Disclaimer: I would like to just point out once again that I do not own any Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.

When James and Lily arrived back at the Gryffindor common room Sirius was no where in sight, but Remus was there sitting in an armchair by the fire. James sneaked up behind his friend and yelled "Boo!" Remus wasn't fooled.

"I heard you coming Prongs, but nice try," said Remus as he turned around and saw James' downtrodden face.

Lily took a look at James' face and fell into a near-by chair laughing. "James, the point in sneaking up on someone, is to do it quietly; notice the emphasis on quietly. You're supposed to use the element of surprise, which you can't do if the person you're trying to surprise hears you coming."

James sighed and fell into another armchair. "Why is the world out to get me?"

"Not the world Prongs," said Remus jokingly, as if things had never been stressed between them. "Just those who know you."

"But don't worry," added Lily. "We're recruiting more people every day!"

"Ha ha ha, where's Padfoot?" asked James changing the subject.

"Dunno," said Remus. "He was acting odd and just went up to the dormitory. Anyways, here's your stuff from the Hospital Wing and here Lily, this box came for you while we were talking to Dumbledore. It was waiting in the Hospital Wing when Sirius and I got there to get your stuff."

"Thanks Remus," said Lily brightly as she accepted the bag and box from his hands.

"Are you going to open it?" asked James as he lay sprawled across the chair's arms.

"If you guys don't mind," said Lily.

"Go ahead," both guys said in unison.

"Okay I will."

Lily smiled as she opened the box and shifted through the items.

"What's in it?" asked James impatiently as he got up from his seat and wandered over to Lily and her mysterious box.

"It's a care package from my best friends back home and my sister. Usually around this time they send me something. I don't really know why, it's just like a weird tradition we have. They send me a package during October; I send stuff for my sister's package in March; Jess gets one in late January; Mary gets one in May and the boys are too old to be sent packages now. My sister Violet started it for me when I first went to Hogwarts and then she did one for Jess and Mary because they were jealous. Jess, Mary, and I started one for Daisy when she started boarding school," Lily explained.

"But what's in it? Anything good that you'd like to share?" asked James hopefully as he wandered over to Lily's chair.

"Leave Lily and her package alone Prongs; it's her package and you usually get one from your mom every other week."

"Yeah, but I always share," protested James.

"Don't worry, I share," said Lily, putting the same obvious emphasis on the word as James had. "It's just that that doesn't necessarily involve you!"

As she said the last word, Lily tapped James on the nose coyly.

"You're in for it now Evans!" said James as both he and Lily sprang up and running around the common room, care package totally forgotten until Remus inched towards it, curious himself.

"Don't you dare Lupin!" said Lily as she nimbly side-stepped James' attack. But then shrieked because he had actually faked her out and she ran right into his arms.

Remus shook his head as James mercilessly tickled Lily. They definitely like each other as more than friends and don't even know it… if only the rest of the common room was here and not out of the grounds enjoying the tail end of one of the last warm days of the year, then I wouldn't be the only one to know…too bad that Sirius is missing this as well; he would tease James for weeks about this…

Eventually Lily cried mercy and then smacked James good-naturedly on the shoulder, and flounced out of the room and up to the dormitory with her box. Then she returned not two minutes later with a huge smile on her face and said, "Let's go down to eat dinner! I'm sure most of the rest of the school is there already."

James and Remus just looked at each other confusedly. Girls… they both thought silently.

"Come on you lugs, let's get going!" called Lily.

"Someone has to go get Sirius," said Remus.

"Not it!" called James as he touched his nose.

"Not it!" cried Remus mimicking James' actions.

"What?" asked Lily with a laugh. "You two are bonkers!"

She did however, go up the boys' staircase to retrieve Sirius.

"Hey Sirius! Time to go eat…" her sentence drifted off when she saw what Sirius was doing. He was reading what looked like her journal. "Is that what I think it is?" asked Lily with a shaky finger pointed at the notebook.

Sirius looked guiltily from Lily back to the notebook in his hands. He gulped; he hoped she wouldn't hex him too badly.

