Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. They belong to J.K Rowling and associates.

Always There For Me.

By Mithua.

***

Chapter 1: That Girl.

Nice warm summer days, where the green haze of the forest blended in with the cool blue of the lake, where the towering castle loomed, where all was peaceful, where birds sang, and trees swayed in the gentle summer wind, where…

The peaceful serenity of the area was knock away when a loud explosion was heard from the dungeons of the castle. Some windows opened from the dungeon and smoke drifted away. As it cleared, the class of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were seen. Hair all spiked up in different directions, wide eyed, gobsmacked at the two boys standing where there once stood a standard pewter cauldron, Their hair all spiked up, soot covering their faces, along with other substances that were once the ingredients for a growing potion.

"POTTER! BLACK! DETENTION! AND AN EXTRA TWENTY POINTS OFF GRYFFINDOR!" yelled Professor Hooley, the potions master.

"Class dismissed, Potter and Black, stay behind and clean up all this mess!" snapped the moody old hag. One by one, the students started to file out of their classroom, still in shock, but snickering. James Potter and Sirius Black were left behind and started to clean up the place, under the watchful eye of the professor. Once they were a good way out of class, they both burst out laughing.

"Who would have thought a little Filibuster Firework would grow that much?" Sirius gasped between laughs. James just shook his head a little and smirked knowingly. He had put an Engorgement Charm in with the Growing Potion making the firework huge before it went off.

"Engorgement Charms are quite handy," he laughed and pulled some of his unruly black hair away from his eyes.

The summer had done James a lot of good. He had grown more, his brown eyes were full of mischief and he had become more muscular and handsome. But his jet-black hair remained in its messy ways, which just added to his charming features. Sirius had grown his dark brownish black hair just pass his shoulders and kept it tied in a loose ponytail. He had a low husky voice and shining blue eyes that had a mischievous glint and warm expression. They were both of the same height and they were just part of the scheming Marauders, the original pranksters of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The other members were Remus Lupin, a smart boy with silvery blonde hair and blue grey eyes. He was fairly tall and had a mysterious aura around him. He was polite, a hard worker, patient, friendly and modest. But he did come up with some of the biggest pranks ever, making him a very reliable Marauder. These three were charming 5th years that girls would swoon over, but they had never really gone out with any of them, just flirt and tease them. Peter Pettigrew, was also a Marauder, a tubby, short boy with golden curls, and a squeaky voice. He grew nervous around folk, but he was a friend of the trio. So these were the Marauders.

James and Sirius walked up to the portrait of the fat lady in the wide pink dress. She looked at them and smirked, they were still covered with soot.

"Hello boys, love the look," she said sarcastically.

"You look lovely too," Sirius said flashing his perfect grin. The fat lady blushed slightly.

"Password?" she said smiling.

"Monkey Eyes." James grinned his award-winning smile. The portrait swung open.

"Thank you!" they said and entered, they heard her mutter something about 'such nice young men' and 'I wish there were more of them around.'

They entered through the tunnel and were greeted by other Gryffindors that were present in their class.

"Nice one!" some of them chanted.

The two Maruaders grinned and headed for the boy's dorms. Badly needing a shower.

***

That evening the Marauders sat at the corner of the common room to plan their next prank to play of Severus Snape, a slimy haired Slytherin who always seemed to want to get them into more trouble than they actually need.

"Maybe we should give him a green Afro and tattoo 'I'm a self righteous asshole' on his forehead." Remus suggested with a smirk.

"Yeah, and dress him up in one of those muggle aprons with frills!" Sirius added.

James had stopped listening to them half way through. He had been gazing at a girl with fiery hair and green eyes in amazement. James had observed her even since she had entered the common room. She had sat on the rug in front of the fire because all of the couches and chairs had been taken. She had been swooped away from all of reality as her eyes danced across the page of a little book. She had remained like that for over an hour. James was surprised that she could remain so interested in the book for such a long time. He had always found reading so boring. But what amazed him most were her brilliant green eyes. So full of curiosity, serenity, warmth and interest. She would tear her eyes away from the book from time to time and gaze at the empty chairs where people had sat and then turn her head towards her book again. James didn't know her too well, but knew her name was Lily Evans, that she was muggle born, that she was very smart and that she didn't seem to have many friends. He stood up and walked to were she sat and sat down beside her.

"Hi Lily." He greeted.

"Hello James," she smiled at him.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

"A book," she stated flatly and continued to read.

"I know that. What's it called?" James asked looking at the redhead.

"Alice in Wonderland." Lily replied and continued to read silently. She decided that if he asked anymore questions, she would ignore him and he'd get bored and go away. She was enjoying her book and James was just annoying her slightly, but she had to admit it was nice to have someone to talk to other than her cat Meryl.

"Oh…so it's a muggle story? What's it about?" James asked. Trying to keep up the conversation. Lily looked surprised at him. No one had ever taken interest in anything she had liked, and Alice in Wonderland was her favourite story. Most of the people in Gryffindor were purebloods and they had ignored her slightly because she as muggle born. She smiled at him.

"It's about a girl called Alice and she doesn't really like what's happening to everything around her, so she follows this speeding rabbit to another world of strange people and evil queens." Lily explained. James listened to the usually silent girl; she was the first girl that didn't actually flirt with him, just made friendly conversation as friends.

"I like the Cheshire cat." James stated when Lily told him about the always-smiling cat.

Lily smiled at the comment. She was quite amazed that someone would actually come and talk to her, about something other than homework and spells. She was shy most of the time, but she felt as if she and James were old friends.

"So, Lily, I don't know too much about you, tell me all about yourself." James said at the girl sitting beside him.

"Me, well…um…I like reading, writing, drawing. My favourite subject is charms. I have a cat called Meryl and um…" Lily struggled a little.

"Do you have brother's or sister's?" James asked, trying to help her out.

"I have one sister, Petunia. She's one year older than me and she hates me for being a witch. I'm the freak of nature to her," she said sadly.

"She's a stupid git then. All older sister's are. My older sister, well, stepsister is Head Girl and a bit snooty," James said in disgust. Lily laughed a little and James smiled up at her.

"Well, I better go study, and clean my robes since someone nearly blew up the dungeons!" Lily said standing up.

"Hey it wasn't just me! Sirius needs some credit!" James said loudly so that Sirius could hear.

"That's right! I deserve some…well…most of the credit!" he called grinning.

James just shook his head exasperatedly and rolled his eyes. Lily laughed and then said her goodbyes and headed towards the dorm. James walked over to Sirius and Remus and they continued thinking up other pranks.

Lily opened her trunk upstairs and brought out a small black book with a silver spine. The little book had 'Lily' written on the front. Lily opened it and brought out her quill. She hurriedly wrote into it.

-Dear Diary,

I guess I actually have a 'friend' now! After 5 years of being ignored by everyone, well, not ignored, but 'known' by few, someone actually came to talk to me. And it was none other than James Harold Potter, one of the most popular students in this whole school! We talked about my book and he asked about me and was getting to know me, I hope we can stay friends, because he's quite nice.

Lily

12/9/76-

Lily closed her diary and put her quill away. She walked over to her bed and stroked her ginger cat, who purred in delight and sat on her lap. She stroked the cat and watched her sleep. She then went to the desk, sorted her things for her next classes and went to sleep.