Chapter 15

(A/N) Thanks for all the reviews! And, special thanks to everyone who waited long enough for this chapter to come out!!!!! I wrote this chapter the day I got out of school! So, this is dedicated to everyone on summer break, my friends at my school, KMS, especially.

I am so, so, sooo sorry I didn't update this sooner! We just moved, and I couldn't get back on the internet for a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: I own the plot.

*~*~*~*~*

"I'm supposed to escort you outside," James muttered.

Lily took her coat off the coat rack, and followed him out the door. "I think that went over quite well."

"Yes, wonderful," he said sarcastically.

"No need to be snide," she said, as they trudged through the snow over to the side of the road.

"Well, they did like you," James said.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Really? Your father-"

"He interrogates everybody that I bring home," James shrugged. "It's sort of like a test. Especially if it's a girl I bring home."

"A test of what, exactly?" Lily frowned.

"A test of your intelligence, your manners, just about everything," James shrugged.

"Why?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, as they stood on the curb. "He just does that."

Lily held out her wand hand, the way to call for the Knight Bus. "Hmm. It's taking them a while."

James leaned against a large tree trunk. "You have the plane tickets, right?"

"Yep," Lily nodded. "First class seating."

"You think it's going to be fun?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. We won't be able to write to anyone, and, well… I'm sure it'll be fun if they're anything like Leslie over there."

James laughed. "Leslie is…"

"Crazy," Lily finished for him. "I wonder if all Americans are like her."

"If they are…" James laughed.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just… My dad would probably have a case if he ever met Leslie," he said.

Lily smiled. "I'm sure. Imagine her answers. 'Oh, back home, we never did that! That is so, totally, cool!'"

"He'd lose three weeks worth of sleep," James agreed.

"He'd lose four weeks if he knew that you played pranks non-stop at school," she said.

There was a loud bang, and the Knight Bus appeared, Stan stepping out. "You youngsters ready to go?"

*~*~*~*~*

"The flight is to be delayed for half an hour because of the snow," Lily announced, reading the screen.

James nodded. "This is a muggle airport?"

"Of course it is," Lily frowned.

"So what do muggles do when their flights are delayed?"

"Why, wizards don't have delayed flights?"

"We apparate."

Lily sighed.

*~*~*~*~*

"Boarding all first class passengers at this time," a voice announced.

"Ready?" James asked.

Looking up from her book, Lily nodded and grabbed her bag. "Let's go."

*~*~*~*~*

James looked out the window as the plane lifted off.

"It's still snowing," he commented.

"Potter, it's nearly ten thirty!"

"What, jetlagged already?" James asked. "We've barely taken off."

"Funny, Potter," she said. Looking out the window, she commented, "It's still snowing."

James grinned. "You weren't listening to me, were you?"

*~*~*~*~*

James jerked awake in the middle of the night, from some nightmare.

"That was creepy," he murmured to himself. It had involved Voldemort, a rat, green light, and a baby. About all that he could remember.

"Get a night light, Potter," Lily mumbled next to him sleepily, before drifting back to sleep.

*~*~*~*~*

At the baggage claim, Lily preformed a quick charm to shorten the process, as their bags suddenly appeared.

"So how do we get there?" she asked.

James frowned. "Well, McGonagall said to look for a man with a board with our names on it…"

Lily scanned the crowd. Off to the side, there was a chauffeur holding up a sign that read: "Lily Evans & James Potter".

"Over there," she pointed.

Picking up their bags, they walked over to the man.

"Miss Evans and Mr. Potter?" he inquired.

"That's us," James nodded.

"I have instructions to drive you over to the Salem School of Magic," he said, walking them outside over to a long, black limousine.

*~*~*~*~*

The Salem School of Magic turned out to be in Boston, Massachusetts.

The school hardly resembled Hogwarts in any manner. Lily's owl, Hera, seemed disturbed by the difference. It must have been half the size of Hogwarts, but it was still large. It had large white pillars in the front, with a few steps beneath them. It was a red brick, and had large, mahogany doors, with the inscription, "E Pluribus Unum" carved on it, then an eagle with an olive branch in one hand, and arrows in the other.

Above them, there was a large bell, similar to one seen at a church. The area was surrounded by acres of snow-covered lawns, and bordered by large trees, and a small archway made from the branches (magically put in that position, undoubtedly) followed by a sidewalk that lead to the steps before the school, serving as an entranceway.

