Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.

The rest of November flew by. Sirius, Remus and Peter shaved their heads and Slytherin crushed Hufflepuff in Quidditch, as expected, so now whoever won the match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in early February won play Slytherin for the cup.

Lily and James' relationship blossomed though it was difficult for the busy couple to find time to spend together. If they hadn't had patrols together they might have never had any time to themselves. One Sunday James approached his studious girlfriend, hoping to spend a little bit of quality time with her.

"Hey Lily," he said as he sat down across from her at her table in the library.

"Hi James," said Lily as she briefly looked up from the book she was referencing in her essay.

"What's up?"

"Not much, I'm just working on that huge essay McGonagall assigned last Wednesday," said Lily.

"That one's a beast, but it's not due until Tuesday, why are you working on it now?"

"Because I don't have any time to do it tomorrow," said Lily, who was still working.

"That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about; when are you free this week? I feel as if I've seen less of you now than before we were dating," whined James.

"That's just because you're looking to spend time with me now and you just accepted the time I had to spend with you before," explained Lily.

James nodded and said, "Well anyways, I wanted to take you out sometime this week; how about Monday night since you're doing you essay now?"

"I can't; I have to tutor some fifth years in Charms and then we have a Prefects meeting."

"Tuesday?"

"I'm tutoring some third and fourth years in Potions and then we have to patrol."

"Wednesday?"

"My last O.W.L.s meeting. They voted last week to kick me out because I violated one of the bylaws."

"What was that? Have any fun whatsoever?"

"Actually it was date a Marauder. Sandra really hates you guys because she asked out to Hogsmeade back in fourth year and you turned her down."

"I don't even remember that. Anyways, Thursday?"

Lily looked up at James briefly. "I'm free Thursday."

"Well great, oh wait; I have Quidditch practice on Thursday. How about Friday?"

"We have to patrol."

"We could patrol Hogsmeade and look for students out of bounds," suggested James.

"I don't think so," responded Lily.

"What about Saturday morning?"

"I'm helping out Professor Slughorn."

"What are you doing?"

"I do it every week; basically I make samples of all the Potions he needs for his classes for the week and in return he lets me do a bit of my own thing. It helps to review for N.E.W.T.s and I've invented a couple of cool Potions."

"And Saturday night we're patrolling again. How did we end up patrolling on Friday and Saturday nights?"

"No one else wanted to take them."

"I wonder why," muttered James testily. "Sunday morning? No wait, I have Quidditch practice then too. Next Sunday night?"

"That might work," said Lily.

"Next Sunday it is then," said James. "I have to go now because I promised that I would tutor some kids in Transfiguration. But I'll see you at dinner?"

"Sure," said Lily distractedly.

James rolled his eyes. "I'll come by and bring you to dinner because you won't remember to go eat."

Lily looked up and smiled at him. "You know me too well," she joked.

"See you later," he said as he got up from the table, kissed Lily on the cheek and went to another part of the library where some students were waiting for him.

Lily grinned widely for a few minutes, savoring the feeling of James' kiss, and then finally turned back to her essay, but even that couldn't erase the smile on her face.

"Look at how cute they are," Alice whispered to a Hufflepuff friend of hers. The two girls had been working at a table nearby and saw the whole thing.

The other girl sighed. "I wish I had a James like Lily does."

"Me too. He's just so good for her."

"She seems so much happier all the time now," said the other girl. "She always has a smile on her face; it makes her look so much prettier."

"She wears her hair down now sometimes," added Alice. "She always used to wear it in the same uptight bun everyday, because she was insecure about how she looked, but she told me that one day she and James were studying and he pulled the hair tie out of her hair and told her that he likes her hair down. So now, every once in a while she pauses in front of the mirror in the mornings and puts a headband in instead of putting it up. He has given her the kind of confidence no one has ever has."

The other girl sighed again. "That is so adorable!"

Alice grinned. She was so happy for Lily and grateful to James. She knew that Lily was in good hands.

