"POTTER!"
"EVANS!"
"What are you doing here!" Both Lily and James yelled at the same time.
"I ASKED YOU FIRST!" they glared at each other as they once again said the same thing at the same time.
"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT!" the said together.
"ME! IT'S YOU WHO'S DOING IT!" they said together once again.
"Stop." Lily said holding up her hand. "This is ridiculous. Now what are you doing in the Heads compartment?"
"My job. I'm head boy." James said glaring at her and frowning even deeper when she backed up in surprise.
"You? You, James Potter? Headboy? What was Dumbledore thinking?" Lily asked him yet at the same time was talking to herself.
"What you don't think I can do it?" James asked a little hurt by the fact that once again someone questioned Dumbledore state of mind while picking him.
"No James." Lily said shaking her head at him. " I know you can do it. I'm just worried over whether your going to."
"Hey what's that supposed to mean Evans? Sorry I'm not a little goody-to-shoes like you. But it doesn't mean I cant be a good head boy."
"It's not a matter of you being a goody-to-shoes as you put it or not. How will you be able to discipline the younger students when your worse then them?" Lily asked thoroughly offended though she didn't show it.
"Why am I even talking to you again. I have better things to do." James turned around to leave but the door shut itself and locked. "What the hell!"
"Look. There is a letter for us." Lily picked up a scroll from a small table. The letter was addressed to them. "Dear Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans, Welcome to your seventh year at Hogwarts. I trust that you two will both make it to the start of term feast both alive and well…yeah right." Lily added as she read aloud. "As Hogwart's head students you are to set a good example for your peers, and work together to solve any problems you may come to face. For without teamwork and partnership, things will only be harder. Now I know the two of you do not get along so great, however I also know that you were at one point close friends. I would hope you could put your animosity aside and work together for the good of the school as well as yourselves." Lily glanced at James who was sitting across from her listening to her read the letter. For a minute she thought she saw a small sincere smile on his face, but when he realized she stopped reading he looked up from her and from his thoughts.
"Well what else does it say?" He snapped at her impatiently. She shook her head and continued reading.
"Your Job as heads with be to oversee all perfect meetings as well as meeting with my self once a month. You will be in charge of setting Hogsmead visits, as well as organizing school social events. And of coarse you will patrol the school one night a week. This is only a brief overview of your duties and you will be better informed at your first meeting with me, which will be tomorrow at 9:00 PM, password is 'lollypop,' have a good day."
"What that's it? That's all it said?" James asked taking the parchment from her, looking over it for more instructions of some sort.
"If there was more I would have read it Potter." Lily said sighing. "Look, we are going to have to work together all year, and seeing as I would like to enjoy my last year at Hogwarts, lets try to at least be civil with one another. Okay?" she asked, knowing she would once again have to be the better person.
"Fine. Lets get this meeting with the prefects over with, I'm supposed to meet up wit the guys in ten minutes." James informed her as he headed out of their compartment and to the adjacent one, where the prefects were. Lily sighed again and followed him.
The meeting was rather uneventful, most of the female prefects drooled over James while the males glared jealously. When they were finished all of the prefects returned to their own compartments, except for Remus Lupin. Remus was one of James group of friends, the Marauders as they were called. Remus was the only one of the Marauders that Lily could stand, he was quiet and smart like her, he was also the voice of reason.
"Hello Lily," Remus said while he waited for James to gather the papers he had taken notes from the meeting on. "Did you have a nice summer?"
"No." Lily told him, not bothering to lie. While she didn't dislike Remus, she didn't like him either. Also he knew that at least part of her summer was miserable because James was her neighbor, and the Marauders spent most of their time at James house. "You?" she added after a minute in order to be respectful.
"It was alright." he said as James approached him ready to head for their compartment. "Ready James? I think Sirius is probably going out of his mind without us. I hope he hasn't strangled Peter yet."
"Nah, I don't think he'll try that again. Apparently Peter bites really hard." James said smiling as the two left the compartment, leaving Lily alone. She shook her head and exited the compartment as well, looking for her three best friends.
"I cant believe you did that!" was the first thing Lily heard when she entered the compartment her friends were in. "Now he's going to think I like him." A pretty girl with long black hair said, to another girl next to her, who was most defiantly her twin.
"You do like him!" The twin said rolling her pretty blue eyes, while the third girl, a pretty girl with short blonde hair and big brown eyes was rolling in her seat with laughter.
