James was on Platform 9 and ¾ with his mother and father, excited to get back to Hogwarts. His mother was fussing with his hair, repeatedly saying, "Jamesy, does it ever lie flat? You need a haircut. Why didn't we get you a haircut this summer?" She kept pressing her hands onto his head in a desperate attempt to make his unruly, black hair smooth out.

"Can't have him looking too prim, Euphemia, it'll ruin his whole reputation" Sirius teased, which earned a glare from James.

"Well really James, I can't imagine you get too many ladies with your hair in such a right state," Euphemia Potter mumbled, still fussing with the mop of hair atop James' head.

"He doesn't care about ladies, just one lady in particular," Sirius continued, jerking his head towards Lily, who had just entered the platform, alone.

"Oh Jamesy! Is that your girlfriend? Well she is just positively lovely. Let's go say hello, Fleamont?"

"NO!" James exclaimed, panic across his face. Euphemia Potter jumped at the exclamation.

"James, we're not going to embarrass you, we just wanted to say hello," she whispered, looking confused.

"She's not my girlfriend, mum, Sirius is just taking the mickey out of me." James groaned when he saw Lily coming towards them. She was smiling, but her hair was messy, and she looked frazzled. She was carrying her trunk in left hand, and its bulk caused it to bump into her leg with every step. She reached the spot where the Potter family was standing and set it next to her feet, pushing her hair out of her face.

"Hullo! I thought I heard James yelling, what's gone wrong, has his hair gone too flat?"

"See Jamesy, your hair should be more presentable." His mum began fussing with his hair again, and James turned red, swatting her hands away. "Honestly, do you think he looks presentable with his hair all roughed up like this?"

Lily laughed. "Oh no, not at all. I think Jamesy looks positively ghastly. I really think we out to put him out of his misery and shave all of his hair off, honestly." At that, James father, Fleamont, laughed loudly.

"I quite like you Miss, uh-"

"Miss Lily Evans, pleased to meet you," Lily said brightly, extending her hand to shake his. Fleamont Potter leaned forward to grab her delicate hand and shook it once. Lily noticed how strong his handshake was before letting go.

"Well Miss Evans, I like you; you're a cheeky young lady. Will you keep James in line this year, eh?" He winked.

Lily nodded overdramatically, "Oh yes, I can't have our sweet James running amuck and causing mischief in the castle, now can I? We wouldn't want anyone to think he's less than a model student." Everyone laughed at that, and Lily beamed at James.

"Can everyone stop taking the mickey out of me, then? We have a train to catch you know." James huffed and attempted to steer his trolley towards the train, but he was pulled into a tight hug by his mother. "Muuum." She let go, slightly teary eyed, and waved him on.

Sirius and Lily had already departed, leaning in and laughing together. Lily turned back to James and laughed, "Well come on Jamesy, wouldn't want you to miss the train!"

He stuck his tongue out at her and scowled. He quickened his pace to follow her and Sirius onto the train before it departed. Lily laughed and turned back, lifting her trunk onto the train with slight difficulty, but Sirius grabbed it and lifted up onto the train, at Lily's protest. They walked through the train, chatting lightly about their summer holiday before stopping in front of the compartment that contained their good friends.

Sirius opened the sliding door and slipped in, finding a seat among the crowded compartment. Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald were seated near the window, and Lily moved forward to claim the empty spot next to Mary.

She sat down and turned to her friends, "So, did you all have a nice holiday?" Marlene answered first, saying that she spent most of the holiday playing quidditch with James and going to Diagon Alley. James and Marlene were old friends, as their pureblood families have been closely intertwined for centuries.

Once everyone had exchanged pleasantries about how their summer holiday had been spent, Marlene, Sirius, and James jumped into intensely discussing Quidditch, and the upcoming tryouts to replace their Keeper and Seeker, who had both graduated the past year. While Remus, Lily, Peter, and Mary started chatting about what classes they were going to take this term.

