Chapter 2: Tough Day
James led Lily into the Head compartment. Lily sat down to nurse her knee where she had scraped it earlier.
"That was the biggest 5th year I've seen, ever." James laughed.
"Yeah, well, since he pushed me down, he also doesn't have any respect for authority." Lily grumbled. "Ouch!" she said, touching her knee.
"Maybe it wouldn't hurt if you didn't touch it so much," James said. "And I'm not even sure that 5th year was a boy…"
Lily stuck her tongue out at James. 'Very childish.' She thought. 'Could have thought of a better retort, but my knee hurts too much.'
"Potter?" Lily asked.
"Yeah?" James replied.
"We're not friends."
"Well, that's no surprise."
"No, uh, you're acting like we're friends or something. We're not."
"We do have to work together all year. What do you think, we're going to be bickering all year?"
"Well, yeah, that's exactly what I thought." Lily said, a little ashamed. "That's why I was a little more than surprised when you actually stood up to Sirius. He's your best friend!"
"Lily, about us bickering all year. What kind of example would it set for the students?"
"We're still students, too, you know." Lily pointed out.
"No, we're their superiors." James said.
"We're here! We've got to lead the students in. And remember, Potter, that just because we're colleagues doesn't mean we're suddenly good friends." Lily said, reminding James of his latest misery. "And we will finish this conversation later!"
James took Lily's hand to help her out of the carriage. "I can do it myself, thank you very much." Lily said. So James let go of her hand. Lily, suddenly out of balance, fell to the mud.
James bent down so he was closer to her face, and said, "Oops."
"You're gonna get it!" Lily yelled. 'Thank God I'm of age!' Lily thought, as she cleaned herself off with magic.
James sprinted ahead. He had seen what Lily could do when angry, many times over. and that was befoer she was of age.
James and Lily forced the Entrance Hall doors open, and led the students to the Great Hall.
Lily took her seat next to her friends, and James sat next to his.
James chatted with his friends, learning they had seen and heard the mud 'incident' with Lily. They had all had a laugh about it before the sorting began.
The sorting went off without a hitch, something that had not happened since the Marauders came to Hogwarts and they themselves had been sorted. Lily was a little suspicious. 'Not one newbie prank? Maybe Potter has grown up.'
But, alas, she was wrong. Well, only by a little bit. The Marauders couldn't resist a bit of start-of-term fun, so they set off a lot of Filibuster fireworks they had stashed in their robes. Remus had charmed one to spell out, "Brought to You by Marauders Inc."
All the first years looked frightened, but when the other students began to clap and laugh, they joined in.
Dumbledore stood up. Immediately the Hall became quiet.
"Good evening, old students and new. I welcome you into the warm embrace of the Hogwarts community, and to teach you something great and good. Magic. But now is not the time for a speech. But one thing must be said before you start eating."
"Meet your new Head Students, Lily Evans and James Potter." The students began to clap loudly, and then as it died away, Dumbledore summoned the food.
James and Sirius immediately began stuffing their faces, though James was left way behind in the contest of food consumption. Sirius had already finished his third helping of everything when James finished his first.
Remus shook his head. "I honestly have no idea how you two have managed to stay thin. Peter eats half as much as you two do, and look at him."
James shrugged and Sirius ignored him. Remus sighed and turned to eat his shepherds pie.
Lily was eating with her friends, and telling them about the carriage ride with James, and colorfully cursing his name during her telling them about the mud incident.
"Lily, you did ask him to stop helping you down." Alanna pointed out.
"Stop making wise cracks, Alanna." Anya said. "Now, what should we do to get back at him?"
"I can't, Anya." Lily said. "We work together this year. If he's in the hospital wing, most of the work would be on my shoulders." Anya and Alanna nodded sympathetically.
"So, Anya, have you polished the gold off that Co-Captain badge yet?" Lily teased, and Anya said, "No. But it's the shiniest it's ever been!"
"Yeah, Anya," started Alanna, "it'll be useful for blinding the other Beaters." Anya flicked a pea at Alanna and Lily laughed.
"Have I told you how glad I am to finally be back here with you guys?"
"Was Petunia especially bad this summer?"
"Yeah, she knows I can do magic outside of school now." Lily said. Alanna nodded. Anya just kept eating.
The feast was soon over, and as Lily turned to leave, she heard someone calling her name.
