James was already sitting in the Heads' Compartment when Lily boarded the train on the 1st of September of their 7th year. Lily looked in the window, checking to see who was her co-head. Upon seeing James, Lily swiftly marched down the corridor, checking compartments for her friends; finally she spotted them and entered.
"Remus," Lily started, "what is James doing in the heads' compartment wearing your badge?"
Remus chuckled. "It's not my badge Lils. James is Head Boy." A look of shock crossed Lily's faced, quickly replaced by one of complete horror.
"No," she whispered, then louder. "No! He can't be! He'll ruin everything!"
"Shut up Lily," Anna snapped, her blood boiling. "He's head boy and there is nothing you can do about it. Get over it." Lily looked at Anna, wide-eyed and speechless; sure, Anna had always made it quite obvious she didn't like the way Lily treated Sirius and James, but Lily had never seen Anna get quite so angry about it.
"Just go talk to him," Taylor said to Lily. "Maybe he'll surprise you." Lily nodded, and with one more shocked glance at Anna, made her way back to the heads' compartment.
"So, James is really head boy?" Alice asked. Remus, Sirius, Anna, and Taylor all nodded.
"Wow. Congrats to James," Frank said. "Although I got agree with Lily… it is a little surprising." Peter and Alice nodded there agreement.
"I agree as well, but I can't believe Lily was so rude!" Taylor said.
"Why not?" Anna asked. "She's never been very nice to James before; why would anything have changed?"
"Well they got a long alright towards the end of last year, and they didn't fight at all at your birthday dinner," said Taylor. "You oughtn't have gotten so angry with her, Anna. I know she wasn't being particularly nice about James, but she's still one of your best friends." Anna shrugged.
"I hope she's not biting James' head off right now," Frank said. "You think he can handle head boy and quidditch captain?"
"Well James has changed a lot this summer," Remus stated, "and he's always been a good captain. I'm sure he'll be able to manage it all."
"Changed a little too much if you ask me," Sirius grumbled. Anna squeezed his hand gently.
"What happened to make him change?" Alice wondered aloud. Everyone shrugged, but said nothing, except Frank.
"Knowing James, we'll probably never know," he said.
"Oh, Anna! I forgot to ask when I saw you in Diagon Alley, did you make prefect?" asked Alice.
Anna nodded, "Yeah. Sorry you didn't… you probably would've been better."
"Nonsense," Alice smiled, "I expected you to get it over me, and I'm happy for you!"
Anna turned to Frank. "Are you prefect too?" He grinned and nodded.
"With Remus, Frank, and Anna all as Gryffindor prefects, and James and Lily as Heads, we can get away with anything!" Alice said, sticking out her hand to high-five Sirius and Peter. Everyone laughed.
Meanwhile, Lily had gone back to the heads compartment. James looked up when she entered, but didn't say anything.
"James, if we're going to work well together, we need to set out a few rules," Lily began. "First, NO asking me out. Second, you'll do what I tell you to do; I can't handle all the work myself, but I won't put the responsibility of making decisions and plans on you. You'll just help me carry things out. Third—what are you doing anyway?!"
James had looked back down at the sheet of paper before him as soon as Lily had begun talking and hadn't looked up since. "I'm planning what we need to talk about in the prefect's meeting," James answered. He held the list up for her to see.
Patrol Schedules
Common Room Passwords
Castle Safety (Death Eaters)
Responsibilities and Privileges of Being a Prefect
Hogsmeade Weekends
Not Abusing Power as Prefects
Calendar-Plan Dates for Future Meetings
Lily stared at the list before her. "This actually isn't bad, Potter. If I could read your handwriting that is," she joked.
"Ha Ha," James said sarcastically, but smiled slightly. "Thanks, Remus helped a bit."
"We don't have dates for Hogsmeade weekends yet though," Lily reminded him.
"Well I was thinking we could figure them out before the meeting. We don't have patrol schedules either of course, but I think we should talk to the prefects about when a good time for them would be…so we can work around their schedules."
"That's a good idea," Lily agreed. "We have more prefects than ever before who play quidditch, so we'll have to work around that." Maybe this wont be so bad after all.
