Unofficial Portkey Archive

"I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that I've cried
And I'm sure gonna give you a try
If you wanna try to love again
Baby, I'll try to love again, but I know
The first cut is the deepest."
-The First Cut is the Deepest, Cat Stevens

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Marauders made their comeback with a big bang. Literally. After that 'eventful' afternoon, it soon became apparent to the rest of the school that the four were making up for lost time. Every time a class got out, there would be some new happening in the hallway. But along with these pranks, slowly a new image of the four became apparent. They were no longer the mean pranksters who chose innocent students as the victims, although Slytherins were often involved.

With the promise of fun times in the hallways, classes and days passed quickly and soon exams were over and gone and the students were boarding the Hogwarts Express for their homes.

"Well, I knew everything would work itself out," Sirius stretched from his side of the compartment, ignoring the doubting glance from Remus. "I'd hate to think of a Marauder-less Hogwarts."

"You'd better get used to the idea," Remus said, stretching his feet across to the other seat. "Next year is our last year."

"Ah-ha, dear Moony, I have thought of that! Next year, we're going to have a Marauder boot camp to train a group of kids to fill our humongous shoes."

"Dare we ruin a batch of kids in that fashion?" Remus said, thoughtfully.

From the other side of the compartment, next to the window, James let out a mournful sigh as he watched the trees fly by. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Prongs, you'll see her over the summer," he said.

"'s not gonna do anything," James mumbled. "I tried talking to her yesterday and you know what she said to me?"

"What?" Peter said.

"Nothing! She completely ignored me!"

"Well, that's better than throwing insults, I guess," Sirius shrugged. "Prongs, I know that this sounds bad, but you'd better find yourself another girl. What about that chick that you dated last summer? I'll bet she's still available-"

"I don't want anyone else," James mumbled. "I want her."

"Prongs, why you're so obsessive, I'll never understand," Sirius cringed, standing up. "Pardon me, mates, but I have to take a leak."

"Thanks for the information," Remus snorted.

"Anytime!" Sirius whistled merrily as he exited the compartment.

Sirius strolled down the hall, peeking into compartments, seeing if there were any of just girls. A flash of red caught his eye and he backstepped to look through the window. Lily was sitting in there, all alone, reading some book. Sirius slid open the door and leaned against it.

"Afternoon, Miss Evans-"

"Save it, Black," Lily snorted. "I wondered when Potter would send in one of his cronies to sway my way of thinking."

"Ouch!" Sirius laughed, closing the door behind him. "What have I done to merit this attack?"

Lily glared at him.

"Come on, Lily love, he's not bad as all that is he? Sure, he tricked you a tiny bit by spying on you, but what's a bloke supposed to do when he likes a girl."

"Oh, it wasn't for that. I know how you two work. You're just after sex and that's it."

"My, my, Lily love..." Sirius chuckled, sliding into the seat across from Lily. She looked about to say something about it. "A bit big-headed, aren't we?"

She nearly stood up in intrepidation. "I like how everyone thinks that I'm the big-headed one here!!"

"Thinking that he went through all that just to get some action from you. You're pretty cute, Darling, but no bird's worth all of that trouble, unless she's real special."

"Really?" Lily said, doubtingly. "So care to inform me as to why he spied on me?"

"Probably because he loves you," Sirius shrugged. Lily's mouth dropped open and then she laughed, nervously.

"Your daft, Black. Potter? Loves me?"

It was Sirius' turn to laugh. "Where have you been the past 3 years, Lily love? He's been falling over himself every time someone even mentions your name?"

"But he can't possibly....love me..."

"Maybe he doesn't know it now, but he does," Sirius shrugged. "Even now, he's sitting in our compartment, near tears because you won't give him the time of day anymore. His exact words were 'I don't want anyone else, I want her'."

"Exactly!" Lily said, closing her book. "Only me? The one he can't get!"

"There you go again, sounding egotistical." Sirius sighed.

"Well, what else am I supposed to believe? He turned into an Animagus to date me? To get to know me better? To prove that he's the best in the class?"

Sirius opened and closed his mouth. Lily looked down at her book again.

"So...I take it that the rest of you are Animagi, right?"

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "Sorta."

"Since Prongs is obvious, what is Padfoot?" she asked. Sirius looked out the window and then transformed into the big, shaggy dog. Lily looked at him with a raised eyebrow and waited until he turned back.

"And Wormtail is a rat-"

"Fitting," Lily snorted. "And Moony?"

