"Things are going to be different this year," Lily thought as she crossed through the wall to Platform 9 3/4 for her 7th and final year at Hogwarts. She felt she had everything going for her. Thinking on this she reached in the pocket of her worn jeans and smiled softly when she felt the smooth edge of the shiny Head Girl badge that was in there for safekeeping. The summer had been fabulous. Having come of age, in the wizarding world at least, in January of her sixth year she was finally able to use magic at home. It had helped when Petunia was miserable to her she could simply whip out her wand. She didn't even have to threaten to perform some bit of magic. Petunia's eyes would go big and she would run out of the room while trying not to turn her back on Lily before Lily could utter another word. If she still wasn't so sad that it seemed like her and her sister would never be the friends they once were, Lily would have found Petunia's reaction quite hilarious. Her parents, on the other hand, were completely thrilled. As Lily performed small spells around the house to help them out they couldn't have been happier. She had, in fact, not had a care in the world except for a strange recurring dream with her and James Potter of all people.

She sighed as her eyebrows came together and she began to chew on her lip as she reminded herself of those dreams. She never could quite remember what they were about when she woke up. Every so often she thought she could envision bits and pieces of them, but the more she thought on it the more she only remembered flashes of colors. His jet black hair that never seemed to stay combed or his brilliant blue eyes, flashing with some deeper undecipherable meaning. She shook her head to get rid of the picture she had started to make in her head and flushed slightly.

It wasn't that she despised James Potter as much as she once had. In fact, the year before the two had gotten on rather amicably. Lily had mellowed a lot since that fateful day by the lake in 5th year. After she had passed her OWLs with flying colors and gotten into all of the NEWT level classes she wished, she decided to loosen up and have a bit more fun with her spare time. James seemed to have finally taken the hint and stopped asking her out incessantly at every turn and Lily was thrilled. She had always been friendly with her fellow Gryffindor prefect Remus Lupin and now that she didn't want to pummel his friends every time they hung out, Lily found herself spending more and more time with The Marauders, as they had named themselves and found that she didn't mind this as much as she had once thought. They were, in fact, quite an amusing bunch when you got right down to it and she had realized that the majority of their pranks were pretty funny and not as cruel as she had imagined them to be.

She was quite looking forward to seeing them again, she reasoned, as she stared out the window in the Head's compartment. The train was just beginning to roll as Lily waited for the Head Boy to show up so they could begin discussing the introductory prefect meeting that would begin in the next hour.

"I wonder who it will be?" she murmured as she watched the trees outside the train start to pick up speed and blur.