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: Thanks all for the reviews! I edited Chapter 1 because of the mistake I made (you might want to check it out again), thanks for pointing it out. So here is chapter 2, and Remus Lupin is now the Gryffindor prefect. Again, feedback is greatly appreciated, and don't hesitate to point out canon mistakes again if they arise :)

2

A Mysterious Piece of Parchment

The compartment of the Head Boy and Head Girl was wider than any of the others Lily had ever seen in the Hogwarts Express, not even the prefects'. Its shape was also different than the others: the seats were arranged in a semi-circular way and in the middle were two chairs where two seventh years with a responsible look to them sat.

The train was now travelling in full speed, and Lily took a seat next to Remus, just in time to see Narcissa and Severus enter the room and take the last two free seats in the opposite direction. She noticed that Severus was looking somewhat nervous and wondered what he was up to this time with the Slytherins, especially Narcissa Black, who had such a dark reputation due to her famous sister Bellatrix – rumours spread that she and her husband had joined the Dark Lord last year.

But before she could go any further in her speculations, the Head Boy, Frank Longbottom, started to speak. He was a Gryffindor just like Lily, and he was tall, black-haired and thin. He wasn't very attractive, but was an outstanding student, and always caring to help the younger ones.

"Hi all, and congratulations to the new prefects," he greeted all of them, though there was something cold about the way the Slytherins were receiving this warm welcome. By the corner of her eye, Lily saw Lucius Malfoy, seventh year Slytherin prefect, sitting next to Narcissa Black, staring at Longbottom with piercing eyes – and she understood. He envied Longbottom's place, and couldn't deal with the fact that there was a Gryffindor more powerful than himself.

The Head Girl was a black-haired girl with shrewd bright blue eyes, that Lily recognized as having been a previous Ravenclaw prefect – Louise Saunders. She smiled and nodded, and then added, "There are some recommendations we would like to give you, especially for those who are starting on this new task at Hogwarts." She gave a comforting smile around the room and in the direction of Remus and Lily.

"There are five rules that the prefects must obey. First, protect the interests of your own House, and always follow the instructions of the Head Girl, Head Boy, Head of House and Headmaster. Second, abide to Hogwarts' rules and make sure they are being respected in every place inside the school. Third, guide the new members of your House, or of other Houses whenever necessary, inside of Hogwarts. Fourth, ensure the members of your House respect the members of the other Houses." She threw a menacing look at the Slytherin prefects, and one could see in her glance that she didn't like Lucius Malfoy not even a little bit. "Fifth, never abuse of power and never question the teachers' authority. Are there any questions regarding those rules?"

Most of them remained silent, and some shook their heads. These were just common sense rules that most of them would have respected even without knowing - except maybe for the Slytherins.

Frank continued. "There are some remarks we'd like to make about the rules. To start with, prefects should give a good example to other students. Therefore," and he turned to the Slytherins again, "don't make me warn you. I wouldn't like to have to report to the teachers that the prefects have infringed the rules themselves."

Lucius' piercing stare turned again to Frank. Lily could sense his thoughts running rapidly through his head. 'Who does he think he is? Trying some sort of insinuations against my house and myself?' He opened his mouth as if to say something, and most eyes in the compartment were directed at him, tension growing with the silence in anticipation of what was coming. But Narcissa, sitting right next to him, could also see trouble coming out of what Lucius meant to say and squeezed his hand. He remained quiet.

Frank broke the hard silence and tried to keep a pleasant voice, pretending that nothing had happened. "Moreover, as stated in the fifth rule, prefects should not abuse their power, and so they are only allowed to take points from the Houses in the following situations: finding a student out of the Common Rooms after nine in the evening, and before seven in the morning, which should lead to a penalty of ten points from his House; seeing students perform magic in the corridors, five points should be taken from their House and the event should be reported to the teachers, who decide further punishment. If you should take points from the Houses in any other occasion, you will be punished yourselves for not abiding to the prefects' rules."

Most people nodded in agreement, and Louise continued, "Today your tasks are patrolling the corridors in the Hogwarts Express, and guiding the members of your House to the Common Rooms after the opening dinner in the Great Hall… By the way, here are your Common Room passwords." She picked three envelopes that were lying in her lap and handed them over to three prefects, one of Gryffindor, one of Hufflepuff and one of Slytherin. Lily wondered why Ravenclaw prefects didn't need the password, but reckoned that Louise, as a member of their own House, must've told them before.

