AN: Hullo.
I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter. It's been a long week. At first I was going to go to AZ to spend some time with my grandparents and then that idea got shot down when we realized I still have to have the labs drawn. So instead of a much needed vacation, I get to go to the doctor again. Lovely trade off, right? ;) And school starts again in two weeks. I have elevenish classes this year (not just this semester. All year long. And I take the SAT and ACT this spring and I'm doing early applications next summer. I'm absolutely thrilled to be a junior.). Kill me now.
This chapter's kinda slow, but it's necessary for the plot. You'll see later on. ;)
Anyhow, this is the rewrite of chapter two. Again, if you would like to read the original chapter, PM me and I'll send it to you.
Enjoy and reviews would be awesome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.


Chapter Two: You Are My Constant

I roll over and bury my head under my pillow. "Alice," I groan. "Close the drapes." When nobody answers me, I poke my head out and open one eye. A bright turquoise wall greets me. That's odd. Normally the walls are red and gold in the dorms. I open both eyes and sit up. This is not the Gryffindor girls dorm room. There aren't any makeup and hair supplies on the vanity. There are no clothes littering the floor and there are no other beds.

I flop back and squeeze my eyes shut. It wasn't a horrible nightmare then. I really am Head Girl. I stare at the ceiling and pray that I won't mess everything up. Between rounds, prefect meetings, NEWTs, and Potter, this year is going to jam packed with nothing but horrid things.

Head Girl or not, I will not be late to classes on the first day. My conscience wouldn't approve of it. Neither would Alice.

I push my covers off and rummage through my chest of drawers for a clean uniform and then open the door into my bathroom. My hair looks like something nested in it last night. I quickly shed my outer garments and step into the shower. When the steam has completely fogged up the glass door, I step out and towel off. I put my uniform on and brush my teeth. I apply a small bit of makeup and perform a hair drying charm on my hair. I stare at myself in the mirror for a bit before deciding that I look decent at least.

Lovely. Time for breakfast.


The Great Hall is packed when I get there. It's loud and everyone is obnoxiously perky despite it being the first day of lessons. I'm not in the best of moods today and the loudness is going to give me a headache. I glower at a first year who runs into me while waving his wand around. He could poke someone's eye out with that thing.

I stomp my way down the hall and plunk myself into the first open seat I see, not caring who else is sitting around me. I pull the platter of chocolate chip pancakes towards me and help myself to three of them. I add strawberries, whipped cream, and syrup.

"Evans," says an amused voice. "I understand you're hungry, but that's James' seat."

I look up at the grinning Sirius and fix him with my darkest glare. "Black," I say. "I don't care if it's the bloody Queen of England's seat. I'm sitting here and I'm eating my pancakes and I am not moving." I pick up my fork and dig in to my mountain of food.

Sirius shrugs. "Suit yourself, Lils."

I nearly choke on my mouthful of chocolatey goodness. Remus pounds me on the back and I manage to clear my throat. "What did you call me?"

The ever infuriating Sirius Black smiles innocently, "Nothing, Lily-flower."

I glare and stab another forkful of food. With the exception of Remus, the Marauders are entirely insufferable. Next time I come down late to breakfast I will be checking carefully to make sure that there are no mischief makers around me.

I deliberately chew slowly while staring at Sirius. He raises his eyebrows and looks pointedly over my head, "Hullo, Prongsie."

I freeze, fork halfway to my mouth. Prongsie is James. James is standing behind me and I'm sitting in his seat. I tilt my head back and look up. He's looking down at me, smiling and running his hand through his hair. "'Ello Lily."

I swallow and grin toothily at him. "Er, hi?"

He looks at Sirius and they have a silent conversation while ignoring my (pitiful) attempt at being cheerful and saying hello. I take another few bites of my pancakes and then look up again. Potter's watching me in amusement as I eat. I frown at him in confusion (what's so funny about me eating?) and he laughs at me. It's a deep throaty sort of laughter and I giggle unsure of what I'm giggling at. Oh gosh. I'm giggling at James Potter. I'm turning into one of his fangirls.

