The beginning of the end, a fine and fitting phrase for the new seventh years at Hogwarts. They were all about to begin their final year at school and soon they would be at the end. They would have to live by themselves with no parents and no more schooling which was to most a scary thought. Yet that was in the future, for now all most of them were thinking about was getting through the school year without much drama. Lily Evans was one of them.
She awoke to the bleeping of a muggle alarm clock which she silenced quickly. Lily strained her ears listening for the sharp voice of her sister. If Petunia was in the house "protecting" their parents from her again she would know. Thankfully the voice of Petunia Dursley was not ringing through the house and Lily was free to begin her last year of Hogwarts without her sister annoying her. She choose her clothing carefully so as to not make her large muggle wardrobe apparent. She highly doubted that a lot of the items inside even fitted her any more. After shoving some toast in her mouth and swallowing it almost whole Lily was ready to go. Her trunk had been placed inside her fathers car late last night when there was a lesser chance of people seeing so all Lily had to do was climb inside after her parents and let her father drive.
Half an hour later they had arrived and had ten minutes to spare until the train departed. She hugged her mother goodbye and walked onto the platform which neither of her parents had stepped foot on since her first year -- they didn't like it much. The redhead pushed her way through the crowds of students, parents and other family members looking for her best friend. A small girl with blond hair was calling her name and Lily let a huge smile spread across her face as she saw her best friends Alice Logan and Mary MacDonald waving at her.
"Hey guys! Good summer?" Lily wanted to find out about the things she had missed. Alice and Mary exchanged a glance before answering.
"My summer was great… would have been better if we cancelled our Daily Prophet subscription though." Alice said with a dark tone to her voice much unlike the cherry tone which she usually spoke with. Mary nodded in agreement looking solemn and Lily understood at once. It was all to do with Voldemort and his followers.
"Uh oh… is he really getting that strong?" Lily had no fear speaking the name although she knew others did. Sure he was after people like her but why not say his name? Or alias as Lily highly doubted his mother and father had named their child Voldemort.
"Sadly…" said Mary's quiet voice.
The three girls were silent for a minute before Lily looked at the clock.
"Oh quick! Lets find a compartment before the train leaves without us" she said climbing in the nearest door. Thankfully she did not have to look to far to find an empty compartment. Using the levitation spell Lily placed her trunk in the rack and sat down as Alice and Mary joined her. Lily pulled down the blind on the train window and on the door and quickly changed into her school uniform. She was just about to inform her friends of her new Head Girl status but Alice didn't miss much.
"LILY!" she yelled so suddenly and loudly that Mary and Lily jumped. "Your head girl! Why didn't you say anything?"
"I just met you… besides there was never a chance to say anything. Now you know. Any bets on head boy? I guess Remus."
"Remus" stated Alice simply.
"Yeah Remus. Who else could it be really?" Mary said flopping down onto the seats behind her as the train began to move. "Guess you have to go Lily. Have fun we'll save your seat"
A fleeting hug to both her friends followed by a run to the prefect cabins at the start of the train and Lily made it before the train had really picked up speed. She pushed open the door and looked around at the faces. Sitting in one corner was eight fifth year prefects. Eight sixth years who Lily knew from the year before. Six other seventh year prefects along with Remus, herself and -
"Potter" she said through gritted teeth. Was this a joke? Surely he was in the cabin simply to annoy her yet she didn't quite believe that.
"Hello to you to Evans. I see you made head girl, well of course you did." He was enjoying this, the not so boyish grin in his face proved that.
"Yes I made head girl. You had better give Remus his badge back and beat it." There was no chance that James Potter had been given the head boy status. No way in hell.
"I didn't take his badge, this was in my letter." He was smirking as he knew exactly how much that had to piss her off.
"I hate you." she muttered turning on her heel and turning to look at the prefects gathered in the room. She knew from previous years exactly what needed to be said. "Hey, I'm Lily the head girl and this is James the head boy" the last part was spoken through gritted teeth. "Nice to see you all here although this is more for the benefit of the new prefects." she glanced at James as she said this. He needed to know as well. "First off; as a prefect you can issue detention and you can take house points but not from one another or the two of us. We can take points from you but I can't take points from him nor can I give him detention." Damn she thought. "There will be a rota for duty and if there are any issues just let one of us know and we'll do out best to change it for you. Any questions?" It was simple there really shouldn't be any questions. The basic idea was stop troublemakers. Lily sat down giving James a chance to speak yet all he did was dismiss them.
"See you around Evans" he nodded in her direction as he left Remus following behind him.
"Bye Lily" Remus said with a guilty look on his face.
Now to go tell Alice and Mary the news.