A/N: Hello, all! Sorry that I haven't written anything recently. I released the first four chapters in quick succession, but I got caught up with some school work. Finals are upon me. I figured that I'd use Thanksgiving break to finish this chapter and begin writing the next one. Thanks for reading! Review!

Chapter Five: A Fresh Start

James woke up late on September first. It was around nine-thirty in the morning when his mother barged into his room.

"JAMES POTTER, WHAT ARE YOU BLOODY DOING? YOU CAN'T JUST SLEEP THE MORNING AWAY. WE HAVE TO LEAVE IN AN HOUR AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN BLOODY PACKED. MY DEAR MERLIN!" she shouted.

James's eyes sprung open and he nearly fell out of bed.

"Mum! Holy hell? What's going on?" he half yelled, half mumbled.

"James. The train? Hogwarts? Your last term? You need to finish packing. I'll get Constance to bring you up some food. I seriously worry for your future. Now hop in the shower and finish packing!" she turned on her heel to leave, her black wizard dress robes spinning out around her. She slammed his door closed.

James sprung up from off of the floor. He grabbed the first pair of jeans and white button down shirt he could find. He flung his door open and sprinted into the bathroom.

He took the fastest shower of his life, threw on his clothes, and rushed back into his bedroom. He hurriedly threw robes into his trunk on top of his books, which he blessedly had already packed the previous night. He didn't even care about the hectic mess he was making. It wasn't until he found the Head Boy badge sitting on his desk that he stopped and thought about what the day would really entail. The first part of the train ride would be a meeting with the prefects where they would talk about the year as a whole. The second would be a shorter meeting with Lily. The last bit he'd get to spend with his best mates.

He pocketed his badge and continued shoving parchment and spare quills into his still rather empty trunk. After a little while, there was a knock on his door and Constance entered carrying a tray of eggs and buttered toast.

"Thanks, Constance!" he said, jumping up and taking the tray from her.

"It isn't any trouble at all, Master Potter," she squeaked.

He smiled at her, "Remember that it's James, Constance."

"S-So sorry about that, Master James!" she said, whacking herself in the head with her hands.

"It's completely fine, Constance," he told her truthfully.

She gave him a small grin and exited his room. He scarfed down his meal and attempted with all his might to shut his trunk. It wouldn't budge, so he moved some items around and proceeded to sit on top of it in an effort to force the lid closed. Luckily, he succeeded and sighed in relief.

"James! Are you ready? We're about to leave!" his mother shouted at him from below.

"Coming!" he bellowed back.

He grabbed his wand off of his bed and levitated the trunk to float next to him and he grabbed his owl Alberic's cage. He ran down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. He pecked his mother on the cheek.

"Oh, good you're ready," she said, reaching up to fix his tie.

"Yes, Mum," he told her.

"You have everything? Your toothbrush? Your robes for the train? Your books?"

James smiled and declared, "I have packed it all!"

"Very well, let's apparate!" she said, taking the owl's cage. He watched as she turned on the spot and vanished.

He grabbed hold of his trunk, took a deep breath, and turned. He felt the familiar pull at his navel as a apparated.

Suddenly, he was on Platform 9 ¾. He could smell the exhaust from the train's engine and the familiar frantic voices. Hundreds of people were on the platform. There were a huge variety of families and the poor first years stuck out like sore thumbs.

"James!" he turned at the sound of his name. Peter Pettigrew was ambling over to him.

"Hello, Pete! Get here alright?" he asked him, smacking him on the back affectionately.

"Oh, it was fine. Remus already has us a compartment, but where's your owl?"

"My mum should—oh there she is!" James caught sight of his mother a few feet away. Her neck was craned as she searched for his face.

He shoved his way over to her with Wormtail following behind him.

"Ah, James! Here's Ableric," she told him, handing his owl to him.

"Thanks, Mum."

She looked him over; her eyes were welling up a bit.

"Well, James, today's the day, isn't it? I am so proud and I'm going to miss you so much!" she told him, choking up a bit at the end.

"Oh, Mum," he hugged her tightly.

"I love you, James," she said, pulling away. She ran her hands through his hair and started fixing his collar.

"Mum, stop. Merlin!" James groaned exasperatedly.

"Potter!" a new female voice called. James turned his head. Lily Evans was striding over to him. She was wearing the skirt, shirt and tie of the Hogwarts uniform. She looked stunning.

"Evans!" he began, but she cut him off.

"Potter, we have to go to the prefects' carriage now. Oh… er hello," she said, directing the conversation to James's mother. James caught Peter's eye, he was smirking at him. James shot him a look of dread, hoping that his mother wouldn't say something stupid.

