Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter in any shape or form or shape. I do, however, own a Tinkerbell calendar, but it's nearly finished.

The Obvious Choice

Fifteen minutes. Fifteen. The Sorting must have already started, and here was Lily, still waiting for the Head Boy to deign to show up. She felt a feeling of dread well up inside her as she tapped her foot impatiently on the wooden leg of her chair. Any Head Boy who turned up this late for a meeting obviously didn't take the job as seriously as she did – and boy, did she take the job seriously.

"I'm sure our new Head Boy will be here in a matter of minutes, Miss Evans." Dumbledore, the new Head teacher, reassured kindly, his blue eyes twinkling, a sort of glint of amusement shining in them as he surveyed Lily's hyperactive foot.

"Quite." Lily concurred curtly, her foot never ceasing to tap the chair.

Finally, after a couple of awkward minutes of silence came a knock at the large oak door behind Lily.

"Come." Dumbledore said, still smiling vaguely at Lily.

Lily daren't look around to see the new Head Boy standing behind her. She almost shut her eyes tight as she heard him sit on the seat next to her out of sheer worry. Slowly, Lily took a big gulp of air, finally deciding she was being very melodramatic and turned to see a rather out of breath boy sitting beside her.

"Miss Evans, this is Remus Lupin, Mr. Lupin, this is Lillian Evans."

Remus smiled at Lily genuinely, surveying her slightly confused expression with tired grey eyes. Lily smiled back, but was not entirely sure whether to be overjoyed that Remus was Head Boy, or slightly irritated. Lily didn't know Remus all that well, but did know, however, that he was part of Potter and Black's elusive gang of Marauders.

"You're list of duties are right here," Dumbledore passed two sheets of parchment to Lily and Remus in turn "And I trust you will organise them as you see fit?"

"Gladly, Professor," Remus replied, his soft voice sounded relaxed and inviting.

"Yes, of course Professor."

Remus isn't like the other Marauders Lily thought to herself as she watched Remus concentrating on the list of duties out of the corner of her eye he's more…mature. And gentlemanly. And studious. He just happens to be friends with Black and Potter. Lily finally smiled sincerely; she decided she was relieved it was Remus, and not someone like Sirius Black - or even worse, James Potter.

"You're not very enthusiastic to be working with me, are you Lily?" Remus commented after they had left Dumbledore's office.

"No! No, nothing like that," Lily replied, a little taken aback at the question, "I just had misgivings at first because…well…"

"Because of the people I'm friends with? I understand." He didn't sound angry, just a little disappointed. "They aren't all that bad, you know."

Lily just made a sceptical tutting sound in reply.

"I'm not all that bad, am I?" He asked his grey eyes wide, a cheeky grin spread across his face.

Lily chuckled "No, Remus, you're…different. I'm glad we're working together this year."

"I still can't believe your luck, Moony. I mean Evans! The Lily Evans! My Lily Evans!" James hissed to Remus during Dumbledore's speech. Seemingly, the fact his friend was working with the object of his desire was more important than anything Dumbledore had to say.

"Keep your knickers on, Prongs. She's nothing special." Said Sirius insensitively, not bothering to keep his voice down.

"Besides, she's not yours. She doesn't even like you." Remus whispered back to James diplomatically.

"That's not the point, Moony. Not even close. Look, I'll pay you twenty Galleons-"

"Shhh!" Minerva, a slightly self-righteous Gryffindor rebuked James from the other side of the table.

"Yeah, Jamsie, be quiet!" Sirius told James off sarcastically, imitating Minerva's slightly shrill voice.

A short, chubby boy with sandy coloured hair called Peter tittered with slightly effeminate laughter at this.

"Shut up, Wormtail. You sound like a woman again." James hissed to Peter, impatiently, and Peter obeyed his immediately.

"And now, on that note, you may all eat, drink and be merry!" Dumbledore announced from the front, and everyone erupted into applause, except for a couple of sullen looking Slytherins, who sat stonily in their seats.

