"Ugh!" Lily groaned, flopping down on her four poster bed in frustration.
"Er Lils?" her friend Thalia asked. "What's wrong?"
"James Potter!!" Lily replied, her head buried in her pillow and her hair spilled around her like a pool of dark red blood. "That arrogant, self centred, insufferable idiot!"
"Ah," Thalia replied, understanding her friend's anger.
"James Potter is so yummy," Rhea said, immediately intrigued, licking her glossy lips for effect. Lily got up and arched a red eyebrow.
"We are talking about the same Potter, right?"
"Oh Lily," Rhea chuckled, "you can't even deny it, he's sex on legs," she said, emphasising the last three words.
"I can't believe you get to be head get to be head girl and boy together," Thalia sighed.
"You're making us sound like a couple," Lily laughed mockingly at the idea.
"Lils, it's like a Hogwarts tradition, head boy and head girl always eventually get together if they aren't already in the first place," Rhea explained, trying to make Lily see sense. It was just inevitable.
"It's not a very good tradition," Lily snorted, getting up off her bed and brushing her robes flat, "and, regardless, I intend to break it."
"That's not being a very good head girl, breaking traditions already… next it'll be rules!" Thalia said. Rhea laughed.
"I'm going to go to breakfast, where people are sane," Lily announced, turning her back on her friends, and left the girls' dormitory.
***
Travelling down to breakfast, Lily managed to avoid her new counterpart. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the back of a boy with dark hair talking to a group of slowly melting girls. It was only as she got closer that Lily realised it was James' best friend, the slightly less arrogant Sirius Black.
"Oh, hey Lily!" Sirius greeted her, much to the chagrin of the girls who were now being forgotten.
"Hi Sirius," Lily sighed in relief.
"Excuse me, ladies," he shot the Hufflepuff girls one last dazzling smile and went over to Lily, casually putting an arm around her shoulders as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Lily rolled her eyes but grinned, Sirius would never learn the concept of personal space, he was just so used to being charming with every other girl that he forgot she was immune to him.
"So what's up?" he asked.
"I was just going to eat breakfast," Lily explained, still nervous about seeing James, her mind starting to drift elsewhere. Wherever Sirius was, James and the others were rarely far off…
"Ah, why don't you join us?" Sirius said, and whilst Lily had been daydreaming, the remaining Marauders had appeared. Lily blinked.
"Oh, well, I was just—"
"Come on, I'm sure you and James have lots of business to talk about, like whipping this school into shape," Sirius coaxed, Lily clearly not immune to his amazing powers of persuasion. "Right, James?"
"Huh?" James asked, breaking out of a reverie that nobody had noticed he was in. Lily looked at him expectantly and he coughed, "Oh, yeah, sure."
"Great!" Sirius said, before Lily could back out, "It's settled then."
And then Sirius dragged Lily off to the Great Hall, fellow Marauders trailing behind them. When Lily glanced at Remus for support, he shrugged. Nothing he could do could persuade Sirius to let her go.
At the breakfast table, many people congratulated Lily and James upon becoming head boy and girl. Lily smiled graciously and James cracked jokes, and they both played their parts incredibly well. Sirius sat there like a proud parent, boasting about their ability to "change the school". He was like a campaign leader.
"Vote for Lily and James!" Lily expected him to yell, whilst selling chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes with their initials on in a stall just outside the Great Hall. The image made Lily smile genuinely for once that morning.
"Don't worry," Remus assured her about Sirius, "He'll get over it soon."
"How long is soon?" Lily asked worriedly.
"By Christmas," Remus replied, shrugging, and Lily groaned. Peter giggled to himself in the corner at James' jokes. Lily smiled, just as everyone walking away from James was. His jokes weren't that bad from what she had heard already, and he was looking pretty handsome that morning. Maybe he wasn't such a toerag after all, she thought. James caught her staring and smiled back, making Lily blush and look away. Remus was shaking his head at her when she finally realised he was still there.
"What?" she asked.
To which he replied, "Nothing."
That morning Lily was constantly aware of a certain Slytherin's gaze boring holes in the back of her head.
During lessons, due to being head boy and girl, James and Lily were almost always expected to work together. During potions, Rhea and Thalia purposefully worked together, as did Sirius and Remus, and Peter was paired with a small looking Hufflepuff boy.
James shuffled over to Lily and sat beside her in front of the already bubbling cauldron.
"Wow," James said, astonished at how quickly she had gotten started. He reached for the Acromantula poison, mixing with it the Salamander blood and adding pinches of Knotgrass and Murtlap until the beaker was thick with a gooey substance. He tossed it in to combine with the contents of the cauldron until it was a purple frothy brew. Lily looked up from the cauldron at James, her emerald green eyes wide.