"Oh, you must be Lily Evans! James has told me so much about you. Congratulations on Head Girl," his mother told her. James nearly fell over. He could not believe his mother would say that… well, in all honesty he could… she could have said worse.

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Potter. I am really excited and it's been wonderful to meet you, but Po-James and I really must be going." His mouth dropped when he heard Lily call him by his first name. He guessed that she felt bad not addressing him properly in front of his own mother. Again he and Peter locked eyes.

"James?" Peter mouthed at him astonished. James gave him a confused shrug.

Mrs. Potter nodded, hugged James one last time and turned to leave. Lily grabbed James's arm and began pulling him towards the train. Peter was scrambling to keep up.

"Oi, Evans! What's up? Why are we in such a rush? The train doesn't leave for another twenty minutes!" he complained.

"As the school's heads, we need to make sure everything runs smoothly before the departure. So, I need you to find your compartment, put you things in it, and come with me to the prefect's carriage. We have a lot to discuss before the main meeting starts," she told him.

Once they had climbed aboard the train, she released him.

"Our carriage is down at the end of the second hall and to the right. Meet me there after you have dropped off all of your things." James watched as she turned on her heel and marched away.

"You're going to have an interesting year, Prongs," said Wormtail, laughing.

James smiled at him, "Oh, I plan on it."

Peter began walking down the hall and James followed. He stopped when Peter turned into a compartment that had its door already open.

"Hello, Remus!" James greeted the young blond man sitting on the left window seat as he entered and set down his trunk.

"Hello, James, how are you?" Remus asked him.

"Not too bad. Evans nearly ripped my arm off getting me onto the train, but I'm alive."

"She must be quite nervous for today… are you?"

"You know me, I'm ready for anything. But I have to head off, responsibility calls." He said a goodbye to his two friends and wondered where Sirius was. He hoped that Sirius would arrive there soon.

He did not have to hope long. On his way to the prefects' carriage, he found Sirius snogging Marlene McKinnon.

"Ah, what a lovely day for the young lovers," he remarked.

Sirius jumped.

"Ow! Sirius, you bit my lip!" Marlene cried, whacking his arm.

"Sorry, Marls! James, how are you?" Sirius bellowed.

"I'm good, mate. But I'm in a bit of a rush. I'll see you later!"

"Well, bye!" he heard Sirius call indignantly. He'd get over it, though. James continued to the end of the hall then went into the right compartment.

He saw Lily sitting in a seat at the far end, her head was bent down. James watched her for a moment then, breaking out of his reverie, he spoke.

"Alright, Evans. I'm here. What do we need to go over this meeting?"

"Potter!" she gasped. "I-I-sorry! You just snuck up on me… I didn't see you there. Um… well… we need to go over how the meeting is going to run. I have the patrol schedules here. You and I will obviously patrol together, and the rest I did at random. I think we'll tell the prefects that if they don't like it, they can reschedule with us when we get to Hogwarts."

"Obviously?" James asked.

"What?" Lily inquired.

"You said we'd obviously patrol together," he raised his eyebrows at her.

"Oh please, Potter, deflate your ego. We're the Heads of Hogwarts. They always patrol together."

He laughed, "I'm only messing with you, Evans." He walked over and sat down next to her. "May I have a look?"

She nodded and slid over the piece of parchment. She sat back in the chair and rubber her eyes. James thought she looked absolutely fatigued. He glanced over the schedule; she had done a pretty good job. However, he noticed that Xenophilius Lovegood was paired with Severus Snape.

"Um… Evans?" he asked tentatively.

"What?" she asked, leaning forward to look at the schedule.

"Well, it's just that Snape will kill Xenophilius if they patrol together. You know how Xeno is… Why don't you pair up Xenophilius with Pandora Brosio and pair Snape up with Russell Kirk?"

He watched her purse her lips together, a crease formed at her eyebrows.

"That's… that's a smart idea, Potter," she said. James sighed in relief and watched as she waved her wand and the names changed.

"Right you are, Evans," he said, flashing a grin and ruffling his hair.

Lily watched as he messed up his hair. James Potter seemed to have not changed on the outside. He still acted cocky and self absorbed. Yet… he showed that he really could get over himself. When he pointed out to her that Xenophilius would drive Snape mad, he didn't call Snape a name or try to show that he was better than him. Maybe he had changed on the inside.

They quickly ran over the rest of the layout of the meeting. She told him that he should run this meeting. When he objected, she told him that the prefects needed to see him as a leader. He accepted but seemed uncomfortable and a little nervous.

