The next morning James woke with a groan to the light pouring into the room from the curtains, and dancing around in beams. He couldn't really make out much of his surroundings, instinctively he reached over for his glasses, but his hand came back empty, after much groping, he finally conceded that his glasses were nowhere to be found. He groggily pushed himself upwards using his elbow, a dim pain ran up to his shoulder. His surroundings were blurred, but he knew just by the smell and general feel of the place, that he was in the hospital wing.

Suddenly there was a pushing on his shoulders accompanied by a white haze. "Poppy, where are my glasses?" James considered himself on first name terms with Madame Pomfrey, while she just barely tolerates him.

"Why in goodness would I know Mr Potter?" Madame Pomfrey replied slightly agitated as she continued to push James back down onto the bed. "You need rest Mr Potter" she said as he continued to resist, "you managed to knock yourself unconscious, and break god knows how many bones, primarily in your arms." James sighed and stopped resisting as he lay back down on the bed, his head propped up on several pillows. "Drink this" Madame Pomfrey ordered sharply, pushing a small vial under James' nose, James took one sip and knew that he would rather not drink the vile smelling potion, he made to push it away but was instead locked into a vice-like grip, "Mr Potter, I insist you drink this, if it helps block your nose." James sighed, he knew defiance wasn't going to get him anywhere, especially not with Poppy Pomfrey. Reluctantly James drank the potion and discovered that it tasted equally as bad as it smelled. James coughed violently as the potion seared down his throat, he sputtered immensely, but luckily for him, the discomfort subsided almost as fast as it had appeared.

A little while later there was a knock on the doors of the hospital wing, James was still lying on the bed, struggling to focus his blurry vision on anything. Madame Pomfrey bustled out of her small office to greet the visitors at the door, she then led them in James' direction. The next thing he knew there was a small thump on his chest.

"Here you go Prongs" came Sirius' voice. James felt the object on his chest and instantly recognised it as his glasses, he shoved his glasses on and instantly his vision became clearer, his three friends stood around his bed.

"Where'd you find them?" James asked as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, this time not being forced back to sleep.

"Lily picked them up last night" Remus offered, "then she gave them to me... to give to you."

"Oh" James said, rubbing his temple slightly.

"Yeah," Remus said, "She is also the one who got you over here, after you fell down the stairs and as good as knocked yourself out"

"Mhmm" James muttered, running a hand through his hair, slightly uncomfortable with the idea of making a fool out of himself next to Lily, and then having her essentially save him.

"Embarrassed Jamesie?" Sirius laughed, latching on to James' mannerisms.

"Shut up" James said humourlessly. He turned his attention to Madame Pomfrey, "Poppy, can I leave now?"

"I really shouldn't let you go Mr Potter" She called matter-of-factly.

"Oh come on Poppy!" James called back, trying his charm.

"If you collapse again I'm not letting you back in, and really, you shouldn't address me a Poppy, Mr Potter"

"I'll take that as a yes, thanks Poppy!" James said, sliding off the bed.

"Oh, I nearly forgot to give you this" Remus said, digging through his pockets and producing James' wand.

"Thanks" James said, taking the wand and instinctively polishing it. The boys walked through the doors and made their way to the great hall for breakfast.

***

Lily was sitting amongst her friends at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. They hadn't yet been given their schedules, and Lily was sitting quietly mulling over the previous day's events. There was a world of chatter going on around Lily, but she was tuned out from everything as she read the daily profit, another three people had been found dead in their homes; one was a muggle man, whose wife (a muggle-born witch) had been reported missing just two days before, one was a Wizard with unspecified blood lineage, but presumably not pureblood, and the final was an elderly witch who was noted as being a very strong minded women when it came to ethical use of magic. It was stated that all three deaths appeared to have magical links and that there were no physical markings on any of the corpses, it was simply assumed by everyone that the magic involved was dark magic.

Lily was so intensely concentrating on reading the article about the three deaths that she didn't notice Marlene trying to get her attention. It was only after she accidentally jammed a slice of toast into her cheek that she became aware of Marlene chanting 'Earth to Lily' over and over.

"Mhm?" Lily asked as she put the paper down and looked at her friend.

Marlene huffed, "Which one?" she asked holding up two necklaces, one with a small pearl on a gold backing and a similar one but with a ruby instead, both were on a fine gold chain. She was making motions as if she were weighing the necklaces.

"Where did you get them from?" Lily asked, putting her hand out to look at the gemstones.

"They arrived today, they're from my Aunt Augusta" Marlene shrugged, "so which one?" She asked again.