My appetite is gone.

I stand up abruptly and pick up my school bag. "Well, boys," I say. "This has been quite fun, but I'm going to go to lessons now." I turn around. Right into James Potter's chest. I didn't realize just how close he was standing behind me and I almost lose my balance, but Potter catches me as I'm falling. "Er, thanks, Potter."

He's still holding me well after I've regained my balance. "Um, Potter?" I say. "Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Me." James Potter actually blushes and Sirius nearly falls off of the bench he's laughing so hard. Potter gives him a hard stare over my head and the laughing becomes muffled. I would Silencio him if I spent as much time with him as Potter and Remus do.

Potter lets go of me. "Oh! Right. Um, off you go," Potter says, making a shooing motion with his hands.

I roll my eyes and walk off. Somehow I'm in a better mood than I was before breakfast. It must be the chocolate chip pancakes.

I meet up with Alice on the way to my first class of the day: Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was headed in the same direction on her way to Arithmancy. "So, Lils," she says smirking at me. "I saw that you sat with Sirius and the rest of the Marauders this morning. Anything you'd like to share?"

Foul mood has returned.

"Yes, Alice," I say shortly. "I want to tell you how I'm secretly in a relationship with Sirius' hair and it's getting even more serious." I roll my eyes and stomp off, leaving Alice standing dumbstruck in the middle of the corridor.

Somehow I manage to be the last person to arrive at the classroom. The Professor stops speaking as the door opens and I grimace out a smile. "Hello, Professor."

The Professor says nothing, but jerks his head in the direction of the desks. I spot an open on in the third row and slip into it as quietly as I can and drop my bag next to it. It makes a loud thunk! I wince at the sound. Oops? I earn a glare from the Professor, who has followed me to the desk and tapping his foot impatiently.

"Well, miss Head Girl," he snaps. "Would you care to share with the class where exactly you've been for the past -" he looks at the clock "- seven and a half minutes?"

"You see, Professor, there was this first year who was lost on her way to Herbology, so I was giving her directions," I make up a lie on the spot. A good one too, if you ask me. Firsties are always getting lost during the first few weeks. I give the new professor my more innocent smile. He looks at me skeptically and I pull out my textbook, ignoring the sniggering laughter of the person next to me. Of course it would be Black. "What page were we on, Professor?"

"Humph." He walks back to the front of the room and writes 'Professor Mortimer Leech' across the top of it with the chalk. "As I was saying earlier, class, my name is Professor Leech. I will be teaching the Defense class this year. We will be having practicals on Fridays only, so be sure to study the theories we go over very well. We wouldn't want any students to get hurt." He sneers. I'm sure he doesn't want any of us hurt, but dead is an entirely different thing. "Open your books to page twenty-seven and take notes on the Unforgivables." He takes a red and blue spotted handkerchief out of his pocket and blows his nose loudly.

I make no move to study the Unforgivables, but rather study our new professor intently. He's an older man, probably in his late fifties, with balding hair and a long lumpy nose. His dress robes are worn and the hems are frayed. He has the spotted handkerchief in his front pocket and a rather expensive looking chain is around his neck. He looks up and meets my eyes. "Don't you have notes to take, Miss Evans?"

I turn red and ignore the muffled laughter of Sirius Black. I flip my book open and read about the properties of the Cruciatus Curse. It's boring really. I mean, we covered all of this in fourth year. I stare idly at my paper and draw little stick figures and charm them to move with my

"Are those notes, Evans?" asks Black. He's mocking me now. I glare. He holds his hands up as if he's innocent of some great crime. "Whoa there, Lily-flower. I'm simply pointing out that drawing mocking pictures of the Professor is wrong and rather rude." He's practically yelling he's talking so loudly.

