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

"I think we need to talk Sirius," said Lily as she cornered Sirius after their last class a few days after the journal incident. He had been avoiding her since it happened, and she was done with them being awkward with one another. It threw off the groove of all the Gryffindor seventh-years.

"Well I would Lily, honestly, if I just had the time…" said Sirius sheepishly as he tried to get away.

"You do have time," said Lily coolly. "You are coming with me right now and we are going to sort this out."

Sirius didn't dare argue with her; he just numbly followed her until she reached an empty classroom in a deserted corridor.

"First of all," said Lily as she closed the door behind them and hopped onto a dusty desk. "Which parts did you read?"

Sirius looked down at the ground. He dropped his bag, but didn't make a move to sit down. "A good deal, a bit here and there," said Sirius guiltily. "Look Lily, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to read your journal! It's just you know how immature I can be and rash and I don't think things through… and I was curious cause you had acted so oddly on the train and I rarely saw you while I was at your house last summer. I just wanted to know what was going on with you."

"It's okay Sirius, I forgive you. We all do stupid rash stuff; I just wanted you to apologize and me to tell you that I forgive you so that you would stop avoiding me."

"So you're not going to hex me into tomorrow?" asked Sirius suspiciously.

"I could if you wanted me too," offered Lily as she whipped out her wand in a record time.

"No thanks I'll pass. Alright then, glad to know all that," said Sirius in a distracted fashion. "I'd love to stay here all day and chat, but I've got places to be… people to see…"

"Girls to snog, pranks to pull," finished Lily. "See you later Sirius!"

"Bye Lily," said Sirius as he shouldered his bag and left.

Lily gathered her stuff and left soon after Sirius, glad that she could check one more thing off of her agenda.

-----

"James," called Lily as she walked up to the seventh year boys' dorm. "The carriages are leaving in fifteen minutes, you have to hurry up!"

It was October 15 and time for Lily and James to go out to the carriages that would take them to the train station in Hogsmeade.

Lily received no reply to her call so she knocked on the door. This also received no response from within, so Lily just let herself in. The four Marauders were running all through their dormitory like Hogwarts was on fire and they were given three minutes to gather their most precious belongings. There was loud shouting and scurrying and cursing and the casting of locating spells. Lily didn't think so much noise could be made by just four boys; it seemed like the source of the noise should have been forty elephants

Finally Lily just sent a loud resounding crack out of the end of her wand. James, Peter, Sirius and Remus all stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

Lily glanced at her watch and then said, "James you have one minute to come down to meet me in the common room before I leave without you."

"We'll get there in time; I know a short-cut," said James dismissively as he returned to shoving things into a bag that was sitting on his bed.

"Two minutes tops James," said Lily as she turned to leave. "Oh and by the way boys, your dorm is an absolute pigsty. We've only been in school for two months; how did you get it this dirty this fast?"

"Lily," said Remus. "Our dorm has looked like this since the second day of school."

"We like it this way; it has a homey feel to it," said Sirius.

"Yeah and we'd never be able to find anything if it was clean," said Peter mockingly shuddering at the thought of a clean room.

Lily cracked a smile and left.

As soon as the sound of her footsteps died away, the four Marauders crowded around James' bed.

"So do you have all of the stuff?" Peter asked James.

"I think so," Sirius replied for James as he rummaged around in a big black bag that he held in his hands. "It seems like we have something for any occasion and of course all of the necessary ingredients for the big one."

"It's really disappointing that you aren't coming with us to the party Remus," said James. "It won't be the same without you."

"Yeah and just imagine how the castle is going to be for the next month without Pete and me," Sirius pointed out.

"Sounds like heaven to me," said Remus.

"I'm still amazed that Dumbledore is even letting you go," said James to Sirius. "I mean if he can't keep you from playing pranks how does he expect some Indian guy to keep you in line?"

"Dunno, but I do know I am going to have one hell of a time in India! I am going to turn that school upside down!" said Sirius.

"And I am going to rock Iceland!" said Peter.

"I wish I were going," said James dejectedly.

"Look at it this way," said Remus. "Now we can pull all sorts of pranks and just blame it on stuff Sirius set up before he left. After all, we are the more trust-worthy Marauders."

"True," said James as he watched Sirius stuff some more stuff in his trunk. "Minnie seems to think that I've matured or something since I'm Head Boy."

"I'm still wondering what Dumbledore was smoking that night," said Peter from under his bed where he was gathering his secret stash of chocolate.

"Wormtail! What are you doing under there?" asked Remus as he leaned down. "I knew it! I knew that's where your chocolate stash was!"

Peter just stuck his tongue out at Remus as he dumped the armload of chocolate in his trunk.

Then an aggravated voice drifted up from the common room to the dorm of the Marauders.