During the meeting, Potter did a fantastic job. There were no complaints about the schedule and all the rules and duties of prefects were discussed. She couldn't help but watch him during the meeting. Lily had never really noticed since everyone thought this, but James Potter was attractive. Especially, now that he was acting like an adult for once. There were a few times where she noticed Snape glaring at him. She felt disappointed that Snape had not shown the same growth.

After the meeting had ended and the prefects had left, Lily watched Potter collapse on the chair and throw his arms over his head.

"That was fun, wasn't it, Potter?" she asked him sardonically.

"That was dreadful, Evans. I'm going to be a lousy Head Boy," he said, his arms muffling his voice.

"Rubbish. You're going to be excellent, Potter," she said. She watched as his arms flew off of his face so he could gape at her.

"Stop, joking. That isn't kind or fair."

"I'm not joking. I'm being honest. You did a great job; I couldn't have done it better myself," she smiled at him.

"Well, now what?" he asked, pushing his glasses a little up his nose.

"Now we relax for a little bit. Since this is our first Heads' meeting, I thought we would just… get to know each other better. It's good for the Heads to get along."

"Are you saying we don't get along now?" he asked her, pretending to be shocked.

She pushed him, "You know what I mean, Potter. We have had a history of not getting along in the past, so I thought we should start over a clean slate."

"You know, Evans, if you want to start over… maybe you should call me James?"

She was surprised that that was all he wanted. She had expected him to say something witty or rude, but he seemed to express this wish genuinely.

"Well, I guess I can work on that… James…" she said kindly.

"That sounds wonderful… Lily," he replied.

There was an awkward silence.

"So, what do you want to know about me? Anything in particular?" he asked her.

"Well… I dunno, what do you want to tell me?"

"Lily, aren't you the one who should be asking questions?"

"It's not partial to me," she said indignantly. She shifted her weight and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Alright then, I guess I'll start. Tell me about your life before Hogwarts. What is your family like?" James began.

"Well, growing up I had no idea what was going on with me. I thought it was rather interesting and unique. At first, my parents told me not to do any magic. It freaked my sister Petunia out. That's when I met…" she trailed off, a look of gloom entering her face.

"That's when you met Snape," James finished, realizing what she was referring to.

She nodded, "Yeah, he saw me on a playground around where we grew up. I was showing Petunia how I could make a flower bloom all by myself. She was getting upset and mean so I defended myself, but then Sev… Snape appeared out of nowhere and told me I was a witch. At first, I didn't believe it, but after a while I just had to accept it."

He smiled at her. "So what about you, James Potter? How was your childhood before Hogwarts?"

"Oh, it wasn't bad. Actually, it was brilliant. My parents always told me that I could do anything or be anyone that I wanted. They had such faith that I would make the right decisions and even though I was a right pain in their arse, they still loved me. I remember when my father bought me my first training broom. I remember hopping on it and zooming around about a foot off the ground. I didn't care how foolish I looked because I was flying. I spent most of my childhood zooming around the house, nearly giving our house elf, Constance, a heart attack," he started laughing.

It was a nice feeling, hearing his laughter fill the compartment. Lily smiled with him, wistfully wishing that her home life had been that nice. It hadn't been bad, but James's sounded like a dream.

He suddenly sighed, "Those were the days. But, my childhood was rather isolated… my parents were always away on urgent Auror business and I hardly got to see them. I didn't really care though. My parents were my heroes; I looked up to them. Sure I got into a lot of trouble in order to get their attention, but overall I respected what they were doing."

"They sound like wonderful people. Your mother seemed amiable when I met her on the platform…" Lily said and trailed off. She was remembering what Mrs. Potter had said to her. 'You must be Lily Evans! James has told me so much about you.' So James must still talk fondly about her. She was surprised that he even mentioned her to his mother.

"Ah, good old Mum. She always knows just what to say to embarrass me," James said, shaking his head as he laughed.

"I found her rather delightful."

"Well of course you did, she was praising you."

"The look on your face was priceless as well," Lily said. They were both laughing, then it faded away and there was some silence.

"What else do you want to know, Lily Evans?" James asked her, sitting up a little straighter.

"I think that's a good start for now, don't you? Personally, I'm exhausted and I think I'm going to go find Marlene and Emmeline," Lily told him. She felt a twinge of regret at seeing his disappointed expression.

"That sounds fine, Lily. I'll just go find Peter, Remus and Sirius," James told her. Lily put her parchment in her small bag, but when she said her last goodbye to James there was an awkward moment where they began walking the same direction.

"Oh, sorry, are your friends down this way too?" she asked him, laughing.

"Yeah, they are. Well, if you don't mind, I'll escort you until we reach your compartment or mine—whichever comes first," he told her holding out his arm. His eyes were daring her to take it, but her dignity forbade her.

