Chapter 7 – On the Express

A raven-haired youth was standing still looking at the big red train. He was deep in thought and didn't take notice of all the goodbyes and farewells going on around him. He and Sirius had gone by them selves, since the Potters had to go back to Auror duty and couldn't accompany the boys. James couldn't believe that that was going to be his last ever trip to Hogwarts on the Express, he couldn't believe that he was about to enter the last year of his Hogwarts life; that was a scary thought, but also a promising one.

He wasn't a little boy anymore and now he was aware of everything that was in play outside the protected walls of his school, he knew there was a war going on, a real war, and that right at that very moment there were people out there fighting for freedom and fairness, he wanted to be one of them soon, trying to stop the madness of some crazed man who thought he could rule above all. What James couldn't grasp was why would someone want to rule, why not cooperate; his father had always said that two heads were better than one and the Marauders had proven the saying to be right many times. He chuckled when he thought about all the crazy pranks they had pulled and suddenly his arm had been punched:

"- Oi, Prongs, what's up the thoughtful look and the staring? Are you enamorated of the train now?" – Padfoot had been talking to some girl but had found his best mate once again. – "Hey, look! There's Moony! MOONY!!!" – He yelled waving his arms and hands to Remus, while jumping up and down, causing his friends to laugh.

"- Did you just say enamorated? Is that even a word?" – James replied getting out of his cloud of thoughts and laughter.

"- I think I just did. I think it's a word, but I can be sure." – He said with a shrug.

"- Well, it isn't. Don't you read at all, Padfoot?" – Remus had just approached them, and was quickly engulfed in a big hug by both his friends at the same time. Remus wasn't small, but James and Sirius were much bigger than him, James had even grown taller during the summer.

"- Guys, are you trying to kill me? Because if you're it's working!" – Remus was gasping for air outside his friends embrace.

"-Owww, Moony! We wouldn't do that to you! We love you!" – James said is his ironic voice, but Remus knew it was true.

"- Well, let's go to the compartment, I bet Peter is already there." – Sirius said setting the pace.

As the boy walked, several people waved at them, some girls threw them seductive smiles and they stopped to talk with some friends they hadn't seen during vacation. When they arrived at the Marauders compartment (it had been theirs since third year, and now no one dared to try and enter it without being invited, since there was a rumor about nasty hexes being put on whoever tried do to so) surely enough they found Peter inside.

"- Hey guys!" – He got up and helped the boys unload.

But then James remembered it. His stuff was supposed to stay in the heads compartment. To that his heart sunk a little; he was sure Lily was Head Girl and he was in no mood to face her at that moment. He sighed.

"- Mates, I gotta go drop my stuff of in the Head's compartment and change, so I'll see you in a bit. See ya in the meeting than, Moony." - James looked quite put off.

"- Show off!" – Sirius said playfully – "You think you're better than us now that you're Head, huh?"

"- When you put it like that, Padfoot..." – James replied grinning – "Yes, yes I do!"

"- Oh! You are such a git! Get him!!!" – Sirius yelled and the three boys jumped on James, pinning him to the door. – "Now, who's better, huh?" – They were all laughing.

"- Fine, fine, you win, obviously the Marauders rule." – James said chuckling – "Now, I really have to go."

"- See ya, Head Boy!" – His friends yelled behind him, and James couldn't help smiling.

When he arrived at the Heads Compartment he was relieved to see that Lily hadn't gotten there yet. "Thanks Merlin!"- He thought to himself. So he opened his trunk and quickly started to change clothes, he was almost finished, just leaned over his trunk looking for his Head Boy badge with only a couple of the top buttons still undone when the compartment door slid open. Lily Evans was there.

"- Hi!" – Lily said. The Head Boy had his back turned to her and was looking for something in his trunk, at first she didn't recognize him so she decided to say something neutral. She hoped it wouldn't be Jasper Cooper, of Ravenclaw, since he was a stuck up prat.

"- Hello, Evans." – James Potter turned around and her jaw dropped. His tone was cold and just as he finished to speak he turned back to his trunk to find what he was looking for.

"- What are you doing here? This is the HEADS compartment!" – Lily was completely baffled; shouldn't James be with his fellow Marauders in their compartment or pranking someone or snogging someone? She then remembered she wanted to talk to him, just like she told her friends she would, but still couldn't understand what he was doing there.

