Author: CaptainTightPants12

Rating: K

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I'd be jetting around the world looking awesome with JK Rowling, making sure that a Marauders movie would get made. And I would definitely dress better. No more buying clothes on Amazon. Actually, I probably would still buy clothes on Amazon. Who am I kidding? I'm more Weasley than Malfoy.

Summary: Harry Potter is given a gift that reveals to him an untold story about where he came from.

Chapter: #2, A Head Stuck In A Chair

Lily Evans laid down across the seat in the compartment she had selected aboard the Hogwarts Express with every intention of sleeping until the train arrived in Hogsmeade. The first day of school was always a struggle in the Evans household because while her parents were quite keen on her witchcraft, her sister managed to make the build-up to her return trip to Hogwarts a rightful nightmare. Petunia Evans had made matters worse by insisting that her brutish boyfriend Vernon Dursley spend as much time as possible with them that past summer. Being that he was a muggle, he wasn't really allowed to know about what Lily did when she wasn't at home in Cokeworth, though Lily had a very strong feeling that Petunia had let Vernon know what a freak she thought her sister was. He looked at her very oddly, almost as if he was trying to imagine her standing over a cauldron and wielding a wand or something. He probably thought she was some sort of gothic Mary Poppins if Petunia hadn't convinced him that she was a demon by that point.

Her last night at home was spoiled by his presence, so they had to pretend she was simply going off to a normal boarding school, and then she boarded the wrong train to throw him off and then had to go to Platform 9 ¾ by herself, not even getting to have a proper goodbye with her parents. She knew that Petunia was jealous, but this was getting to be ridiculous at this point. At least this was her last year at Hogwarts, though she wondered how involved her family would be in her life once she graduated. Lily had her eye on a ministry job, and perhaps a flat in London if she could talk Alice out of getting a place with her boyfriend. They were bound to be married the day after they graduated at this rate if they hadn't already done it this summer. She made a mental note to check her hand for a ring when she saw her at some point. Perhaps she could get Dora to move to the city, but she was liable to blow the flat up, so that had a slight downside. Lily was a little too level headed to want to live in a constant panic of being blown up. It wasn't among her favorite ways to potentially die.

She was pretty dead set on dying of happiness after discovering that Jim Morrison was actually still alive and was just lying in wait for her to be of age. That was the way to go if you had to go in her book. She knew that was probably not in the cards for her though, because given the times, it was much more likely she was going to go at the hands of one of the radical Death Eaters who had decided that someone like Lily, a muggle-born witch, was simply not worthy of living. She had found herself living during a time which the Prophet claimed to have been the darkest since the days of Gellert Grindelwald. A mad man that called himself Lord Voldemort had started a wizarding war almost ten years prior, and now fear lived in the streets of the wizarding world for all different degrees of blood types. Those that were pure-bloods but didn't side with him were declared blood traitors. Half-bloods weren't safe for they loved someone that was either a muggle or a muggle-born. Of course, muggle-borns were considered even worse than the muggles themselves for having the audacity to use magic at all.

She was particularly disliked enough as it was. She had been a prefect and now she was about to be Head Girl. That was going to look great on her resume someday, but now she was going to be the muggle-born telling the other students what to do. She knew she'd have a target on her back as soon as headmaster Albus Dumbledore announced it during the feast. Fortunately, Lily was comfortable taking care of herself. She was prepared for whatever came next, though not as prepared for the bag that was thrown onto her lap as Alice stormed in.

"Where the bloody hell have you been?!" she bellowed.

Lily groaned, "Here, Al. I've been right here."

She sighed, "I didn't even see your folks on the platform, did they not come with you? I missed your horse-faced sister."

"She brought her boyfriend, no magic talk while the muggle is around, you know the drill," Lily shrugged. "She told him that I go to boarding school. Which I guess isn't exactly untrue."

Alice rolled her eyes, "I can't believe she got a boyfriend."

"He's a piece of work, they deserve each other," she chuckled.