I glower at him and stand up, knocking my stool over in the process. It clatters to the ground loudly in the silence of the classroom. We have everyone's attention. "What are you playing at, Black?" I say, deadly calm.

He smirks at me and points to my paper. "Those are not notes, missy Head Girl. You're not setting a proper example for the other students." He picks up my papers and waves them around in my face. "Merlin, woman."

"A proper example, Black?" I shriek at him. I'm sure I'm quite the sight. Mad red hair standing all on end, wrinkled uniform, and eyes blazing. "You are one to talk about examples! You're the prankster and mischief maker extraordinaire who has over three hundred detentions in the past six years! Why can't you and Potter both GROW UP!" I stamp my foot angrily and grip my wand tightly in my hand. I don't even know how it got there, but I'm definitely mad enough to use it.

Black glares at me from where he's sitting, my notes clenched in his fist. He opens his mouth to speak just as the Professor breaks us up, "ENOUGH!"

We both fall silent and look anywhere but at the Professor. Sirius looks defiant, but I just look ashamed. Sirius is right. I'm a crummy Head Girl.

Professor Leech looks back and forth between the two of us, "Well? What was that about?" He must be hard of hearing too. When we don't answer he continues, "Fine. Detention, both of you. Tonight at eight with Professor Sprout in greenhouse three. Understood?"

We both nod.

He seems to know that no more studying will happen now that his class has been disturbed. "You're all dismissed."


Contrary to popular belief (coughPottercough), I've had more than my fair share of detentions. After all, I do tend to hex Potter when I get mad. I've had exactly thirty-four detentions in the past six years. Not many compared to the Marauders who appear to be out to set the record for most detentions received in a person's school years. I think they're on a fast track to setting one so high that it's never broken again.

Unless James Potter gets married one day and procreates. That child would be a terror to behold.

Huh. I had been thinking about becoming a professor after graduating, but that puts me off the idea. Who would want to teach James Potter's children? They would be the terror of the entire school - not to mention the staff. Yup, Lily Anne Evans will never be a school teacher.

I think I'll look into the Auror program.

Eight o'clock comes way too fast for my liking. Two and a half hours worth of detention with Sirius Black is not the way I imagined spending the evening after the first day of classes. I skip dinner and sit in the library reading about Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration until it's seven-fifty-three. UNfortunately, Transfiguration happens to be the one class that I do not understand at all. All the information that McGonagall wants me to learn goes in one ear and out the other, but I don't have time to worry about that; I'm late for detention!

I'm breathless when I get to greenhouse three. I literally ran the whole way from the castle to here, where I find a sour faced Filchy who stands there glaring at me while petting that horrid kitten of his, Mrs. Norris.

He watches me while I place my hands on my knees and take huge gulps of air. "Inside with the Professor, missy. There'll be no messin' around here tonight." I stick my tongue out and walk inside while silently laughing at Filch's mutterings about "stringing students up by their toes" and "insolent brats". The old grouch always did want the medieval punishments restored.

Anyhow, Professor Sprout smiles at me when I flop onto one of the stools. "Hello, Miss Evans," she says happily. This woman is always happy. It's insane, really. How does one person manage to constantly be in a good mood? I would go bonkers as a teacher. "Well dear," continues the Professor. "We just need to wait for Mr. Black to get here. Do go get some earmuffs and gloves. He should be here any moment now. He was with Mr. Potter, I believe Minerva said." Her eyes mist over as if she's thinking about something incredibly sad. "A good friend, Mr. Black is."

I raise an eyebrow in curiosity but she doesn't elaborate, simply shaking her head and giving me a sad sort of half smile. Hmm.

Note to self: Look into why Sprout would be sad about Potter. Maybe he ruined her prized Tentacula or something.

I wander around the greenhouse while we wait on Black. I smile as the Devil's Snare creeps up my arm and shine my pocket torch at it. It slithers back and I continue walking, admiring the professor's lovely collection of both dangerous and beautiful plants. I stop by the supplies cabinet on my way back and pick out a pair of gloves, shrinking them a bit with my wand so that they fit. I choose a plain black pair of earmuffs and return to where Professor Sprout is.

