A/N: Hey guys! The first chapter is FINALLY back up with adjustments! Hope you enjoy it. I feel a lot better about this than the first draft of this chapter, I feel like it takes into account some more things and answers more questions. Sorry you all had to wait so long. The good news is that since you all had to wait so long for the revised version of this chapter, I also wrote chapters 2,3 and 4, so they should be up within the next week or so, and if they're not, I apoligize. Mid-terms are this week, so they'll probably be up either tomorrow, wednesday, or next weekend. Thank you all so much for being patient. I'm done rambling now. This is probably the longest author's note in history. And reviews would be SO appreciated. Thank you! Enjoy!

September 1977

Lily Evans looked over the heads of the other people on the platform at the scarlet engine bellowing its steam out in front of her. She sighed. Normally, Lily was apprehensive at the beginning of the year. Of course she was excited to see her friends and go back to school, but she always felt a pang of guilt at leaving her mother and father behind.

Not this year. Lily thought she might not get away fast enough. Throughout the summer, she had had to deal with her mother's disdain about her and Petunia's constant bickering, and her father's support of her sister's hurtful behavior.

Besides, Petunia had Vincent now, or whatever his name was - not that the sisters had been close since they were young, but it was only a matter of time before Petunia stopped talking to her altogether, she supposed.

Lily was pulled from her thoughts by her mother's voice.

"Lil?"

"Yes, mum?"

"Have you been listening to anything that I've been saying?" her mother scolded.

Lily cast her eyes down. She wasn't about to row with her mother in the middle of the platform. "No," she responded.

Her mother let out an exasperated sigh.

"I said, be careful this year, okay? I know you have that head girl badge, but don't overwork yourself, alright? And be expecting a letter from your sister at some point. She was just telling me how she'd love for you to meet Vernon."

Lily had to stifle a snort. That's hardly what Petunia had said, she was sure of it. She had probably been telling their mother that she would like for Lily to do anything but meet her boyfriend.

"Yeah, tell her I'd love to meet him," Lily replied. Her sarcasm went unnoticed by her mother.

"See?" her mother almost cried. "I told your father you two would get over your differences, and he told me I was a nutter." Her mother really was crying now. Lily wrapped one arm around her, trying to consol her. She could hear her name being called over the heads of the other students on the platform.

"Lily! Hey Lily!"

She turned to her mother.

"I promise to be careful, and write to you whenever I can, okay mum?"

"I would love that, Lily, you know that," her mother replied as she wiped her tear brimmed eyes with the back of her sleeve.

Lily gave her one last fleeting, one-armed hug, before saying quickly, "Okay, love you."

"And I love you, Lily."

"Bye mum. See you at Christmas!"

And with that, Lily turned on her heels and faced the crowd gathering onto the train. Her trunk had already been lifted up by a helpful sixth year, and so she boarded the steaming scarlet engine in search of whoever was calling her name.

"Lily!"

She was suddenly ambushed in a hug so tight she could barely breathe.

"Mariana!" she struggled out, "It's nice to see you too."

As her best friend pulled away from her, she saw the wide grin and hazel brown eyes that could belong to none other than Mariana Hawkins. Mariana had been Lily's best friend since their first year at Hogwarts – most of the time they were inseparable.

"Lily! You have to tell me all about your summer! I barely heard from you once. I was starting to worry."

It was true; Lily had broken her and Mariana's long standing tradition of one letter a week over the summer. In fact, Lily had barely written one once a month. She knew that Mariana would be mad, but she figured that she would forgive her eventually.

"Mariana, I'm sorry," Lily said, as they squeezed themselves into an empty compartment. "It's just that I had a lot going on this summer, and a ton of homework, and my sister was home constantly…"

"I thought she got a job in London?"

"She did," Lily sighed, "but she met this bloke at work, and now they're in a 'serious relationship'" she explained, mimicking her sister's squeaky voice.

"Someone's dating Petunia?" Mariana asked incredulously.

"That's what I thought when she brought it up at dinner."