"I don't know" Lily said after a moment's thought, "If you wear the ruby, you're less likely to get in trouble because it matches the house colours." Lily suggested.

Marlene seemed to be weighing up her options, "That's settled, I'll wear the pearl" she said with a sly grin whilst undoing the clasp of the necklace and then beginning to attempt to redo it around her neck. Lily laughed quietly as she turned back to her breakfast. It took her approximately twenty seconds to register that the second year student across from her had stopped moving halfway through eating her cereal, her bob haircut was frozen mid swing and her eye lids were partially closed; but her eyeballs where darting about, panic lacing them, she was attempting to call for help but all that came was a muffled whine through her opened mouth. Lily sighed and looked towards the hall entrance, the Marauders were halfway down the aisle, James leading the group with his wand out. He was about five metres away from her.

Lily stood up abruptly and closed the now three metre gap between her and James. "Take the jinx off" Lily ordered calmly. She knew the exact counter curse for what James had done, but she was stubborn and hoped he would take it off.

"Why should I?" James retaliated ignorantly. It was obvious that Remus had not been paying any attention to what James had been doing because he was deep in conversation with a Ravenclaw student.

"Take the curse off, or I will deduct five points from Gryffindor," Lily said, her voice still calm but ringing with authority, she stood up to her full height which was still a head shorter than James.

"You wouldn't" He said, his cool aura evident, he was certain that Lily would never deduct house points from her own house.

"Try me; take the curse off" she said again, she sounded like she was about to accept a dare.

"You wouldn't deduct points from your own house Evans" The ignorance seeping from his lips, "besides, you don't have the authority" James said, still very sure of himself.

Lily raised an eyebrow at him, once again assuming her 'dare me to' face, "Five points from Gryffindor!" She announced to nobody in particular, a small clatter of jewels could be heard in the distance, the travelling of this sound aided by a now silent hall, filled with people contentedly eavesdropping. "I'm a sixth year prefect now, I have that authority" she said matter-of-factly.

By this point most of the hall had turned to listen in on the current conversation, what was happening was by far the most interesting thing that year; Sirius Black 'tripping' and 'accidentally' spilling pumpkin juice on the Slytherin students last year had nothing on what was happening now.

"You didn't" James started

"I did" Lily finished triumphantly, "now take the jinx off the poor girl or I'll take off another 5" she repeated her command, gesturing towards the frozen girl.

James looked at Lily intently for a while, a smirk playing on his face. He studied her face, his eyes flicking around at a dizzying rate. "Tell you what," James began; Lily noted that his face seemed to be closer than before, but she simply pursed her lips and waited, "I will... But after this." And without any warning, James attempted to take Lily's cheek in his hand and kiss her.

But his plan didn't go quite as smoothly as first intended, instead he fell short and kissed thin air, Lily had yanked her head back just in time. As well as this sudden swing to the side, Lily raised her knee, which connected with James.

As a whole, James Potter looked as if he was collectively falling and tripping in slow motion, whilst curling up into a ball of agony over being kneed in the groin area. In reality he instantly dropped to his knees and then buckled over further, trying everything possible to ease the pain he was suffering in his southern region. He sounded almost resemblant to a screeching hog that had just stepped on a plethora of pins in addition

Lily looked down on him and announced "Five points from Gryffindor. Potter." Before stepping around James, Sirius, and the cowering Peter, who was now guarding his groin area in fear. Remus had turned his attention to what had happened, a mixture of concern and amusement plastered on his face, where Sirius' expression was pure amusement, and a little bit of fear over who Lily would attack next.

"What was that for Lily?!" Sirius exclaimed, referring to the loss of five house points

"He had it coming" Lily replied simply, referring to both the loss of points and the loss of James' dignity. "And take that curse off will you?" Lily added, narrowing her eyes slightly before walking off, down the aisle and towards the large doors.

Behind her, she left a hall full of gaping students, a frozen girl, and a boy in the form of a ball of agony.

***

As Lily exited the great hall, she encountered a very flustered McGonagall, "Ah, Evans," McGonagall said as she saw Lily, "just the person I was looking for" she hurried over to the sixth year prefect.

"Yes Professor?" Lily answered politely.

"Would you mind explaining the loss of ten house points?" She asked, evidently worried at the fact that the gem tally was decreasing faster than is could increase

"Oh, right" Lily smiled slightly, like someone who had a long story to tell, which she did. Instead she decided to sum it up in one word, "Potter, professor, it was Potter." That single word could consistently sum up most incidents very accurately.

