Disclaimer: All belongs to the amazing JKR
Chapter 3: The First Night
As promised, went to get James from The Marauders traditional compartment before their arrival in Hogsmeade,
"Alright Evans!" Sirius Black greeted jovially,
"I assume Marls told you the good news?" he smiled. Lily could see what Marlene meant, he really did like her, his whole face seemed to be lit up with his smile and rather than the usual forced laughter and need to be funny he seemed a lot more relaxed. She looked at Remus, he appeared to be focused on reading this year's Defence textbook, but his eyes weren't moving and his knuckles were white, he was gripping the book so hard.
"Of course she did Black, I'm very pleased for you both." Lily smiled amicably,
"Alright Evans shall we make a move?" James said getting up,
"Yes, we probably should." Lily said looking out of the window.
"Ok, see you later lads!" he called as he made his way out of the compartment.
"I have to call you James but you can still call me Evans?" Lily rebuked once the door was shut,
"Sorry Lil, force of habit." James said sheepishly
"It's ok. Do you actually know what we're meant to be doing by the way?"
"Erm, no. Sorry, I'm still new to all this." He apologised
"It's ok" Lily lied, she knew he'd have received all the same information as she did, of course he hadn't read it. "Well basically, we've been given a list of all the new students starting, there are 42. So basically, our job is to make sure that when Hagrid leaves for the boats he has 42 11 year olds with him."
"That sounds doable."
As it turned out, it was doable, just. They were at the end of their tethers by the time they had sent the 42 first years off to the boats with Hagrid. They'd had to find 3 lost pets, a place to change into her robes for a girl who'd forgotten to on the train and even a student, who it turned out got in the way of a body bind curse and was found lying in the corridor of the Hogwarts Express. Then a couple of boys thought it would be funny to set James' robes on fire while he was trying to find out if anyone knew who had cast the body bind on the lost boy. Thankfully there was still a carriage for them when they finally made their way over.
"I was never that bad when I was a first year!" James exclaimed as they clambered into the carriage,
"No, you weren't quite as bad, although I do remember you putting itching powder down the Head Boy's trousers." Said Lily, laughing at the memory
"Well he had it coming, he was a self important prick." James laughed with her,
"You mean a lot like yourself?" Lily joked, James chose to ignore her,
"I swear they're getting shorter as well." He frowned, brushing the singed edges off of the bottom of his robes,
"Here, let me." Lily reached for the end of his robes, muttered an incantation and the fabric fixed itself, as if it had never been burnt.
"Thanks." James said quietly,
"It's ok, I had to learn that one fairly early on, kept singing the hem of my skirt on the fire in Potions." Lily stated, deciding to ignore how close their faces had been as she sat up.
"I still don't know how you kept managing to do that!" James said shaking his head.
"Me neither!" Lily half laughed. After that they slipped into silence, Lily couldn't help but compare the silence to that which herself Alice and Marlene would sit in occasionally. While this silence wasn't as awkward as the ones on the train, they didn't have the sense of ease that she'd have with her friends. Why was that? Why is it that when you're around certain people you feel the need to fill every silence? Perhaps the silences were so awkward because you spent them frantically trying to think of something to say?
"So, what do you make of Sirius and Marlene?" For the first time Lily was thankful for James' ability to make conversation flow with ease, it was the same ability that allowed him to talk his way out of any trouble he may find himself in, something that frustrated Lily to no end.
"I'm happy for them, it's nice they found each other."
"I guess so, you're not surprised?" James asked
"No, not at all." Lily lied, James looked at her sceptically,
"Ok, I was completely speechless." Lily relented
"Me too" James admitted, there was another silence, "I was quite angry with Sirius about the whole thing when he told me actually."
"Really, why?" Lily asked, curiosity spiked,
"Do you need to ask? Remus has liked Marlene for a fair while now. He may not have ever directly told Marlene, but he has told the lads and it's just the rules, you know. You don't date girls your friend likes. I'm sure you girls are the same, I'm sure Remus and Frank have been completely off limits to you ."