"Moony, make sure that they leave on time?" asked James as he paused in the doorway so that he could get down to the common room before Lily bit his head off. "A.K.A. in thirty seconds."

"Sure thing Prongs."

"James Potter get your butt down here now!"

"Better go Prongs," said Sirius with a snicker. "Your beloved is calling for you."

The three remaining Marauders burst out into full-fledged laughter as Remus made another joke. "Mate you're whipped and she's not even dating you yet!"

"I don't even like her that way anymore; we're just friends," James claimed as pulled out his wand, sent jets of frigid water at his three best mates and slid down the banister to the common room just as Lily was about to lose her mind.

"Come on Lily, if you don't hurry we'll be late. Honestly why are girls so slow at getting ready? If we're late I am so blaming you completely," said James mockingly.

"Just go," said Lily as she shook her head.

"Aye, aye captain."

Lily shouldered her bags and followed after James.

Three minutes later they arrived at the front doors of Hogwarts and Lily had learned two new secret tunnels and one passage-way.

"Told you we'd make it in time," said James smugly. "When are you going to realize that I am always right?"

"When you stop being wrong," said Lily. "Come on before they leave without us right in front of our faces."

James smiled as he walked behind Lily to the first carriage that was reserved for the Heads. He liked the way things were going with Lily. She no longer thought of him as just a stupid, immature bully, and he didn't think of her only as a conquest anymore. Now they were friends, and everything seemed fine.

"Oh! This is going to be so much fun!" squealed Lily with a huge grin on her face as soon as they were settled in the carriage.

"If you say so," replied James dully. He was not looking forward to wearing dress robes and going to a boring ball with a bunch of people who cared a lot more about academics then he did, at least Sirius and Peter were going to be there. James had no idea how they had been chosen, Sirius still had detentions from the prank the previous June and Peter wasn't the most advanced student. However, Dumbledore did try to spread the representatives as evenly across the four houses, the sixth and seventh years and both genders as he could. And since Remus couldn't go for obvious reasons and James was the Head Boy… that only left Sirius and Peter.

"You don't think this is going to be great?!" asked Lily disbelievingly. "We're going to get to meet students from all over the world! Think about how much we can learn from them, all of the different cultures, and languages and customs…"

"I think this is more your type of thing," said James. "I'm fine with just being British."

"And here I thought you had a sense of adventure," sniffed Lily with fake disappointment.

"I have a bigger sense of adventure in my pinky finger than you do in your whole body," boasted James.

"Is that so?" asked Lily with both her eyebrows raised.

"Of course it is! I'm a Marauder after all; we live for the thrill of danger and excitement."

"You would think that coming up with excuses as to why you didn't do you homework or why you're late to class would take up all of your time, leaving no time for going on adventures," retorted Lily.

"It's better than doing the actual work!" joked James.

"I know," laughed Lily. "You should just hand in excuses instead of essays and get graded on believability and creativity instead of accuracy and writing skills."

"If only I could convince Dumbledore to change the curriculum…" said James wishfully.

"Then no one would do any work or learn anything and there would be this whole generation of incompetent wizards."

"But those incompetent wizards could just work for the Ministry and no one would be able to pick them out from the other complete imbeciles that work there. Well maybe the recently graduated Hogwarts imbeciles would have better excuses than the others."

Lily laughed. Lily never knew what to expect when talking to James. She could be laughing so hard she was almost crying one minute and then the next lashing out witty retorts. It was an adventure and she was enjoying it. It reminded her of the thrill she received from amusement park roller coasters.

James was just so different from her other friends at Hogwarts. Marly never liked to debate anything; she just knew what she wanted and she wanted everyone to do what she said and not question it. Alice was ok at debating, but she changed her opinion without much persuasion. So it was nice for Lily to find someone to argue with. James was just as stubborn and opinionated as she was, and that made him good competition for her. Their opinions were often opposites too, making the challenge so much greater.

"What are you looking at? Besides my positively irresistible good looks?" asked James startling Lily out of her thoughts.

"I was just thinking about how different you are from my other friends; you actually fight with me on stuff."

"We have pretty different opinions most of the time."

"And we're both stubborn enough to defend our views no matter what, right or wrong."

James smiled at her, "I've had plenty of practice in both situations."

"How modest of you, actually admitting that you can be wrong," said Lily.

"Is that what I said? What I meant was that I have had plenty of practice being right and arguing with people who are wrong."

Lily laughed and shook her head. "You are impossible."

"It's all part of my charm."

Just then the carriages came to a stop. Lily and James gathered their possessions and then stepped out into the Hogsmeade Station. James immediately walked over to the train so that he could make sure everyone got on the train safely, but he turned around when he noticed that Lily was no longer next to him.

"Lily?" he called.

She looked over at him and then moved from where she had been starring intently at the carriages drawn by invisible creatures.

