The Head Boy

by Telemachos

[Ch.8 Up] It's Lily Evans' last year at Hogwarts, and while James Potter isn't the prat he used to be, she still doesn't want to date him. Can Lily make him forget about her before she ends up falling in love with the very person she promised to hate?

2. New Beginnings

Disclaimer: See chapter one. I won't be doing any more of these, so don't comment on it! You know it's not mine!

Chapter Two: New Beginnings

James

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We got to King's Cross around ten o'clock. Normally we'd have gotten there a lot later but seeing as I was Head Boy now, I figured I should put on a show of responsibility and be early.

Plus I wanted Lily to see that I was different, aka more responsible.

As it was, we were running late anyway because Padfoot lost the Marauder's Map—seriously, we spent a year making that thing and then, first summer comes up, and we lose it. Or he loses it. It took us a half hour to find it, even with the Accio charm, because it got caught under one of the heavy lounge chairs by the lake. It's really lucky that we get to use magic outside of school now, otherwise I'd have had to ask Dad to help us find it, and then he would have wanted to know what it was, and, well…I'm just glad we didn't have to do that.

As soon as we got there and said goodbye to my parents, Padfoot turned to me and said with a grin, "So, Prongs…what's on the agenda first? First years or Slytherins?"

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Padfoot is one of my best friends. All of his family are pureblood Muggle-haters, and after a few years of being in Hogwarts he asked if he could stay with my parents and I. Up until this summer he lived in my house in the countryside of London before he was able to get enough money to buy a place of his own. I think one of his relatives died and left him money or something. Even then, the house he got was close enough that we saw each other almost every day.

Anyway, Padfoot's real name is Sirius Black, but ever since we became Animagus in fifth year, we gave ourselves nicknames that corresponded with our particular animals. Sirius, a dog, is Padfoot; Peter Pettigrew turns into a rat and as such is Wormtail; and I, as a stag, am Prongs.

Remus Lupin was the whole reason we became Animagus in the first place. Padfoot and me found him and Peter cornered by some Slytherins on the train when we were in our first year, and ever since then, we stuck together. In second year, we found out that Remus was a werewolf (his nickname is Moony) and decided to become Animagus in order to give him some company for when he transformed. It was supposed to be a surprise, but he found out in fourth year. At first he yelled at us that he wasn't worth possible jail time, but after he cooled down enough to realize it was a good plan, he helped us find the books we needed to finish up.

Using our Animagus forms, the Marauder's Map (That's what we call ourselves—the "Marauders". The Map really was quite a brilliant invention—it shows all of Hogwarts, secret passages and all, and even has little moving dots that show where people are), and my Invisibility Cloak (Fifty-seven Galleons it cost, and not one Knut less. Got it from some old geezer who had no idea what it was and was too afraid to try it on. He thought it was made of some exotic material but was otherwise clueless as to how rare they are.), we have proudly acquired the well-earned titles of the most legendary pranksters Hogwarts has ever known. Which is why, going back to Padfoot's comment earlier, he wanted to know what we would be doing on the first day back.

I looked up at him with a smirk, waving my Head Boy badge in front of his face. "Somehow I don't think that Dumbledore will appreciate it if the supposed lead of the student body parades around hexing first years."

At this, Padfoot scowled. "Well, that's why you do it when they're not looking, Prongs, so they don't see who did it." He flicked a piece of mud from his shoe at me. "I didn't know you would get all goody-two-shoes on us if you got that badge; I just assumed that we would get away with more."

I smiled lazily. "Well, Padfoot..." I said haughtily, wiping the mud from my shirt, "I might just have to take some points away from you for saying such a thing. You sounded as if you might suspect me taking advantage of my privileges!" My voice changed as I added in a more serious voice, "Besides, I don't want Lily to see me hexing someone on my first day of being Head Boy. I told you, right, that she's Head Girl—"

Sirius cut me off with a rude, dismissive gesture. "Yes, Prongs, you've told me…about a hundred times…"

"Shut up," I growled. I didn't want him to spoil the day. I had liked Lily for ages, and she never even turned to look at me unless it was to take aim and fire a quick hex that would turn my ears blue. I could dream for hours about those dark emerald eyes that burned intensely in her face, beacons in the midst of her fire red hair, about her quick and witty tongue, always coming up with a retort for whatever I had to say, about…well, about everything, really. I knew that this was it. This was the year. This was finally going to be the time when she saw that I wasn't just playing some obscure and perverted game to get her as a trophy girlfriend.