Lily's eyes widened when he didn't reply. All of a sudden, the book was in her arms and she raced down the boys' staircase with it. Sirius could only stare dumbly after her… he didn't mean to read her journal, but when he and Remus went to go get her and James' stuff from the Hospital Wing, it had just been sitting there innocently, as if waiting for Sirius. What was worse is that Sirius knew it was her journal too, she had showed it to him when she came back from her afternoon rendezvous. Then once he opened it, he couldn't help but continue. Obviously, Sirius regretted it all now though; the look on her face gave him stomach pains like when he realized that sending Snape down to the Shrieking Shack was not his best idea.

Sirius just sat there, feeling sorry for himself and anticipating a very soon and very cruel death when all three of his best mates arrived in the dormitory, Peter having just met up with James and Remus in the common room.

"What did you do?" asked Remus and James at the same time.

Peter looked confused; he had only seen Lily run down the staircase with a thin notebook in her hands looking as if dementors were up in the dormitory.

"He read her diary!" shouted Peter as the puzzle pieces arranged themselves in his mind.

James and Remus were both shocked.

"You did what?" asked Remus.

"How could you?" wondered James.

Sirius answered, "I didn't mean to at first, but the bloody book was all but calling to me! Then once I started, I couldn't stop. You wouldn't believe what is in there…"

"Of all the things to do to the poor girl!" said Remus. "Why read her journal?"

Lily interrupted the little scene at that point. "Come on boys, what are you waiting for? Dinner should be on the table by now."

The four boys turned to her with shocked looks on their faces. Who was she? Lily didn't have a single tear on her face; she wasn't gripping her wand and shouting death threats at Sirius; she didn't even look very upset. In fact, no one would be able to spot a difference in her normal behavior except for the fact that the easy tone in her voice was gone and she was speaking much more quietly now, not with the usual Lily enthusiasm.

"Yeah, we're right behind you," said Remus as he cleared his throat and broke the spell on all of them.

Lily nodded and left the doorway to the dorm. James, Peter and Remus all filed out behind her with Sirius trailing far behind.

Dinner was somewhat of a quiet affair. Lily had left the boys as soon as they entered the Great Hall and sat with her own friends, a big smile on her face, a big fake smile.

Midway through dinner, Sirius finally said, "Look guys, I messed up and I regret it, but why in Merlin's beard are you three so worked up about it? You act as if I've committed high treason or broken a Marauder's Law. I haven't. I didn't even do anything against another Marauder."

"She might as well be a Marauder," said Peter with a rare showing of resistance against Sirius.

"He's right," said Remus. "You have to admit, Lily is as involved in our lives as she would be if she were a Marauder. She knows half of our deepest secrets; she was there for each of us when we weren't even there for each other."

"Moony has a point. Padfoot! For Merlin's sake, she took you in for the summer and gave up her own freedom to do it," said James.

"What was that last part Prongs?" asked Peter.

James sighed heavily, him and his big mouth! "She wanted to run away from home, but if she did then you wouldn't have anywhere to go."

"I kind of knew that," mumbled Sirius.

"I knew something was bothering her, but I didn't know what…" said Remus as he thought back to the train ride where Lily had looked, physically, better than ever, but spiritually didn't carry the same confident presence.

"So what did it say in her diary?" asked Peter as things cooled down.

That earned him a smack upside the head from James and a kick under the table from Remus.

"Kidding!" said Peter as he threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Since when do you lot take things so seriously?"

The three looked rather downcast.

"Things are getting serious outside of Hogwarts Wormtail," said James. "I guess we're just, dare I say it, growing up!"

The Marauders all laughed at James' over-dramatic statement, and things were returned to the normal light-hearted conversation. While the conversation carried on behind him, James sneaked a look over at Lily, who was sitting a little farther down the table.

She was idly twirling her fork around in her mashed potatoes, not really speaking unless spoken to, just lost in a world of her own. She didn't even notice James' stare, which she usually had a knack for sensing.

James returned his attention to the rest of the Marauders to avoid any questions, but every once in a while took a sneak peak at Lily. He was more than mildly concerned. She had just started being like a real friend to him; she let him in on her life and her problems and she listened to his problems with a different insight and perspective than his friends, who sometimes had the emotional capacities of gingerbread men. It was like watching a turtle slowly poke its head out from a shell and then retreat at a sudden movement.