I sit on a desk and dangle my legs over the edge of it. It's been fifteen minutes and still no sign of Black. I huff and wait for him to show up.

After a good twenty minutes, Black finally decides to grace us with his presence. I give him a hard stare and wait for Professor Sprout to tell us what our detention will be.

"Tonight, dears," she says. "You will be repotting Mandrakes!"

I pale and glance at Sirius, who's looking at me worriedly. He remembers my incident in first year with the Mandrakes. Heck, everyone remembers the incident!

...Everyone except for Professor Sprout, that is.


It was a lovely autumn day. The leaves were turning into beautiful red and oranges and beginning to fall. I ran towards the greenhouses and my first Herbology lesson. I was laughing as I entered the classroom and chose a seat at the very front, eager to learn about a Magical plant species.

"Hullo, class!" said an exuberant Professor Sprout. "Today we'll be learning about and replanting an invaluable addition to the Magical world: Mandrakes! Now. For this lesson I have placed a pair of earmuffs at each place. Once we begin, please put them on and leave them on until class it over, understood?"

There was a general murmur of understanding from the class.

Sprout smiled, "Now. Mandrakes are known for what? Can anyone tell me what happens if we were to pull one out of it's pot?"

My hand shot up.

"Yes, Miss Evans."

I smiled, "Mandrakes are known for their crying. A full grown one can kill you, but with these baby Mandrakes, I believe we would only be knocked unconscious for a long time."

Sprout nodded, "Very good. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now, class-"

She was cut off as the greenhouse door was thrown open and James Potter ran in. "Sorry I'm late, Professor. I had a run in with Peeves."

The Professor nodded, although she looked rather annoyed at being interrupted, "Very well, Mr. Potter. As I was saying, please put your earmuffs on now. It's time to begin repotting the plants."

"Psst, Evans!"

I turned around to face Potter, "What?"

James made a face at me, "Sheesh, no need to get your wand in a knot. Can we trade earmuffs?" He held up his pair. They were fluffy and hot pink. I tried - and failed - to hold in my laughter.

"No, Potter," I whispered back. "If you hadn't been late to class you might have had the chance to pick a better seat with normal muffs. And besides, they would clash horribly with my hair." I put my earmuffs on and faced forwards again.

I could feel James glaring holes in the back of my head, but did not budge. He needed to learn responsibility and understand that there were consequences for not getting to class on time.

Professor Sprout demonstrated how to move the wriggling plant from one pot another larger pot and motioned for the class to do the same. Her lips were moving, but I couldn't hear anything. I lifted her Mandrake out of the pot carefully (it was ugly and fat and it's face was puckered up in a loud scream) and -

A loud shrieking filled my ears. My eyesight slowly faded to black and I felt herself falling. As I fell, I twisted around and caught a glimpse of James Potter holding my earmuffs, a horrified look on his face.

When I came to I was in the hospital wing. I groaned and held a a hand up to my forehead and slowly opened my eyes. There was a pile of chocolate frogs on the chair next to my and cards were piled on the little bedside table. Everything was white and there was a curtain drawn around my bed.

Madam Pomfrey poked her head around the corner as she heard me groaning. "Oh, hello, dear. You're awake."

I tried to smile a bit, but it turned out as more of a grimace. "How long have I been here?" I asked rather groggily. My voice sounded strange after not using it for a while.

"Almost a week, dear," replied the nurse kindly. "Which is very good for a Mandrake victim. You're lucky to still be breathing, Miss Evans. I want you to take it slowly. No classes for at least another day and one more night here in the hospital wing."

I frowned, "What about classes? How will I catch up?"

Madam Pomfrey smiled, "Not to worry, Miss Evans, Mr. Snape has been bringing you notes from each class. I also suspect that the majority of these sweets are from him." The nurse bustled around fluffing my pillows and filling a glass with water. "I'll bring in a more substantial meal to you a little bit. I'm sure you're hungry, dear."


