Disclaimer: Everything below belongs rightfully to Queen Rowling.

Good People and Death Eaters

"Hey Evans, why's your hair green?"

"What're you on about, Prongs? It's purple!"

"Are you colorblind, Padfoot? It's obviously blue."

Lily walked straight past them both without a glance, her hair turning a different hue every half second from their alternating color-change charms.

"Evans? Can you help me with this Cheering Charm? I really can't get the hang of it. Please, Evans? Evans? ...Lily?"

Lily turned a page, resolutely reading on.

"Look, Evans, I can't believe you're still mad at me for that Snivellus thing last year. He's not worth being mad at me over. Look, atleast I'm on the right side of this war! He's basically a Death Eater! Are you really going to ignore me forever for not being all nice and cozy with a Death Eater?!"

Lily said nothing and stared out the train window.

Every day that summer, there had been a new death to read about in the paper. Lily cried herself sick for days. She'd already told her parents about the war, and her mum read the paper with her now, grieving the deaths of the Order members and hundreds of innocents with her. But after two months, Lily stopped crying. She was numb to bad news, numb to the deaths. There were simply too many to comprehend. Too many to grieve.

And then in late July, Auror Henry Potter died. There was a large picture of him on the front page of the Prophet, waving and smiling, his glasses slightly askew. His hair stuck up in the back. Underneath this photo, there was another one. James and his mother, standing together. The woman's face was glazed with tears, and James had his arm around her. He looked stiff, and almost angry. He glared at Lily from the page.

Lily's mum was leaning over her shoulder, and let out a sigh. "Oh no, dear. That's your classmate, isn't he?" she said, looking down at Lily with concern. But Lily let out a scoff.

"He's a git," she said firmly, and folded the paper over the photo of James and his mother and shoved it away from her.

"Lily!" said her mum, looking shocked and angry.

Lily frowned at her breakfast. Her mum pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down beside her, and was quiet for a long time. Finally, she said, "The world is not made of good people and Death Eaters, you know. Whatever this boy is, it does not justify his loss. And there is enough tragedy everywhere now, that even a little kindness and empathy will go a long way, even to those who may not entirely deserve it. And you, my Lily, are capable of at least that much."

Lily beamed as she walked towards the Heads compartment on September 1st, her Head Girl badge gleaming on her robes. She'd been walking on clouds for weeks now, ever since she'd received the badge in her (last!) Hogwarts letter. Lily had been perfecting her Head Girl walk ever since: chin up, back straight, authoritative expression. It was the facial expression she'd been having the most trouble with; she kept accidentally breaking out into huge goofy grins.

She slid the compartment door open (authoritatively), stepped inside, and felt her insides disappear. James Potter was sitting there, staring morosely out the window. He looked up at her, looked less than surprised, and then turned his attention back to the window.

"Potter." He looked up again. It was the first time she'd acknowledged his existence in over a year. He opened his mouth and closed it again several times.

"I can't ignore you anymore if we're supposed to be working together," said Lily in explanation.

"I know that's not why you're talking to me again," said James. He wasn't looking stiff or angry now; he looked defeated. Apathetic.

"No, it is. I can't be a good Head Girl if I pretend the Head Boy doesn't exist. That would kind of keep us from fulfilling the duties of our office."

It got her a flicker of a smile, a twitch of his cheek. She frowned. "I still don't like you," she snapped.

"Good," he said grimly.

"Who's left without a rounds partner now?" James sat back in his chair, balancing it on two legs.

"Only two Slytherins. Rosier and Wilkes," said Lily. They'd been at this for at least an hour now. Even she, the ever-patient Lily, was getting tired of it.

James made a face. "Both of them'll be Death Eaters in another couple of years," he said with a snarl. "Why the hell are they prefects?"

"Ugh, I know," said Lily without thinking. "We should just send them to do rounds in the Forbidden Forest and have done with it."

"Or the lake, maybe," said James, the tiniest of smirks on his face.

"Yes, tell them they just have to walk around in it for a couple of hours."

"And fill their pockets with whatever the giant squid likes to eat."

"And make them do it in the dead of winter."

"And the water will just freeze over their heads."

They looked up, grinning at each other. And then they kept looking. Lily felt a blush rising in her neck, and something jumped in her stomach-region. She shook herself out of it.

"Okay, well, we'll just pair them and put them in the dungeons then. That's nearly in the lake," said Lily feebly.

"Sounds good!" James was still smiling, and looking at Lily straight in the eye. It made her squirm.

"Right, well that's it, then. I'm off." She rose abruptly and left the room without another word.

Lily tickled the pear. The plan was simple and quick. The house elves would be ready with the butterbeer and sandwiches for the girls' monthly sleepover, and she'd just sneak them back up to Gryffindor tower. Lily still got nervous whenever it was her turn to get the food though. She just wasn't much of a law-breaker.