It wasn't that Petunia was ugly; in fact, Lily had often thought that her sister was very beautiful when she was young, and she could still see glimpses of it in her face now. There was something about her blonde hair and pale blue eyes that signified beauty to Lily, as different as they were from her own red hair and green eyes.

It was just that Petunia was, well, boring. She couldn't even imagine Petunia out on a date. Perhaps this man had found her wistful manner and somewhat snobby attitude charming. Maybe Petunia only acted that way towards Lily, however.

"So did you meet this guy?" Mariana asked, yanking Lily out of her own thoughts.

"No. You know my sister. She didn't even want to bring him around when I was home – afraid I might do something 'freakish' to scare him off, you know?"

"Well, Petunia has always been a bit – oh, I don't know…"

"Yeah, I understand where you're coming from, believe me."

"Oh, and congratulations on Head Girl; we all know you deserve it," Mariana smiled broadly at her, motioning to the badge on her chest.

"Oh, yes. Thank you. Speaking of that, I ought to head off to the meeting now," Lily had almost forgotten that she had to help lead the prefects meeting along with the Head Boy this afternoon.

"I don't suppose you know who Head Boy is, do you?"

"Not at all," Lily paused at the mischievous grin that spread across Mariana's face. "Do you?"

Her grin widening, Mariana shook her head, "No. Not at all. Well, good luck!"

Shooting Mariana a skeptical look, Lily left the compartment with her mind whirring. Mariana definitely knew something that she didn't, and apparently she found it really amusing. She soon found herself outside the prefect's car. Of course none of the prefects would be there yet; it would just be her and the mysterious Head Boy. She slid the compartment door open and was greeted by a mop of messy, jet-black hair.

"Potter," she snapped, her voice sounding much harsher than she had intended, "what are you doing in here?"

"What do you think, Evans?" He smiled his lopsided grin at her, his hazel eyes seeming to spark beneath his wire-rimmed glasses.

"Oh, has Remus gotten Head Boy?"

It was the only logical explanation that she could come up with. Remus had gotten Head Boy and sent Potter to tell her that he would be late, or something along those lines.

She rather liked Remus Lupin; they had become close friends in their adventures together as prefects for the past two years. She found him kinder, smarter and more sensitive than the rest of his friends. It was only logical that Dumbledore would make them Heads together. It was obvious that they could work together lucratively.

Potter stared at her incredulously, and as he turned towards her, she saw the gold badge shimmering on his chest.

"You have got to be kidding me," she stated, dumbstruck. "There's no way Dumbledore made you Head Boy. This is the worst prank you've ever pulled, Potter."

"It's not a prank, Evans. And truthfully, I thought you would be a lot happier to see me," he grinned.

Lily snorted. "Happy to see you? In your dreams. Now seriously, who's Head Boy?"

"I'm telling you it's not a prank, Evans. Sirius has been tearing the mickey out of me for two months now. I'm never going to live this down."

"Live this down?" Lily almost shrieked, "This isn't a game, Potter. This is serious. The well being of the castle and of the student body depends mainly on us!"

"Funny," Potter grunted, "I kind of always thought that was the headmaster's job."

"You're really sure that this isn't a joke?" she asked, looking at him sideways. She hoped that he would start laughing, and someone, anyone would pop out and say 'Haha, Lily! We gotcha! I'm actually Head Boy!' But it didn't happen; Potter just nodded at her solemnly.

"And aren't we supposed to be meeting or something right now?" he asked her.

"Yes, we have to come up with schedules for tutoring and patrols for ourselves and the prefects, among other things. It said all of that in the letter we recieved."

"You actually think I read that whole thing? I got to 'You will meet with the Head Girl and the other prefects on the train on September 1st' and then I stopped reading," he said nonchalantly.

"That was the fourth sentence."

"It was long. You're lucky I got that far."

"Unbelievable."