James and Sirius immediately started banging their plates like drums with their spoons boisterously, and were immediately copied by Peter who always copied what they did. As soon as the enormous plates and urns and tureens filled with food, the boys had no inhibitions. In they dived.

"Who is it then, Lily? Who's the lucky guy?" Audrey asked Lily almost immediately after Dumbledore had finished his speech. Both she and Lydia leaned in close, ready to hear the gossip.

"Remus." Lily replied nonchalantly, not looking either of her friends in the eye. She knew they would make a big thing out of it.

Audrey surveyed Remus casually, looking him up and down. "He's not bad looking, in a bookish kind of way, I guess."

"It doesn't matter to me what he looks like." Lily protested irritated.

"We'll see." Lydia muttered audibly, causing Audrey to burst into yet another fit of giggles.

Ignoring them both, Lily carried on piling her plate with roast potatoes and gravy. As she reached for the ladle to the gravy, she sneaked a glance at the Marauders at the other end of the table – Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter. James and Sirius were flicking peas at each other and laughing moronically, and Peter was watching over –excitedly, looking as if he were almost about to topple off his chair. Remus was simply laughing at his friends, and every now and again would flick a pea at one of them himself.

"Lily, you're sleeve is in the gravy." Lydia pointed out, one of her eyebrows raised in amusement, as Lily seemed to have gone into some sort of daydream.

Lily lifted her sleeve out of the gravy and wiped it off smiling to herself. Audrey was right, she thought, Remus wasn't bad looking.

"Aaaah, that's the way to do it." Sirius said contentedly as he lay back on his four poster bed, patting his stomach.

"I feel like I'll never be hungry again!" Peter piped up, undoing the top button of his painfully tight looking jeans as he sat on his own bed.

"Oh, you'll be hungry again in a couple of hours, Wormtail." Sirius joked lazily making Peter blush slightly.

"Lily. Why? Why? Unbelievable. Gets to spend a year – a whole year – unbelievable." James burbled to himself as he flopped back on his own bed despairingly.

"Look, Prongs, Moony is a good guy; he won't make a move on your bird." Sirius said offhandedly as he played with a small gold snitch.

"She likes him more than me. I know it. Unbelievable." James whined as he walked over to the window and stared defiantly out onto the darkening grounds. In the distance he could vaguely see a small tentacle rise out of the steely looking waters and grab a leaf that was floating on the surface.

"Of course she does, mate." Sirius replied calmly, still passing the little snitch between his hands.

"What?" James roared, walking over to Sirius's bed, and glaring down at him "What did you say?"

"Come on, Prongs, Moony's more…genteel than you and I. More appealing to birds like Lily." Sirius replied coolly, not deterred by James's angry form glaring at him.

"I can be bloody genteel." James muttered mutinously, not quite believing what he was saying himself. Sirius let out a bark of laughter and got up off his bed, patting James on the back as he passed, and began rifling through his suitcase.

"Sure you can."

Just then, in walked the fourth room mate, looking happier than usual with a bit more colour in his cheeks.

"Where have you been?" James snapped as Remus walked in.

"Had to talk to Lily about patrol this week, why?" Remus replied coolly, cocking an eyebrow at his indignant looking friend.

"Oh yeah? That's it is it?" James interrogated, rounding on his friend angrily.

"Yeah, look Prongs; I think you need to calm down. I'm not going to…do anything with Lily, ok?" Said Remus steadily, walking away from James to his own bed.

James opened his mouth again as if so say something scathing back, but Sirius shook his head at James and mouthed 'let it go' to his seething friend.

"Hey guys, does anyone want to play a game of Gobstones? I've got a new set!" Peter exclaimed shrilly as he took a silver set out of his cloak pocket.

"We're not kids anymore, Wormtail, I have something much more exciting planned for us tonight." Sirius replied mysteriously, pulling a cloak out of his suitcase and pulling it over his shoulders. "Get the cloak, Prongs."

"So, Head Girl, what do you reckon?" Audrey asked as soon as the girls had found their dorm for the seventh and last time.

"What do I reckon about what?" Lily asked innocently, as she began to unpack a large stack of school books from her bulging trunk.

