'Lily, Lily, can you hear me? Lily, are you okay?'
Lily could faintly hear a familiar voice, though it sounded like the voice was coming from miles away. She could feel herself being shaken gently, and gradually became aware that she was lying down on something soft. Suddenly, Lily remembered what had happened - seeing James Potter and then feeling herself being pulled under a spell of unconsciousness, yet not hitting the ground - and quickly opened her eyes and pulled herself upwards; bad idea. All of the blood rushed to her head and she felt that familiar sensation of dizziness.
'Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down Lily! You've just fainted, you shouldn't have sat up that quickly!', James said, his voice full of worry, 'Here drink this', he said, passing her a glass of water.
Lily accepted it with shaking hands and then said, groggily, 'What happened? Where am I?', she looked around and found herself not in the train corridor but in a plush compartment - it was similar to all of the other train compartments with two seats opposite each other, but on the seats there were soft, red cushions, the windows had a pair of curtains in the same deep red and there was a table underneath the window that could be pulled out if needed.
'Well, you kind of passed out after you banged into me in the corridor. I guess it must have been the hit on the head. And this is the Head's compartment, quite nice isn't it?' James replied.
'Mmm', Lily agreed not looking directly at James, knowing full well that it wasn't the bang on the head that caused her to faint. 'Hang on a minute. H-h-how did I get in here again?'
'Oh, well, I sort of caught you when you fainted and carried you in here. I thought it would be better if you had somewhere to lie down', James said, looking at Lily nervously, as if expecting her to throw a fit that he had carried her into the compartment when usually she wouldn't let him within a 10 metre radius.
'Right. Thanks, I think', Lily replied, trying to avoid looking at James. 'Wow, he must be really strong, I mean, I'm not exactly the lightest of girls', she thought, whilst trying to decide whether James did in fact look strong, without making it obvious.
'Uh, Lily, are you sure you're okay? Do you wanna see if I can find somewhere to check you over?', James said, snapping Lily out of her daydream.
'What? Oh, no, no, I'm fine honestly, I don't want a fuss', Lily quickly replied, thinking how embarassing it would be to have to admit to someone that she'd fainted. 'Anyway, aren't we supposed to be having a meeting?', she said, quickly changing the subject.
'Okay, if you're sure', James said looking at Lily one more time before pulling out the table from underneath the window and placing a piece of parchment on it.
'These are the list of main duties that we're expected to carry out over the year. These are the ones that need to be done over the year at Hogwarts and these are the ones we have to do now.' he said, pointing at different points on the parchment, 'By the looks of it, we could probably get away with doing them seperately if you wanted.'
'Well, we could do some of them together, I mean...after all, I suppose we have to get used to each other's company because by the looks of it', Lily said, looking at the list of jobs on the parchment, 'We're gonna be spending A LOT of time together this year'.
'Looks like we are', James replied smiling.
'Oh God', Lily thought, 'What's happening to me? Why am I feeling nervous around James Potter! And that smile, it's making my insides melt! I reckon James must be right - this is all because of that bang on the head. I hope it rights itself soon, this meeting's awkward enough...'
'WHAT are you doing in here Black? Go back to your own compartment!', Mary screamed at Sirius, looking as if she may explode.
'That's not very nice! I do have feelings you know!', Sirius replied, feigning a hurt look.
'Oh don't give me that rubbish Black - everyone knows you don't care about anyone but yourself. Do you want me to go into the whole Margaret/Josie incident?', Mary asked him, folding her arms tightly across her chest.
'Yeah, alright, I agree I messed up then. But honestly, I'm different this year - I swear I'm actually not gonna get any detentions! Honest!', Sirius said with an enthusiastic look.
'Pfft, for you Black, that's about as impossible as ignoring a Slytherin hexing you!', Mary said.
'Okay...I won't get more than 10! That's my goal for this year.', he said, looking at Mary eagerly as if expecting her to congratulate him.
But Mary just rolled her eyes and sat down on the bench opposite him saying, 'So now that you've told me that, can you leave please?', gesturing towards the door.
'But that's not what I came here to tell you!', Sirius replied.
'It isn't?', Mary said weakly, feeling her heart sink at the prospect of having to endure Sirius Black for even longer.
Sirius, not noticing this, very matter-of-factly said 'No it isn't. I was thinking, seeing as our two best friends are going to be spending a lot of time together this year, maybe we should too! I mean, it'll be good practice for when I'm best man and you're chief bridesmaid at their wedding.'
Mary snorted before saying, 'First things first, the chances of Lily agreeing to marrying James are about as slim as you and old Snivellus becoming best mates. And secondly, NO! I refuse to spend more time with you than ABSOLUTELY necessary!'.
'Aha! But my lovely comrade James, like myself, has been transformed into a lovely, respectable, MATURE young gentleman over the summer.'
'Well, he can't be doing a worse job than you', Mary replied eyeing Sirius through slits.
