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

Song for this chapter- Chelsea by Stefy.

"That was such an amazing pass James!"

"Yeah! I can't believe that you threw the Quaffle all the way across the pitch like that!"

"Really, you were just so cool!" gushed James's fan girls who had crowded him after the match.

"You even won! Well I'm not surprised, you win every match you play!"

"But really, scoring like twenty goals by yourself? That's incredible!"

"Thanks," beamed James as he messed up his windswept hair even more.

"I would have been so nervous playing against the teachers, but you looked totally cool!"

"Yeah, even when McGonagall hit those bludgers at you! Who knew she was such a good beater?"

"First girl ever to play Quidditch at Hogwarts actually," Sirius informed the group as he was drawn to fawning girls like moths are drawn to fire.

"Oh Sirius! You did such a great job at beating too!"

"Yeah, like when you hit Dumbledore with the bludger so that Mark could grab the snitch and win the game!"

"I do consider that one of the highlights of my life," joked Sirius.

"My favorite part was when James grabbed the Quaffle right out of Flitwick's hands!"

"You're so cool James! I love you James! I want to have your babies James!" mocked Lily in a tinny voice.

"Are those words of jealousy I hear?" asked Marlene as she and Alice joined Lily.

"Of course not," sniffed Lily.

"Lily," said Alice softly. "Those girls may have managed to capture five minutes of his attention but you have the other 525,595 minutes of the year."

"For crying out loud you live with the guy!" said Marlene boisterously.

"I'm not jealous," hissed Lily. "Jealousy implies that you wish you were like a person or had something that they have. I would never fawn over a guy like that; it's degrading and humiliating. So no I'm not jealous; I'm just embarrassed for them."

Neither of Lily's best friends looked convinced.

"You could if you wanted to, compliment him I mean," Alice told her as she glanced over at James and saw that he really did thrive on attention and praise.

"Yeah," agreed Marlene. "You don't always have to be the ego-deflator; sometimes you could be the ego-inflator."

"That was profound Marly, really," teased Lily.

"He did play really well and it wouldn't hurt to let him know that," advised Alice.

"I say that you go over there and let those sluts know who's boss!" announced Marlene.

Lily stared at the back of James's head for a long moment and then her passion seemed to leave her body. "No, I think I'll just go get some air and cool my head."

Before her friends could comment on this decision Lily had swept away, her step graceful and slow, a gentle smile on her face, and her head held high. She didn't seem distressed to those who didn't know her. James, however, knew her.

He didn't even have to turn his head to recognize her; he knew the sound of her steps. The other Marauders attributed this knowledge to the fact that he had spent the majority of his Hogwarts career haunting them and the rest anxiously straining to hear them. James knew better; he knew that she didn't walk like the carefree and optimistic first year she once was, and she also didn't walk like her second year self, burdened and overwhelmed. She had grown out of the timid and depressed walk of third and fourth years. She was no longer a frustrated and angry fifth year who stormed around the castle like a tornado. Her steps were not the calculated and sharp footfalls of sixth year. There was a lightness in her step now, yet she hadn't lost the distinct purpose and intent that made her steps reflect her independence from her troubled past; she was walking away from that past with each purposeful step.

James smiled to himself as he listened to her walk behind him and around the dance floor along the most circuitous route possible. He couldn't help but smirk as she finally came into his line of vision when she stepped outside onto the terrace. He politely excused himself and left Sirius with the fawning girls.

Lily's head was swirling; so much had happened all in one day. At the moment she was desperately trying to concentrate solely on her breathing. Her gloved palms were leaning heavily on the stone wall, her whole body arching downward to rest on that one solid thing, the one support she currently had. And then James came as she both dreaded and secretly hoped he would. She dreaded his presence because he made her see herself, all of herself; she couldn't hide when she was with him like she could when she was alone. Yet every fiber of her heart yearned to have him there; she ached to hear his voice, to feel just one touch.

James stood for a moment, silhouetted in the doorway against the light in the ballroom, and watched the love of his life. Her breathing was deep and ragged, but she wasn't crying. She wasn't standing straight, but she wasn't curled into a ball either. For a moment he wondered what he should do. Then he threw thinking out the window and decided to go with his gut instincts.

"Hey you," he whispered in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her delicate frame.

Lily sighed pleasantly. She no longer needed the wall to keep her upright; she had something much more stable now. As she melted into him, James held her tighter, forming something like a blanket around her.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked softly.

