Chapter Two
After the prefect meeting Lily went to gather her things so she could find her friends and a carriage. But luck was not on her side tonight, James and Lily had to share a ride to Hogwarts.
But to Lily's utter surprise he didn't say anything or even look at her. He just sat there looking out the window the entire way to the castle, fidgeting with his hands.
Once the carriage stopped, he opened up the door and turned around to offer her his hand. She stopped, not really know why or if she should take his hand. Before Lily made a choice, James started to speak.
"I've been thinking. I know that me being Head Boy was a shock to you, and that we don't exactly have a good history together. But we will have to spend a lot of time together, and we even share a common room together." James let his hand drop and started to fidget again. James never fidgeted. "Anyways, I just thought that it would make getting the prefects to listen to us better, and to make the year go a lot smoother if we could, try to be friends? Use each other's first names?" He brought his hand back up after offering her his hand again, his fidgeting over with.
Lily stood there looking at him then down at his hand then back up to him. He does have a good point; it would also set a pretty good example to everyone in the castle that even though there are huge differences, they can get along, just like everyone else. Maybe even become friends.
She looked him in the eye, reached for his hand and said "Alright James, I couldn't have said it better myself."
When Lily reached to shake James' hand her sleeve lifted up and showed a bruise she had from a week ago. Lily tried to yank the fabric down but James, being the chaser for Quidditch, having amazing reflexes, grabbed her arm. Surprisingly enough his touch didn't hurt, his touch was soft.
"Lily, what happened to your wrist?" James asked rubbing her wrist with his thumb.
If only he knew… Lily thought. But no, no one can know. She would never trust another man again. "I uh, fell the other day." Knowing full well that just last week her father gripped her wrist so hard he almost it.
"Are you sure?" He looked so sad, so… caring. No, Lily said to herself, you can't trust him. He wouldn't understand.
"I'm sure." She said as she got out of the carriage and walked quickly toward the castle hoping to get away from him.
But no, James ran up to walk with her, but James kept the silent the whole way. Almost knowing that's exactly what Lily needed. When they walked into the Great Hall they interrupted the sorting, they had to quickly take seats beside each other at the end of the table closest to the door. When Lily was the center of attention people would think that she was embarrassed, because of her red face. But it was her anxiety, having all those eyes on her unnerved her greatly, making her face heat up and start to shake.
"You okay?" James asked putting his hand on her shoulder.
Lily flinched away from him not ready for the touch, the once again soft gentle touch.
She took a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You don't really look fine." James said, looking at her with concern.
"Trust me, I'm fine." Lily said, looking forward. Lily could feel his eyes on her, eyes that were trying to see beneath her words. Beneath the wall she created.
After the welcoming feast Lily went up to her old room with Marlene and Alice for old time's sake because she'd be living in the Head's Common room for the rest of the year.
"Hey Lil, what were you and Jamsie doing?" Marlene asked in an innocent voice, sitting down on her bed.
"I got stuck with him on the way to the castle," Lily said sitting at the end of her old bed.
"How'd that happen?" Alice asked from her bed.
"Well, he's Head Boy."
"What! How did that happen?" Alice jumped to the end of her bed, which was right beside Lily's.
"Trust me, I have no idea." She said playing with a string that had broken off the comforter.
"What is Dumbledore thinking?" Mar asked shaking her head.
"Again, I have no idea. But get this, James-" before Lily could finish Marlene interrupted her.
"It's James now?" She raised her eyebrows.
"If you let me finish," Lily laughed "James asked me to be friends, more or less. He made the argument saying that we are both Heads, we live in the same place, and we will be spending a lot of time together this year, and to be at each other's throats all year would to ridiculous and immature."
"Wow, he said that?" Alice looked at Lily with disbelief.
"Yeah, maybe Dumbledore knows what he's doing." Lily said with a shrug.
"Lily, did I just hear you say that James Potter should be Head Boy?" Marlene looked her like she had gone mad.
"Yes you did. Mar it's weird, from the bit of time I've spent with him I can tell he's matured."
"You spent what, a few hours with him? How can you tell? Don't get me wrong, but you can't just tell when a guy who's been a complete jerk for years suddenly changed in a matter of hours." Alice said.
