Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the long wait….I got into Graduate School though! Just a reminder that I don't own what you recognize—just the plot! Chapter 10 is already starting to be written (I have an outline for a bunch of chapters, I just have to find time to write), so please review and let me know what you think!

Chapter 9

"Lily," a soft voice whispered in her ear. "Come on, you need to wake up."

"Five more minutes," Lily replied.

James started to kiss her shoulders and her neck. He needed to get her awake so she could get to her dorm and get ready for class. He knew she would be upset all day if she was late or if she missed breakfast—plus neither of them wanted to get caught sleeping in the same bed.

"Lily," he whispered, kissing her ear. "If you sleep any longer Sirius is going to see you in your pajamas."

That was all the encouragement she needed. Lily sprung awake and scrambled around in the unfamiliar setting.

"What time is it?" She whispered frantically.

"It's only six thirty," James said. "I wanted to give you time to take a shower and grab breakfast before class."

She kissed him on the cheek and grabbed her slippers off the floor. "You're the best James," Lily said.

Lily left James with a goofy grin on his face and quickly ran up the Girls' Staircase. Once she got to her dorm, she saw that her friends were still asleep. She took out a clean uniform and slipped into the bathroom. Lily had a lot to think about and the shower was just the place to do it.

Stepping under the hot water, she was able to think about James and what he was really like. So much had happened in the span of a week that it was almost too overwhelming for her to handle—especially since she wasn't able to talk to Alice about it. Lily knew it was too soon to see if her new relationship with James was going to work; she needed time to trust him. She just hoped her heart wouldn't get broken in the process.

"Hey mate, what's with the big ass grin?" Sirius eyed James on their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Can't I just be in a good mood?" James replied.

"Not on a fucking Monday. What happened," Sirius joked. "Have a wet dream last night?"

"Fuck off," James replied. "I'm just in a good mood."

"Hey Pete," Sirius turned to the mousy boy. "Have you ever heard of someone being in a good mood on a Monday?"

"Just Remus when he's excited for class," Peter smiled.

"Oh ha ha," Remus smiled. "A person can't like classes?"

"No," all three boys answered Remus at once.

They walked into the Great Hall and sat down. James instantly looked for Lily but found her surrounded by people in their house. He forgot she liked to get to breakfast early so she could get to class on time. Piling eggs and toast onto his plate, James turned his attention back to the conversation the other Marauders were having.

"So I'm thinking," Sirius said quietly. "We could have a drink in that other pub. You know, that dodgy one at the end of the road."

"The Hogshead," Peter gulped. "I don't know if that's a good idea. It's really sketchy and I heard that there's a banshee or a hag or something like that that goes there."

"Peter," James sighed. "Do you really think they would let students go there if it was dangerous? Stop acting like a First Year."

"You need to get a grip on yourself mate," Sirius said. "If you can't make it to the Hogshead how are you going to handle our other adventures?"

"Speaking of which, we need to come up with some way to hide what we're talking about," Remus said. "I suggest we think about it during the day and talk about it at dinner."

"Remus, I'm shocked!" Sirius said jokingly. "Do you really want us to think about what we are supposed to be learning in class?"

"Do you ever pay attention?"

"You know I don't. I just copy your answers."

"What would you do if I stopped giving you my answers?"

"Oh my dear Remus, you know that would never happen."

"If you two idiots would stop bickering like a married couple, you'll see that you're going to be late for class," a sarcastic voice said just behind them making Peter jump.

"Hey McKinnon," Sirius said. "Don't you have someone else to annoy this morning?"

"Shove off Black," Marlene retorted. "I don't care what you do, Emm wanted to talk to Remus otherwise I wouldn't be near you at all."

Both Remus and Emmeline blushed at that last comment. Both groups of friends knew that they had a crush on each other, but they were both so shy that neither had done anything about it. The closest they had come to dating was studying together in the library or in the Common Room—and even then Emm always asked one of the girls, most likely Lily, to come and study with them.

"Hey Em," Remus said his face flushing even further. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if we were still on to study later tonight?" Emmeline asked. "I'm really having trouble with some of this Defense homework."