Marlene swapped seats with Remus in order to better discuss the Gryffindors who could become prospective quidditch team members.

"Well obviously we have to keep Will Price in consideration," Marlene commented, looking to James for confirmation.

James shook his head, "Nah he's-" he looked briefly at Lily, "Well he's a git, and I rather think he would be a rotten player too."

Marlene looked at him, confused. "What are you talking about? You've seen him fly, he's-"

Sirius cut in, voice dropped to a whisper, "He's got a thing for Lily, and Prongs can't deal with any competition."

"Oh honestly James? Grow up."

James scowled, and tried to steer the conversation to who could replace their Seeker in the coming year.

Lily checked her watch and looked at Remus, "Remus, are you ready to go to the prefect meeting?" Lily asked, standing up and smoothing out her skirt. She pretended not to notice James watching her.

Remus also stood up, moving towards the door and sliding it open, "Sure," once they exited he closed the door, "Do you know who the heads are yet?"

Lily started down the train's corridor to the enlarged prefects' compartment. "Not yet, but I'll bet Frank Longbottom is Head Boy."

Remus nodded. "Yeah, probably" They walked in silence for a few moments before arriving at their destination.

Lily paused before opening the door to the prefect compartment. Severus Snape was sitting near the window, scowling at his shoes. Lily was convinced that after last year and the whole ordeal with Remus, and the incident where Severus called her a mudblood would strip him of his position, but Dumbledore works in mysterious, if annoying and stupid ways, she supposed. She thought about it as she walked into the compartment and sat down. Last year's incidents aside, Severus was the best candidate for Slytherin, considering his house members, and, despite Lily's distaste for him, she would prefer him over Mulciber or Avery any day. Her thoughts were interrupted by the Head Girl standing up and calling attention.

Frank Longbottom shuffled some papers and stood up as well, addressing the students before him, "Hello everyone."

Lily leaned over to Remus. "Told you." Remus did not look at her, but rather smiled and nodded slightly.

"So I'm Frank Longbottom, I'll be your Head Boy this year."

"And I'm Jean Abbott, I'll be your Head Girl this year." Jean Abbott was plain, but nice and well behaved. Lily thought she might play Quidditch, but she couldn't be sure. She was a Hufflepuff, and Lily didn't know very many people outside of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

"Right so, there isn't much to this meeting as many of you know. The fifth years are welcome to stay to ask questions since this is your first year as prefects. The rest of you, you know the drill. We'll hand out patrol schedules the first of each month. If you have any standing conflicts, please let us know before the end of September. The September patrol schedules will be posted Monday of next week. If you need to deduct points, please see me or Frank, and we will review the incident and take points accordingly. Please do not abuse this power. If there are no questions, you lot can head out. At some point during the ride, patrol the corridors and make sure no one is doing anything stupid." Jean waited for a moment, looking to see if anyone had questions, before sitting down and returning to the papers before her.

Lily and Remus stood up immediately, as Lily was anxious to leave the compartment before Severus had time to make contact. They walked quickly back, and rejoined their friends, who were debating the Quidditch final intensely. Lily rolled her eyes, and sat in the empty spot next to James, as Peter had claimed her old spot next to Mary to talk eagerly about herbology. Mary was best in the class with herbology, with Peter as a close second. James smiled at her for a brief moment before shouting, "That was a foul and you know it, McKinnon. Are we supposed to believe that Jones just happened to run right into a goal? She's the most coordinated player I've ever seen!"

"Excuse you that title is reserved for-" She didn't finish, looking at Lily, who had abruptly stood up. Everyone followed her gaze, to see Severus Snape opening the compartment door.

He ignored everyone and took a step towards Lily, lowering his voice, "Lily, can we talk?" His eyes bored into her. "Please?" Lily thought she heard a bit of pleading in his voice, which tugged at her heartstrings, but she hardened her resolve and opened her mouth to tell him, kindly, to fuck off.

