It was a cool autumn morning; vivd orange and red leaves fluttered through the fresh air, gently falling to the soil in crisp, scattered piles, spreading an earthen smell in the air.

A girl with long, dark red hair and emerald green eyes tossed and turned on her mattress, clutching her silken comforter tightly.

"Lily!" A petite woman with light blond hair started walking up the dusty stairs, trying to not let each bit of wood creak as she said, "Honey, it's time to wake up. Today's your first day of term at Hogwarts, remember?"

Flashing her eyelids open, Lily blinked a few times, yawning heavily and throwing her pile of blankets to the floor. "I'm coming, Mum!"

The petite lady, who at the tender age of forty-three was still regally beautiful, poked her head into her youngest daughter's room, remarking, "Hurry up! We have to leave to platform nine and three quarters in half an hour."

Quickly sliding out of her nightdress and pulling on a cream-colored jacket, Lily replied, "It's okay, Mum! I can drive over there. I don't want you and Dad to be late to work."

"No that's alright Lily. Your Dad and I want to see you off to school."

Running a long comb through her silky hair, Lily sighed, "Mum, no-one's parents drive them to places when they're seventeen years old."

Ruffling her hair meticulously, Rosalind pressed a light kiss to her daughter's forehead, "But this is your last year at Hogwarts, sweetie. After the summer, you'll be moving out, and you'll be a legal adult with your own job! We won't get to see you much."

Sighing, the redhead rubbed some chapstick on her chapped lips, smoothing some cherry-flavored lip gloss onto them, throwing some of her last minute items into her trunk recklessly, shrinking it so that everything all fit, and picking up her owl cage. "Okay Mum, you can drive me there. But we have to get ready quickly!"

The blond haired woman picked up her daughter's trunk. "I'll bring this downstairs. You go on ahead and eat breakfast; I don't want you to be late!"

"Okay," Lily replied, quickly bouncing down her stairs and popping into the kitchen, grabbing toast and shoving it into her mouth.

Her father, who had dark red hair and pale blue eyes and was holding a steaming mug of coffee, set it down on the breakfast table. "Morning, Lily. Are you all set to go?"

She looked worried, "Yeah, but we have to leave quickly, so you might want to finish that cup of coffee."

Ruffling through the newspaper, he pulled her into an embrace, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm ready to leave. I'm so proud; my youngest daughter is Head Girl!"

"Thanks, Dad. I wonder who Head boy will be, maybe Remus or Ben…"

Chuckling, her dad lowered his spectacles, "Imagine if it's that boy who you say is really obnoxious, James Potter."

"Dad, that's not going to happen; Dumbledore knows better than to pick someone like that for Head Boy! He's really popular, Quidditch captain, really good-looking and charming, but…"

Rosalind, who was just walking down the stairs carrying Lily's trunk, winked at her. "Then why don't you go out with him. He's been asking you since fourth year, right?"

Looking extremely frenzied, Lily's father said, "What? That git asked her out?"

"Oh get a grip, Mark! Our Lily's not a young girl anymore; she's all grown up and seventeen years old for goodness sakes! You should be glad it wasn't earlier!"

Lily bit her lip, "And it doesn't even matter, Dad, because no matter how many times he asks me out, I will never go out with him. He just doesn't get the fact that a girl can say no to him. He might be good-lucking and charming, but seriously, he's not worth it. I've never met someone as arrogant as him. Someone needs to set him straight!"

For a few minutes, there was an awkward silence in the room, until the redhead inquired, "Why are we talking about James Potter again?"

"Oh, the topic just arose, " replied the blonde.

Her dad took a big sip from his chorale mug. "Yes, it all started with me saying how proud I am of you. You're Head Girl, top in your class, a witch…"

A stout girl with short tufts of light blond hair and piercing hawk-like eyes stepped lightly off the bottom step, saying, "Yes, we all know how amazing she is."

Gasping, Lily whipped around, for she had not heard Petunia walking down the stairs until she spoke; she entered the room just like a mouse.

The smile was wiped off of Rosalind's face, and she rushed to hug her older daughter. "Oh no, Petunia. We're very proud of you!"

Tugging up the corners of his mouth, Mark put an arm around Petunia, patting her on the back. "Yes Pet, we're all very proud of you! Acceptance into the Cokeworth Medical School is very hard to get, and in just a few years, you'll become a well-established dermatologist."