"Wow yourself," she said. James grinned, but not in the arrogant way that Lily had always found annoying. It was like a child who had done something right and was being rewarded for it. "How did you do that again…?" she asked.
Later on that day, Severus Snape caught up with his ex best friend in the 3rd floor corridor of the West Wing. It was just before curfew and Lily was anxious to get back to the common room. The castle creeped her out at night, with its dark shadows and cold stone walls that echoed every tiny sound.
"So… head girl?" a voice said behind her. Lily froze upon recognising the voice and turned around slowly, getting ready to lace her voice with venom. "Congratulations."
"What do you want, Sev?" The automatic use of his nickname defeated the unfriendly tone she was trying to use. His thin features had grown thinner with age, and more angular with adolescence. His robes flapped either side of his stick like form, but Lily realised as he came closer that he now filled them out nicely. She didn't let this distract her, though.
"Can't I catch up with an old friend?" he asked but didn't wait for her to answer, "So what's it like being head girl alongside that toerag?"
"He's not a toerag," she said slowly, her teeth clenched and her characteristic anger rising.
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Sev replied, chuckling to himself. "Why the change of heart?"
"I…" Lily said, but she couldn't think of a reason. "He's changed."
"What? You really believe that?"
"Severus!" Lily said, her tone shocked, "He saved your life once!"
"Only because that toerag friend of his tried to kill me in the first place!"
Lily rolled her eyes, but didn't retort. Sirius had been way out of order then… but he meant no real harm. Sometimes his Black family roots just caught up with him all at once.
"Why don't you just leave me alone and go curse Muggle borns or something with your real friends?"
"So you can get back to your beloved James?" Sev cut in.
"I never said that," Lily said calmly. Sev sighed in frustration and kicked the stone wall.
"You might as well have," he muttered.
"Look, I really don't have time for this," Lily explained, turning around and heading towards the Gryffindor tower.
The only thing she heard behind her was Severus walking away in the opposite direction, cursing quietly to himself.
The next day, the common room was buzzing with talk of the Hogsmeade trip, and who was going with whom.
"Oh my god," Rhea said. "James is so going to ask you to Hogsmeade."
"Why would he do that?" Lily asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Thalia said, sharing a glance with Rhea.
"He's totally in love with you!" Rhea said.
Lily laughed. "That's ridiculous!"
"Is it? Ever since first year he's shown off around you, and you've constantly hated him…"
"I never hated him!" Lily argued. "We just… got off on the wrong foot, I suppose."
"Ask Sirius Black to Hogsmeade," Rhea said. "Then see what I mean."
"But I thought you were going to—"
"Never mind me!" Rhea cut in. "I'll get a date," she said, flicking her long brown hair over her shoulder and sauntering down to the common room, ever the air of confidence.
All day, Lily contemplated how to ask Sirius to Hogsmeade. The later she put it off, the more chance there was of someone else mustering up the courage. Boys like him didn't go to girls and ask, the girls came to him. And so, figuring it was easier and less awkward than asking James, Lily found Sirius at dinner.
"Hey," she smiled, and noticed James automatically smiling back. Just being polite, she told herself.
"Hey," Sirius said, his mouth full of pumpkin pie. Lily laughed. Remus nodded at her and Peter was still laughing at Sirius who was now almost choking. That would cost him later on.
"Who are you going to Hogsmeade with?" Lily asked casually, during the course of the evening.
Sirius was just chewing on another mouthful of pie, spitting pieces out as he said, "Nobody."
"Oh, well would you mind if I sort of… tagged along with you? I have nobody to go with and I was wondering if I could go with you," Lily stammered. She cringed at how awful she sounded, and wish she had planned her speech out more thoroughly.
"Yeah, sure!" Sirius said, his mouth now empty, digging into another pie. James was silent the rest of the evening, though Lily didn't notice immense hostility radiating from him.
She told Rhea of this in the common room in the evening.
"Lily, the whole time you've been talking to me James has been staring at the back of your head," Rhea simply said. Lily sat up straight immediately and her friend sighed.
"Really?"
"Yes, he's totally mad you asked Sirius, even if you did mess it up and only ask him as a friend," Rhea said.
"Well what did you expect me to do? Snog him in front of everyone in the Great Hall and then ask him to marry me? We are just friends," Lily said, quietly but urgently, waving her hands about like a mad woman.
"Hmm," Thalia, who had been listening, mused. "That could've worked."
Lily shot her a murderous look and she shrugged.