"Have you seen Dora?"

Lily shook her head. "I walked onto the train and collapsed in this very spot until you so rudely interrupted my peace and quiet."

"Someone is feeling sassy," she snickered.

She sat up, "I'm not looking forward to the whole Head Girl thing when we get there. The Slytherins are going to have a field day with it. I can't tell if I'm proud that Dumbledore trusts me to handle it or if he just completely hates me and wants to ruin my last year."

"I'm sure he thinks you can handle it," Alice rolled her eyes. "Do we know who the Head Boy is yet? Maybe someone dreamy?"

Lily snorted, "I doubt it. Letter didn't say."

"How mysterious," Alice wiggled her finger tips together.

"Hardly mysterious, it's going to be one of the prefects from last year, I'm sure it'll be someone dreadfully boring, hardly anything to write home about at all," Lily sighed. "I'll see when we meet in the prefect's carriage on the way to school, I guess."

"I wonder if it'll be that hunky Ravenclaw. You need a boyfriend, Lil. People are talking, you know?" Alice smirked.

She glared, "Nobody cares about my dating life."

"What dating life?" a voice snickered from the door.

Lily launched her book bag at Dora, and she grunted loudly as she dropped beside her, "How many books does one girl need?"

"A book is better than a boy any day," she shrugged.

Dora shook her head, "You gotta get your head out of these books and into the world. I keep telling you, experimenting is the only way you're ever going to really learn something."

"You mean like when you learned how to burn off your eyebrows?" Lily asked with a wide grin.

"Or how about the time all your toenails fell off?"

"Do you remember when she set the green house on fire trying to make a spell to use photosynthesis on that Mandrake to get it to grow up and stop crying?" Alice chuckled. "Lucky you didn't burn down the entire Forbidden Forest, Dora."

She glared, "Spoken like the dusty, inexperienced book worms that you are. Do you really think aurors learn from a book?"

"I mean, there are books, we're required to read to become aurors, so, yeah," Alice laughed. "I feel like it was kind of a key part of that whole, training thing. You may have heard of it?"

Dora rolled her eyes, "Life doesn't happen in the library."

"Alice and Frank got caught in the library just last year," Lily held up her hands. "If it wasn't for Filch, they nearly made a life."

She scoffed, "Make a life in the library and I'll name a spell after the baby, how about that? Let me create the next lumos, would you?"

They chuckled and continued to talk about their ambitions, their boys, and of course, their plans for the new year. Alice and Frank were on the fast track to become aurors, while Dora was dead set on not having a plan. She believed that life happened in the moment and that Merlin, whom was as good as her god, would surprise her. Alice meanwhile had been dreaming of being an auror since she was a little girl and had every bit of the talent to do it. Lily had no doubt in her mind that Alice would go on to be one of the greatest aurors of all time.

Frank was quite accomplished himself, but there wasn't anybody that questioned who wore the pants in that relationship. Alice was a thing of pure determination and strength. Lily admired that about her and had taken her fair share of lessons from her about defending herself. A girl had to be able to protect herself, especially a muggle-born in times like these. Both Alice and Dora knew the struggle that Lily would have to go through, though they were both pure-bloods and had little to worry about in that regard, although Alice's parents were no entertainers of Lord Voldemort's filth, which was part of why she was so taken with Frank. Although his mother Augusta could be a lot of handle, Longbottoms were good people.

Dora's family were a bunch of recluses that lived out in the countryside taking advantage of their lack of neighbors and enjoying their oddities. She and her family were obsessed with new and creative magic. Creating spells and rare magical creatures were her lifeblood. Lily never ceased to be amazed by what she was capable of, in fact she was extremely grateful for the charm that she'd come up with that allowed to blow dry her hair even at Hogwarts. Wet hair led to wet robes and that was not a life that Lily Evans was about. They made quite the trio. Lily was proud to call them her closest friends and she counted herself lucky to have used her seven years at Hogwarts to make two of the best friends she could have hoped for, not everyone was so lucky. She had already lost one person along her career at this school, she wouldn't lose these two.

