A/N: Thanks to Eesha for editing! You rock Eesha! Three cheers for you!
Lily nearly bounced into the Heads' common room. She couldn't even begin to explain how glad she was to be allowed in here. Her two older brothers had been Head Boy and, as the youngest, she felt she needed to live up to their reputation. If she hadn't made Head Girl, she would've felt that she wasn't as good as her brothers, contrary to her entire family's assurances otherwise. She just wouldn't have ended her Hogwarts career on a good note if she hadn't been made Head Girl.
Her father had tried to console her by telling her that he had not been made Head Boy. But what he hadn't said was, I wasn't at school anyway. And Lily knew the story. I mean, come on. It's not exactly a hard choice: Save the world or be Head Boy? Her mother had been Head Girl in her seventh year and she had told Lily that it definitely was not all it was made out to be. The common room was niceenough, but she'd had to admitthat the Gryffindor common room was better. And also, you couldn't stay up late with the your friends in your dormitory because you were alone.
Lily had remained adamant, though. She wanted to be Head Girl and she knew that if she didn't get it, not even Sirius Black, prankster extraordinaire, himself would be able to make her feel better. In the end, all her worrying had been for nothing. Even now, three months later, she was still amazed. But she had gotten the job and her life couldn't be better.
The only blemish in her life was that John Wood, the bane of her existence, was Head Boy. John Wood acted a lot like her oldest brother, James. He lived to goof off and goofed off to live. He played Quidditch superbly (as Gryffindor's star Keeper) and had been the Quidditch captain since his fifth year, since James had left. He was extremely good-looking and so had girls from second to sixth year fawning all over him. Those in first were too afraid to have a crush on anyone, and those in seventh year knew him well enough to know to stay away. For John Wood had eyes for only one girl.
Quite unfortunately, that one girl was Lily. He had been asking Lily out since their third year and she had been steadily refusing him for the same amount of time. She didn't know why he kept persisting to ask her. She always said no and she always would. Nothing he ever said or did would change that. And she had told him that, too! But he had just smiled and said, "You think so now" and walked away quite calmly. Lily herself had been very angry at him — how dare he be so confident, so assured that she would come around? Well, she wouldn't. She knew that he took pride in ignitingher redheaded temper when no one else could. And Lily hated him for it.
But this year, he had been acting differently. He was no longer the complete class clown that he used to be. He took the role of Head Boy seriously. Also, he had no time to goof off and do pranks. He had taken as many extra classes as he possibly could without having to use a time-turner. He didn't have the free periods that other seventh year students had to do his homework and his evenings were usually spent on the Quidditch field or patrolling the corridors. He also had Head Duties to do (such as planning Hogsmeade trips, Quidditch matches, and Prefect meetings) and only then did he get time for homework. This usually kept him up very late at night. Lily had even seen him down there at three in the morning one time.
And the stress was showing. His once vibrant eyes were now dulled with constant anxiety and had permanent dark circles underneath them. He almost never made it to meals and so, even though he played Quidditch, he was becoming extremely thin. He was becoming weaker and weaker and lily had noticed that he was having difficulty lifting his bag (but then, so would anyone, with all the textbooks he had). His posture was tired; his manner was quiet and submissive instead of loud and aggressive.
And Lily was worried. Even after all the misery he had caused her, she was worried about him. Now that he no longer pestered and annoyed her, she wanted him to go back to what he was like before. That was just so like Lily. She was always being the perfect example of the saying "You never know what you have until you've lost it". And that's what it seemed like was happening with John. Now that his affections were dulled, she wanted them heightened. She wanted him to ask her out, so that she could say yes, now that he had stopped asking her out incessantly. And this behavior of John's was just so unusual, that Lily couldn't help being worried that something would soon go horribly wrong.
But Lily was no Seer. In fact, Professor Trelawney had already told her several times that she did not posses the "aura" needed for the noble art of Divination. She had ended up dropping out of Divination halfway through third year. So therefore, John was probably in no danger at all. Lily had no reason to be worried because she had no idea if something were to truly happen to him. This fact gave Lily comfort but, nonetheless, she still kept an eye on him, just in case.
For now though, she was content to lie on her comfortable bed and stare at the ceiling. She had done well in her classes today, she didn't have any homework immediately pressing, and she was Head Girl. What more could she ask for? Unbidden, a sudden thought flew through her mind: You could ask for John. And Lily sighed because she realized that John was exactly what would make her life perfect. And now, once she realized that, he had given up on her. Moral of the story, Lily thought bitterly, when life throws you lemons, never throw them back. Life had thrown so many lemons, and she had thrown them all back. Now, it seemed that life had run out of lemons. Just her luck.