'Oh come on, give me a chance! Just one, please - I don't beg often you know!'. Seeing that Mary was no closer to agreeing with him, Sirius said, 'Look, how about we start with something useful. You know I'm no good at History of Magic - you could be my tutor?'
Mary seemed to be considering this option when Sirius, knowing her weakness for Honeydukes sweets, suddenly said 'I could pay you in chocolate frogs!'.
Sirius portrayed a look of triumph as he could see by the look on Mary's face that he had finally won her over.
'Oh fine, Black, I'll tutor you for History of Magic then!', Mary replied as Sirius jumped up with glee.
'YES! Knew you'd come round McManus! How about we meet every Friday at 8 o'clock in the Gryffindor common room? Or would you like to go somewhere a little more private', Sirius said, winking at her.
'Oh get out Black!', Mary yelled pushing him out of the compartment and down the corridor.
'Okay okay, so common room it is then!', was the reply that could be heard as Sirius bounded down the train corridor feeling very pleased with himself.
'So how did it go Lily?', Mary asked her best friend as she handed Lily a chocolate frog.
'Thanks. It was fine, we just worked out the duties and things like that - completely uneventful', Lily replied, not looking Mary in the eye. 'So, I hope you weren't too lonely without me?'
Mary not noticing Lily's uneasiness, groaned, 'Oh don't worry, one particular Marauder made sure of that!'.
Lily, nibbling on her chocolate frog, giggled, saying, 'Yeah, James told me he was planning on popping in and saying hello. So what happened?'.
'Oh Lily, I agreed to do something so stupid! I've told Black I'll give him History of Magic tutoring every Friday! Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have been so tempted by chocolate frogs', Mary groaned, picking up the one of the chocolate frogs on the seat and throwing it across the compartment.
Lily casually slid the pile of sweets away from her best friend, not wanting to be hit by flying beans.
'Well, maybe it won't be THAT bad?' she said.
Mary stared at Lily as if to say, 'Are you kidding?'.
'Okay, maybe it will then'.
'Ugh, to make it worse, he's attempting to be "more mature" or something like that. Can you imagine Sirius Black actually being a serious human being?', Mary said, smiling slightly at the thought, though trying not to.
'Haha, well I've got to admit, it's not the most believeable of things', Lily replied smiling back. 'James seems to be a bit more mature though - he didn't try to ask me out once!'.
'No way! I haven't seen any pigs flying?', Mary replied, pretending to look out at the sky, before turning back to her best friend.
'I know!', Lily replied, 'Next thing we know, Pettigrew's gonna be skinny!'
Both girls looked at each other and burst into hysterics, though both of their minds were clearly still thinking about certain Marauder's...
James returned to his compartment to see a typical Marauder image: Sirius and Peter surrounded by sweets, scoffing their faces, and Remus reading a book with a half-amused, half-annoyed expression.
'How'd it go Prongs?', Sirius asked him, his mouth stuffed with droobles.
'Oh yeah, yeah, it went fine, you know, just sorted out the duties and all that', James said distantly, his mind clearly not on the question.
'And Lily?', Remus asked with a careful tone.
'Oh, mmm, good, yeah, she seemed fine', James replied sitting down on the seat opposite Sirius, not looking Remus in the eye. 'Soooo, Sirius, how was your little meeting with Mary?', whilst Remus eyed him suspiciously.
'Oh it was really good! I actually think I'm getting somewhere with her! I mean, she didn't even hit me!', Sirius said excitedly.
James just looked at him, before bursting into laughter and helping himself to a chocolate frog.
Remus smiled saying, 'Sirius is very pleased with himself.'
'Yeah', Sirius replied, 'I mean, she's even agreed to give me History of Magic tutoring!'
'But you hate History of Magic', James said, eyeing his best friend quizically.
'Yeah, but it's the only subject I'm not getting O's in isn't it?', Sirius replied.
'But it's sooo boring!', piped in Peter, looking like he might fall asleep at the thought of it.
'Have you ever actually tried to listen to Professor Binns? It's actually really interesting - here I'll show you', said Remus, reaching up to get one of the books from the overhead lockers.
Sirius and Peter both looked at each other portraying identical looks of horror, before each grabbing one of Remus' arms and yelling 'NOOOOOOOO!', dragging their friend to the floor and tackling him.
But James wasn't paying attention to the commotion in front of him. He was too busy thinking about the way that Lily had been looking at him throughout their meeting. He couldn't remember her ever looking at him without pure hatred blazing in her green eyes, or her eying him through slits. Yet he was sure that she hadn't been looking at him with hatred. There had been an emotion in her eyes, but James refused to let himself think that it wasn't nothing more than, perhaps, kindness, in case he was mistaken. 'I can't let myself get hurt again', he thought, 'Though maybe, if Lily at least doesn't hate me, this year will be different...'.
Author's Note: Okay, to reward you all for waiting so long, I made this chapter extra long! I hope you like it, I don't think particularly to be honest! I promise they'll be some drama in the next chapter. I'll try to update as quickly as I can but it will be up by Christmas! :D