But James, seeing an opportunity to come to Lily's rescue, jumped up, preventing Lily from speaking, "She doesn't want to talk to you, Snivellus. I thought she made that clear when she shouted at you outside of Gryffindor tower last term, or have you forgotten?"

Severus cringed at the memory. "Funny, Potter. I don't recall asking you."

Lily spoke up, "He's right, Snape," she said his surname bitterly, "I don't want you here." Severus' expression faltered for a second. He looked at Lily, his dark eyes shining with longing, then the moment passed and his face hardened into its regular scowl immediately. He turned on his heel and stormed out of the compartment, slamming the door behind him.

James laughed and sat back down, and Sirius threw a Bertie's Bott at him, which James caught with ease. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Bloody git. Hey Prongs, we should start thinking of pranks for Snivelly this year, huh?"

James was about to reply, but looked up at Lily's face and stopped abruptly.

Lily turned, giving him the scariest look he had ever seen. He expected shouting, but what came out was much, much worse. In a calm, even, but downright deadly tone, she snarled, "I do not want your help, Potter. I think you know you have done enough. As for pranks, I had hoped that with everything that happened last year would have had an effect on you. But I guess not." With that, she too stormed out of the compartment, walking the opposite way of Snape.

James was frozen.

Sirius whistled, "Damn, Prongs. You fucked up bad this time."

James' face was bright red, and he looked ashamed, for what might have been the first time in life.

Mary spoke up. "James, I honestly don't think I've seen Lily that mad at anyone. Except maybe Snape at the end of last-" she was cut off by James exiting the compartment, less forcefully than his predecessors.

He walked in pursuit of Lily. He passed several compartments, briefly glancing in them to see if she might have slipped into one. He saw her red hair bobbing up ahead, and she was discussing something intently with Frank Longbottom. She smiled and grabbed his arm, nodding excitedly.

James waited on her to finish. She was already pissed, and he wasn't going to risk interrupting and piss her off more.

Frank laughed and turned away, "Hey James, alright?"

"Yeah, good holiday?"

Frank smiled. "The best." James was slightly confused by this answer, but he didn't have much time to ponder, as Lily had already breezed by him.

"Lily-"

"What, James?"

"I just-"

"Last year, after the incident, when you apologized to me, even though it wasn't necessarily your fault, I genuinely thought you had matured. I thought, 'wow, this is the first time James Potter has ever admitted he was in the wrong. Maybe, just maybe, his giant ego had deflated just ever so slightly, and I could begin to maybe become mates with him.' But you're the same. Hexing people for fun? Planning revenge against someone who literally hasn't done anything to you this year? Incredible. Truly. You had me fooled, Potter."

James looked down at his feet. "You're right."

She kept going, "And if you honestly think that I'm-" Lily stopped, confused, and looked up at him, "Wait. What?"

James looked at her, "You're right. The pranking, the hexing, taking the piss out of people who don't deserve it, it's immature. You're right, I need to stop. There's a literal war going on, and yet I'm here planning on hexing Snivellus. It's pathetic."

Lily did not expect that, "Well it's not pat-"

"No it is. In 2 years we're going to graduate, we can hope the war will be over, but you and I both know that it won't be. We're going to have to fight for our lives and protect people, and be adults, but I just…" he trailed off, "I just wanted to enjoy being a stupid kid. But I don't enjoy it anymore. When Snape called you… a-a that word, I hated him for it, of course, but I mostly felt insanely guilty."

James looked abashed, and Lily was lost. She looked at him, confused, "You don't need to feel guilty, you didn't call me that."

He ruffled his hand through his hair. "No, I didn't but I caused it, didn't I? Obviously I think Snape is a piece of -" Lily gave him a look, "whatever, but I pushed him to the edge. And because of that, I ruined your friendship, a friendship you've had since you were a kid. And I felt horrible. I started to wonder how many other people hated me because I was, I am, just an arrogant, bullying toerag." He looked at Lily, " I'm just, I'm really sorry, Evans. I'm not going to be the same this year. I'm also not just saying that to get you off my back."