"Well, good luck," Rhea said, getting up and smiling consolingly at her friend.
"Thanks, I'm going to need it, I'm starting to wish my parents didn't sign the Hogsmeade slip," Lily said, fed up.
"I wonder where Potter is now," Thalia thought out loud.
On the other side of the common room Sirius Black was being characteristically loud and Lily was beginning to get a headache. An idea struck her throbbing mind.
"I'm going to my office," she said, "don't wait up for me; I'll probably fall asleep in there."
"Okay," Rhea said, not paying much attention. She seemed to be concentrating on a boy in their year who was throwing her glances every so often. "Excuse me; I have to go get a date for Hogsmeade. Be right back!"
Lily rolled her eyes as she left the common room, and travelled down to hers and James' office without bumping into any ghosts or teachers. She counted herself lucky, until she opened the door and there stood James Potter, topless, his glasses wonky and steamed up on his face, exchanging saliva with the school slut Juliet Avery. His hands were underneath her top and her hands were messing up his rarely neat dark hair further. Their interlocked mouths reluctantly separated when they heard the door click. If Lily hadn't put the light on she wouldn't have recognised who it was in the darkness. She suddenly wished she had left the light switch alone.
"OH! I- I- I'm sorry," she stuttered. Juliet looked positively murderous whilst James looked just as surprised as Lily, and almost a bit hurt. He immediately pulled his hands out from under Juliet's top though this didn't make the situation any less awkward. In fact, it just made Juliet's face redder with anger and Lily's with embarrassment. "I'll just go."
And with that Lily shut the door before James or Juliet could say anything. She supposed she should've guessed, considering both Gryffindors were not present in the common room. Though that still didn't make the shock subside any faster. By the time she had got back to the common room Lily was seething, though she didn't know why. Rhea and Thalia bore the brunt of her anger.
"See!" she said like a moody child. "I told you he didn't like me!"
"Then why are you so angry?" Thalia asked.
"I don't know!" Lily snapped, burying her head in her pillow again. It was a habit that she noticed was increasing.
"Someone likes James Potter…" Rhea sang, not afraid of Lily's anger outbursts.
"Oh please!" Lily scoffed. "Hardly."
"Liar liar crumple horned snorkacks on fire," Rhea retorted. Lily scowled.
"So what was it like seeing James Potter topless?" Thalia asked. Lily ignored her.
"I do not like James Potter," she said defiantly, and that was the end of the conversation. That night, as if just to spite herself, Lily dreamt of the very boy she had tried to hard not to think about romantically.
***
The following morning at breakfast, Minnie sat next to James and they sucked each other's faces off openly. When they were free to eat and breathe, though, Juliet sent Lily glares, who tried ignoring them by striking up conversation with Remus and Sirius.
When that failed to work, Rhea sent her a note from down the table.
Flirt with Black, it said. Lily sent Rhea a glare, which was met with a grin.
"So, looking forward to Hogsmeade?" Lily asked, trying to attempt a sexy undertone. She could see James and Juliet unlock lips in the corner of her eye to stare incredulously at her. Sirius hardly noticed.
"Yeah, sure," he shrugged, continuing with his breakfast. "Can't wait to stock up in Honeydukes," he continued excitedly. Lily smiled half heartedly and gave up. She did notice, however, that James pushed Juliet away any time she tried kissing him again at the breakfast table. After that, she had no idea, as they were in separate lessons.
She hardly saw him again until it was time for the trip to Hogsmeade. Naturally, Juliet was James' date, and Remus had a blonde Ravenclaw girl as a date. She didn't say much, and the group were left listening to Juliet babbling on until Remus had the bright idea that they all split up for a while. However, whilst Remus and his date, whose name Lily didn't quite catch, left, James seemed to stick himself to Lily and Sirius, much to Juliet's chagrin.
Not under the impression that they were on a date, Sirius had no objection to James hanging around with him and Lily.
"James, my boy," he sighed as they stood outside Honeydukes. "Prepare to enter heaven."
"Ugh," Juliet said, staring disgustedly at all the sugary confections. "Cant we go to Madame Puddifoot's?" she whined.
James and Sirius ignored her and entered Honeydukes. Lily hesitated and remained behind; mostly because the shop was so crowded she would've been squashed or trampled to death inside. The boys were, at least, large and strong and could push their way through. Juliet looked at her as disgusted as when she had looked at the sweets.
"What are you looking at?" she snapped, when Lily was caught staring.
"Nothing," she replied innocently.
Juliet looked sadly into the shop and then back at Lily.
