Mischief Managed
Chapter Four: "He didn't ask me out."
It had been a long and hot summer, so the cold windy Monday morning of September 1st was warmly welcomed by many, not least a certain Lily Evans who, currently, was leaning her head against the cool glass window at the back of her parents' cars, deeply lost in thought: in her memories.
It was only as she'd got into the car that morning that it had really hit her that it was her last ever year at Hogwarts and this would be the last ever time she'd pass through the barrier onto Platform 9¾ to welcome the beautiful scarlet Hogwart's Express as a student. She hoped she'd be able to walk through again as a mother, seeing her child leave for the first time, but that possibility looked worryingly uncertain and hazy in her mind's eye now that there were rumours flying around at about how strong Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were getting.
Instead, she found herself reminiscing about past memories. Her first train ride to Hogwarts with Snape - the day she first saw James Potter and Sirius Black, and then the amazement and awestruck feeling she had, looking up at the historic castle from the Great Lake as the first years crossed in the boats. She remembered her Sorting Hat's words as vividly as the day she'd first heard them:
"My my! This one has talent and brains, oh yes! Pretty loyal I see too...There's courage, oh my goodness, yes! I see where to put you, it's GRYFFINFOR!"
Smiling slightly at the memory, her mind began to race through various moments of her school life. Such as the time when, in third year, she went to Hogsmeade for the first time with Alice and Mary and drunk butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, laughing at the Marauders' idiocy. And when James Potter asked her out for the first time in first year after the Halloween feast and he she, politely, nervously and awkwardly, turned him down. Oh how times had changed!
She fondly remembered receiving her OWL results and grinning ear-to-ear and how relieved she had felt! And the morning Sirius received a Howler from home and he ran out of the Great Hall at breakfast to the amusement of all who were there. As well as the day Mary had accidently charmed her own hair green and no-one told her for over three days.
Realising that the car was now approaching a stop, Lily broke out of her nostalgia, reality flooding back around her. Upon getting out of the car with her mother and father, she slowly made her way to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, trying to stretch the feeling out for as long as possible.
Kissing her mother and father goodbye and promising to write when she'd gotten to Hogwarts, she finally made her way through the barrier onto Platform 9¾. She'd arrived much earlier than normal, keen to set a good example and be punctual on the first day as Head Girl of Hogwarts.
However, someone else who was early was Alice, whom Lily saw putting her luggage onto a compartment through the train window. Getting on the train herself, she joined Alice in the compartment. Alice, who had her back to the compartment window, saw Lily straight away and her face lit up.
"Lily! Oh, I've missed you so much!" Lily dropped her luggage and allowed Alice to embrace her as they laughed together.
"Me too. Did you get my letter?" Alice nodded enthusiastically.
"I did but it was right at the end of the holiday; I was still in France with Frank so I thought it would be pointless to reply because I could just tell you everything in person!" She rambled quickly as she sat down and Lily, after putting her own luggage onto the top rails of the compartment, followed suit. Alice was quite short and had deep brown eyes with long, light-brown hair, and a round face covered in freckles. She, too, was slender with extremely small feet; something many of her friends enjoyed teasing her about. However, the most noticeable thing about Alice was not her looks by any means: it was how much she talked; Alice enjoyed talking.
"So, you know how I was going to go with Frank's family to France for two weeks?" Lily nodded, remembering vividly the final days of her 6th year when this was all Alice would mention. "Well, it turned out Frank's mum, who by the way is really scary when you first meet her, but she's nice one you get to know her, actually booked for three weeks so we were there an extra week and we only got back about 3 days ago, but it was amazing! The beaches were beautiful, especially when Frank took me at sunset and the food was gorgeous! Lily, you'd have loved it! But I hear our wonderful new Head Girl has had her own problems this summer, thinking over her interesting partner she'll have for this year!" They laughed at her sarcastic comment.
"Interesting? More like annoying, useless, arrogant –"
"Going on another 'I hate James Potter so much' rant, are we?" Alice teased.
"I was until you butted in!"
"When are you going to admit that fact that you lov - "
"Alice! I've told you a thousand times, I do not 'love James Potter with all my heart' and that is the stupidest idea you've come up with since the time you thought Madam Pomfrey and Flitwick were 'having a thing'"
"Hey! I saw them together alone in an unused classroom. What else was I to think?" Lily laughed.
"Well, it's more logical than your absurd idea of Potter and me." Alice rolled her eyes "But anyway, the train will leave soon, I need to go to the Prefect compartment. I'll see you later and say 'Hi' to Mary for me."
