Dear James,

Congratulations on being Head Boy. I hope you'll forgive the outburst from last school year. I guess I was a bit sore about us not winning the House Cup. I'm sure you'll be a great Head Boy. Say hi to Remus for me, and tell him my thoughts will be with him on the night of the full moon.

Yours,

Lily Evans

James looked up from his letter. The nerve of this girl! To think that she could try to steal James Potter's victory, then apologize and have everything turn out fine! And he would have to work with her ALL YEAR, since she was Head Girl! Sure she was kind and intelligent, but when she was mad, like she was every time he tried to prank her, she was evil incarnate. How did she know about Remus? Of course, said his brain, Lily knows everything! James smirked, well, he'd show her this year...

"It will be a year long remembered. It has seen the end of Hufflepuff, and it will soon see the end of Evans! Mwhahahahahaha!" James froze and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked downright evil himself. He slapped himself, grinned goofily at his reflection and ran off to talk to Sirius.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Lily stepped out of her carriage, holding her purse close to her, to shield it from the rain. A letter of great import was inside this satchel. Two, actually. One, containing the announcement that she was Head Girl, the other from James Potter.

Lily-

Yeah, you have a good year too. A very good year! One filled with excitement, romance, fencing, fighting, angst, horror, comedy, deceit, lies, revenge, and true love. Well, that sounds like an advertisement in the muggle papers for some movie. Well, I hope you are up to dealing with the Head Boy Extraordinaire... c'est moi, in case you were wondering. Well, later!

James

She strode into the Great Hall, wondering how much of the above would fit into her seventh year at Hogwarts. Just at that moment, a bucket of chocolate appeared in midair, and inverted itself over Lily's flaming red hair. She looked a bit like some sort of medieval swamp creature, with flashing dark green eyes. The assembled students looked like they wanted to laugh, but most of them cared too much about Lily to hurt her that way. A flock of Hufflepuffs immediately surrounded her with their linen napkins, attempting to clean off the mess.

Lily waved them aside, and the entire hall quieted down to hear what Lily would say. "Gryffindors, that's thirty points for making a mess in the Great Hall, and ten points from Hufflepuff for this: James, you are a bastard!" The Gryffindors groaned, but the Hufflepuffs just took it, as they trusted Lily (Who in their right mind would trust a Marauder?). The professors apparently agreed with Lily's assessment as they simply sat back and allowed Lily to cast a cleaning spell on herself and the Great Hall. However, they got more than they bargained for when the hall and Lily suddenly sparkled from top to bottom.

"I think you overdid it, Miss Perfect!" James Potter's voice broke the awed silence.

"Well, Mr. Potter, you, apparently, are still here, so perhaps I need to make another go?" Lily's eyes glinted dangerously and she started to walk in his direction, shimmering as she moved.

"LILY!" Mel's voice halted Lily. "You can sit by me." Lily looked at Mel and her other friends at the Hufflepuff table, and felt her anger flow out of her. She looked back at James with something like hopelessness, before turning her back on the Gryffindor team captain.

Later, Lily walked down the hallways to reach her house. She traced a smiley face on the pillar in gold, standing aside so everyone behind her could see the pillar turning. "And that is how we get into the common room. Dormitories for the boys are on the left, girls on your right. At no time are girls allowed in the boy's dormitories and vice versa, understood? Well, I think that is all, except that you have entered the house with the greatest responsibility. It is our job to help everyone get along, but the most important thing is to be loyal to your housemates. We will support you as much as we are able, so I hope you will give your all for us. Get a good night's sleep, we're going to have a busy day tomorrow." Lily looked around to see the entire house listening to her speech. She smiled; she bet this never happened in any of the other houses.

Josie rose from the yellow plush couch, "Everyone, one last thing. Another attribute of Hufflepuffs is that we are a united front. So I am going to request that we cease all contact with James Potter, in retribution for his foul behavior to our beloved Lily Evans." A couple of female whines greeted this statement. "I know that he's supposedly cute and all that, but I hope you believe that showing him that our Lily isn't to be trifled with is far more important. Are you with me, Hufflepuff?" Josie could have given some cult leaders a run for their money, as the loud "Aye!"s coming from the Hufflepuff common room could attest. Lily felt a swelling of happiness that she had such friends.

For the next several weeks, the admiration of the Hufflepuff community was shifted abruptly from James Potter of Gryffindor to Amos Diggory of Hufflepuff. Lily talked to James only at Head and Prefect meetings tersely, afraid to let anything else slip. She had never had to take points from her own house before, and she was not eager to repeat the experience. Lily read James' letter every night, trying to be angry at him, but ended up only blaming herself for her studiousness and competitive nature.