"No," she sighed.

"Are you sure?" he pushed.

"Yes," she replied stubbornly.

"Really sure?"

"You did a great job in the Quidditch game," remarked Lily.

"Thank you, but I am not so easily distracted."

"I bet I could distract you," Lily offered, though she didn't turn around.

"I think that fact is pretty well established. After all I didn't actually drop the Quaffle into Rick's hands because it was part of some sort of plan, really I had just caught sight of you and I forgot what I was doing," admitted James.

Lily smiled smugly.

"Now back to you. If you won't talk how about I start your sentences for you and you just fill in the blanks? Let's start with an easy one: right now I am feeling… your turn."

"Conflicted."

"I am feeling conflicted because…"

"I don't know how I should feel."

"The most traumatic thing that happened to me all day was when…"

"Either when you were nearly blasted off of your broom when Madame Pomfrey hit that bludger at you and you were only hanging on with one hand, or when you were chatting with those girls a few minutes ago."

"Jealousy sucks doesn't it?" stated James smarmily.

"I didn't say I was jealous," replied Lily stonily.

"I happen to be an expert at jealousy, so I will help you to identify it. Did it feel like there were boulders in your stomach and a vice around your heart? Was there a surge of anger through your veins that you couldn't explain? Did you hands curl into fists and or did you feel the need to physically hurt someone so that they would share in your suffering? That, my dearest love, is jealousy and I have felt it most days of the past seven years, recently because, even though you don't seem to notice them, far too many blokes like looking at you far too much," concluded James as he nuzzled her neck softly.

"I don't like jealousy much," admitted Lily.

"Neither do I, but when it hits usually I just remember that I get to be out here with you in my arms and they are stuck in there looking for something I have already found. And if they keep looking I content myself by making rude hand gestures at them behind your back," joked James.

Lily laughed.

"And now, back to you again. Here's another fill in the blank for you: tonight Clarice made me feel…"

"Free," answered Lily shortly. She didn't really appreciate James's mind games even though she knew they were for her own mental wellbeing.

"Free from what?" prompted James.

"Her reign of terror," said Lily seriously. Then she turned in his arms so that he could see the truth in her eyes when she talked to him. "Honestly James, I am fine. I am conflicted because I almost want to feel remorse that Clarice is no longer in my life. When my mother died I was completely and totally devastated. Clarice, in her role as a step-mother, was supposed to fill part of that void in my life. Even though she utterly failed to be a mother to me, I still feel as if I should feel some sort of loss, but instead all I feel is closure. That part of my life is now completely finished; I said good-bye to Daisy, wrote my father a letter and personally wrote him out of my life in that dramatic conversation, tonight I bid Petunia good-bye, and I am now finished with Clarice as well. I should feel sad, because really, I have lost my entire family in the matter of a week, but instead I'm completely fine, I promise. For the first time in a really long time I feel… whole; I feel whole," she repeated savoring the feeling of the words on her lips and in her heart.

"Okay," said James simply as he kissed the top of her head, which was nestled perfectly beneath his chin. "Okay."

"Are you happy now?"

"Are you happy now?" James shot back.

Lily contemplated this for a moment and then answered, "Yes."

"Then I am too."

After a long but comfortable silence during which the couple simply admired the stars, Lily requested, "Tell me a story."

"About what?"

"Something from your childhood, something happy."

James thought for a few moments until he had the perfect story. "How about a James and Marlene story?"

"Perfect," said Lily grinning.

"Marlene and I were four years old, her brothers ten and seven years old, and we were exploring in the woods behind my house. Of course we were all pretending to be fearless explorers who had set out to conquer the wilderness. At some point, Marlene's brothers decided to go off in one direction, to explore a cave I think, but Marlene was afraid of the dark, so she didn't want to go with them. Valiantly I agreed to go with her somewhere else even though our parents had told us to stay with the older boys. So we went off on our own, collecting bugs and leaves and rocks in our pockets as we went along, cheerfully singing and going deeper into the woods the whole time.

"Eventually we realized it was supper time because our stomachs were growling. Like I suppose spoiled four years do, once we decided that we wanted to be back home, we thought that it should instantly happen. Of course it didn't work out that way, but I couldn't seem like a sissy in front of a girl, so I told Marlene that I knew the way home; after all it was my home turf. So we kept walking for a while longer and every so often I would look at a tree or rock in a peculiar way and then decisively say 'This way!' and march off in that direction.