James and Lily were just finishing up picking weekends for Hogsmeade when the prefects began filling into the compartment. Lily smiled hesitantly when Anna walked in. Anna huffed, raised her eyebrows as if to say 'you better have been nice', and finally smiled back.
"So," Lily started the meeting, "I'm Lily Evans for those of you who don't know. I'm a Gryffindor and Head Girl this year."
"James Potter. Gryffindor. Head Boy." James' introduction was greeted by several surprised faces. Besides the shock of James being head boy, the prefect meeting went smoothly, and soon James and Lily were alone again. James sighed as the last prefect left the compartment and sat down, staring out the window.
Lily was shocked; James wasn't going to ask her out? Or bother her? Or even talk to her? An awkward silence filled the compartment. Or maybe it was just awkward to Lily; James didn't seem uncomfortable. Lily couldn't take it.
"Are you ok James?"
He turned from the window, frowning slightly. "Fine, why?"
"You're just quiet is all."
"I wouldn't have ever expected you to be one to mind my silence."
A small smile tugged at Lily's face. "Oh, I'm not complaining," she joked. "I'm just not used to your mouth being shut for so long at a time." James forced himself to give her a fake half smile, then turned back to the window as the silence set in once more.
"How was your summer?" Lily asked.
"Fine. Yours?"
"It was pretty good." More silence. "It's weird to think this is our last year at Hogwarts, huh?" James nodded, but didn't speak. Lily sighed and gave up. She pulled out a book to occupy her for the rest of the journey, while James just continued staring out the window at the landscape flying past.
Lily and James joined the rest of their friends, except Taylor who was a Ravenclaw, at the Welcoming Feast in the Great Hall. Just before dinner started, an owl flew in and dropped a letter on James' plate, and one on Lily's.
"What's it say, mate?" Sirius asked.
"Gotta go talk to Dumbledore after the feast," James muttered, shoving the letter in his pocket. When the feast had ended, Lily and James parted from their friends once more, and headed towards the gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office.
"Chocolate Frogs," James stated, and the gargoyle began to turn, revealing a set of spiral stairs.
"How'd you know?" Lily asked, impressed.
"The letter said he's fond of chocolate frogs…"
"Oh," Lily said, "I though that was a bit strange."
"Welcome heads!" Dumbledore said as the two entered his office. "Now, I don't have much to talk to you about yet, except that I'd like you to begin planning a winter dance, and also the password to your heads' dormitory is 'gillyweed'. You may change it if you chose. We also need to set up a meeting to discuss your responsibilities and go over any thing you've already decided. How's a week from tomorrow? Here at 7 pm?" James and Lily nodded. "Good," the old man smiled. "Well I won't keep you any longer then. Your new dormitory is on the 8th floor of the South tower (AN: this isn't where Ravenclaw is, is it?), behind the portrait of the lovely witches having tea. Good night."
"Good night Professor," Lily and James said together.
"Did you know we get our own dormitory?" James asked as they left the Headmaster's office, excited about something for the first time since his parents' death in July. Lily laughed.
"Why do you think I wanted to be Head Girl?" she joked.
Several days had passes since September 1st, and Anna had become rather distant from James, Sirius, Remus, and Taylor. She was putting on quite an act; always laughing and smiling. One would never guess at the tragedy she had gone through over the summer. James on the other hand, was much more serious, and everyone noticed. The student body even began to notice the subtle changes in Sirius, who was quieter and whose eyes no longer held a mischievous glint, but now rather looked like a storm was raging inside them.
Several students noticed the same glint was also missing from James' eyes, which now simply looked empty. Because Anna seemed unchanged, no one guessed what their three classmates had recently gone through. Instead the just assumed that the two pranksters were finally growing up.
Anna was sitting on a couch in the Gryffindor common room staring at the fire with tears streaming from her eyes late one night after everyone else had gone to bed. Hearing the steps creak, she quickly wiped her face with her sleeve, and turned to see the intruder.
"I had a feeling I'd find you here," Sirius whispered, sitting down beside Anna, and wrapping his arms around her. They sat quietly for a bit; the only sound being Anna's sniffles and the crackling of the fire. "You should get to bed. You need sleep." Sirius said, standing up and reaching down to lift Anna.