-----

That Saturday morning James slept in and so woke up in an empty dormitory. After he showered and got dressed he pulled out the Marauder's map to see where his friends were. As he scanned the map, out of habit he also looked for Lily. But he was surprised to see that Professor Slughorn was in his classroom in the dungeons, but Lily was not. So James abandoned finding his friends and looked for Lily. He soon found her little dot not far from the dungeons, in the same classroom that he had followed her to weeks ago. That didn't overly concern him, but the fact that Severus Snape's dot was in the same room certainly did.

James grabbed his wand and the map, and sprinted out of the dormitory. Within minutes he was in the hallway where Lily was.

But before he could reach the door he was thrown open and Snape thundered out shouting, "Just stop! What's done is done and you can't change it!"

Then suddenly James and Severus abruptly came face to face. Neither moved or spoke until Lily burst out of the door behind Severus. As soon as she saw the two of them, she froze as well. Severus turned around when he heard her come up behind him and smirked.

"What's going on?" asked James, who looked very confused and more than just a bit anxious. His hand was firmly gripping his wand.

"Oh," said Severus smugly. "Do you mean to say that your dear Lily hasn't told you about us yet?"

James clenched his jaw and muttered, "What do you mean?"

Severus turned to face Lily who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Lily, I am so surprised. I thought that you actually somehow cared for Potter, and yet you're already lying to him. Tsk Tsk."

"Stop it Snape," said Lily angrily.

Snape continued as if Lily hadn't said anything. "And Dumbledore even said you could tell him; actually he told me that he advised you to tell him months ago."

"I said stop!" as Lily yelled this she thrust both of her hands, palms outward, toward Severus. He immediately went flying backwards and into James.

James groaned and shoved Severus off of him. Lily ran over to the two of them and tried to help Severus up, but he refused her hand.

"Severus, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" said Lily sincerely. "My temper just got the best of me."

"Just like my pride got the best of me two years ago, but you still haven't forgiven me for that," said Snape snidely as he dusted himself off.

"I've told you a hundred times," she said, the volume of her voice rising. "That it was not what you called me, but what led you to use that word…"

"I know!" snapped Severus. "I'll see you next week."

Lily watched Snape stalk down the hallway and then turned to James, who was leaning up against the wall, arms crossed across his chest.

Lily sighed and said softly, "Do you want to come for a walk with me?"

"I suppose," grunted James as he begrudgingly stepped away from the wall and fell into step with Lily.

The pair walked in silence through several hallways until James finally said, "So do you have an explanation or not, because the Marauders and I were going to set up a prank this afternoon."

"Well let me start out by saying that I had a good reason for lying to you about what I was doing today."

James laughed hollowly. "I can't wait to hear this one."

Lily wrung her hands nervously. Then she walked to the nearest classroom. She opened the door, and seeing that no one was inside, turned to James and said, "Can you come in here with me please? What I'm about to tell you is a really big secret."

James shrugged and walked in behind Lily. He hopped onto a dusty desk and looked at her expectantly as she put several charms on the room. Then Lily paced a bit in front of him and finally stopped in front of him.

"Okay," she said as she breathed deeply. "What I am about to tell you is a secret that rivals the one about Remus being a werewolf. Actually it might be bigger. If you tell people they could die."

James scoffed at this. "Don't you think you're being a bit overdramatic?"

"No," said Lily. "I am dead serious. So you have to swear to me that no matter what happens you will not tell a single soul what I am about to tell you, not even the other Marauders."

"What is it?" asked James, who was very curious.

"First you have to swear to me that you won't tell anyone; I would make you make an Unbreakable Vow, but that would require telling someone else so that they would be a Bonder," said Lily seriously.

"I swear," said James, who was looking shocked.

"Okay, so, as you know, there are three main types of people in the world, muggles, squibs and wizards."

"I don't understand where this is going," admitted James.

"Just listen, please," Lily implored him.

"Okay."

"So actually there's a fourth type. In English they are called Guardians. All you really need to know is that they are a type of wizard that has more magical power than the rest. Merlin was the first Guardian. He delved more deeply into magical theory than anyone else in his time. He discovered some things that, ummm… over the centuries, have been lost to the general wizarding world. Before he died, he called a counsel of wizards from all over the known world. While they were gathered together, sharing their ummm… knowledge, one of them was murdered and his secrets died with him.