Harshly pulling away from her parents, the blond girl coldly remarked, "No."

Confused, Mark asked, "What do you mean, Pet?"

Trailing her fingers along the edges of warm glass in the windows, she shot Lily a nasty look. "I'm not going to medical school."

"But why not? You got in!" Mark exclaimed.

Petunia bitterly spat, "So? I'm tired of you always mooning over that freak's achievements." She faked her voice, molding it to be very shrill, "Oh Lily's so amazing, Lily's the best, Lily's a witch. Lily's so smart. Lily's so pretty. Lily's so talented. Lily's Head Girl. Lily's top of her class." Taking in deliberately deep breaths, she angrily continued, "Lily, Lily, Lily. Is she all you ever care about?"

Unhappy, the redhead protested, "No, Pet, that's not true! Mum and Dad care just as much about you!"

With a snort, Petunia exclaimed, "Yeah right, freak! They think you're so amazing, but frankly, you're just a piece of filth. A freak. A witch. And no-one in their right mind would ever like you. You're so dumb and stupid, and you don't even deserve to be Head Girl. You're friends with the most obnoxious idiots, and I hate your stupid Wizarding world. I hate everything about it. I hate you!"

Lily burst into tears, not even finishing her oatmeal and running into the bathroom, hot tears slipping down her cheeks rapidly.

Rosalind angrily reprimanded her eldest daughter, running into the bathroom to comfort Lily, while Mark took Petunia into an embrace, wiping off her tears and calming her down.

Lily sobbed, "Why does she have to hate me so much? I'm her sister, and I love her so much, but she still hates me."

Squeezing her hand, Rosalind whispered into Lily's ear, "Shh…sweetie, it's alright. Pet loves you, and you know it. She doesn't hate you. She just hates the fact that you're a witch. But it's all going to be okay; I'm sure you and Pet will make up one day. Come on, it's almost time to go to school. I want you to forget everything that just happened, okay?"

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Lily nodded. "Okay, but can you please try to convince Petunia to go to medical school? I don't want her to not be a doctor just because of her anger with me."

Mark emerged from the living room. "Yeah, we'll make sure Pet understands that she's very important to us. She'll go to medical school; don't worry."

Emerging from the living room, the blond girl narrowed her eyes. "Oh no I won't! I don't want to live anywhere near you because you're so over the moon about her. I don't want to see her every single day of the year!"

"No, Pet, I'll be moving out after next summer! Just stay here!" Lily tried to argue.

The blond angrily fumed, "It doesn't matter! I'll still see you every day in Mum and Dad's eyes. I'll still have to bear the fact that they love you so much more than they love me! You know what, I've had enough. I've enrolled in a typing course in London, and guess what, you'll probably never see me again, and I'll be doing an office job in a few months! So this is good bye for me and you; the bus to London leaves at ten, and I've already booked my ticket. Bye, and I hope I never see you again, freak!"

Petunia stormed through the front door, kicking it shut behind her with a loud slam and vehemently pummeling her bowl of oatmeal to the ground. With a final enraged look at her childhood home, Petunia's eyes started becoming watery, and she walked off into the distance.

Everyone was speechless for a couple of seconds, until Lily burst into tears again, "Now she's gone and left you, all because of me."

Rosalind had tears in her eyes too, and she said, "It's okay; it's not your fault. I guess I should have shown her more affection. I always tried to treat you both equally, but I guess the message just never got across."

Mark comforted his wife and daughter, but even he was crying, for the first time in more than twenty years. "It's okay. She'll come around; she's just really angry. I'll write to her, so hopefully she'll see sense and come back to Cokeworth. Now Lily—" He cleared his throat, "don't let this get in the way of your seventh year. I hope that you have a good year. My goodness; there's ten minutes left until the train leaves!"

Lily's eyes bulged, "What?! We'll never get there in time. I have to Apparate; I'm really sorry Mum and Dad. I promise I'll write to you."

Taking out her wand, Lily grabbed her trunk and owl, feeling a tug at her navel as she vanished into thin air and reappeared at platform nine and three-quarters. A frown shadowed her face as she saw a certain boy with messy black hair and twinkling hazel-colored eyes walking about, his eyes searching through the crowd.

