Chapter I

On the Hogwarts Express

((Lily's POV))

The barrier to Platform nine and three quarters stood in front of my trolley and me. I walked toward it briskly, gained speed, and was jogging by the time the front of my trolley met the wall. Instead of crashing, though, I melted through it and found myself in front of the scarlet Hogwarts express. Steam billowing upwards, other pupils laughing and chatting merrily, people hanging out of the windows talking to their parents…this was my home.

I hoisted my trunk off of my trolley and staggered under its weight. A sixth year Hufflepuff boy walked up to me, though, and carried it onto the train for me.

"Here you go," he said politely, setting it down on a couple of small wheels at the bottom.

I beamed. "Thank you!" I called after him as he went to go help a Slytherin girl with her trunk.

I wheeled it along, checking in the compartments for my friends. I checked my watch. It was ten fifty-four. They had to have been in there someplace…

"Oy! Lily!" I heard a familiar voice say from a compartment I was passing.

Inside were my two best friends, Rose Macintosh and Pansy Karlson. Pansy had called for me, and I saw both of them beaming when I came in. Rose, a pretty girl with blonde hair and grayish blue eyes, had the August edition of the catalogue Witch Owl opened in her lap, no surprises there. Pansy, a girl with dark brown hair and even darker brown eyes, who looked perfectly fine aside from her acne, had a miniature mirror held in front of her face, which was forgotten when I came in.

"Oh!" was all I said, setting my trunk down and hugging each of them. "How are you two? I haven't heard from you since your owls came!"

"We're fine," Rose assured me. "My older brother, David, got a job at Mungo's the week before last!"

"And I found a recipe with bubotuber pus to get rid of my acne!" put in Pansy, examining the spot in between her eyebrows. "I haven't tried it yet, though."

"That's great!" I said, heaving my trunk into the storage area above the seats. "Petunia met some clown named Vernon. He has as much manners as he has neck."

"Not many, then, I presume?" Rose said, her eyebrows raised.

Before I could respond, a loud whistle sounded, and the train began to move. Students were leaning out of the windows, waving goodbye to their parents. My parents, who were Muggles and couldn't get through the barrier, were not outside the window. Rose and Pansy jumped up to wave goodbye to their parents before sitting down again.

"So, Lily, how about putting on that Head Girl badge, eh?" Pansy said, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, that's right," I said, pinning it to my chest after retrieving it from my pocket. "I have to go talk to the prefects."

"You know who's Head Boy yet?" Rose inquired.

I shook my head. "I just hope it's not Snape. Eurgh." We all snorted, and then I departed for the compartment reserved for the prefects' meeting.

Much to my dismay, the person I least expected to be standing up among all of the sitting prefects was—

"Potter?" I hissed incredulously. A few of the prefects looked at me like they had much better things to do than listen to me get in an argument.

"Evans! Just the person I've been dying to see!" He threw one of his arms around my shoulder carelessly, holding out his other arm dramatically. "And Head Girl, too, I see? Prefects, I am glad to announce, the Head Squad!"

"Of two people?" snorted a fifth year girl with short black hair.

I lifted his wrist, which was on my shoulder, and dropped it. "I am working with you very reluctantly, Potter, and remember that."

He kept his smile plastered to his face, then turned to the prefects. "Okay, we won't keep you for very long, because these meetings tend to be boring, and I have better things to do than hang around with you lot. You know, I have to buy a few Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans and feed them to some first years—"

I coughed loudly and whispered in his ear, "You can't, stupid, you have to set a good example." I clapped my hands together. "Now! Onto business, here. Congratulations on your, er, prefectness, people! You won't really have to do anything tonight except patrol the train once every hour, and be sure every first year follows Hagrid—you know, the gamekeeper, he's hard to miss—to the boats, and that everybody else gets on the carriages. After the feast, round up your House and head for the common room."

"Oh, and I have your passwords here," James (I called him James in my mind) informed them, pulling out four envelopes from his pocket. "They're on the little slips of paper. Ravenclaw?"

A sixth year girl with light brown hair stepped up and took the envelope. I noticed James eyeing her with a bit of curiosity, but she didn't notice.

"Slytherin?"

A boy with dark brown hair took the envelope.

"Hufflepuff?"

A fifth year girl with curly blonde hair stepped forward and took the envelope.

"And here's the Gryffindor one," he said, opening it. He showed me the password, which was "Fondue," before handing it to a black boy that had stepped up.

"Okay," I said after they had looked at their new passwords. "Your duties this year will be to mainly keep everything in order. If someone tries to hex somebody else in the hallway, give them detention. Use your good judgment to determine what kind of detention they get. But if you give someone detention for no reason due to a grudge or something, we can always find out."

James began talking more, and then I sort of stopped listening, watching him. He was so brilliant looking, with messy black hair and warm hazel eyes. His skin was tanner from being out (he had gone to Italy over break, Pansy had told me), and his glasses reflected the light of the lamps. He was tall and thin, but in a muscular sort of way, and had hands that I, for a fleeting moment, wanted to lace my fingers through and hold. James must have sensed me looking at him, for he sent a glance in my direction as he talked, but I diverted my eyes to my shoes and blushed.

Why was I thinking about him like that? Ever since first year when he transfigured my hair green (how he managed that at such a young age, I still didn't know), I had a strong dislike for him. He always asked me out, and I always declined, mostly impolitely. I assumed he only did that, convincing me to say yes, then would smirk and yell, "Hah! I made you go out with me! Just kidding!"

The thought of James breaking my heart was the main reason I always refused. He also put far too many hexes on the Slytherin lot, and he always acted like an arrogant git. I thought that, eventually, it would sink into his head from every time I told him he was one. Apparently not.

Finally, the meeting was over, and the prefects filed out of the room. James looked at me for a moment, and then said, "Will you go out with me, Lily?"

I sneered. "Whatever happened to 'Evans'?" Then I walked out.

Rose, Pansy, and I purchased some Chocolate Frogs and Cauldron Cakes, as the skies outside grew darker. Fog began gathering in large portions, so large that we could barely see the ground outside the windows. At long last, we put on our Hogwarts robes and hats, and then I began moving along the train, telling people to put on their robes.

At long last, the train slowed and came to a stop. Everybody was looking out the windows for a sight of the castle, but only the towers and lights could be seen in the mist. I picked up my trunk and joined the throng of people moving out.

A/N: I really hope you guys liked the first chapter! Read and review, please.