Chapter 1. Paler than before

James Potter was walking with his parents towards the barrier leading to platform 9 and ¾ at Kings Cross Station. He was attracting many strange stares from people. If one of them looked at him for more than a couple of seconds he would give a false but still charming smile and wave patronizingly.

He was well aware of the fact that this would be his last year at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry and as he smiled inside, he knew this was going to be the best year he had ever had at Hogwarts because this year…this year she would see him for who he really was.

He looked across the station and a pretty red head caught his eye. She too was attracting many weird stares which she was happily ignoring having grown used to it over the last seven years. She was pushing a rather large trunk and a very loud screeching owl whilst trying to hug and kiss her parents goodbye. James watched her with admiration and noticed she looked rather paler than usual but he just shrugged it off.

As they both got closer to the barrier, James still staring at her, Lily Evans noticed him. He gave her a small smile. Not his usual arrogant, "I'm the best at everything" smile but a small, shy, sweet and innocent smile.

Lily frowned. Since when does James Potter ever smile like that? Then a streamline of thoughts entered her head, does he know? He can't, can he? Don't be stupid of course he can't you haven't even told your friends yet.

James decided to speak first as they approached the barrier, "Hi Evans…err…I mean Lily." What was that in his voice? Was it? Was he nervous? Since when was James Potter ever nervous? This couldn't be right.

"Since when has it been Lily, Potter?" she asked harshly whilst sliding through the barrier attracting absolutely no attention. James followed in the same way followed closely by his parents.

"Since I spotted the head girl badge you are wearing. Congratulations I knew it would be you!" he replied sincerely.

"You still haven't answered my question Potter," she said impatiently.
"Oh right, well, the great man that Dumbledore is, he still managed to make one of the best trouble makers in the history of the universe, Head boy," he said smiling until he saw Lily's expression.

He knew what was coming now, the calm before the storm was nearly over. After looking just shocked for a few seconds she then shook the whole station roaring, "POTTER! PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE JOKING!" she was clearly angered.

"No Ev...Lily. We are going to be working together whether you like it or not. I have some interesting ideas I'd like to discuss with you," he said acting exactly the way he thought a head boy should act yet clearly making fun of himself in the process. Lily wondered how anyone could do that.

"Anyway Lily," he continued a little dejectedly. "I would appreciate it if you could be courteous to me and call me by my first name."

Lily stared dumbfounded. Was Potter teaching her manners? After a while she gave a reply though clearly not at all pleased about it, "Fine." She said shortly.

James then saw she really was looking very pale and was starting to look unsteady on her feet. She raised a hand to her head and fainted landing in James' arms where he caught her with ease.

She opened her eyes and looked up to see James staring at her. Wow. He looks good, she thought and then realised that she had been in his arms for about thirty seconds just staring at him. She immediately scrambled out of his arms as fast as she could and tried to collect herself.

"Lily, Lily! Hey!" she heard two voices calling. It was her two greatest friends in the world, Kiara Williams and Lisa Taylor who both ran up to her and gave her huge hugs although she kept her gaze on James who was looking at her concern etched all over his face.

As her two friends released her from their bear hugs James spoke, "Are you alright Lily?"

"I'm fine James," she said in a grateful tone.

Kiara and Lisa looked onto the scene astonished and puzzled. Since when did Lily and James call each other by their first names? And why was James asking if Lily was alright?

"Are you sure?"

"I said I'm fine," she replied a little more angered and annoyed this time.

All four people continued to stare at each other not knowing what to say, just mingling in the awkward silence when a distant shout brought everyone out of their reverie.

"Hey Prongs!" James heard a voice call. He turned and saw Sirius standing next to Remus who also looked a little pale but this time he knew why. Then a sudden thought crossed his mind. Could Lily be? No that's absurd of course she couldn't.

He turned back to face Lily, "Well I better be going. I'll see you on the train," and with a small smile he headed off calling, "Hey moony, Padfoot!"

"Lily what was all that about? Why was James Potter asking you if you were alright? He looked really worried," Kiara asked watching James walk away curiously.

"Guys, I need to tell you something," Lily answered.

"What's the matter? Is everything alright?" asked Lisa obviously worried.

"No, no not really," Lily replied solemnly as she climbed into the train with her head hanging low.

