DISCLAIMER: ALL CREDITS GO TO J.K ROWLING FOR THE INVENTION OF THIS WONDERFUL WORLD AND CHARACTERS THAT I SPENT MY CHILDHOOD IN LOVE WITH. ALL CHARACTERS ARE THE WORK OF FICTION AND HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH REAL PEOPLE, REAL EVENTS OR REAL PLACES.
It was happening. It really was happening. I stood on the platform, my hands tightly clutching the handles of the trolley as I inhaled slowly, trying to calm my nerves.
I was in seventh year, my final year at Hogwarts, and I was Head Girl.
I glanced down at my badge again, just to make sure and there it was, gleaming on my robes, just like it was ten minutes ago when I had checked last.
Head Girl.
Honestly, I can't say I know what Dumbledore was thinking, giving me this badge when I struggled to get my robes the right way around each morning. But I supposed there was no way he would know about that. Unless he really was as omnipotent as they said.
Merlin, I really hoped he wasn't.
I always thought it would go to Lucinda Malfoy with her perfect blonde hair, perfect grades and perfect pure blood status. But I guess Dumbledore is as mad as they claimed if he chose me over her.
Hm. Now who was Head Boy?
Remus Lupin?
I hoped so, he and I got along despite the fact that he made up one quarter of the bloody Marauders, who I spent a good chunk of my prefect years chasing and threatening. He was a lot better than Severus Snape, or Edward Prewett, the Hufflepuff prefect. The former probably would ignore me until the year was over and only communicate with bits of parchment and the latter… Well, Edward was very sweet, but I could barely hold a conversation with him, let alone hope to lead the Prefect body together with.
And forget about Matthew Davies. The thought of working all year with my ex boyfriend made me shudder.
Yes, Remus would do perfectly fine. Maybe he could even convince the Marauders to lay it low during our final year, considering it was N.E.W.T.S and all. I snorted to myself. Fat chance of that happening.
Someone barrelled into me, a flurry of long arms and dark hair, interrupting my thoughts, and I yelped, tumbling back and my grip on my trolley loosened.
"Lily!" Kate's arms tightened around my neck but I was too distracted by the sight of my trolley skidding down the smooth floors of the platform, approaching the crowds that had amassed, to greet my best friend. Not to mention that Owl had started to screech, shaking her cage in indignant anger as the trolley continued to whiz down the platform.
People turned to stare at the source of noise with wide eyes and I felt a blush creep up my neck.
Instant blushing, one of the many lovely upsides of having red hair.
Pair that with pale skin that freckled instead of tanned and blonde lashes, it was a wonder why I didn't get as many dates as Charlene Vane.
Really.
"My trolley!" I shoved her off, tripping over my own feet as I tried to rush towards my stupid trolley that was now running at an alarming rate at a large crowd of people. But before it could cause any serious damage, and potentially ruin my first day as Head Girl, a pair of hands reached out, dragging it to a firm stop.
"Evans, you always had a way of making an entrance," Sirius remarked drily from next to Remus, who held onto my trolley firmly. Remus, on the other hand, gave me a slight smile.
"Hullo, Lily," he greeted and I noticed he was looking thinner than before, the sleeves of his robes loose around his wrist and shadows were bruising the skin underneath his eyes.
Hm. It seemed as if the summer break had not done any good for his health.
"Thanks, Remus, thank you, thank you," I grabbed the trolley from him, giving him a bright smile, "I think it's a little too early for murder, isn't it? I mean, the trolley probably could have rolled over at least five people before it came to a stop. It wasn't my fault, by the way, it was completely Catherine Skye's fault,"
From next to me, Kate just smiled widely, ticking my chin, "I knew you missed me too,"
"Get off me," I squirmed away from her but she latched on tighter.
"You're drivelling," Sirius noted and I scowled at him, which he returned with a lazy smile.
"Head Girl, I see," he flicked my badge with his wand, a burst of sparks emitting from the end as he did so. I swatted his wand away in annoyance. I did not need my robes to catch on fire.
"I suppose he went for the safe bet with one half, eh?" Peter appeared out of seemingly nowhere, his head bobbing up from next to Sirius' elbow, "Lo, Lily,"
I waved at him absently, my eyes fixing onto the Remus' chest.
"You didn't get Head Boy?" I asked in dismay, noticing the familiar Prefect badge on Remus' robes.
