Chapter Two: The Lion and the Tiger

(POV of… er…well… no one)

Lily sighed. It was seventh year at long last and she was feeling all but overjoyed.

She didn't really know what to expect about seventh year. She had heard many things about it, most of which were true: lots of homework to study for N.E.W.T's, loads more of responsibilities, a couple of dances, and finding your soul mate or something like that.

It was true. A lot of married couples originally got together during their 7th year. Either that or actually acknowledged each other which would lead to something more outside of Hogwarts.

Lily didn't care about "finding her soul mate", she was concerned about what she was going to do after Hogwarts…

She considered being a teacher at Hogwarts, but there were no empty positions. She knew she could never be an auror—she may have been in Gryffindor, but she doubted she could have enough courage to pursue such a job—a healer seemed like a good option, but Lily didn't know if that was what she truly wanted…Hell, she didn't even know if she wanted to live in the wizard life anymore.

It would have been so much easier if she had been pureblood or something like that. She would have simply known the wizard world was for her. Unfortunately she was like mixed-bloods and other muggle borns; one foot in and one foot out.

She thought about all of this as she stared outside her window. She had boarded the train not seeing any of her friends and sat down in an empty compartment, content with being alone. She had no idea when she was supposed to go to the head compartment, but she didn't want to go anytime soon.

Her alone time was over in an instant though, when her three best friends burst into the room.

There was Alice Eaton as was mentioned earlier. Alice wasn't an ugly or pretty girl, with dishwater bone-straight colored hair falling just slightly past her shoulders. Her eyes were a pale blue and she was slim. She was sweet and very graceful, as graceful as any ballerina Lily had seen, and that was what attracted guys to her. Lily, being quite overprotective, never approved of any of her previous boyfriends, but noticed Frank Longbottom had his eye on her, and Lily couldn't complain.

Next came Estella White. She had two sides to her: the good girl who never did anything wrong—this "mask" was worn when any adult was within a 2 meter radius. The other side was one worthy of a Marauder. She was cunning and smart—Lily was rather surprised she wasn't in put in Slytherin. She was physically the opposite of Lily with her wavy raven hair and sharp blue eyes, but they both shared a terrible temper.

Then there was Selene de Silvana. She was part-veela and the prettiest out of all four (A/N: Gasp! Yes, even more so than Lily.) She had shimmering platinum hair with the oddest eyes, even for veelas. They were a purple-blue, which made her even more beautiful. She was shunned by the veela side of her family for it, out of jealousy. With veelas, you envied them and they easily could envy you. Selene, however, didn't have a jealous bone in her body. A few wistful ones, but not a jealous one. She wasn't shy but quiet and Lily's confidant after Alice of course.

Immediately they all came in and squealed and gave Lily hugs.

"Where were you?" Asked Alice, who was looking extremely hyper. "We looked all over for you!"

"You mean we looked all over," Estella said, rolling her eyes. "Alice here was too busy making goo-goo eyes and conversation with Frank Longbottom."

Alice flushed and Lily smiled at her friend knowingly. "It's quite all right. You found me now, right?"

They all agreed and chatted happily about this and that, and then it all came to an end when James Potter stuck his head in.

"Afternoon ladies," he grinned the grin that made all the girls flush and giggle… except Lily.

"Afternoon James," everyone but Lily chorused. He looked over at her, expectantly, and Lily, not wanting to be rude, replied, "Hey, Potter."

Then, "What do you want?"

James put on a mock-hurt expression. "Can't I come and say hi to my favorite girls?"

Lily rolled her eyes while the other three giggled. "You can, but not without a catch. Seriously, what do you want James?"

"Sirius' last name is Black, not Lee, Lily," James corrected, and got another eye roll. "And we have to go to meet with the prefects."

"We?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "Why do you have to go?"

He flashed a badge at her. "Cos I'm Head Boy of course."

Lily almost fainted right there, dead and away. "You're kidding."

"Nope," James grinned upon seeing all four of the girls' shocked faces.

"Oh Merlin," Lily muttered. "Well, how did you know I'm Head Girl?"

James shrugged. "Easy," he said smoothly, "I figured it had to be one of your four, you're the smartest girls of our year." The other three flushed. James stole a glance at Lily. "Although I had my sneaking suspicions it would be you."

Lily stared right back at him, not wanting to let his flattery work its magic on her.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, let's get this over with." She bid a good-bye to her friends and started walking behind James to their compartment.

Her mind had too many jumbled thoughts. James Potter? Head Boy? Dumbledore must have gone insane!

James was far too irresponsible, and was always pulling pranks on the Slytherins (although Lily secretly admitted that some of them were actually quite humorous.)

Although he had stopped calling her Carrot-Top two years back, he constantly flirted with her, asking her out at least once a week. She always blatantly refused, thinking he was too immature for her.