"- I know." – He responded curtly.

"- Then why…" - she started to voice her question and stopped when he stood up with a rather annoyed look on his face.

"- I'm Head Boy, Evans. Here is the letter, since I know you don't believe anything I say." – He handed her an envelope with Dumbledore's writing in it and walked around to leave the compartment. – "Excuse me, Evans."

Lily didn't understand what had just happened." James Potter is Head Boy? Why on earth? How is that possible, he wasn't even a prefect! He was quidditch captain though."- Even after looking at the letter that said so, she still couldn't believe it! Her opinion about him had gone thru some changes, but he was still one of the biggest troublemakers Hogwarts had ever seen! -Dumbledore most have gone mad! - She sat on the bench and eased her breathing. - The way he treated me; it's like he hates me! And what he said: "since I know you don't believe anything I say", was she wrong or had she heard a hurtful tone over that fraise- Lily stood there for some time, she didn't know how long, thinking. Suddenly she jumped of her seat:

"- Shit! Shit, shit, shit! The prefects meeting! Damn!" – She slid the door open and started power walking the corridors. – "Excuse me, excuse me!"

She arrived at the prefects' compartment a few minutes later a little breathless and entered it. Potter's back was to her and she heard him say:

"- Well, people I think this covers it! This Sunday there will be another prefect meeting in the Heads Common Room, and we will contact you over time and password. Rounds start now, and if you need anything you know where to find me, right?" – He said and glanced around the room, receiving smiles and nods - "Fifth years please don't forget to help out the first years after the feast, and that includes you too, Cho. You can go now, any doubts you can ask Evans or me later or stick around now. And let's try and make these things fun next time, ok?" – James gave them all a grin, and all the prefect girls smiled back and the guys gave him a respectful look. It looked like James had done a great job, all by himself. Lily thought that she was about to be hit by a lightning.

Everyone stood up to leave and James turned a little to the side and saw Lily.

"- Ah, there you are. Did you want to say anything, Evans?" – He asked while arranging his paper gracefully, and not looking at her directly.

"- Errr, not really." – She said looking quite ashamed of herself and turning slightly red. - "Just I'm sorry that I didn't get here on time."

To that he just nodded and turned starting to put his stuff together. So people started to go past her and leave the compartment, only Remus and Dylan Creevey, the Hufflepuff prefect stayed behind. This last one called out:

"- Oi, James! How was your summer?" – Creevey was captain of the Hufflepuff team and he and James were good friends. – "Saw you in the carnival with Katie!" - He said with a smile.

"- Great! Yeah, I saw you too." – James responded and gave him a knowing smile, and turned to Remus – "Hey, Moony, go ahead without me! I'll be there in a while!" – And returning his attention to Dylan he continued – "Didn't say hi because I, you know, didn't want to, err… interrupt!" – Both of them started laughing at the same time. – "You and Marlene! That's great, mate! I thought you would never get her!"

Lily was still standing there looking at scene feeling ackward, so when Remus was about to walk past her she snapped out of it and said:

"- Hi Remus!"

"- Hello, Evans." – He replied. To this Lily froze. She and Remus had been friends, he never called her Evans, it was always Lily. Seemed like her latest sprawls with James had hit a nerve with Remus as well.

"- Hmmmm…" - she hesitated bitting her lip – "Did the meeting go well?" - She tried to make conversation and looked from Remus to James rapidly.

"- Yes, fine. Not to anyone else's surprise. You should ask the Head Boy, Evans, but I think he covered everything." – Remus answered politely but coolly and walked off with a last – "See ya in a while, Prongs!"- And a wave to his friend.

When Lily returned her attention to the other two boys they were still laughing, she heard James say:

"- Well, he is Katie's brother! And the kid is pretty cool, so I hung out with him. He wanted to know about Hogwarts since he'll turn eleven next year."

"- That's cool; I always wished I had a younger brother." – Dylan replied.

"- Me too! But then again, I do have Sirius!" – And they laughed again, getting up to leave.

"- See ya, Head Boy man!" – Dylan waved goodbye and walked past Lily, as if just realizing she was there. – "Bye, Evans."

"- Bye." – She blurted out, a little surprised to be included. She then turned her head and saw that James was standing closer to her.

