The Flower that Finally Bloomed
Chapter 4
Meeting the Head Boy
Lily stepped out of her car, at King's Cross. She had started to unload her luggage when her mother, Linda Evans, got out of the driver's side and walked up to Lily.
"Umm...so I guess this is goodbye for another year, Lillian," Mrs. Evans started, awkwardly. Lily simply nodded her head and gave her mother a rather half-hearted hug. Things had always been awkward between her and her mother. Mrs. Evans had spent so much time on her work, and on earning money, that she had simply ignored her daughters (Lily and Petunia) for as long as Lily could remember. As a sad result, Lily always regarded her mother bitterly. Lily's father had been killed in an automobile accident five years ago, so Lily suffered terribly from the lack of parental affection.
Lily turned to walk towards her platform. Then she felt the familiar flood of empty emotions, stemming from her mother's neglect. Tears gathered at the bottom of her eyes. Then as she passed trough the barrier between platform 9 and 10, Lily blinked back her tears and put on her emotionless mask that for a long time had fooled everybody at Hogwarts. To take her troubled mind away from all of her family problems, she began to think about her school life, and her final year at Hogwarts. She was Head Girl this year. This thought cheered Lily up considerably. Then she suddenly remembered that she was entitled to sit in the Head's compartment. 'Wonder who the Head Boy is?' Lily thought. Lily hoped he would be a responsible one. Over the holidays, Lily had also done some extra reading, giving her a head start in her studies (she had taken all the subjects she could squeeze into her timetable, so she probably needed it). Oh, yeah. She had a new look too. Lily wasn't really bothered with this. She had changed her look, no doubt, but she wasn't about to go crazy over it.
'CRASH!!!' Lily hadn't been looking where she was going, and had crashed her trolley into another girl, who gave out a cry. "Oh my god!! I'm so sorry!! I'm soooo sorry!!" Lily repeated, panicking. She rushed forward to see if the girl was hurt. "SARA!!!!" Lily shrieked ecstatically, when she saw the girl's face.
Sara, meanwhile, was staring gapingly at Lily's body. "Lily... is that you," Sara asked uncertainly. Lily nodded, and burst into giggles at the sight of her friend's pale face. "What the hell did you do to yourself Lily?" Sara half-shouted.
Lily's face immediately fell. "You mean you don't like it?" Lily said softly.
"Are you crazy? I love it. You look so damn good. You are so definitely telling me all of your beauty secrets," Sara squealed excitedly.
By now, quite a few people were starting to look their way. Lily suddenly felt self-conscious, and looked up. She saw many older boys gaping at her in a rather rude way, and a fair number of girls (mostly from Potter's fan club) giving her a scornful once over. Lily started to panic when she saw a few from both parties, making their way over to her. Lily quickly grabbed a still talking Sara, who was saying stuff like, "...always knew she had potential...never listened to me....", and hauled her on the train, and into the nearest empty compartment that she could find. Lily then dragged their trunks in, and cast a powerful Silencing Spell on the door, to make sure that no one would be eavesdropping on them. When she finally turned to face Sara, she was bombarded by a wave of questions.
"What did you do to yourself? (Did you see the looks you were getting back there? You definitely have to tell me your beauty secrets.) But why did you do it? Why did you decide to change so suddenly? Shit. This is just so sudden," Sara blurted out in one breath. Lily hesitated, before telling her best friend about how the in incident last year, with Potter had affected her, how she wanted to show everybody what she was made of, how she was finally Head Girl, and finally about how attention shy she still was, even with her new personality. Then she launched into a detailed account of what had happened between her and Potter, in Diagon Alley.
By the time Lily had finished her story, she looked up at Sarah, expecting her to get all critical and start advising her. To Lily's amazement (and amusement), found Sara laughing uncontrollably, with tears starting to form at the sides of her eyes. "Oh, Lily! You know...(laughter)...you're just too...(pause for big intake of breath)... much. Imagine screaming at...(hysterical laughter)... James Potter...(gasp)... in front of everyone..." Sara cried, trying unsuccessfully to manage her laughter. Finally, she gave up trying and Lily thought she was going to have a fit.
Lily decided that she couldn't take it anymore, and left the compartment for the Head's compartment. "Hey!!! Where do you think you are going?" Sara called from behind Lily.