After being told that the new password for the Gryffindor Common Room was 'hippogriff', Lily walked out of the Head Boy and Head Girl compartment along with the other prefects. On the end of the corridor there was a door that led to the other carriages. Before they proceeded, they divided in pairs, so that each pair would supervise a carriage; the pairs were instantly formed with the members of the same house and year, because they naturally knew each other better. However, Narcissa and Severus didn't seem too pleased to be working with each other: Narcissa kept throwing furtive glances at Lucius Malfoy, while Severus looked at Lily and his eyes seemed to ask for forgiveness when they met hers. Under the vigilant eye of the other Slytherins, though, he didn't dare say a word.

Lily and Remus advanced through the door, behind the fifth year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw prefects, but before they could go much further, a crowd of first years seemed to appear out of nowhere. They were holding magical trumpets that played the Hogwarts' anthem's melody, no matter what the player was actually playing, or even if the trumpet was actually being played correctly – which, as Lily observed, was the case with most of the kids. Leading them was a little young boy, newcomer at Hogwarts as well, with golden locks all over his head and dressed in flashy turquoise robes. When the music started to play, he spoke in a higher tone, above all the trumpets, looking very proud of himself.

"Welcome, welcome, prefects, to the Hogwarts Express!" he greeted them grinning broadly, and brandishing his wand as though he was the leader of the band – but Lily feared he would take somebody's eye out in the process with so much enthusiasm. "I'm Gilderoy Lockhart," he said, bowing, "and we are the first years' Hogwarts band!" The Hogwarts' anthem kept playing in the trumpets until it finally came to an end. By this time, most people in the carriage had gotten out of their compartments to see what was going on.

Lily was astonished. She never expected a welcome like that, and she felt completely at a loss of what to do. She looked at the other prefects, but they seemed just as bewildered or even more, if that was possible – even Narcissa, whose face of surprise had an unpleasant look to it nonetheless. The first years, with the now silent trumpets in their hands, mirrored their own confusion and looked almost scared at the apparent lack of reaction from the older students. Only Gilderoy kept bowing around to everyone, his face in the same broad grin, not caring about what they were thinking but only about the fact that all eyes were now focused on him.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, the Head Girl saved them all by walking to the front of the prefects and speaking to the first years. "Thanks for the welcome, Gilderoy, and all," she said sweetly. "Now you can return to your compartments." She clapped her hands. "C'mon now, quickly."

There was a bustle as the younger kids rushed into their compartments, now under the curious eye of the older ones, who had 'woken up' of their awe and were commenting with each other, under muffled laughs, the funny event. However, before they continued with their task and everything returned to normal, Gilderoy's voice was yet heard, complaining to the Head Girl in the front of the corridor.

"How come I don't get points for my House for this? That's very unfair, my father always told me -"

Louise didn't even let him finish. "And I suppose you already know in which House you will be in, little boy, considering you weren't sorted yet?"

Gilderoy held his wand in front of him as though it was some invisible sword. "Of course I'll be in Gryffindor, me, Gilderoy, The Brave!" His was now an ear-to-ear smile, and Louise didn't have the time to reply as he put his hand to his hair and kept on. "My father always told me we got our looks from Gryffindor himself… He had the golden hair, you know."

The crowd of prefects burst into laughter, but the young boy didn't seem to feel any uncomfortable. Louise said simply, "Right, but look, I can't give you any points until the Sorting Hat has put you in Gryffindor for real, okay?"

He didn't seem to like the response very much, as his face turned to something between a frown and a pout. But he accepted it, and returned to his compartment without a word.

While they advanced to the next carriage, Lily heard Severus whisper to Narcissa behind her, "It seems Gryffindor will get themselves someone who's more full of himself than Potter." Lily noticed Remus should've heard this, too, because he suddenly straightened his back and his jaw was closed rigidly.

Narcissa snorted. She didn't even care to lower her voice much when she answered back. "Oh, but I bet this kid's harmless. Gilderoy Goldilocks, the golden hair of Gryffindor!" She laughed again and Severus and other people around her snickered. She raised her voice. "Unlike Potter and his friends, who like to play with danger… one day, they will regret that."

Lily gasped. This time, Narcissa was going a bit too far. Lily wondered what she had been up to these summer holidays, that had made her return even meaner than she was in the previous years. Remus was now pale, and his whole body was rigid with the anger he was trying to repress. However, she had provoked him way too much for him to remain still. He turned around to face her.