"You know he really likes you," she said grudgingly. Lily's heart jumped. She didn't want to dare ask who Juliet was talking about, but she thought she knew the answer.
"Why is everyone saying that?" Lily mumbled to nobody in particular. Juliet still heard her.
"Remember a week ago?" she said. Lily blushed and nodded, remembering the night she walked in on Juliet and James. "Whilst we were… in your office, he called me by your name."
Lily blushed an even darker red.
"W-w-what?"
A flurry of students exited Honeydukes, laughing and shoving various assortments of candy in their mouths. Juliet looked like she wanted to speak, but couldn't over the noise. Then the boys appeared.
"Behold!" Sirius announced. "We are the candy conquerors!"
Juliet laughed a little louder than necessary, though James' gaze still remained on Lily.
"Come on," Sirius said, on a high from adrenaline and sugar. "Let's go to Zonko's!"
And they did. After virtually putting the shop out of business, Sirius decided he'd like to pay a visit to the Shrieking Shack. For a change, Juliet was being extremely patient and considerate. As the boys walked on ahead, Juliet and Lily fell behind to talk privately.
"How do you do it?" Juliet wanted to know.
"Do what?"
"Make him like you."
"I- I don't do it on purpose!" Lily insisted. "I don't know."
Juliet then did something a bit more characteristic.
"Oh no!" she yelled. Lily jumped nearly a foot in the air.
"What?" she asked. The boys had run back from where they were to see what had happened.
"I left my bag at Zonko's!" she explained. Lily suddenly knew what she was trying to do, but Juliet proved her wrong. "Sirius," she pouted, "Will you come with me to get it back?"
Ever the chauvinist, Sirius accepted, and Lily and James were left alone to travel the remaining few steps to the Shrieking Shack and wait there until their friends returned.
"So…" Lily said, staring at the huge abandoned mansion in front of her. "Have you ever been inside the Shrieking Shack?"
"Yeah," James said proudly. "Tons of times. Have you?"
"Not exactly…" Lily said hesitantly, beginning to wish she had asked him something else. But asking about how his date was going didn't seem appropriate, especially not if, as everyone claimed, his affections lied with her.
"There's a first time for everything," James grinned. Lily turned to look at him, and realised he wasn't just trying to be funny. He was serious.
"Oh no," she said, her eyes wide. "No way!"
"Oh come on, Lily," he said, "You know as well as anyone else it's not haunted."
"Yes, but…" she said, trying to come up with a counter argument. She hesitated too long though.
"If you don't go willingly," James said darkly, "I'll carry you."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me." The expression on his face was dead serious. Lily's mouth tightened.
"Fine," she huffed, and let James lead her closer to the Shack.
Once outside the building she stopped. "See? I'm not scared."
"Yeah," James said, one black eyebrow raised. "Why don't you go inside then?"
"If I get in trouble…" Lily said, trying to stall.
"You won't," James insisted, opening the creaky wooden door. A gust of wind blew out of the house and Lily shivered. "Still not scared?" James asked, a cheeky grin plastered on his face. His eyes shone mischievously from behind his glasses.
"Nope," Lily said defiantly, entering the house. She heard James enter behind her and saw the light fade as the closed the door behind them. They were in almost total darkness. "What now?" Lily asked.
"We look around."
She followed James' dark form up a flight of rickets stairs until they reached a dimly lit room, the only light coming through a pair of dust-thick windows.
"It's not as bad as everyone thinks it is," James shrugged. Lily looked around and scrunched up her nose in disgust. James was right. It was worse. There was a termite-bitten wooden table and chairs in the middle of the room and a moth ridden bottle green sofa sitting next to a tiny faded fireplace. She couldn't see much else due to the lack of light.
"It certainly would've been… nice in its day," she said.
"Yeah," James sighed in agreement.
"Has Juliet seen this?" Lily wondered aloud.
"No," James replied.
"Oh." The conversation was becoming awkward, so Lily decided to change the subject. "Do you think the others will find us in here?" she asked worriedly after a long period of silence.
"Why, are you afraid?" James teased.
"No, but if our dead mangled bodies do lie here for eternity I just wish someone would know what happened to us," Lily explained.
James laughed.
A moaning sound came from above as the ceiling creaked and groaned. Lily gasped and grabbed onto James' arm.
"It's just the rats," he explained through his laughter.
"Can we go now?" she asked quietly, as if not to stir any ghosts. James pried her hand from around his arm and put it in his own.
"Don't worry," he said comfortingly, "I'll protect you."
"That's what I'm worried about," Lily said, attempting to be funny when she was utterly petrified. James chuckled, and before Lily could beg him to take her back to the safety of the main village, she found her lips colliding with his.