"Hey guys, where have you been Padfoot? You left the house this morning really early but mum wouldn't tell me where you were," James said as he strolled up to meet his two friends.

"I was just sorting out some unattended business," Sirius replied.
Remus scoffed, "By business you mean women right?"

"Got it in one, Moony my old friend," Sirius answered proudly. "Anyway, enough about me. Prongs, were you just talking to Lily? Lily Evans and you didn't get slapped or hexed. You must be making progress."

"Yeah but she…" he started but decided it wasn't his place to tell them about the incident concerning Lily fainting

"She what James?" Remus asked.

"Never mind," he replied and plastered on a huge grin.

"Well we better get on the train, it's about to leave," stated Sirius.

"Yeah hang on Padfoot I just want to say goodbye to my parents," James told him.

"Me too. Wait up Prongs!"

"I'll get us a compartment," Remus offered.

"Yeah, thanks Moony. Hang on a minute. Where's Wormtail?" James asked the both of them.

"I don't know I haven't seen him. He'll just have to find us on the train," Remus answered.

"Okay. See you in a minute," James said quickly.

"You better hurry. The train's about to leave!"

"We will," Sirius told him.

Chapter 2. Step 2: Telling and making friends

Lily, Kiara and Lisa were all sitting in a compartment to themselves and Lily had just told them her big secret. They were really shocked.

"So?" asked Lily, trying to get her friends out of the silence they had been in since she had told them.

"I just can't believe this Lily," Kiara said clearly quite upset as she then grabbed Lily and pulled her into an enormous hug.

Lisa was also close to tears, "How are you going to…? Are you gonna even try…?" But she couldn't seem to be able to complete a sentence so she just joined Kiara and Lily hugging turning it into a group hug.

"The answer to the questions I think you were trying to ask is…I don't know," Lily spoke after being let go of her best friends. "Telling you two was just step two of the plan."

"What was step one?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Coming to terms with the fact that I might…" she trailed off and started to cry. "I mean I thought I'd completed that step."

"Don't worry Lily we'll be there for you. Whatever you need we will help you beat this," Kiara said kindly putting a hand on Lily's shoulder. "And you still haven't told us why you and Potter were calling each other by your first names and why he was asking if you were alright. So come on."

"Well, I cannot believe that this actually happened but Potter is head boy and he was telling me that he thought since we were going to be working together could I be courteous and call him by his first name." Lily answered.

Lisa gave the shocked expression Lily was hoping for whilst Kiara only just held back a laugh and said, "Go on."

"The worst part was that I actually agreed with him. But then because I was so angry I kinda fainted right into his arms," Lily finished shyly. "And that's when you two came in."

Lily looked worriedly at Lisa because she was looking very strange with her head tilted one way. It wasn't until she saw Lisa put her finger to her lips signalling for them to be quiet she knew that Lisa was straining to hear something outside the door. With the silence in the room Lily could hear two boys stood outside talking in hushed whispers.

"Just go in there Prongs!" Sirius said getting quite frustrated now.

"But what if she…?" James replied nervously.

"If she what Prongs?"

"I don't know."

"Can you hear that?"

"No."

"Exactly!" and with one quick movement of opening the door he pushed James inside the compartment before he could object and slid in after him closing the door.

"Hi Lily," James said. He looked a bit embarrassed.

"Hey Potter. I mean James," Lily replied coolly. She wasn't completely comfortable with the whole first name thing yet.

Now that he had gotten the hard part over and successfully talked to Lily without her slapping him for the second time James seemed to get more confident.

"Lily, we have to get to the heads compartment. The prefects are probably already there."

"Oh right, I completely forgot. I'll be back later guys," she said although to Lisa mostly as Sirius had slid in next to Kiara trying to charm her whilst having absolutely no luck. She was always going on about how much Sirius Black annoyed her but she was always careful to not say that she didn't like him. Just that he really, really annoyed her. A fact which Lily and Lisa had after 6 years of it now noticed and rolled their eyes at each other. Sirius had slid his arm around her and she was taking it off disgustedly.
"Okay, are you going to be alright Lily?" Lisa asked.

"I'll be fine."

James and Lily were strolling down the corridor on the way to the heads compartment. James chose to speak first, "Lily, what was that in the station?"

"It was nothing. Don't worry about it."

"I'm sorry if I worry about the people I like"

"You don't like me James, you just enjoy the chase!" she said starting to get angry again.

