Chapter 1 - It Begins
In the middle of August, an owl arrived at the Evans' house, delivering the letter of school supplies to Lily Evans' window. The letter reminded her of her choices for the classes in her seventh year, and it also held the surprising news that she had been selected as Head Girl. However, the letter failed to mention the name of her male counterpart that would join her as the Head Boy. Thrilled as ever she ran downstairs to show her mother the letter when she bumped into her sister, Petunia, who sneered menacingly.
"What's that, another letter from your school of freaks? Did they not accept you this time? Did they say that you weren't good enough and you had to be let go?" she spat.
Pushing past her annoying sister, Lily raced through the house looking for her mother. Finding her in the kitchen, she threw her arms around her and danced gleefully. "Mum! Mum! I'm the Head Girl at school! I was picked from the top students and the best candidates and I'm the Head Girl!" she exclaimed happily.
Her mother wrapped her arms around her daughter, squeezing her tightly, not understanding in the slightest what her daughter was talking about, but she was happy for her nonetheless. "It's a pity that your father can't be here to see you off to school on such a happy day, but you know that he had to leave on an emergency business trip early this morning."
The smile slipped off the pretty face as the thought of not seeing her father before she left to school registered in Lily's mind. "But he promised!" she blurted. "How could he leave without at least saying goodbye?"
Her mother sighed. "You know your father. He would never leave without leaving something for you." She walked over to the table and slid the tiny box off the table and handed it to Lily.
She opened the box to reveal a necklace. A thin gold chain sparkled in the lights coming from the kitchen ceiling while a jewel hung gracefully. The jewel glowed with a mix of red and gold as a miniature lion made movements as though it was growling and roaring fiercely from its encasings. "Your father was going to give it to you when we took you to platform 9 3/4, but he had to leave early so he asked me to give it to you when you got up." Lily's mother pulled the chain out of the box and unhooked it, placing it around her daughter's neck; she clasped the necklace in place.
"Now, hurry up and get dressed, we have a long day at Diagon Alley if we're going to get you your school supplies by the end of the week."
The trip to Diagon Alley had been quite the interesting one. At Flourish and Blotts she had run into the joker quartet: namely James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Their parents had given them the run of Diagon Alley and they had actually decided to hit the books before they looked at the new Quidditch supplies. When she walked in, they had been pestering one of the assistants there saying that they were looking for some kind of invisible book.
Sirius and James did nothing but stare at her as she hurried past them and gave the poor assistant a list of the books she was looking for. Even Peter and Remus stopped their antics to look at the changed Lily Evans. When they all had left school, she had been a hardworking student with hardly any time for joking around, nevertheless relationships. Even before the summer she was pretty, but something had happened to make her even more beautiful. Lily had allowed her fiery hair to flow and curl down her back and she started using tiny amounts of makeup to accentuate her facial features.
"You know... I do believe that our beautiful Lily Evans has become the new Head Girl at Hogwarts, the first Gryffindor lady that it's been since our first year." James stated, loud enough for the entire store to hear.
Piercing green eyes turned to look at the grinning face of James Potter. "And I've heard that the handsome James Potter has become the Quidditch team captain, the first time a boy has ever been given that honor."
A quiet 'ouch' was heard coming out of the side of Sirius' mouth as Remus and Peter tried to hide their laughter by coughing.
As she leaned over the counter to get her books, her father's necklace slipped out from underneath her robes and swung in the air, glistening in the sun. As she reached to hide it again, James slipped his hand around it and pulled it towards him gently. "Well, look at this. The Gryffindor lion is adorning her gorgeous neck. Are we wearing jewelry now, Lily? I thought that you didn't feel the need to put such -he imitated her voice- 'materialistic baubles around any part of your body'."
Lily placed her small hand on his, pulled his hand off her necklace and smiled, "People are allowed to change, James. Although I can see that you have not. You're the same egotistical jerk who for one whole minute cannot leave me the hell alone!" She slammed a few galleons down on the counter, picked up her books and stormed out of Flourish and Blotts.
Remus shook his head. "Prongs… you're going to have a hard time this year if your goal is to get that girl to go out with you. The first thing you're going to need to learn is to just shut up when you're around her."
Madame Malkins' Robes for All Occasions was a welcome sight for Lily. She knew, of all places, that she would not see James in here. Merlin knows he would be in there looking for new dress robes, like Lily.
She had tried on her latest choice, a deep, crimson red that came in a little at the waist and then flowed out to her ankles. The sleeves stretched tightly along her arms, and then gradually loosened until the fabric came to a tiny point just past her middle knuckle. Looking at herself in the mirror, the robe seemed to have been exquisitely made for her body, until she saw her hair. The red hair clashed with the robe so much that it became an eyesore. In frustration, she pulled her hair away from her shoulders, hoping that it would look better, but in her mind it continued to clash.
Lily dropped her hair and sunk to the ground. She was the Gryffindor Head Girl and she could not even wear the Gryffindor colors. The dark red mixed horribly with her hair, and the gold was too bright and looked tacky. She would just have to settle for a few black dress robes.
Dejected, she pulled herself off the ground and moved to take off the robe when a soft voice caught her by surprise.
"A green robe would be perfect. It would bring out the sparkle in your eyes, and it would look beautiful next to your hair. Just because you're in Gryffindor does not mean you need to wear those colors. You, dear Lily, were not made to wear the color that you so wish you could."
In the mirror, Lily could see the dark gray eyes of Lucius Malfoy. He slipped behind her and covered her with a brilliant emerald green robe. Reaching his arms around her shoulders, Lucius fastened the top clip and pulled away from her, almost as if to make his point.
The green robe seemed to intensify her beauty. Lily could only stand in front of the mirror staring at the color she had never dared to touch... the only robe that matched her fiery hair and her emerald eyes. She turned to face him. "Thank you, but I… I... - she paused- I think I'm just going to get that one." Lily pointed at the black, sparkling robe hanging on one of the dressing room doors. She unclipped the green one.
"Just a suggestion," he said reaching his hand out for the robe.
Lily quickly grabbed the black robe and hurried over to the counter to pay. Madame Malkin smiled gently at her and handed her the folded robe in a box to keep it from wrinkling.
"Dearie… you know he's right. Green is your color. You should try to wear it more often."
She looked down at the box she was holding and back at Lucius, who was looking through some men's dress robes. "I'll remember that," she whispered. "Thank you, this robe is perfect," she stated as she turned to face Lucius. "I'll see you at school?"
He turned to look at her and nodded his head.
"Bye," Lily said walking out of the store. What a strange day it had been.