"Yeah definitely," Remus smiled. "Do you want to meet up after dinner and then walk to the library?"

"Sure, that sounds great."

Remus flushed. Emmeline seemed overly happy to study with him. He knew he had to make a move on her soon, but he didn't want to end up hurting her. Remus was never good at letting people get close to him because of his condition; being a werewolf was not a trait people typically liked in friends, let alone in a boyfriend.

As the group walked out of the Great Hall and up the steps to Transfiguration, Lily's heart reached out for Remus. She knew that he liked her friend very much and she knew why he was hesitant about relationships with anyone. Lily had figured out Remus' secret in their first year but never told him; she felt that Remus would come to her if he wanted her to know what he was.

This year, the Gryffindor Fifth Years had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws; almost everyone was glad that they were not paired with the Slytherins like they had been last year. The group settled down and waited for Professor McGonagall to start the lesson. McGonagall was nice outside of the classroom and very strict in it—with a pair like James Potter and Sirius Black in your class, you couldn't afford to be lenient otherwise they would be unruly the entire time.

"Now I'm sure you all know that the Fifth Year Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations have a practical side as well as the written portion," McGonagall started off.

When no one objected, she continued. "I want you to pair with the person you are sitting next to and take turns transfiguring your desk into an animal. You will be using the spell I have had you research over the past week."

The class went about their lesson without as much as a groan. They knew McGonagall wasn't the professor to mess with. Lily was paired with Marlene, who declined to go first because she was not a big fan of Transfiguration.

"I just can't get the hang of this wrist movement," Marlene complained to Lily. "I don't think I'm flicking it in the right direction."

"I think you're doing it too hard," Lily, who had managed it on her third try, had told her. "You should try slowing it down until you're used to the movement."

"Hey Evans, I know something you can do hard," Sirius called from the next group.

"Fuck off Black," Marlene yelled.

"What's the matter McKinnon?" Sirius retorted. "I'm sure I can help you practice getting that wrist movement right."

"Yeah," Marlene laughed. "We all know you get enough practice on your own."

The whole class had stopped what they were doing in order to watch Sirius and Marlene have a screaming match. Their fights were almost as infamous as the times that Lily and James fought each other.

"What do you need to go picking on Lily for?" Marlene asked. "Are you really going to tell me Potter is okay with you hitting on the one girl he's liked since First Year?"

"How do you know that's not a cover?" Sirius joked. "Maybe old Jamie here is pretending to like her so I can get to know her."

"Sirius, mate," James said through gritted teeth. "You're stepping over the fucking line."

"Oh come on," Sirius said. "We all know you like her. What we don't know is who she likes."

"Sirius," James said. "Just drop it."

"I don't think Black knows how to let anything go," Marlene said.

"Oh McKinnon," Sirius replied. "Are you feeling left out?"

"Only in your perverted dreams, Black."

"You know, we could make my dreams come true if you and Lily want to come upstairs later and" — WHAM!

All of a sudden there was a flurry of movement and Sirius was on the floor. James was standing over him with his hands balled into fists looking enraged. Most of the class was surprised at this outburst; James and Sirius had never gotten into an argument before today and here they were fist fighting.

"MISTER POTTER, MISTER BLACK, AND MISS MCKINNON!" McGonagall shouted and the whole class grew deadly silent. "Detention! All three of you see me after class and I will give you the details. Fighting in a classroom! Never have I seen this before, especially from my own house. Ten points will be taken from Gryffindor, each."

"Professor," Marlene started.

"Save it Miss McKinnon," McGonagall cut her off. "Unless you would like to make it twenty points each?"

"No ma'am," Marlene replied.

"Good," McGonagall said. "For the rest of the lesson Miss McKinnon will be working with Mister Pettigrew, Mr. Black with Miss Vance, Miss Evans with Mister Lupin, Mister Potter with Miss Prewitt."

As Lily and Remus has already mastered the spell before the fight had broken out, they were able to talk quietly amongst themselves while taking turns transfiguring their desk without McGonagall getting mad at them.

Lily was grateful to be paired with Remus. The two of them were friends before this year and Lily always thought he was the most sensible of the four boys. Plus, if she were paired with Peter she would have been trying to help him the entire lesson like poor Marlene is doing now.