"Well, yes that is true. But Remus has had 2 and half years to make his move, if Sirius really likes her and she likes him, why shouldn't they give it a go?" Lily reasoned,
"That's what Sirius said." James sighed,
"But aren't you just a little bit sceptical Lil? Marlene couldn't stand the sight of Sirius until this summer. It was about as unpredicted as if you had jumped me in the Heads compartment earlier or something, it just came out of nowhere." James asked,
"I couldn't stand the sight of you until a few hours ago and look at us now, a whole hour and we haven't shouted at each other once!" Lily laughed, hoping the joke would distract James from the truth he'd stumbled upon.
"Yeah I suppose so." James smiled.
Honestly, James couldn't believe his luck! Even if he was under threat of death, he wouldn't be able to recall an actual occasion where he and Lily had spent this amount of time together and hadn't gotten into some form of argument. When he suggested they start anew, he hadn't even been sure if she'd agree, let alone actually sharing jokes with him a few hours later! He'd always been convinced that once he was friends with Lily, their natural chemistry would show her they were meant to be together, he'd thought that gaining her friendship and proving to her that he wasn't the arrogant arsehole she thought him would be the hard part, but she already seemed to have forgotten all that. Frankly, it was a bloody miracle! But then a horrible thought occurred to him,
"Hey Lil, you're not pretending are you?"
"What?"
"I mean, you don't still think I'm an arrogant arsehole?" Lily laughed,
"Of course I do James. But I'm learning to accept that it's part of who you are. Now come on, we're here." She smiled. Somewhat deflated, James followed her out of the carriage.
The two fell into silence as the castle came into view. Lily, who usually would be excited to get to the welcome feast, had her mind firmly elsewhere. Not even a few hours previously, she'd had to lie through her teeth to keep up the appearance of being James Potter's friend. But right now, she was genuinely smiling around him, for once he was actually being polite, not the awkward politeness that he used around her last year and he was joking with her! Quite honestly, she wasn't sure why she was so enthralled by this fact, she supposed it was because it makes her life a lot easier if they got on, especially with them having to live together, however she couldn't ignore the small thrill she'd felt every time he'd laughed at her joke or they had agreed on something. She looked over at him and smiled at the small frown that adorned his face, she supposed it was nice that he cared so much what she thought of him and she shouldn't be leaving things sour between them when they'd gotten on so well,
"If it's any consolation James, you've not been an arrogant arsehole that much today..." Lily teased as they walked up the path to Hogwarts; James rolled his eyes, but eventually smiled.
"Yeah, Yeah."
As they walked into the Great Hall, they saw for the first time since the welcome feast in their first year, both their groups of friends sat together. Sirius was sat with his arm around Marlene's waist, they were deep in conversation, opposite were Alice and Peter who were laughing together while Remus was sat on Peter's other side, looking determinedly anywhere else but Sirius and Marlene. There were two opposite seats free, one next to Sirius and the other next to Alice,
"Ah. The fun continues." James said wryly, looking at Remus
"Can't be fun being stuck in the middle, I don't pity you." Lily consoled, she paused for a moment then frowned, "Do you think I should tell Dumbledore about the duelling on the train? Y'know about the first year."
"Yeah that's probably for the best. You take a seat, I'll go." James offered.
"You sure? I don't mind doing it."
"No, it's ok, anything to be away from the happy couple for a few more minutes!" he grinned. Lily couldn't help but smile as she sat down at the table. Maybe this year wouldn't be as back as she thought?
"What's got you so happy then?" Alice teased, seeing Lily's grin.
"Nothing really, I just... Don't think this year's going to be as horrific as I first thought." She smiled. Lily wasn't naive enough to think that James had completely changed due to his behaviour over the last few hours, but if he was willing to make an effort, why shouldn't she do the same? A few moments later James took his seat at the bench opposite Lily.
"Alright mate, first years give you any grief?"
"Course they did! Little buggers set my robes on fire!" James explained,
"No worries Prongsie old pal, we'll get them tomorrow. They won't know what hit them!" Sirius grinned,
"As Head Girl I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Lily reprimanded
"Ah Lil you don't understand," Sirius started, "It's like a code between pranksters, these little firsties know exactly what they're doing. Every wizarding child knows of the Potter's and James has quite the reputation as a trouble maker. We get challengers every year, kids who think they can beat us at our own game, they prank us on day one then the prank war ensues until we have reclaimed our title as King pranksters." He explained with a grin.
"So last year, when I spent the majority of September trying to work out who kept pranking the first years, it was you lot?" Lily said, shocked.