"I was napping, what time is it? How far out are we?" she asked.

Dora shrugged, "Can't be more than an hour away at this point I'd say. Trolley lady made last call when I saw Wood and his girlfriend earlier. They were arguing about Quidditch, per usual."

"They take their love of that sport a little too far, but if they ever have a son? That kid is going to be a looker and one hell of a quidditch player. Talk about a keeper, am I right?" Alice snickered. "Get it?"

"That was bad, even for you," Dora shook her head.

Lily nodded, "I threw up in my mouth a little."

Alice glared, "You guys suck. Frank thinks I'm hilarious."

"Marry that boy," Lily sighed. "Marry that boy before he realizes how not funny you are. Thank god you're pretty."

"And good with a wand," Dora agreed.

"Scary good with a wand. But so not funny."

She clenched her jaw, "If I didn't love you two, I'd hex you both all to hell, you know that?" She couldn't help but crack a grin finally.

Lily kissed the top Alice's head and got up while slinging her book bag over her shoulder. "Love you too, but I've gotta make my way back to the prefect compartment and find out who I'm stuck with for the rest of the year and then try to reuse the same speech I've heard from every Head Girl and pretend like I didn't use it."

Dora leaned over, "See? That was humorous."

The last thing that Lily heard as she stepped out of the compartment was the sound of Alice threatening Dora with a curse and then of course a literal curse. For Lily this was a new walk for her because normally she would be patrolling the halls making sure that things were going as they should aboard the train as a prefect. She had two years under her belt as one, having been selected when she was a fifth year. Basically, she found the job to be the watchers of conduct within their own houses and the school in general. She could take points away from students, she could hand out detentions, they make sure first years don't die on their way to school, make sure the tree goes out, all the normal stuff. All in exchange for a nice line on her resume and the very spacious bathroom on the fifth floor of the castle. That in itself was almost worth the job of being the unfortunate individual in charge of policing unruly git children.

Fortunately, she was quite fond of the other prefect from Gryffindor and hoped that he would be the one named Head Boy if she was lucky enough. He was a very nice boy, although his friends left a lot to be desired. When she tried to predict who it might've been, she felt like it would be unlikely that he would be named given the responsibilities. Remus Lupin had an unfortunate habit of getting very ill at least once a month with some sort of mysterious ailment, though Lily certainly had begun to gather her own thoughts about the matter. She didn't imagine Dumbledore would select a Head Boy that would only be available three-quarters of the month, which meant it was likely to be one of the prefects from the other three houses.

When she arrived at the compartment that she had been visiting the last two years, she found that it was still about half empty. There was one of the Slytherin prefects, a girl whom Lily actually thought was quite pleasant. Never tried to hex her. And the two Hufflepuff prefects had arrived as well.

Oddly enough, they were brother and sister, so they always seemed to hang out anyways. She knew the Ravenclaws would probably arrive exactly on the dot of when they were supposed to arrive, they were very befitting of the stereotype that Ravenclaw had. She wondered why Dora was never on time to anything then, she was either painfully early or laughably late to every moment of her life it seemed. Lily smiled and sat down next to the Slytherin girl, "How was your summer?" she asked.

Surprised that Lily was speaking to her, she looked up and frowned before softening her look, "It was alright. Spent part of the summer visiting my boyfriend, he lives up north, he goes to Durmstrang. It's like winter all the time there."

"Must've been nice to get out of England for a bit though?"

She nodded, "It was."

Lily waited for more, but more never came so she decided their small talk was over. "Alrighty then, how about you two?" she asked the Hufflepuffs. "Did you have a good summer?"

They both nodded and said nothing.

She let out a sigh. This was going to be a long year for Lily Evans at this rate. Within the next half hour, the rest of the prefects had shown up minus one, Remus Lupin. She didn't want to get her hopes up, so she decided to go ahead and start the meeting and ask the question that was on everyone's minds.