"That kind of freaked them all out, so they decided to do something to make sure that their secrets survived. Through some really complicated, ancient, and borderline Dark Magic, they ahhh… immortalized their beings. So, in other words, once their bodies died, their spirits, with all of the knowledge they decided to pass on, went and found new bodies. Then when those people died, the spirits found new bodies, and so the cycle has continued for hundreds of years. With each person the base of knowledge grows."

Lily paused and looked at James, who was deep in thought.

After a moment's pause, he slowly said, "So let me get this straight; you're being possessed, right now, by a bunch of ancient dead guys?"

"Well yes and no," Lily replied. "I'm still me, but part of me is a whole bunch of people, and their personalities sometimes affect mine, but generally I'm just me, so I'm not possessed per se."

"So when does it all happen? How do you know if you're a Guardian or not?"

"The very instant a Guardian is born the spirit infuses itself in them. I don't really know how you know if you're a Guardian or not; I didn't know I was one until Dumbledore told me right before Christmas holidays in our first year. I think you can tell if you know what to look for though. Before Dumbledore started to train me, every time I tried a simple spell it was much more intense than it should have been and sometimes weird things happened.

"Like, I don't know if you remember, but the first time I tried to levitate a feather in Charms class it hit the ceiling, and the first time I tried to transfigure a match into a needle I started a fire. Dumbledore told me it was because I had so much free and wild magic that had been building up for years; it was just dying to escape. I also used to do a whole bunch of accidental magic before I was accepted to Hogwarts."

"That's pretty normal for most wizards and witches," said James.

"But I could float," said Lily. "I used to jump off of swings and just float around for minutes at a time once I practiced a bit. It scared Petunia really badly; she used to go with me to the park when we were younger. Daisy thought it was pretty cool though; until she broke her arm trying to do it too. Anyways, that's how Snape and I first became friends. We lived in the same small city and he saw me floating around one time. Then he told me that I was a witch and he could do weird things too."

"What could he do?"

"He used to be able to manipulate fire, but I can't float anymore and he can't control fire," Lily added hurriedly when she saw the look of concern on James' face.

"Oh," said James, who was still shocked and a bit confused. "So what else is special about, uhh people like you?"

"We can't be killed by the killing curse," said Lily.

"That's ummm pretty helpful," said James, who was sounding as overwhelmed as he felt. "So what do you and… Snape, do every week?"

"Well, we've been doing this since first year. We used to meet more often, but now we don't have as much free time, so we only meet on Saturday mornings. Dumbledore taught us how to center our magic and hold onto it, or if need be release it. Like that storm, that was me releasing my magic when it became too much for me, and that time you followed me into that room? That was me releasing my magic really fast. It was because I had overslept that Saturday and hadn't had a chance to practice spells with Severus. We usually work on some complicated magic that requires a lot of energy; it's productive and allows us to keep our magic levels within our control," explained Lily.

"Oh," said James, drawing out the syllable.

Lily bit her bottom lip and then asked, "You can't tell anyone about this because according to Dumbledore, Voldemort knows about the Guardians."

"Three guesses who told him," muttered James.

"Severus isn't a bad person," said Lily quietly. "He's just chosen a bad path."

"Aren't you afraid that he'll hurt you or betray you or something?" asked James with concern.

"Yes," said Lily her voice breaking. "That's why Dumbledore has only been teaching us creative spells for the last three years. He's been afraid that Severus will use any destructive spells that he's taught for evil."

"So what kind of stuff have you learned?" asked James curiously. He also wanted to get Lily off a topic that was obviously very painful for her.

"How to throw off an imperious curse, occulmency, legilimency, advanced shielding and protective charms, stuff like that."

"Oh yeah, that's some easy stuff," said James sarcastically.

"So, what are you thinking right now?" asked Lily nervously.

James ran his hand through his messy black hair and said, "I dunno. This all seems so…"

"Freakish?" Lily supplied glumly.

"No," said James hurriedly. "Just a bit strange, I guess. I think I just need to think everything over."