Of course, there were going to be just several small difficulties along the way. I had a mental list in my head for all the things she expected from me: good grades, not talk about myself, pull no pranks (that was going to be tough), hex no one, including Snivelous (that was going to be even tougher), and under no circumstances ask her out unless it was obvious she liked me.

"Oh look, our significant others have joined us," Padfoot drawled, pointing to the gateway where Moony and Wormtail had appeared, each dragging a heavy trunk behind them. They came over, Wormtail puffing slightly, and we all proceeded to get caught up on the events of the summer.­­­ All four of us had only been together twice, seeing as Moony had gone to Italy and Wormtail was forced to help his grandmother clean her cluttered house from top to bottom…three times.

I came back down to earth as Padfoot whined loudly right in my ear. "Are you joking, Moony? You seriously went all the way through Italy and only came back with stories of the historical monuments? No chicks, no raves, no prostitutes—"

"You know, not all of us spend our time like you, Sirius," said Remus dryly. "I couldn't possibly have met a girl, because we went from town to town every two days—and no, I didn't do a one night stand like you always do. It's not morally correct."

Padfoot groaned to himself, muttering "historical monuments" under his breath. I rolled my eyes and glanced around to see if anyone interesting had arrived; namely, Lily. I couldn't see her, but the gathering space was getting rather crowded now, so she could be just out of my sight. If I couldn't find her, I decided, I'd just get to the Prefect's meeting early.

Moony tapped my shoulder and pointed to the train. "Want to go put our bags somewhere so Sirius doesn't feel the need to rob some first years of their compartment?"

I cast an eye at Sirius, who was now groaning over Wormtail's summer, then smiled, "I can't imagine how you would come to that conclusion, Moony. To think that our gracious Padfoot would do something like that…!" I shook my head plaintively.

Remus grinned and grabbed his bags. I followed with a shout of, "See you later!" to Peter and Sirius, who quickly grabbed their trunks and caught up before we could lock the train door behind us. We trooped to the back of the train the train, yelling greetings to people along the way (I still couldn't see Lily) and eventually found an empty compartment. I dumped my trunk down, my back to the door, and lifted my arms in the air to stretch. "I swear those get heavier every year," I commented.

Sirius looked pointedly over my shoulder. Turning rapidly, I saw Lily, her arm on the doorframe and her foot tapping impatiently. I allowed an easy grin to come onto my face as I said, "Oh, hi, Evans. How was your summer?" Inwardly I cursed myself. Was that as creative as I could get? How was your summer? Padfoot was going to take the mickey out of me for that one.

She lifted her eyebrows, looking like she expected the question to have some hidden, perverted meaning. "It was fine, thank you, Potter," she said suspiciously. Clearing her throat, she added, "Um, about this Prefect's meeting, then…"

I looked stupidly at her. All I could think was that she had somehow managed to get even prettier over the summer. She hadn't changed into her school robes yet and was wearing Muggle clothes that happened to hug her figure rather tightly—not that I minded, of course. Her scarlet hair was longer than usual, and her bright green eyes, framed with long lashes, stood out even more than usual. What was it that girls used for that? I thought distractedly. Mascara, or something?

"…and I thought that maybe you had ideas about it?" Lily continued.

It took me a second to remember what she was talking about. "Um, yeah, I actually don't really know what goes on in there—for obvious reasons," I said. "Do we just hand out papers telling people what the standards are for the year, or something?"

Lily looked rather irritated when I said that. "Well, of course we do, Potter, that should be obvious."

I raised my hands in a defensive posture. "How would I know? I told you, I'm new at this. I've never been a Prefect. Sorry."

"Okay, then I'll probably be doing most of the talking and you can—I don't know, make lists or something," said Lily.

I frowned a little at the obvious condensation in her voice. "I'd thought the whole purpose of having a Head Girl and a Head Boy was so they would split the work," I said, slightly annoyed that she had taken it for granted that she would be doing everything. Now, don't get me wrong; I really like Lily. A lot. Padfoot'll tell you; I practically never shut up about her. But I don't like people telling me that I'm stupid. Directly or indirectly, it's all the same.

