Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fanfic. The Harry Potter world belongs to J.K. Rowling, and I'm just writing this story for fun.

Author's Note: Feedback is greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism welcome :)

Stag and Doe

1

Prefect

September 1, 1975

Lily Evans took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It always brought a chill down her spine when she crossed the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, even though it was already her fifth time doing so. Gathering strength, she advanced without hesitating, leaving the ordinary train station behind her.

She opened her eyes to find the sight she had come to love and that marked the beginning of yet another school year. Platform 9 and ¾: The Hogwarts Express. She took a deep breath once again, but this time it was not out of anxiety, but to savour the fresh air that every year reminded her of the very first time she had embarked on this journey. But things were not as same as in her first year: every year a shadow seemed to grow larger in the wizarding world. Rumours spread and intensified of a threat of dark magic. But still Lily always faced the beginning of another year with anticipation and joy, because she found Hogwarts her home, too, now that she had spent four years of her life in there.

Moreover, things at Lily's home were growing gloomier everyday. Her parents loved her very much and were proud of her witchcraft achievements, but her sister, Petunia, envied her abilities and held a grudge against her that only grew bigger with time. To make things worse, this summer her father had gotten ill, and her sister blamed her for not doing anything for him. "It's not upon magic to fight diseases," Lily had told her, but ever since then Petunia barely talked to her, and didn't even bother to call her a 'freak' as she used to. The on-going tension between her daughters wasn't helping in her father's recovery and so Lily had decided to go to Hogwarts in spite of her father's condition. Her mother had encouraged her, because there was no other way that she could go on with her wizarding studies without leaving her family behind for another year.

She clutched in her hand one of the reasons that gave her encouragement to face yet another year at Hogwarts: her prefect badge. She had been chosen as the new Gryffindor prefect, which she liked to think of as recognition for her efforts during the past four years. Ever since a small child, magic came out of her in a natural, gracious way; but at Hogwarts she had learnt to give it more power and strength. If she succeeded well in her OWL's this year, she could pursue a career in the Ministry, according to Professor McGonagall, her Head of House.

She pinned the badge to her blouse – though she wasn't yet in her Hogwarts robes - and moved forward, getting closer to the train and the people surrounding it: parents and children hugging and waving goodbye, leaving last-time recommendations about school, enjoying the last moments together before Christmas break. She stopped near the first carriage: this time she would not sit around with the other Gryffindors, or even near her friend Severus – she had prefect duties to attend.

She was just trying to pull her heavy trunk up the carriage's stairs along with her little owl's cage, when a familiar voice came from behind.

"Care for any help, Evans?" It was James Potter's voice, and he spoke in that tone that she could never guess whether he was really offering some help or just laughing at her apparent lack of strength. When she turned to face him, she noticed that for once he was alone, and his friends weren't following behind.

"I'm sure I can do just fine on my own," she said, trying not to sound weak with the strain. She climbed to the inside of the carriage and started to drag the trunk up the stairs. James held the trunk on the side that Lily was not pushing and helped her put it near the door to the compartment of the prefect girls, smiling at her.

"Much better now, don't you think?" Her face was a little red with the effort, and he probably mistook it for a blush. Her smile was not very wide: she recognized his help had been useful, but didn't really want to admit it in his face.

"Thanks, Potter," she said, "However I still think it wasn't necessary -"

The sound of a door opening just beside them interrupted Lily's sentence. Out of the prefect boys compartment came a boy with straight black hair by his shoulders and a long nose – Severus Snape. Lily hadn't known her friend had been selected as a prefect, but when she realized it, she smiled at him. He was already in his Hogwarts robes, and his prefect badge already shone in his chest, but instead of having a reddish glow to it, like Lily's badge, it sparkled green and silver. He smiled back at Lily when he saw her, however, when he turned to James, he seemed quite displeased. But before he could say anything, James laughed right in his face.

"Oh, look who he is! Happy with your new prefect badge, Snivellus?" And as he finished talking, he couldn't help but laugh once more.

Severus made an effort to ignore him and remain calm, but his eyes betrayed the anger and despising he felt for James. "What are you doing here, Potter? I assume Professor Dumbledore didn't make the mistake of naming you as a prefect?"

"Actually, no," James retorted, "but I guess it's because I already have my share of work as Quidditch captain, isn't it?" He passed his hand on his hair and looked at Lily. "Well, while not being a prefect, that doesn't stop me from helping the damsel in distress."

"Potter, I'm not a damsel in distress!" Lily protested. The train's whistle was heard for the first time, announcing the departure of the train in five minutes. "And you'd better go now, or you'll eventually lose the train," she added. Severus seemed to mutter something about how Hogwarts would be better without James Potter, but he seemed not to hear, or at least pretend he didn't.

"Of course, Miss Prefect," James winked jokingly at Lily. "And you wouldn't want to lose the chance of sharing another school year with my company around, would you?" He grinned broadly, which made her start to feel irritated.

"In fact, Potter," she said affirmatively, "I think that as a prefect, I should guarantee that the best interests of my House are favoured. And I think we have a better chance of winning the Quidditch cup with a fairly reasonable seeker around."

James snorted. "Fairly reasonable?" But before he could say anything else, the whistle of the train was heard again, signalling the last two minutes before departure.

"Go, Potter," Lily ordered.