Walking under the arch and up the steps, they pressed a button, which served as an intercom, as they heard a voice saying, "Who is it?"

"Lily Evans and James Potter, the exchange students," James said into their end of the intercom device.

There was a small clicking noise, and the gigantic doors suddenly opened, admitting them inside.

Once they stepped inside, the doors swung shut, and they turned to face a large room, similar to that of the Grand Hall in Hogwarts. Many students were staring at them with polite curiosity, and others looked away disinterestedly.

A stout, old, little witch walked over, wearing a brown robe and a black pointed hat, her brown hair streaked with gray and pinned into a bun. She reminded Lily a little of Professor McGonagall.

"Hello," she greeted. "I am the Vice Principle of the school, you may call me Vice Principle Landers. There will be a sorting into our four houses, once the other two exchange students arrive, from Beauxbatons, in France."

As if on cue, two students suddenly walked in, a boy and a girl, speaking quickly in French with each other.

The blue-eyes, blonde haired, girl approached Landers, and said, in a thick accent, "Is zis ze American school of magic?"

"Yes, Yes. I am your Vice Principle Landers, please, follow me, follow me. It's time to sort you," the woman said.

*~*~*~*~*

As they were soon to find out, the sorting was similar to the Hogwarts ways.

There were four houses, all named after animals. The Eagles, the Panthers, the Owls, and the Lions. The Eagles appeared to favor quick thinkers, the Panthers seemed to be an American version of Slytherins, sly and stealthy, the Owls academically excelled, the Lions, leaders, not followers.

Both Lily and James were sorted into the Lions.

*~*~*~*~*

Within fifteen minutes of his stay, James had managed to attract the attention of nearly every girl in the school.

Lily, on the other hand, appeared to be fading into her surroundings, barely noticed, aside from the girls in her dorm room.

*~*~*~*~*

Her introduction had been interesting enough.

"So you're the transfer student from England?" one girl, who introduced herself as "Amanda" asked.

"Yes, Lily Evans, pleased to meet you," she briefly shook the hand Amanda extended.

"You talk funny," a blonde girl said across the room.

Amanda rolled her eyes. "That's Christina. We call her Christie. She's very blunt."

"Hello, Christina," Lily greeted the girl, who was lying on the top bed of a bunk bed.

"Good night," the girl replied, turning over to her side.

Sighing, Lily walked over to a bed near the window and began to unpack.

*~*~*~*~*

"Hi, Sirius! We're having a good time over here. Well, by that I mean my owl and I. Evans seems to be in a sour mood. Perhaps we should recreate the atmosphere in Hogwarts to be like it is here. Torture for her, it would be-"

James crumpled the parchment and threw it out in a nearby trash can. It sounded too… Too… Too stupid. Of course, it didn't matter, as he wouldn't be seeing or keeping in touch with Sirius anyway, but he was still a perfectionist.

Two and a half weeks had past since their arrival at the school, and he had become more popular than ever. Lily, on the other hand, seemed to be reliving first year, the year when she was unpopular and unknown.

However, she was very well known at the school. James had noticed that everyone knew Lily at the school, but found her extremely dislikable. He didn't know why, but it disturbed him, in a way, thinking that he was more popular than she was.

The rivalry didn't seem to be there in class, she would just sit and take notes, occasionally chew the bottom of her lip in thought. Perhaps it was the fact that the competition wasn't as widely known. James Potter wasn't sure why, but with her unpopularity, it no longer seemed necessary to compete with her.

He could see that she wasn't very social, nor did she talk to the other students. He was pretty sure she didn't even have friends. Th girls in her dorm would often talk of her behind her back.

Sure, James didn't like her, but he never liked it when people talked about others in a demeaning manner when the person wasn't there to defend themselves. Unless, of course, it was him that was talking.

"James, it's time for dinner," a boy with dark brown hair said, popping his head in the door.

"Right, I'll be there, Tom," he nodded.

Getting up, James shook away any second thought of Lily Evans and left for dinner.

*~*~*~*~*

"January 23rd, 1978," Lily wrote.