She laughed again and pushed him forward slightly, his arm dropped and they were walking side by side down the train. They arrived at her carriage first; she could spot Emmeline's dark hair from the window.

"Well, this is where I get off. Goodbye, Pot-James," she said. He smirked when she tripped up at his name, but he just gave her a slight nod of his head and went about his way.

She slid the compartment door open.

"Oh hello, Lily!" Emmeline said, looking up as Lily entered the room.

"Hello, Emmeline, has the train ride been alright?" she asked her.

"It's been a bit lonely actually… Marlene has been with her lover the entire time! I don't ask for much but a little company would be nice."

"Ah, young love," Lily sighed exasperatedly.

"It sucks. I have things to tell both of you!" Emmeline said.

"What about?" Lily wondered.

"About why I got in trouble! It's important and I'd think that you would care to know."

"Oh my goodness, Em, I completely forgot! I am so sorry, I've been wrapped up with Head Girl stuff and I should have been more sensitive."

"It's okay, Lily, I understand. I know that you're busy and I didn't mean to lose my temper. Do you mind fetching Marlene and bringing her here?"

"Of course, Em, I'll go get her right away." Lily stood up and walked over to the door. She slid it open and began moving down the hall. She peered into every compartment until she found one with the four Marauders and her best friend.

She slid the door open. James's head perked up as she moved into the carriage. She tried not to notice, but it was difficult. She watched as his hand jumped to his hair.

"Marlene, do you mind coming back to our compartment? Em wants to talk to us," Lily began tentatively.

"Oh, I guess so. Sorry!" Marlene said, looking startled.

There was an awkward moment where Sirius pulled her close and full out snogged her. During this awkward moment, Lily made eye contact with James. The moment their eyes connected she looked away.

"Er… Hello, Remus, Peter… and it's good to see you again, James," she said, uncomfortably.

"Hello, Lily," Remus said tiredly. "They've been like this all day."

"I can only imagine," she said, groaning.

"Whatever you're imagining… the real thing is a hundred times worse," Peter chimed in. The four of them laughed. Meanwhile, Marlene pulled away from Sirius.

"Sorry, I have to go. I'll see you in the carriage later!"

"Goodbye, Sirius! It's been great chatting with you," Lily said jokingly.

Sirius smirked and rolled his eyes, "Right back at you, Evans."

She and Marlene exited the compartment.

"So why does Em need to talk to us so urgently?" Marlene asked as they wandered back towards their own compartment.

"Apparently, it's whatever she got in trouble for during last week."

"Oh my goodness, I completely forgot! I feel horrible."

"I know, so do I."

The two girls reached the compartment and entered.

"Em, I am so sorry that I've been so tactless!" Marlene burst out. She ran over and hugged Emmeline.

"It's fine, Marly, I just needed to tell you two or I'd explode."

"Alright, tell us what happened," Lily told her, sitting down across from the two girls.

"Well… I was… lying back at Diagon Alley… I wasn't really in trouble. My whole family was in trouble. My father had a run in with some Death Eater blokes while he was doing a job for the Aurors-" she began, but Marlene cut her off.

"But your father isn't a part of the Aurors… is he?" she asked.

"No, he was doing Alastor Moody a favor. I don't know what it was though. I had to stay out of contact with everyone in case the Death Eaters were hunting him down and reading our owls. That's why no one knew I was going to Diagon Alley that day and why you two thought I was in trouble with my parents. No one could know where we were, I honestly went to Diagon Alley on a whim because I needed school supplies. I wasn't supposed to be there at all."

Lily was astonished. She started to speak, "But, that's serious, Em. You are in danger, why did you come back to Hogwarts?"

Emmeline looked at her surprised. "It's the safest place for me."

"That is true… I can't believe this. Where is your family now?"

"They are in hiding. We can't risk them being out in the open. The only person besides me who knows their location is Moody and he won't tell anyone. 'Constant vigilance' is what he always says."

"I wish we had known, but… this is crazy… this supposed war… I mean, I've never heard of anything like it. Muggle-borns being attacked. Your family being targeted… Oh my goodness… Lily! What about you? Shouldn't your family go into hiding?" Marlene said, freaking out.

"I highly doubt that Voldemort cares about one mostly muggle family. If the situation gets worse and he starts attacking every Muggle, I'll go to Dumbledore… I guess… I haven't really given their safety too much thought. My life there and my life here just seems like they are from two different worlds—which they are—but…" Lily said, looking down and furrowing her brows.

"Well, whatever's coming… it's going to come rather quickly… Every week there are more headlines about Death Eaters and all their horror. I hope it goes away soon…" Emmeline said.

Lily and Marlene nodded in agreement.