AN: Here's the first chapter! I'm hoping to update pretty regularly. (and obviously I own none of this). Reviews are better than cuddles from kittens xx

Chapter 1

It was the loneliest summer she had ever endured. Between Petunia's steadfast determination not to speak to her, and her severe lack of anyone she might call a friend in Cokeworth, Lily Evans found herself whiling away the days in relative isolation.

Of course, there were times when she'd help her mum in the kitchen. She enjoyed cooking a great deal — it was the closest she came to potion-making in the muggle world. Unfortunately, Petunia had long since claimed domestic activities as her domain, so Lily didn't dare approach a stove or an oven when her sister was around.

Instead, she spent hours wandering the streets of her town, trying to reminisce but finding that she was mostly just too irritated by the thought that all of her friends were probably flying around the countryside and becoming regulars at the Leaky Cauldron, while she was staying in her childhood home with a sister who hated her and a mother who was mostly focused on planning said sister's wedding even though it was still several months out.

Twenty-nine days until I'm back on the Hogwarts Express, Lily thought to herself as she laid out on a grassy knoll a few minutes' walk away from her house.

It had been entirely her own idea to stay in Cokeworth for the summer. It was her last summer holiday and although she'd smile and nod every time her mum mentioned her living at home after Hogwarts, she knew that would never happen. Not when there was so much political unrest in the Wizarding world. Not when her entire life and all of her friends were there instead of here.

Despite the physical distance, Lily had managed to keep in near-constant contact with her best friends, Marlene Mckinnon and Alice Parker. According to their frequent letters, they were not quite galavanting around the countryside as often as Lily always imagined. Marlene was spending the summer babysitting her four younger siblings, Alice was staying with Frank and his mother. They met up with the boys in their year every so often for a drink or a pick-up game of Quidditch at Potter's estate. All par for the course.

One tiny blessing of the past year had been the fact that they had all somehow gotten much closer to the four boys Lily had once sworn to loathe. She had gone into her sixth year at Hogwarts expecting to never speak to Potter again after the unfortunate events of fifth year, but instead had done quite the opposite. Perhaps it was their now-mutual distaste for Severus or the fact that James had grown up quite a bit in a short amount of time or her realization that the four of them had a friendship that was eerily similar to hers with Marlene and Alice. Regardless of the cause, Lily found that she didn't hate any of them and it had led to a much more pleasant year than she had expected.

And that made the summer more lonely, too.

Lily had been invited every time they all met up, but she felt an immense wave of guilt every time she thought about leaving her small family during the only months for which she was ever around. Which was why Lily kept her letters short and free of any personal angst, resolving to tell them how the summer really went once she was comfortably in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express.

The sun was high in the sky, having transitioned from being pleasantly warm to unbearably hot. She'd be burnt redder than her hair if she stayed outside any longer, so she slowly pulled herself back up and began the short walk home, resolving to write yet another letter to her friends if her poor little owl, Athena, was up to it.

Lily could hear the commotion inside her house before she even opened the door.

Probably just Tuney and Mum having another row about napkin colors, she thought, bracing herself for the scene within.

Sure enough, Petunia was in full meltdown-mode when Lily walked into the living room. There she stood in the middle of the room, wearing an exorbitantly long veil and weeping over two floral arrangements sitting on the floor.

"They're just ideas I had, dear," her mum tried desperately to console the sobbing bride-to-be. "We can do whatever flowers you like."

"I said no yellow! It'll clash with the ivory accents on my dress!" Petunia cried.

Lily had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing out that ivory was hardly an accent color on a white dress. She made the wiser choice and sidestepped the entire display, creeping her way to her room as quietly as possible.

She shut the door, glad to drown out at least a little bit of the noise, and there on her crumpled orange bedspread was Athena sitting next to a small stack of letters and looking utterly exhausted.

Lily gave the little bird a treat and helped her back to her perch before grabbing the letters and flopping onto her bed.