His smile widened as he shrugged carelessly, "I think a poorly Head Boy would be quite useless,"
"No need to be so hard on yourself, Moony," Sirius clapped his shoulder comfortingly, "You're useless either way,"
"Shut it, Padfoot,"
"Who's Head Boy, then?" I asked, frowning and groaned, covering my eyes with a hand, "Oh Merlin, please don't tell me it's Severus, or worse, Prewett,"
"Dumbledore would be mad to give Snivellus Head Boy," Sirius sneered and Peter nodded feverishly in agreement whilst Remus just looked away, "Probably would wet his pants at the taste of power,"
I didn't bother reply to his statement because frankly, I was done thinking or talking about Severus. Snape, I meant Snape. Severus and I weren't on first name basis anymore.
"You forgot Davies," Kate supplied unhelpfully.
She had finally let go of me and was now on her toes, peering around the crowd, looking for, I was guessing, the final third to our trio, Mary Vance. She kicked Sirius out of her way when he purposefully stepped in front of her, blocking her view.
"No, I left him out on purpose, actually" I muttered underneath my breath.
"Strange, I thought you rather fancied him," Kate snickered and then snapped, "Move it Black, or I'll hex your netheregions,"
"I think it's incest even talking about my netheregions, Catherine," Sirius said patronizingly, finally shifting to the side and Kate rolled her dark eyes, shoving at his ribs.
Kate and Siruis were cousins, distant, distant and many times removed cousins, much like many pureblood families. They looked nothing alike though, save their dark hair. Kate had wide, brown eyes that looked like they were on the verge of laughter. Sirius had slate grey eyes that looked as if he was bored or angry. Or a mixture of both.
"Incest or not, it'll be painful," she waved her wand at him threateningly but all he did was laugh.
"That was two years ago, thank you very much," I said primly before turning my attention back to Remus, who was looking distinctively uncomfortable, "Do you know who's Head Boy?"
"You don't know?" he asked evasively as he rubbed his cheek, his eyes flickering away from mine, "I thought you would know,"
"Of course she wouldn't, Lily's only got half a brain when it's not related to studies," Kate said cheerfully, throwing an arm around my shoulder.
Rubbish best mate she was, though she wasn't completely wrong.
"Come on, let's get a compartment before the first years take all of them. I swear I wasn't that small back then," she dragged me away, waving at the three dismissively.
For someone so slender, Kate had a shockingly strong grip on my arm as she led me and my trolley through the crowd, pushing it in front of us unapologetically. I smiled helplessly at the glares we were getting as Kate pummelled through the crowd, chattering away obliviously.
"And then in Spain, Brody that idiot, thought it would be fun to slip Dungbombs into Narcissa's wine, and you know how uptight she gets," Kate was saying but all I could think about was how strange Remus' expression was when I asked him about Head Boy.
Maybe I was being insensitive asking him because he probably was still disappointed by the fact he didn't get it. In fact, of course he would be, I mean, look how disappointed I was, for crying out loud.
"Please, please don't let it be Sev, I mean, Snape"I thought to myself desperately, praying upon all the deities I could think of.
I honestly would start crying right here if it was him, Head Girl and good impressions be damned. I had spent the last year completely ignoring my former best friend, and though I would never admit it to Mary or Kate, it hurt. I hated that our friendship had ended, but I could see no other solution for the two of us. It was virtually impossible for us to be friends, especially if he continued to hang around those people.
"Oi Mary!" Kate let go of me and launched herself onto Mary who let out a small strangling noise as Kate squeezed her tight. I felt for the poor girl, I really did, having been on the receiving end of Kate's death grip. Maybe she should lay it easy on the Quidditch training, because at this rate, she gave the Giant Squid a run for his money in terms of suction power.
"Where were you two?" Mary asked, slightly breathless as she detangled her limbs from Kate's, "I saved us a compartment,"
"Had a bit of an accident with the trolley," I gestured to the offensive item which was now being loaded and cleared by a porter, "Let's go in, I'm exhausted,"
"Don't you have a meeting soon?" Mary asked as we entered an empty compartment. I spotted Mary's familiar patchwork knapsack on one of the seats with a Witch Weekly peeking out from the flap.
"Soon," I yawned, stretching out onto a bench, "I have no idea how to run it, but I suppose it'll be okay. I'm sure the Head Boy will be a bit more responsible than me,"
"Shouldn't you know?" Kate poked my leg, forcing me to rescind them so she could sit down next to me, "You've been Prefect for two years,"
"I usually just doze off until I'm talked to," I admitted and laughed weakly as the reality of the situation sank in, "I can't believe I'm Head Girl,"
"You'll do fine," Mary said soothingly, petting my leg, "They all like you,"
"Save a significant quarter of them," I moaned, burying my face into my hands, "I can imagine it, I'm going to mess the notes up and be blushing and tongue tied like an idiot and Sev, I mean, Snape, and Malfoy are going to glare at me and whisper about how I'm a pathetic Head Girl and how Dumbledore is barmy and Merlin, people are going to agree and because of me, one of the greatest wizards of our time is going to be reduced to a loon,"
"You know, Sirius is right, you do drivel," Kate snatched the magazine from Mary's bag, ignoring her protests, "And don't worry, people already think Dumbledore's mad. Brilliant old crock he is. So don't worry about it you twit,"
That was reassuring.
