A/N: Hello everyone! This is my first every HP fanfiction, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I loved writing it!

Disclaimer: All material from Harry Potter does not belong to me. Unfortunately.

Close Encounters

Oh dear. I was so officially dead.

Well, not literally. But figuratively speaking, I was about one inch from being (un)happily in the next world. The next world most likely coming in the form of some extremely angry members of Hogwarts staff. Why was I in such deep, abyss-like trouble you may ask?

Because I had precisely 1 minute to get down this extremely long pathway of doom (possibly also called Platform 9¾), dodge all the mines (read: citizens of London waiting for their trains in extremely annoying and hard-to-get-around places), and storm through the gates of hell (self explanatory) to reach the holy grail- Hogwarts Express.

Shooting down the platform like a bullet (or so I'd like to think), I continued to mentally beat myself over the head for sleeping in. The strange and ironic thing is that I normally wake up on the dot- even without an alarm. But this time, I had stayed up half the night rolling about on my bed as though I was a sausage- because this time, I was a prefect. Yes, that's right- this pile of structured matter managed to become a Gryffindor prefect. It took me about five letters of confirmation to believe it myself.

The clock was ticking down as I approached the barrier, momentum building behind my trolley as I zoomed towards it at top speed.

WHAM!

I landed hard on my butt, groaning pathetically at the pain. I so definitely broke something- or everything. Oh gosh…now I'd done it...I missed the train. I yelled in frustration, before venturing to peek out at the people on the platform- who were probably thinking I was an asylum escapee by now. My eyes widened as I saw the Hogwarts Express, sitting (if trains do in fact sit) there in all its shining glory, puffing out ashen smoke from its gleaming, chrome-finished chimneys as…

Wait.

If I hadn't hit the barrier, what had I hit? Almost as if on cue, I received my answer.

"James, James!"

"James, are you ok?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Oh James, did that horrible girl bruise you?"

"James, do you want me to get you an icepack?"

Oh dear lord.

I had hit James Potter.

James.

Potter.

I, Lily Evans, invisible girl extraordinaire had smashed into the fan-proclaimed King of Hogwarts. He probably didn't even have any idea who I was, despite me being in most his classes since first year. Royalty was like that sometimes. And somehow, I had managed to run James Potter down with my trolley on the very day that I had thought couldn't get worse.

The James Potter, whose (quoting the reliable fans here) fair skin doth glow with the radiance of the sun, whose raven black hair doth shine like the magnificent streams of a waterfall, whose sapphire eyes…

Were currently fixing me with a rather stone-like glare much alike Medusa's. I slowly got up off my rather pitifully aching bottom, before apologizing.

"Umm…" My brain attempted to string together a grammatical sentence from the jumble of useless vocabulary floating about my head. "Sorry about that." I flashed my best apologetic look, which, judging by the continuance of the stone expression on his face, didn't work. "I really didn't expect anyone to be standing so close to the barrier, so I couldn't break. Are you ok?"

Hmm. Still no response. I wondered if he could hear me from behind his ring of screaming fangirls, so I tried again, this time a little louder.

"I said, I'm sorry…" He cut me off.

"I heard you." He continued to glare at me as though he was expecting me to turn to a block of stone any time now. I quailed pathetically under the force of his intense gaze. His deep blue eyes were locked on my dull green ones, and I felt myself falling…

I slapped myself across the face quickly. He's giving you a stare of extreme hate Lily, not love. Shaking my head, I glanced up at him just in time to catch a rather bewildered expression flash across his face at my actions, before the stone mask returned.

Shame. He really looked rather amusing with the startled expression. He even looked a tad like my ex-goldfish.

Our one-sided death-glare-battle-thing was interrupted as a decidedly non-fangirly shout boomed across the platform.

"Would all students please board the express. We are about to depart."

I turned to my trolley as James Potter was swept away in a sea of fangirls. I glanced up just in time to see him smirk at me.

"You're not forgiven!" He yelled across the platform in his smooth chocolately voice (or so I have heard it described- I personally prefer chocolate though).

I rolled my eyes at his arrogance (or attempted to in a rather constipated way) – after he had turned back around and was in no position to cause me any harm of course. I sighed and unloaded my trolley. Struggling to hold my gigantic suitcase in my decidedly unmuscular arms, I half-stumbled, half-fell on board the Hogwarts Express. Lugging my suitcase down the corridor, I opened the door of each carriage I passed by, looking for my friend Eira Hecklewood, who I was sure probably secured a carriage half an hour ago, due to her extremely paranoid parent. I sighed mentally as I remembered how relaxed and laid back mine were about the whole sleeping in incident, despite my cries of despair.