James Potter at least seemed a tad bit more mature this year. At least he had gotten to the fourth sentence -the past James Potter would have never even opened the letter. Last year he had changed a bit also, so it now seemed to Lily that she might be able to stand in his presence for more than five minutes at a time this year without wanting to strangle him. She was thankful for that, because they were in charge of patrolling the corridors together every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The meeting with the prefects went surprisingly well. James barely spoke, which suited Lily well. She could just see him telling them all to give out detentions to as many Slytherins as they could. He stood silently behind her and let her pass out into the corridor of the train once the meeting was over. She had only taken a few steps, however, when he called out behind her.

"Hey, Evans!"

"What?" she sighed, spinning back around on her heels to face him.

"What are we supposed to do now? You know, I didn't read the letter."

"We help students off the train, and then direct them to the prefects after the feast - and read the letter. Soon."

"No, thanks."

She turned on her heels and walked away furiously. Once she got back to the compartment where Mariana was sitting with a few of her other friends, she threw herself down on a seat.

"So, how's Potter?" Mariana laughed.

Of course Mariana knew that James had been made Head Boy, and of course she wouldn't tell Lily about it.

"This is going to be a long year," Lily murmured.

Once the train came to a final stop about five minutes later, she quickly grabbed her trunk from the rack above her head, attempting not to drop it. She exerted herself to get it out of the compartment, and tried to maneuver around the other people in the crowded corridor. She was struggling along the crowd, for her trunk was quite heavy due to the fact that she was an awful packer. She always wanted to take everything she owned to school with her, and usually ended up trying to stuff the majority of it into her trunk.

It was only after she had made it half way down the train corridor when she heard a voice behind her ask, "Need a hand there, Evans?"

There was no mistaking that voice. She attempted to turn to face him, but couldn't, due to the fact that she was carrying a rather heavy trunk. Normally, she would have just bewitched it to levitate itself to the platform outside, but she knew that if she did, she would most likely hit a group of students father down the corridor.

She set her trunk down and turned to face him. Back in the train car, she hadn't really looked at him, in fact, she had pretty much avoided looking anywhere near him, trying, rather, to look out the window or at the red colored plush seats. She had been afraid that if she looked at him she might burst into tears. It seemed like a sick, sick joke to her - James Potter as Head Boy. It made her sick to her stomach.

But now, as she looked up, she couldn't help but notice all of the changes that James Potter seemed to have undertaken over the summer. He was taller, no doubt. Lily could have sworn that just last June he was only a few inches taller than her – now he seemed to soar over her head.

He also looked like he had aged an eternity over the few short months since she had seen him last. Not that that was a bad thing. As much as Lily hated to admit it, James Potter was extremely attractive. Not that he had ever been bad looking, but something about him just seemed – different, more attractive than Lily had found him in previous years. His muscles were more defined than she remembered them, his face more distinct. His hazel eyes sparkled.

She shook her head. This was James Potter she was looking at. Head Boy or not, he was an arrogant, self-conceited, loathsome prick. He might have changed on the outside, but there was no way he could have changed that much in three months. She nodded at him curtly.

"No thank you, Potter. I can handle myself, thanks," she said, turning herself back around to continue her way up the corridor. She suddenly found her path blocked by none other than the wonderful Mister Potter once again.

"Now what kind of gentleman would I be if I let you carry this all the way up the corridor with no assistance?" He asked her, his eyes glittering.

"One that knew how to leave me alone," Lily muttered.

James took no notice to her snide remark. He reached over and grabbed the trunk out of her unwilling hands, lifting it as far above his head as he could in the low ceilinged corridor as if it weighed nothing.

She huffed and followed him closely the rest of the way up the corridor and out onto the platform in Hogsmeade. The chilly September wind ruffled her robes and sent goose bumps up her arms and legs. James set her trunk on the carriage to be sent up to the castle.

"Need someone to ride with?" He asked, scanning her over. It took Lily awhile to respond.

"To the castle?" she replied stupidly. She was too busy looking him over to really pay attention to what he was saying. Yes, something had definitely changed about him. He seemed more mature, more grown up. She noticed that his eyes seemed to have changed – they were no longer childish and playful ; they held hurt, she could see it. She found herself wondering what had happened.

"Yeah, where else?" James half laughed.