Her eyes were wide in surprise and her lips frozen too. James' eyes were closed and he put a lot more into the kiss than she did at first. Lily felt the overwhelming urge to lift her free hand up and thread it through his messy hair, and she did. Her other hand was freed when James' hands went to rest on her waist, though stayed firmly on top of her clothing. His lips were soft and Lily's almost melted underneath them, though the kiss didn't demand too much. It was as if they were made to fit together, forever intertwined in that position.
A scurry of rats behind Lily made her jump and end the kiss. James' eyes opened and he was startled too by her abruptness. He found himself apologising.
"I- I'm sorry," he said, not unlike when Lily had walked in on him and Juliet. The memory came flooding back to Lily as she regained the ability to think coherently.
"Can we go now?" she asked, looking around warily in the darkness for any sign of rats or poltergeists. "Please?"
James mistook her fear for disgust at him when, in fact, she was disgusted with herself.
The walk back to the village was in silence. Once there, they found Remus and his date, but there was no sign of Sirius or Juliet. They weren't in Zonko's, Honeydukes, the Three Broomsticks, Dervish and Banges, or even the Hogs Head.
"What about Madame Puddifoot's?" Lily asked. "Juliet talked about wanting to go there earlier."
Remus went on ahead back to the castle and Lily and James were left to go and retrieve their dates for the day. Inside Madame Puddifoot's, the smell of sickly sweet candles invaded their nostrils, and there were many kissing couples sitting in booths shaped like hearts. One of the couples caught Lily's eye. It was Sirius and Juliet.
"Sirius?" Lily asked incredulously. James looked surprised too, but he didn't say anything.
The couple broke apart and looked just as shocked as their dates.
"James!" Juliet exclaimed.
"Hey man…" Sirius explained. "I'm sorry."
"No, no," James insisted. "Its fine, I'm just…"
"Surprised?" Lily offered.
"Yeah."
Lily could've sworn she saw Juliet grin at her as they exited the shop, but figured she was probably mistaken.
As the new couple canoodled in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, James was left without much to do in the evening except homework. Remus read his intellectual volumes by the dozen, but James rarely got into any books.
On the other side of the room, Lily was chatting with Rhea and Thalia. She hadn't told them about the Shrieking Shack incident, deciding to keep that to herself. The "I told you so" lectures from Rhea would be unbearable if she did tell them.
"Don't look now," Rhea said, smiling at something behind Lily and shifting her body. "But Potter is coming over here."
"Probably to propose to you or something," Thalia said begrudgingly.
Lily froze, too nervous to glare at Thalia or rebuke her. A large figure cast a shadow upon Lily from behind and she stopped breathing.
"Hey James," Rhea sang, throwing her chest forward. Lily rolled her eyes, about the only movement she could manage.
"Err, hi," he replied. "Can I talk with Lily? Alone. Private head boy and head girl business."
"Sure," Rhea said, dragging a reluctant Thalia away.
James came around the sofa Lily was sitting on and sat beside her.
"Hey," he said, smiling at her. "I was just wondering what we were going to do about managing the prefects this year…"
"You didn't come here to talk about prefects, James," Lily said to him.
"No," he admitted quickly. "I was bored. Sirius and Juliet won't leave each other alone."
"They seem happy," Lily said, turning to look at the happy couple.
"Who'd have thought," he chuckled. "My date and yours."
"Sirius and I weren't technically on a date anyway," Lily shrugged.
"Neither were Juliet and I really," James confessed. "I only asked her because I had to ask someone, and she's the most popular girl in the year after you."
"Then why didn't you ask me?" Lily wanted to know.
"Because I thought you liked Sirius," James admitted.
"What?" Lily laughed. "I only asked Sirius because my friends told me it would make you jealous, but I didn't believe them."
Lily felt James' hand pull her chin up and then they were kissing again, though this time they each kept their hands to themselves, but James pressed his lips harder against hers. And this time Lily had her eyes closed. It was so brief that hardly anyone else in the common room noticed it, except for Rhea and Thalia who were spying from across the room.
"Do you now?"
Lily blushed. "Yes."
"About those prefects…" James mused, "I do believe we need to discuss this away from prying ears, in our office, maybe?"
"James," Lily said, "It's late!"
"It'll be quick," he insisted, "I promise."
"Somehow I doubt you're talking about the paperwork," Lily mumbled, though she couldn't help but smile.
Glancing across the room, Lily caught sight of Rhea, who had a look on her face that just screamed: I told you so. But for once, Lily was glad of being wrong.