Her face reddened slightly, providing a horrible clash with her hair. "Honestly, I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking when he put you on to this, Potter, but I guess I'll have to give you a chance."

I bowed to her ironically, causing her to scowl ferociously. Practically feeling my three friends' gazes on me, especially Moony's, I thought, Okay, back off now, she gets the point. You're just making her hate you more. I straightened and half-smiled at her in apology. She narrowed her eyes and continued. "So, as it is, we usually just go over what duties are, like patrolling the hallways, and then figure out when we'll have our meetings during school. It's pretty simple."

"And it starts when we get out of London, right?" I clarified before she left.

"Yeah, but we need to get there a little early. You know, to set a good example. And it's in the Prefect's compartment next to the bathroom in the front of the train," she said, sounding bored, and then, with a quick nod to Moony (Why did she like him and not me!) left the compartment.

As soon as she was gone, I dropped onto a seat and tousled my hair. "She hates me," I groaned.

Padfoot exchanged a sympathetic glance with Moony over my head, then said, quite kindly, "Yes, I would have to agree with you there, mate."

"Well, the bowing thing didn't really help," said Wormtail pointlessly.

"Oh, thanks for being so helpful, my compliant comrades," I grunted. "I'm not sure, but I think I could've figured that out on my own."

"Well, you have to be less arrogant," said Remus. "She always complains about you being conceited."

I looked out the rain-splattered window. The train had left only minutes ago from a sunny, bustling London, but now they were almost into country and rain had started pelting the train as it made its solitary descent down a very long valley. If I don't get a move on, Lily will have a reason to be mad at me again, I thought. Sighing, I got up and said, "Well, wish me luck," and walked out in the hallway. Moony came out after me, answering my confused face with a wave of his Prefect's badge. Ah. I'd forgotten that he was still a Prefect and needed to come to the meeting as well.

"I still think it's weird that I got Head Boy and you didn't," I said thoughtfully as we walked down the train.

Remus shrugged. "I'm fine with this, mate," he said. "Head Boy does basically the same stuff, only more. So, all in all you'll be doing the work while I sit back and relax!"

I shoved him playfully into a compartment door, laughing, and walked into the Prefect's compartment. "Here goes," I said, mockingly taking a deep breath of air.

The Prefect's compartment was bewitched to be larger than the other ones. Instead of the usual benches, the furniture consisted of a gargantuan circular table with more than a dozen tall chairs around it. On the wall hung banners of all the Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and—ugh—Slytherin. Lily was sitting on the far end of the table, reviewing a pile of notes that looked as though she had written them herself.

"Hey, Evans!" I called. She looked up at me, then at the clock, then back at me. She nodded grudgingly and said, "Well, at least you were on time."

I walked over to sit next to her leaning over her shoulder to read the papers while Remus went to a group of Ravenclaws and sat down to talk with them.

"What are these for?" I asked, horrified.

"For all the things we need to go over," she said, taking her eyes off the stack and staring at me. I wondered for perhaps the millionth time if there was anyone else in the world that had eyes as incredible as hers were. I suddenly realized that our close proximity wasn't helping my resolve to stay romantically distant to Lily for a while. I quickly sat back and listened—at least, tried to listen—attentively as she talked about her stacks of notes.

"So this is for the procedures that need to be followed, this is for the items that are banned this year"—she looked reprovingly at me—"and the last is just for our own personal duties."

I looked at the last stack. There had to be at least five pages there, front and back. Gulping nervously, I looked up to find her watching me and ran a hand through my hair. "I guess we'll be busy, then!" I said as brightly as I could.

There had to be at least a couple minutes before we started. Stretching my legs out in front of me, I said, "So, Evans, about this year…I was wondering if—"

"Potter, may I ask what Dumbledore thought he was doing?" a voice sneered from behind me. I bristled and turned around, already knowing who it was.

"Oh, it's only you," I said, barely glancing at the tall, pale boy with long, greasy hair before I turned my gaze back to Lily's papers. "I suppose you're talking about the Head Boy badge on my chest? I don't blame Dumbledore, now that I know what else he had to choose from."

