Disclaimer: I disclaim all names of characters, places, and things, from the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Did You Find What You Were Looking For?

Chapter 4: Passwords

By: Taiyourshoes

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lily carefully pushed a strand of red from her face as she glanced down the length of the Gryffindor table. The feast had started, she had been introduced as head girl, James as head boy, and everyone seemed perfectly content with stuffing their faces with assortments of pies and other sweets.

Perhaps she was just paranoid, but despite the number of distracted faces she saw along the row—none looking at her—she felt as though she were being watched. She shivered a bit.

"Still shaken about the spider incident?" Remus Lupin, a fellow Gryffindor and Prefect asked concernedly. From his place adjacent to her, he looked rather pale and sickly, and Lily had the suspicion that he'd be out sick for the first few Prefect meetings that were to take place that week.

"It's got nothing to do with that, but thanks for reminding me of that lovely Potter-invoked prank." Lily took a sip of her pumpkin juice and glanced around again, searching for a face gazing back. When she was satisfied that no one was watching her she rounded on Lupin with an apologetic smile. "Didn't mean to be rude, sorry. Just, your friend really gets under my skin sometimes."

He nodded, taking a roll from the basket laid before him. "James can do that to a girl."

Lily almost took offense to this, simply because she hated being nothing more than "a girl" in the eyes of... anyone, but decided Lupin was looking too gentlemanly to have meant harm in his statement. Besides, it was true, James tended to be on the mind of girls a lot. A lot.

"Yes, well, where is your friend anyways? I'd hope he'd be here, ready to give the Prefects instructions with me." Lily paused. "As head boy and all."

"No idea," Lupin said, eyes zooming about the table as Lily's had been doing all night. "The boy's got a short attention span—He's probably off sending an owl or something."

Lily fell silent. Was "sending an owl" code for "hexing a poor first year in the corridor?"

"I'll be right back."

She rose from the table, eyes roving over the entire hall and to the other tables, searching for a sign of a scruffy-haired someone. However, her eyes caught something else; two other eyes, beady, black eyes, staring directly at her only a few feet away. She tried to dart away from him, but he caught her at the door.

"I need passwords, Evans," said Severus Snape in a greasy manner. His hooked nose loomed down at her. Lily Evans usually tried to stay on fairly good terms with everyone of her year, but this was completely impossible in two cases in particular. James Potter was one and Severus Snape was the other.

"You haven't been glaring at me all night, have you?" Lily asked, wondering if she had been right in her suspicions that someone watching her.

"Don't flatter yourself, Evans. Passwords?"

Lily blushed slightly, hardening her expression as her spunk flared up within her.

"Sorry, can't do a thing without Potter. The job is half his after all. And I'd just like to register that it might do well for you to talk in a civil manner to me this year, as you always try to." The last bit was drenched in sarcasm. "I'll find Potter for you."

She continued out the door, hurrying along in hopes that Snape would stay far behind her. Ever since he called her a Mudblood—for the third time, anyway—she decided it wasn't worth her time to care about his thoughts or opinions. He always had something condescending to say and she didn't really appreciate it.

Lily didn't have too go far, for she reached the marble staircase after only a few hurried steps, where she found Mr. James Potter making his way down. He caught sight of her.

"All right, Evans?" He inquired, smiling that charming smile of his. He was tucking something away in his robes in an almost mischievous way.

"We have to tell the Prefects the house passwords now."

"Right you are. It's a good thing you're clever, isn't it? Never could have remembered after all that lecturing in the train." James screwed up his face and put on a high falsetto. "And don't you dare miss a meeting, because I don't have time for a head boy who doesn't take his job seriously. And we have to talk to the Prefects tonight. Remember that. Remember to remember the meetings and to talk to the Prefects and to run the bloody school because I know you just won't remember and I can't have my reputation on the line. Can you remember that?"

"You put a spider in my hair so I was angry," she said dryly, not willing to give into any sort of guilt trip from James Potter. "And you weren't in the Great Hall, as you should be, so don't scold me for trying to... remind you of your duties. And I don't talk like that."

James snorted, truly entertained by his affect on her. He knew her I'm- going-to-pretend-you-aren't-bothering-me face better than his middle name, and she was wearing a very impressive degree of it at that moment.

"If you say so," he said, still in his mock-Lily voice.

~*~*~*~*

"...and each slip of paper has your respective house passwords on them. Got that? If it's illegible, blame your head girl. She seemed to like the idea of "water-as-ink" so I hope they haven't dried yet."

There were scuffles as prefects hurried to read their passwords by holding them up to the torches in the Entrance Hall. Lily tutted loudly as a few Prefects gave her disbelieving glares.

James smiled at the gullible tendencies of the school prefects. "I was joking. Miss Practical here wouldn't go for the idea." The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw girls giggled as they folded their papers back up, satisfied that they were in no danger of losing their precious house password.

"Thank you, Mr. Serious," Lily commented, rolling her eyes. "Meeting tomorrow after dinner, seventh year prefects" –she gestured at Remus, Abigail, and a few others—"will patrol the halls tonight until every last straggler is back in bed. Good night to you all."

The prefects began mumbling to each other as they swung their bags over their shoulders, preparing to walk back into the Great Hall to gather the first years. Lily made to follow them when she felt someone tugging on her sleeve.

"Yes, Potter?"

"Just curious if you were going to smother me in my sleep for picking on you a bit. If looks could kill, you'd be forced to wear sunglasses," he decided, reminding her of the scowls she'd given him throughout the night.

"I wouldn't find the time between checking to see if you put rats on my pillow or something very... Potterly."

James laughed again. Lily didn't know why, but his laugh was almost soothing to hear. It was one that told you, despite everything cruel he might do, it's all meant in jest.

"I would never. Besides, can't get into the girls' dorms anyway, now can I?"

"Not to say you wouldn't try..."

"Again, right you are Miss Evans. You are just too clever! And you wonder why I'm so smittened!"

With those parting words, he made his way back into the Great Hall, leaving Lily with a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. She always felt this way after a civil conversation with James Potter, when he wasn't jinxing someone to get her attention or teasing her mercilessly.

Deciding the feeling was too foreign, she swallowed and hoped it would dissolve and she'd forget that feeling once again.

She never did, and she would find that for the rest of the year and so long after, she never would. In a weird way, just by a little comment made by a boy always willing to give her so many others, Lily's eyes had locked onto a boy with scruffy hair and hazel eyes, and she just couldn't turn away.

~*~*~*~*~

Taiyourshoes: That took years! Well, what can one do when they are extraordinarily lazy? It's Spring Break, so my updates should be a little more frequent. And I know, what a boring chapter? But I have a plan and things should get a little more interesting in the next chapter or so.

Thank you to the people who reviewed and read!