While Sirius tries to assemble a quidditch team, Lily experiences her first day in the Hospital Wing.

While James recovers, he and Lily have lots of time together. But no time is well-spent without a few pranks.

A full moon is upon Hogwarts, on the same night as Halloween, and when Lily is attacked, James is forced to confess the true history of the marauders.

"She felt no release from him, no emancipation from whatever it was that made her keep tolerating, even liking him. Gone was the notion that she would loathe him eternally. Lily couldn’t make an empty promise to herself to hate him any longer, the repent she felt was proof of that. Clearly, something in her was changing. She did not like it, nor did she welcome it, but it was inevitable." In which James is upset, Lily doesn't get quidditch, boys have cooties, revenge is sought, and someone keeps coming to the rescue.

“I don’t know, you’re just the kind of person I always imagined would be…well, a swinger who really never settles down throughout his whole life, and lives in one of those hip, fancy London apartments that he can only afford because he has rich parents. And he makes money playing quidditch, but spends it all on really irrational investments, like firewhiskey and really strong cologne and prostitutes.” In which James reveals something unexpected, Sirius pisses himself, and Lily is left on the edge of her seat.

He glanced nervously back at Lily and saw the resigned look on her face, her chin resting on her hands. It appeared that she was squinting at something, but looking closer, her eyes were merely puffy from last night. She seemed to have made an effort to look put together, her hair pulled neatly back in a ponytail and her uniform crisp. But three pounds of makeup wouldn’t have been able to conceal that she was anything but cool and composed. In which Lily keeps moving, Corinne keeps falling, and apparently, Peter's mum is a bimbo...

"This is what I've been trying to tell you my whole life. ...You’re boring! Ever since you became totally infatuated with this perfect, teacher’s pet, abstinent little bit of skirt, you’re the boringest bloke on the surface of the world! D’you see what I’m getting at, Prongs?" In which decisions are everything, and some people fail to make the right ones.

And this was the girl who had kissed him. This was the girl he had chased unremittingly until she told him she would rather go out with the giant squid, and this was the girl who once despised every last thing about him. But now, Lily Evans was the girl who was sleeping in James’ house and kissing him for reasons he didn’t yet understand.
 
But he wanted badly to, and it was precisely what drove him crazy for the rest of the night. In which Christmas means books, body slams, and bonds.

“But do you think they think it’s odd?” Lily wondered aloud, stiffening. “You know, like, Head Boy and Girl? Do you think they think it’s like a scandal or something?”
 “Lily,” James said, chuckling. “Do you think they think we care?” He caught the eye of a few fifth-year girls who were observing them and kissed Lily on the cheek for emphasis. The girls quickly averted their eyes, embarrassed. In which tempers flare, students stare, and some are surprised by how much others care.

It only seemed right to James that he treat Lily to tea at Madame Puddifoot’s for Valentines Day. Although he and the other Marauders used to poke fun at the types of people that went into Madame Puddifoot’s, especially on romantic occasions such as Valentine’s Day, he now felt obligated to do what countless Hogwarts boys had done before and brave the pink, frilly horror scene in the name of love. In which James and Lily finally have a fun, romantic, uninterrupted date...sort of.

James was unconscious, lying on his side in the tub, his legs sticking out and one arm hanging listlessly over the edge. His face was white as a ghost and his mouth lolling open, cheek squashed against the sloping side of the bath. Were it not for the slow, faint rise and fall of his chest, Lily might have presumed he was dead. In which Lily, James, and even Sirius and Peter deal with the consequences of the Hospital Wing incident.

“Don’t lie to me, Severus! You’re the only Slytherin at this school who could execute that escape! You stayed out of the action to keep a good reputation, so you could graduate and help You-Know-Who infiltrate the Ministry. You’re clever, knowing you couldn’t win his trust by some silly attack. He’ll just love to have you, won’t he? Cherish you as his own son?” In which blood is shed, more love is declared, and the rules are forgotten.