Lily prided herself on being the only girl in Hogwarts who hadn't fallen for James' charm. Although he flirted with her shamelessly, he had gone out with many other girls, all of which he dumped before they even hit the two-week mark! Lily knew that if they went out she would end up like a used and abused Barbie doll before the month was up… and she certainly didn't want a broken heart. It was already bad enough that her last boyfriend… Mark… had been… Lily gulped thinking about him… murdered by Death Eaters.

Lily had almost loved him, if there's such a thing. She cared for him deeply, and him for her, but the summer before sixth year was when she got that fatal letter from Professor Dumbledore, giving her his most sincere condolences.

Lily forced herself to think of other things as the two entered the compartment, which was filled with the other prefects.

"Attention everyone!" James clapped his hands. "Make way for Queen Lily!"

Lily rolled her eyes and smiled and said hello to everyone. A few of the boys flushed and murmured a "hello" and the girls smiled right back at her and chorused "Afternoon Lily". She really was a queen, although she really was unaware of it.

James, however, knew he was something special. He wasn't ignorant, if that's what you would call Lily. He said hello and the boys replied with "Oy, how was your summer mate?" "Nice seeing you again!" "Let's bring the cup home this year!" The girls blushed prettily and batted their eyelashes, saying coyly, "Hey James." He nodded at the boys coolly and winked at the girls suavely, causing a few to sigh.

Lily saw this and raised an eyebrow. Really, the girls were behaving like complete idiots! What was it that made James Potter so special?

God must have heard her question, because she found out soon enough.

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"Evans!" Lily turned to see the sight of the ever-annoying James Potter coming towards her. It was after the feast and the sorting, which were both relatively calm, considering no pranks were played. Lily herself was surprised but didn't dare let herself think the four had grown up.

"Yes?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Come on! You didn't forget did you? We have to go meet Dumbledore!"

Lily frowned, her mind drawing a blank. "About what?"

James dramatically exclaimed, "About what?! About where we'll be living of course!"

"We'll be living in our dorms…"

"Right…" James cocked his head. "You really don't know, do you? Heads get their own special rooms."

Lily blinked.

"So you're saying… we have to live… together?"

James nodded. "Yup. Normally this wouldn't happen but we're in the same house so Dumbledore figures we won't kill each other or anything."

Dumbledore really has gone off the deep end… thought Lily. But she supposed he was right. Lily didn't hate James truth be told… she just found him annoying. And she didn't understand him. But more on that later.

Lily must have had an odd look on her face because James said quickly, "Don't worry Tiger. We'll have a common room in the middle so it's not like we're all that close to each other…"

Interestingly enough, the only thing Lily picked up on was, "Tiger?"

It was James' turn to blink. "What?"

"Tiger. You called me Tiger." Lily raised an eyebrow, waiting.

"Oh!" James said, then looked sheepish. "Sorry. Kind of slipped out. Just a nickname I s'pose."

"Why Tiger?" Lily asked.

"Well, you both have orange-red hair… or in their case fur… that and aren't there such flowers as Tiger Lillies?"

To his relief, Lily slowly smiled. "That makes sense."

"So… you're not angry?" He asked hopefully.

Lily shook her head. "I haven't decided yet," they were walking along the hallway towards Dumbledore's office and she turned her head to grin at him. "But I don't think so."

James felt like he was on top of the world. Lily didn't hate him… at least he thought she didn't.

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Inside his office, Dumbledore greeted the two with an affectionate smile. He knew about their past—hell, Dumbledore knew nearly everything—and he considered it another perk about putting the two together as heads. Perhaps they could set aside their differences and become friends.

What Dumbledore didn't know though was that that slight push was all they really needed. Both were stubborn, but her temper and his ego calmed down a bit during sixth year. They barely spoke to each other—except for him asking her out and her snapping a "No" in reply.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans," he nodded at them. "I trust you're doing well."

"Excellent in fact," James said with a grin.

Lily answered, "Fine thank you, Professor," she smiled, "and yourself?"

Dumbledore smiled in return. "It has been a wonderful evening Ms. Evans, thank you for asking."

James rolled his eyes at all of the formalities but was silent nonetheless.

Dumbledore stood up fro his desk. "Well, we had better be off I suppose. You two probably want to settle in."

The two nodded and Dumbledore lead them to a portrait of a lion and a tiger, looking rather hostile towards the other. "Natural enemies in the wild," Dumbledore said quietly as he saw the two gazing at it. "Though they hardly are ever thrown together… they're so different from each other. Yet every once and a while they come together… this is very rare, mind you, and only under certain circumstances… but what they produce is mind-boggling."

He quietly said the password, "Cytherea."

Lily thought this an odd password, but said nothing. They walked in and both were stunned by what they saw.

They saw a common room, with deep red couches, red and gold rugs, with gold curtains. There was a blazing fire, and beyond it was a little balcony.

"Wow," breathed Lily.

"Blimey," James said, in awe.

Dumbledore glanced at the two before saying softly, "Welcome home."