"Oh, only to the plush Head's compartment, where everybody is sane," Lily answered casually, with a smug expression on her face.
"Whoa!! Hold on. I'm coming with you," Sara cried as she scrambled up to Lily. She most definitely wasn't going to miss this fabulous, once-in-a- lifetime opportunity, to lounge in the Head's compartment. Lily smiled triumphantly to herself, at her friend's response. In truth, Lily didn't think that she was quite ready to come to terms with the fact that she was actually the Head Girl for the whole year, without her best friend. But damn it. She was feeling so goddamn excited, butterflies in the stomach and all, as she got nearer to the Head's Compartment. She could only make wild guesses, to who was the Head Boy.
When they finally reached the Head's Compartment, they could hear male voices coming from inside. 'Good. The Head Boy's there already,' Lily thought, with a rush of anticipation. She stood in front of the compartment door, straightened her clothes, and looked at Sara, who gave her a reassuring smile. Lily pushed open the sliding door and stared in amazement at the inside of the compartment. It was decorated and furnished lavishly, with the house colours of Gryffindor, red and gold, everywhere.
But as she scanned the room, Lily's eyes landed on someone that made her heart stop abruptly. Standing before her, inside the Head's compartment was non other than James Potter and company. And to add salt to the wound, James Potter had the Head Boy badge pinned onto his robes. Behind her, Lily heard Sara give out something between a hiccough and a choke. Suddenly, Lily felt her head swimming with nausea, as the realisation hit her, that Potter was Head Boy and she was Head Girl. She would be sharing a tower wit him, sharing duties with him, and worse of all, they expected her to actually work with HIM. Lily felt her legs turn to jelly at the last thought, and she had to lean on the door handle to steady herself.
Her heart gave a leap; when she felt the same pair of strong hands that had lifted her in Diagon Alley, guide her almost forcibly to the couch. They then sat her down gently on the sofa surface, and at that moment, Lily made herself look up. She felt a jolt of electricity surge through her body; as her eyes met James' brown ones, once again. She had wondered since that encounter at Diagon Alley, why James' eyes had had such an effect on her. She quickly brushed those thoughts away, and tilted her head slightly, to look past James. Sara was peeking over James' broad shoulders. Her face was pale and her eyes Shivered with fear. Sirius, Remus and Peter were standing right beside Sara, looking very worried. Lily could vaguely make out Sara mumbling something like, "I didn't know that she would take the idea of James being Head Boy, so badly. Oh dear. This is really bad."
Lily suddenly got her movement back, and attempted to stand up. She managed to do so, though on wobbly feet. "I'm perfectly alright, and I can assure you that I'm not in any sort of a life-threatening situation, now. Though I must say, Potter becoming Head Boy was pretty shocking," Lily weakly, but haughtily, retorted.
James suddenly cleared his throat and said charmingly," Excuse me, miss, but what do you exactly mean by that. You seem to know my name and that I am a very horrible person, yet I do not know a thing about you...well, except that you are the new Head Girl."
Lily gritted her teeth at the sound of his honey sweet voice. After so many years of hearing him using his mocking and cold tone at her, this change of voice slightly alarmed Lily. Then she remembered that she was now a beautiful goddess instead of a pathetic geek, in Potter's eyes. Lily felt a familiar rush of rage flood her veins.
"Oh please, Potter. You have known me for the last six years. No wait. Scratch that. Made my life a living hell for the last six years," Lily hissed. James as well as his friends looked thoroughly confused at this sudden outburst. Lily savoured this moment before continuing her verbal pounding. "C'mon Potter. Don't tell me you could forget one of your daily social victims. I'm hurt," Lily sighed, feigning hurt – James seemed to have gone into deep thought. "Fine, add some frizzy hair, large glasses and baggy cargo pants," Lily spat impatiently. James looked even more clueless. "Potter, are you really that thick? Why don't you try flat- chested and total 100% geek," Lily continued. "Okay," Lily said boredly, " Lets see whether this recollection helps. Last year, two weeks before summer holidays, my essay was destroyed – completely drenched – in black ink, by a stuck-up asshole."
Suddenly, James's eyes widened in realization. "It can't be. You're...You're Evans?" James asked uncertainly.
