Neither did Henry, Kevin, Ben, Asher, or Philip," Alice added giggling.

"Oh leave me alone you two!" said Lily.

"Did you let him down more gently than Lockhart?" asked Remus.

"Yeah, but I don't think he'll be asking me for Potioms help anymore."

"Poor deluded little Ravenclaw…" said Marlene shaking her head. "Thought he had a shot with Lily Evans."

"Marlene! Stop that!"

"It's true Lily, you are one of the most unattainable girls at Hogwarts," said Marlene. "Don't you agree Remus?"

"You don't have to answer that Remus," said Lily as he stumbled over himself.

"What? Yes he does," insisted Marlene.

"No he doesn't," insisted Lily.

"Come on Remus, just answer the question," said Marlene, changing her tactics.

"You really don't have to," Lily said quietly to Remus.

"I don't see what the problem is," said Marlene. "What exactly do you think he's going to say Lily?"

"He's obviously uncomfortable with the question. It's not fair of you to ask him stuff like that!"

"I just wanted a guy's opinion on the subject Lily."

"Can we stop talking about me now? I thought I wasn't an interesting subject," she said snidely.

"Fine, fine," said Marlene finally admitting defeat.

The compartment lapsed into silence until Remus quietly said, "Marlene was right though Lily, for the record."

Lily looked up at Remus and fixed her startling green eyes upon him. He found that he couldn't hold her intense gaze and quickly shifted his to the floor.

"Thanks Remus," said Lily in a quiet, almost shy voice.

Alice alleviated some of the awkwardness from the room by inquiring about a safe topic, their summer homework.

The rest of the train ride passed pleasantly and without anymore unwelcome interruptions. Remus, however, couldn't get Lily's eyes out of his mind. Her gaze was so unnerving for him and he didn't know why. Luckily for him, he was able to immediately eliminate a crush on her as the cause. He had gone through that in third year. He was completely over her now. They were just friends; he hadn't felt any kind of stronger feelings, more-than-friends feelings, for her when she had put his arm around her waist. It was a good thing too, Remus told himself. There was more to Lily Evans than was currently meeting the eye and he wasn't sure if he could handle a relationship with her at the moment. It seemed to him that she was barely handling herself right now.

Remus was broken out of his deep thoughts when he heard Marlene calling his name in a sing-songy voice.

"Where were you? Pluto?" asked Marlene when she realized she had finally gotten his attention.

"Just thinking," he replied.

"So were we, and we were wondering why you and Peter aren't with dumb and dumber."

"Not that we don't enjoy your company," said Alice gently.

"James and Sirius?" asked Remus. The girls all nodded. "They're entertaining company," he said darkly.

The eyebrows of all three girls went up.

"Remus, I thought that the four of you always rode on the train together," said Lily.

"Yeah we did," said Remus as he glanced over at Peter who was slumped against the wall, asleep, with chocolate and other sugary substances coating the area around his mouth and hands. "But I guess a lot of things changed this summer," sighed Remus.

"Like what?" asked Marlene, who was taking advantage of Peter being asleep and reaching out to grab one of Peter's licorice wands.

As she was slowly pulling it out from underneath his folded arms, he suddenly awoke and shrieked, "What are you doing?!"

Marlene was so surprised that she fell off of her seat. "It's just one wand!"

"No!" said Peter stubbornly. "They're mine!"

"You have seven Pettigrew! Give me one!" said Marlene as she reached up to grab one.

Peter grabbed the other end and said, "NO! I had to go find the trolley lady myself to get them! Go get one for yourself!"

"Anything off the trolley dears?" asked the woman in question.

"Nope I think we're all set in here," said Lily with a brief strike of minor cruelty.

The woman moved on as Marlene scrambled up from her position on the floor and hurriedly looked around for her purse. "No wait!" she screeched. "I need some sugar!"

Marlene sped out of the compartment as her fellow Gryffindors laughed at her. She returned shortly with several licorice wands clutched in her hands. As she sat down again, she stuck her tongue out maturely at Peter.

Midway through one wand, Marlene returned to their previous conversation, "so what changed this summer Remus?"

"Oh, I ahhh, I dunno really," he said vaguely. "Just you know, stuff. Sirius and James went off more with girls than they wanted to plan pranks or play Quidditch. I didn't see much of them at all this holiday."

Remus was monitoring Lily closely to see how she would react to his news about James' newly rekindled dating life. He had toned it down for her towards the end of sixth year, but now he was busier in that aspect of his life than ever.

Lily just stared out of the window at the passing landscape. It was getting dark now; they were almost there.

"Yeah," said Marlene as she took another chunk out of her favorite candy. "Who was he dating?"

"Dunno," said Remus. "He didn't tell me."

"But he was busy every Friday night, I'll tell you that," said Peter laughing. "Saturdays too… and Sundays… Monday through Thursday were pretty booked too!"

No one else found the situation funny.

Alice gently asked Lily, "Are you okay Lily?"