"I don't know. Just the way he talked; he didn't make any snarky comments, during the Prefect meeting on the train he actually took people seriously. He didn't make fun of people, he actually did a good job directing and listening to people." Lily would have kept going if Marlene and Alice weren't looking at her like she had grown a second head.
"Sounds like Lily is falling for James," Mar threw a pillow at her.
"No, I'm just pointing out that he's changed." Lily threw the pillow back at her, hitting her smack in the face. "Now I have to meet up with James to make a password for the Heads Common room." She got up ignoring the both of them when they whistled and winked.
Once out of Gryffindor tower, she turned left and made her way to the Heads common room. It was in an old part of the castle, only the Head's went down that way or if a first year end up getting lost.
Lily turned down another old hallway when she heard someone behind her. Her heart began to beat so hard it hurt her chest, her mind racing to all the bad things that could happen to her if it was someone who wanted to hurt her.
"Lily? Lily! Wait up," With a sigh of relief, relief?!, Lily recognized James' voice and heard his quickened footsteps.
She stopped; there was no reason not to.
"Hey James," she said with a smile.
He beamed down at her, "Lil, I can call you Lil, right?" His smile became quizzical.
"I don't see why not." No one has really called her 'Lil' before, but she saw no harm in it.
"Cool! So have you ever been to the Head's Common room before? You know, with you being friends with Hawkins and everything."
"Yeah I went there a few times but never went in and looked around or anything."
"Why not?" James must not know those rules.
"Only the Heads are allowed, the administration doesn't want anything going on in there that shouldn't be. It's more private than most areas in the school so we can get our work done." Only Dumbledore will know our password, and he barely ever leaves his office.
"I never knew that." James said looking down at her.
"Well Henry was a stickler for it, apparently he constantly checked to make sure that no one had snuck in." Henry Jenson was in Hufflepuff and had followed the rules to the dot, and had the perfect grades and being Head Boy was his dream while he was in school.
James laughed at that, making her giggle, Lily didn't usually giggle, but she found James's laugh to be contagious.
Lily stepped on something slippery and did a very girly squeal. James, always quick, caught her around the waist keeping her from falling. Lily latched her arms around him from the panic of falling. Lily's situation dawned on her quickly, she was clinging onto James, and James holding her around the waist close to him. Too close, she let go of his arm and moved out of his arms.
"Thanks," she said briskly, moving forward to get to the damn common room.
"Lil, wait up!" James called from behind her and quickly took a place at her side once again.
They walked in silence the rest of the few minutes it took them to get to the common room. They got to the portrait that was their entrance, which was of a man wearing a black suit and top hat with a woman in an old Victorian gown, they were dancing. When Lily and James stopped at the picture, the dancers stopped and asked them for their password.
"What should we make it?" James asked her.
"Concretum Angelus?" Lily asked without much thought, the latin words for a song that meant more to her than words could describe.
"Sounds good to me, Concretum Angelus," James said to the portrait which swings open. They walked through and Lily couldn't help the gasp that escaped her lips at the sight of their common room.
The entire room was decorated with our house colours, which made Lily wonder what it would look like with the heads coming from different houses. There was a fire place on the same wall as the door that led to the hallway. The fire place was surrounded with chairs and couches, a coffee table in the middle of it all, just like in Gryffindor tower. Her eyes went over the floor, the same dark wood in Gryffindor tower, the walls were the colour red from their house, gold drapes hung over the windows. Finally she saw the stairs that could only lead to their bedrooms.
Lily quickly ran up the steps, James who quietly chuckled to himself followed behind her. Lily saw her door was marked 'Head Girl', she opened her door and another gasp escaped her lips; it looked like it was made for her. It wasn't made to resemble her bedroom at home, but for Lily herself. The walls were painted a pale blue, the carpet a nice white. There was a dresser and a desk that was made of a light wood, and her bed. Oh Merlin, she thought looking at it, the frame was white and the headboard was designed like vines, her bedding was a greyish colour with plush pillows.
She wanted to run and jump on her bed, but she wanted to see her bathroom. Just the thought of not having to share a bathroom anymore made Lily excited, no accidental walk-ins where bruises and scrapes would be questioned, the privacy is going to be exceptional.
But when Lily opened the door to the bathroom, James opened his door at the same time. From his room. His room. That also adjoins to the bathroom. Just as quickly the thoughts of having her own bathroom turn into thoughts of how she's going to have to share, with a boy. And not just any boy, but James bloody Potter.