The first in the stack was clearly Marlene's handwriting. She tore into it to read the letter inside, just mildly dreading the recounts of fun days she'd spent with her friends.

Lily, darling, light of my life, the letter read. Have you told Petunia to piss off yet? Or better, have you threatened to turn her into a toad or shrink all her clothes? You don't have to actually do it of course, the threat should be enough to get her to treat you with some respect. If that doesn't work, do consider letting me send her a Howler. You can feign total innocence. Though I may be entirely off the mark here — I don't know enough of her personality since I've never met the cow (sorry for calling your sister a cow, but you know, she IS one). We all miss you very much and if you could just sneak out for even one night that'd be brill. Tom finally knows us all by name when we go in for a drink, which might not be something to be proud of.

Give Athena an extra treat from me — I told her to fly as fast as she could because there's some very time sensitive information in this letter… the Potters are putting on some big ball for everyone in our year before we go back to school! Apparently it's a tradition among the upper crust, a rather stuffy one if you ask Sirius, but I think it sounds fabulous. Dress robes, plenty of booze, rich boys, all the best things in the world.

Ugh, James has just informed me that he's about to send along a proper invitation, so this whole letter was for naught, but sod it, I'm not going to rewrite the first half.

See you soon! xx

Lily shook her head and chuckled at her friend's signature erratic handwriting, then made a mental note to tell her that witchy threats against Petunia would only earn her a stern scolding from her mum, which would please Petunia all too much. She'd normally write back immediately, but the thick deep purple envelope with her name in beautiful gold cursive on the front had captured her full attention.

She opened that one much more carefully than she did Marlene's, and pulled the heavy card out. It was ivory and Lily snorted, thinking of how much Petunia would appreciate it if only it weren't magic. The details on the card were all written in the same swirling gold font as the envelope.

Dear Miss Lily Evans,

Your presence is requested at the Potter Estate on the 24th of August 1977 for a Back to School Ball in celebration of your and your classmates' final year at Hogwarts. Formal dress robes are required and dinner will be served. Please fill out and return the enclosed RSVP card by no later than the 15th of August.

We eagerly await your reply and hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Fleamont and Euphemia Potter

Lily found the second card inside — it simply asked whether or not she was coming and if she'd prefer chicken, fish, or vegetarian. She set both of those aside delicately, not wanting to crumple any part of the invitation, then moved to the next letter in the stack.

Dear Miss Lily Evans, it began in a hastily written scrawl that Lily recognized immediately at James', I think I'm going to start addressing you that way every time you walk into the common room. Remus will play a fanfare on the trumpet, Sirius and Peter will bow, we can make a right production out of it if you'd like… though something tells me you'd probably just give me the finger and walk away.

Honestly I'm just writing this letter to promise you my parents aren't nearly as uptight as they seem in that invitation and if you don't come to the party, I might die. But no pressure. If you'd prefer to sit in your room and practice your already perfect charm work I suppose that's a respectable alternative to getting drunk with your friends.

James

ps. make sure you open that letter from Hogwarts. Dumbledore's gone absolutely mad, but I'm not complaining.

Lily folded that letter up and put it with the invitation. After a whole year, it was still odd sometimes to see the word "friend" next to James's name. Perhaps someday she'd be used to it. She had no clue what James was talking about regarding Dumbledore, but she noticed the familiar Hogwarts crest on the letter that was now sitting on the top of the pile.

Her chest tightened. There was no reason for her to have a letter from Hogwarts this late in the summer. She'd already gotten her list of mandatory school supplies almost a month ago. The only letters they'd send out now were for expulsion, which was highly unlikely, or…

She tore open the envelope and scanned the letter, only really reading every few words.

… delighted to inform you… selected… Head Girl… congratulations…

Lily squealed in excitement. Head Girl! It actually happened! She knew she was in the running, but she hadn't dared let herself expect to actually get it. Still, that didn't explain James' comment — he was the one who told her she was practically a shoe in.

