Disclaimer:: JK Rowling has still refused to let me own Harry Potter, as hard as I try. And yes, the fact that I don't own Jello makes me sad. So, I guess I have to live with owning Rae, Ellie, and Nattie.
Oh yeah, and the song Brand New Day is owned by Forty Foot Echo.
Ahem. Time for the reviewer thanks.
PeRkieGuRL:: Yep, we know she does... *grins*. Thanks so much for reviewing for me again!
shattered:: Wow, thanks! Here's your update!
Tribal Leader:: I reviewed for you! Did you see, did you see, did you see? Wow, I think I had waaaay too much caffeine. Anyways, thanks for the review, and I'll look for the updates on your fic too!
SavetheSqUiRrEls:: Don't worry, the title will come into the story eventually... somewhere... I think... No, it'll definitely show up, so just keep reading!
BURN THE R.U.M:: Thanks for reviewing again! I love reviews!
See, these people are kind and they review for me. As I mentioned, I love reviews! review, Review, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! *takes deep breaths* Ok, the hyperness is subsiding...
This chapter's a little different. It has a song at the end. You can't really call it a song fic, I just used the song to... er... express changes in James. Wow, I sound like a psychiatrist and it's freaky... The song is Brand New Day by Forty Foot Echo. The verse lyrics don't really fit, but it was the chorus I wanted to put in. The song isn't really put in very well, but I had already written the chapter when I decided to add the song.
Anyways, this is craziness. Now I'll just stop typing and you can read the chapter.
****
"Wow, congratulations!" Rae squealed.
"Thanks!"
Lily was showing off her shiny new Head Girl badge to Ellie and Rae. It was September 1, and they were standing on platform 9 ¾, about to start their seventh and final year at Hogwarts. After the almost-wedding, the remainder of August had passed quickly. Lily and Lena had both fully recovered, and everything was pretty much back to normal. Lily had gone back to Rae's house, where her parents had picked her up. Shortly after that, she had gotten the letter informing her that she would be Head Girl. After that, the remaining week before school had been filled with getting ready for school. Lily wanted her last year to be the best, and now here they were, about to dive right into it.
"I'll find us a compartment," said Rae.
"Alright, we'll get the trunks," said Lily.
Meanwhile, James was trying to hide from his friends. The embarrassment was, of course, inevitable, but he was trying to delay it to think of something to say when his friends found him. At the moment, he was taking refuge behind a middle-aged man, who gave him more than ample room to hide. The man was telling his fourth-year daughter not to get into any trouble that year, and set a good example for the younger kids. James rolled his eyes and slipped away to find a hiding spot that didn't lecture so much. Of course, just as he was about to take shelter in the Hogwarts Express, Sirius caught up to him. He groaned inwardly.
"James! Where ya' – what the HELL is that?" Sirius was pointing at James' chest. James rolled his eyes for the second time in two minutes, and muttered,
"Mmmheaby."
"Well it's great that you learned how to speak Greek, but could you use English for those of us who aren't as gifted?" Sirius said sarcastically and smiled. James sighed.
"I'm – Head – Boy," he said, separating his words.
"WHAT?" Sirius yelled as though a bomb had just gone off. Half the platform turned to look at them.
"Shhh! Not so loud! It's not like I wanted the job, Dumbledore just gave it to me. I tried to turn it down, I really did, but he seemed to think I was the only one who would be able to do it. I dunno why he would think that, but it's not like I could ask," said James. Sirius was not showing any signs of having heard, he just continued to stare at James, dumbstruck. In the end, James had to drag him onto the train, to short protests and mutterings of "why?"
James found Remus and Peter already in a compartment. He shoved Sirius, who had not yet fully regained his senses, onto a seat. It was then that Remus and Peter noticed the Head Boy badge, and were about as surprised as Sirius. Eventually, James resigned himself to the fact that he actually had to sit in the Head's compartment, and slowly made his way down the hall to his destination.