"I'm only seeing Prefect badges in here, so I take it none of you were promoted to Head Boy this year?" she asked and received a chorus of negative responses that lifted her spirits. "Well, I guess when Remus arrives, we'll know for sure, but I think it's safe to say he'll be Head Boy at this point then. I have a feeling he might be ill," she started.

"He's sick a lot," the hunky Ravenclaw Alice mentioned said.

Lily nodded, "Not all of us are blessed to never catch so much as a cold, I'm afraid. Remus will do a great job though. You guys know him, he's very fair and very responsible. You don't have to worry about anything ridiculous with him. Very level headed like the kind of Head Boy that this school needs. As for me, obviously I have been named Head Girl, so until Remus arrives, I guess I should go ahead and start running the meeting. As you know, we're going to have to get the first years on the boats and of course show them to their houses once the feast is over. It's important that we make sure they feel very comfortable with their new surroundings as I'm sure there is going to a little bit more of a heightened emotional state given everything that is currently going on in the wizarding world. These kids are going to feel nervous about being away from their families, so I think we're going to have to exercise a little more patience this year."

"Are you talking about the muggle-borns?" the male Slytherin prefect snickered. Lily noticed the female one did as well.

She hesitated for a moment, "Yes. But in general, as well."

He sighed, "And how are we supposed to do that?"

"Well, for starters, we may have more students acting out this year that in years past, we already saw it last year, so we need to make sure they feel safe and secure," Lily offered.

The female Slytherin spoke up, "How would you want us to treat you? I mean, you're a muggle-born, right?"

Lily nodded, "Yes. I am. But I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about the first years who are going to be wondering about their families back at home. I'm simply suggesting that you keep a closer eye on them within your own houses. That's all."

"But we can't really do anything about it-" the male Slytherin started again, but he was cut off by the Hufflepuff girl.

"Lily is just saying to be more patient and more attentive this year and it makes perfect sense," she interjected. "That's all."

Inside, Lily was already wanting to wring their necks, they weren't even to the school yet and it was already an issue that she was a muggle-born with some people. At least she knew that the Hufflepuff siblings were going to have her back. "Exactly. The next thing I want to talk about are trips to Hogsmeade-"

Suddenly, Remus Lupin burst through the door, laughing to himself although Lily was not amused. Remus looked up at her apologetically and shook his head, "Terribly sorry that to be late. My friend Peter, well, he uh, he accidently got his head stuck in a chair."

"In a chair?" the Ravenclaw prefect scoffed.

"Well, the railing in the chair," Remus offered. "He fell asleep and the train took a sharp turn, his head is kind of…"

"Large?" Lily asked.

He nodded, "Yes. So, sorry about that."

She sighed, "Well, interesting as that may be, it's appears that you arrived just on time. The other three were just telling me that none of them were appointed to be Head Boy, so that leaves you, which is great obviously. I was kind of hoping that it was going to be you."

Remus laughed nervously, "Umm, well, no. That's the other reason we're late, I had to go find our new Head Boy."

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

The compartment door slid open and jaws dropped as they saw the Head Boy badge on the front of his robe. "Look, I'm so sorry, Evans," he panted as he caught his breath. "Remus only just told me about the badge, so I had to get it sewn on, but I don't know any sewing charms, so I had to go find Spinnet, she's really good with charms, you know? And then I didn't know I was supposed to be at any sort of meeting, apparently, I didn't read the letter the whole way through. I didn't know there was a back… A back to the letter, I mean, until Remus was packing up to come down here. And Pete's head was stuck before that, so I just… Yeah… Sorry about that…"

Lily blinked for a few moments, long enough that things had become a little bit awkward as the silence hung in the air as her mouth tried to speak. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about, Potter?"

James Potter laughed nervously, "Well, I guess we're going to be hanging out together a bit more than normal this year."

"…Wait, what?" she asked.