"Yep." Sirius smiled.
"Remus! I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Lily admonished. Remus started at the mention of his name,
"Sorry, what?"
"I can't believe you didn't tell me it was you guys pranking the first years, you were Prefect with me- I lost a lot of sleep over that last year!"
"Oh does it really matter?" He snapped in reply.
"Erm, no I guess it doesn't, sorry." Lily said awkwardly
"Bit harsh Moony." James frowned
"It doesn't matter James, honestly." Lily half smiled. However before the silence could set in Professor Dumbledore started the sorting. The hat once again sang a variation of the same song, until Voldemort had begun being a threat to the wizarding community in her sixth year and the hat had warned the students to unite on the right side, Lily had wondered whether it simply had a rotation of songs correctly organised so that no year group ever heard the same one twice, otherwise how many times can one brain rewrite the same song? It was half way through the sorting before Lily realised she hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning and of course this had to be the moment Sirius chose to start moaning about his grumbling stomach. After a while Lily stopped paying attention and started playing with her fork, getting it to stand on the prongs, then levitate, before spinning slightly, she was in the middle of watching the fork spin in a particularly erratic fashion when she felt James give her a swift kick under the table, she looked up in annoyance,
"The Head Girl should set an example and pay attention to the sorting." He said in a stern whisper not unlike that of McGonagall, but his eyes were laughing, Lily raised her eyebrows,
"So should the Head Boy." She retorted, before turning to the front and feigning attention but her stomach was thankful that it wasn't long before she saw McGonagall carry the sorting hat away and Dumbledore stood up once again,
"Now, I'm sure I heard Mr Black start moaning about his stomach at least half an hour ago, which means that once again our sorting must have gone on a bit! So I won't jabber on- Tuck in!"
"Finally!" Sirius exclaimed, however he was drowned out by laughter and wide spread chatter among the awe and gasps of the first years as the feast appeared on the table before them, Lily smiled as she took in the scene, before frowning slightly as she remembered this was the last one she would attend as a student,
"S'matter Lil? Thought you were starving?" James forced out through a large mouthful of mash potatoes,
"Nothing." She said. James was fairly sure it wasn't nothing, but decided to leave it for now. Lily, now beginning to help herself to the feast, was unusually quiet for the rest of the meal. The rest of the feast passed in relative ease, Sirius and Marlene continuing to flirt quietly, James and Alice mocking Peter over his Quidditch team, Puddlemere United managing to come bottom of the Quidditch league once again, while Lily and Remus remained virtually silent, both appearing to be listening to James and Alice's continuous tirade of insults towards Puddlemere, contributing periodically to avoid anyone picking up on their silence. Towards the end of Pudding Professor McGonagall came striding towards the Gryffindor table, stopping when she arrived at Lily and James,
"When Professor Dumbledore says you can leave I shall meet you by the portrait of the four founders on the seventh floor and before you ask Miss Evans, no- the prefects will not need assistance with the first years, you managed perfectly well without the help of the Head Boy and Girl the previous two years, as can the current prefects." She half smiled at Lily with a hint of amusement in her eyes before she walked away,
"Silly question I suppose, but were you actually going to ask?" Marlene teased,
"Yeah I was actually, I always used to get annoyed at the Head Boy and Girl for vanishing after the feast and not helping us with the first years and password distribution, guess I know why now." Lily admitted, as Dumbledore once again rose from his chair.
"Now that even Mr Black has had his fill of our glorious feast, I have a few start of term notices for you: First years and some of our older students who may need reminding, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden for a reason, magic is not permitted in the corridors and Mr Filch has asked me to request that you all familiarise yourself with the list of banned items posted on the door to his office, which has been added to over the summer. I would like to congratulate our new Head Boy and Girl, James Potter and Lily Evans; should you have any problems with the school you wish them to address or if you have any personal problems you don't want to talk through with a teacher they will be happy to help."
"There is no way I am playing counsellor to a load of whiny kids." James said in a panicked whisper to Lily across the table once they had smiled bashfully during a round of polite applause and attention was averted from them.
