As her eyes fluttered open, a blurry vision of wild black hair zoomed in and out rapidly.
"Ugh. Dizzy," she mumbled. This was answered with a brief snort and giggle from behind the hair blocking her view, which was quickly cut off when the head turned around.
It only took a few moments to realise who the head was. "Get off me, Potter. Get off, now," she managed to spit out.
"Evans, you just fainted!" James chirped back.
"I don't care! That's no reason for you to be anywhere near me at all. Get. Off!" She was yelling now, her (almost) full strength having come back. "I fainted because of a lack of breath. I'm-"
"Asthmatic, I know." James butted in. "That's why you were excused from Potions the day we learned how to prepare that Noxious Potion, because of the smoke. Annnd it's why you only ever got to the second flying lesson in first year. I remember it was Professor Hooch's first year and she was really upset about it because we were her first class at the school, and she was all "Class, Lily will not be joining us any longer because the thin air in the sky makes it harder for her little lungs to cope." I remember, Lily Evans."
After his little monologue was complete, he backed away slightly and rested on his haunches, exhaling deep. Lily pulled herself up to lean against the padded bench, still sitting on the floor.
Why does he have such a vivid memory of things I can barely remember about myself? It's not like he has any reason to. We hate each other. What just happened? These thoughts and other similar ones raced across her mind at the speed of light, confusing and exhilarating all at the same time.
"Lily?" Remus had crossed the threshold now and was sitting directly opposite her, except he, of course, was actually on the seat. Telling herself to get a grip, she dragged her still puzzled body up onto the seat and tried to maintain some sort of dignified look.
"Well, Potter? Are we going to plan or not? I've got ideas for door passwords, but you already know that, right? Seeing as how you interrupted me while I was brainstorming? Have you got anything?" Lily was just trying to be mean now. She didn't like the fact that her worst enemy had seen her at her worst moment, and that he knew so much about her, so how better to get back at him than to be a total bitch?
"Actually, yeah, I have got some ideas. I came up with them while trying to wake you up. Five minutes doesn't seem like a long time, but you really can get things done." Ouch. His expression didn't betray whether or not he had meant that as an insult, but Lily definitely took it as one.
Oi vey. This year is going to be harder than I thought.
An hour and a half later, and surrounded by prefects from the top 3 years, Lily was just about to finish off the annual train meeting when James interrupted her. "Guys, I know I haven't been able to speak pretty much at all due to Lily running this meeting, so you're probably all wondering why I'm here." The prefects stared at him, slightly dumbfounded, except for Remus, who had a knowing smile on his face. "Over the summer, a letter came to me in the post, quite similar to the one Lily here got, I'm sure."
He called me Lily. Just plain Lily. He doesn't do that. What is going on with him?
"Dumbledore has appointed me to Head Boy." The murmurs and gasped that surged around the relatively small room were immense, and James started to laugh. "That's pretty much the reaction I expected, but I just want to let you know that I'm going to try really hard to do a good job at this, if Lily will let me, of course." More noise from the prefects, but this time it was laughter.
"Of course, I am still Quidditch Captain, so my time will be split between this and that, but I am going to at least try. Okay, enough from me. Lily, you wanna finish off this meeting?"
But she didn't. Dumbstruck by his outburst, she just kind of shook her head, so James shouted out, "Alright then, I will! Get out of here you bloody wankers!" and began to chuckle. Everybody else joined in, but recognised that the meeting was over, and began to file out of the thin glass door, leaving the two Heads alone together.
"What the hell was that?!" It appeared Lily had regained her voice. His face darkening, James prepared his rebuttal. He opened his mouth to speak just as Remus popped his head back around the door frame. "Coming, Prongs?"
"Yeah, yeah. Gimme a minute," James retorted. Remus must have sensed something was up because he slipped back out of view very fast. "What are you talking about? You didn't even mention the fact that I'm actually Head Boy, and it didn't seem like you were going to, either. I'd like us to be cordial about this, Evans, because fact of the matter is that I am Head Boy and I'm not going anywhere! Why can't we just be friends?"
Lily was taken aback, and angry. "Why? WHY? Because you and your stupid friends decided it was funny to ruin my only friendship a year and a half ago. Because you thought it would be funny to push me into Moaning Myrtle and let her follow me around all day screaming in my ear. Because you constantly call me names like Carrot and Gingerbread. Because for 3 years you asked me out every single day as a joke purely because you knew no one else would and you thought it'd be just bloody hilarious to make fun of me for it. That's just the start, Potter. Would you like me to continue?" She was standing above him now, her fists clenched at her side as she screamed. She took a breath and a step back, and noticed a collection of first and second years standing just outside the door, watching with their mouths hanging open.
A quick look at James's face showed quite a similar expression to the kids outside. "You thought I was making fun of you?"
"What?" Lily was confused now, like usual. What the hell was he talking about? When was he talking about? Always? Because yes, always, yes. She didn't want to explode on him again, so she turned on her heel and briskly walked out of the room, leaving 15 wide eyed children and James Potter gaping after her.