The door swung open and she stepped through. The house elves greeted her, and several of them zoomed up to meet her, carrying a parcel of sandwiches, a large box of chocolates, and a six-pack of butterbeer.

"Thank you!" she beamed down at them.

"You are most welcome Miss Head Girl!" squeaked the oldest of the lot, a wrinkly old house elf with copious white curls and a kind smile.

She tucked the packages under her arm, hoisted the six-pack up in the other, and was just turning to leave when she saw it.

There was a person sitting at a table in the corner. A person surrounded by empty bottles, none of them Butterbeer. A person with a mop of untidy black hair, who was sitting with his head down on the table. A James Potter that looked like he'd just passed out.

Furious, Lily marched over to his table and dropped her parcels heavily on it. James jerked awake.

"Wha? Lily?"

"Potter, what do you think you're doing?"

"Er, sleeping. Evans." He drew himself up with what looked like a great effort, and looked blearily at her.

"You've been drinking!" said Lily, scandalized.

"You have the most excellent observation skills, Evans," he spat at her, glaring now. Lily was taken aback. James Potter, angry with her?

"W-why?" she asked, her voice going softer without her permission. He'd never looked at her like that for as long as she'd known him.

He glared at her more, but with fading venom.

"It's my dad's birthday."

"Oh."

"Yes."

Lily sat down at the table across from him. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged. They sat in silence, Lily feeling more awkward by the minute.

"Look, James," she said finally. He blinked at her.

"I'm really sorry. I've been really terrible to you all year, and you've been hurting about your father, I should have-"

"No, don't be sorry about that. You're the only one all year who hasn't treated me like I'm broken or something, besides Sirius. I really...you're the only one I can have a conversation with, without involving my dad. Besides Sirius."

"Besides Sirius," repeated Lily. But she was smiling at him now, and James was smiling back.

"Well, Sirius is always the exception."

"But of course. When are you announcing the engagement, by the way?"

"Oh we don't want to hurry it along and shock everyone, so we've decided to wait until after we've left Hogwarts."

"Well I'm fully expecting an invitation." They were both grinning now.

"Of course! You're going to be our flower girl!"

Lily burst out laughing. "Did you just-?"

"Yes," said James proudly.

"You're ridiculous."

"You started it."

Lily shook her head. "I am sorry though. About your dad. But I won't talk about him anymore, unless you bring it up."

"It's a deal."

"Now, how will we get out of here without getting you caught? You're out of bed and drunk-you could lose your Head Boyship! And- what?" James was staring at her in a rather disconcerting way.

"We?"

"What?"

"You said 'we.' Like you're going to help me."

"Well I have to now, don't I?"

"You do?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Evans." Lily looked up from her Charms reading. James Potter was standing on the other side of the table, clutching an ancient book of Medieval Transfiguration to his chest.

"Hi Potter."

"Listen. I need to say something." Lily raised her eyebrows, trying to look haughty, but she couldn't quite manage it. Potter was different now, somehow. He was a good Head Boy, and he made her laugh too often for her to keep up her pretense that she was still mad at him. It had come on slowly, but everything had changed after they had snuck up to Gryffindor tower together from the kitchens on his father's birthday.

"Okay?"

He set the heavy book down with a dull thud. "I'm sorry."

Lily frowned at him. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! I'm sorry about...about Snape," muttered James, now staring down at the book on the table rather than at her.

"Oh."

"It was a shit thing to do. And I know better now. And I knew he was your friend. And-"

"James, stop."

He looked up. "You-you don't-he's not my friend anymore," said Lily.

"I know, but he was then, and even if he wasn't your friend, I was out of order to do it. I mean, I still hate the slimy bastard, but I shouldn't've-"

"It's okay," said Lily with a sigh. "It's okay. I mean, it's not okay, because it was a cruel and horrible bit of bullying-"

"-I know! And I'm sorry-"

"-but everything's different now. And he's not my friend."

"Yeah. I noticed. Good riddance?" he asked, sounding hopeful.

"Yeah. Yeah, you have no idea," said Lily, beginning to smile. "I know he doesn't mean to, but he just hovers all the time, and he treated me like I was some kind of, I don't know, precious jewel to protect or something, instead of an actual person, and I hated it."

"Well I know you're no jewel," said James with a smirk, and Lily threw a crumpled wad of parchment at him. "He was really hover-y, wasn't he? Like a great bat," said James, grinning now.

"Stop that."

"So. You're not mad at me anymore?"

Lily smiled. "No, I'm not. It takes too much energy to be mad at you, you're around too much."

"I try," said James. "And...you're not just talking to me because we have to work together?"

"No. Not anymore."

"Good." He sat down across the table and flipped open his Transfiguration tome.

"Potter?"

"Yes?"

"That's not our homework," said Lily, nodding at the book.

James blushed. "I know."

"...Are you reading? For fun? About school?"

