chapter 1:

Lily sat on her bedroom floor, folding her clothes, and carefully placing them into her trunk, ready for her final year at Hogwarts. Picking out another top from her dresser, she found an old, dusty peace of paper. When she looked more closely she realised it was a photo from her first year. She smiled slightly at the memory, as she watched herself being tugged onto Potter's lap, and struggle to get free. That boy had not changed...

Once she had finished her packing, she put her uniform into her handbag, and tucked her newly acquired head girl badge into her jeans pocket.

"Lily, Darling, we are going to be late if we don't leave now!" Her mother called up the stairs.

"Coming"

Lily dragged her heavy trunk down the stairs, her dad taking it from her at the bottom.

"What have you got in this thing lils, a dead body?"

"HA...HA dad, I'm going to go and say bye to Tuney."

She ran back the way she had come, stopped at a bright pink door, and knocked timidly.

"Tuney? I'm leaving for school..."

"and...?"

"I thought I should say goodbye to you."

"Have a great time at your school for freaks!" her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Lily gave up, shrugged and ran back to the car, where her parents were waiting; nothing - not even Tuney could ruin today for her.

It was 10 to 11, when she and her parents had gone through the barrier taking them onto platform 9 3/4. She quickly said goodbye to her parents, wanting to be one of the fist on the train so that she could help those who needed it.

"I'll see you maybe around Easter, i think i should stay for Christmas."

"Yes, of course, head girl must be there to do her duties." Lily's mum said with a warm smile.

With a sigh Lily turned her back to her parents and wandered towards the heads compartment, knowing Jess as usual would be late, and Alice had left last year... its not going to be the same without her.

She slid the compartment door open, revealing the grinning face of James Potter.

"Potter what are you doing in here, oh are you waiting for Remus? I knew he'd make head boy," Lily said with a delighted smile for she had been hoping to work with Remus.

"Actually, I was waiting for you," he replied with a smirk, "guessing you haven't heard the news. I'm head boy Lily!" The reply he got was a snort of laughter.

"Ha ha i was not born yesterday, I'm not falling for one of your tricks," lily said irritated now. However looking up she caught sight of a shiny badge pinned to his robes and the look on his face immediately told her that he was telling the truth. She immediately retracted her earlier thought, this just ruined her day... her whole year.

"Oh merlin." The red head whispered and she began to back out of the compartment.

"Lily, where are you going? This is the right compartment.

"Why are you calling me Lily?"

"It's your name... oh, you meant instead of Evans?" She nodded half heartedly, still in shock, "Well I sorta thought that maybe, since we should be a united front, that umm... maybe we could... you know, stop fighting and be friends? Or at least tolerate each other..." This shocked Lily, he sounded quite genuine, and what he said did make sense, I guess I'll have to do my best to tolerate him, you never know, he could surprise everyone and be mature... don't be silly Lily, this is Potter we're talking about! Lily stopped her inner monologue when she realised that he was still waiting for an answer. He looked nervous, and he ran a hand through his untamable hair.

"Err... sure Pot- I mean James, we can try being friends," at her words, his face brightened up and a brilliant smile came across his lips, it wasn't the type of smile she was used to seeing on his face, it wasn't a mischievous smirk, it was a real smile. Lily walked slowly back into the compartment, not really knowing what to do or say.

"So, will you -"

"No i will not go out with you Potter, surely if we are friends that means you don't-." she stopped short, catching the look on his face.

"Well... that's nice to know, but i was going to say, will you need help with putting your trunk away?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, yeah that would be nice, thanks." She said as she sat down and watched James put her trunk onto the rack. He had grown over the summer, now definitely over six foot and he looked in very good shape, from all of the quidditch.

"Bloody hell Lily, what's in there? A dead body? because i think that would be frowned upon." Lily smiled as he repeated the same words as her father.

"I'm sure it would be. Do you think we should go and tell people to get on the train, it's 5 to?"

He didn't answer, instead he got up, and slid the door open, gesturing for her to go first.

Lily began ushering the younger students towards the train while James helped lift the trunks on board. Shaking her long red hair, Lily struggled to keep in a positive mood, until the voice she'd been wanting to hear for what seemed like an age came through the babble.

"Lils or should I say head girl?" spinning 'round she caught sight of her best friend.

"Jess," Lily answered, relieved, quickly wanting advice on her problem. Catching sight of her Lily's face, Jess said, "Don't worry about him, he might have changed"

"How'd you know he's head?"

"Alice." She stated simply.

"What but how on earth... she left-" Lily began, frowning.

"Yer I know but she still manages to know everything first, she also has some crazy ideas about the year or something, but wont tell," Jess said looking thoughtful for a moment.

"When doesn't she?" Lily said shrugging, "how was your holiday by the way?" Just as Lily started to enjoy herself with her friend they were interrupted by the booming voice of potter across the platform

"Hey! We have literally 10 seconds, you'll miss the train."

"Ergh, why? Anyone else, it just had to be him," Lily muttered as Jess pulled her towards the crowd clambering into the scarlet steam engine.

Once they had made sure those who needed to be were on the train, the two heads made their way back to their compartment.