"What were you looking at?" James asked Lily when she had caught up with him.

"You can't see them then?"

"See what?"

"You can't see what pull the carriages?"

"No. I always thought they just moved on their own, you know by magic," replied James.

"They're pulled by Thestrals," stated Lily.

James racked his brain trying to remember from his Care of Magical Creatures class what Thestrals were. "Why can you see them and I can't?" he finally asked.

"Because I presume you have never seen anyone die," said Lily stiffly.

"And you…" James didn't finish his sentence.

"Yeah; I saw my mom die, so I've been able to see them since second year. Marly and Alice thought I was crazy."

"They can't see them?"

"No. Marly can now because she was with her grandmother when her grandma died, but Alice still can't see them."

"I think Sirius and Remus can see them," said James slowly. "They mentioned it a couple of times a few years ago, but I had no idea what they were talking about."

"And you thought they were just crazy, right?"

"Well, yeah," admitted James. "It's weird, even in the magical world, for some people to be able to see things and others not to. Usually one involved party is thought to be off their rocker."

"And we both know that the seers are the ones labeled crazy."

"Pretty much."

Just then the train whistle blew as a final warning. James looked up and down the tracks but it looked as if the last students had scrambled into the cars.

"I think that that's everyone," said James.

"Yeah it looks like it."

Then Lily and James got onto the train and went to the luxurious, well slightly larger and more comfortable, Heads compartment and sat down with their stuff.

"Did you see Sirius and Peter get on the train?" asked James suddenly.

"Ummm…no," answered Lily as she settled herself down on the bench.

"Neither did I. I had better go make sure they got on," said James as the Hogwarts Express began to move.

"Good idea."

As James walked down the corridor of the train, Lily reached into her travel bag and extracted one of the novels her friend Jess had sent her in the care package. It was a comfort book; one of those books people read curled up in a fuzzy blanket with a cup of hot cocoa near-by in front of a roaring fire in a fireplace on a snowy winter day.

The book was highly entertaining, and Lily soon found herself engrossed in it. She didn't even notice that James had never returned until he called her name.

"Hey Lily," said James as he walked back into the car. "Sorry to leave you alone for so long; I lost track of time."

"Did you find Sirius and Peter?"

"Yup."

The car was invaded by silence.

"You can go back to them if you want," said Lily. "I'm perfectly happy here."

"All alone?"

"Sure. I don't get enough alone time to just relax. I have plenty of books to read and I'll be just fine."

"Ok, if you say so. I'll meet up with you when we get there then?"

"Absolutely. Bye!"

James left and returned to his friends to finish planning the havoc that they wanted to cause at the ball that evening. Lily returned to the world of her book happily.

Hours later, the train stopped. Lily sighed and put a bookmark in her second novel. Then she stuffed it back into her travel bag which she slung over her shoulder, grabbed her other bags that contained her dress and accessories, and left the compartment to look for James. She soon found him walking towards her with his bags in hand.

"We better get out onto the platform," said Lily finally.

"Yeah, so we can organize all of these overachievers," joked James with a grin.

Lily punched him playfully and commented, "I hate to burst your bubble and all, but now you're one of those 'overachievers' Mr. Head Boy."

"But I'll never compare to you Miss Head Girl."

"That's right you won't," said Lily. "Because I have overachieving down to a science."

"I would have to say that you do have it down to an art form that I could never hope to aspire to," said James as they walked out into the platform.

"Yup, you might as well not even try," said Lily with mock superiority in her voice.

James laughed and Lily joined in. Then they fulfilled their duties as Heads and instructed the others on the platform. Within minutes all thirty-two of them had made it through the barrier and had been settled in the Ministry cars. Soon they had arrived at the Hotel Guinevere. They checked in at the front desk and were escorted to their rooms.

The first three floors contained the rooms for girls and two floors above were the floors containing the boys' accommodations. In between the boys' and girls' rooms, as well as on each floor, were the teachers' accommodations.

In each of the student's hotel rooms there were two sets of bunk beds. No two students from the same school were assigned to share a room.

Lily said the password that was assigned to her room, because instead of keys, wizarding hotels like the Hotel Guinevere used passwords, and then she walked into the lovely suite. Because she was Head Girl, she had been afforded some privileges in the way of a room; namely she and three other girls were going to share a room that was more like a large apartment. It included a small living room, a kitchenette, a large fireplace and a separate room for each girl.

A moment after she had closed the door behind her, Lily saw another girl step into the living room from one of the bedrooms.

"Hello," said the girl. "My name is Rachel Brownsely, I am the Head Girl at Merlin's Academy in the United States."

Lily dropped her bags off on the floor and went over to the girl, and shaking her hand she said, "My name is Lily Evans and I am the Head Girl of Hogwarts which is located here in Great Britain."

"It's lovely to meet you Lily," said Rachel kindly.

