In first year, Lily Evans had hesitated to walk up to the short, worn down stool on which the Sorting Hat sat. After the triumphant shout of "Gryffindor" from the wrinkled, leather hat she had practically run to the table to join her housemates. Startled by the hat barking at her, which she had assumed to be inanimate, and excited to be joining Hogwarts at last, she plodded down on the wooden bench and was met with pats on the back and cheers of "congratulations!" and "welcome!".

At the end of Dumbledore's welcoming speech, the food had magically, yes literally magically, appeared on their plates and most of the first years had tucked in. Lily was wary at first, not having much experience with magic, but soon found that the aroma of the roast potatoes and parsnips, the steaming of the vegetables and the juicy smell of the roast were too enticing. It smelt like home and her mother's Sunday roast. Like comfort. The two boys further down the table eating like ravenous hippogriffs were not as cautious as Lily, obviously having experienced magic before and each having the appetite of thirty men. Lily wrinkled her nose as they piled mounds upon mounds of food onto their plates, eating a sickening amount for their size. These two young shrimpy first years were nothing like what Lily saw on the Hogwarts Express this year; her sixth year at Hogwarts.

And before summer, although the charming Sirius Black had grown into a young man who was very much popular with the opposite sex, James Potter was lacking in the "man" department. It would be wrong to say that he was not considered attractive. That would be very wrong as he was the subject of many a girl's conversation, and had been found in many a broom closet by Prefects on patrol. No, he was not looking for brooms or any other cleaning equipment, but in fact was often found trying to find a girls tonsils with his tongue. He had been a wiry boy, of average height who was thought to be attractive for his pretty-boy looks, despite his small build. Before summer, during their fifth year, she had been nose to nose with him as she barked at him that she "would rather date the Giant squid!". In fact he had shrunk the second he realised what she was saying, at which point he had felt as though she were towering over him as he withdrew from the sting of her words. Returning from her holidays this year, that was not the case.

He had grown. This was not just the normal pubescent growth spurt which all boys seem to go through during their mid-teens. No, this was anything but normal. It was as though he had suffered from a particularly severe stretching jinx having grown at least a full five inches since she had last seen him; now significantly taller than Peter and noticeably taller than both Remus and Sirius. She realised this when she was dragging her luggage across Platfrom 9 ¾ and paused to teeter on her toes, gazing over the heads of her fellow students to try and spot Marlene McKinnon or Mary McDonald (her best friends and roommates since first year). Instead she saw that mound of dishevelled black hair above the crowd. Scowling she dropped back down off her toes and continued to meander through the dense crowds, hearing a boy weeping to his mother that he would miss her and seeing a girl hug her siblings goodbye. Where were her bloody friends? It was unlike them not to be early, but Lily was impatient by nature so she decided not to wait on the platform for them and hoped to find them later during the long train journey.

She found herself in a small compartment awaiting the arrival of her friends. She leaned her head against the freezing glass of the window and listened to the conductor shouting at the students that the train was preparing to leave in fifteen minutes. The low hum of the conversations outside as well as the hubbub of the students now on the train in the surrounding compartments made her smile while reminiscing on memories of previous journeys to Hogwarts. "This year will be a better year", she thought. She could feel it. Her thoughts then drifted elsewhere…

How tall was he now? She did not know, and did not care. But was he taller than her now? What did she care? She didn't. That was not the only thing that had changed about him though. She had kept her eyes on him as he loaded his trunk onto the train and saw the outline of Potter's muscles tighten through his shirt. Those had definitely got bigger. She told herself she had only noted this as she believed it would improve Gryffindor's chances in the Quidditch Cup, with Potter being a stronger player and all that. On top of that his face had become more angular, his jaw had become stronger and his eyes had become more electric. He was now what adults referred to as a "young man" and not a boy, and Lily could not help but agree with them, because with his ridiculous height no one would could mistake him for anything else.

She checked her watch and realised it was another ten minutes before the train was due to leave and so she decided to take a walk along the carriage in the hopes she would find one of her long lost friends. Glancing into the compartments as she passed them she looked for the wispy blonde hair of Marlene or the dark braided hair of Mary. With no success she continued down the long corridor of the train carriage and her eyes widened when she saw the bird's nest of hair being ruffled by its owner and accidently caught his eye. Her eyes immediately flitted away, trying to avoid the awkwardness of an encounter with the boy who she had publically berated and rejected last year. As her eyes struggled to find another object to focus on she caught the stormy grey eyes of Sirius Black, and the skin around his eyes crinkled as his face broke into a wide grin. Crap.

As much as she loved Sirius he did love to make a scene. She shot him a look that said "Don't you even dare mentioning it", referring to the debacle that occurred between her and Potter by the lake at the end of last term, and then approached the door to the compartment which contained the Marauders. She slid it open and was met with the smell of smoke, and turned to see that Peter's eyebrows were singed and the shirt he was wearing was lightly smoking after losing a game of Exploding Snap to Remus. She pulled out her wand to perform an extinguishing spell, reached out her arm and-

"Agh! Sirius!" she shrieked as she fell into his chest. He had tugged her arm hard causing her to collapse into him, laughing as he squeezed her in a bear hug and ruffled her hair. "Ow! Godric's sake you're going to suffocate me!" she panted as she finished laughing, and finally was released.