Potter. That jerk had been a thorn in her side since fourth year—wait, make that first year. Fourth year was when he officially started asking her out. He had annoyed her before that too, running a hand through his messy black hair and showing off for giggling crowds of younger girls. Just thinking about him at the moment agitated her; her day was already half-ruined by her ungrateful and prejudiced sister Petunia, and now he had to be the first one whom she saw!

Even Lily had to admit that he was popular, good-looking, and amazing at Quidditch, but seriously, he wasn't worth it. His personality was enough to make any sensible girl run away screaming. He was arrogant, childish, rude, condescending, pompous, over-confident, impudent, and cocky... Lily could add to this list all night, but no one else seemed to understand her hatred towards him, not even her best friend, Dorcas, who was best buddies with him. Literally.

Shaking her head, Lily strolled across the platform, down towards the front car where the Heads' room and the prefects' lounge were located. On her way, she passed the Marauders, and all four were laughing merrily, probably planning their next prank on some poor first-year student. If it wasn't a first year, the target would definitely be Severus, whom Lily sort of felt bad for. Even though he had called her a Mudblood in fifth year, he was kind to her and seemed to always get pranked by the Marauders. However, Lily had refused to speak to him after fifth year because he had joined the Death Eaters, befriending the worst sorts of people, like Avery, Nott, and Malfoy.

Ducking her head, the redhead hid behind some trolleys and carts as she passed, thus successful in not being seen by the one and only James Potter. All he would do is call out to her and embarrass her by asking her out in the midst of everyone.

Like she would ever say yes if someone asked her out in such a fashion. Maybe if his head lost about ten sizes, maybe if he asked her politely, maybe if he didn't only try and date her for a joke or a bet with Black, maybe if he didn't want to date her so he could brag about catching the girl of his dreams with his mates, maybe... Lily mentally slapped herself for trying to find a way around the problem at hand, knowing full well that there was no solution. She would never say yes.

When she finally made it to the Heads' compartment, she almost died from shock. Clenching her teeth, Lily slammed the door shut, sliding the glass recklessly as her eyes blazed.

The boy inside jumped about a mile when he heard the noise, as he had been sitting there quietly reading a Quidditch magazine. However, when he glanced up at her, a huge smile littered his face and his hazel eyes began to sparkle, though he looked sort of worried. "What's wrong? Have you not had a good summer, Evans?"

Seething, Lily replied, "It was fine. I thought I was having a good year until now you've shown up and ruined my day."

Potter didn't look too offended, for he took her hand in his, smoothing his fingers over Lily's skin. "You don't mean that do you? Would you like to go to the first Hogsmeade weekend with me, lovely Evans?"

Lily rolled her eyes and counted to ten so she wouldn't choke him to death in her fury. She ignored his request for a date, trying her best to calm her voice as she jerked her hand out of his. "Potter, you are not supposed to be in the Heads' compartment. If you're waiting for Remus, you'll have to wait until later. You'll see him soon enough, though, I promise. We have duties to attend to, so you shouldn't bother him."

If anything, Potter's smile grew wider, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a silvery badge. "No, Evans, I think you're mistaken. I'm Head Boy."

Lily recoiled, absolutely horrified, no terrified, by the idea of Potter being her partner for the rest of the year.

Winking, he slid closer next to her, smoothing down his hair. "You ready to be partners in crime?"

Shoving him away, Lily nearly screamed, "Get away from me, Potter!"

She was going to have to live next to him for nine months. And that didn't just mean living next to him… It meant sharing a bathroom and common room, as well as having to negotiate with him nearly every day, every hour. Not to mention they had perfectly identical schedules; he'd be in all of her classes.

Feeling bile slowly creeping up her throat at the mere idea, Lily hoped that this was all a stupid prank that her best friend Dor had planned, or even better, a nightmare. "There is no way that Professor Dumbledore would make you Head Boy, Potter."

Sighing, James handed her the badge so that she could read it. She noticed, much to her dismay, that it was clearly engraved, 'James Potter.'

Throwing her a cocky smile, James said, "I don't get why you're so surprised, Evans. I'm the best bloke in Hogwarts. Dumbledore was bound to pick me."

