Disclaimer: Any places, people, events or things that you recognize are the property of J.K. Rowling, not me.

Note: The end of the last chapter has been edited slightly.

Friends

Lily rushed into the library, then slowed her steps, knowing that if Madam Pince caught her running in the library she'd probably be thrown out. She looked around, and upon spotting Henri sat down with a great sigh of relief.

She hadn't been lying about her homework meeting with her friend, but she was certainly very glad to have an excuse to leave James.

Henri looked at her friend's flushed face and asked, "What happened? You're late. You, Lily Evans are never, ever late. Even if it is only by a few minutes. So, where were you? I know the prefect meeting wasn't that long, I was in the common room when Remus got back, which was ages ago."

Lily looked at her friend in horror, then said, "I was having a heart-to-heart with James. Please kill me now."

Henri disregarded her friend's plea for death and said, "You were doing what? I could have sworn that you said that you were having a meaningful talk with James, but I know that that can't be right. Last I checked you were still trying to decide if you hated him or not."

"No, you heard me." And with that Lily proceeded to tell the story of what had occurred at the meeting, including the job that Dumbledore had given them.

Lily reached the end of her story, then said, "I don't know what happened. He just listened to me, and agreed, and it was like he understood. He didn't try to make feel stupid for not knowing, or anything. I never imagined that he could act like that. He's always seemed like such a big headed idiot!"

Henri stared for a moment taking in the story, then asked, "Well, the James I knew was. It is, however conceivable that he has changed. What does he seem like now?"

"Well, I can't tell for sure, since it's still the first week of school, but he seems like he's grown up. He's taking his Head Boy responsibilities seriously and stuff. But, I don't know, it's awkward. I sort of suspect that he still likes me, even though he hasn't asked me out, and that really annoys me."

Henri blinked. "He hasn't done anything wrong though. He can't control his feelings. He has, however clearly done a really good job with controlling his actions. I think that you should be impressed, not angry. Weren't you going to give him a second chance this year?"

"I was," said Lily looking rather torn, "it's just so hard. I have this idea in my head of him being this git. I know that that isn't totally fair, but I just—it's so hard to forget third year."

Henri grimaced. "Yeah. I know what you mean. But we aren't the same people we were then, so maybe he isn't either. Give the poor boy the benefit of the doubt!"

"I know. I am trying. It's just," here Lily's voice dropped to a whisper, "what if he gets me to like him again. I swore that I wouldn't."

Henri bit her lip and took a deep breath. "You made that promise a long time ago. You were angry when you did it, and you were young. I like to think that we've all matured at least a little bit since then."

"Yeah," agreed Lily emphatically, causing the two girls to giggle.

After they calmed down, Lily said, "I suppose that we should do some work. Can we look at Muggle Studies? I'll have to go over the runes with Remus later, I wish that you hadn't dropped that."

"Says the girl who decided not to take Arithmancy because she really prefers surprises. Leaving me, may I add with no one half way decent in my class. Of course I do have Snape. Whatever would I do with out him?"

Lily froze. She had been friends with Severus Snape for many years, but at the end of fifth year they had had a falling out. In point of fact it was partly the fact that Snape would be in the Arithmancy class that had dissuaded her from continuing to take it. Despite the fact that she now truly disliked him, Severus had been her first friend in the wizarding world, the first to tell her that it existed in fact. No matter what he had done after he got older, she sometimes could not help but fondly remember the boy she had once been so close to. Mention of the boy in this manner was something of a taboo among Lily and her friends. "There are plenty of good reasons that I quit that class, as you very well know." Her voice was a little sharper than she had meant it to be, but somehow she could not quite bring herself to apologize.

Henri looked at her apologetically. "I know, I was just teasing. Sorry. Anyway, let's get started on the Muggle Studies stuff. We're reading the first section of the chapter on holidays, right?"

"Yep. I think that we're going to be doing them for a while, then reviewing electricity." Lily pulled out her book and began reading as the young lady beside her did the same.

They sat for over two hours, occasionally asking, things like, "How long did McGonagall want that essay to be?" and "Could I borrow some of your ink? I just ran out."