"See you later." Alice called after her as Lily made her way to the end of the train. Upon negotiating her way past many younger students in the narrow corridors of the train, she made her way to the final compartment which was occupied by just one other student. Predictably, of course, it was...
"Black? What are you doing here?" Lily said, utterly surprised and, slightly annoyed although she didn't quite know why.
"Waiting for James, he's gone to talk to Frank; I wanted to see the reaction you had when you saw him, to be honest. Well, I guess I could wait around for a little longer." He leant back further on the seat he was already lounging on.
"No, you won't. This compartment is for prefects and Heads, so clear off! I saw Pettigrew a couple of compartments down that you can join, I expect Lupin will be with you too, soon enough." Lily said, firmly, pointing her finger out of the door. Reluctantly, Sirius arose and exited the compartment.
Satisfied with turfing Sirius out of the compartment, she sat down as all the prefects began to arrive. With them, came James. However, James entered quietly and sat a few seats away from Lily at the top of the compartment so it was obvious they were Head Boy and Girl but well away from the area Lily had labelled 'pervert zone' in fourth year, any entrance into which she'd promised to hex him into oblivion.
The time came for Lily and James to tell the prefects when they were to patrol and give the new fifth year prefects a run-down on responsibilities and such. Having not been a prefect himself, James sat graciously silent throughout the whole ordeal to when Lily had finished.
"And we will be conducting a meeting next Saturday evening to hand out times for Hogsmeade visits so you can inform your respective houses." James added, noticing Lily had forgotten to mention anything about Hogsmeade at all.
"Yes, that's a good idea." Lily conceded. "We'll see you all next Saturday." She smiled as the prefects all filed out, biding their goodbyes to the Heads and going to join their friends or start their assigned patrolling. This left James and Lily alone in the compartment. Silence fell for a few seconds.
"Sorry for butting in at the end there, but I'd realised you'd forgotten –" James started, nervously running his hand through his hair.
"No, don't worry. Thanks, I realised too." She smiled awkwardly.
"You know," said James "I guess now is as good a time as any to decide Hogsmeade times." He mused, slightly apprehensive of Lily shouting at him for using it as an excuse to be alone with her in an otherwise empty compartment.
"That's actually a good idea." Lily said, to James' surprised. "Oh, don't look so surprised! You're bound to have a decent idea them once every seven years!" She joked lightly.
"I guess." He replied, bewildered; hardly daring to believe that he had been in close proximity to Lily for nearly an hour now and she still hadn't even come close to shouting at him!
"So, I think we should plan up until Christmas, just to start with. How many do you think we'll need?" Lily asked.
"Well, it's usually two or three, so I think two will do." He replied. Then, hastily deciding to always leave Lily in charge of actual decisions so he wouldn't do anything wrong, he added "Or what do you think? Is two not enough?" He garbled.
"No, no. I think two's good." She replied. "How about the first weekend in October, so people have a chance to settle in for a month, and the first one in December, so people can do Christmas shopping?" Having planned this out in her head before the meeting, Lily was glad James had suggested two.
"Yeah, sounds good." Mightily relieved he didn't have to make a decision and Lily had accepted his idea.
"Well, that sorted then J-James." Lily smiled hesitantly. James grinned widely at the use of his first name. It felt so good to hear it from Lily.
"Yeah, I'll see you later Lily." He said, still grinning, and walked off to his compartment. Lily was now getting more confused as she made her way towards the compartment that she new Alice was in. What had gotten into James Potter? Maybe she was just being too lenient with him because he'd bought her a book, and was just using it a chance to spend time with her so that he could ask her out again?
But there was one thing for certain, his walk no longer held the strut it once had, and she could no longer see the arrogance in his eyes. He had changed, yet there was something very significant about this that Lily couldn't place her finger on.
Still immersed in her thoughts, her legs had subconsciously found her compartment and opened the door to find Mary, Frank and Alice inside.
"Hey Lily, how was your meeting-of-hell with Potter?" Alice asked. Deciding not to tell her friends, just yet anyway, that she was a little confused over whether she still hated Potter, and too deep in her own thoughts to really respond, she gave a non-committal grunt.
"Really? You don't seem great. What happened?" Alice inquired further. And then Lily realised what it was she what was so significant; what was missing. She stared at Alice, and said in a small, slightly disappointed voice,
"He didn't ask me out."