"Don't be an idiot, Potter. You're not even close to being the person suited best for this job."

He started trailing his fingers through her red hair. "I see no reason why he shouldn't have picked me. I'm smart, I'm amazing at Quidditch, and everyone likes me. Wait no, change that to everyone loves me."

Lily groaned, shoving her face into her hands. "Get over yourself, Potter. You really do think you're Merlin's gift to the world, don't you? Well, face the facts, you're not. Your big bloated head is probably too stuffed to retain any knowledge."

He just grinned even wider, "My big bloated head, eh? Geez, Evans, I'm intelligent! Why else would Dumbledore pick me? All the girls seem to be head over heels in love with me. I mean, why wouldn't they be?"

Seething, Lily nearly yelled, "Shut up, Potter. Why does every second of your stupid conversations with me have to be about how amazing you are?"

"Because you have to understand how amazing I am. Only then will you go out with me, I'm sure."

Shaking her head, Lily said, "Potter, stop trying to impress with these stupid tactics. They're never going to work; you're just too bossy, condescending, arrogant, rude…"

He guffawed, "Oh shut that mouth of yours, Evans! Me? Rude? You have got to be kidding me."

"Oh, just please shut up, will you? Face the facts, hell would have to freeze over before I went out with you." Lily wildly exclaimed, swinging her arms.

James was quiet for awhile, until she turned to face him and spat, "Why did Dumbledore pick you, anyways?"

His face thoughtful, James grinned, "You know, I asked Dumbledore why he made me Head boy. But his words were, and I quote, 'James, I picked you because I felt like it. Please do not make me regret my decision.' End quote. You know I totally deserve the badge, Evans."

Lily just shook her head, and something inside of her seemed to snap, "Potter, this cannot be happening! You weren't supposed to be Head Boy! This is not fair! Besides, when would Dumbledore speak personally to you anyway, in the middle of you and the Marauders causing mayhem? You're lying, and I know it, James. You probably stole the badge and had your name engraved on it!"

James cut off her rant by grabbing her shoulders, and yelling, "Shut it!"

He was hurt she didn't seem to believe anything he was saying, and he had never speculated that she considered him a liar until then. "Listen, Lily, I wouldn't lie to you. Calm down. Let's just go to the prefect's lounge."

Lily just looked at him like he had gone crazy. "Get your hands off of me."

James gently let go and for once, actually looked remorseful, making a mental note to try his best not to aggravate her. "Sorry. So what do you say we go to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Lily shot him a spiteful look, fury radiating in her mind as she ignored his request for a date. "Apology accepted; now can we go to the lounge?"

James nodded, a bit downcast that she had ignored his request for a date. They started walking towards the prefect's compartment, closing the glass doors of compartments along the way.

When she opened the door and walked in, all of the talking ceased. She wasn't sure if it was because she looked extremely mad with her eyes still a bit puffy from crying over Petunia's departure or because Potter had walked in behind her. Only Remus was smiling—actually, he was almost laughing at the two of them, possibly because he noticed the lovesick look that James was throwing at Lily. Bellatrix and Severus, meanwhile, were sneering at them with cold, disgusted looks in their eyes. James asked, "Is everyone here?"

Everyone looked around the room to check that exactly twelve prefects were in the room and replied, "Yes."

Lily tried to put a wry smile on her face. "Potter and I are Head Boy and Girl this year. This meeting is just to get you all to introduce yourselves to one another and for the older students to help the younger prefects get accustomed to their duties. All of you need to patrol the corridors of the train and switch duties by the hour each night. If there are any problems, you can call either me or Potter. In the Hogwarts castle, prefects can use the prefects' lounge and prefects' bathrooms located in the fifth floor corridor, but please, do not be out of bed using these in times when you're not allowed, and please, do not use the bathrooms when you're supposed to be on duty. The password for these areas is 'cauldron cakes.' Please do not give the passwords for these areas to anyone, including your friends because it is a great privilege to be a prefect, and these bathrooms are for your use, and your use only. You have definitely deserved it. Potter and I will develop a sign-up sheet for you all in the prefects' lounge so you can sign up to do patrol of the hallways six nights a week. That's all I need to say, unless there is something Potter would like to add?"