Lily was already in the Head's compartment. As she sat there, she wondered who the new Head Boy would be. He had better not be a slacker, she thought; she was definitely not doing all the work this year. Of course he won't be, she corrected herself. Dumbledore would only choose someone who he thought would be capable of the job. Still, I wonder who it is? As if in answer to her unvoiced question, the door to the compartment slid open ... and there stood her worst nightmare.
James stood in the doorway, staring at Lily. So she was the new Head Girl.
"I guess we'll be working together," James observed. Lily looked slightly sick. Even so, she managed to say,
"I guess so..." she had a feeling that this would be a very long year.
* * *
"Hi everyone who's been here before, and welcome to those of you that haven't," said Lily, eyeing a group of slightly apprehensive looking fifth year prefects, who seemed to be clumped together, as if using the safety-in-numbers strategy. It was Wednesday of their second week of school. Lily had called the first prefects meeting of the year, and everyone had gathered in the prefects commons.
"Now, most of you know me already, but I'm Head Girl, Lily Evans, and this is the Head Boy, James Potter. We'll get the boring stuff over with first..." Lily picked up some papers in front of her and began to go over the prefect's code of conduct. When she had said everything she had planned to say, James spoke up.
"Ok, our meetings will be on the first Wednesday of each month. At the meetings, you'll sign up for hall patrol duty. We'll go over the schedule and make some changes, and you'll have the final ones for the month on Friday at breakfast." He picked up the sign up sheet and showed it to everyone. Lily got up from her armchair and stood behind the couch James was sitting on so that she could look over his shoulder. She was quite impressed that he had taken charge of the scheduling like that. He might actually be good at this, she thought. Wait! What am I thinking? Of course he won't! This is Potter we're talking about; only the biggest slacker of a prefect ever...
"I'll hang up the sign up sheet on that bulletin board over there, and you can sign up after the meeting is over. If the slot you signed up for is absolutely the only time you can patrol that week, make sure you mark that on there. And we'll try our best to put you with your friends; that'll make patrolling more fun," James explained. He got up and tacked the sign up sheet onto the bulletin board.
"I think that's all for now, and we'll give you this month's schedule on Friday," Lily reported and dismissed everyone. There was a mad rush towards the sign up list, in attempts for people to get spots with their friends. When the last prefect had left the room, Lily said,
"I guess we'd better edit that schedule now."
James nodded, took the schedule off of the wall, and began to read over it. Lily sat down next to him on the couch and began to advise him on changes to make.
"Oh, no, Megan Relheim and Zechariah Crabbe should NOT patrol on the same night! He's hated her – Hey!" Lily gave a sudden shout. James jumped slightly.
"What?"
"We should plan a Halloween party! I know the tradition is to have a feast, but I know something better to do! Since I'm Muggle born, I have different Halloween traditions. In the Muggle world, kids dress up in costumes and walk around their neighborhoods. They ring their neighbor's doorbells and when the people come to the door, the kids say "Trick or Treat!" Then the people in the house give the kids candy. It's really for younger kids, but since most people here have never experienced it, I bet it would be fun! We could have the feast, and then stock each teacher with candy, and the kids can go to each classroom Trick or Treating. Then we can have little parties in each common room for afterwards, so that everyone can trade their candy." Lily was beaming. James could tell she already had her mind set on doing this, and he could do nothing but help her plan it.
"Ok, sounds like fun. So, we'll ask the teachers about this, and we'll need lots of candy right?"
* * *
"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Push your teacher overboard and listen to 'er scream!"
"Remind me again why we had to bring him along?" Lily whispered crossly.
"He knows exactly how to get us what we want," James explained. It was October 25. The teachers had approved the Halloween party plan, and now Lily, James, and Sirius were going to get the candy that they needed. The teachers had offered to handle this, but James had insisted they would do it themselves. Now, all three of them were under James' invisibility cloak, which he had inherited from his father, and Sirius kept singing under his breath.
"Deck the halls with kerosene, fa la la la la la la la la. Light a match and watch it gleam, fa la la la la la la la la. Watch your school burn down to ashes, Fa la la la la la la la la. Aren't you glad you played with matches? Fa la la la la la la la la!"