"What do you mean, Narcissa? Repeat that in my face, if you have the guts to." He looked her in the eye, but her piercing stare didn't stray.

She smiled and seemed bemused with the situation. "Oh, Remus, you know exactly what I'm talking about." Her face suddenly turned to a serious expression and she whispered in a voice that only Remus could hear. "You fear it, you know." She gestured to her pocket in a way that Remus' instinctive response was to grab the wand inside his pocket as well.

"Remus, it isn't worth it…" Lily pleaded weakly, sensing the tension growing in front of her eyes. It had barely passed half an hour since the Hogwarts Express had departed from Platform 9 and ¾, and yet the Slytherins were ready to ignite the spark of the fire between them and the other Houses.

But as Remus drew his wand from his pocket, something else fell from his robes and landed on the floor – a blank piece of parchment. There was nothing special to it at first sight, but Lily meant to pick it from the floor – only Severus was faster. Remus immediately turned his attention to him instead of Narcissa, and if he could've become paler, he would. Lily sensed a glimpse of fear in his eyes and didn't understand: apparently, there was nothing special to that piece of parchment; only Remus' behaviour was a hint that something was there hidden.

"Give that back to me," he told Severus, his free hand opened forwards, ready to receive his own possession. But the Slytherin prefect seemed to catch the same hint as Lily and had other intentions.

"It's just a blank piece of parchment… tell me, why do you want it so badly? It – it makes me think you are hiding something here -"

"Give that back to me!" Remus' voice was now louder and angrier, and he pointed his wand at Severus. The corner of Severus' lip twitched with nervousness and excitement at the thought of finding something hidden. There was a tense silence.

"Sev, give it back to Remus if you don't mind," Lily said, trying to play the pacifying role. "Let's cool down, people, we're prefects now."

"So what?" Narcissa asked defiantly.

"If the- there's something hidden in- in here, Lily," Severus' voice trembled with anxiety, "we have to find out what- what it is!"

"It's mine so will you please give it back!" Remus was running out of patience. He seemed ready to jump into a non-magical fight with Severus to grab the parchment out of his hand. But Severus was already drawing out his wand, ready to conjure a revealing spell, but just before he could do it, a voice came that startled all of them from the quarrel.

"What's going on in here?"

Louise Saunders walked over to the four of them, her beautiful face frowned with disapproval. From the opposite side came Frank Longbottom, looking very displeasead and angry, too. Severus quickly hid the parchment in his own pocket and lowered his wand, but it was too late.

"Fifteen minutes ago, I said don't make me warn you!" Frank said in a muffled yell, trying not to draw more attention than necessary. "What are you hiding there, Snape?"

"N-nothing, it's just a piece of parchment that fell off my pocket -"

"It's my piece of parchment and it fell of my pocket!" Remus protested, and he seemed willing to say a few more insults, but decided it was safer to keep quiet.

Louise sighed. "Hand it over to me, please," she gestured to Severus. He hesitated, but in the end had no option but to obey. The Head Girl examined the blank parchment with surprise, finding it difficult to believe that they were arguing over such simple a thing.

"There's something hidden in there," Narcissa said bluntly. Remus stirred nervously on his feet. Louise had now handed the parchment to Frank, who was playing with it in his hands, as if looking for a trace of ink, or magic. He drew out his wand, but before he could conjure any spell, Remus spoke again.

"Wait!"

Frank looked at him, surprised and intrigued. Narcissa lifted her eyebrows and looked amused.

"I don't want you to view.. I mean, I- I-" Remus seemed hesitant. "I don't want you to view what's inside, it's a private letter from my mother, okay?"

"Oh." Frank sighed with relief, though Narcissa and Severus didn't seem too convinced. He handed over the parchment to Remus and he picked it abruptly and put it back in his pocket.

"Thank you."

Narcissa opened her mouth to complain, but Frank didn't want to waste much more time with this matter.

"Well… anyway, if I catch any of you involved in fights again, be sure that I'll report it to the teachers and you'll say goodbye to your prefect badges or even to Hogwarts itself." He gestured to Louise and they both returned to their places as they were guiding the prefects along the carriages of the Hogwarts Express.

None of the four of them even dared to say a word after that. Lily and Remus turned their back on the Slytherin prefects and continued their way in silence behind the other fifth year prefects as they were guided by the Head Girl through the train.