"Just happy to see you Evans!" he replied, with a beaming smile. The whole time James had been looking at the scene quite uncomfortably, wishing he did not feel jealous of Sirius and even angry at him for being such good friends with her. After all it wasn't his fault that he got to spend so much time with Lily. In fact it was McGonagall's. Deciding that the Marauder's had to be split up for their coursework assignments, she had paired James off with a random Ravenclaw girl and Sirius got to be Lily's partner. From the perfect, hardworking ginger and the mischevious troublemaker had been good friends and it just wasn't fair! McGonagall just wouldn't give him a break.

Nonetheless, James decided to continue to feel uncomfortable and stay silent than to remind her of his actions last year. He really was an idiot. He literally had the same level of common sense as a troll, asking a girl out after attacking her friend. At this point, he still did not regret what he did to Snape, after all in his head, all Slytherins were bad and he had grown up associating them with evil. He was right in regards to Severus too as the pale, unhealthy looking boy had screamed "Mudblood!" at Lily when she had tried to help him. So no, he didn't really regret it. But he did regret upsetting Evans. He really, really really did. He was going to try to act normal around her. He would not ask her out again, not after his first attempt had gone so badly wrong. He realised he was staring and fortunately turned away just as she looked up at him.

Brushing herself off after her tousle with Sirius, she took another glance at him. He seemed apprehensive. There was a vulnerability she had never seen in his yellow flecked eyes. She felt slightly sick as she realised that this was because of her. She had been right to reject him. She had been right to berate him about bullying her best mate Sev, well ex-best mate now- but regardless, he shouldn't have been levitating, taunting and jeering at Snape. She was wrong, however, for the way in which she went about it. It was cruel. She had acted almost as badly to him as he had been acting towards Severus. By publically mocking and lashing out at him she had stooped to his level.

"I'm sorry for the way things ended last year" she blurted out. Colour rose to her cheeks as she realised how stupid she sounded, in front of Remus and Sirius no less.

"Red, you're blushing" chuckled Sirius who then suddenly shut up when she glared furiously at him. Desperately wanting to end her experience in the Marauders compartment, but unable to leave that final statement hanging, she reached out her hand and offered "Truce?"

"Don't feel like you have to- I mean I was really stupid and I understa-"

"I know you were stupid" she grinned, even if it was forced. "But I'm willing to leave that in the past if you are?"

"Umm…okay?" he agreed, unsure of whether it was a trick.

"I mean if you don't want to accept my offer of frien-"

"No! No, of course I do!"

"Good", she grinned teasingly, "I don't like holding grudges".

She was invited to sit with them for a while and with no better prospects she slumped down onto the cushioned seat next to Sirius and Potter. She discussed her summer, the holiday work which they had been set (which, surprise, surprise, only Remus had completed) and their adventures in Wizarding London and on the Potter estate. She sat comfortably, shifted more towards Sirius' side of the seat as they all gabbled on. However, she was painfully aware of Potter next to her. She did not understand why but every movement of his head, every time he ruffled his hair with his hand and every time he quirked an eyebrow or broke into a grin she felt it. She did not want to look in case he caught her so she made a special effort to look at the other boys or directly in front of her. Having him so close to her was making her neck and cheeks heat up. It made her hold her breath.

She must have felt nervous over the fact this was new territory with James Potter. Their relationship for the past five years had been him playing pranks on her in vain attempt to try and get her attention, teasing her and in more recent years, completely ignoring her for other girls (which he had hoped would make her jealous- and was correct, though she would never admit it). Now suddenly they were friends? She had not forgotten the teasing, the pranks and the demand he had made for her to date him last year, but she was willing to forgive.

Why she was hyper-aware of every movement he made was unknown to her, but to the other three boys in the compartment it was clear as day. Both Lily and James had been stealing glances at each other throughout the conversation, they had both been a bit more fidgety than usual and both seemed to be genuinely getting along. The train had moved out of the station a while ago and the pair had been heavily involved in the groups conversation. Then James had made a comment specifically addressed to Lily and for the past fifteen minutes, they had been in their own private and apparently very funny conversation.

"Oh how very interesting Evans… don't tell me all you did all summer was read!"

"At least I know how to read!"

"I got the same number of OWL's as you!" he replied indignantly.

"Exactly, so don't try and make out that you don't read or study Potter"

"Touche!" He accepted the insult and changed the subject quickly. Although they weren't friends as she had said, they could be civil, and although their back-and-forth jokes were laced with a venom which they could not stop using after all these years, they meant no harm towards each other.

Catching Sirius' eye he saw that his fellow Marauder was sulking. James realised him and Lily had been so enraptured in their own conversation they had left out the others. Although secretly proud that he could capture the sole attention of the talented and witty Lily Evans, he mostly felt bad for only just realising his mistake in leaving his friends out. As Lily finished her sentence, he announced that he would go to the trolley, in the hopes that offering Sirius food would appease him. It always worked, so James jumped up and took his friends' orders before leaving.