Lily rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. Suddenly, James, who was leading, stopped, causing Lily to bump into him, and Sirius to bump into her.
"Where are we?" she asked as she regarded the painting of a bowl of fruit in front of her.
"You'll see," said James, as he began to do something to the pear in the picture.
"Are you... tickling it?" Lily whispered. James nodded, and as he did, the pear turned into a door handle, which James pulled open.
"Come on." He beckoned them into the high ceilinged room. Once all three were fully inside, they pulled off the invisibility cloak. Almost instantly, four house elves appeared before them.
"Good evening Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, and the lovely lady they have brought with them. What may Nattie do for you today?" asked one of them with a deep bow. To Lily's enormous surprise, Sirius addressed him.
"Hello Nattie, we need some help. Those two," he motioned to Lily and James, "are planning a Halloween party, and we need some supplies." Apparently, the house elves knew exactly what "supplies" were, because within a few seconds, there were many house elves before them, each carrying a different bag of candy. Lily, James, and Sirius loaded the candy into a bag they had brought with them.
When they were done, Sirius added, almost as an after thought, "Could we have some Jello?" The randomness of the request did not surprise Sirius' companions, nor did it seem to phase the house elves, who brought out several small plates of Jello, each in a different flavor. Sirius wasted no time in choosing the cherry flavored one. The house elves stood and watched him as he ate, apparently in case he wanted more.
When he was finished, he asked, "Have you guys ever tried this stuff?" The house elves' eyes widened and they shook their heads, as though it would be a crime to do anything of the sort.
"Well try it then," urged Sirius. The house elves had no power over human order, so slowly and mechanically, they began to eat their Jello. Nattie was the first to be done.
"Wow, Mr. Black, sir, Nattie thinks that Jello is the best thing he ever tasted!" Some of the other house elves who had finished nodded in agreement. Sirius spoke in a secret agent voice.
"Base, this is Black reporting. Mission accomplished." (A/N: Oh man, the whole Jello thing is sooooo corny, especially that line! But I wanted Sirius to do something random having to do with Jello, and I couldn't think of anything else, so we'll just have to live with it.)
* * *
"Thank goodness we didn't have to bring him this time," said Lily, referring to Sirius. She and James were under the invisibility cloak again, for the second time in two days. This time, however, they were headed in the opposite direction of the kitchens.
"Stop stepping on me!"
"Sorry, I can't! I'm trying to read the map!"
"We'll, it's not going to help much since you're holding it upside down!"
"Ohhhhhhh, I was wondering why the writing was backwards!"
As James turned the map right side up in her hands, she wondered how James had been able to come up with ink that would update itself instantly. It was really amazing if you thought about it. Even though the Marauders had made it the previous year, it still continued to update itself. At the moment, she and James were using it to find the way to the statue of the one eyed witch without getting caught. James had talked Lily into going to Honeydukes in Hogsmeade with him to get more candy for the Halloween party.
"All right, this is it," James informed her. "Dissendium!" James spoke the spell, and the statue's hump opened to admit them into the passageway within. One after the other, they slid into the passage and stood up. Lily, who had never been in the passage before, hit her head as she stood up.
"Ouch! It's really dark in here..." She took out her wand and lit it. "There, that's a little better." At least now she could see where she was going. "Ok, come on, we have to make this quick so that we can get back before anyone notices we're gone." The security at Hogwarts was tight now, since Voldemort was making appearances at inopportune moments, which often resulted in the world's population declining by a few people.
"They won't notice. I've done this about a million times and they never notice," James said dismissively. Lily raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything
After what seemed like a year, but in reality had only taken about twenty minutes, they reached a trapdoor that would lead them into the cellar of Honeydukes. They listened for a moment, to make sure no one was there. When they were sure the coast was clear, they took off the invisibility cloak and left it on the ground. Then, they pushed the trapdoor open and James climbed out first. There was no one in the cellar as far as he could tell, so he motioned for Lily to follow him. She did, and they climbed the stairs together. They reached the top and swung the door open quietly. As they slipped out, they could hear a woman behind the counter saying, "How many Fithing Withbees would you like to buy?" in a very nasally monotone. It was all the two could do to keep from laughing.