"Ms. Evans! Ms. Evans, wait!" Professor Flitwick was flying down the aisle between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
"Yes, Professor?" Lily said, smiling.
"Professor Dumbledore wants you!" he squeaked. Lily smiled again and said, "Thank you."
Lily walked up to Professor Dumbledore, where he was standing with James.
"Good evening, Lily. Come back here, if you will." Lily nodded, and James and Lily followed Dumbledore into a small chamber off of the Great Hall.
"I see you have taken this, er, shock well."
"What do you mean?"
"Of course I knew you wouldn't like being paired with Potter, but I daresay you wouldn't have enjoyed Severus Snape as well." Lily gaped at him.
"That git was next in line for Head Boy?" James said, angrily. Dumbledore nodded.
"Well, Potter, he makes you look like a model student." Lily smirked. James said, "Hey!"
"You two, calm down. We have business to attend to." Dumbledore interrupted. Lily nodded and turned her attention to Dumbledore.
"You will share your own private common room, away from the rest of the school." They nodded. Lily knew that because her friend who graduated last year had been Head Girl. James knew because, of course, he had made the Marauders Map and knew everything about the castle.
"Private prefect meetings will be held once a month and your monthly reports are to be handed in to Professor McGonagall." Lily nodded once again, and James smiled. 'This won't be too hard.' He thought.
"You are also to make a patrol schedule, for you, the prefects, and check them in to see if they concur with the Professor's patrol schedules." James's smile began to falter.
"You are also to conduct the Yule Ball, something we hold only every 16 years."
"Why 16, sir?" Lily asked. Dumbledore replied,"We have no idea. It's not a very round number, is it? But this the way we have done it and the way we will do it."
"Oh, and the Halloween feast. Extra activities are encouraged." James was officially freaked. He kept a cool face on the outside, but inside, this was too much!
'Wait a minute, I have nothing to worry about. Lily and I will split the workload!' James calmed down considerably.
"James? You are to lead Ms. Evans to the Head's quarters. You do know where they are, right?" James nodded, and started walking out the door. Lily followed.
"I don't know how we're going to keep up with all the work we have to do!" Lily groaned.
James smiled. "Well, we still have… 3 weeks before our monthly report, almost 2 months till the Halloween feast, and almost 4 months till Yule Ball. We have time." Lily smiled too.
"Well, I think that for the first week, the Professors patrol for us. But we only have until Friday to make a schedule for this month, post it in every common room, and hand it into the Professors."
"Wow, that's a lot of work." James said.
"Yes, it is."
"We're here. We can choose the password."
"Oh, I know! How about… Nope, I don't have it." Lily said, thinking.
"Maybe kneazle can be our password?" James suggested.
"Why kneazle?" Lily asked.
"Because I have a pet kneazle at my home." James said simply. Lily nodded.
"The password is kneazle, fairies." James said to the fairies in the painting. A big blue one nodded and whispered to all the other fairies, and they opened to portrait hole.
Lily gasped as she stepped in the common room. "So much for just two people!"
James entered his room on the left, and said, "Your room is on the right. Why don't you check it out?"
Lily nodded, and entered her room, also. The bed was like the one in her room back home, except instead of flaking mahogany paint, it was really mahogany! And the bed spread was the very same quilt her grandma had given her before she had died. 'Petunia had thrown a fit when she found out the eldest girl didn't receive it.' Lily thought.
Lily's favorite books had been put on a book case, along with several pictures of her family and friends. None with Petunia, though.
"There's me, Alanna, and Anya down at the lake, and Mum and Dad at a health convention…" Lily looked at each picture.
Then she took a peak in the door to her right. It led to a giant tub, and two showers to the left. Another door on the other side of the huge bathroom opened, and James said, "Wowee. This is huge!" Lily nodded, and ducked back inside her room. She grabbed a book, called, 'The Odyssey', and changed into some sweats and a t-shirt. She then went to go read in the common room.
James was looking around his room the same time Lily was. His bed was of deep oak, and his posters were the same, and his pictures of his mum and dd were there.
"I wonder…" James whispered. He opened his night table's drawer. Inside it was the picture of Lily.
"Those house elves… They can't help putting everything away. And I mean everything." James chuckled, and went to look at the bathroom.
He saw Lily at the other side of it, and he called out, "Wowee! This is huge!" He saw her nod, and he walked back into his room. He pulled on some comfy clothes, and went to bed almost immediately. It had been a tough day.
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