HELLO EVERYONE!! I'm so excited to be writing another Harry Potter fan fic. Years ago I fell in love with the Marauders. I did write a SiriusOC, but I never got around to writing my James/Lily. So here goes nothing, five years later lol

Disclaimer: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's characters, story lines, or original material.

Chapter One

It was raining. Of course it was raining. She had never made a trip to King's Cross Stations, when it wasn't raining. As her seventh and final trip back to Hogwarts, she was hoping just once that she'd make it to the Sorting without her naturally wavy hair becoming something akin to Frankenstein's wife.

She sighed. It wasn't that she didn't love the rain, but the wizarding world was so dark these days anyway that the sun would have been a nice touch.

"Lily sweetheart," her mother nudged her toward her cart now loaded with all her school things. "You're going to be late if you don't hurry up. The train will be leaving in twenty minutes."

"Sorry mum," she answered shaking off her dark thoughts. "It seems I'm already caught up in school."

"No worries darling," her mother looked at her hesitantly and then threw her arms around her youngest daughter. "Oh I'm going to miss you. You're father and I are just so proud of you. These amazing things you can do, and now Head Girl. We could never have expected more."

"Thanks mum," Lily answered and smiled into her mother's shoulder. "I'm going to miss you too. Give Da my love and Tunia too."

Somehow Lily doubted whether her older sister would care, but she always threw it in for good measure. After all, they were sisters and she had thought, at one point, friends.

"Oh I will," Margaret Evans quickly wiped her glistening eyes. "And be careful. The Daily Prophet has been quite alarming to your father and me lately. Be safe."

Lily nodded, understanding her mother's worry. It had been Lily who suggested they keep up on wizarding events in case it should ever come to pass that Voldemort started targeting Muggles other than Muggle born witches and wizards.

"I'll be careful," she promised and asked the same in return from her mother. "You and Da take care of yourself too. I'll keep in touch and let me know when the wedding is. I wouldn't miss Vernon stuffing his fat arse into a tuxedo any day."

Mrs. Evans laughed, none too fond of her future son in law herself, "I'll do that. Goodbye Lily."

Lily gave her mother one last hug and then leaned casually through the barrier where she arrived at Platform 9 ¾ for her final trip to Hogwarts. It was bittersweet to think she'd never be standing at this point again looking at the scarlet colored train that had never ceased to mean she was going home.

"Lily!" a shout to her right had her attention moving from the cheerily puffing Hogwarts Express to a tall, lanky blonde boy that was grinning broadly at her as he made his way over.

"I heard you got Head Girl! Congratulations," Remus Lupin swept her into a casual hug that left her smiling.

"Thank you Remus," she answered and looked hopefully to his lapel only to find it conspicuously absent of the 'HB' she had expected. After two years of patrolling the halls together as Prefects, she had sincerely thought he would be standing next to her as Head Boy.

He smiled and a guilty look flashed in his eyes, "It's not me, I'm afraid."

Lily raised a brow and meant to ask just exactly who was Head Boy when she was tackled sideways by a very curly brown head that could only belong to her best friend.

"Lily Evans I'm no longer speaking to you," Bella Deschanel threw her hands on her hips dramatically and pouted as Lily recovered from the attack. "How dare you not even WRITE to me when you got Head Girl, let alone Floo over to my house, tackle me to the floor, and scream it in my face. What has gotten into you?"

Lily laughed and looked apologetically at Remus who was watching her energetic friend in amusement, "I'm sorry Bella. I didn't really have time. Mum and I have been traveling ever since I got the news and it sort of slipped my mind."

"Ah, see how I rate," Bella threw her hands up in the air and looked meaningfully at Remus. "Not even a bloody note to rub it in."

Lily grinned and hugged her best friend, "I've missed you Bells."

"Moooooooooonnnnyyyyyy!!!!" a dark and shaggy head had suddenly appeared out the window of the train in front of them and was looking back and forth as he howled Remus' infamous nickname.

Remus sighed exasperated, "Childish to the end. It was my hope that maybe Sirius might take a page out of James's book this year, but alas he has not changed a bit. I'm COMING already."

Remus shouted at the shaggy head that grinned at him and then popped good-naturedly back into the train.

"I suppose you better be off," Lily smiled up at the thin but handsome boy. "God knows what trouble they could get in to without you there to stop them."

"You think too well of me Lily," Remus answered and winked before taking gracefully off towards the train.

"He's so sweet Lily," Bella said seriously. "Why haven't you asked him out yet?"

Lily had asked herself the same thing many times but couldn't quite explain it, "I dunno Bella. He's terribly sweet, but distant. I've spent as much time with him in the past two years as I have you and I feel as though I barely know him."

"Maybe he's shy," Bella wondered. "You're not exactly a pushover yourself there, Lil."

Lily laughed, "I've never been anything but nice to him. Forgive me if I don't think he's at all intimidated by me."

The whistle of the train interrupted their conversation and had them both scrambling to get Lily's things over to the train and on board.

"Good grief Lily. What the bloody hell is in here?" Bella exclaimed as they pushed the precariously balanced trunk uselessly up the stairs. It wasn't budging.

"Well I'll have a new dormitory won't I?" she asked defensively and moved to position herself better when the trunk gave a determined groan and slid back toward them.

"Oi, sodding heavy thing," Bella grunted helping Lily push unproductively against the sliding trunk.

"Bella get out of the way, it's going to fall on - BLOODY HELL!" the trunk had successfully escaped their grips and landed on Lily's toes.