"Er....Remus' mum showed us some pictures when he was a baby and he was bare naked, so-"

"Sirius, you aren't going to sit there and tell me that Peter Pettigrew became an Animagus, one of the most advanced spells, and Remus Lupin did not?"

"He...well...he doesn't need to," Sirius looked down. "I...I got in trouble once for telling more about it, so I'd rather not go on-"

"He's a werewolf, isn't he?" Lily stated. Sirius looked at her with an open mouth and nodded. Lily sat back and smiled at Sirius. "Well, I'm glad I wasn't totally off base."

"How'd you find out?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius, I used to take rounds with him, remember? He'd always find some excuse to get out of going on the full moon. Plus he always looks so sick, but, what does that have to do with you being Animagi?"

"You have to understand something, love," Sirius said, leaning forwards. "Remus, when he transforms, it's very painful. It's actually much worse after, though. Without humans to bite at, he bites at himself."

Lily gasped.

"He'd come back bleeding and half-dead from blood loss, but he'd always keep his head up and carry on. So me and James, once we figured it out, we decided that we'd do something about it. Actually," Sirius thought, "it was all James, and me, always looking for an opportunity to show off, joined him. It took us three years to finally master it all by ourselves, most of that was helping Wormtail, but we finally did it.

"You see, Lily-love, when we're with Moony, he doesn't hurt himself, and he keeps more of his mind. So that's why James became an Animagus. Not to spy on you, or to do anything bad, but to help his best friend."

Lily looked at the ground and laughed a little bit. "And here I was, thinking that he did that just to get in bed with me and he's been doing it for his friend."

"Yes, you see how that was a bit big-headed of you," Sirius nodded. "But you didn't know. So now that you know, what do you think of Mr. James William Potter?"

Lily sat back and eyed him. "Now how do I know that this isn't some story that you concocted to...." She sighed. "Never mind, that's probably big-headed of me too."

"He's not such a prat, though, is he?"

"There's still the fact that he spied on me. And that he fights Snape with no apparent reason!"

"Ah, yes. Well, the first one is a big, giant screw up on his part," Sirius winked. "I never said that he was perfect, now did I? He's been trying to apologize to you, and you've been blowing him off. As to the second part of that accusation, I can honestly say that he will never fight Snape again while you are in the vicinity."

"And how do you know this?" Lily asked.

"Well, you see, we've all had some screw-ups lately, James had his, and I had mine. I-er-sorta told Snape how to get to Remus when he asked-"

"You did what?"

"Funny, that's what James said when I told him," Sirius laughed, nervously. "But anyways, long story short, James saved Snape's life and was in this life-debt thing that pure-blooded idiots have. So to pay it off, Snape agreed to not bug you two and to go get the junk that Bellatrix used to try to kill you."

"James saved his life?" Lily gasped. "But he hates Snape!"

"Yeah, he does, but he doesn't want to see anyone get killed, Lily-love. Deep down, James has a heart, it's just not in the right place often." He leaned forwards. "So how 'bout it, Lily-love? Wanna give James another chance?"

Lily laughed a little bit. "Why are you so interested?"

"Well, because I have to live with the prick and all summer it'll be moaning and whining about how 'Lily doesn't love me' and 'I've missed my chance forever.' Don't you love me more than that?"

"He won't do that," Lily blushed.

"Oh yes he will. He's doing it right now, in our compartment. Go see!" Sirius said.

"I think I'll pass, thanks," Lily smiled, half-heartedly. "I've got some thinking to do."

"Well, just understand that nobody's perfect, but James really does love you."

"Sirius, we've already gone over this before. James doesn't love me-"

"Oh," Sirius laughed, "did I say 'love?' I meant, 'wants do date,' oops!"

"I'm sure you did, Padfoot," Lily said. "You'd better get back to the rest of your group, lest they come looking for you."

"I will, and you do your thinking. Just remember that you love me and my sanity!" Sirius said, as he walked out the door.

James shuffled off the train and immediately spotted his parents. Sirius was already bounding over to give them big hugs (in front of his own parents who barely ever looked at him when he lived with them). He watched as Lily stepped off of her compartment and went to go get her things off of the train.

"James! Honey, what's wrong?" Mrs. Potter said, touching her son's face. "You look like you've lost every game this season."

"It's nothing, Mum," James sighed.

"He's just had his last chance with this girl and now she won't even look at him," Sirius filled in. James scowled at him and then pouted.

