A/N: EDITED VERSION - I would like to thank my wonderful Betas, Livi and Jane!
Transfer from Salem
Chapter 1: New Chances
"Congrats Lil!" A curvy brunette strides in through the glass door of their usual compartment.
"Thanks Elaine." The red-head hugs one of her best friends.
"Who else would have been Head Girl?" A petite blonde follows Elaine.
"Hullo Evelyn." She sighs. "Allison Elroy, she's an inspiration!" Lily insists.
"Oh please, she may have the whole school convinced she's a saint, but Dumbledore isn't stupid, he knows she's bitter and mean on the inside," Evelyn scoffs.
"Can I sit here? Everywhere else is full." A short brunette stands at the door of Lily and her friend's compartment, interrupting Lily's response.
"Of course!" Lily moves her owl onto her lap. The girl sits uncertainly in the place next to the ginger. "I'm Lily Evans. Are you from America?" She sticks out her palm to shake hands with the newcomer.
"Katrina Mace and yeah, I am." Katrina shakes hands with Lily, rolling her eyes ever so slightly.
"Why are you here?" Everyone's attention diverts to the blonde of the group.
"Way to be blunt Evie," Elaine mumbles, a smirk dancing on her lips. Evelyn turns on her, who flips her light brown hair over her shoulder, feigning innocence.
"Don't call me that," Evelyn snaps.
"Would both of you be quiet? Or at least, polite,"Lily hisses at her friends
"It's fine, Lily, I've been victim to much worse," Katrina insists, chuckling at Lily's irritation.
"At least introduce yourselves." Lily rolls her eyes
"Evelyn Skeeter." The blonde shakes Katrina's hand as well. "Don't call me Evie," she adds.
"And I'm the estimable Elaine Crouch." Katrina notices the blonde highlights in Elaine's hair.
"It's nice to meet all of you." Katrina grins. "And to answer your question Evelyn, I got kicked out of my last school, so now I'm enrolled here." Her grin only widens at the shock of her companions.
"What school?" Evelyn begins her thorough interrogation.
"How?" Elaine interrupts with an inquiry
"Salem Witches' Institute and that's a rather long story, so I'll leave it until a later time." Suddenly, the door of the compartment flies open.
"Prefects' meeting, Lily-kins!" a boy with shaggy, dark hair calls out.
"I know, I'm Head Girl! And don't you call me that, Black!" Lily scolds.
"Always the tone of superiority, Evans. And who's this?" The boy moves inside of the compartment and plops himself down next to Katrina, squishing between the newcomer and Lily.
"Sirius Black."
"Katrina Mace." She laughs and shakes Sirius's outstretched hand. Katrina notices a thin boy with sandy hair behind Sirius. He steps forward and kindly introduces himself as Remus Lupin.
"Peter Pettigrew." A stout, mousy boy nods his head in her direction. She smiles at both of them.
"Nice to see a new face here once in a while, all these oldies never change, always so hostile to poor Sirius," Sirius says in third person and pouts for the effect.
"Hey! I'm plenty nice!" Elaine protests
"True enough. Now, Lily your Head Boy and all the prefects are waiting."
"Where's Potter?" Lily finally notes his absence from his usual gang.
"You could refer to James by his first name, love." Lily scowls at Sirius.
"And who's Head Boy? No one seems to know," she asks as well. Remus and Sirius share some furtive glances and say nothing.
"It's not – no of course not – why would Dumbledore pick him?"
"I asked the same question when he told us," Remus says with a sigh.
But, we'd better get going Lily, we're going to be late." Lily curses and springs from her seat. She says hurried good-byes to her friends and strides out the door with Remus on her heels.
"This should be an interesting year," Sirius muses and the girls around him agree warily.
"But, really, who'd make James Head Boy?" Evelyn scoffs.
"I take offense! I think James will make a brilliant Head Boy!" He smirks.
"Who exactly is this James character?" Katrina asks, feeling out of the loop.
"James Potter is my best friend and fellow Marauder. He is a proud trouble-maker and," Sirius lowers his voice to a stage whisper, "has been quite obviously in love with Lily ever since third year. But, alas, she detests the poor boy."
"I didn't think Lily could detest anyone. She just seems to be the kind of person to find the good in everyone," Katrina ponders thoughtfully.
"She is that kind of person." Sirius scowls and pauses.
"Just not to James"
"Hello everyone! Congratulations on being chosen as this year's Prefects!" A smattering of applause greets this sentiment.
"I'm Lily Evans, your new Head Girl."
"And I'm James Potter, the Head Boy" The whole room bursts into applause at this. Lily glares at James and continues to explain the responsibilities of Prefects.
"Also, we will have a Prefect meeting next week to decide our rounds schedule." A low rumble of grumbling sounds throughout the room at this reminder. "Alright, you guys are dismissed! Have a great first day back!" Lily tries to be as cheery as possible, but inside she's dying to leave. How could Dumbledore do this to her?!
"Don't look so annoyed, Evans, this means we get to spend more time together!" James grins lopsidedly, leaning back in his chair.
"Why do you think I'm annoyed, Potter?" She rolls her eyes.
"Because Benjy interrupted you." His grin only widens when she sighs, exasperated.
"No."
"Oh, so I can interrupt you without you getting mad at me?"
"No! I'm annoyed because you're Head Boy!" Lily snaps.
"Oh, that cuts to the bone, Lily." She's about to respond sarcastically, but then she realizes that he used her first name. They never use each other's first names; they were on a strict surname basis. So instead, she stands there gaping at him.
"What? Am I not allowed to use your first name?"
"I – just didn't – think – you and I – we – don't," Lily stammers.
"Don't you think it's a little weird that we call each other by our surnames?" James is adopting a tired look Lily has never seen before.
"We always have!" Lily protests.
"But why?" James asks her. She opens her mouth to speak several times, but closes it each time. He's stumped her. They call each other by their last names because that's how they've always interacted with each other. Her third-year reasoning was that normal, respectable people go by their first names. James was neither normal nor respectable; therefore she called him 'Potter' and he always retaliated in suite by calling her 'Evans'. Remus chooses this moment to stick his head in the overly-large compartment.
"James, Sirius and Peter claimed our usual compartment. You coming?"
"Yeah, let's go, Moony." James stands and with one last exasperated glance at Lily, he leaves the compartment. That was the weirdest James has ever acted around her. He was always arrogant, goofy and stupid around her; not tired and irritable. What happened to James Potter over the summer?
A/N: Just an idea, I'm starting to collect pictures for this story - yes I'm a dork. Go to my tumblr if you want to see them. My tumblr is on my profile.