"Same here," said Lily.

"I'm rather excited for the ball tonight," said Rachel after a short yet awkward pause in the conversation.

"As am I," said Lily. "I love getting all dressed up."

"Me too!" squealed Rachel. "Sorry about that," she said sheepishly. "I just get a little over-excited at times."

"Oh please, so do I," Lily said causing the other girl's embarrassment to fade slightly.

Just then another girl let herself into the room. "Hello all!" said the friendly girl as she saw the other two. "My name is Agnes Olsson and I'm the Head Girl at Svensson's Magical Academy in Sweden."

Only minutes behind Anges was Miu Sato, the Head Girl of the Japan School of Magic.

The four girls were chatting excitedly when Agnes suddenly asked, "How is it that I'm able to understand all of you? I have never spoken Japanese before!"

"And I don't know any Swedish," said Miu.

"It's a spell," said Lily and Rachel at the same time. This brought forth giggles from all of the girls.

Lily then elaborated, "We're all charmed so that we can understand and speak in each other's native languages."

"I must not have been listening when my Professor explained it!That makes sense," said Agnes. "This is so exciting!"

"I feel the same way! Now let's help each other get ready for the ball!" said Miu.

"Then we had better get cracking!" said Rachel enthusiastically. "I hope you guys don't mind, but I took this room," she said pointing.

"You were here first, it's only fair." Lily gathered up her bags and said to Miu and Agnes, "Do you girls have a preference?"

Miu shook her head and Agnes said, "Yeah! I want that one! Back home my room is on the right, so whenever I go anywhere I always take the room on the right. It's a weird habit I have."

"No problem," said Lily smiling. "Miu, do you mind if I take this one?"

Miu said, "It doesn't matter to me."

"Oh!" said Rachel as she came out of her own bedroom. "We all have our own bathrooms! I was so busy looking around that I didn't notice before!"

"This is so great!" said Agnes. "At home I have to share a bathroom with my two sisters."

"Let's all go take showers, get dressed and then meet up back here for hair, nails and make-up!" said Lily as she picked her magically weightless bags.

"Sounds groovy," said Rachel.

The girls went to their own bathrooms and took one of the best showers of their lives. They all emerged content and squeaky clean. They stepped into the dresses and then met up in their living room with their bags of beauty products.

As they helped each other get ready they compared their lives, shared their cultures and ways of getting all dressed up and told about their pasts. Finally they were all ready. Just as they were putting their things away, there was a knock at the door. Lily, being closest, answered it.

"Wow Lily, you look fabulous!" said Sirius as Lily opened the door to see the three present Maruaders.

"Thanks Sirius, you don't clean up too badly yourself."

"You ready Lily?" asked James. "We were wondering if you wanted to come down to the ball with us."

"Nearly," said Lily. "Why don't you guys come in for a minute?"

They all shrugged and walked in.

"Sweet place you got here Lily," said Sirius, whistling as he looked around.

"All I got was a bunk bed!" complained Peter.

Just then, the other three girls, who had been putting away their beauty products walked into the living room area.

"Boys, meet Miu Sato, Rachel Brownsely and Agnes Olsson, from Japan, America and Sweden respectively. Girls, meet Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. They go to school with me at Hogwarts," said Lily making the introductions.

"Hi!" squeaked all three girls, who were very impressed by what Britain had to offer in the way of males.

"Hey," said the boys coolly.

"Anyways," said Lily finding this all particularly amusing. "I'm just going to grab my bag and then we can all walk down together."

"Okay!" was the general consensus.

Lily shut the door to her room behind her and then laughed as loudly as her corset would allow her. She grabbed her bag and then walked back into the awkwardly silent room which was divided into boys on one side and girls on the other.

"Ready?"

The girls held up their bags to show that they were ready and the guys nodded, smirks on their faces.

"Let's go then," said Lily.

"Right," said Sirius. "Let us escort you lovely ladies down to the ball."

"It will be our pleasure," added James.

Peter just smiled.

"I've got an idea," said Lily brightly. "Sirius why don't you escort Agnes, James go with Rachel and Peter with Miu!"

"That doesn't leave anyone for you Lily," Sirius pointed out.

"Which is a good thing because I have a boyfriend," said Lily.

"Right," said Peter. "Let's go then!"

"You guys go first, I'll be right behind you."

The couples assembled and then left, Lily trailing just a little farther behind. Once they arrived in the ballroom, the girls left the guys to join their own friends and Lily rejoined the Marauders.

"Having fun boys?" asked Lily.

"So many girls…" said Sirius.

James smirked and Peter just kind of drooled.

"Remember boys, don't get anyone pregnant and have fun!" said Lily as she drifted away to mingle.

"Yeah un huh, whatever Lily," said Sirius as he scanned the room for his first victim.