September the second. Otherwise known as the day the Head Boy and Girl sat down and laid out the schedules that would be in place for pretty much the rest of the year. Usually they had been prefects themselves, and knew how other prefects liked it.
Not this year. It had been half an hour, and they only had the fifth years done. (Because, of course, fifth years got little-to-no choice in the matter. Weekend patrols it was, for them!) The unused classroom was small but comfy; when there was enough interest, it hosted alchemy classes.
"Wait, what?" James Potter asked, quirking his eyebrow at Lily.
The redhead grinned mischievously and sat down on the floor next to him. "Arya Fenwick doesn't partner with Oswald Urquart."
"They've been prefects together for two years!" James protested.
"Arya works with Amelia Bones. They can only do Monday night patrols."
"Why?"
"Amelia moderates dueling club with Ella Podmore and Arya's on the Ravenclaw quidditch team," Lily explained.
"So sign them up for Monday," James said. He sounded extremely exasperated; Lily stifled a laugh. She had honestly forgotten how insane prefects had seemed when she had started.
"Can't. Samson Davies changed the Quidditch schedule," Lily said. She beamed at him. "They need new partners."
James frowned. "Let's pair Amelia with Edgar, then, and..."
"Can't do that, either."
"What – why?"
Lily smirked and said, "Edgar only works with Ella. They do Wednesday mornings."
"Ella's a sixth year!"
"She's also his fiancé."
James groaned. "How do people do this, again?"
"I'm pretty sure you have to be a wizard," Lily said. Before they had found out about Lily's magic, it was something she and Petunia had said.
"Uh, Evans, what the hell?" he asked.
Lily shrugged. "Muggle thing."
"Oh."
"Well," Lily said. "We have the fifth years doing the four weekend patrols, eh?"
"Yeah," James said.
"Put us in for Friday and Monday nights, no one else will do them," Lily said. James winced but scratched it on the schedule. It sucked that the Heads needed to do two patrols, but it was the truth. "Remus can go with Arya on... Friday mornings. Neither will mind, and Arya won't care if she has to go alone sometimes."
"I'll keep the Slytherin prefects and sixth year Ravenclaws together," James said. "And give them random things."
"If they have a problem, they'll tell us about it," Lily said. "You if they're purists, me if they think they can try to harass one of us."
"Mmn," James said. Not arguing, nothing. This was the world they lived in.
"Who's left?" Lily asked.
"Eric Diggory from Hufflepuff and Evan Skeeter from Ravenclaw. Oh, and the Gryff sixth years," James said.
"Write them in, then," Lily said. James grinned.
"And done. That was actually easy.," he said, putting the schedule in the neat file folder they had.
"Oh, wait until people start getting detention," Lily responded, standing to go.
"Prefects can get detentions?" James asked, making a face.
"Unfortunately, yes." Lily said. She gave him a wry smile. "Don't you remember that time I hexed Theon Scabior and was stuck in detention with Sirius for a month?"
"Ugh, I remember," James said. He stood up too. "I was jealous of him."
Lily laughed. "C'mon, let's go drop this off in the prefect's office. Wouldn't want to lose it, would we?" She thought that it would lead to a funny story if they lost it, but of course that wasn't the point."
"Okay," James said. He held the door open for her and closed it behind him. The door latched
shut automatically; apparently it was only used when someone had a good reason.
"So, why were you jealous?" Lily asked.
"Of Sirius? Because he got to spend time with you, of course," James said.
"Pfft," Lily said. "OH come on, now. That's about as good as Wingardia's christmas album."
"Since when do you listen to Wingardia?" James asked, looking concerned.
"I don't," Lily said flatly. "They're bloody terrible. I do have a wizarding radio, though..."
"Ah," James responded.
"Well, I did get to be friends with Sirius that month," she said. "He's entertaining, when you get past the fact that he shagged two of my roommates."
"Remus shagged two of your roommates," James pointed out.
"Yeah, well, Remus was my friend before that," Lily said. "You haven't shagged any of my roommates, though." She looked at him quizzically.
James shrugged.
"Why not?" Lily asked. "If I liked women, I'd probably have shagged 'em by now."
"I liked you more," James said honestly. They came to a stop in front of the gargoyles. "Gobstoppers."
The statues swiveled to allow access to the stairs. The pair of them headed up. "You didn't want to shag them because it would make me jealous?"
"Well, also because two of them are your best friends and the other two have done awful things with Sirius," he said, shrugging. James put the file neatly on the desk.
Lily wriggled her eyebrows Dumbledore's phoenix. "Awful things? What exactly does that entail?"
"Now now, Evans, we happen to be in the Headmaster's office," James said. "And telling about Sirius' sexual adventures in this office seems to be violating some code of friendship."
Lily laughed. 'Well, let's leave the office, then," she quipped. "And you can tell me all about the sexventures."
"Sexventures?" James asked. He started down the stairs.
Lily followed. "Mary and I decided to squash the words sex and adventures together."
"Do you two get laid that much?"
"It's a really fun word, okay?" she replied. They popped out of the staircase and the gargoyles swiveled into place behind them. "Now, tell me about Sirius and my roommates."
"Well, that's about it," he said.
"Hmn?"
"Sirius. And your roommates."
"At the same time?" Lily asked, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear.
"No way," she said. "No fucking way."
"That's what I said," James replied.
"Good to know we're on the same page, then."
They were walking at the same pace, and James took a second to realize that Lily's legs were practically the same length as his. He had a few inches on her, though. "Is there anything else we're on the same page of?" he asked.
"Give it a month," Lily said.
"A month?"
"A month."
"Why?"
"Because in a month we have to schedule Hogsmeade weekends. And last year that resulted in the Heads firing hexes at each other. So… We'll see."
She said the password, "wicked," and flounced into the common room.
A/N: So that's it. I'd like to say that reviews are almost better than chocolate.