Finally, a bell rang, warning them that dinner would begin in ten minutes. They both looked up, surprised to fund just how long they had spent working. As they started to gather their books and other assorted study materials together, lily looked over at the other girl, and said softly, "Thanks for studying with me. It was really great. And for talking with me. It's good to get stuff off of my chest."

"That's what friends are for."

----------------------------------------------------

When Lily and Henri arrived in the entrance hall Sara, Ruth, and Laura were already there. As soon as they sat down Laura began bombarding them with questions.

"Where were you two? I looked everywhere!"

Lily looked at her in surprise, "I had a prefect meeting and then Henri and I were studying in the library. It wouldn't have been that hard to find us." She couldn't help but wonder how her friend could have failed to check the library, and Laura had know she had a prefect meeting.

"You were in the library? Why? What on earth were you doing for hours in the library of all places?"

Lily blinked. "Doing homework and studying. What else would we have been doing?"

"Anything. It's Saturday. You don't have to do work."

Henri rolled her eyes and replied, "Laura, we are in school. We need to pass our classes. To pass we need to do a good job on our work. To do a good job we need to make sure we have enough time to spend on each assignment."

"I didn't do any today, and I'm sure that I'll finish my work! Why should it be any different for you?" Asked Laura sounding rather confused.

Henri took a deep breath and said, "I am taking a lot more classes that you are. Thus I have more work. The same is true for Lily, and I'm sure that Sarah, and Ruth for that matter will agree."

The others nodded.

Laura said, "Oh. Well, sorry. I didn't realize that I would be offending you."

Sarah glanced at Lily, who nodded before saying, "None of us are offended. A little stressed maybe, but not really offended. But they're right. We have a lot of work, and this year especially our grades are very important. Next year we need to get jobs or go on for more training and it's hard to do that if you fail all of your classes. However," she added, turning on Lily and Henri, "that does not mean that you can forget to be human. You're still allowed to enjoy yourselves! I feel like we hardly ever see each other anymore."

Lily shrugged. "It's just hard. It feels like there's so much to do and I can't get behind or else."

"Maybe, but the simple fact is that McGonagall probably won't give you a lower grade just because your essay is only ten centimeters longer than she asked for instead of twenty! You need to relax or you won't be able to keep it up. Tonight we are going to have a slumber party. It'll be fun and we can hear all about each other's summers."

Occasionally over their time at Hogwarts they had had parties at night in their dorms. They told secrets, shared fashion tips, painted nails and played games like truth or dare. They called them slumber parties, even though in reality they slept in the same room every night.

Lily looked like she was about to protest, but Henri nodded, saying, "I hate to admit it, but they're right, we need to relax. And talk. Please Lily?"

"We can get snacks from the house elves in the kitchens. Ruth figured out how to get to them when we were looking for you!" added Laura enticingly.

Henri and Lily looked at Ruth in surprise. Then Henri said, "We should leave you guys alone more often if this is what you do when we aren't here! Did you plan this together?"

Sarah grinned. "Perhaps."

This set them all to laughing, and as they finished their dinner planning the fun that they would have that night, Lily thought about how lucky she was to have friends who cared about her.

Author's Note: I have some technical details about classes that I want to take this chance to explain. I have worked out which classes the following characters are taking: Lily, Henri, Sarah, Ruth, Laura, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Snape. The options that I gave them were: DADA, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Charms, Astronomy, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination. They could have taken History of Magic too, but oddly enough no one decided to do that. The most classes that anyone can take are seven, and the least is four. I don't know if this is the way that Rowling envisioned it, but the schedule information isn't that good to begin with, and then we only get one year of N.E.W.T. level classes, and it wasn't seventh. Harry and Ron took five in their sixth year, and I'm not sure how many Hermione took, so I just guessed that she would be doing seven. There are no classes that everyone is taking, but Charms comes closest, with everyone but Snape. Sorry that this note is so long. Please take a moment to review and tell me what you thought. I'll respond to all signed reviews. And happy thanksgiving to all Americans!