"Lily!" Bella clapped a hand to her mouth and ran up the steps for help but ran into a rather solid chest before she'd even made it up the stairs. She looked up into the amused eyes of the last person she had meant to ask for assistance.

"Bella, what are you doing? Hurry…" she trailed off as she looked up to find Bella frozen in her tracks next to a tall, dark haired boy. Her eyes followed the expensive sneakers to casual but costly jeans, his long sleeved white uniform shirt was hanging untucked over them, and pinned unceremoniously to his collar glinted the missing partner to the badge at her own collar.

She didn't have to keep looking up to know she wasn't going to like what she saw, but the pain in her feet was enough for her to swallow her pride and glare up at him, "Well hurry up then, Potter. I obviously can't help myself."

James Potter smirked down at his fellow Head and with a seemingly effortless tug removed the torturous object from Lily's feet and onto the train.

She gave a muffled 'thank you' and grabbed the rest of her bags before climbing hastily onto the train just as it began to move.

"You're welcome, Evans," he said before she had a chance to catch her breath. "Don't make a habit of that this year, even if I am Head Boy I'm not after answering your desperate calls for attention."

Lily bristled angrily, "Don't flatter yourself Potter! In case you hadn't noticed, you prat, I'm Head Girl, and I obviously didn't get to this point begging for your damned bloody attention."

Her mind was running unsteadily in disbelief. James Potter? James Potter? Honestly, the headmaster must have finally lost his mind. Sure he was clever, and he was definitely one of the top in their class. But he was rude and consistently broke every rule in the book. He terrorized the student body and was the most notorious womanizer in school aside from his best friend. What had Dumbledore possibly been thinking?

"Don't worry your pretty little head," James sneered and could read the disbelief mixing with fury in her eyes. Somehow it just made him want to lick his lips, "I didn't want this job anymore than you wanted me to have it. It takes all the fun out of everything. I won't get in your way."

Lily was watching in silent fury as he simply seemed to brush off his responsibilities. She had been working six long, hard years to get to this, and the damned prick had never even tried. She doubted that he had ever even opened a textbook. Why was it that the whole sodding school had some kind of love affair going on with James Potter? It was so unfair.

"Speaking of which, I'll see you soon then. We get to torture the new little Prefects this year, won't that be fun?" Throwing his signature grin Bella's direction, he turned and headed up the corridor to disappear into the same compartment he had shared with his friends ever year since their first.

"Idiot. No good bastard. Bloody ego, thinks he owns the world," Lily muttered angrily to herself as she and Bella finally managed to get her trunk into a compartment and settle in for the ride.

"Really Lily," Bella said, the blush from James's grin finally disappearing from her cheeks. "He's not so bad and he's gorgeous."

Lily eyed her best friend in disbelief, noticing in disgust that her cheeks were still a rosy shade of pink, "Don't you understand? He's arrogant, and self absorbed. He never has to bloody try for anything in his life. He just gets it handed to him on a silver platter. I mean honestly? Head Boy? Remus Lupin deserved it far more than Potter, or even, god forbid, Severus."

"Oh well, Dumbledore's not a complete idiot," Bella reasoned trying to soothe her friends ruffled feathers. "He must know something we don't."

Lily found this highly doubtful, but resigned herself to silence knowing the rest of the train ride wouldn't be nearly as peaceful as she had hoped.

"You're a piece of work, Prongs," Sirius Black was stretched out completely on the bench opposite of Remus and Peter and watching his best friend with amused eyes as he entered the sacred Marauder compartment. "Swearing up and down that you can't stand the idea of being Head Boy next to Lily Evans as Head Girl, and the first thing you do is flirt with her."

James scowled at the only person in the world who could say something like that and not get hexed across the train.

"Shut up, Sirius," he was beginning to brood and didn't want to dwell on his current situation. "You know I was NOT flirting with Lily Evans. You should have seen the look on her face when she saw my Head Boy badge, as if I was the last person in the world she expected to be wearing it. She's such a stuck up, little know it all. If she weren't so pretty she'd be useless."

Sirius sniggered and Remus gave him a warning look, "She's really not all bad, James. I've had patrol with her the last two years. She's really quite funny."

"Evans, a sense of humor? Honestly Moony. She probably just blindsides you with that pretty little, manipulative smile and you can't tell up from down the rest of the night," James tone was bleeding sarcasm. "I can't stand the way she looks down her nose at people, as if she's better than the rest of the whole bloody world."

"I quite agree," Peter said meekly but viciously. "Stupid mudblood."

The whole of compartment went very still and Peter's face went very pale with the realization of what he had let slip. Far be it from James Potter to sing Lily Evan's praises, but in the world they lived in, fighting a constant battle against a horribly Dark Lord who felt much the same when it came to Muggleborns, James would defend his worst enemy to the grave.

"Don't you ever call her that again Wormtail," James growled and had Peter scrambling into the corner. "I don't care who she thinks she is, she has just as much right to be hear as you, you pathetic prat."

"J-James. I'm s-sorry. I didn't mean to…"

He trailed off into silence at a warning look from Remus and turned wary eyes on James.

"Sirius, make sure he doesn't get himself killed while we're gone. If he doesn't watch his mouth he'll be eating his words one of these days. C'mon Remus, we have a meeting to go to," with that the two of them left the remaining Maruaders to their own mischief.

Whew! How I've missed the Marauders. Oh and I should also warn you, I'm not a writer who's all about fluff. Occasionally I like to write fluffy stories, but this isn't one of them. I try very hard to develop convincing characters and plot lines! Thanks!

review review review!!