"I better get going," I stood up, straightening my robes and checked my badge anxiously, "Head Girl shouldn't be late,"
"Don't worry too much, your horoscope is looking good, Evans," Kate looked up at me from her magazine, "Though Mars might tangle you up a bit,"
"What does that mean?" I tried to peer over her head but her dark hair blocked the view.
"Hell if I know, I'm rubbish at Divination," Kate said brightly and snapped the magazine shut and waved it at me, "Bye Lily, remember, don't dribble pumpkin juice on yourself,"
"That was once," I snapped defensively but Kate and Mary just exchanged bemused smirks.
"Twice, but who's counting," Kate shrugged and yelped when I kicked her.
"Oh, honestly, Kate," Mary said in exasperation, smacking her lightly over the head with the newspaper she was reading, "Just leave her alone,"
"You two are so bloody violent," Kate cried, rubbing her head, "And to think, one is Head Girl, whilst the other is Gryffindor's resident nice girl!"
We both chose to ignore her comment and Mary settled back into her seat, the picture of serenity as she began to read her paper again.
"This is why Mary gets better Christmas presents than you," I informed Kate, but she just stuck out her tongue at me. I stuck mine out back before I left the compartment, flicking my hair over my shoulder for good measure.
Yes, the epitome of maturity was me, Lily Evans.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to the Prefect's compartment. I had expected it to be empty, since the meeting wasn't to start in another ten or so minutes, but there was one figure, with a familiar shock of unruly black hair, sitting at the head of the table, apparently engrossed in the parchment in front of him.
I narrowed my eyes.
James Potter.
He looked up at the sound of the door opening and blinked rapidly when he noticed me staring. And then he smiled.
A perfectly friendly smile.
"Hello, Lily," he rolled up the parchment.
I gaped at him.
Lily?
Since when did he call me Lily? Since when did he smile at me like that?
"Hi… Potter," I said warily, finally managing to close my mouth shut.
I edged closer, wondering if the Marauders had decided to pull their very last back to school prank in the Prefect's compartment.
Because that would be completely brilliant.
Not.
I definitely did not need them to ruin my first day as Head Girl, considering I was probably going to do it myself anyway.
Possibly by dribbling pumpkin juice onto the front of my robes like I did during the End of Year feast last semester. It was not my brightest moment.
Okay, plan one; stay away from drinks.
I eyed the stack of sweets at the centre of the table. I'd probably get crumbs all over me or chocolate smudged at my mouth so maybe it was a good idea to stay away from the food as well.
Okay, new plan one; stay away from all drinks and food.
"How was your break?" he asked casually, leaning back into the seat.
He was still smiling.
"It was good," I hesitated. Internally, I wondered to myself what would be the most polite way to ask him to get the hell out of the compartment. He was being so nice too. I would feel bad if I just snapped at him. And plus, I was seventh year now and Head Girl. I should be self actualised and mature. Also, James and I hadn't argued since… Well. Fifth year.
Huh, had time gone by that fast?
"Erm, Lily?" James looked up at me, his eyes uncertain behind his glasses as he watched me skirt around the table, "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," I said quickly but my skin betrayed me by flushing a deep red, so I opted for honesty, "Just… James, what are you doing here?"
"Reading some notes," James held up the parchment sheepishly and I could see, to my fascination, that the tips of his ears were pink. The James Potter that I knew never got embarrassed.
"I mean, it might sound rather idiotic, but you know I was never Prefect so I thought I should do some preparation so I wouldn't look like a complete dolt. Moony helped, of course," he finished quickly.
His ears were red now. I would have found that rather endearing if it wasn't for the fact that it was, one, James Potter and he could never be endearing, and two, I was too baffled by the situation to feel anything but confusion.
So I opted to stare at him blankly instead.
What was he going on about?
"Preparation?" I repeated stupidly, "For what?"
For a moment, James looked just as confused as I was before realisation dawned onto his face. James cleared his throat, pushing his glasses up his nose with one hand whilst the other ran through his hair in clear agitation. He was uncomfortable.
Panic erupted in my stomach at that. He was the second person to look so flustered in front of me today, and they were both Marauders. It couldn't be coincidence.
Preparation? And then my eyes narrowed onto the gleaming badge on the front of his robes and everything clicked together.
Merlin.
"I'm Head Boy,"