"Voldemort, affects students here at Salem, as well as in England. I never thought he was so powerful. This morning, Christie's parents were killed by some crazed Death Eater. Apparently, Voldemort sends his Death Eaters around the globe, spreading the word of a dark wizard ready to corrupt the world. Of course, it sounds like something out of a fairy-tale, after all, you'd think the muggle governments would have heard about such things. Still, I can't believe that the whole Voldemort ordeal could be solved by just killing him, as some other students seem to think. Sure, he's the source, but the power resides in his Death Eaters, also. They debate on the matter constantly, and I'm beginning to tire of it. Can't they talk of anything else? If it's not Voldemort, it's the latest fashion, scandal, or fad. Of course, I never join in on their discussions. It does me better; I can listen to them, and gather more information. I'm perfectly well aware of what they say behind my back. They refer to me as 'haughty', and 'stuck-up'. Perhaps I'm just a social recluse here. It doesn't matter, I'm not here to win their approval. Still, if I do join in on the conversations, everyone either ignores me, or dismisses off my idea as just silly. Sometimes I wish I had a friend, but there's no one here that's a good friend. They talk about each other behind their backs, they taunt and tease, they act horribly to their 'friends'. I have no wish to associate myself with people who do so to their so-called friends. My roommates, Amanda and Christie, are really no help to the matter. They're quite hostile at times, and really don't appear to want to be my friends. Potter, however, seems to be adjusting around here quite nicely. As usual, the girls are practically swarming around him, possibly even more because of his 'accent'. He's not stupid, I can tell you that, diary. At least there's one other person who sees past these phony facades everyone carries around. But though he knows, he still seems to enjoy their company. Why, I don't understand. I have always respected Potter for at least having good judgement (Ha! If Evelyn could read this now!), but I'm starting to reconsider. Dinner time.

Yours truly,

Lily Evans."

Locking up her diary and putting it in a secret compartment she had found in the antique desk (by jiggling the handle of the second drawer, a small compartment that served as a false bottom of the drawer sprang open), Lily stood up and walked out to dinner.

*~*~*~*~*

James studied the bulletin board, on which dozens of flyers were tacked upon.

Mostly, nonsense things, school announcements, advertisements, just trivial things like that. For some reason, he couldn't wait for the whole trip to be over. Seven weeks; that was about two months! And no contact with anyone else aside from Evans?

Well, he had discovered she wasn't such bad company when one wished to talk about things aside from politics, magic, or the latest trends or fads.

Actually, he had discovered many things about Lily Evans that he hadn't known before.

The hall was nearly emptied, Behind him, someone's footsteps sounded.

A familiar step, light and soft, quick, yet not rushed step.

"Evans."

The steps didn't change their pace, and when he turned around, Lily was there.

She met his gaze. "Potter."

"Yes?"

"I was acknowledging you," she said, looking away. "Not addressing you."

James nodded, and watched as she walked away.

*~*~*~*~*

"Hi, Lily," Amanda greeted, not bothering to look up from her magazine.

Lily walked over to her desk and pulled out her diary.

"January 24th, 1978," she wrote.

"I am disgusted with James Potter. I am disgusted with Dumbledore. I am disgusted with the professors. I am disgusted with the students. Quite frankly, I am disgusted with everything about this school. Why? Potter acts totally and completely like the American stereotype of us around the girls, and though highly exaggerated and sarcastic as his newfound ability to be a personality chameleon is, I don't think they notice. And Dumbledore, why did he send us here? The average intellect level in my Charms class is below sea level! Weren't we supposed to learn things here? So perhaps I'm not adapting too well. Maybe my social skills need to be improved. But honestly! Is that all I'm supposed to learn here? The professors here are no help, either. They drone on about the work for an hour, then assign work. I don't blame it all on the professors, after all, the students share the blame, but can't they at least put in a little interest in the subjects they teach? The students… well, it's quite obvious why I'm disgusted with them, after my last entry. But most of all, I am disgusted with myself. Back home, I'm well rounded, outgoing enough, and likable by most. Am I really so pathetic to just let myself disappear and take up a new version of myself? All one has to do around here to seem "well rounded" is to play baseball well, have the ability to aim a spitball correctly, and read a book from cover-to-cover out loud, without sounding monotonous.

Lily Evans."

*~*~*~*~*

(A/N) That was pretty good. Hopefully, my portrayal of Americans doesn't offend anyone (I am one myself, after all.). Don't mind Lily, she's just in a foul mood. Very pessimistic in this chapter. I didn't mean for her to turn out that way.

Kudos to anyone who figures out the meaning of the chapter title.

To Come: I realize everyone's going to scream CLICHÉ at me, but… tragic news for Miss Evans.