So as you can probably guess, I've had a phobia of Mandrakes ever since that incident in first year. We haven't had a repeat lesson on Mandrakes since then and I've generally avoided the Hospital Wing. Sirius is still glancing at me every so often with a rather concerned look on his face.

"Well, I'll leave you two to it! I want to see at least six Mandrakes repotted when I come back," says Professor Sprout as she leaves and closes the greenhouse door behind her.

I look at Sirius. "There is no way I am repotting those things, Black. I hate them."

He looks at me like he thought I would say something like that and simply nods. "Alright, Evans. This shouldn't take long, so put your earmuffs on and sit back."

I must look shocked that he's actually letting me not do the detention work because he huffs impatiently and plops his own earmuffs on. I hurry and pull mine on before he yanks the wriggling plant out of it's pot by it's top and shoves it into another, large pot and moves the dirt around it. In a little over forty-five minutes, Sirius Black has repotted six of the screaming horror shop plants. I am amazed to say the least. It would have taken me the entire two and a half hours to repot them. An hour to cry and procrastinate and an hour and a half to do the work. Yes, Sirius Black might be a Marauder, but for tonight at least, he's my best friend.

Poor Alice. I wonder how she would feel about losing her title to Sirius. I'll have to get them both a copy of the manual now. Perhaps as a Christmas present...

"So, Evans," says Sirius. "What's your favorite color?"

We're both seated comfortably on the floor of the greenhouse and we have a little over an hour left of detention. We've been playing the question game and so far I know that Sirius like waffle better than pancakes, has never eat squid, and likes to swim in the Great Lake. I've had to tell him that I've never had a proper boyfriend, like Muggle cheese puffs, and dislike Wizarding music.

"Turquoise," I say. "Like in my room now. It's so pretty."

He looks me up and down and says, "I saw you as a pink sort of person, Lily-flower, not turquoise. Are you sure you don't like pink?"

I stare at him, trying to decide if he's being serious or not. I suppose he is. "Pink," I say slowly, as though I'm speaking to a small child. I think this must be how the professors feel when they're talking to Black and Potter. "Pink clashes with my hair, Black. It just doesn't go well. I should know." I shake my head and laugh a bit. "I had my heart set on painting my bedroom pink when I was little. My parents tried to reason with me, but I just wouldn't hear of it. They gave in, of course, and my room was painted pink. It looked horrible and I still have to live with it every summer." I shake my head. "Definitely not pink."

Black looks unconvinced. "Sure, Evans." "Why do you do that, Black? Switch back and forth between calling me Lily-flower and Evans?"

He looks rather confused. It's a cute look for him.

Wait...did I just call Sirius Black cute? I meant it's a demented look on him and that he really needs to cut it out as soon as possible. It's horrible and -

Who am I kidding?

Sirius Black looks cute. I admit it.

I think my world just spontaneously combusted.

Of course, Black doesn't know about my internal conflict and is answering my question while I wage war with his irritating cuteness. "Well, Evans," he says. "I guess it's because you call me by my surname that I call you by yours." Huh. Impeccable logic there. "I can't argue with you on that one, Sirius." I flash a small smile at him.

"Ya know, Lils," he says. "You're not so bad. I can see what Prongs likes about you." His eyes are twinkling.

Uh-oh. Twinkling is bad. Very bad when it's a Marauder's eyes doing the twinkling.

"All this leads me to my next questions, Lils. Why are you so set on hating James?"

I open and close my mouth rapidly. Like a cod fish. "I - er - well." I sigh in resignation. I don't necessarily want to tell Sirius about my hate of Potter. I'd really like to go one conversation without talking about him. I settle for saying, "He's a prat."

Sirius gives me the same sad sort of smile that Sprout gave me earlier in regards to Potter. "I think you'll find that he's grown up quite a bit, Lily.