McGonagall opened her mouth as if to say something, before closing it again, "Ah, I see" she looked at her understandingly, "well, have a good day then Evans" Professor McGonagall smiled curtly to Lily.

"Thankyou Professor," Lily smiled in response, "oh," she stopped quickly before she walked off, "may I have my timetable, Professor?" Lily asked, noticing the stack of paper in her hands.

"Of course, Lily" McGonagall smiled again as she ruffled through the timetables, eventually producing one with Lily's name and surname on it.

"Thank you professor" Lily smiled gratefully taking the timetable from her and turning to walk up the stairs. She smiled to herself as she climbed the staircases, Professor McGonagall would find out the full reason for the loss of ten house points soon enough, either from the gossip, or witnessing the actual disturbance.

As Lily climbed the moving staircases, she focused on deciphering her timetable; it was always difficult to figure out it's layout in the beginning, but over time one became more accustomed. It took Lily approximately the time it took to climb two flights of stairs to discern what lesson she had next.

Defence Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin was first, followed by Care of Magical Creatures with Ravenclaw. Lily knew that she wasn't going to be able to escape being in the same room as James Potter, or Severus Snape for that matter, so she was just going to have to grin and bear it; and hopefully get the chance to jinx the former, or put him in a position to be attacked by a 'rogue' creature. Lily wasn't generally a vengeful person, but if she thought someone deserved payback, they usually did.

***

It wasn't long after Lily had left James in a heap on the floor, did an angry looking McGonagall step into the hall, the sound of her clicking heels echoing throughout the hall. The chatter about what had just happened was still loud, but not as many people were flat out staring, most were simply casting the occasional glance over towards James; who was being helped up by his friends.

Professor McGonagall had decided that she didn't want to interrogate James directly about the loss of ten house points, she had a feeling that she would rather not know.

Once seated, James looked over to the still frozen second year, muttering the counter curse under his breath, he released the girl from the charm, once she was made mobile again, her whole body jolted forwards, she looked as if she was on the edge of tears, but instead decided to give James some lip.

"You deserved tha', you know" she dared to call out to him, her Scottish accent shining through.

James opened his mouth and was about to retaliate with another hex her way, but chose better of it when Remus put a hand on his shoulder and sat down; instead he rolled his eyes at the same time he turned to face away from her and towards Remus, who was now accompanied by Sirius and Peter.

"Nasty whack you got there Padfoot" Sirius grinned.

James looked at his best friend, faking an annoyed expression, but he couldn't hold it, he ended up grinning himself, "you want one?" he continued

"Ah, nah" Sirius laughed in return, "I wouldn't want to take the spotlight off of you" he said dismissively with wave of his hand.

"Your loss" James replied with a smirk as he piled a load of bacon onto his plate.

"Sure, mate" Sirius replied sarcastically as he too began to stack food onto his plate.

James laughed a Sirius' response, no sooner had he begun to pile his fork with breakfast goods did he hear the tell-tale click of heels coming up near to him, he groaned when he heard them, because the clicking entailed at least one painful experience. He shoved as much food into his mouth, as hastily as possible, before the world's strictest teacher could pull him away from it.

"Potter," said a very unamused McGonagall, James slowly turned his head, and half his torso to face his Transfigurations teacher; she held a piece of parchment with his lesson timetable close to her. James attempted to smile charmingly, but failed spectacularly due to an overly full mouth of food.

"Hello Professor" is what he attempted to say, but it came out more like: "Hehwo Profefa", his mouth still particularly full, and many particles of food came sputtering around. He quickly ducked his head back around and chewed vigorously with his chin tucked into his chest

McGonagall looked at him with utter disgust "You can speak when your mouth is no longer full, Potter" her voice was still prim and proper, but filled with a frightening annoyance, highlighted by her Scottish accent and rising voice.

James coolly put his left index finger in the air to signal that he would be a moment. When his flurry of chewing was finished his slowly turned to face Professor Minerva McGonagall. He knew he was done for, but he kept his laid back and carefree façade on. McGonagall crossed her arms against her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Are you ready to communicate properly Mr Potter?" she asked.

James shrugged playfully, "I'd like to think so" he smirked. Now was possibly the worst time possible to joke with Professor McGonagall; only sometimes would jokes be received well by McGonagall, and James Potter wasn't renowned for his timing.

"I don't appreciate the comments Potter" McGonagall said, "especially after the path you are leading Gryffindor down currently, it has barely been a day Potter, and you are already losing house points!" Her annoyed Scottish accent became rather high pitched and high throated.