Severous Snape scowled. "I know that you believe that you are a brilliant intellect, Potter, but I sincerely doubt that Dumbledore based his decision on your responsibility. Perhaps if your friends weren't so…abnormal…"

My face turned an ashen color as he said this. He wasn't going to say anything about Remus, was he? Ever since last year when Padfoot's prank backfired and Snape found out about Moony, he had been dropping hints all over the place. He probably assumed that Dumbledore gave me the position because I had stepped in and saved him at the last minute. And, now that I think about it, he could be right.

But still, he had no right to insult Remus—I mean, he couldn't ask to be a werewolf! My hand flew to my wand pocket, but as it did, I saw Lily's face. She was glaring furiously, not at Snape, but at me. I knew the warning: Don't touch that wand! It took me only a second to weigh the choices. Lily liking me for once, or Snape's face the size of a hippo…

I lowered my hand. After all, I could always get Snape later. And then, Remus could help me.

"Maybe you think my friends are abnormal, but look at yourself, Snivelous," I snapped. "I don't think anyone else in the school has hair that greasy, and speaking of friends, I'm sorry to tell you that you're not very well liked outside your own House, let alone in it."

Snape flushed a dark red color and, turning sharply, left the room without a backward glance. Narcissa Black, the girl that held the position as the Slytherin Prefect in Seventh Year (Yes, yes, she is related to Padfoot. He tries not to mention it though, so don't spread it around) smirked at me and left too. Oh well, that gave me two less problematic Prefects to deal with. I turned to Lily, smiling, anticipating her gushing thanks and expressions of admiration because I had done what she said to do for once by not getting into a fight. Or…maybe not, I thought as the quill came flying in the air towards me.

"Bloody hell, Lily!" I yelped, standing up and trying to brush off the ink that was now splattered across my shirt.

"What the hell were you thinking!" she yelled. "God, Potter, I thought for a second that maybe you would change this year, but that was totally low! Did you see his face?"

I stared at her disbelievingly. "See his face? Of course I saw his face—"

"Then why did you say that to him?"

I couldn't believe it. I really couldn't. Had it really been two minutes ago when I was holding a normal, if slightly uptight, conversation with her? What was she thinking, supporting a Slytherin? I had given as good as I got, maybe a little more, but Snape definitely deserved it! Now she was sticking up for him?

"I said it to him because he deserved it." My voice came out hard and cold. "He not only insulted you, Lily, but he insulted my family. You can't protect him for that. I had every right. Besides, I didn't hex him."

If she would have had the grace to look a little flustered over this, I'm sure we would have been able to avoid a scene. As it was, she positively shrieked when I said that, causing all of the people in the room to turn and stare at us.

"You had every right? Potter, I can't believe you! Whatever Snape did to you didn't make him deserve that! Even I know that your parents aren't any of the things he said they were; who else cared what he said? But you…" She stopped for a moment, harvesting a scowl ferocious enough to scare off the meanest dragon.

"What you said was completely inexcusable. Snape doesn't have any friends; you know that, I know that, everyone knows. Hell, what you said was right—no one in his own House even likes him! Black probably only left because she had better things to do."

Okay…so if she agreed with me, why was she so crazily mad? I opened my mouth to ask, but she wasn't finished. "My point, Potter, is that you're right, Snape doesn't have any friends, but how would you feel if someone told you that no one liked you, and you knew they were true?"

"Not very well," I said, the words popping out before I could stop them. "But then again, I haven't ever been without friends, so why bother?"

I looked up just in time to see Lily give me a death glare before stalking out. Damn. That was probably a stupid thing to say. Looking around at the rest of the Prefects, I said, cheerily as possible, "Well, I guess this is postponed for a moment, but stay here and we'll be back in a jiffy."

Remus gave me the thumbs-up as I walked after Lily. When I got out to the corridor, I glanced both ways to see where she had gone. To my surprise, she was going further up the train, towards the place where the conductor was. "Lily, hold on a second. I'm sorry," I said, purposely using her first name.

She stared at me incredulously, seeming at a loss for words. "What, Potter?" she stuttered finally. "Did you say you were sorry?"

What, had she never heard someone say "Sorry" to her before or something? She was looking at me like I was an alien that just dropped out of the sky and asked her to marry me.

"You've…you've never said sorry before," she said.