"I promised Mariana and a few other people that I would ride up with them," she said.

"Oh, okay. I just thought maybe it was like a thing for the Heads to ride up to the castle together."

"We're Head Boy and Girl, not the king and queen of England. Don't get too far ahead of yourself."

"Aren't we supposed to be helping people off the train?"

Indeed they were, but Lily was too busy being shell-shocked at the lack of sarcastic response from James Potter. He had come up with witty comebacks as long as she could remember, and now nothing? It was strange.

She hopped out of her reverie, and got to work helping to direct traffic - first years towards Hagrid at the end of the platform, all the other students towards the carriages at the opposite end. As the last students hopped off the train, Lily turned to face James Potter.

He looked like he was going to cry for a moment, but when he caught Lily looking at him, the grief quickly vanished off of his face. If she could only figure out why he seemed so different…

Then it hit her. The Daily Prophet. She wasn't sure what had made her think of it, maybe it was just purely the fact that she was finally back in the Wizarding world. The Daily Prophet was the only thing that kept her linked to it in the summer; along with updates from Mariana, which she hadn't had much of this year.

But she did know why James seemed older, why he seemed pained; it had just taken her awhile to remember it.

It was a few weeks after school had let out for the year. She was lying in her bedroom, sprawled out on her bed, the window open, letting the cool night air blow across her face. That day, her first copy of The Daily Prophet had arrived with a large brown owl. It lay on her nightstand next to her bed, and in her boredom, she had picked it up and was fumbling through it.

There was nothing interesting in the first through pages, and so she had flipped to the last few pages, hoping to find an interesting crossword or something of the sort to keep her entertained. As she turned the pages, a name jumped out at her. Potter.

She stopped and scanned the page. The top read "Obituaries". She looked back down to where she had seen the name. A face that reminded her eerily of a certain boy at school smiled up at her and waved. The article read:

"Charles Potter, 165, of Winchester, Derby, passed away early Tuesday morning in his home. Mr. Potter had a long battle with Dragon Pox, which is especially dangerous to the elderly.

Mr. Potter was born on December 5, 1812, to parents Gregory and Ingrid Potter. He attended school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and worked for the Ministry of Magic as an Auror.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, Thomas Potter (died January 14, 1912), and a sister, Janine Potter Moore (died October 21, 1927), along with a sister-in-law and several aunts and uncles.

He is survived by his wife, Dorea Black Potter, 158, and his son, James Potter, 17.

Friends and family will be received from noon until the time of service at 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday July 3 and 4, 1977 in his home at 144 Wise Street, Winchester, Derby.

Interment will be at the First United Church of God in Godric's Hollow, where Mr. Potter and his family before him attended service.

Memorial contributions may be made, in Charles' name, First United Church of God in Godric's Hollow. "

Lily pushed the newspaper away and stared at her ceiling. She knew that James' parents were old, even by Wizarding standards, but she had no clue they were that old. For a few moments she felt bad for him.

It was only after her realization that she noticed that James was still standing in front of her.

"Well, I'll talk to you later," she said abruptly, feeling sort of bad for the boy - the man - standing in front of her. His hazel eyes looked down on her as he ran a hand through his already messed up jet-black hair.

"Later."

The way he said it almost made Lily want to ditch Mariana and ride up to the castle with him. No, she couldn't do that. This was James Potter, for crying out loud! She kept trying to convince herself that he hadn't changed – he couldn't have - once an arrogant git, always an arrogant git.

She turned on her heel and went to seek out Mariana, flipping her long, auburn hair behind her. She took a few steps before she turned back around apprehensively to face James again. She stared at him for a few long moments, studying him with her green eyes.

He was still looking after her. When she spoke, her voice was barely a whisper, but yet, he still seemed to hear her.

"And Potter," she said, a little more gently, "I'm really sorry to hear about your dad."

He didn't say anything, just smiled at her sadly, but knowingly, his hazel eyes smiling sadly behind his wire rimmed glasses. He nodded, which Lily took as a thank you, and turned around to disappear into the crowd.