So, when Lily got up to leave dinner early, it didn't escape James' notice. James' departure didn't escape the notice of the Marauders, but they let him go without question.

"He's got a crush on her," they all chanted in almost perfect unison as soon as James was out of earshot. Then they all cracked up for several minutes, earning themselves weird looks from the other diners.

James followed Lily as she quickly walked through hallways and up stairs, through passageways and down stairs. Pretty soon even he, a Marauder who knew the castle better than he knew his own dormitory, was out of ideas for Lily's possible destination.

Finally Lily entered a deserted classroom in a remote corner of the dungeons.

What James saw when he walked into the room not long after her astonished him. He was sure that he had never been in that room before because he surely would have remembered all of the cauldrons simmering away, the extensive collection of books on one wall and a ton of stuff that was scattered around looking as if it belonged in their Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. There was also a blackboard on the far wall with Lily's writing on it, though James couldn't make out what it said from his distance.

"Can't you take a hint?" asked Lily as she whirled on James.

"What?"

"I went the most roundabout way to get here and still you followed me."

"You could have just asked me not to follow you," James pointed out.

"And would you have?"

"Maybe," James said unconvincingly.

"I know you far too well James Potter; I had a feeling that I had to shake you or confront you at this point," said Lily with a sigh.

"So what is this place?" asked James as he ventured in farther.

"It doesn't matter, please leave."

"No," said James in and infuriating tone. "I think I kind of like it here and want to explore a bit more. I've a very curious soul, as I'm sure you know all too well."

He was mocking her; it may have been in their unique teasing way, but still James Potter was walking on ice that was steadily melting as Lily's tolerance levels dropped.

"James, I am serious, for your own safety, just leave me alone," said Lily, her tone steely and resolved.

"What are you going to do Lily?" asked James absently as he wandered over to the bookcase. "Hex me?"

"Please go," said Lily. She was begging now. "I'm capable of more things than you realize and I'm afraid that very soon I'm going to lose control and lash out. I don't want you to be the one I release my emotions on."

"Lily I think I can handle it; I could use some dueling practice anyways," said James as he turned around to face Lily and got his wand out.

"You don't understand James!" yelled Lily, completely frustrated. "Do you remember that day you pulled me in from the storm?"

James nodded. He had nearly been impaled by a stick that day, and then once he and Lily had reached the entrance hall they had yelled at each other and she revealed that she had just been toying with him by pretending to date Remus.

"I made that happen."

"What? How? You can't do that," said James without even making an attempt at hiding his disbelief.

"Yes I can! Now go!"

"I don't believe you. That was just a storm, nothing more."

"I'm sorry James," said Lily. She took her own wand out and levitated James out of the room before he could say anything more. Then she promptly dropped him on his rear on the stone floor outside of the unusual classroom and closed the door. She also locked it, as James found out when he tried to get back in.

As James stood outside of the completely unremarkable door, ruffling his hair with his hand as he was apt to do when he was confused, he heard what sounded like a crate of fireworks being lit at the same time all jammed into the same space. Then all at once the sound stopped. It didn't become fainter with the passing of time; it just sounded as if it was all sucked back in like the rewind function of the Muggle V.C.R..

James was absolutely baffled. What was going on? However, his bewilderment only increased when Lily walked out looking as pleased as anything and just adjusted her skirt slightly.

"Hello James," she said with a radiant smile.

"Were one of those potions the "perky potion"?"

"What?" asked Lily with a cute little smile that James found very endearing.

"Perhaps a mood-swing potion…" mused James.

"You aren't making sense James, are you okay?"

"I think the question is, are you okay?"

"Couldn't be better," said Lily with true happiness behind every word. "But you look as if you need to see Madame Pomfrey."

"No, I'm fine. A little confused… but fine. Wanna walk back to Gryffindor Tower with me?"

"Actually I have to go see Dumbledore," said Lily.

"What about?"

"Just some stuff."

"What kind of stuff? Head stuff? In that case I should go too."

"No, it's more of a personal nature."

"Is it about whatever went on in there?" asked James.

"Seriously James, you should go get checked out by Madame Pomfrey; I don't think you're feeling alright. I gotta go, see you later!" said Lily as she dashed off without letting James press the matter further.