Lily was speechless. Her mouth kept opening and closing, thinking of what to say, but didn't have to, as James wasn't done.

"I know he thought it, and obviously I'm glad you're no longer friends, but I was the..." He trailed of and ruffled his hand through his hair again, "Anyways, I'm sorry. For everything. I actually mean it this time, and I hope we can be mates." She looked at him, confused, which James misunderstood as a glare, he corrected himself. "Not best mates, but maybe we can start to become mates, yeah?" He smiled, "Now will you come back to the compartment? I have some chocolate frogs that need eating."

Lily continued to stare at him for a moment longer, thoroughly astounded by his monologue. She hadn't meant to be so harsh on him, as Snape always brought out the worst in her, but she was truly impressed by James' apology and his attempt to make things right. Maybe they could, possibly, ever so potentially, cautiously, become friends.

She realized she hadn't responded yet. "Oh, I'm sure Sirius has already accomplished that task for you, we've been gone for a good five minutes."

James looked grave. "He better not have." Lily laughed at his expression, then followed him back down the corridor to return to their compartment, where Sirius had, indeed, eaten all of the chocolate frogs.

Several hours later, the students were seated in the Great Hall, post-Sorting, and enjoying the feast. Lily was content to eat and listen to the conversations around her. She was deep in thought about her upcoming semester. She had received O's in all of her owls except Divination and Transfiguration, which she received an E. Divination she had no intention of continuing, so no loss there, and McGonagall only required an E for her classes.

She was most excited about potions. After she earned her O on her OWL, Slughorn had written her with a draft of the year's schedule, and they were going to attempt some really intricate potions. The first day was the Draught of Living Death, which Lily could not wait to get started.

Marlene snapped her fingers in front of Lily's face, "Oi, Lils!"

"Oh sorry, did you say something?"

Marlene rolled her eyes, dropping her voice, "I asked what happened with Potter. We all thought we were going to need to help you dispose of his body, but you came back all chummy. What happened?"

"We weren't chummy," Lily protested, earning a skeptical look from Marlene. Lily sighed, setting down her fork, "He apologized, and I really think he's matured. We have decided to start thinking about becoming mates."

Marlene snorted and said, "Wow Lils, I didn't realize you were such a tart. Starting thinking about becoming friends? You might as well sign the marriage certificate now." To which, Lily made a face and returned to her dinner.

At that moment all of the Marauders plopped down around them, Remus and Sirius next to Marlene, James and Peter on either side of Lily. Lily looked at James, suspicious, "Where were you just now? During the Sorting?"

Sirius winked at her, "Nothing to worry your pretty little head over, love." Lily scowled and looked down at her food again.

Remus spoke up, "So Lily, excited for classes this year?"

Lily brightened, "Yes, I'm particularly excited about Potions this year"

Peter laughed, "You're excited about potions? I rather feel like vomiting."

Through a mouthful of food, Sirius spoke, "It's cause she got a thing for Sluggy," which earned him a dinner roll to the face, thrown by Lily.

Remus laughed and caught the roll that bounced off his nose and delicately put it on Sirius' plate, "What about Potions, Lils?"

"Oh well Slughorn sent me a few letters this summer about the stuff we'll be doing this year, and it seems quite interesting." Lily suddenly remembered a very interesting article that Slughorn had also sent, "And there's something else, maybe we could talk about it soon?"

Everyone in the surrounding area gave her a weird look, but Lily kept her eye on Remus, who shrugged. "Yeah sure. Want to go to the library after class tomorrow?"

Lily nodded, "Yeah, might as well claim our table, it's going to be a lot of long nights this year."