After walking in on about three blushing couples, two rather dangerous looking Slytherin gangs, one Ravenclaw study group- furiously revising this year's syllabus of course, and one very unhappy looking first year to whom I gave a chocolate frog from my pocket out of pity (and yes, maybe a bit of bribery so I would at least have someone who would like me during my prefecthood), I found her sitting with a girl I didn't recognize.

"Hi Eira!" I exclaimed delightedly, hugging her tightly as she hugged me back. Eira had been my best friend since first year, and we knew each other like the back of our hands. Maybe even better, since you never really concentrate on the back of your hand. I was the klutz who camouflaged better than a chameleon, and she was the shy daydreamer always had her head in the clouds. We hit off as soon as we had met, and had been inseparable since. I turned to greet the girl whom I didn't recognize.

"Hello…" I trailed off hopefully. She smiled at me with a wide grin, her dark blue eyes twinkling happily. I brightened at the thought that I could make someone's eyes twinkle.

"Alyssa Chadswick. I just transferred over from Beauxbatons. I'll be in fifth year like you guys." I grinned.

"That's great! Maybe you'll be sorted into Gryffindor too! Oh, I'm Lily Evans by the way." My eyes widened as my brain caught up to my ears. "Beauxbatons? Wow…" I paused. "Why'd you transfer over here though? Hogwarts being the best school aside, of course. Was Beauxbatons really that bad?" I asked, interested. She groaned dramatically, rolling her eyes.

"Oh you wouldn't believe it! I'm surprised I even survived the first four years there! It was awful the way all the girls would preen themselves all day, and positively worship Adrianne and Diana…" She shuddered. "I had to get out of there. It was like Azakaban, but with pink, lacy dementors."

Eira and I howled (well, at least I did) with laughter at the image. Eira delicately (because Eira never seems to do anything undelicately) wiped tears of mirth from her eyes, before turning to me.

"Hey Lily, aren't you supposed to be up in the prefects carriage? Heard Samantha's our new head girl."

My eyes widened. I couldn't believe I actually forgot! Again! And with Samantha as head girl, I was sure to be skinned alive for being even two minutes late. Unceremoniously dropping my suitcase, I ran for the door. Alyssa's voice tentatively cut me off.

"Erm…I don't mean to sound haughty or anything because I honestly don't mind, but I think something happened to your hair…" She bit her lip as she tried to suppress her laughter. Eira glanced over too, and her eyes widened in surprise as she clearly took my appearance in for the first time.

I cocked an eyebrow (eyebrow cocking is one of my few talents), and bent forward to look at my reflection in the window.

I looked disastrous. My annoyingly curly red hair looked as though it had just exploded in all directions. I guessed it was probably the running down the platform like a headless chicken that had caused it. I blushed as red as my hair as I realized that everyone (and that includes James Potter and Co.) must have seen me like this. I desperately combed through my hair with my fingers until it achieved some semblance of normalcy, and thanked Alyssa from over my shoulder as I rushed off down the corridor to the prefect's carriage

I reached the first carriage after some minor trips and falls (nothing serious), and swiftly opened the door.

WHAM!

My eyes widened in surprise as an equally stunned James Potter stood in the doorway, clutching his nose in pain where I assumed the door had hit it.

"Oh gosh I am so sorry!" I cried, flapping my hands about a manner much alike a chicken. Twice in one day?! Panicking, my mouth started going at a mile a minute. "Are you ok? Are you ok from before? Is your nose broken? It is bleeding? Can you breathe? Do you want a chocolate frog?" I paused for breath. A decidedly exasperated, Samantha-sounding voice drifted across from behind James Potter.

"Well I guess we don't need James to go look for you now," she sighed. "Lily, please at least try to be on time next time ok? Leaving your fellow house prefect alive and unwounded would probably be a plus too."

I could feel my eyes bulging dangerously out of sockets. James Potter was my partner for the rest of the year?! From the choking noises coming from him, apparently he wasn't too pleased with the idea either.

A/N: More to come soon! Next update is likely to be sometime early May, as I'm got half yearly tests all next week. Wish me luck!

Chocolate frogs for reviewers- so please do review by clicking that oh-so-clickable button on the bottom left! I'd love to hear your opinions on my writing, and any other comments you might want to throw my way! Evil and vain as it may sound, supportive reviews make me work faster. As they say- a review a day keeps procrastination away! Er...don't ask who 'they' is...