Disclaimer: If you recognize it it belongs to JKR
2nd May 1978
"Ok, settle down."
The room slowly quietened as the prefects turned their attention to Lily and James. In the far corner Fiona Delaney and Abigail Parkinson continued chatting until Lily cleared her throat pointedly.
The meeting settled down to the usual routine of taking reports and complaints from the twenty-three school prefects. Lily and occasionally James tried to mollify the complainers as best as possible, while preventing further arguments springing up from their answers.
Lily remembered vividly a meeting last year where Ewan MacDougal, from her year in Hufflepuff had picked a fight with Randall Avery and Carrick Ryan, the 6th and 7th year Slytherins about several nasty incidents in the corridor that had ended with MacDougal breaking Ryan's nose.
The closest they had come this year was during the first meeting on the train, where they had to deal with the outraged Jacob Bones, MacDougal, and Avery upon discovering that James Potter had been named head boy. While Lily's appointment only received a few mutterings from the Slytherin group, the thought of the school's worst troublemaker (or at least equal worst) being selected over the other prefects was simply preposterous.
At first, Lily had privately agreed with them. She had known that Remus wouldn't get the badge-he was just too passive. Randall Avery was part of the gang of Slytherins that had been trouble since her third year, and MacDougal had a short temper. Jacob Bones had seemed the obvious choice to Lily, even last year. Granted, beyond prefect and second highest marks in her year, he contributed little to the school, not being involved in any extracurricular groups. But that had never been a specific requirement of Head Boy.
On the contrary, Remus had seemed delighted at his friend's appointment. James, despite his many faults, had always played 'big brother' to their little group, helping Remus cope with his insecurities, defending Peter, and pulling Black into line when he stepped too far over it. He had come prepared with an annotated copy of Prefects Who Gained Power, listing twelve cases of non-prefects being named as Head Boy or Girl since 1347 when the prefect system had started. Jacob had tried to argue that most of these were highly unusual situations, such as the death of any possible candidates, or political arrangements. Remus replied by highlighting four cases, where the new head boy, or girl in 1776, had been named for some display of leadership in their previous years. He didn't have to add like James did last year when the Death Eaters attacked Hogsmeade while Jacob Bones sat safe and sound back at Hogwarts studying.
The biggest upset of the most recent fortnight, however, seemed to be a series of scuffles prior to the Hufflepuff-Slytherin game which had resulted in two third-years in the hospital wing and four detentions. James was demurring to Lindy Yarrow's request to up the number of patrols in the lead-up to the last game of the year, though Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tended to be a little less aggressive in their rivalry.
Over Lindy's head, James caught her watching and rolled his eyes at the imperious demeanour of the Hufflepuff 7th year. Lily was tempted to stick her tongue out in reply, but remembered that the rest of the room were watching.
Over the course of the year she had watched James go from strength to strength in his new leadership role. Quidditch captain for the last two years, he had somehow balanced the additional workload while retaining good to excellent marks in his classes. He was supportive of the younger students, authoritative to the dissenters, and, best of all, had dropped his arrogant attitude in favour of a helpful, eager demeanour.
When he had asked Lily out before the first Hogsmeade weekend, for the 216th time, or so Black reported, she realised it was the first time that year. It had been accompanied by none of his usual showcasing; no conjured flocks of doves swarming her at breakfast, no transfiguring her books into flowers, not even a sign of puffing his chest out and strutting. He had simply sat down next to her at breakfast and asked calmly and pleasantly if she fancied a walk with him, alone.
They had been dating ever since, to the surprise of many. Snape, in particular, had broken nearly a year-long silence with her to express his vehement disgust, which Lily pointedly ignored. James no longer went around hexing people to prove his manliness. He didn't deliberately pick fights with Snape or his Slytherins, though he had answered fast enough when they picked one with him. In fact, he seemed to finally be living up to his potential.
Once they had taken names for extra patrols were taken, and Lily reminded the fifth-years what was and wasn't considered a disruption to study with exams coming up, they cleared the room, and walked back to the tower together, Remus keeping the other Gryffindor prefects occupied so they could talk.
"So," James said cheerfully, throwing his arm around her shoulders, "last Hogsmeade weekend of our school years. Fancy a butterbeer together?"
She rested her head on his shoulder and said, "That would be lovely James."