"Yeah. Well." James hesitated, he stumbled for words, opening and closing his mouth.

Then the poor Scottish second year piped up "He jinxed me Professor!" she accused, pointing a finger James' way, "He froze me, and refused to un-freeze me, and so Lily, Lily Evans, the prefect girl, took ten house points off and kneed him in the groin!" the girl was positively beaming at James' misfortune, and McGonagall's lips had formed a tight, straight line.

"Thank you Mallory" McGonagall smiled ever so slightly; then she turned on James. "Potter, see me in my office tonight, seven pm sharp, here is your timetable, do not be late. To anything" she warned. She tapped the parchment once with her wand and handed the paper unceremoniously to James, her grip was tight so he had to tug slightly.

When Professor McGonagall let go and moved to a quietly giggling Sirius she addressed him in much the same way as James. "Black, I expect to see you along with Potter tonight."

"But Professor!" Sirius protested "I didn't do anything!"

"Of course you didn't" McGonagall replied her words dripping sourly with sarcasm

"I swear to god, really!" Sirius began to frantically plea, he didn't need a detention today; he was going to get enough of them in the near future

"Black;" McGonagall started, "when has it ever only been Potter?"

"Touché" Sirius agreed reluctantly, lifting his eyebrows fleetingly as he said so.

"Seven pm sharp" she raised an eyebrow before continuing to hand out timetables to the sixth years, when she arrived at Peter she handed him his timetable with only six words to accompany it: "You too Pettigrew, seven pm sharp".

Peter protested with only a small, rat-like squeak before she turned her back on him and he was no longer received.

***

"What's this one Lil?" Marlene called over the top of her parchment, quill twiddling between her fingers, and a spare one stuck behind her ear casually

"What's what one?" Lily replied, her nose stuck into her own work

"Come 'ere and look!" Marlene called back, gesturing with her quill

"No Marlene, come here if you want my help" Lily retorted, still absorbed in her work

Marlene quickly weighed up her options and began to slide down the leather armchair in which she was sitting, this approach had worked in the past, so why wouldn't it work today? "But Lily!" she called, drawing out each letter in a long moan-like sound, "it's six feet of parchment! It's taller than I am Lily!"

"Ugh!" Lily exclaimed, pushing herself out of her chair, "what is it?" she asked resignedly walking over to her friend. "What do you need Mar?" Lily asked, crouching next to Marlene.

"This" Marlene pointed to her work, it was a D.A.D.A. assignment. "What is the difference between a werewolf, and Animagi?" Marlene stared blankly at her parchment as she asked this, sucking on the end of her quill, as if it were a sugar quill, which it wasn't.

"You know this Mar" Lily replied, walking back to her seat; "Animagi can change at will, Werewolves can't" she said, slumping in her seat again

"And?" Marlene asked expectantly

"And I'm not doing your homework for you, otherwise you'll fail your N.E.W.T.S"

"They aren't till the end of Seventh year though Lil"

"We still need to do well" Lily snapped back

"Come on Lil" Marlene begged, "Give me hand"

"Oh alright" Lily huffed, giving in easily, "It's a lengthy process, becoming an Animagi, and it takes a great deal of work, but once you complete the process, you are able to, at will, transform into an animal, although you can't chose the animal, it sort of just choses you" Lily looked up to a furiously writing Marlene, "following?" she asked, raising an eyebrow

"Yep, yep, just a sec" Marlene bit her lip, "and go" she said.

"Werewolves on the other hand, they don't have a choice when they transform, they are at the mercy of the full moon each month, and when the person is transformed, they are a great threat to people around them, they lose total control of their actions" Lily stopped talking for a moment so Marlene could catch up again, "Don't forget, that in order to become a werewolf, you have to be bitten by another one" Lily finished her spiel.

"Thank you so much Lil" Marlene said gratefully as she finished the word and dotted the full stop.

"Now don't ask me about that ever again" Lily warned her friend, a pointed finger her back up.

"No problem-o" Marlene smiled, she rolled the parchment up quickly and jumped up suddenly.

"Where are you off to?" Lily asked, her nose in her work again

"I have to meet someone" Marlene replied, piling her belongings into her arms

"Have fun with Black" Lily replied dryly.

"I never said anything about Black" Marlene defended

"You didn't have to, I know" Lily replied matter of factly, winking cheekily at her friend

A/N

Hey guys! Here's the latest chapter! It's not particularly good as I haven't edited it much, but I thought you deserved something more while I struggle to write the rest!

Thanks!