Everyone in the room seemed to notice the biting tone she used when addressing James, but he just waved it off, deciding to give her break for the rest of the day. "Professor Dumbledore asked me to inform all of you that he would like for us all to practice some inter-house unity. He understands that everyone is sorted into houses, becomes friends with those in their houses, and plays for or supports the Quidditch teams of their houses, but he would like us all to make an effort to encourage studying with students from other houses or practicing Quidditch with students from other houses as well as making an effort to be friends with them. He says that it is vital in this time period, especially since dark wizards are rising."

Lily was rather taken aback by the calm way Potter handled himself and also a bit dismayed that Dumbledore hadn't mentioned any of that information to her. She had no time to comment because Severus beat her to it, looking at James with utter dislike and disdain. "Potter, what if we want to partner with those from our own houses? Why do we have to pair up with someone we don't like?"

His mouth set and eyes cold, James spat at him, "Because Dumbledore is telling you to do it! I'm not saying this will work out properly; just give it a try, Snivellus."

Bellatrix jumped in before Severus could start arguing. "It's not like we're actually going to take advice from you piece of filth."

Potter looked ready to spit fire with his eyes as he replied, "Everyone knows what a jerk you are, Bellatrix. There's no need to remind us of it."

Extremely incensed by his comment, Bellatrix jumped up, about to take out her wand.

Lily interrupted before this conversation had the chance to escalate into a fight, "Everyone, please calm down. There's no need to get into arguments before school even starts. We'll schedule a prefects' meeting at some point to discuss the patrol and inter-house unity issues further. The sign-up sheet will be up on the bulletin board later tonight so you all can begin to sign up and begin patrol starting tomorrow night. Please do your duties well, and I bid you a good day."

Everyone jumped off of their seats, wordlessly plodding back to their friends. The redhead turned to see Potter scowling and Remus laughing at him. She cautiously approached them both and caught the end of what Remus was saying, "…can't believe she would do that in front of everyone. She seems to have been taking the rejection much too terribly."

James didn't see Lily's approach, so he was immediately defensive. "Well she should've known I would never yield to her, Remus. It was just the Black family acting all superior and—" Remus cut him off and gestured to the Head Girl.

James turned and noticed Lily looking at him rather oddly, her arms crossed over her chest with an annoyed look on her face. He turned to Remus with a 'help me' expression. "Umm, I need to talk to Evans for a bit. Come by later if you have the chance. Oh, and don't forget to tell Padfoot that there's plenty of time for what he's doing now at Hogwarts, so he doesn't need to scar some poor first year's eyes."

Remus felt a laugh echo through his throat, but he contained it, offering Lily the tiniest of smiles and walking out of the compartment. As soon as he was gone, the redhead scowled, "Why did you attack Bellatrix like that, Potter? You set a bad example for everyone in that room. Seriously, couldn't you wait until term begins? Do you want to lose Gryffindor a bunch of points?"

He waved his arms, protesting, "She called me a piece of filth! What else do you expect me to do?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe calmly deal with the situation, and don't lead her on!" Lily taunted him.

Fuming, he screamed at her, "God, Evans, why do you have to harp on everything I do?"

"Shut up, Potter! You know you deserve it."

James got up and gestured for her to go on ahead of him, "Fine! Whatever. I'm sorry for sparking the fight. Thanks for stopping it before it could get worse."

Pleasantly surprised, Lily tried to pull a smile onto her face. "It's fine, Potter. Your welcome." She definitely didn't expect him to thank her, and she loved that he was finally accepting that he had made a mistake. I mean, he was at least making an effort to attempt to not be so self-centered.

When they reached the Heads' room, James plopped down on the left side and grabbed a book out of his satchel. Managing a smile, Lily was surprised that he was actually reading a book and not browsing through useless Quidditch magazines. However, she was still a bit mad about him being Head Boy, and she still felt quite disheveled at what she had heard Remus and Potter saying. It was something about Bellatrix getting rejected by James. What was that all about?

Snapping out of her thoughts, Lily pulled out two small pieces from her pocket and cast two enlargement charms. She levitated her trunk away and opened up her satchel to grab a quill and some parchment. If she was stuck with Potter for a year, she was going to make him work hard. Though she was very responsible and usually liked doing work thoroughly, she was not going to pass up the chance to rub it in Potter's face that the time for pranking was over. Besides, he appeared to be very capable of handling Head's Duties, so why not make him do it?