"- Will you excuse me, Evans? I need to get through the door." – He said in an icy voice motioning towards the doors.

"- Errr …" - Lily thought about it for a moment, she didn't want him to leave yet; she really needed to talk to him, but didn't know how to start. – "How did the meeting go?" – She said in an attempt to start a conversation.

"- It went fine. I'll write everything down, I have to do it anyway, and if you want you can read it after the feast." – He answered her and gave her a "can I go now?" look. She moved a little to the side.

As James left the compartment, she said in a very low voice:

"- Potter..." – But he didn't hear her. Before she could finish her sentence he was gone.

Lily wanted to talk to him, she couldn't stand the situation any longer: it was making her very uncomfortable! Whenever they had fought before, she had always been the angry party and him the pleading one, so she was really on how to handle everything. She remembered him talking to prefects. –"Who was that confident young man that seemed to have everything sorted out and everybody's respect?"- She wondered. She remembered the apology she had practiced at home and decided to go find him and get it over with. She went to Head's compartment but he wasn't there. – "Of course not, you twit!"- She hit her forehead with a little more force than she had planned – "He is in the Marauder's compartment with his friends!" So she left to go find him.

She was almost there when she saw him. Potter was looking down to two first year boys, who looked both terrified and amazed, and behind him was the fifth year slytherin prefect. She stopped. The corridor on that part looked like it had a thousand piñatas exploded in it.

"- You can go now, Marcy. Thanks. I'll handle this." – James said, in an authority tone Lily had never heard him use, to the prefect, who obviously didn't want to leave but gave him a suggestive smile and turned around. – "Now, you two; let's have a little chat, huh?" - And he bent a little to look the boys in the eyes – "I will NOT tolerate fighting in this train! You two have barely gotten here and already are messing it up! Is that what you want?" – Both boys looked at him with ashamed expressions. - "Good. Since I don't know what house you'll be in, I can't take points for this stupidity." - To this James looked annoyed, which Lily thought was kind cute (Wait did I just think he is cute? No I did not!) - "So, now you're going to have to clean up the mess you made, while I hold on to your wands, meaning you will do it WITHOUT magic, and you WILL come find me after you finish to retrieve them." – The boys looked a little relieved, but then ropes appeared out of nowhere binding the two boys together on the side – "Oh, yes, also, since you did it together, you will now UNDO IT together!" - And to that ha gave the boys a grin and turned around to go back to his compartment. He had given a few steps when the boys looked up and saw a big balloon filled with cleaning supplies explode. It made the mess a little worst but the boys laughed.

"- That's James Potter!" – She heard the tallest of the two boys say to the other.

"- Wow, really? He's so cool!" – The small one with the blonde hair answered. – "My brother said he's the best quidditch player Hogwarts has ever had!"

"- Yep" – the boys were cleaning with great difficulty being tied together and all but didn't seem to care – "He's captain of the Gryffindor team and they have won every cup since he joined!"

"- And he is really good at charms too!" – The small boy said again, as he was trying to no effect to loosen the ropes around his arm a little bit.

Lily was stunned again. Did she really see that? Did Potter just tell off two first years without pranking them and rather giving them a very suitable punishment? - "I think he did"- and furthermore those boys were now doing what they were told and still thought he was cool! – "How on earth did he pull that off?"- Then again it was pretty cool the way he had handled everything, and even Lily Evans had to admit it. She couldn't have done a better job herself. -"Maybe he won't be a bad Head Boy after all". Remembering what she had set out to do, Lily started following James steps. When she arrived she stopped in front of the door. She could hear laughing and exploding. She took a deep breath – "This is not going to be easy"- last time I tried this, it went terribly wrong. Then she heard them talking inside:

"- Oh, come on, Katiejings! You have to let me win sometime!" – She heard Sirius say.

"- Do I, now? Huh, you know what? I don't think so, Sirius. You'll just have to admit defeat and pay the price!" – Katie Bell replied teasingly.

"- That's right, babe! Set him straight!" – James said encouraging his girlfriend – "Ha, you'll never beat her, Padfoot! My girl is too smart for you! Now you'll have to go and kiss Justine Leonard!" – And to that everyone started laughing. Justine was the ugliest girl in Hogwarts and everyone knew sice you coould barely a spot in her face free of pimples, no matter how many charms she tried on them.