"Once it started to get dark Marlene started to get scared, and when Marlene gets scared she gets mad. So she started yelling at me and of course I yelled back because that's what I do when girls yell at me." Lily smirked at this. "So then she threw a rock at me, missing of course, and stomped off. Now I was alone; darkness I could handle, but I have always hated being alone. Now I have to comment that hating something and being afraid of something are entirely different; I have never been, nor ever will be afraid of anything." Lily rolled her eyes at his clearly joking boast.

"So I just sat down on the nearest stump and started making friends with the nearby plants and animals so that I wouldn't feel so lonely. Soon however, all of the animals were going to sleep and plants are not much of companions so I decided to try and get home by myself. After trudging along for a while, making as much noise as possible I suddenly find myself on the ground with something on top of me. Of course I started yelling and my attacker starts screaming. I got it off of me and then realized that it was just Marlene. She had heard me rustling around in the bushes and thought I was some sort of beast that she was going to battle by launching a surprise attack. So she starts crying because she's so glad that I'm not a beast who will eat her and also I am me.

"But by now it is pitch black and Marlene and I can hardly see each other, never mind our way home. So we started holding hands so we wouldn't get separated. And it was rather ridiculous, but we started acting as if we were going to die. I suppose being lost in the dark woods does seem like a death sentence to a four year old. Anyway, we started telling each other things like, 'if you make it out and I don't, you can have my chocolate frog card collection,' or 'I wish I could've gone skydiving before I died.' It was just ridiculous stuff.

"Finally we decided that we couldn't walk another step, so we found the nearest comfortable tree and sat up against it. Since Marlene was scared, I hugged her tightly. That was when we promised that we would be best friends forever and would marry each other the day after Marlene turned seventeen. We would get married the next day so that Marlene could have two parties, one for her birthday and one for her wedding; she didn't like the idea of only having one party for two things.

"Eventually we fell asleep; we had nothing better to do because we had already named all fourteen of our children. Probably ten minutes later my parents and Mr. McKinnon found us. Merlin only knows why my mum had a camera with her, but she took a picture of us curled up together under that tree before our dads picked us up and carried us home."

"I had forgotten all about that," Marlene interrupted wistfully. "Although I remember a lot more tears and blubbering coming from you Mr. Potter. And I would just like to point out, that you never showed up at my house riding a white unicorn to carry me off into the sunset so we could get married the day after my seventeenth birthday."

"Unfortunately Marlene, this siren over here stole my heart and made me break my word!"

"I only forgive you because I never wanted to marry you anyway," sniffed Marlene. "I would never allow any one of my fourteen children to potentially get a mop of hair like yours."

James laughed and asked, "Do you remember why we were going to have so many kids?"

Marlene looked puzzled for a moment and then responded in the negative.

"It was so we could have two full Quidditch teams; you were going to comment and I was going to be the referee."

"What would the comments be?" asked Lily. "Potter passes to Potter who then tries to shoot but is blocked by an excellent move by Potter. Oh and there Potter goes for the snitch!"

"Oh no, their first names were far too original to not use them," joked Marlene. "I think the first four boys were named James junior, then there were some Marlenes, a couple of ones named after Quidditch stars, and some I named after plants or trees or something weird like that."

James chuckled. "If only I hadn't started hanging out with your brothers and pranking you all the time, who knows where we would be now? According to our old plan, we would probably be taking care of James junior the first," he joked, unaware of the effect this might have on his girlfriend.

Lily pasted a smile on her face and slipped out of James's embrace. "I have to talk to Remus about something; I'll see you guys later."

Both Marlene and James gave her a strange look but then went back to reminiscing. Soon a summoned bottle of brandy added to the fun of reliving old times.

After rehashing several of the numerous pranks James had pulled on Marlene during the years before and during Hogwarts, Marlene realized that the time had finally come; they were funny. Her mother had always told her that the day would come when she would laugh at what James Potter did and maybe even like him. Mrs. McKinnon had always hoped that Marlene would come to love James and marry him, and didn't keep that wish a secret from her only daughter.

"I never thought that all of this stuff would ever be funny!" gasped Marlene as she struggled to breathe while giggling so hard.

"Personally, I always thought it was funny," remarked James nonchalantly as he rested against the stone wall, his arms folded across his chest. His air was one of effortless ease.

"You know what else is funny?" laughed Marlene. "My mother- my mum always wanted me to marry you!"