I shifted uncomfortably. Hadn't I ever? I wondered sheepishly. I had to work on that. Maybe I was conceited.

"Well, yeah…" I mumbled. "I was…well, I was thinking about what you said and I realized that you were right. I was low to say that to Snape—and to you." Not, I thought in my head, That I don't think he was a complete bastard for saying that about Remus.

She still looked completely shocked. I inwardly analyzed all of the meetings I'd had with her in the past. Had I really been so horrible that she was surprised to find that I was capable of apologizing? Seeming to come to her senses, Lily, in a considerably less irritable voice, said, "Well, I guess I had better say I'm sorry too, hadn't I? It's not like you were the only one at fault…I was completely horrid…"

We lapsed into an awkward silence. I, for one, was amazed. For once, Lily and I were talking as though we didn't each think the other was a total prat. And to think that Snape had been the one to initiate this! I ought to send him flowers.

"Well, Potter, I…shit. This is really embarrassing," Lily said after a few seconds. "I'm just sorry I went off on you like that. I do realize that Snape insulted your friends, and I am glad you didn't hex him. It was just that no friends thing that got me, um, upset."

I shrugged me shoulders and nodded. Maybe an hour ago I would have laughed the statement off, but right now I knew exactly what she meant. And I think that my new attitude might be impressing her, because she was getting more and more polite. "Yeah, I kind of…knew…what you meant after I thought about it," I said seriously. "And I hope you know that I am sorry, and I'm not just putting on an act."

She smiled a bit and tilted her head to the side in a kind of gesture of understanding. "Okay."

Yes! I felt like leaping for joy. Still, one more step to go before our relationship would reach more desirable outcomes. And this was probably the perfect time.

"So, Lily, now that you've discovered that I'm not a complete prat and we're Head Boy and Girl together, I want to ask you something."

I wondered, just briefly, if maybe I should've waited for this. The familiar look of apprehension and suspicion was back on Lily's face, albeit without the usual anger. But it really was an innocent question.

I took a breath. "I was wondering if we could, you know, start over." Jeez. What a lame start. Sirius was going to laugh at that one too. "What I mean," I plowed on, "is that we could just pretend all that stuff before never happened. Like the hexing and, um, asking you out a…a couple times…" I paused to consider the blatant lie for a moment before plunging back into my babbling state. "And I won't do that anymore, if you don't want me to. And I'll try to do my Head duties properly. And I'll even stop hexing…most…people. And—"

I was cut off with a peal of high laughter. It took me a moment to register who it was coming from, because I had never heard Lily laugh around me before unless it was a derisive, you're-a-stupid-prat kind of thing. But this now, this was beautiful. It was loud and bubbly, kind of like her voice, but there was no hint of any sarcasm or bitterness whatsoever in it. Too bad I didn't hear it more often.

"What do you want, Potter?" said Lily, still laughing.

I grinned lopsidedly, ducking my head to hide my thoughts. "I want us to call each other by our first names." What a simple request, and yet it took such a long time to get out!

Whatever she had expected me to say, that wasn't it. "Well, James, I think we could do that. As long as you don't ask me out. And you can't stop other people from asking me out."

I smiled, not in embarrassment or cockiness, but in jubilation, though I felt slightly ashamed by the last statement. Trying to disguise my discomfort, I said airily, "Now, Lily, what ever made you think I'd do something like that?"

To my surprise, she didn't fly off the handle and berate me for sarcasm, instead rolling her eyes and fighting off a smile. Inside I was singing, Yes! Yes! She doesn't hat doesn't hate me! Yes! I guess one might say I was kind of desperate to be rejoicing about a simple smile, but no one knows the particular side of Lily that I do. Believe me, this was an improvement.

"Well!" I said, rubbing my hands together. "I think our darling Prefects could be worried about us, so perhaps we should go back now."

She smiled again and, side by side, we made our way back to the compartment.

I definitely made some headway today, at least, I thought. Now all I've got to do is keep it up.

I searched my pockets for a quill to write myself a note. I needed to remember to get those flowers to Snape.

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So…chapter two! I found that I really couldn't think of a situation to make Lily really mad other than something like this, so I hope it wasn't too corny. The "talk" was kind of forced, but whatever. Like I said, I couldn't think of any other way.

Review! Please! If you do, I promise I'll update quickly!