Handing him a spare bit of parchment, Lily said, "Potter, we need organize the timings for Hogsmeade weekends and make the patrol sign-up sheet."

Potter nodded grudgingly, but still argued, "We only need to make the sign-up sheet now, and even that, we can do after dinner. Dumbledore wants to meet with us this Wednesday afternoon to discuss Hogsmeade weekends and whatever else we want to do this year. We can plan all that in the next couple of days before the meeting."

Lily rolled her eyes impatiently, secretly fuming inside of her mind. How come Dumbledore never mentioned any of this to her?! "Potter, we'll probably be way too tired to plan after the feast. And why are you such a big procrastinator? How would you know what Professor Dumbledore wants anyway? Since when do you even see him when you aren't causing trouble?"

Potter leaned back, not sure what to say. He was really angered by what Lily had said; did she really think all he did was cause trouble? He talked to her in a biting tone, "Dumbledore is good friends with my family, Evans. I saw him a lot this summer due to that fact. I wouldn't lie about talking to Dumbledore; you should know that before making stupid assumptions. It's not like I cause trouble all day. Like I said before, my family knows Dumbledore really well."

Rolling her eyes, Lily spat back at him with a similar tone, "Sorry. I forgot who your family was for a second.

James' anger was extremely incensed by this comment; she was basically calling him a pure-blood. "Just because I'm a pure-blood and all doesn't mean I'm anything like the Slytherins. My family doesn't uphold the pure-blood ideals and is considered blood traitors by most. You shouldn't be so quick to judge, Evans!"

Lily was almost taken aback by his tone. If anything, James had only been arrogant with her or had showered her with compliments—he had rarely been short with her. "I didn't mean it like that."

James nodded, saying, "Fine, let's just forget this whole conversation. So…this sign-up sheet thing is easy." He waved his wand, and the blank parchment in front of her was immediately inscribed with slots for the prefects to sign up for specific time periods, twelve prefects to each day, starting the next week. He thought for a moment and then waved his wand again. The parchment now also mentioned that the Heads would be doing the first curfew rounds each night from 9-10 pm to make sure all were properly in their dormitories, including the prefects. "Perfect, we'll do rounds every night."

Lily narrowed her eyes, unable to stand the thought of spending an hour with him, walking through the dimly lit corridors. "Potter, I am not doing rounds with you every night."

James was taken aback at how stubborn she was being. He had spoken with Lily's friend Dorcas over the summer, and she had given some advice about how to act when handling Evans. He had taken the advice to heart and didn't ask her out nearly as often. He had only asked her out twice, and he didn't think he was being well, too arrogant, but he knew she would find a way for her to make it seem like he was.

"Fine then, you and I can switch off every other night and do it solo if you can't stand to be around me for a mere hour, Evans. It's getting too hard to meet your needs. Why don't you just tone down your superiority a bit?!"

Lily looked at him coldly, "I'm not being superior, Potter, and I never asked you to meet my needs. For God's sake, I just asked to not do rounds with you. You don't have to be so snappy."

James looked extremely annoyed. "Yeah, and you don't have to be so stubborn."

"Shut up, Potter. What is it with you today, anyways?"

"Look, Evans, I'm tired of arguing, and I'm tired of chasing after you. Let's just go back to normal, okay? I'm sorry about snapping at you. I've just had a really horrible day."

Sighing, it was hard for Lily not to forgive Potter. After all, she really understood what it felt like to have a terrible day. I mean, just look at what happened with her and Petunia."Yeah, I'm sorry about being stubborn and snappy with you, Potter. It's just that I've had a horrible day too."

James turned to face her and was very surprised when he saw tears slipping from her eyes, for she usually never cried, at least not in front of him. And she didn't seem to be the sensitive type either. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Lily was taken aback at how James was acting; he was actually being very sweet. Shaking her head so that some of her long silky tufts of red hair fell across her face, she replied, "No, that's alright. Thanks for offering though."

Still looking a bit concerned, James pulled out a Transfiguration magazine, burying his nose into it and scanning his eyes across the pages like a hawk.