"It's not about school! It's a history of medieval Transfiguration! It's about the beginning of the whole subject, about how wizards started turning one thing into another by extensive study of magic and matter and space, and it was actually a witch who did that, pardon me, but it's all about how Transfiguration came to be! You know?" He was stumbling over his words in his enthusiasm. Lily gaped at him.

"James Potter, you're a nerd!" exclaimed Lily in great delight.

"Ssshh, don't say that so loud!" said James, craning his neck around to see if anyone had heard. "Don't go around telling people about it, okay?!"

But Lily was beaming at him. "I won't say a word. And did you know that early Transfiguration came about because of a misspoken charm? The witch in question made a spoon vanish by accident instead of making it stir her gravy, and she was so intent on figuring out where exactly it went that she wound up studying Vanishment, which of course led to the discovery of how-"

"-magic works with space and matter! I didn't know that! A charm, really?!"

"Yes! It's quite fascinating, actually, how most subjects of magical study are interconnected in their roots. Charms is also quite related to Arith-"

"Ahem." James and Lily both looked around, startled out of their spirited conversation. Sirius Black was striding toward their table from the portrait hole, looking like he was barely containing a great shout of laughter. "Are you two actually having a friendly conversation about how nerdy you are?"

"Ssshh!" hissed James, looking around again. Lily rolled her eyes, but she couldn't quite wipe the grin from her expression.

"I don't know what else we could have expected from the Head Boy and Head Girl," said Sirius, shaking his head sadly and walking away. Lily saw him send an exaggerated wink to James, who flushed.

"Right," said Lily, clearing her throat. "Anyway, as I was saying, the first wizard to perform a Charm was actually…"

"Okay, that's round assignments done, and the Charms Club approved. What's left?" James was tipping his chair back dangerously again.

"That's it, actually!" said Lily brightly. "We just have to remember to give the prefects the notices for the next Hogsmeade visits to put on the house bulletins."

"Let's just hand them out at the meeting tomorrow instead of hunting them down now, yeah?"

"Good plan," said Lily, leaning back in her own chair and closing her eyes. She was having some difficulty getting her History of Magic memorization out of her mind's eye. Studying for the N.E.W.T.s was starting to show its effects on her.

"Hey, when's the next Hogsmeade visit?"

"The weekend after next." There was a loud thunk as the front legs of James's chair met the ground again. Lily opened her eyes to see him looking somewhat suspicious-he wasn't meeting her eyes and was focused on rubbing at a stain on the table. "Why?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"No reason," he said quickly. Lily furrowed her eyebrows at him. "We're done, yeah?" he asked.

"Yes, I suppose so…"

"Great. See you later!" he said, full of false cheer, and nearly skipped out of the room. Bemused, Lily packed up her things. She was just getting ready to lock up the Heads office when she heard footsteps bounding up the stairs.

"Did you forget something?" she asked, turning around with a smile.

"Yes," said James, and took a deep breath, as though stealing himself for something. "Lily, will you go to Hogsmeade with me? The weekend after next?"

Lily flushed so hard she thought her face was likely to burn right off. "Yes," she said, speaking to the floor.

"Yes?" asked James. When she looked up at him, he looked quite disbelieving.

"Yes. Yes, you prat."

James was smiling so widely that he was in danger of splitting his head in two. Lily couldn't help but grin back. "Okay. Yes," he repeated again.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Okay, that's enough. Are you both broken?" Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew emerged from under a silvery cloak on the stair.

Lily looked around at James again, eyebrows raised. "Did you just run downstairs to fetch your mates before asking me out?"

"Yes." He did not look the slightest bit abashed; he was still beaming at her.

"Prongs, you need to stop saying that now," said Sirius, starting to look worried. "Evans, what did you do to him?"

"Nothing! I'm fine!" said James.

Lily was still looking from the boys on the stair to James. "Am I taking you lot to Hogsmeade too?"

"Yes," said Sirius promptly.

"Most likely," said Peter.

Remus smiled guiltily at her. "We'll try to keep our distance?" he said.

"No we won't," said Sirius.

"Fabulous," said Lily.

James beamed.

Lily and James broke apart for a breath under the beech tree by the lake.

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Your hair is blue."

"Stop it."

"Now it's purple!"

"Jaaaaames, stoppit."

"Wow, purple is really not your color."

"Turn it back!"

"Hm, maybe pink would suit you better?"

"James?"

"Yes dear?"

"Purple is really not your color either."

"Haha, very funny."

"Yes, isn't it?"

"Er, Lily? Why isn't it changing back?"

"Well, what charm are you using to change it back?"

"...A Color Change Charm?"

"Well, I did a Pigment Replacement Charm on your hair, so that's probably why it's not working."

"...Lily?"

"See you later!"

It took James the rest of the school year to figure out how to master the charm that Lily had performed so brilliantly, since Professor Flitwick refused point-blank to help him undo such a spectacular bit of magic. Luckily, permanently purple hair did not deter Lily from continuing to date him.