"Oh come on Lily! We saw the way you were gawking at a certain Remus Lupin at the feast earlier. I felt sorry for your sleeve." Lydia joked sardonically, as she walked into their room and closed the doors behind her.

"Nonsense, I don't know what you're insinuating here…-"

"Oi, Jemima! What d'ya reckon of Remus Lupin?" Audrey yelled across the room to Jemima Prewitt, a short, auburn-haired girl who shared their room.

"Not bad, if you like studious types. He's got nothing on Sirius though, I mean, the way his hair falls-" Jemima was interrupted abruptly by an increasingly impatient Lily.

"Sirius? You must be joking!" Lily scoffed cantankerously, when she saw the glazed, dreamy expression on Jemima's face.

"Ok…what about James Potter then?" Lydia asked sneakily, her blue eyes glinting with mischief.

"You know how I feel about Potter." She muttered in reply, slamming some photographs of her family on her bedside table a little more violently than she would otherwise.

"For Merlin's bloody sake, Lily!" Audrey cried in exasperation "So, he may have asked you out a couple of times – however unromantically. Why do you hold it against the poor guy?"

"Because, James Potter is an insensitive, rude, underachieving, conceited, lowlife! He bullies students for fun!" Lily exploded heatedly, her face slowly filling with colour, camouflaging with her boldly coloured hair.

"Don't hold back your feelings or anything Lils, let it all out." Lydia commented ironically from her bed where she lay lazily, seemingly very amused and unsurprised by Lily's outburst.

"All boys are like that, though! Give James a break!" Audrey yelled back to a very angry Lily.

"Remus isn't like that!"

"So you DO like him!"

"I don't, I was just making a point!"

"Liar!"

"I AM NOT-"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?" Someone roared from the bed at the far end of the dorm.

"Hey, Amelia!" Lydia yelled back good-naturedly.

Lily and Audrey looked at each other guiltily, and both muttered an apology, both still thinking they were right.

"Padfoot, pass here!" James hollered from one side of the large, empty Quidditch pitch, where he, Remus, Sirius and Peter were all playing a night Quidditch game.

Sirius threw the big red quaffle to James with as much strength as he could muster, thus it went a little further than expected and plummeted to the ground.

"And I thought you were meant to be some sort of hot-shot Chaser…" Sirius jeered as James missed the ball miserably.

"I'm better than you!" James shouted back, his neck beginning to turn scarlet. James always got very angry when his Quidditch skills were questioned.

"Well, I'm a bloody beater, aren't I?" Sirius yelled back, doing a random loop to show off for no apparent reason, and was promptly given a round of applause by Peter, who, as soon as he took both his hands off his broom, almost fell off.

"Look, will you two shut up and get the ball?" Remus growled back, eager to carry on the game.

James was about to retort when he realised where the ball had gone, and decided he would go and get it after all. He went into a dive and swept the large ball up in his arms smoothly, but instead of immediately going back to his friends, he simply flew up the side of the castle, to a window near the top with it's lights on.

Lily's dorm.

James mentally patted himself on the back for his excellence as he hovered outside the window, just out of view. He could see five girls in the room, all of whom he recognised – Lydia Woodhouse, Audrey Merryweather, Jemima Prewitt, Amelia Bones and, of course, Lily Evans. He could only see the back of her head, but he knew it was her – her bright red thick locks were an instantaneous giveaway. He felt his heartbeat quicken as he heard her voice.

"Because, James Potter is an insensitive, rude, underachieving, conceited, lowlife! He bullies students for fun!"

Although James sort of knew what Lily thought of him, it didn't make him any less angry hearing it for the three millionth time. Conceited? Insensitive? Underachieving? Was this really what Lily thought of him?

And then he heard something that made him almost roar with fury.

"Remus isn't like that!"

James opened his mouth in outrage, even hearing Audrey stick up for him didn't help at all. He felt as if Lily had driven a screwdriver right into his chest and twisted it around.

Seething with fury, James steered his new Comet 260 away from the window, and threw the quaffle violently at Remus's head. It didn't make him feel any better.