"No!" she said.
"Anna! You're going to get sick! You haven't been eating and now you're not sleeping!" Sirius tried to sound both gentle and insistent.
Anna bit her lip. "Do you think I could… sleep with you tonight?" she mumbled. Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Just sleep."
"Of course," he answered, picking her up. She's lost a lot of weight. Sirius thought, vowing to himself to make sure she'd start eating more at meals. He set her in his bed, and crawled in, snuggling close to her. Anna turned to bury her face in his chest, and he put his arms around her, holding her close. Only when Sirius felt Anna's tears stop and her breathing slow, did he allow himself to close his eyes and go to sleep.
That night was a late one for Lily and James as well. They were sitting in their common room, both doing there homework, when Lily suddenly stopped and went over to interrupt James.
"If were going to get to know each other, we ought to get to know each other better, don't you think?" James looked up from his potions essay, surprised.
"Sure," he answered. Though he already knew a lot about Lily, he wanted to know everything, and he couldn't help but feel a little excited she finally wanted to get to know him. "What do you want to know?"
"Um… What's your favorite color?"
"Red," James answered, "and your's is green." Lily nodded, smiling in suspicion.
"Favorite band or singer?"
"Something Corporate. Your's is Johnny Lang."
"A muggle band?" James nodded. "Aren't you pureblood?" He nodded again.
"We live in a muggle town though; near London. The town where the restaurant we went to for Anna's birthday is in."
"Ohhh. Um... favorite animal?"
"Deer, and your's is a horse." Lily was starting to get frustrated.
"How do you know all this?"
"I dunno… I just listen when you talk I guess." James shrugged. "Next question?"
"Favorite class?"
"Transfiguration," James sighed. "Charms." He pointed at Lily.
"All right Mr. Know-it-all. What do you want to know then?"
"I don't know," James said slowly. "Tell me about… your family… your hometown… just… everything. Tell me something no one else knows. Not even your friends."
"Well," Lily began, hesitating slightly, she decided to trust James. "I live with my mom, dad, and my sister, Petunia. Me and Petunia used to get along really well, until I found out I was a witch. She kind of hates me for it… my parents are pleased about it, but they don't really understand our world. They want me to go to a muggle university. I love them, but I wish they'd understand. As for my hometown… it's a small muggle town, near London. It's kinda one of those towns where everyone knows everything about everybody, ya know? Typical small town type of thing. They all think I'm at a muggle boarding school of course though. Some thing no one else knows is that I would love to play quidditch, but I'm terrified of heights."
James was shocked and incredibly pleased at how much Lily had just told him. This could be the year. This has to be the year.
"I'm sure your sister doesn't really hate you," James said, "and I could teach you to fly if you wanted." Lily smiled and nodded.
"Maybe… alright now you go." James sighed he hadn't expected this.
"Well I already told you I'm from a muggle town near London. It's not as small as your town sounds, but not huge either. You've been there. I guess you've got a pretty good idea of what it's like. Something no one else knows… is that you're the most beautiful, amazing girl to every live. At least I hope no one knows… or I'm in trouble."
Lily laughed, blushing slightly. "You forgot about your family."
"Oh…" James hadn't really forgotten. "Well you know my family. Anna's my sister and the Marauders are basically my brothers. Especially Sirius; he even lives with us."
"What about your parents?"
James shrugged. "Nothing really to say."
"What? There's gotta be something! I told you all about my family—things only my closest friends know, and I'll you'll tell me is things everyone knows?!"
"Not everyone knows Sirius lives with me…"
"James!"
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, OK?" James yelled, glowering at Lily.
"Yeah, okay," she said quietly, looking close to tears.
"Sorry," James said, calming back down. "I'm going to bed… good night… sorry again…"
"Yeah," Lily whispered. "Good night." What the hell was that about?
AN: Hope you enjoyed! Please review! I'll update again when I have 10 reviews! I hate to do it, but if I don't say that, lots of people read and no one reviews. I need feedback. Thanks.