Lily was very frightened; it wasn't like her to just blow up like that. Sure there was that time with the storm… but she hadn't created that, just intensified it by letting her magic out slowly and evenly. This was like a bomb going off inside her and all around her and consuming her and it scared Lily… a lot.

Lily quickly got to the entrance of the Headmaster's office. She said the password went up the staircase. Then she knocked on the closed door; even when she was in a frantic state, Lily remembered her manners.

"Hello Professor," said Lily meekly after she had been called into the room.

Professor Dumbledore smiled at her over his half-moon shaped spectacles. "I guessed that I would be seeing you soon."

"Was it that bad?" asked Lily wincing.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Severus came running up here to ask what that disturbance was about. What caused such an outburst?"

"Pent up feelings I suppose. Sirius Black stumbled across my diary and, well, I was very angry and embarrassed and afraid."

"Afraid of what Lily?" the wise old man gently prodded his protégé.

Lily sniffed. Dumbledore was one of the few people who could make her break down like this. "Letting people know what I'm really like. I don't know if he read as far as two summers ago, but oh Professor! I don't want anyone to know about some of those things I wrote! I can barely read some of the entries myself!"

Dumbledore handed Lily a box of tissues he saved for thetimes students were in need of them, which had recently increased due to Death Eater activity. "Have you considered confiding in people? Perhaps you should just impart pieces to a variety of people you trust. You can't survive in this world alone Lily; everyone needs someone. These releases of magical energy aren't healthy for you; you know that."

Lily nodded as she blew her nose. "I know Professor, but the attack just caught me unaware, usually I can let off steam in more constructive manners."

"Like intensifying wind storms for miles around?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

Lily laughed the broken laugh that people have after crying. "Yes."

"Lily, you must be very careful from now on; magical energy is shifting with the activities of Lord Voldemort."

"I can feel it, sometimes it's very draining."

"You must hold onto the magic as hard as you can. Just do your best."

"I know Professor; I'll try to control myself better next time."

"Where were you at the time of the, for the lack of a better term, explosion?"

"Down in the room in the dungeons."

"Good."

"Professor, James Potter, was down there when it happened. He followed me and wouldn't leave me alone," said Lily very slowly. "I managed to get him out in time, but I didn't have time to reinforce the Silencing charms. He's more than a little curious now."

Albus pondered over this new development for a few moments. "Maybe you should tell him the truth."

"You can't mean tell him all about… my gift… can you?"

"I do mean that; I believe James is a very trustworthy person and a loyal and understanding friend. I think it would be safe to confide in him and it would do you a world of good."

"I'll consider it Professor," Lily promised.

"Please do Lily, we wouldn't want any more explosions, especially in a more public place…"

"Yes Professor, I understand that my gift is to be kept secret."

"You do a wonderful job managing such a heavy burden at such a young age," said Albus.

"Thank you sir," said Lily with a smile. "Though I must confess that sometimes it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders."

"In some sense, it is."

"Well good-night Professor. Thank you for letting me unburden myself as always," said Lily as she got up to leave.

"My door is always open to all of my students, especially those in need."

Lily smiled.

"Oh, Lily, before you go. I just wanted to tell you that I think you handled the whole situation concerning Mr. Lupin admirably."

Lily sat back down. "This has been bothering me Professor. I didn't use my power to contain Remus, is that such a good thing? Is it a bad thing?"

"What does your heart tell you?"

"That it was a good thing because everything worked out in the end; no one suffered any wounds that could not be healed and I didn't harm Remus."

"Do you feel as if you could have harmed Remus?"

"If I had tapped into my gift, yes. Adrenaline was rushing and I don't think I could have wielded it in moderation," Lily admitted.

"Then you made the right choices."

Lily brightened up at once. That was another load off of her chest. "Thank you!"

"My pleasure Lily. Enjoy your evening."

"You as well Professor!" said Lily as she actually skipped out of the office.

Dumbledore chuckled to himself; Lily Evans was quite a character, of that he was sure.

A/N. Thanks for all of the reviews last chapter guys! I was so happy! Please keep it up!

On other notes, I have finished the seventh Harry Potter book and decided that a lot of my story is probably going to end up being AU because I want to stay with my current plot. However, some of the stuff that was revealed in the book will play a part in my story, so beware of spoilers!