James, who was seated to her right, leaned over and whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her skin, "What do you need to talk to him about?"

Lily smiled, "Nosy, Potter? And here I thought I had already discovered all of your bad qualities."

"Cheek, Evans," he smiled, "But will you tell me later?"

"If you behave." With that, James straightened up, placed a napkin on his lap, and began delicately slicing the chicken in front of him, to which Lily rolled her eyes.

After supper, Lily made her way up to her dormitory with Marlene, excited to sleep in the soft, four-poster bed, which she knew would already be warm and comfy. They entered the room to find her dorm mates, Alice, Mary, and Anna all sitting on their beds talking.

Anna waved. "We're all listening to Alice's story of how her and Frank got together." Lily smiled briefly at Anna before sitting on her own bed. Anna was sort of the fifth wheel in their dorm, as Alice, Lily, Mary, and Marlene were all good friends. Lily really didn't know much about her, except that she had a few friends in Ravenclaw, and was dating the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. She was nice and kept her stuff neat, and that's all a person can ask for in a roommate.

Alice brightened when Lily and Marlene entered, starting her story over, "Well we had been flirting quite a bit last year, as you guys all know," she giggled and all of the other girls nodded vigorously. They had spent the better part of the last year trying to convince Alice to just bloody kiss Frank to put everyone out of their misery.

"Well, this summer, there was a big wedding, pureblood families and all that. Some Potter getting married to some Dearborn or something, I didn't pay much attention. But Frank was there, and we spent the entire night making fun of the stuffy old people and drinking champagne. He charmed this old witch's hat to stand up and dance whenever someone said bride. It was hilarious, 'cause these little fat legs popped out of the brim and started stomping on this old woman's head," Alice had to stop because she laughing so hard. She continued, wheezing, "and then," laughter, "and then she saw us laughing and started chasing us around, so we ran out of the house, and," Alice then became serious, "and when were hiding, he kissed me." This earned a squeal from all of the girls in the dorm, and they spent the better part of the night talking about their breaks, classes, and anyone they thought was looking fit this year.

The next morning, Lily woke up feeling energized and excited to start the first day of class. Her dorm mates, Mary, Alice, and Anna were still asleep, but it seemed Marlene had already gone down to breakfast. She got dressed quietly as to not wake up the others, but then practically skipped down from the dormitory stairs to find Sirius sitting on the edge of one of the tables,

"Hey Lils."

"Hey Sirs."

"It doesn't work with my name."

Lily shrugged, "Want to go get breakfast?"

"Yeah."

Sirius opened the portrait hole and climbed through after her, "I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

"If it's about Potter, I'm not in the mood."

Sirius looked confused, "No, it's about Remus"

"Oh, okay, shoot."

"He hates me. He's been avoiding me all summer."

Lily knew immediately what this was about. The preceding year Snape was almost killed by Remus, which was entirely Sirius' fault, "Well, can you blame him?"

Sirius stopped walking, "What?"

"Can you blame him? Can you imagine what would have happened if James wasn't there to stop it? Remus would have been hauled off to Azkaban or killed, Severus would have died or been bitten, thus ruining his life. It was a horrible, horrible thing to do."

Sirius opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, "You were supposed to make me feel better."

Lily smiled, "I'm not finished. You made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. This one was just a bit more catastrophic than mistakes other people make. It was horrible, but it was a mistake. I know you didn't mean any harm, you just don't think before you do things. It's honestly a real flaw." Sirius scowled. "But, Remus knows, deep down, that you would never hurt him intentionally, and you let your spite cloud your judgement. I reckon with a lot more groveling and some thoughtfully purchased Honeyduke's chocolate, you could get back in his good graces." Lily thought for a moment. "But I doubt any part of him could hate anyone, let alone someone he's been friends with for 5 years."

Sirius thought about this for a moment before saying, "Merlin, I hope you're right." He linked arms with her and they walked down to the Great Hall, where James, Remus, Peter, and Marlene were already seated.