"I can't believe you think that. You honestly think I'd go after a girl for three years just because I "liked the chase" Do you have any idea of what my feelings are? No you don't. So just know this. I like you Lily, I like you a lot. More than any other girl I've ever known." James replied rapidly. Hurt in his voice.

Lily stared, rooted to the spot, stunned at James for what seemed like forever until she finally said, "James I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

"Forget it Lily. Let's just get this meeting over with."

"So that's it everyone. We'll have our first prefects meeting at the school next weekend," Lily said just finishing their meeting in the prefect's compartment on the train. "And please this year I don't won't anyone to forget their house passwords. Just remember you are the responsible ones and should be able to help members of your house if they are in need. And not as some of you demonstrated last year giving you the means to lock a fellow house member out of their own common room when they've forgotten the password." She looked directly at the 6th year slytherin prefects as she said this.

All the prefects got up and left the compartment and James and Lily were the last to leave.

"Look James about earlier, I'm really sorry, I should have looked at things from your point of view. It's just with your reputation you can hardly blame me," Lily said to James.

"Lily that really disappoints me 'cos the reason I like you in the first place is you don't base things on what you hear and you don't judge or gossip. So why would you believe anything you hear about me? And don't say because Sirius said it and because he's my best mate you think that anything that comes from him about me must be true. We like getting each other in trouble as much as we like getting in trouble together."

Lily laughed. "I don't really know but you know you didn't really help matters with keeping asking me out all the time."

"Okay I admit that was a bit over the top but how are you ever going to say yes if I don't even ask," James said a smile playing across his face.

Lily laughed again, "I suppose."

"Wow. I've made you laugh twice in the same conversation, "James said as he laughed lightly himself.

She couldn't help it, she laughed again, "James instead of just being on a first name basis why don't we try and be," she paused. "Friends."

"Friends huh?" he replied.

"Yeah,"

"Sure. I'd love to."

Chapter 3. Warnings on arrival

James and Lily walked back into the compartment where Lily had left her friends and James had left Sirius. They both walked in to the compartment, engulfed in a pleasant conversation, to two extra people sitting with Kiara, Lisa and Sirius. Remus and Peter were there and Remus and Kiara looked like they had just been talking to each other but they had all looked up when Lily and James walked in, they stared shocked at the pair that had just walked in laughing and were stood right next to each other.
"Hey Lily," said Remus breaking the silence.

"Hi Remus," replied Lily. "Peter," she acknowledged. He just looked at her with no emotion in his face.

"You. Two. Together. Cannot process," Sirius said mechanically.

Lisa laughed and rolled her eyes. Sirius winked at her but this time she didn't giggle like she usually would she stared at Sirius and said, "I think you better sit down." Obviously she had lost some embarrassment that she usually had when talking to Sirius.

"So seriously, how come you two are together and neither of you are angry or hurt. Or am I just losing my marbles?" Kiara interjected.

"Bit late for that love," Remus said playfully.

Kiara slapped him on the arm.

"Ow! That hurt."

"It was meant to."

"So…?" she continued pressing for an answer.

"Well, Lily and I have decided to become friends since we will be working together which will be cool cos then we can all hang out like a group if you want," James said quickly before Lily could get a word in edge ways.

"Yeah that sounds really great," Lisa answered happily.

They all spent the rest of the journey talking happily and getting to know one another. After a while they changed into their school robes and played exploding snap until they reached Hogsmeade station. Lisa was continuously beating Sirius whilst James was having the same luck against Lily.

As they got off the train James said to Sirius, "I can't believe you got beaten by a girl." Sirius was just about to retaliate when Lisa tapped James on the shoulder. He turned around.
"Would you care for a game later?" Lisa said with a strong glare.

James, sensing danger, immediately said, "No. That's alright. I'm fine thanks," causing Sirius, Kiara and Lily to laugh.

They heard Hagrid's usual call of, "Firs' years over 'ere." "Alrigh' James, Lily. I see ya together and neither o' ya seem to be injured so that's good."

"Very funny Hagrid," James said acting annoyed. "I'll see you inside then."

"Wou'dn miss it for the world," Hagrid replied.

The eight of them managed to find a horseless carriage together and they all rode happily up to the castle.