Sirius snorted and said, "Evans. Jamsie, are you thinking straight? Evans is the queen of geeks. You're insulting this beautiful lady in front of us, by simply mentioning her name. Evans...god , you've got to have flies in your head to think SHE might be Evans."
Lily looked sweetly at Sirius and said, "Oh but on the contrary, Mr.Black. I am Lily Evans, Queen of Dorks as you might put it, and how do you like my new look? More feminine don't you think," Lily said in her sickeningly sweet voice. Lily's expression suddenly changed and she glared venomously at a very surprised Sirius. Then she walked out of the room in a huff, leaving a bewildered Sara to chase after her.
Evans. Evans...that name kept on resounding in James's head. James was still having a hard time accepting that the most beautiful girl he ever laid his eyes on was Lily Evans. She seemed to have an effect on him that he had never experienced with other girls before. The way electricity surges through his body every time her green eyes connected with his hazel ones. The way his hand would tingle after touching her. It was like they were made for each other. But the only thing was that Evans thought that he was nothing but a vain, bullying bastard. True. He had made her life a total hell for he past six years. But now, she had changed from a super geek to a megahot chick. Now, ever since that incident in Diagon Alley, all his mind would allow him to think about was Lily Evans.
But James was completely aware of how much she hated him. Trying to hook up with her would be like diving headlong into a sea of sharks. In other words, utter suicide. James was sure that even if he turned on the full Potter charm, Lily would still just brush him off like a pest. Lily was certainly no airhead. In fact she sometimes scared him, especially during her frequent outbursts. James mentally reminded himself to be more careful this year. Lily might just decide to strangle him in his sleep or something.
A loud whistle startled James out of his thoughts. He looked around and saw that all his friends had already changed into their school robes. "Shit. Shit," James sweared as he tried to pull on his robes, which kept slipping down his shoulders. After finally managing to get into his robes, James looked out of the window of the compartment and saw a huge majestic castle. He took one look at it and thought, 'My home for the rest if the year.' And this year being Head Boy and all , he was going to be in charge. Then his mind untactfully reminded him, 'Not fully in charge. Evans will be there, playing her role as Head Girl.' She was going to make his life a living hell but delightful at the same time.
Lily stepped out of her car, at King's Cross. She had started to unload her luggage when her mother, Linda Evans, got out of the driver's side and walked up to Lily.
"Umm...so I guess this is goodbye for another year, Lillian," Mrs. Evans started, awkwardly. Lily simply nodded her head and gave her mother a rather half-hearted hug. Things had always been awkward between her and her mother. Mrs. Evans had spent so much time on her work, and on earning money, that she had simply ignored her daughters (Lily and Petunia) for as long as Lily could remember. As a sad result, Lily always regarded her mother bitterly. Lily's father had been killed in an automobile accident five years ago, so Lily suffered terribly from the lack of parental affection.
Lily turned to walk towards her platform. Then she felt the familiar flood of empty emotions, stemming from her mother's neglect. Tears gathered at the bottom of her eyes. Then as she passed trough the barrier between platform 9 and 10, Lily blinked back her tears and put on her emotionless mask that for a long time had fooled everybody at Hogwarts. To take her troubled mind away from all of her family problems, she began to think about her school life, and her final year at Hogwarts. She was Head Girl this year. This thought cheered Lily up considerably. Then she suddenly remembered that she was entitled to sit in the Head's compartment. 'Wonder who the Head Boy is?' Lily thought. Lily hoped he would be a responsible one. Over the holidays, Lily had also done some extra reading, giving her a head start in her studies (she had taken all the subjects she could squeeze into her timetable, so she probably needed it). Oh, yeah. She had a new look too. Lily wasn't really bothered with this. She had changed her look, no doubt, but she wasn't about to go crazy over it.
'CRASH!!!' Lily hadn't been looking where she was going, and had crashed her trolley into another girl, who gave out a cry. "Oh my god!! I'm so sorry!! I'm soooo sorry!!" Lily repeated, panicking. She rushed forward to see if the girl was hurt. "SARA!!!!" Lily shrieked ecstatically, when she saw the girl's face.
Sara, meanwhile, was staring gapingly at Lily's body. "Lily... is that you," Sara asked uncertainly. Lily nodded, and burst into giggles at the sight of her friend's pale face. "What the hell did you do to yourself Lily?" Sara half-shouted.