"Would you like frieth with that?" James imitated the woman's voice. Lily burst out laughing. James grinned and began to grab a few types of candy off of the shelves. Some of them were good ideas, like the Sugar Quills, but some, like the Cockroach Clusters, Lily vetoed ("Who'd actually eat those?"). There were not really many people their age in the store on this Saturday morning, since they were mostly all in school. There were lots of younger kids and a few adults in the shop however, so they weren't alone. They shopped around for about a half an hour, and then went up to pay for their selections. The same woman with the nasally voice and the lisp was there.
"Ith thith your final order?" she asked flatly. Lily had to duck down to get out the money to keep herself from laughing. She quickly paid the woman, and she and James pretended to walk out the store exit. They waited until the saleswomen was busy with another customer, and then snuck back through the door to the cellar. Quietly, James opened the trapdoor and climbed down into the passage, carrying their bags of candy with him. Lily followed him, and they started back down the tunnel. It took them a slightly longer time to get back to Hogwarts than it had taken them to get to Honeydukes, considering they now had the bags of candy to carry. When they reached the other end of the tunnel, James gave Lily a hand up so that she could get out. As he did, a thought crossed his mind. For the first time since he had known her, he had made her laugh.
* * *
"Trick or treat!"
"Here's a Chocolate Frog for you, and a Sugar Quill for you!"
The Halloween party was a great success. The students were loving it so much, they were even knocking on the doors of broom closets, asking for candy. In response to this, Lily had stationed all the prefects at various doors to bathrooms and closets. It was a good thing they'd bought a lot of candy, because it ended out that they needed almost all of it. Lily was standing at the door of a closet, which held various cleaning supplies, handing out the last of her candy to some second years who seemed to have gotten into the spirit quite easily.
"Trick or treat!" James came striding up her station. She had had him walking around, just to make sure everything was going smoothly. Now that people were beginning to retreat to their common rooms to trade their candy with each other, there was not much for him to do. Lily handed him the basket that the candy had been in.
Never thought I'd say I'm sorry
Never thought I'd be the one to bring you down
Now when I look out my window
But there doesn't seem to be anyone around
"Hey!" he protested. Lily pulled a chair out of the closet and closed the door behind her. She sat down on it. James just stood next to her, and they watched the last of the die-hard trick-or-treaters round up what was left of the candy.
And I, I think I'll change my ways
So all your words get noticed
Tomorrow's a brand new day
Tomorrow's a new day
"Well, that was actually successful!" Lily said excitedly. "I think we should do it again next year."
"I guess you've earned your reputation as Head Girl," he said. She glanced at him. He was actually being serious for once, even though he had a smile on his face.
"You haven't done so bad yourself," she pointed out. As soon as she had, she thought, did I just compliment James? On purpose?
We said we'd take a little time
For both of us to see
And wonder what it'd be like to carry on
Yeah, I know I got crazy
Well I guess that's just me
If I could turn back time before the wrong
He grinned and said, "I'm glad you think so." He put the candy basket over her head like a hat and patted it affectionately before he walked away. Lily slowly removed the basket from her head, and watched him go.
And I, I think I'll change my ways
So all your words get noticed
Tomorrow's a brand new day
Tomorrow's a new dayShe thought about what she had said, and wondered how he had managed to grow up so much in such a short amount of time...
And I, I think I'll change my ways
So all your words get noticed
I think I'll change my ways
Think I'll change my ways
I think I'll change my ways
Never thought I'd say I'm sorry
Never thought I'd be the one
****
Wow! It took me a really long time to update (I went on vacation, yay!), but I made up for it with a pretty long chapter by my standards. The ending is kind of in a bad place, but even so, I think it's my favorite chapter so far. Review and tell me what you think!