James's eyes widened, "My dad too! After he was done yelling at me for pranking or teasing you, he always laughed and added these weird comments about how I was only doing it because I fancied you or how we would eventually end up together!"

"Why didn't we end up together?" asked Marlene as she looked deeply into the eyes of the person she had known her whole life.

"I don't know," James confessed. At that moment he honestly couldn't remember; Marlene was spunky, pretty, and a pureblood, everything he and his parents wanted for in a wife. The alcohol certainly didn't help with the thinking; it clouded the edges of his mind. He could sense that something important was alluding him, but the effort to chase it tired him and soon he abandoned the green orbs to focus on the girl- woman in front of him.

"We still could…"

"End up together?"

Things were getting hazy for both Marlene and James. Neither expected what happened next. In two quick strides James was in front of Marlene, who was sitting in a chair on the terrace. Swiftly he snaked one arm behind her back and the other cradled the back of her head. Before either knew what was happening they were kissing. Soon after that came snogging.

Dimly James heard a voice in the back of his mind, "I never kissed Marlene." He felt as if he knew the words, but he dismissed them quickly because they sent an unpleasant jolt through his gut and at that moment he only wanted to succumb to the primal instinct to satisfy the desire for pleasure.

If Fate had smiled upon either of the two teenagers one of their friends would have stumbled out onto the terrace and broken things up before they got too far. Even Lily entering the scene would have been a welcome disaster. Unfortunately the inebriated graduates were left to their own impaired judgments.

-----

The next morning James woke up to a blinding light and throbbing headache. Cursing the sun for existing, he kept his eyes shut and reached over to the side of his bed to grab another pillow so he could properly shield his face from the shining monstrosity that had the audacity to rise when James Potter had a hangover.

James's groping hand did not meet a pillow; his eyes, regardless of the light, snapped open when he felt something that definitely felt like flesh under his palm. He froze and began hyperventilating. He couldn't remember even getting to bed last night…

It was then that he realized he wasn't even in his own bed. As he took in his surroundings he recognized Lily's room. However, it was missing most of her personal possessions he had become accustomed to seeing over the past couple of days. In fact, he discovered as he sat up, none of her stuff appeared to be in the room, yet James was certain that that was where he was.

Then he looked over at his bedfellow and was shocked to see black hair where he expected red. Barely stifling a yell, James identified the form of Marlene McKinnon wearing nothing by a thin silk slip. Numbly he became conscious of the fact that he was only in his boxers.

What had he done with Marlene in Lily's room, and why was Lily and all of her stuff missing?! At this point James couldn't stop himself from yelling.

Naturally his shouts woke Marlene, who had an even worse hangover.

"Shut up you bloody- Potter?!" screeched Marlene in horror as she took stock of her surroundings.

"What's going on?" asked Sirius sleepily. A moment later he was wide awake. "Marlene?! Prongs?!" he asked, his mouth gaping. "What's going on?!"

"That's one I would love to hear," remarked Lily snippily as she appeared at Sirius's elbow, her face a mask of marble.

Neither James nor Marlene could do anything but mutter unintelligibly.

"That's what I thought," she snapped as Remus and Peter joined the group hovering in the doorway. "I just came here to tell you-"

"That you've been pranked!" yelled Lily, Remus, and Peter in synchrony.

"What?!" shouted James, Marlene and Sirius, also in harmony.

"That's one for Team Lily, zero for Team Sirius," said Lily as she chalked up the score in the air with her wand. Glowing letters spelled out the team names and underneath was one neat line for Lily and a big fat zero for Sirius. "Team Lily is now accepting offers of surrender; we promise to be merciful."

Recovering himself much faster than James, Sirius replied, "Never! Bring it on, because we certainly won't go easy on you!"

Not sparing another look at either James or Marlene, Lily left the doorway, calling out behind her, "You should have surrendered while you had the chance. You'll be sorry before the end."

A shudder spread through James.

"Would someone like to explain what is going on?" asked Marlene furiously as she strove to recover some of her dignity by bunching the quilt around herself.

"After the Gala was over, Lily and I went looking for you and James. We found the both of you curled up together and passed out with an empty bottle of brandy in your hand. It was after midnight, so the Prank War had already started. We brought you up here and arranged you like so," explained Remus coldly. "If I were you James, I would wash that lipstick off your face; I don't think that color suits you."