He shrugged his shoulders. "We'll talk later, Evans," he said, and then added, looking to Severus too, "Watch out for Snivellus, he may jinx you one of these days." And with that last sentence he hurried off the stairs, nearly bumping into Remus Lupin, his great friend and the new Gryffindor prefect, who was now walking into the prefect carriage.

James beamed at him. "Hey, Remus! Forgot you'd been named prefect too… Too bad we're not travelling together this year!"

"Oh, I'm sure prefect duties won't last long, then I'll join you three in your compartment," Remus said, and he seemed torn between pride of being a prefect and pity of not sharing yet another journey to Hogwarts with his friends.

"See you then. I've got to get going." James patted Remus on the back, and then hurried of the train to enter other carriage in the back of the train.

As James was gone, Remus seemed to finally notice Lily and Severus.

"Hey, you've been chosen, too! Congrats, Lily," He beamed at her when he saw her badge on her blouse, but meanwhile threw a furtive look of disapproval at Severus, who had a very bad popularity among the Gryffindors, except maybe for Lily herself.

"Thanks, Remus, congrats to you too," she replied, and smiled sweetly. Remus was a kind boy, though his skin was pale, and sometimes one could notice the rings under his eyes getting darker, which made him look weak and tired – today, though, he looked happier than ever. He was a bright student, though not as bright as James Potter and Sirius Black, but Lily reckoned he had been chosen as prefect over them due to their complete lack of respect against Hogwarts' rules.

"By the way, I saw Mary outside. Could she be looking for you? I told her to get inside the train, that she'd find you somewhere…"

"Oh, Mary! I didn't see her, but we did our shopping this year together, and I told her I'd be a prefect, I guess she just forgot…" Lily shrugged her shoulders. However, as the train made its final whistle – unmistakably louder than the others – that announced its departure, she seemed to remember her trunk was still at the door of the girls' compartment, and that she wasn't yet in her Hogwarts robes.

"I have to change," she said to both boys, and then as she opened the door of the girls' compartment, Severus told her, "The reunion with the Head Boy and the Head Girl is down there." He gestured to a compartment down the corridor on the right and smiled. "See you there."

Before Lily entered, two girls walked out of the door in their Hogwarts robes, following Severus down the corridor. She recognized them as being the new Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw prefects, and greeted them with a smile and a shy "Hello" that was returned by both of them. When she finally entered the compartment, dragging her trunk behind her, another girl was just finishing getting changed, and pinned to her robes shone brightly in silver and green a badge equal to Severus'. Lily recognized her immediately as she turned around to face her: she was Sirius Black's cousin, Narcissa Black.

"Merlin's beard," she gasped, looking at Lily's badge in a mocking way, "don't tell me there were no pure-bloods left in Gryffindor to take the prefect badge anymore…"

She snorted and Lily shrugged her shoulders. She was getting more and more used to this type of comments from the Slytherin crowd, and there was no use in trying to reply back, because they just wouldn't budge from their fanatic ways and their dark experiments with magic. As long as the insults remained verbal, she couldn't care less – answering was just giving them reasons for throwing curses at them, or fighting, and the only ones who bothered to do the latter against the Slytherins those days were James Potter and his friends.

"Oh, you remain quiet now? Finally caring to admit that you really shouldn't be here in this school?"

Lily closed her fists, trying to control the anger that was boiling inside her. But her face didn't betray her, as she remained calm and simply kept looking at Narcissa in the eye, with determination and strength. Her glare and her silence must have disturbed Narcissa more than anything Lily could've said, so in turn she just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really know why I'm bothering to talk to you anyway, waste of time." She walked out the door leaving Lily alone in the compartment, and nearly bumping into Severus as she closed the door behind her.

"Watch where you're walking, Snape!" she muttered under her breath. "What are you doing here anyway?" She looked down to his badge, twin of hers, pinned on his chest. "Oh, I see. Your lineage isn't an inconvenience for your success in Hogwarts, is it?"

Severus scowled, clearly disapproving this reference to his half-blood status. "And why are you despising people around like that? Don't think being a prefect is enough, Cissa?"

Narcissa snorted. "Prefect?" She seemed to think for a moment. "Well, it's good in the way you get a little more power inside of Hogwarts… But what does it matter anyway? It's the blood that counts, the ability to do things beyond what they could ever teach us here." She seemed amazed and terrified at the same time when she said this, fascinated with the thought of power ahead of what she could even imagine.

Severus didn't even blink. He didn't seem impressed at first, but his eyes grew larger as realization hit him. "You want to join the Dark Lord," he said in a whisper, almost even afraid of verbalizing his thoughts. "Like Bella…"

Narcissa nodded. "And you," she said more aggressively, but still in the low tone that nobody could hear but the both of them, "if you don't want to end up like other half-bloods and blood traitors around," Severus noticed the disdain on her voice as she said these words, "you should stop protecting Mudbloods, they're filth in the Dark Lord's eyes." She gestured with her hand to the compartment behind her, where Lily was.

Severus shuddered, thinking of what could happen to Lily if the Dark Lord should gain dominion over the wizarding world. But then, if he would be on his side, he would have the power to protect her, he would, he thought to himself. But before he could reply to Narcissa, Lily startled the both of them by walking out of the compartment fully dressed in her Hogwarts robes, the Gryffindor prefect badge shining with a golden glow on her chest.

She seemed surprised to see both of them talking so close to each other in whispers, but she didn't bother to comment. She glared at Severus and then turned her back on both of them, heading for the compartment where the reunion was going to take place.