Lily tried to ignore him still sitting there in the Heads' room, but his presence finally began to annoy her after a few minutes of her own reading and writing. Though she was glad that he was finally doing some work, Lily didn't like the fact that he was sitting right across from her, in such close proximity. "Don't you have friends to bother, Potter?"

James sighed, throwing his book to the floor in his anger. It had only been about ten minutes before she had started in on him again. He had been leaving her alone, yet she still managed to somehow find him annoying. "Evans, Remus is doing prefect work, Peter usually sleeps until one of us wakes him up, and Sirius usually spends time sitting in a locked compartment doing things that I would rather not mention. I may be considered a popular guy, but there are no other people I would rather sit with than you, Evans. Why do you have to pick at everything I say and do?"

Lily scowled, "I'm not picking at everything you say and do. I'm just wondering…why don't you go sit with Bellatrix? I bet she'd be over the moon about that arrangement."

James frowned at her question. "How do you know about that?"

She looked at him straight in the eye, sighing. "I'm not stupid, Potter. I overheard you and Remus talking back in the Prefect's Lounge."

His eyes were smoldering. "If you haven't noticed, Evans, I like you! Not her! Besides, she's got all these stupid pure-blood ideals that she believes in; how could you assume that I would sit like a person who believes that pure-blood's are superior? "

Taking out some parchment a quill and feeling a bit guilty for assuming that he would want to sit with Bellatrix, especially when he liked a Muggle-born, Lily said, "I'm sorry for asking, Potter."

They sat in silence for the rest of the trip. Eventually, James left to let her get changed into her robes and to get changed himself. It was rather odd comparing what she had always known to be James Potter to the James Potter in front of her right then. She had always seen him with the Marauders causing trouble and chaos or asking her out in the most ridiculous and embarrassing ways. To see him actually sit still and read a book about Transfiguration, not on the required reading list, mind you, and actually look interested about it, was a very surprising thing. Not to mention that he had seemingly handled being Head Boy rather easily and stuck up for his friend without being arrogant at all. It was all rather alarming to her, as she contemplated the situation at hand. Had she missed something through all the years?

When the train finally stopped, she and Potter escorted all of the returning students to the carriages and helped Hagrid with the first years before jumping into the last carriage together. Lily fidgeted in her seat, uncomfortable with James' silence. Whenever they sat together, James usually used the opportunity to ask her out, but now he wasn't saying a thing to her. Lily wondered why it bothered her so much. Probably because she had to communicate with the Head Boy all year to make sure things got done properly. Forcing a smile onto her face, she asked, "Umm, Potter?"

James looked surprised to see her speaking to him; he had expected to be indifferent towards him, especially since he was leaving her alone. "Yes?"

"Where exactly is the Heads' dormitory?"

James closed the book he was reading, running his fingers along the comfortable leather of the thestral-driven carriages. "I'll show you where it is after the feast. It's up on the sixth floor near the walls of armor. There's a not- passageway and a sphinx gargoyle which moves in response to the password. I'll show you after the feast."

When the carriages arrived, the two again helped to organize everyone and lead them inside of the castle. When they walked into the Great Hall, she immediately noticed that Sirius was talking rather solemnly with Professor Dumbledore near the Professors' table. James immediately left her and went up to talk with them both. Lily rolled her eyes and sat down in a huff; of course Professor Dumbledore was close to the biggest troublemakers in the school.

Sighing heavily, her best friend Dorcas eventually plopped down next to her, twirling her fork around absentmindedly. She had a mischievous look in her eyes. "So you and James for Head Boy and Girl? No way! People were talking about it all over the train. I hear some people are suggesting that you might grow closer to him since you get to see him walking around in nothing but a towel."

Her friend nudged her suggestively, but Lily just furrowed her eyebrows. "Eww…No. I'm going to have to make a law; he has to walk around fully clothed."

Dorcas giggled as Lily rolled her eyes, muttering insults at all of the annoying gossipers under her breath. "Yes, it's me and Potter, unfortunately. Although I have to admit, and I won't say this to anyone else, he might just do a good job."

Dorcas' eyes widened in disbelief. "No! Who are you, and what have you done with Lily Evans?"

Her eyes twinkling, a laugh echoed through the room, and Lily whispered to her friend, "I'm serious. I don't like it, obviously, but he does have a way with being in authority, and he appears to be mates with Dumbledore."