"It'll only be homesick first years for the first couple of weeks I reckon, that's how it usually goes." Lily replied, slightly irritated at how easily he brushed off the responsibility. However she ignored it and turned her focus back to Dumbledore,
"As far as I am aware it's only the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams that need to hold tryouts this year, any burgeoning Quidditch players should speak to their respective captains to find out trial dates and positions available, Gryffindor's speak to James Potter, Hufflepuff's to Frank Longbottom and Ravenclaw's to Joseph Boot." Lily's heart plummeted to her stomach at the mention of Joe Boot, her ex boyfriend who she was with for the majority of sixth year. He had dark blonde hair which was wavy and somewhere between long and short, Lily hadn't known how to describe it when her parents asked about him the Christmas after they got together. He was a little over 6 foot, he had bluey grey eyes which had always reminded Lily of deep water and he had the kindest face. His looks weren't what attracted her to Joe however, once her friendship with Severus was over, she realised looking back that she had looked for someone who had the same attribute that attracted her to Severus in the first place, his intelligence. Yes, Joe was indeed clever, well-known for it in fact- but ironically it was this fact that split them up. It didn't take long for Lily to realise that Joe felt uncomfortable having a girlfriend who could match him and in some cases excel him both in power and intelligence, though he would have never admitted that. He was always reluctant for them to study together, or even talk about school, once they had this topic for conversation was removed, Lily realised that they actually had very little to talk about. Although the split was both amicable and a mutual decision, she couldn't pretend she didn't still feel something for him; for the most part, he had been a good boyfriend to her. He caught her eye as she looked across the hall to the Ravenclaw table and gave her a small smile which she returned before once again returning her gaze to Dumbledore,
"Now, even if it is only a one day school week this week, we still need you rested for your first day of classes, so I bid you goodnight. If first years would like to follow your house prefects they will guide you to your dormitory where you will find a warm bed awaits you! Goodnight."
Lily and James, both eager to see their dormitory for the first time, were among the first to leave the table; they quickly bade their friend's goodnight and managed to escape the Great Hall before the majority of the students had even gotten up. As they made their way to the seventh floor to meet McGonagall, James became very aware of how close they were walking, he marvelled at her hand accidentally brushing his as he walked up the stairs, the impatient part of him wanted to grab her hand and hold it in his, but realistically, he knew that now wasn't the time, she'd basically told him before the feast she wasn't even nearly close to truly being his friend, but Merlin- did she have any clue how much even a simple touch from her effected him? When she'd fixed his robes in the carriage it had taken all his will power not to kiss her, it was too soon, it was always too soon. The third time the back of her hand brushed against his he turned to look at her, but she wasn't looking at him, in fact, she didn't even appear to realise he was there, after a few seconds of searching her face for any signs that she was touching him on purpose she suddenly spoke,
"You're staring James."
"How did you know?" she hadn't even turned her head to tell him,
"I have a sixth sense" she nearly grinned at his incredulousness,
"Yeah, erm, sorry, old habits die hard I guess." He grinned wryly
"Well stop it, you're creeping me out."
He couldn't help but let out a laugh at this, only Lily could get so edgy over someone staring at her, quite honestly he didn't understand what it was about the attention of others that made her so uneasy- Marlene had told him that summer during one of the days she had spent with the Marauder's (on Sirius' invitation of course) that his constant public displays of affection had been one of the main reasons for her disdain. She had told him how Lily was going to have to be a bridesmaid at her sister Petunia's wedding next Spring and how she wasn't sure which Lily was dreading more, having to walk down the aisle without messing it up, or her sister's constant digs about her not messing it up. That was another thing he was going to have to change, this year it needed to be about her and him; it was irrelevant that everyone else knew how he felt, he didn't need to pull massive stunts to prove that he was right for her- he just needed to prove to her that he would look after her, that he would do anything for her. As they arrived on the seventh floor James mused on how soppy he must sound, he genuinely hated what she did to him, anyone would think he was a girl, but he didn't care and if he wasn't so sure of his feelings he most definitely would.
As they arrived in front of the portrait of the four founders, McGonagall rounded the corner, and Lily had to fight back a sigh of relief, him staring again had unnerved her; if he was so insistent on him being friends, why did he continue to look at her like that, how could she ever be his friend while he was still so clearly feeling anything but friendship for her? However she pushed this to the back of her mind as McGonagall came to a stop in front of them.
