Lily had changed into her robes immediately after stepping off the platform and onto the Hogwarts express. She wasn't necessarily eager to show off her head girl badge, but thought it was best to start out on a good note, not letting and silly younger students behave badly just because it was first day back.. Particularly Potter she thought to herself. Potter the big headed despicable bully who she was sure would ask her out the moment she saw him, and she already knew her response. No.
She left her trunk in the prefects compartment and was walking through the carriages, stopping a third year ravenclaw boy from hexing his friend and reversing a nasty ear wax hex that another third year had placed on their younger sibling. Ah she thought to herself making trouble all ready, the train has only just left. After students seemed slightly more subdued and resumed chatting about the holidays instead of abusing their right to use magic again, lily made her way to where she knew her friends normally sat.
But Isabella, Sarah and Ella were nowhere to be seen. Hearing roars of laughter and applause, lily had a strange feeling she knew where her friends might be. She wandered along two compartments and was only slightly surprised by what she saw, around a dozen students where standing in or around a corridor watching a slightly rugged by nonetheless handsome boy with long dark brown hair make a toad dance in midair infront of him.
'Sirius Black!' she yelled out, the boy continued making the toad dance but looked devilishly out the corner of his eye. 'Exercising your power already Evans?, god we hoped the holidays would loosen you up a bit but boy were we wrong', she stared back at him, not letting him know he had got to her. 'Sirius I don't want to be doing this to my friends but what sort of example am I setting letting you torture animals' she said calmly. Sirius stopped the toad from dancing and smiled at lily 'I guess you would've been setting a cool one, but we know that chill isn't your thing so carry on with your head girl rubbish'
Once Lily and Sirius' showdown had finished, more than half of the members of the compartment separately said hello to Lily. Giving her hugs, congratulations and advice for the big year to come, once she had satisfactorily said her hello's she excused herself, promising to catch up with her friends later when they had some real time to relax.
Continuing along the carriage she thought about the scene that had just happened, Sirius being his usual daredevil self, peter sitting their shrieking of laughter obediently, Remus shaking his head in the corner and the various other female admirers who were there mainly to check out Sirius and James. James? Where was Potter? Lily had just noticed that the rat bag leader was no where to be seen in the busy compartment.
But Lily's questions were answered only moments later as she walked past a compartment containing a boy with a chiselled face and a messy head of jet black hair, leaning on his shoulder was a younger girl, with the same hair but much longer. Lily recognised her, it was James' cousin Helena, and she was sobbing on James' shoulder.
Lily stopped for a moment to watch in shock; James' potter was being affectionate, caring and showing .. god forbid..emotion. He even had a sad look upon his face too. What was this world coming to?
Walking backwards towards her compartment she noticed that her friends had moved back from the marauders compartment down a couple of compartments to their own. She opened the door and slumped down on the seat. 'It's great to sit down finally'.
Her friends murmured in agreement, she chatted with Sarah about her families holiday in Lithuania, she always found wizarding families holidays fascinating. She talked to Isabella about her muggle boyfriend, who thought she went to boarding school in France and then they all talked about Ella's life long crush on Sirius Black.
Whilst still immersed in conversation about the marauders, Lily tried to casually mention James. 'Oh yeh, I forgot to tell you, earlier I walked past and carriage and it was just Potter and his cousin Helena, she looked upset'. Sarah looked at Lily in shock, 'haven't you been reading the prophet?' lily felt stupid 'no well for the last week of the holidays we went to my grandparents, they'd be a little suspicious if owls started turning up'.
Sarah's face became less contorted 'sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but both of Helena's parents were killed by Lord Voldemort himself' Isabella and Ella's face looked saddened but not shocked; they clearly were already informed of this tragedy.
Suddenly lily felt guilty about thinking James was just pretending to have some sob story to make her like him or to seem like a nice guy, he had clearly been personally hurt by an attack from you-know-who himself. Lily made herself a resolution, 'I guess I should be a little more caring towards potter than I normally am' she asked her friends seeking reassurance. 'Yeh, that would probably be better, but then again he might die himself if you ever were nice to him' said Ella.
After another patrol and checking everyone was behaving appropriately (no one was), the Hogwarts express pulled into Hogsmeade. Lily assumed her head girl duties with the other prefects directing students to either the carriages or in the case of the first years towards Hagrid who took them on small boats.
'All right you filthy midgets, following this man here and keep your filthy little hands to yourselves' yelled out a voice Lily knew all to well. She turned around quickly 'Potter, don't speak to the first years like that' she frowned, the being nice to Potter thing would never work 'and Potter, only prefects have the responsibility of managing students'.
After firstly throwing his head back in a roar of laughter, James' gaze met hers. Lily looked at his with his eyes which just a few hours ago seemed full of sadness but now full of arrogance 'sorry to disappoint you Evans, but it seems you're wrong. I'm a prefect' and with that sentence he stuck out his silver badge. Lily's face twisted into complete shock 'I'm head boy'. Lily swore her heart skipped a beat but definitely not in a good way.
Lily continued directing the first years kindly towards the awaiting rowboats, 'just over here' she said gathering students 'don't worry its safe, stick together, four to a boat, hurry along now'. When all the first years seemed sorted she jumped in the last waiting carriage only to find her worst nightmare, potter. The other prefects were all talking rapidly about their first few hours of power, so only James seemed to notice her entrance into the carriage.
They remained silent the entire journey until they reached Hogwarts and as James jumped out his hand brushed lily's, she jumped lsightly, she felt her whole body become aware of what she was doing. James, seeming to notice her sudden awareness turned around and smiled at her before he walked into the castle leaning over his shoulder to yell at her 'Evans, now we're both prefects, will you go out with me?' and he kept walking, without looking back once. Lily was sure he wasn't even bothering for her answer as he sauntered up to castle.
'No' she muttered out loud. 'YES' she screamed inside her head.