After seeing Lily nod to her right, Dorcas looked up towards the Professors' table where Dumbledore, Sirius, and Potter were still talking as everyone continued to pour into the Great Hall. "Yeah, I kind of knew about that beforehand. It might work in your favor, for stuff you want to do and all."

Nodding, Lily focused her attention to the welcoming ceremony. After the sorting and the feast began, she noticed she had been watching Potter without meaning to. He seemed more relaxed now that he was at Hogwarts. Curiosity pulled at her to know the reason that Dumbledore was on such good terms with him, but she knew it wasn't her business. When the feast had ended, he got up, said his goodbyes, and headed over towards her. She noticed him stop briefly to whisper in a girl's ear and pat her on the back gently.

She watched the girl nod, pulling him into a quick hug and walking away from the Great Hall. Lily was confused. She had never seen Potter do that before. Well, she technically had never watched him before. Who was the petite, dirty blonde-haired girl anyway? Lily knew she was in Ravenclaw, and for the life of her, Lily could not remember her name, but she knew that she wasn't on the Quidditch team. Her brow furrowed. Wait, why did this even matter? Was she an old girlfriend of Potter's, or possibly a new one?

James walked over to Lily, casually resting a hand on the table and smoothing his fingers over the tablecloth. "Hey Evans. I told the prefects the passwords. For Gryffindor, it's 'samara aurora,' just so you know. Ours is whatever we want."

Lily just nodded and walked along with him. She saw a few girls from Hufflepuff straggling to get a glimpse of him and were looking disdainfully at Lily, but James didn't seem to either notice or care. When they got out of earshot, James continued, "So what do you want the password to be, Evans?"

Lily was surprised that he would ask for her opinion. She had figured that he would make it some complicated Quidditch term or something. Anger bubbling at the pits of her stomach at the image of James hugging the Ravenclaw girl replaying over and over again in her mind in torturously slow motion, she said, "I don't know. Why are you letting me pick anyway?"

James felt very hurt due to the fact that she always had to argue with him, even when he was trying to be nice. "I don't know. I just thought you would want to pick. God Evans, why are you harping on me when I'm trying to be nice?"

Lily glared at him. Now he thought she was some 'miss superior' type and would probably just order him around? Why couldn't he just be nice? "I'm not some 'miss superior' type, Potter."

"Fine. How about 'Lily Evans hates James Potter then?'" James was looking at her spitefully, his eyes narrowed in frustration. Although she was a little taken aback by James having a rather biting tone with her for the second time that day, his comment just elevated Lily's anger even more. "Anyone could guess that, Potter."

James sighed in exasperation. "How about 'Are you Sirius?"

Smirking, Lily replied, "Fine, I guess that'll work."

After they decided, the two of them continued to walk in silence, both of them still angrily thinking about the other. Suddenly, James held up his hand and stopped them next to a blank wall just after the picture of two gargoyles and a man with a club. "Watch," He ordered.

Lily observed him as he tapped his wand in three specific places. Nothing appeared to have happened, but then James walked right through the wall. Lily tentatively put her hand out and upon seeing it dematerialize, followed him through. James had already walked down the short hallway and had stopped at the portrait. "The password is going to be 'Are you Sirius?'"

Giving him a wink and calling out to the Lily cheerfully, the portrait opened up for the two of them. They both entered and were not surprised to see the Heads' common room in red and gold. There was a couch, two plush armchairs, and a coffee table in front of a fireplace, which already had a blazing fire. There was also a table with two chairs off to the far right, probably for studying. In the back of the room, there were stairs leading to two doors. The one on the left had her name written on it while the one on the right had James' name on it.

Lily eyed him warily. "Good night, Potter. And please, don't come into my room."

James rolled his eyes at her even suggesting he would do such a thing. "I would never invade your privacy, Evans."

"Whatever. Just leave me alone, and we'll get along fine. Is that clear?"

James held up his hands in defeat, but then he smiled. "Crystal. Does this mean you won't go out with me, Evans?"

Lily scowled loudly, and her eyes flared. "Arrrrggghhhh! I hate you, Potter!"

James watched her fly into her room and shut the door with a loud slam.

Maybe he'd have better luck another time. With a sigh, he plopped himself onto his king-sized bed. It was definitely going to be an interesting year.

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