Forever & Ever Amen
A/N
So yes this is my first fic. For anyone wondering the title is a song by "The Drums" which has the most beautiful lyrics. I really hope you like it and I really do appreciate any feedback – positive & negative!
xx
The sight of the Hogwarts express never failed to amaze Lily Evans. As she stepped through to platform nine and three quarters (after bidding a fond farewell to her muggle parents) she was immediately immersed back into the world of magic she longed for over the summer. Her summer was long and uneventful and except for one visit to Diagon Alley she was completely shut off from the Wizarding World. The only way she kept up to date was her daily delivery of The Daily Prophet (which she kept well away from her elder sister Petunia – knowing she would make a hurtful comment if she even glimpsed it) and the occasional letter from her friend Marlene McKinnon – a short mousy haired girl who Lily had immediately befriended. But bad things were happening outside Hogwarts. The Prophet only reported the deaths – never the causes but Lily was a bright Witch. She knew what was happening. She had overheard James Potter and Professor Dumbledore talking about the Dark Wizard rising to power and she knew dark times were ahead. However her summer was greatly improved by the news that she had been awarded Head Girl – a prestigious and highly respected role. With her badge she received a formal letter from Professor Dumbledore explaining her duties and informing her that she would be living in separate quarters with the Head Boy. However she also received a personal letter from her favourite Professor – Professor Slughorn, who sent his congratulations and gushed about how he always knew it would be her!
As Lily wheeled her trunk along the platform, her mind began to wonder about who Head Boy would be. She knew it would be Remus (or at least hoped). He was very level headed, intelligent and the pair got on very well. Yes, she could see them working very well together. But her thoughts were soon lost when she heard an enormous BANG followed by an eruption of laughter. She quickly whipped out her wand and turned around, narrowing her emerald eyes. Potter. She stormed over, ready to dish out her first punishment as Head Girl.
James Potter roared with laughter as bright green fur began to sprout out of Severus Snape's nose. He high fived Sirius before taking his bows to his loyal audience of younger years and giddy girls. "Thank-you, thank-you," he announced. "Welcome back to Hogwarts!". His last statement was met by another round of applause. He beamed, running his hand through his unruly black hair and turning around to his three best friends. Sirius Black, a lanky, handsome wizard who had spent his summer living with James' parents in their country estate after an enormous row with his parents which ended with his name being torched off of the family tapestry. Sirius didn't mind, he hated their pure-blood beliefs anyway. Although he did mind missing out on his share of inheritance when his old bat of a mother died. "Nicely done Mr Potter, nicely done!" he commented, tipping an imaginary top hat. Peter Pettigrew was still clapping enthusiastically before Sirius gave him a shove. Remus Lupin sighed, closing his book and picking up his trunk.
"You're Head Boy this year James, unless you've already forgotten," he said, a hint of jealousy in his voice. "You need to show a bit of maturity or Dumbledore will whip that badge right off of you."
James simply chuckled, "Ahh Mr Moony. Dumbledore gave me this badge for a reason, I'm sure it's all part of his masterplan," he said with a wink. But inside James was unsure why he was Head Boy. It did come as a massive surprise when he received his badge in the post along with his quidditch captain badge. Sirius even wrote to Dumbledore asking if he had lost his marbles, but his parents were overjoyed which he was happy about.
"Bloody Hell!"
James was knocked out of his thought track but Sirius' comment and him grabbing his shoulder and turning James to face the other direction.
"What on Earth happened to Evans?"
James' jaw slowly dropped open as he realised the red-headed angel heading towards him was Evans. But where was her frizzy hair? Where did her acne go? And where they boobs on her chest! James had always found her attractive and was smitten with her when no other boys even noticed her. But now he felt an even bigger emotion, he just wanted to kiss those soft lips...
"Evans!" Sirius exclaimed, stepping in front of James, "To what do we owe the pleasure?" He bowed and reached out for her hand to kiss, which she yanked away in one sharp movement.
"Shut it Black." she replied curtly, glaring at him. She turned on James and his heart skipped a beat as those emerald eyes met his hazel. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing Potter? First day back and you're already tormenting Sev... Snape." She swallowed the lump in her throat that arose every time she forgot that Snape was no longer her 'Sev'.
"In front of the first years as well! You're an adult now, have you no respect! Wait until Dumbledore hears about this!" She concluded, turning on her heel.
"Evans, baby wait!" James replied, grabbing her wrist "Can you not take a joke!" he enquired with his infamous wink.
Lily snatched her wrist away. "You. Sicken. Me." She almost whispered and with that she turned on her heel, grabbed her trunk and stormed onto the train, red hair flailing.
James laughed off the hurt from her last statement before lazily summoning his trunk and turned too his three friends. "Tough nut to crack eh?"
With a harrumph Lily collapsed onto the squidgy seat opposite Marlene, blowing a bit of hair from her face. She crossed her arms. Marlene had to surpass a giggle as she eyed Lily with her misty grey eyes. "James?" she enquired, smirking.
Lily didn't even reply, just stared outside, watching the countryside go zooming past.
Their journey continued, the silence being broken by the odd comment about each other's holiday.
Every now and then there would be an almighty roar of laughter from the compartment opposite them to which Marlene would giggle over and Lily would just let out another sigh.
"And then..." Sirius continued, tears of laughter streaming down his face, "James had to admit to her, that he didn't even know what Rugby was! He didn't even know to pronounce it; he kept calling it 'Rudgbye'!" Sirius concluded and the whole compartment erupted into more fits of laughter, James turning a deeper shade of red but still trying to keep his cool demeanour.