"Pefect," said Lily not taking her eyes off of the forests in they were speeding through. The forests were progressively becoming wilder and with each passing minute, Lily found that was she was looking at more accurately depicted what she imagined her mind must look like. "He's finally listened to me."

"What?" asked Remus.

"I told him to go off on his summer holidays and snog some blondes in bikinis so that he would forget entirely about me," said Lily in the same even tone. She still refused to look her classmates in the eye.

"Why would you tell him that?" asked Peter.

Lily didn't answer right away, but then she finally said, "He's not right for me. He wouldn't understand my life, what I go through."

"And you're new boyfriend is right for you?" asked Remus skeptically. With Remus it wasn't so obvious, but he was still fiercely protective of his best friends.

"Yes."

"Is he a muggle?" asked Peter.

"No."

"Did you meet him through your mom?"

"Yes."

"But he's a wizard?"

"Pure-blooded."

"How does that work?"

"Adopted."

"How old is he?"

"20."

"Did he go to Hogwarts?"

"No."

"Where'd he go?"

"America."

"Are we going to get more than one-word answers out of you?" asked Marly smiling.

"No," said Lily returning the grin.

"Why not?" asked Alice. "Why are you so secretive about this new boyfriend of yours?"

"Yeah! I want to give the man a trophy for actually managing to snag Lillian Evans!" said Marlene.

"Plaques are easier to clean," Lily pointed out with a smirk to herself.

"Yeah, but how did you know that?" asked Remus.

"That's my secret," said Lily with a bigger smirk. "So you're going to give Richard a trophy?"

"Ah so boyfriend has a name!" said Marlene with pleasure as Lily realized her mistake and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Does he have a last name to go with that first one?" asked Remus.

"Nope, he's like those famous people who go around with only their first names! You don't ask the Queen what her last name is, now do you?" retorted Lily.

"Are you dating the king Lily?" asked Peter in awe.

Lily looked at him like he was crazy, "No Peter, I'm not dating any member of the royal family… right now at least."

"Lily you sound as if you have dated someone in the royal family before…" said Remus with a laugh.

The girls looked at him strangely, "What? I thought you agreed that Lily was unattainable and earlier were saying that she was very attractive," said Marly. She was, like the Marauders, fiercely defensive when it came to her friends. "Are you now saying that she isn't good enough to date royalty?"

Remus was left gaping; Lily blushed and said as humbly as she could manage, "It's not like I'm royalty or anything, so I guess it's a fair assumption, but my dad did a favor for the royal family a few years ago, so I kind of know them personally."

Then Lily perked up a bit and said, "In fact Andy, I mean, Prince Andrew, is only a year younger than us."

"You call the muggle prince Andy!" exclaimed Peter. "My mother was raised in a half-muggle, half-wizarding house and that's how she raised me, so I know a bit about the royal family," Peter explained when he was met with their stares. "She'd be so jealous…"

"It's no big deal," said Lily. Then she quickly changed the subject, "We should probably get changed into our robes now; it looks like we're almost there."

"Yeah," said Remus. "Come on Pete, let's just go back to our compartment. We'll see you lovely ladies at the feast!"

The boys left and Marlene immediately exclaimed, "I thought they would never leave! We seriously need some girl talk!"

As the boys walked down the hallway Peter said, "Wow, Evans and the Prince of England… Who would have thought it? Prongs is soooo out of his league!"

Remus chuckled. Yes, James Potter was certainly rich, but he had nothing on the Prince of England. Potter Mansion sure wasn't the same as Buckingham Palace.

As he pulled his robes over his head, Remus smiled. He had thought that train ride was going to be disastrous when he had first seen Sirius and James off with a bunch of girls instead of with him and Peter, but then Lily came to the his rescue again and the ride turned out to be quite pleasurable. One thing was bothering Remus though, what exactly was tormenting Lily? She was different, far different from the previous year and even a little different than the Lily he had seen at her birthday party. And, Remus and Lily had had many conversations on their patrols, so he had thought he had known her at least fairly well. So then why was she more of a mystery to him now than she was at the beginning of fifth year?

Remus' thoughts as he tied his tie drifted to the two absent Marauders. Remus decided that he was angry at being ditched all summer and then for the entire train ride. He was even glad that he had gotten back at James by feeding James' insecurities about Lily. It was unlike Remus to be so rash and vengeful, but it had felt so good when he saw James' shocked face. Remus nearly laughed out loud as he sat down to read his current novel until they arrived in Hogsmeade.

As Lily had predicted, they soon arrived in Hogsmeade Station. Lily, Marlene and Alice were stuck in a carriage with a couple of awe-struck second-years and didn't see any of the Marauders until the feast when Remus and Peter sought them out and sat with them. They were nowhere near to Sirius or James, Lily noted. There was tension among the Gryffindor seventh year boys and it wasn't the same fight from the end of the previous year, Lily guessed, because the sides had switched. This should make for a very different year, thought Lily.

A/N. I was kind of disappointed by the lack of reviews for the last chapter, but I'm hoping that you will make up for it with this chapter! Right? Please review, it makes all the difference!