"Morning everyone, it's a lovely day isn't it?" Lily asked as she sat down.

Everyone looked at her. Marlene scoffed, "Lils it's the first day back of sixth year. We have to go to classes for the first time in 2 months."

Lily simply smiled, "I know, isn't it wonderful?" They all groaned. She served herself some toast and eggs, forgetting how much she missed having all of her meals made for her.

They all talked about what classes they were taking this year. Peter had to drop quite a few subjects, as he didn't get the required grades. Marlene also had to drop Potions, as she was never good at it, no matter how many times Lily tried to teach her.

McGonagall came over with their schedules. Lily graciously accepted hers and excitedly looked over it. She had Potions today first.

James leaned over, "Hey Evans, we have Potions together, fancy being partners?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "And risk my perfect record? Not in a million years, Potter. I thought Remus and I would be partners this year since," she hesitated, "Since I don't have a partner this year," she finished, lamely.

"Well can we walk down together?" He asked, trying to seem casual despite his excitement.

She gave him a sideways glance, "If you promise to behave." She turned to face the other people at the table. "Hey Remus, I'm done after Defense, are you?"

"Yeah, head to the library afterwards?" Remus asked, still working on his breakfast. She nodded.

Lily stood up with her bag over her shoulder, neatly placing her new schedule into the cover of Potions book before tucking it into her bag and walking out of the Great Hall. James stood up as well and started to follow Lily. Peter gave him a big thumbs up, and Sirius winked at him, causing James to make hand motions to silently plead them to stop.

He caught up to Lily by taking a brisk jog to where she was, already down at the entrance doors. Lily was moving swiftly, expertly weaving in and out of younger students headed toward the great hall for breakfast before classes began. James had to keep a brisk walk to keep up with her. "Damn Evans, slow down, where's the dragon?"

Lily almost had forgotten he was there. She looked slightly over her shoulder, glad to see that James was having a hard time keeping up, and thus couldn't talk to her more than she allowed. "I'm excited to get to Potions." she answered simply.

He laughed, "You're insane."

"I prefer passionate" Lily looked over her shoulder and smiled. James paused, and flashed a big, toothy, genuine grin at her, to which Lily smirked back.

James trotted around her in order to hold the door to the Potions room open. Despite Lily's quick pace, most of the class had already arrived, mostly because Lily had gotten down to breakfast later than she should have and her talk with Sirius took monopolized a good portion of her breakfast time.

Slughorn looked up and brightened at Lily as she walked into the room, "Miss Evans! I'm so glad to see you here. It seems Severus has saved a spot for you over at his table. I can't wait to see how you two handle this potion today."

Lily froze, she was planning on waiting for Remus to get here and they were going to be partners, "Well actually, Professor," Slughorn was looking at her with such a genuine smile, and she didn't want to disappoint him. She panicked, "I'm partners with James." James looked shocked. Slughorn looked confused. Snape looked murderous.

He paused, then clasped his hands together, "Ah, well. It will spur some healthy competition, then eh?" He turned to Snape, "Keep you on your toes, boy! Can't have you going too soft on me."

Snape smiled fakely at Slughorn, then glared daggers at Lily. Remus and Sirius entered shortly after, though anyone hardly noticed.

Lily and James set their bags on a table and pulled out a cauldron. Lily lit the flame and James leaned over and whispered in her ear, "You know for being 1 million and 15 years old, I must say you look ravishing."

"Shut it Potter, or I will go be partners with him."

"Nah, you won't."

Lily sighed. She wouldn't. "Alright well, don't drag me down. I have a reputation to uphold."

James smiled, "Your wish is my command, my lady."

"Go get the lizard eggs"

"Yes, my queen."

"And shut up."

James closed his lips and mimed locking them, throwing away the imaginary key, which earned a giggle from Lily.

It was funny, sometimes, how fate worked out.