"Yeah, yeah, I understand, totally. I'd be pretty shocked too. Just whatever you decide to do, you still can't tell anyone, ever," said Lily, once again stressing the urgency of the situation. "I trust you and Dumbledore trusts you, but I just want to make sure you understand how huge this is; the Guardians have remained, more or less, secret from the wizarding world since their beginning. It's the same situation why wizards hide the wizarding world from muggles; if people found out that some people have more power than others, they would want more power themselves and then it could get dangerous. In fact there are some people out there who hunt Guardians to try and get their secrets and power for themselves."

"I understand Lily, truly I do. You have my word; I won't ever tell anyone," he said as he took both of her hands in his and looked her directly in the eyes.

Lily let out a deep breath, "I know; it's just that I've never told anyone this before, not Benjy, Daisy, Alice, Marlene, Jess, no one."

"You can trust me," said James reassuringly.

Lily smiled and gently pulled her hands out of James'. "I'll let you have some time to mull this all over; come find me if you have any more questions."

"Okay."

Lily had left, but James didn't budge from his seat on the desk. It was a bit overwhelming to suddenly find out that your girlfriend shared her body with the combined spirit of several other wizards. It also gave James a sense of awe; he was in awe that his girlfriend was so amazingly powerful and yet, she still wanted to be with him, a talented wizard but by no means as powerful as someone like her, or Snape he noted with disgust. Eventually James digested all of the information Lily had told him and was totally on board with the whole thing. So, he set out to find her and ease whatever fears she had about his reaction.

"Hey Lily," said James as he found her at lunch. "Do you want to come for a walk with me later?"

"Sure James," said Lily, not betraying any sort of emotion in her voice.

"See you then," said James as he went and sat down with the Marauders a few seats down.

After both had finished eating, they walked out of the Great Hall, hand-in-hand. They had been walking in silence for a few moments when James suddenly said, "I don't care about what you said ummm… earlier Lily. Just because I didn't know about it, didn't mean it wasn't true, so you're no different now than you were yesterday, right? It's kind of like Remus and his furry little problem."

"Right," said Lily simply.

"In fact, I think I kind of like it. Though, I think it gives you an unfair advantage on tests and stuff. The rest of us mortals don't have hundreds…"

"Shh!" said Lily as she put her hand over her boyfriend's mouth. "You never know who could be listening, and for your information, I have to study for those tests just like everyone else. They don't help me one bit; that's not the kind of information that is passed on."

James gently removed Lily's hand from his mouth and she blushed deeply. "So," he said, smiling at Lily's slight embarrassment. "Who's in you?"

Lily tried to answer the question without giving away anything that could identify her as a Guardian. "Which wizards? Oh, umm, not a ton of people you would know I think. But have you heard of Morgan le Fay? She sneaked into the council of wizards and was almost thrown out because she was a woman, but she told them dark magical secrets that they didn't know, so they let her stay. She was very helpful in helping them make their immortality spell; she was quite involved with the dark arts that were necessary."

"I think I have heard of her," said James thoughtfully. "An evil wench as I recall, tried to kill that Arthur bloke a few times."

"She also ended up healing him in the end," Lily added.

"I still think she's evil; at least now I know where you get it from," he teased her.

"Yup, so when I try to kill you; you'll know why."

"Oh, so you think I'm like King Arthur, noble, chivalrous, handsome?" asked James with a grin.

"If you were Arthur, that would make you my half-brother," Lily informed him.

"Forget it then," said James hastily.

"That's what I thought," said Lily.

"You still think I'm handsome though, don't you?" asked James.

"Of course I do," Lily reassured him. "Not that your ego needs any more inflating."

"I think you owe me some inflating, you've deflated my ego enough," James pointed out.

"You needed it," Lily protested. "If I hadn't stepped in when I did, every time I did, then there wouldn't be room for me in this hallway because your ego would take up all of it."

"I think my ego was the perfect size thank you very much," said James.

"Definitely not," persisted Lily. "My ego, however, is just right."

"Actually, I think that your ego could use a boost," said James seriously. "You seem, uhhh, down on yourself a lot of the time."

Lily was quiet for a few moments. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said finally.

"Your silence says otherwise," James stated wisely. "Why don't you have a lot of self-esteem Lily?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Lily.

"Come on Lily, you can tell me anything. You just told me your deepest secret; I think you can tell me this."