Lily, Lisa and Kiara were now sitting on one side of the Gryffindor house table in the great hall. James was on the other side opposite Lily, along with Sirius opposite Lisa and Remus opposite Kiara with Peter sitting next to Remus opposite a very nervous looking second year girl.

Sirius looked at the ceiling and said, "Oh man I can't believe it, it's gonna rain."

James put a hand on Sirius' shoulder, looked him in the eye and said, "Padfoot. The ceiling is not real. We are not outside. It doesn't matter that it is going to rain because we are inside. Repeat after me. The ceiling is enchanted. Say it with me now."

"The ceiling is enchanted. The ceiling is enchanted," Sirius and James said together.

"Do you understand Padfoot?" James said slowly.

"I think so. So the ceiling is enchanted to look like the sky outside?"

"Yes. Finally after six years he understands."

The girls all burst out laughing. This caused the group to get many curious stares as most of the school knew about Lily Evans hatred for James Potter and to see the two of them together laughing would have come as quite a shock.

Lily looked around and saw people staring at her and she looked down at the table. Until James leaned in to her and said so that only she could hear him, "Don't listen to them Lily. You're above it. Remember?"

He leaned back and started talking to Sirius and Remus about something, oblivious to Lily's gaze of wonder upon him. How did he do that? They'd only been friends for less than a day and he already knew exactly what to say to her to make her feel better. Wow. James Potter really is something.

Just then the huge doors broke open distracting Lily's gaze from James as the whole hall went silent. Professor McGonagall walked in leading a line of very scared looking first years looking from side to side taking in their miraculous surroundings.

Some looked more confident than others. Lily guessed they must have been from wizarding families whereas the nervous ones were probably muggleborn. She could relate, she remembered how scared she was that she wouldn't fit in when she first arrived at hogwarts but then she discovered that there were others like her and others that didn't approve of her heritage. But the friendliness far outweighed the hostility.

McGonagall placed the sorting hat on a three legged stool in the middle of the room. The hat's brim started to open and it began to sing.

Normally, I'd sing a song that
Would make you laugh out loud
But this year I'll be serious
And tell you why I doubt
That we can all relax this year
As to many it shall bring fear
And whilst some will worry and some will cry
There are saviours among us
They will help in fighting this and try
To end this war before it begins
We can unite in this school and spread peace
Or we can crumble and no one will release
There are those that will be caught
And those that won't
But a saviour will be born and give us hope
So to follow my warning with the usual song
Those that go to Gryffindor are heartfelt and brave
Courage and kindness will be what you gave
There are those that go to Slytherin
Where power resides
And those that will take measures to get it
Will be cunning and sly
Ravenclaw is where the smart doth go
To get good grades and match their foe
And Hufflepuff shall be for everyone
As she herself had every factor of intelligence, bravery and cunning
So where you end I will choose
Place me on your head
So I can see from where you should be led

The whole hall was silent, not the usual applause after the sorting hat had finished its' song but terrified, dismal silence.

Professor Mcgonagall broke the silence by stammering the first name on her list of first years.
"Ab...Abode, Allan."

After a few seconds the hat called out, "Ravenclaw" The Ravenclaw table burst into applause relaxing everyone again. The rest of the sorting continued in the same manner until finally, "Zidler, Amy." was sorted into Gryffindor.

Sirius stomach was grumbling loudly. "Are you really that hungry?" Lisa asked him.

"Starving," he replied.

"I don't think you'll have to wait much longer," she said gesturing to the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore as he stood up behind the staff table.

There was now immense silence in the great hall and the first years following the rest of the school's example sat silent, staring intently at Dumbledore.

"Greetings to all who have come to another year at Hogwarts. For many of you I am sure it will be your best year yet." He looked directly at the Gryffindor table as he said this and Lily could have sworn he had been looking at her and James.

"And a special welcome to all newcomers. I am sure you will come to think of Hogwarts as your home but as this is a school I do have to put some rules down. Firstly the forbidden forest is just that, forbidden. I would also appreciate that a few older students should know this by now too. Also there is a list of banned objects by the caretaker which I am told can be found outside his office if anyone would care to take a look although I will tell you most of the list contains items from Zonko's or other joke shops."

"Anyway I think that's enough rules for now so let the feast begin." He motioned his arms apart across the great hall and the tables filled with delicious food.

"Finally," said Sirius.