"That's not the point. He doesn't need to know that!…oh Lily, there you are. Will you please give this idiot of a sister of mine detention." She motioned at her twin, her green eyes borrowed into an intense glare.
"What she do?" Lily asked her friend. Ashlyn Thompson and her twin sister Brooklyn, were two of Lily's best friends. They where identical in every way physically, except their eyes, Ashlyn's were green while Brooklyn's were blue. Normally Ash was the more troublesome of the two but Brook held her own.
"She did a spell to change her eyes green, and then went up to Sirius Black and hit on him!" the blonde girl, Alexandra Spenser said, laughing furiously. Alex was a very sweet girl, but a bit of a tom boy. She also tended to antagonize the twins. " You should have seen it Lils. She even slapped his bum. Ash nearly fell over. And-" she tried to catch her breath from all the laughing. "Sirius, he, he, my god it was hilarious, he tried to grab her ass back and she slapped him so hard that when we left Pettigrew was trying to revive him. And if that wasn't enough, Pettigrew messed up and gave him pink spots!" Alex gave up the battle on trying to stop laughing, and Lily joined her laughing like a mad person. Brook had a large grin on her face and Ash was positively flushed.
"So, who's the new Headboy? Is it Remus like we thought?" Brook asked after she regained composure. It was no secret amongst their group that Brook had a crush on Remus, but she was to shy to admit it to him.
"Ha, don't I wish!" Lily said sighing deeper into her seat. " No, some how that prat James Potter made Headboy!" she clenched her fists as she said it and her friends exchanged looks knowing that they were about to endure another one of Lily's rants about James. "I mean what in the world was Dumbledore thinking when he chose James?" She was glaring in to wall of the compartment, Alex was sure she saw it starting to smoke. " How can he be trusted to look after the other students? He couldn't even keep his goldfish alive for two days! Not to mention he's going to let those bloody Marauders get away with everything!"
"Whoa, Lily. Just calm down." Ash said, she was used to her friends frequent outbursts. "Dumbledore would not have chosen James for the job unless he thought he could do it. I mean this is Dumbledore we're talking about, the greatest wizard that ever lived. He's not going to make some stupid decision that would cause problems for the school."
"I suppose your right." Lily sighed, falling back into her seat. "It's just it makes me so mad. I've worked really hard to get where I am, and I don't want James ruining it for me."
"Don't worry Lils, if anyone can whip that boy into shape, it's you." Alex told her patting her on the back. "Besides, maybe after working together, you and James can become friends again." At this point the three other girls looked at Alex as if she were crazy.
"The days of James Potter and I being friends have been over since the day he did that horrible spell on me!" Lily told her. At the beginning of their first year, James and Lily had been the best of friends, as they had since early childhood. But as James became better acquainted with his dorm mates they slowly began to drift apart. By the end of the year they were barely more then acquaintances. Any hope that Lily had of them regaining their friendship over the summer was ruined when at breakfast on the last morning he offered to pour her juice, and slipped a hair loss potion into it. Lily had been growing her hair out since she was five, and James knew it. She had to wear a hat all summer and have Madam Pomfrey do several spells on it to make it grow long enough to reach her ears. She had never forgiven James and to this day she has to do hair renewing charms once a month to keep her hair from falling out.
"I suppose your right." Alex told her sighing. " Well, what should we do for the rest of our last train ride to Hogwarts?"
"Padfoot?" James asked when he entered 'the Marauder's official compartment' as it had been dubbed in second year. He and Remus had entered to find Sirius leaning back in his seat with a look of fury on his face, along with a body full of orange stripes. Peter was across from him franticly searching through a large book. "What happened to you mate?"
"I'm not sure who's worse. Thompson or Wormtail!" Sirius said, his eyebrows knitted into an evil scowl.
"I- I did m-mean to Padfoot!" Peter said, looking up from the book. Sirius gave him a disgusted look and Peter flinched before returning to the book.
"What happened?" Remus asked as he and James sat down on either side of the compartment.
