*Thank you for the people who have followed this story! I really appreciate it. Please give me your feedback, positive or negative! Chrismasters, thanks for your review! I love Lily too! Also, I try to separate the two different sections but it merges them together. Sorry about that...the part after Mary & Sirius make a bet and Lily in her room are two different parts. Thank you!*

~Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. We all know who they belong to :) ~

Chapter 2: The Agreement

Thankfully, the welcome back feast was rather uneventful. No pranks were pulled, no fights broke out yet Lily was still seething over her new coworker and it was all she could mention to her friends.

"I just don't get it. He wasn't a prefect. He skips classes. He has probably set a record for the most detentions in a school year PLUS he's best friends with the student who has the second most detentions in a school year. It's just not fair. He's going to be impossible to work with." Lily crossed her arms as she, Mary, Marlene and Alice walked back to the common room. Mary rolled her eyes.

"Have you even given him a chance yet, Lil?"

"A chance? He showed up to the meeting and sat there with his feet all propped up, thinking he looked so cool while I probably made a fool of myself. And in front of BRAD, too!" Lily sighed, frustrated as the approached the Fat Lady. "Popsicles," she said when the four girls stood before the portrait.

"Sorry dear, I'm afraid that's not the password."

"I'm Head Girl, I think I would know the password."Lily felt bad snapping at the portrait, but her annoyance was high.

"Well, unfortunately that's not it. Try again."

Lily blinked at the Fat Lady and stared at her friends. "I swear Dumbledore said it was 'popsicles.'"

"Are you sure it wasn't orange popsicles or anything like that?" Alice offered, shrugging.

"No. He most certainly said popsicles. That's so strange. I guess we'll have to wait here until someone else comes along who kn-," Lily was interrupted.

"Hey there ladies. Having trouble getting into the Common Room?" A voice smirked behind them. All four turned around and Lily raised her eyebrows in greeting.

"No, Sirius. We just felt like standing out here and talking for a few hours." Lily said and rolled her eyes. Peter Pettigrew, the smallest and quietest Marauder let out a giggle. The four girls looked at him.

"Well that's a shame, Evans. Maybe if you were nicer I'd say the password for you. But for now I'm only going to let your friends in," James said, smiling widely at her. Lily frowned.

"I already tried the password Dumbledore gave us and it didn't work."

"That's because I changed it."

"YOU changed it? How do you even have the power to do that?!"

"Well, if you had read our Head Boy and Girl contracts you would have seen that we were able to ch-,"

"Don't mock me, Potter. We all know I read the contract."

"I'm sure she read it at least three times, Prongs," Sirius added, snickering. Mary, Marlene and Alice all bit their lips to keep from laughing, knowing this was true.

"Tell me you're excited to work with me as a partner and I'll let you in," James said, whispering the new password into the ears of Mary, Marlene and Alice who all smiled, thanked him and walked inside, followed by Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Lily crossed her arms over her chest again and frowned. "Seriously? This job is a game to you, isn't it? How can I be excited to work with you Potter? You're not going to ever take this job seriously. Now open the god damn portrait," she said, her voice growing loud. James' eyes widened slightly at her obvious frustration.

"Tube socks," he said and she pushed past him and stormed into the Common Room. She knew another one of their fights was about to break out. She hated fighting with James for two reasons. One, he always knew what to say to get under her skin. Two, the majority of the time he was right. Granted, she never admitted those things to him.

"Alright, Potter. Answer this question. Have you made a preliminary list of who will be paired up to do rounds together? We need to hand out a schedule to the prefects on Wednesday and with so many of them it's going to be somewhat difficult to accom-," Lily was once again interrupted.

"Of course I haven't done a schedule, Evans. I have Quidditch tryouts for everyone on Tuesday, and as captain I can't technically miss them. I'm trying to make a schedule for that already. It looks like you'll have to do it on your own." James said, collapsing onto the couch and dangling his feet over the arm.

"Oh, come on, Prongs. You need to help her out a little," Remus said, frowning at James. Remus was very disappointed he didn't get Head Boy. He didn't tell his friends this, but when he visited James over the summer and saw his Head Boy badge he knew that their final year at Hogwarts would be rough.

"Thank you, Remus. I wish you were Head Boy over deadbeat Potter here." Lily glared at his feet that were dangling over the end of the couch.

"C'mon, Evans. You need to learn to lighten up. The prefects are all big boys and girls. I think they can handle picking schedules for themselves. Besides, that way would give us less possibility of unproductive rounds." James propped himself up to look at the seven others in front of him.

"I need to 'lighten up'? For SIX years I have worked my hardest at everything I do for THIS badge. All my extra hours in the library were for THIS badge. All the parties and other fun social events that I missed were for THIS badge. And when I finally got this badge in the mail I was so excited that all of that hard work paid off. Until I saw that you were who I was working with. James Potter. The troublemaker. The party thrower. The rule breaker. I realized that all my work meant NOTHING. So excuse me, if I'm not the first to jump at 'lightening up.' This has been my dream for six years. You have Quidditch captain. I have nothing. And now I will be overshadowed, once again, by you." With that final word Lily turned on her heel and quickly walked from the Common Room, leaving the four Marauders, Mary, Marlene and Alice in silence.

"Er...well...that could have gone better,' James mumbled, shrugging.

"James...Lily's right. We've all been roommates for six years. You do realize that she has been the target for many of your jokes and pranks, right?" Alice asked.