James and Marlene both blushed furiously. James tried to wipe off said lipstick with the back of his hand, as Marlene touched her lips in embarrassment.

Remus and Peter then left, both sporting looks of disgust. Sirius soon followed.

"Two questions," stated James as he fell back on the pillows. "What happened? And what do we do now?"

"I can't remember," cried Marlene. "And I have no idea!"

"I think I probably ought to talk to Lily," sighed James as he got out of bed and walked toward his own bedroom, for some proper clothes. That's when he noticed that both his and Marlene's clothes from the night before we strewn about the room quite obviously. Team Lily was certainly a force to be reckoned with, he admitted reluctantly. But not nearly as frightening as Lily herself. He shuddered.

He felt a pang of guilt as he heard Marlene begin sobbing into one of Lily's pillows, but he quickly shoved the feeling aside because he had bigger problems of his own and he didn't trust himself to speak to or touch Marlene at the moment.

-----

James had never been so nervous in his entire life; he had been in a great deal of taxing and frightening situations, but never had he had so much at stake. When Lily had been captured the previous November of course he had been terrified, and worried for her, but that was at the beginning of their relationship. It would have been difficult, but James could have eventually recovered if he had lost her then; he was much too heavily invested now to even think if losing her, especially to something stupid he had done.

He contemplated avoiding her, but for some reason that didn't seem much more appealing than facing her. One way or the other he needed to know what she was thinking. Did she really intend to move out, or was the removal of her stuff part of the prank?

These thoughts and others of a similar nature haunted James as he walked as one condemned through his house looking for the one person he most wanted to see and yet feared to face.

Eventually he found her sitting in the library. Why he hadn't looked there first was a mystery to him. He drank in her appearance like an alcoholic; her face was nearly expressionless as her eyes scanned the dog-eared and well-loved pages of her favorite novel. Although her face didn't betray her inner turmoil, her body language did; she was curled up in the chair with a soft blanket enveloping her even though it was June and such a comfort wasn't necessary. James also spied a cup of tea and box of tissues within arm's reach. This was going to be a difficult situation; James had hurt her and she had reacted predictably: the ice queen was in full possession of Lily now.

James shuffled into the room, making sure that he made enough noise so as not to sneak up on her, experience had taught him that such a maneuver would only cause him pain. Lily didn't look up, though pain flitted across her face. Yup, she knew he was there.

Lily still refused to acknowledge James's presence when he squatted down to her level right in front of her.

"Lily?" he prodded softly as he slowly reached to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

His fingers never made it to their destination because Lily, her eyes as bright and fiery as the killing curse, turned the full force of her glare upon him and froze him in his tracks. "Don't you dare touch me," she hissed.

"Look Lily, I'm really sorry about what happened; I don't even remember what happened! I was drunk; I didn't do whatever I did on purpose," he pleaded.

"You should know that blaming your actions on alcohol doesn't sit well with me," she replied stonily as she touched her healed cheek to remind him of her experiences with drunks.

James winced quite visibly. "I do know that," he tried to tell her. "I'm sorry for drinking too much too; I just got carried away!"

"I could tell that you got carried away," she sneered. "It was written all over your face!"

James fell back on his bum and put his face in his hands; tears were threatening to fall and James could barely keep them in check. He couldn't believe that he had caused Lily so much pain.

"Are you moving out?" he asked in a small and shaky voice.

"Where would I go?" she snarled.

Another wave of guilt crashed over James; maybe if she knew that her father was recreating his life she would have been gone by now.

"Are you breaking up with me?" he asked shakily.

"Hardly," she snorted. "That would be going much too easy on you."

Despite the frostiness in her tone, James couldn't help but feel relief. As long as she wasn't ending things with him he could fix their relationship.

"What can I do?" he asked her, finally making eye contact again.

Her anger had cooled a little, but her hardened features and harsh eyes still struck fear into James's heart.

"You'll have to figure that one out on your own. Now get our of my sight before I act on some ridiculous notion like snogging your best mate so that you can even feel a slice of what I'm feeling right now!" she barked.

James didn't need telling twice. As he walked down the corridor he heard the sound of a book hitting a wall followed by soft sobbing. That was twice he had left women who were important to him crying and he hadn't even had breakfast yet. James just hoped that his mother didn't make a third.