She opened the letter back up and read it more calmly this time. The first paragraph sent another flurry of excitement running through her. Then she made it to the second paragraph, which she hadn't even spared a glance at.

When you arrive at the Hogwarts Express please head to the front compartment where you will greet the Prefects and brief them on their duties once you arrive at the castle. You will be joined by this year's Head Boy, James Potter.

Congratulations again (And though I must maintain my impartiality, I am quite pleased with Gryffindor House),

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

James Potter? James Potter was chosen as Head Boy? Dumbledore had gone absolutely mad. Lily couldn't begin to imagine what was running through the Headmaster's mind when he elected Prank-Master, Recently-Reformed-Juvenile-Delinquent James Potter as Head Boy. It was insane. It was ludicrous. It was… a relief.

She'd had no clue, to be perfectly honest, who Head Boy was going to be. It was an irrational fear considering how deeply entrenched in the Dark Arts he'd become since ending their friendship, but Lily had harbored a tiny fear that she would become Head Girl only to discover Snape had been appointed Head Boy. Dumbledore may have practiced impartiality but he surely couldn't give that much control to someone openly prejudiced against a large percentage of the school. Still, that nagging little voice in the back of her head had taunted her all summer.

But the rest of the prefects in her year had been equal contenders. Benjy Fenwick from Ravenclaw was gentle in both speech and behavior. She could easily imagine him ushering First Years through the castle, though he was less likely to be able to command attention during a Prefect meeting. Oliver Watson in Hufflepuff was efficient and detail-oriented, though he had a habit to spend more time snogging his girlfriend in the corridors than he did actually doing rounds. And Remus was everything a Head Boy should be — patient, firm, organized, and approachable — but his full-moon illnesses kept him from being quite as dependable as necessary. She had figured out his secret long ago — between his tell-tale disappearances, his constant cycle of declining health and recovery, and her overhearing James referring to a "furry little problem" on more than one occasion, it hadn't been hard to suss out. Of course, nobody else knew she knew. If Remus ever wanted to tell her, or anyone else, that was entirely his decision.

So perhaps, all things considered, James was just as fair a choice as the others. He'd led Gryffindor's Quidditch team to victory two years in a row now, he was among the top students in every class, and he had an innate way of getting people to listen to him when he spoke. And she knew she got along with him, so they weren't likely to clash too serious of a way in meetings.

Lily tried to imagine bossing around a bunch of other students with Potter as her backup. It was too ridiculous an image to even conjure, but she supposed soon enough it would be a reality.

The sound of a door slamming shut pulled Lily back to the present. She could hear her mum faintly calling Petunia's name. Lily couldn't go tell her the good news now or else Petunia'd accuse her of trying to steal attention away from her from now until kingdom come. So instead she opened the next and final letter in the stack.

Lily! If you've opened these in the proper order you've heard about the Ball and you've officially been appointed Head Girl! Cheers! We're all writing these at the same time so I assure you any off-the-cuff remarks from Marlene were explicitly planned ahead of time. I thought we shouldn't bother with any of this synchronized nonsense, but the boys insisted we do it exactly this way to "add to the drama of it all." Though I'm not entirely sure how they managed to intercept the owl from Hogwarts that was on it's way to you. Then again, I'm not entirely sure how they manage to do most of the things they get away with.

Any way, I'll keep this short since you probably just want to spend your time playing dress-up with your shiny new badge. You're coming on a shopping trip with me and Marlene next week, no ifs ands or buts about it. I'm sure your mum will understand you leaving for a day or two.

See you very soon,

Alice

Next week. She'd be out of this house and back with her friends in one week. And then the week after that, the Ball…

Lily grabbed the RSVP card and filled it out. She'd have to wait a few extra days to let Athena recover before she could return it, but in the meantime, there was a shiny new badge just waiting to be tried on.

The last twenty-nine days of summer hols were starting to look up.