"Yes, but we ne-..."

"And you always made fun of her for wanting to be Head Girl, right?" Mary asked.

"Well, techn-..."

"And now you've taken the position and you're going to leave everything to HER to do? It's not fair." Marlene crossed her arms. She loved James. They were the closest out of the eight students and she knew that when James wanted to work hard and do the right thing, he could. But that was a rare occurrence.

"I never said it was fair!"

"Maybe someone should check on her?" Peter suggested, shrugging at the group.

"I'll do it," Remus said, standing up. He hated to see Lily bent out of shape over James. No, he didn't have any feelings towards her. He just felt so bad when James and Sirius constantly made fun of how much she studied or her lack of social life. Remus knew what it felt like to be different from others (and being a werewolf is pretty different). He didn't pity her. He just knew he could relate to her uneasiness.

"No, I'll go. She's my best friend," Mary said, also standing up. She and Lily were the closest of the four girls. They bonded on Platform 9 and ¾ six whole years ago. Mary's cat and Lily's cat were clawing at each other and their respectable owners had to come and rescue them. It was a silly situation but instead of becoming enemies, they became best friends.

"I think I have to go and do it," James said gloomily. "And Padfoot, maybe we shouldn't do the prank where we take all the stuff from Evans' trunk tonight." James jumped off the couch and walked up the stairs to the private Head Boy and Girl living quarters.

"This year is going to be so exhausting if this is how they are going to act all the time," Mary sighed, sitting back down. Remus and Marlene nodded.

"I don't see what their problem is? Besides James picking on Lily. And pulling pranks on her. And calling her names. Other than that you would think the two of them would be perfectly cordial with each other!" Sirius exclaimed. Sirius Black was beautiful, smart, and next to James, every girls' fantasy. He had slept with a significant number of girls yet outwardly refused to date any of them. He told the guys it was because he enjoyed shagging multiple girls without caring. In actuality, it was because he had a crush on Marlene, given she was almost the female version of him.

"Maybe if James wasn't a prat to her so much the two of them would get along better," Alice muttered. James Potter annoyed her. To her, he was arrogant, lazy and selfish and she also hated the way he treated Lily.

"Oh come on, Al. It's obvious why he does it," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"What's obvious?" Mary asked, staring at him.

"James likes Lily. Well, this is actually old news. He's liked her since first year. How did you all not know that? He's asked her out a running total of...how many times is it Moony?"

"One hundred and thirty six times. Not including him inviting her to our parties and her declining."

"I cannot believe you all keep count of that!" Marlene said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, it's obvious that James likes Lily. Everyone knows that. Dumbledore probably knows that. But Lily has no feelings towards him. Whatsoever." Marlene knew this was the truth. The girls had constantly asked her about James and she always shot back with an insult about him.

"True. But now they will be living practically in the same room. And you can feel the sexual tension between those two. I bet five galleons they shag before Christmas." Sirius said, grinning. The girls all rolled their eyes.

"Let's make it 10 and you have a deal," Mary said, shaking Sirius' hand.

As Lily stood in her room unpacking her trunk she felt angry. Angry that someone like James Potter could hold a prestigious title. And next to her. She heard a knock on her door and ignored it, knowing who it would be.

"Go away," she said, slamming her trunk closed. There was another knock. She walked over to the door and opened it, revealing James Potter in front of her. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to say I'm...sorry." James nervously ran his fingers through his hair (Lily knew he did this when he was nervous and she hated when he did it). She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes.

"For?"

"For being a prick. You were right. I have no idea how I became Head Boy and everything you said was true. I promise that after Quidditch tryouts I'll be 100% onboard to help you do whatever we need to accomplish." James offered her a small smile but she did not return it.

"Fine." She turned away from him, walking to her bed. James stood awkwardly in the doorway, looking around her room.

"Do you need help unpacking or anything?"

"Nope."

"Look, Evans. C'mon. It's going to be a very long year if we can't get along."

"The past six years have been very long for me because of you."

"I'm sorry about that." He really was. His entire trick playing routine was just to get her to like him. He walked over to her bed and sat next to her and she moved further away from him awkwardly. "It's a new year. Our LAST year. Let's start fresh?" He offered out his hand to her. "Friends?"

Lily stared at the hand outstretched in front of her. She could refuse to shake it. Or, she could get over it and just agree. She bit her lip nervously (James knew that she was nervous because she always bit her lip when she was nervous). She took his hand lightly in hers. "Not friends. Coworkers. Amicable coworkers. Until you do something to screw it up," she snorted and let go of his hand quickly.

He grinned at her. "Now what makes you think I'm going to do something to screw it up?" He asked innocently, looking into her green eyes. God they are beautiful, he thought.

"Because you're James Potter. It's what you do," she shrugged and stood up. "Now as I have just agreed to be amicable coworkers and not something more suggestive, I'm going to have to ask you to get off my bed and out of my room so I can go to sleep," she said smiling slightly.

"But something more suggestive could be fun," he said and winked at her, standing up. She felt a slight blush creeping onto her face.

"Out, Potter." She pushed him towards the door.

"Why, did I make Miss. Evans embarrassed?!" He asked, grinning at her as he stood in the doorway.

"Good NIGHT." She said and slammed the door in his face. James grinned as he walked back to the Common Room and Lily groaned and leaned against the door, sliding to the floor. James Potter really was going to be the death of her.