"Well here I was walking to the compartment with Peter when who should approach me, but Ashlyn Thompson." Sirius told them, both James and Remus rolled their eyes. Ashlyn and Sirius had been in somewhat of a prank war for three years. "Don't you roll your eyes at me!" he told them before continuing on. "Anyway, she starts to flirt with me, now I'm a healthy young man with natural urges, so I decide to flirt back, I mean its not as if she's ugly. Well the next thing I know she slaps my arse. What kind of man would ignore an invitation like that? So I might have let my hand wander, and the next thing I know I'm out cold on the floor with Peter leaning over me trying to revive me." Remus and James both started laughing hysterically at this, causing Sirius to glare at them.
"Let me guess, the orange stripes aren't a fashion cry for help, Peter messed the reviving spell up didn't he?" James asked laughing, while Peter blushed, pushing his face deeper into the book.
"Hey the orange stripes are better then the pink spots or the blue and red chessboard pattern."
Sirius said, causing his two friends to laugh even louder. "Look, since Peter has yet to find the reversal spell in that book of his, do you think one of you could reverse this stupid spell?"
"What are you going to do for us if we do Padfoot?" Remus asked innocently. "You know, my cauldron is in desperate need of a good scrubbing, and James' broom is looking a little dull." Remus said smiling a slightly manipulative smile.
"I'm so going to kill you Wormtail." Sirius said glaring yet again. "fine, I'll clean you bloody cauldron, and I'll polish James broom." Sirius told them reluctantly. "Just get these stripes off of me!"
"Alright Padfoot." Remus said pulling out his wand. "But you have to do both, without magic." Sirius' jaw fell at this and he looked at Remus like he was crazy.
"You've got to be kidding me Moony. You sound like McGonagall." Sirius pouted at his friend. Remus make no sign of budging on the deal. "Alright. But I'll get you back Moony. Just do the spell." Sirius pouted and Remus was sure he heard Sirius say something under his breath like 'Lets hope he never becomes a teacher.'
Remus preformed the simple spell and Sirius was back to normal in seconds, leaving Peter looking rather put out. He had spent the last fifteen minutes searching through his hex reversal book.
"Why couldn't you do that Peter?" Sirius asked glaring at the smaller boy, who was sinking lower in his seat by the second.
"Why couldn't you?" James asked Sirius who looked like he was going to respond before he realized James was right.
"Wait a second? Why didn't you say that before? Now I have to do those stupid chores!" Sirius asked looking rather put out at his best friends trickery.
"And pass up a free broom polishing? Why would I do that?" James asked him, a devious smile on his face all the while.
"Some friend you are mate." Sirius said in a huff as he slid back in his seat pouting. Rather then pitting him and subsequently relieving him of his chores as Sirius had hoped, his behavior caused the three other boys to laugh.
"So what happened with Evans?" asked Peter, who was in a better mood now that the negative attention was drawn away from him.
"Oh, the usual." James said in a rather bored voice as he pretended to pick lint off of his new robes.
"Oh you mean some yelling, followed by more yelling, mixed with a hex or two, all finished off with a slap across the face?" Sirius asked sarcastically, seeing it as a chance for revenge.
"Haha, very funny Padfoot. But at least I didn't end up unconscious, with pink spots." James said causing Sirius to falter for a moment.
"Well, you've got a point there Prongs." Sirius said laughing. He knew better then to get into a battle of comebacks with James. James had the unfair advantage of six years of practice with Lily.
"Well she has no choice but to except it." Remus said joining his friends conversation. "No matter how hard she protests, James is the Headboy. And Lily is far to sensible to waste the energy it would take to continue arguing with you over everything all year. Chances are she will attempt to be civil with you James, I think you should share the courtesy." Remus told James in all seriousness. James however took the advise lightly.
"Trust me, no matter how well behaved I act, Lily will hold a grudge. I mean completely aside from the whole hair thing," James said, which got a slight cough from Remus at his lack of sympathy for the misery he caused Lily. "she still hates me from braking her doll when we where four."
"Ha! Evans played with dolls?" Sirius exclaimed laughing. He was the only one, the other three looked at him with curious looks..
"Well duh." James said looking at Sirius strangely. "When she was little. All girls do."
"What are you talking about? The whole time we were growing up I never saw Bella or Cissa with a-" Sirius stopped realizing what he said. "Never mind." Sirius rolled his eyes. The others smirked.
Sirius cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa Black could hardly be considered girls. Granted they were female, but few claimed to know of which species they were bread from. Or so the Marauders liked to think.
"The point is!" James said reverting the conversation back to his problem. "Lily is never going to forgive me, so why bother?"