"Yes but Padfoot she still have me her number," James argued, "Whatever a number is!"
Remus let out another laugh and stood up, stretching.
"Moony where are you going?" enquired Peter.
Remus smirked. "Want to be early for the prefect meeting, in which you-" he pointed at James "Are meant to be leading!".
"Bugger!" James cried, leaping up from his chair "I completely forgot I have to run those bloody things!"
Little did he know Lily was already there waiting, and had been for the last twenty minutes. She groaned, convincing herself that it was James' fault Remus had been kept late.
When the compartment door finally slid open, she was overjoyed to see a sheepish looking Remus standing there, and completely overlooked the tall figure behind him.
"Remus!" she said, beaming "Oh I knew it would be you!" But before she could hug him he let out a small cough and pointed to his badge which read PREFECT. She looked up at him quizzically before he side stepped to reveal James, who slowly pulled out his Head Boy badge and grinned.
Lily stood there, stunned, looking up at the considerably taller James. She was speechless.
James on the other hand couldn't contain his excitement.
"Isn't this wonderful Lily flower!" He laughed, beaming. Remus took a seat. "We get to spend all year working together and we're going to live together and have so much fun and we can arrange parties and give out detention to Slytherins and best of all I get to stare at your chest which has seemed to dramatically grow in size!" He finished, sitting down next to Remus with a big grin on his face.
Lily was still facing where James was standing, not even processing what he had just said. No. Her mind screamed. No. No. No. . It was a mistake. Yes. A simple mistake. She let out a nervous laugh, turning to face the boys. James joined in with the laughter, thinking she was laughing with him.
"Oh I see," Lily began, "It's just a mistake! Yes! Poor old Dumbledore must've simply got the letters mixed up!" She stopped laughing abruptly and looked at Remus, eyes pleading. "Please tell me you read the letter wrong... please."
Remus sighed as James' smile dropped. "No Lily, I am a prefect, James is Head Boy."
Lily gritted her teeth. "Oh." She replied. "I see." Her mind was racing. Potter? James bloody Potter? How could Dumbledore be so stupid? Has he gone mad? There was no way she could live with him...
But before she could say anything she realised the compartment was quickly filling up with prefects and she had to get her act together... for she knew James wouldn't.
Unsurprisingly to Lily, James had sat throughout the short meeting with his arms crossed, only speaking to add a stupid joke or to throw an insult at a Slytherin. Apart from his negativity (which Lily didn't realise was down to her), Lily thought the meeting went swimmingly. As a group they managed to put together a rota of when they would do their rounds, what passwords were going to be used and even began to plan events such as the infamous Christmas Ball. All the prefects gave their thanks to Lily as they left (except the Slytherins of course, who couldn't believe Dumbledore chose a muggleborn as head girl) and agreed to meet again in one week to make sure everything was going alright. James left without even a word to Lily, infuriating her even more. She threw her arms up in exasperation, turning to Remus.
"Is he going to be like this all year?" she asked, her voice a little louder than intended.
"Well actually erm," Remus replied, not meeting her eyes, "I think you upset him a bit."
Lily paused as a pang of emotion rang through her. Surely, she didn't just feel guilt? But she had insulted him many times before... She quickly shook her head dismissing the emotion.
"Well you can tell him from me that I will treat him with respect if he ups him game. I'm not doing this job on my own. Tell him he needs to help the prefects direct the students to the carriages when we arrive," she retorted, gathering bits of parchment with details such as everybody names and the passwords on, before swiftly exiting the compartment, Remus following.
The remaining journey to Hogwarts went without a hitch. As did escorting the younger years up to the castle, which still to this day gave made Lily shiver with excitement and awe. Lily and Marlene cheered when new students were sorted and chatted amongst their other friends about their holidays during the feast. Although both of them didn't fail to notice faces missing. Muggleborns whose parents thought it was too dangerous for them to return, other students who didn't think Hogwarts was safe anymore. Lily shuddered, realising how lucky she was to still be there.
James quickly got over his incident with Lily and was back to his usual flirtatious, boisterous self in no time – already scheming with the remaining marauders. However as he was planning a particularly dangerous prank on Filch, Lily's words from earlier popped into his head: "...have you no respect!" and he almost felt guilty. But I am James Potter he argued with himself, I am a Marauder, pranking is what I do.
As soon as the food disappeared (everyone being filled to the brim) Dumbledore gave his annual welcome back speech, highlighting the importance of companionship and safety, before wishing everyone a good night.
Just as everyone was leaving, James saw Lily heading towards Dumbledore and he suddenly remember with a pang of sadness that for the first time he won't be sharing a room with his best friends. Sadly he turned round to his fellow Marauders, who seemed to have completely forgotten about James not sleeping in the same room as them.
"Well guys-"he began "it's been a great six years but as Head Boy I don't get to share a room with you anymore."
Sirius clapped him on the back, laughing. "Jeez Prongsie are you going soft on us? It's not like we're never going to see you again! And besides, have you forgotten that you're sharing a place with the love of your life!"
James chuckled, and pulled everyone into a group hug, genuinely a bit sad to not be sharing with them. He bid them goodnight before following in the footsteps of Lily who was now chatting to Professor Dumbledore. He sighed. Was he really up for this? Head Boy meant giving up a lot of free time, let alone a lot of responsibility which he was certain he didn't posess. Yes his parents were proud and he got to live with Lily, but with quidditch and of course N.E.W.T's, could he really give this job his all? Sadly, he knew the answer was no and came to the conclusion that he should hand over his badge to Dumbledore and let someone else take his job.