"Come on, son, I'm sure that she'll forgive you after a bit of the ol' Potter charm!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Potter, but that ol' Potter charm is what drove her away in the first place!" Sirius sniggered.

"Stuff it, Padfoot," James threatened, but it was a half-hearted threat.

"Erm...James?" came a very timid and nervous voice behind him. James felt his heart leap into his throat and he turned around. Lily had a light blush on her cheeks and was biting her lip (rather cutely, James thought).

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Can I...can I talk to you for a second?" She was aware of Mrs. Potter's eyes on her and she looked down at her entwined fingers.

"Sure?" James looked to his mother and shrugged, following Lily to a semi-secluded portion of the platform.

Lily turned around and finally looked James in the eye. "Look, P-James. I-"

"Lily, I'm so sorry that I did what I did!" James interrupted, taking her hands. The dam was broke. "I'm sorry that I'm such a prat, and I'm sorry that I spied on you. I'm sorry that I hurt you, though I didn't mean to, honestly I didn't. All I wanted was to find out more about you and-" Lily took one hand out of his and pressed the tips of her finger to his mouth.

"James," Lily smiled. "It's me who should be apologizing. Here I was being such a...'big- head,' when all you were doing was helping Remus."

James stood back. "How-" She pressed her fingers harder to his mouth to silence him.

"A little doggy walked in and told me," she smiled. James rolled his eyes.

"I should have known. He looked way to smug when he came back from the loo."

"Anyways, what I'm trying to say is..." She took a deep breath. "James, I've done a lot of thinking since Sirius talked with me, and I've decided that you aren't a....as much of a prat as I originally thought. And, I was so busy being...well...being terrible, that I never had the opportunity to thank you for saving my life...So...and just stop me if this sounds really lame, but...if you want, sometime in-between Auror classes, we can...get together...if you-"

"You mean it!" James' eyes lit up like a child's on Christmas. "Really?"

Lily nodded. His mouth broke out into the biggest smile that Lily had ever seen him, and it was a nice smile (and it made him very cute, she added silently). He lunged forwards and swept her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank you so much, Lily!" he whispered.

"James," Lily pushed him away a little (but not too much, she was still in his arms). "I...well, if this turns out to be anything, I want to go slow."

"Slow! Yes! I can do slow!" he nodded, vagariously. He had a calculating look on his face for a moment and then leaned forward. Lily moved her head to the side a little bit.

"Slow, remember?"

"A kiss on the cheek?" James begged. "Just a little peck?" Lily looked doubtful. "Come on, it's a friendly thing. And I promise it'll be innocent-"

"You aren't still on about that, are you?" Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine, a little 'peck' on the cheek."

James grinned and leaned forwards-

"So, Prongs, what are we going to do when we get home?" Sirius interrupted when James was an inch from Lily's creamy cheek. James cleared his throat and gave Sirius a meaningful glance. Sirius made a sound of understanding.

"Sorry!" he apologized.

"Sorry about that, Lily," James whispered and went to kiss her on the cheek.

"But as I was saying-!" Sirius came up again. James growled and whirled on him.

"Padfoot, I'm kinda BUSY right...." He also had a look of recognition and then scowled as Sirius shook with silent laughter.

"That's not funny," he pointed.

"Yes, actually, it's riotous," Sirius stepped back a little bit. "But sorry, Lily-love. I'll let you get your kiss."

"Thank you, Padfoot," James glared. He turned back to Lily and put his hand on her cheek, leaning forwards....

"But it's just too good of an opportunity-" Sirius didn't finish that statement because James had bounded after him. James skidded to a stop after a few steps, backtracked to Lily, grabbed her face in his hands, and planted a very sensuous kiss flat on her lips that left her a little dizzy.

"See you later, Lily!" he called, running after his best friend. He finally caught up with Sirius and tackled him to the ground, putting him in a head lock.

"Good gracious, Lily, is that your boyfriend?" Petunia's snobbish voice came from behind Lily. Her mother stood with her hands on Oliver's shoulders watching Lily with amusement in her eyes.

"Not yet, Petty, but he is...sorta deer to me," she shrugged, following her family off the platform and back into Muggle London.

SGR's Note: Hello and thanks for reading! I decided to wait until the end of the book to do an Author's note simply because I have a surprise for you.

There are two completed sequels. And they are both on FF.N.

Why did I wait so long? Because this book was crap on FF.N, and the sequels are crap too, but not so much crap. I'm going to edit the other two and post them here as well, but if you *just* can't wait, go to FF.N.

Again, thank you so much for reading, I very much appreciate it!