"Do you want her to forgive you Prongs?" Remus asked James who gave him a funny look.
"Well I certainly don't want her after my blood for the rest of our lives. But beyond that I could really care less."
"Are we intruding?" came a voice as the compartment door slide open. Lily, Alex, Ashlyn and Brooklyn stood at the door looking the four boys.
A few minutes earlier
"Oh I forgot!" Lily exclaimed loudly, causing the card house Alex had spent the last half hour building to explode.
"Lily!" Alex cried. "I you know better then to make sudden movements or noises while I'm playing with exploding snap cards. I think I singed my eyebrow." she said feeling above her eye.
"Oh don't worry. It's fine." Ash said, pulling out a mirror to prove that her face was in no way irreparably damaged.
"Gosh, what is it Lil?" Brook asked seeing Lily rifle through her bag.
"I have to go find that prat, Potter." Lily said pulling out an envelope and a small package.
"What's this? Have you decided to give up your hatred and court dear Potter?" Alex asked jokingly, now that she was sure her face was fine.
"Haha, very funny." Lily said standing up. "It's from my mother." The three girls rolled their eyes. They all knew, that despite Lily's disdain for James, her mother absolutely adored the boy she'd know since he was a born.
Marauder's compartment
"Are we intruding?" came a voice as the compartment door slide open. Lily, Alex, Ashlyn and Brooklyn stood at the door looking the four boys.
"Well, yes." Sirius said, all to bluntly. He was definitely not over the whole slapping thing.
"She wasn't talking to you, Black." Ashlyn said. Rather then be embarrassed by her sisters prank, Ash chose to simply forget the whole incident, with the exception of pink spotted Sirius, of course.
"Potter, I forgot to give this to you before." Lily said, being as civil as she could, which Remus noted. She reached into her robes and pulled out the envelope and package.
"What's this?" James asked suspiciously. He was not fool enough to believe it was a gift or peace offering from her.
"It's from my mother. She made me swear to give it to you, as she didn't get to see you before she left for the states last week." Lily said. She loved her mother very much, and was very close with her. But Lily could not understand how her mother could adore James so much, knowing how he had tortured her the last six years.
"You didn't poison it did you?" James asked knowing that whatever the present was, there was sure to be cookies as well. Mrs. Evans always made him his favorite chocolate chip cookies with her presents.
"As tempting as it is, I restrained myself." Lily said, a fake sweet smile on her face all along.
"Good." James said opening up the gift. Inside was a hand knitted scarf in Gryffindor colors. James smiled at the nice present and pulled out the bag of cookies, that Mrs. Evans clearly had Lily perform a warming spell on as they were still out-of-the-oven warm. "Thanks Evans."
"Uh huh." Lily said before turning and walking out of the compartment, followed by her friends.
"Man I feel sorry for her." Sirius said taking one of James cookies that he had offered to his friends.
"What do you mean?" James asked not really caring much.
"Well she hates your guts mate." Sirius told him looking rather thoughtful.
"Really? It only took you six years of school to figure that out? I'm sure McGonagall will be thrilled." James said sarcastically, prompting a glare from Sirius.
"Haha, very funny. No I mean, she hates you, but she has to give you presents her mother hand makes for you. And I mean actually hand makes. She cant even use magic, she does it the muggle way." Sirius said looking rather impressed with the quality of the scarf.
"Well its not my fault Mrs. Evans adores me is it?" James asked giving his most innocent looking face. The three other boys all nearly fell on the floor laughing, followed by James.
"Prongs, don't tell me that face fools anyone?" Remus said in a fit of laughter.
"You'd be surprised." James told him. The four continued to laugh harder.
"That Prat!" Lily said. Luckily for her friends, she was all ranted out for the day. "I knew I should have just poisoned him and be done with it." she sighed.
"I've been telling you that for years Lil." Alex said. The girls had returned to their own compartment, where Alex and Ash pulled out their books and quills to finish the summer work they had avoided all summer. "Now why don't you let us see your potions essay?" Alex said smiling sweetly at her.
"I was hoping you would have attempted to do your own work for our last year." Lily said smiling as she went through her bag and pulled her essays out.
"Why break tradition?" Ash said dipping her quill in ink before starting to paraphrase the three foot essay.
Lily and Brook just laughed at the typical behavior.