Lily's face immediately fell. "You mean you don't like it?" Lily said softly.
"Are you crazy? I love it. You look so damn good. You are so definitely telling me all of your beauty secrets," Sara squealed excitedly.
By now, quite a few people were starting to look their way. Lily suddenly felt self-conscious, and looked up. She saw many older boys gaping at her in a rather rude way, and a fair number of girls (mostly from Potter's fan club) giving her a scornful once over. Lily started to panic when she saw a few from both parties, making their way over to her. Lily quickly grabbed a still talking Sara, who was saying stuff like, "...always knew she had potential...never listened to me....", and hauled her on the train, and into the nearest empty compartment that she could find. Lily then dragged their trunks in, and cast a powerful Silencing Spell on the door, to make sure that no one would be eavesdropping on them. When she finally turned to face Sara, she was bombarded by a wave of questions.
"What did you do to yourself? (Did you see the looks you were getting back there? You definitely have to tell me your beauty secrets.) But why did you do it? Why did you decide to change so suddenly? Shit. This is just so sudden," Sara blurted out in one breath. Lily hesitated, before telling her best friend about how the in incident last year, with Potter had affected her, how she wanted to show everybody what she was made of, how she was finally Head Girl, and finally about how attention shy she still was, even with her new personality. Then she launched into a detailed account of what had happened between her and Potter, in Diagon Alley.
By the time Lily had finished her story, she looked up at Sarah, expecting her to get all critical and start advising her. To Lily's amazement (and amusement), found Sara laughing uncontrollably, with tears starting to form at the sides of her eyes. "Oh, Lily! You know...(laughter)...you're just too...(pause for big intake of breath)... much. Imagine screaming at...(hysterical laughter)... James Potter...(gasp)... in front of everyone..." Sara cried, trying unsuccessfully to manage her laughter. Finally, she gave up trying and Lily thought she was going to have a fit.
Lily decided that she couldn't take it anymore, and left the compartment for the Head's compartment. "Hey!!! Where do you think you are going?" Sara called from behind Lily.
"Oh, only to the plush Head's compartment, where everybody is sane," Lily answered casually, with a smug expression on her face.
"Whoa!! Hold on. I'm coming with you," Sara cried as she scrambled up to Lily. She most definitely wasn't going to miss this fabulous, once-in-a- lifetime opportunity, to lounge in the Head's compartment. Lily smiled triumphantly to herself, at her friend's response. In truth, Lily didn't think that she was quite ready to come to terms with the fact that she was actually the Head Girl for the whole year, without her best friend. But damn it. She was feeling so goddamn excited, butterflies in the stomach and all, as she got nearer to the Head's Compartment. She could only make wild guesses, to who was the Head Boy.
When they finally reached the Head's Compartment, they could hear male voices coming from inside. 'Good. The Head Boy's there already,' Lily thought, with a rush of anticipation. She stood in front of the compartment door, straightened her clothes, and looked at Sara, who gave her a reassuring smile. Lily pushed open the sliding door and stared in amazement at the inside of the compartment. It was decorated and furnished lavishly, with the house colours of Gryffindor, red and gold, everywhere.
But as she scanned the room, Lily's eyes landed on someone that made her heart stop abruptly. Standing before her, inside the Head's compartment was non other than James Potter and company. And to add salt to the wound, James Potter had the Head Boy badge pinned onto his robes. Behind her, Lily heard Sara give out something between a hiccough and a choke. Suddenly, Lily felt her head swimming with nausea, as the realisation hit her, that Potter was Head Boy and she was Head Girl. She would be sharing a tower wit him, sharing duties with him, and worse of all, they expected her to actually work with HIM. Lily felt her legs turn to jelly at the last thought, and she had to lean on the door handle to steady herself.
Her heart gave a leap; when she felt the same pair of strong hands that had lifted her in Diagon Alley, guide her almost forcibly to the couch. They then sat her down gently on the sofa surface, and at that moment, Lily made herself look up. She felt a jolt of electricity surge through her body; as her eyes met James' brown ones, once again. She had wondered since that encounter at Diagon Alley, why James' eyes had had such an effect on her. She quickly brushed those thoughts away, and tilted her head slightly, to look past James. Sara was peeking over James' broad shoulders. Her face was pale and her eyes Shivered with fear. Sirius, Remus and Peter were standing right beside Sara, looking very worried. Lily could vaguely make out Sara mumbling something like, "I didn't know that she would take the idea of James being Head Boy, so badly. Oh dear. This is really bad."