"- Ugh, no!!! Please, Katiejings, please, pretty please with a cherry on top! Don't make me do it!" – Sirius was begging her giving her puppy eyes, but Lily couldn't see that, since she was outside the door. She couldn't help but laugh quietly though. These people are funny!

"- Fine, Sirius, I'll let you this time, but don't think you're off the hook! I'll think of something in time! It's just Justine... I sympathize with your cause." - And to that all the boys roared with laughter.

"- No, Katie, no! Please make him do it! It will be sooo good!" – She heard Remus pleading in a joking voice.

"- No, Moony! She has already promised him mercy, can't go back now!" – Peter replied, defending Sirius.

"- Prongs, mate, please make your lady come to her senses!" – Remus said as Sirius shouted against it.

"- Can't do it, mate. What can I say? She has a good heart this one, she even likes me!" – And everyone laughed again.

Lily didn't know exactly why, but knowing that Katie was inside with James and his friends and they were laughing and joking together, made her unable to open the compartment door. She didn't want to actually see it, made if she heard it, it wouldn't be real. She didn't understand why she was feeling like that, but the fact was that she couldn't bear to see James so happy around her when a few minutes ago he had looked so annoyed around her. Why did that matter so much all the sudden? She walked back to the compartment where her friends were waiting for her, giving out a few warnings to some pranksters she found on the way.

"- Hey, Lils! How did it go?" – Emma asked with a small smile.

"- What?" – Lily was a little confused.

"- The meeting!" – Both Emma and Alicia responded in unison and looked at her as if she was mental – "Oh! Who got Head boy? We're dying to know!" – Alicia completed.

"- Well…" - Lily didn't know where to start – "Potter got Head Boy." – She said and looked at her friends waiting for their reaction.

"- Wow, really? THAT I would never had guessed!" – Emma said.

"- Why not? He's a really good team captain!" – Alicia replied – "Then there is the Marauder thing. Yeah, that's really weird. You must be really upset, huh, hon?"

"- At first I really was! I mean, James Potter, Head Boy?" – And she snorted – "But then I missed the meeting and he handled everything fine by himself, and afterwards I saw him punishing fairly some first years. So I guess, it won't be so bad after all. And now I'm pretty sure he doesn't fancy me anymore, but he might hate me instead." – Lily blurted out, talking very fast, so fast her friends had to take some time to absorb what she had just said.

"- Wait, come again." – Emma chuckled. – "You missed your meeting?"

"- Uhh, yeah." – Lily looked at her feet.

"- Why?" - Emma looked like she had been dropped off in Camden Town all alone at time with a sign that said "Will you help me, I'm lost?".

"- Well, to tell you guys the truth I was so shocked when I saw that James was Head Boy that I kinda missed track of time." – She was ashamed of her behavior, since she had no real explanation for it obviously.

"- Did you just call him James?" – Alicia said in a disbelief tone – "And did you say he handled everything well?" - She snorted - "Who are you and what have you done to our friend Lily Evans?" – To this all the girls laughed.

"- Ummm, I don't know Ally, I guess you were right. James Potter did change and I hadn't realized it until now. Maybe he won't be that bad of a Head Boy." – She shrugged.

"- Oh, she has definitely been switched!!! It's not Lily! It can't be!" – Emma said and then she and Alicia started tickling her – "Confess, imposter! Confess! Where's Lily?"

"- Guys, guys! Stop i-t!" - Lily was a breathless because of the tickling – "I know! I know, I never thought I would admit to it, but James Potter isn't so bad!"

"- Did you talk to him, then?" – Alicia asked eagerly.

"- No, Ally. Right now he doesn't like me very much, so I couldn't go through with it. I didn't know what to do! If you seen the way he talked to me, the way he looked at me! It was awful; I couldn't utter a decent word!"

"- Well, you will soon enough. Now that you're both Heads he will have to talk you, even if he doesn't want to." – Emma said calmly.

Lily thought about that. Emma was right. James was going to share a dorm room alone with her, duties with her; he wouldn't be able to avoid her for very long. Soon, she would clear everything up, and now Lily had an idea; she wanted to be friends with him. The very thought made her laugh! – "Who would have thought? Now Lily Evans wants to befriend James Potter! And he is the one who might say no! The world has got to have gone crazy!" – And she continued laughing at herself. She now had a plan.