"Don't worry about Marlene," Remus said after noticing where Lily was looking. "I think Peter is too afraid of her to really annoy her."

Lily laughed. "She's really not that bad. Sirius just gets to her sometimes."

"Oh so he's Sirius now and not 'Black'," Remus inquired. "You know something Lily, they fight almost as much as you and James do. I wonder if there's not some underlying sexual tension there."

"Marlene and Sirius?" Lily laughed. "That'll be the day McGonagall lets her hair down for once."

Lily and Remus spent the rest of the lesson chatting quietly about their upcoming homework in Defense Against the Dark Arts and other school things. They settled on asking Amos Diggory, the Fifth Year Hufflpuff Prefect if he would cover for Remus once a month when he couldn't patrol with her. Lily thought Amos was nice and not bad to look at either, but they weren't as close as her and Remus.

The end of the lesson came and Remus waited around for James, Sirius, and Marlene to see what their detention would be. Lily, who was the only one without a free period after Transfiguration, had to run across the castle to Ancient Runes. Waving goodbye to Alice and Emmeline and making them promise to save her a seat at lunch, Lily ran off right as the three trouble makers came out of the classroom looking upset.

"Can you believe she's making us clean the Potions classroom with no magic?" Marlene said frustrated.

"You should just learn to ignore Sirius like the rest of us," Remus told her. "Your life would be much easier."

"Yeah, well I guess we got off easy considering James has to do a whole week for hitting that idiot."

"A whole week James?" Peter gasped. "Does this mean you can't go to the Hogshead with us?"

"The Hogshead?" Alice asked. "Why would you want to go to a dodgy place like that?"

"Pete's mistaken," Sirius said glaring at him. "We're not going to the Hogshead, we were talking about it being in Hogsmeade and he got confused is all."

"But I thought," Peter started before James stepped on his foot.

"Whatever, all I know is I have detention every single day with Minnie," James said. "And I seriously doubt she'll let me go to Hogsmeade."

"Minnie?" Emmeiline asked laughing.

"Yeah," Sirius laughed. "That's what we call McGonagall; it's a privilege of the Marauders."

Marlene rolled her eye at the boys. "You guys are morons. Come on girls, if we don't make it look like we started our homework Lily will never let us copy her."

The girls took off for the Gryffindor Common Room leaving the boys behind. Marlene wanted to get away from Sirius as quickly as possible. She didn't know why she let him get under her skin. Because Marlene was a pureblood like Sirius, James, and Alice, Marlene had grown up going to parties and other social gatherings that their parents threw. Sirius was always a bit sulky when his parents were around; they didn't approve of his friendship with James, but couldn't outright forbid him to be friends with another pureblood. That is, until this "Dark Lord" figure started a "Pureblood Mania."

Marlene's parents were, in the beginning, neutral towards the whole ordeal. They loved their pureblood heritage, but didn't mind if Muggleborn students came to Hogwarts. Sirius' parents let him be friends with Marlene because of this; they though that, by inviting the McKinnon family to social events, they would be able to persuade them to join the pureblood movement that the Dark Lord was starting.

Marlene's parents, when they found out that the movement meant killing Muggles and Muggleborns, decided not to stay neutral. They opposed the movement vehemently and did everything they could to stop it. Marlene stayed friends with Sirius before they got to Hogwarts so he wouldn't be alone. When she explained that to her parents, they sent Marlene alone to the Black family events and invited Sirius to come over as much as possible. Everything changed when they got to Hogwarts though; Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor and reunited with James. Sirius vowed to give up everything from his childhood because of his parents' views and that apparently meant giving up Marlene's friendship.

Marlene reflected on this almost every time she got into a fight with Sirius and it only made her angrier. She truly enjoyed Sirius' friendship growing up and was hurt when it ended. She felt that he left her alone in all the pureblood mess without a friend. That was why she tended to push her own friends away; she didn't want to get hurt again the way Sirius hurt her.

Looking at Emmeline and Alice as they took their textbooks out of their bags, she knew that she was lucky. She might fight with her friends, but at the end of the day they will always be there for her.