James didn't have the chance to make his mum cry; she wouldn't speak to him. When he joined the breakfast table, the only one who would even look at him was Peter, and even the look on Peter's face was far from friendly. Matters weren't helped much when Marlene, wearing Lily's clothes, appeared and took the seat to James's left. As the pair exchanged glances, the other occupants of the room watched them closely with hostility radiating off of them.

James hastily finished eating and escaped the house, unable to bear the disappointed looks and glares of his family and friends or to run into Lily again. Perhaps choosing the woods as his safe haven was a mistake, because Marlene followed him there, also seeking solace.

"Hey Marlene," said James dully as Marlene emerged from the woods into the small thicket.

"I would have thought you'd be flying," remarked Marlene as she sat on the ground across from James.

"I'm not sure I wouldn't crash on purpose," he said grimly. "Physical pain would be much better than this."

"We certainly screwed everything up," commented Marlene.

"No shit," spat James.

"Are you and Lily going to be okay?" asked Marlene nervously.

James removed his glasses and rubbed his face tiredly. "I really don't know, but as of right now she isn't leaving me."

"Well that's good," said Marlene hesitantly.

"Yeah, I just did a happy dance when I heard that one," he said sarcastically as he replaced his glasses. "I'm just so excited that the love of my life isn't going to risk her life by leaving me and living somewhere else, a place where she could easily be attacked and killed."

"Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself!" snapped Marlene. "I feel terrible too! You're not the only one who loves her!"

"You're right; I'm sorry," he quietly apologized. "This must be awful for you too."

"James, what did we even do?" Marlene whispered fearfully. "I can't remember anything except that we were talking and Lily left and then we got some brandy."

"We were talking about how we should have been a couple, and then we were kissing," whispered James, ashamed to even have to say the words aloud, never mind at a normal volume.

"You kissed me!" accused Marlene shrilly. "I was just sitting there and then you came to me and kissed me!"

"You kissed me back!" yelled James refusing to shoulder the blame.

"But you kissed me first! It's your fault!"

"You could have stopped me!"

"You didn't have to kiss me in the first place!"

"You didn't have to kiss me back!"

"I don't have a boyfriend; I wasn't doing anything wrong!"

"But you knew I had a girlfriend, so you knew that you were helping me to cheat on someone!"

"I'm not the cheater! You are!" bellowed Marlene.

"It takes two to tango!" James yelled back with as much intensity and volume.

"I was smashed out of my mind!"

"So was I!"

"I think I liked it!"

"I- you what?!"

Marlene softened her tone and demeanor. "You're right: I did kiss you back! And I think I liked it!"

"What if I liked it too?" whispered James. "I can't start trying to patch things up with- with Lily if it's possible that there's something between us; it wouldn't be right."

"And how are we going to-" Marlene's skeptical and angry comment was cut off because she found that once again James's lips were pressed to hers. She had to admit that he was technically a great kisser; he knew just what to do, but there were no fireworks going off for her. She knew what kissing chemistry was like; kissing Sirius had always made her think that oxygen was overrated because she never wanted to take her lips off of his. She had felt fireworks, and this wasn't it.

James felt similarly. Although kissing Marlene was pleasant enough, it was nothing like kissing Lily. With Marlene he felt no desire to pursue the kiss to any more intense levels, whereas with Lily he couldn't get close enough to her, couldn't even be satisfied even if he snogged her for a year without stopping.

"There's nothing there," remarked James calmly.

"Thank Merlin," gushed Marlene.

"What now?"

"You mend things with Lily, and I'll go on holiday with my parents. Time heals all things. Hopefully when I get home in a couple of months, Lily and I will be able to patch things up too," said Marlene with a strange calm. "Now I had better get home before any other disasters can befall us."

"Bye Marlene," said James as he stood up and hugged his friend.

"Bye James," said Marlene softly.

After Marlene left, James stayed in the clearing just thinking. How was he ever going to fix this? He had messed up in the past, but he had always had support from someone to help him through it; this time he had no one, not even his own mother!

A/N. Now I know that many of you wanted to read about the Quidditch game in detail, but unfortunately I'm absolute rubbish at writing Quidditch- hence why the game wasn't often mentioned and when it was, other things happened during the game. So I apologize, but this was the best I could do.

Now- some questions!

Did you like the fluffy moment between James and Lily on the terrace?

What do you think about the James/Marlene drama?

Do you think Lily is being too hard or soft on James?

What did you think of the beginning of the Prank War?

What should James do to win Lily back?

Review and you shall be rewarded! (I have the next three chapters written, I just need the incentive to post them :D)