"First of all, I want to congratulate the two of you on making Head students; although you weren't a conventional choice and even less so a conventional pairing I do have faith that you'll do the school justice and I am proud to have you both come from my house." She briefly gave that infamous half smile that so rarely graced her face. "Now as I'm sure you're aware, this is the location of the Head's dormitory, for now the password is 'Unity' but feel free to change it as you like. As an extra precaution the portrait won't accept the password from anyone other than yourselves or a member of staff and it will automatically reset the password if anyone beside the permitted people gives the correct password. Saying that, you are permitted to have friends in your dormitory before curfew, but they must be accompanied in by one of you. Any questions?"
"Can we go in?" said James, McGonagall almost looked amused before opening the portrait and leading them inside. The common room was not unlike the Gryffindor common room, two squashy arm chairs and a sofa were placed around the hearth which had a fire crackling away, the largest wall was a bookshelf filled with a mixture of muggle and wizarding novels and some more obscure text books. Although they were completely unaware of the others thoughts, both Lily and James' attention was drawn to the grand piano taking up the majority of the space before the staircase, both of them had played from a young age and were pleased that they now didn't have to request the permission of Professor Flitwick whenever they wanted to play. McGonagall gave a small cough and they snapped their eyes away from the piano,
"Up the stairs there are three doors, the first is your bedroom Potter, the second is the bathroom and Miss Evans the last one is yours, the house elves have performed a charm to adjust your rooms to your individual taste and requirements. Now I have to meet with the Headmaster before bed so if you don't have any questions I'll be going..." When neither of them said anything she continued, "You'll both need to be at breakfast early to tomorrow morning to help with timetable distribution, so no later than quarter past 8 please, goodnight." Neither of them moved even after she had left the common room, the silence was almost deafening, even James was struggling to come up with something to say, in his desperation his mind went back to the feast, where he had seen the looks Lily had exchanged with Joe Boot- clearly that was unfinished business, his blood ran cold at the thought of them in this room, on the sofa, or even worse, in her bedroom, kissing, touching and... He couldn't even finish that thought, in his blind panic and burning curiosity he just asked
"So are you and Boot back together?" he recognised his mistake before he the question had even left his lips,
"Sorry Potter, I don't quite understand the relevance of that question?" Lily frowned, what the hell did that have to do with him? It was none of his business and frankly it reminded her of her previous unease when she caught him staring at her on the way here. He just stayed silent, that annoyed her more than anything, when she was about to press him further he finally spoke,
"I was just wondering" he mumbled,
"Well no, we're not, but even so, I don't think it's any of your business and with our new found friendship frankly you shouldn't really care." That stung and James couldn't convince her or himself that it didn't,
"Yes I should Lil, friends care, friends don't want to see each other get hurt and you've been hurt too many times already and yes, I know you're going to say that most of your upset has been caused by me, but now we're friends and I'm, well you know, I'm not going to upset you or let you get hurt or, anything..." he tailed off, she was staring at him, really staring, he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not, she seemed to be searching for any sign that he was lying and he wasn't for the most part, however he decided to reassure her, "Anyway, I was mainly asking because I was wondering whether he was likely to be over a lot, I wouldn't want to walk into the dorm and interrupt anything." There was another pause before Lily smiled, seemingly satisfied with his answer,
"Yes, I suppose that's fair enough, well I'm going to get to bed, I'll see you tomorrow." She turned on her heal and went up the staircase to her bedroom and shut the door behind her before he could follow her up the stairs. Not even taking in her room she changed into her pyjamas and collapsed into a double bed, the last thought before sleep claimed her was that perhaps having an overly protective James around wasn't such a bad thing?
A/N: A bit more Lily, James action there, well not really, but y'know, it is early days yet! I got really bad writers block towards the end, so I just sat down and forced myself to write, so I'm not too happy with the end of it, but I just wanted to get it finished and posted. I NOW HAVE WIFI! Yes I know, happy days all round! However this also coincides with the start of my lectures, giving me much less writing time, I will still aim to update as frequently as possible!
I just want to thank the people who have subscribed and are following the story, you're all the reason I want to write and it means a lot that you're enjoying TTATTTB! I would love to hear off some more of you- so please review or PM me, I live for feedback haha! But honestly, thank you for everything!
Until we meet again-
weasley-is-your-king