Lily suddenly got her movement back, and attempted to stand up. She managed to do so, though on wobbly feet. "I'm perfectly alright, and I can assure you that I'm not in any sort of a life-threatening situation, now. Though I must say, Potter becoming Head Boy was pretty shocking," Lily weakly, but haughtily, retorted.
James suddenly cleared his throat and said charmingly," Excuse me, miss, but what do you exactly mean by that. You seem to know my name and that I am a very horrible person, yet I do not know a thing about you...well, except that you are the new Head Girl."
Lily gritted her teeth at the sound of his honey sweet voice. After so many years of hearing him using his mocking and cold tone at her, this change of voice slightly alarmed Lily. Then she remembered that she was now a beautiful goddess instead of a pathetic geek, in Potter's eyes. Lily felt a familiar rush of rage flood her veins.
"Oh please, Potter. You have known me for the last six years. No wait. Scratch that. Made my life a living hell for the last six years," Lily hissed. James as well as his friends looked thoroughly confused at this sudden outburst. Lily savoured this moment before continuing her verbal pounding. "C'mon Potter. Don't tell me you could forget one of your daily social victims. I'm hurt," Lily sighed, feigning hurt – James seemed to have gone into deep thought. "Fine, add some frizzy hair, large glasses and baggy cargo pants," Lily spat impatiently. James looked even more clueless. "Potter, are you really that thick? Why don't you try flat- chested and total 100% geek," Lily continued. "Okay," Lily said boredly, " Lets see whether this recollection helps. Last year, two weeks before summer holidays, my essay was destroyed – completely drenched – in black ink, by a stuck-up asshole."
Suddenly, James's eyes widened in realization. "It can't be. You're...You're Evans?" James asked uncertainly.
Sirius snorted and said, "Evans. Jamsie, are you thinking straight? Evans is the queen of geeks. You're insulting this beautiful lady in front of us, by simply mentioning her name. Evans...god , you've got to have flies in your head to think SHE might be Evans."
Lily looked sweetly at Sirius and said, "Oh but on the contrary, Mr.Black. I am Lily Evans, Queen of Dorks as you might put it, and how do you like my new look? More feminine don't you think," Lily said in her sickeningly sweet voice. Lily's expression suddenly changed and she glared venomously at a very surprised Sirius. Then she walked out of the room in a huff, leaving a bewildered Sara to chase after her.
Evans. Evans...that name kept on resounding in James's head. James was still having a hard time accepting that the most beautiful girl he ever laid his eyes on was Lily Evans. She seemed to have an effect on him that he had never experienced with other girls before. The way electricity surges through his body every time her green eyes connected with his hazel ones. The way his hand would tingle after touching her. It was like they were made for each other. But the only thing was that Evans thought that he was nothing but a vain, bullying bastard. True. He had made her life a total hell for he past six years. But now, she had changed from a super geek to a megahot chick. Now, ever since that incident in Diagon Alley, all his mind would allow him to think about was Lily Evans.
But James was completely aware of how much she hated him. Trying to hook up with her would be like diving headlong into a sea of sharks. In other words, utter suicide. James was sure that even if he turned on the full Potter charm, Lily would still just brush him off like a pest. Lily was certainly no airhead. In fact she sometimes scared him, especially during her frequent outbursts. James mentally reminded himself to be more careful this year. Lily might just decide to strangle him in his sleep or something.
A loud whistle startled James out of his thoughts. He looked around and saw that all his friends had already changed into their school robes. "Shit. Shit," James sweared as he tried to pull on his robes, which kept slipping down his shoulders. After finally managing to get into his robes, James looked out of the window of the compartment and saw a huge majestic castle. He took one look at it and thought, 'My home for the rest if the year.' And this year being Head Boy and all , he was going to be in charge. Then his mind untactfully reminded him, 'Not fully in charge. Evans will be there, playing her role as Head Girl.' She was going to make his life a living hell but delightful at the same time.