"Put the pieces together James; you have enough of them by now. I have to go; I'll see you later," she said quickly as she turned on her heel and hurried in the opposite direction.

-----

"I don't understand her," huffed James as he met up with his friends in their dormitory later that day.

"Who?" asked Peter absently as he looked up a spell for the prank they were planning.

"Lily of course," Sirius answered.

"Who else would he be talking about?" joked Remus.

"What is it that you don't understand now?" asked Sirius lightheartedly.

"Why doesn't she have much self-confidence?" asked James.

"I think Lily has a lot of self-confidence," said Peter. "Why wouldn't she? She's top of our class, Head Girl, pretty…"

"Yeah Prongs," agreed Remus. "I have always seen Lily as a confident person. She always seems to know that she can be the best and that gets her there."

"But she's not," said Sirius slowly. "Deep down I think she's really insecure."

"I agree, but I don't know why," said James.

"How do you figure she's insecure?" asked Peter. "That doesn't make any sense because she has nothing to be insecure about."

"So everyone thinks," mumbled Sirius.

"What do you know Padfoot?" James asked his best friend curiously.

"More than I want to," Sirius admitted. "When I was staying at her house this summer, she was miserable most of the time. Her mom made her do school work and practice ballroom dancing, go to parties, go on dates. She told me that the only way she could escape was by running. She got up at some ungodly hour and would run for as long as she could. And then when I read her diary; she wrote some really mean things about herself. She didn't think she was pretty enough, smart enough, thin enough, stuff like that."

"She and her older sister, Petunia, fight all the time. Petunia is jealous that Lily's a witch and she isn't and takes it out on Lily. And of course, Lily fights back," Remus said.

"She was tutoring me in Charms once and she told me that she had accidentally charmed her mom's hair green and it wouldn't come out. She must have been really angry to do something like that," said Peter thoughtfully.

"Marlene told me that her dad just lets it all happen; he just lets his wife run everything," said Remus.

"She doesn't have a happy home life, Prongs," said Sirius quietly. "And as I very well know, that doesn't do much for your self-esteem."

"Yeah," said James as he contemplated everything he knew and had been told. "But how do I fix it?"

Remus furrowed his brow and said, "I don't know if it's something than can be fixed, or something that you should even try to fix."

"Moony's right Prongs," sighed Sirius. "You can't just fix people."

"I can try," said James fiercely. "I'm going to go talk to Marlene or Alice."

After James left, Peter turned to his two friends and said, "He really does like her, doesn't he?"

"I'd have to say so," said Remus.

"It's bordering on obsessive, I'd say," said Sirius as he leaned back against his headboard.

"You're just jealous," Peter pointed out.

"I'm what?" asked Sirius as he sat up suddenly.

"Jealous," Peter repeated, though not as bravely. "Jealous, that he spends more time with Lily than he does with you and us."

"I'm not jealous of Lily!" protested Sirius.

"Sure you aren't," said Remus. "It's okay to admit it; we all miss him. He spends all his time playing Quidditch, hanging out with her, or thinking about her."

"It's not an even split either," Peter added. "I'd say twenty percent, thirty percent and fifty percent."

"Nah," said Remus dismissively. "Cause when he's playing Quidditch I guarantee he's thinking about her."

"Very true," said Peter nodding.

"Oh shut up," muttered Sirius as he jumped up and abruptly left the dormitory.

-----

"Lily," said Sirius as he approached her table at the library. "I think I'm jealous of you."

"Hello Sirius, nice to see you too," said Lily, who was just a little bit in shock.

"Peter said it an hour ago and it hasn't left my head since then; please tell me I'm not jealous," said Sirius desperately as he sat down across from Lily.

"You're not jealous," said Lily simply.

"That doesn't sound as convincing as I thought it would," said Sirius.

"Now Sirius, I know that I'm prettier than you, but that doesn't mean you have to be jealous," said Lily as if she was talking to a small child.

Sirius gasped, "You are not prettier than me!"

Lily laughed. "Did you just hear yourself?"

"Merlin woman you are evil!"

"So I've been told," said Lily flippantly.

"Peter and Remus think I'm jealous that James spends more time with you than he does getting landed in detention with me."