"A chocolate frog, four liquorice wands, a pumpkin pastie…" began Sirius.

"Oh and Jelly Slugs!"

"Every Flavour Beans for me please…and I'll get a frog too actually"

"…Acid Pops, Fizzing Whizbees and some Sugar Quills" Sirius finished.

"Sure you can afford that?" smirked James.

"I'll pay you back" promised Sirius.

"Like hell you will" chuckled James. He knew Sirius would forget within five minutes of borrowing the money and he would never ask Padfoot to pay him back as money meant almost nothing to him. He was born into fortune and appreciated that he was a very lucky child.

While James had been taking orders from his friends for the sweets trolley Lily had risen, realising that she had stayed far too long and should probably begin her search for her friends again. But as she had stood she gazed up at his figure, his now wide sloping shoulders and bulkier arms.

"Is she looking at me? Ha, you wish! Okay, but she just looking so adorable like that. Wait why is she blushing? Oh Godric, it's probably because you're staring at her. Think fast! Just smile at her, youre 'friends' now!" thought James as he rambled this inner monologue.

He had caught her gazing at him and smirked. She hated when he did that.

Her expression hardened and she rose to her full height, she turned quickly to wave goodbye to the other Marauders and announce that she had to go and find her friends, and stalked out of the compartment. James was left confused. With a quizzical look on his face he sighed as she strutted away from him. He turned to meet the trolley lady who was moving towards him from the end of the carriage. He listed the sweets he wanted and she stuffed them into a paper bag as he asked politely how her day had been. She beamed at him: "Oh very busy, two girls just bought the last of those Acid Pops though- pretty blonde she was and with the amount she ordered it was a wonder she was so skinny- they seemed to have lost their friend though, asking about a red head…"

She continued her ramblings but James quickly interrupted when he realised she was talking about Marlene and Mary. "Which way did they go?" he questioned.

"That way" she pointed in the opposite direction to which Lily had walked in. "Now dear, that'll be one Galleon" she said as he handed her the coin.

He thanked her, grabbed the bag and tore down the carriage, following Lily. He knew how long the Hogwarts Express went on for and if she walked all the way to the end of the train and found that her search had been pointless, he was sure that her friends would be thrown off of the Astronomy Tower that night.

There he saw her red wisps of hair swaying with the bounce in her step. "Lily! Oi, Lily! Evans! Hello?! Evans?" he bellowed, hoping he could catch her attention before she moved into another cart. He moved faster, past the lower years who congregated in the walkways of the carriages. Lily heard him calling her and moved faster. She was irritable after he had acted so smug and she had just embarrassed herself by gawking at him and now he was coming to gloat and why had she done that, Agrippa's sake! Excusing herself, her slim figure weaved around her fellow students but she could hear his heavy footfalls thudding closer and closer to her.

"OI! SHORT STUFF" he yelled and silenced the whole carriage. She winced as she realised he knew she must have heard that. She had been silently fuming for her entire walk, and now he had just called her "short stuff".

"I have a name, Potter" she spat venomously. Taken back by her sudden change in nature, James stumbled on his words for a second and then regained his composure. With all the younger years expecting a cocky remark, he decided to give them a show. This was after all, what he and Lily did best, he reminded himself bitterly.

"I'm sorry what was it again, squirt?" he said, in a spectacularly patronising tone.

"If you so much as dare call me that again I will lock you in that toilet compartment so hopefully you will catch the ride back to London and away from me!"

"As long as you join me in there, Evans" he winked. Winding her up was just too easy for him. He enjoyed the way she crinkled her nose, even if it was in disgust… and the way she flushed a lovely pink colour when she got vehemently angry and even the coldness in her eyes was beautiful. It strengthened the intensity of her glare, but also made him want to drive her into a wilder frenzy, if only to deepen their dazzling green.

"Keep dreaming Potter" she bit back.

He was smirking again, "Of course, only the dirty kind". Up until this point she had merely wanted to hex him. Definitely make a few death threats and then be on her way. But his suggestive smirk had now made her want to grab his hair and pull him to her. Or perhaps tear it out. It was all very complicated and confused in her head. But then she calmed herself, as his smirk had also indicated that he was just trying to rile her up.

"I am not short!" she growled. Wow, real mature response there well done, that'll teach him. "Why did you come to bother me anyway?" her voice sharp and cold, like a knife cutting through the previously half flirty- half tense atmosphere. Returning to reality, having been shocked out of the routine fighting match he was having with Evans, he realised why he had followed her in the first place. "I just thought you would want to know… Marlene and Mary are the other way" he stated bluntly, and then added a snapped "Goodbye. Dwarf."

"Oh shut up you freakish giant!" she shouted after him pathetically, wanting to have the last word.

"That's what she said" he quipped, shouting back as he closed the door of the carriage and moved into the next one, not even bothering to turn back as he spoke.