"so... how was your holiday?" James asked after a short awkward silence.

Lily was taken aback by the unusually normal question, but answered anyway, "umm... it was good, how about you?" Lily expected him to launch into detail of all the pranks he and his friends had played and all the girls he had hooked up with, but was surprised again, not completely though.

"Yeah, same, saw alice a bit actually, but i did miss seeing your pretty face around love." he answered flashing the same smile as before.

"I didn't know you guys were friends. Also, you know those lines don't work on me James!" she responded in a disapproving tone, disregarding the pet name he had used.

"None of them are lines, you should know by now, every word I say about you is true!"

"Mmmhmmm"

"I can't wait to see inside where we are going to live"

"Errm... you have... Gryffindor tower remember... like always?" Lily replied, confusion in her eyes.

James chuckled, "For someone who was expected to be head girl from the moment she walked through the doors of the castle, you don't know too much about it do you?" Lily didn't respond, instead she just waited for him to answer her unspoken question. "Well, you see, head boy and girl not only get their own compartment on the train, they also get their own living accommodations, which they share. It's behind the Portrait of Sir Geoffrey on the seventh floor, quite close to gryffindor tower actually. Remus and I found it in our first year."

Lily had stopped listening after the words 'which they share' she, Lily Evans would not only be spending more time with her most hated enemy (she still didn't like him, even if he wasn't acting like himself right now) she would have to live with him. "s-so you m-mean we will be living together... for t-the whole year!"

"Yep!... Lils are you ok?"

Lily just nodded in response, not knowing exactly what to say. Before she had much time to recover, the rest of the marauders came loudly into the room.

"I Hope we are interrupting something!" Sirius proclaimed with a wink at his best friend.

"Shut up Padfoot." James said, throwing a pillow from the seat at his friends head, as the others filed into the room.

"Oi!"

"Lily, are you ok? you look like you've seen a dementor!" Remus asked as he sat next to the red head, who was still in deep shock at what James had just told her.

Lily had come to know and love Remus, he was the only one of the Marauders that she got on well with. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine, James just told me i will be living with him this year, took me by surprise that's all." She answered with a weak smile.

As soon as she finished, Sirius erupted with his bark like laughter, "sh-she... ju-just compared... living w-with Prongs... t-to seeing a DEMENTOR!" he struggled to get out through his fits of laughter.

"I thought I told you to shut it." James said with a pout.

"I always thought you looked like one of those things mate!" a nervous Peter joined in, wanting to be part of the conversation.

"For once i actually agree with Peter!" a still grinning Sirius stated. This small sentence appeared to have made Peter's day.

"As lovely as it is for you to be in here, you need to leave, Peter and Sirius, because Remus, James and I have a Prefects meeting." Lily said with false sweetness in her voice.

"Ok Lily-Flower... oh and what's with the hole first name thing? Not that i mind." Black smirked at her, and wiggled his eye brows.

Disregarding that completely Lily replied, "James and I have agreed to put our differences aside for the good of our job."

"Oh 'friends?' right, doesn't look like it will be long now, dun dundy dunnnn" sirius sang the tune of the wedding march, and left the room with a final "have fun at your perfects meeting," and then muttered, "I sill can't believe he made head boy, we are going to have to do some major damage control, what with remus as a prefect, that's half the marauders woomtail! HALF YOU HEAR ME? something must be done... we have planning to do my boy."

Sitting down LIly pulled a timetable from out of her bag, and studied it.

"Er what's that?" a curious voice asked her. Potter sat, lounging on the opposite seat, gazing at her.

"Timetable of duties," Lily said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh." He bit his lip, looking worried.

"I've organized everything and so you just have to do what it says," Lily answered with a smile, proud of her organization skills as it results in having to spend less time with him.

A silence fell between them and Lily was glad when the rest of the prefects filed in, as she had felt James' gaze remain on her the entire time. Once they had all taken there seats, Lily stood, cleared her throat timidly and began the meeting.

"Hi, I'm Lily, your head girl, and this is-" she began, however the babble didn't calm down, she glanced at Remus for support. She was about to mouth 'help' but to her surprise a loud whistle caught the attention of the entire compartment. She looked over her shoulder and saw James take his thumb and forefinger out of his mouth,

"Thank you," he said in a commanding tone, while gesturing for Lily to continue. Lily smiled gratefully and continued onto the timetable she had prepared.

Just as she was about to dismiss the crowd of eager prefects, a sneering voice caught Lily's attention.

"How come you and the head boy aren't patrolling together, I thought they had to. Aren't you the one who won't break rules?" Regulus, Sirius' brother questioned arrogantly, while looking at the table of patrol times.

"Errm..." Lily racked her brain for an adequate answer, she was once again surprised to hear James speak.

"She can do what she likes, It's her opinion that counts, not yours Black! Now leave before I cause you some permanent damage!"

Normally the fact that James had spoken for her would cause her to yell at him, but for some reason she didn't, maybe she had grown up over the summer too.

As the door closed for the final time, Lily and James were left alone. "Thank you."

"It was nothing." he looked wary.

"No, really James, it was sweet, and I have changed my mind, would you like to do patrols with me?" she smiled.

"I would love to."