"And are you?"

"I don't know. I'm a guy; we don't do the whole 'feelings' thing," said Sirius as he folded his arms across his chest and balanced his chair on two feet.

"I see," said Lily pensively. "And how do you feel about that?" she joked.

"This is no joking matter," said Sirius as he smiled. "I need help here. I'm not supposed to be jealous of my best mate's girlfriend; if anything I'm supposed to be jealous of my best mate because of his girlfriend."

"That is how it generally goes," admitted Lily.

"Help me Lily, please," said Sirius.

"How am I supposed to help you?"

"I don't know."

Lily bit her bottom lip gently and stared at the ceiling for a moment. Then she looked back at Sirius and said, "Do you think James spends too much time with me?"

"No," said Sirius instantly. "He likes spending time with you and he always has a smile on his face afterwards. Even when you two used to fight, he got some sick pleasure from it."

"Do you wish he spent more time with you and the other Marauders?"

Sirius thought for a moment and said, "Yes. It's like we're last on his list of things to do. It goes Lily, Head Boy stuff, Quidditch stuff, think about Lily, eat, think about Quidditch strategies, bathe, go to class, sleep, think about Lily, do homework, think about Lily, think about studying for N.E.W.T.'s, win Lily over, oh wait he finally crossed that one off, then finally it's plan pranks and spend time with the Maruaders. The Marauders used to come way before 'go to class' and certainly before homework!"

Lily missed most of the rest of the list after her name because she was trying to hold in laughter. When he finally finished however, she no longer tried to hold back the giggles.

"What?" asked the very lost Sirius Black.

"I'm glad I'm the only girl on his 'To-do' list," she said with a huge grin.

Sirius shook his head and laughed as well. "That sounds like something I would say; I would have never expected it from you Miss Evans."

"There's more to me than meets the eye," said Lily.

"And believe me," said Sirius. "There is plenty that meets the eye."

Lily laughed. "I'm glad we're friends."

"Me too," said Sirius.

"So are you jealous?" asked Lily returning to the main issue.

"I guess I am," said Sirius.

"Well, I'll talk to James and try to convince him to cut out one of the 'think about Lily' times on his agenda, maybe even the 'go to class' one, but I refuse to ask him to cut out bathing."

Sirius chuckled. "Thanks Lily. This helped."

"Who knew? You actually do have feelings," said Lily. "You just have to dig them out of the layers of testosterone and muscle."

"I'll see you around," said Sirius as he left the library still laughing.

-----

"Hey Marlene, Alice," said James as he conveniently found them without Lily in the common room later that day.

"Lily's in the library doing some paper for one of her million N.E.W.T. classes," said Marlene before James could get out another word.

"Okay, but that's not what I wanted to ask you guys about. Ummm… I wanted to know… ahhh…" stammered James.

"Is it about Lily?" asked Alice.

"Yes," said James.

"What do you want to know about Lily?" asked Marlene curiously.

"Well, I've noticed that she, errr, has ummm confidence issues…" James trailed off.

"And?" prompted Alice.

"What do you guys think I should do to help?" he asked, avoiding their gazes.

The fact that Alice and Marlene burst out laughing did nothing to ease the awkwardness that James felt.

"Wow Potter, you are a bit thick aren't you?" said Marlene as he laughter subsided.

"She didn't mean it like that," said Alice. "We just think it's funny that you don't think that you've helped her already."

"Believe us, it's a huge difference between now and the start of term," said Marlene.

"Or the middle to end of sixth year," said Alice.

"Since her dad got remarried really."

"Yeah I'd have to say that was the point it all went downhill," Alice agreed with Marlene.

"Anyways," said Marlene, turning the conversation towards James once again. "Just keep doing whatever it is that you've been doing. She had been needing a person like you in her life for a long time. We, as her best friends, can only do so much."

"We're just glad that you two finally resolved your problems."

"Well I'm glad that we've had this little chat," said James happily.

As he got up to leave, Marlene said, "But remember Potter…"

"Hurt her and we'll kill you," threatened the normally passive peacemaking Alice.

"Really, we will and we'll enjoy it," said Marly with an eerie grin on her face.

The pair cackled as James raced away.