"POTTER SCORES! Listen to that crowd chant. POT-TER! POT-TER!"
"Oh get over yourself, you prat, I'm not that far behind." Sirius smirked as he chucked the quaffle as his friend's sweaty head.
James caught the ball with one hand and landed his nimbus gracefully on the grass. They had been playing quidditch for several hours, almost every day since the start of summer. The boys loved the sport, and although it was just the two of them, they tested and strengthened their skills. It nearing one now and the sun seemed to be beaming down harder than usual.
"I have to say padfoot, we'll be the stars of Gryffindor this year." James grinned wiping a sweaty brow with his nicely tanned arm.
"Aren't we already? Well, maybe not you, but I sure the heck am." Sirius pondered for a moment. "I wonder if there will be any hot girls this year."
"Ew, Sirius, the first years are like twelve years old you pedophile. That's a five year difference." James shook his head with laughter
"James!" a motherly voice called from a window. "There's a letter for you. It's from Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" the teen questioned, "why are they writing now, it's a little early. Only start of August."
"Perhaps they finally realized the truth. You're too much of a big-headed, git to attend their school." Sirius joked.
"You're one to talk. You have a bigger ego than Peter's stomach."
"Hey he lost weight over the summer. Haven't you noticed? He was able to keep up. Mind you, your team still lost when he was on it. Not much of a quidditch player, is he?"
James shrugged and opened the patio door, revealing a large marble kitchen before him. It was a beautiful room, just like the rest of his large mansion; little décor, but a lot of class. James picked up the white envelop from atop a chestnut dining table. It was sealed with the Hogwarts shield and slightly heavy as if something was in it. Shrugging, he ripped the top open, using the end of his wand. His eyes skimmed quickly over the letter growing wider with each sentence.
"What!" The black-haired boy exclaimed. He tipped the opened envelop sideways to allow a shiny silver badge to fall out.
"Prefect?" Sirius roared with laughter. "They made you a prefect."
"Nope." James grinned as his mother walked in, a curious expression written across her face. "Head Boy."
"OH JAMES!" Mrs. Potter squealed with delight as she crushed her son into a smothering hug. "I'm so proud of you! Wait until your father hears!"
Sirius laughed even harder. "Dumbledore's gone mad. If any marauder was to be Head Boy, I would have picked Remus."
"Come on boys, time to celebrate!"
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Mrs. Potter had taken both Sirius and James to Diagon Alley, buying anything and everything they seemed slightly intrigued with. Sporting new Quidditch jerseys, a handful of new robes, and loads of pranking goods, they were ready to return home.
"Ahhh, what a day! Thanks Mrs. Potter." Sirius yawned happily.
"No, dear, the pleasure is all mine. It's not every day you find out one of your sons is Head boy!"
Sirius caught James eye, slightly embarrassed that Mrs. Potter had referred to him as her son. He smiled happily, sinking into the loving feeling that the Potter family gave him. It was something that had once seemed alien to him, but now he welcomed it with open arms.
Suddenly, a scream echoed loudly from down the road. More soon followed. Panic rose around the group as people struggled to hide or figure out what the commotion was all about. A girl not much younger than the boys ran forward, tears streaming down her face.
"What's happening?" Mrs. Potter asked worriedly.
"There's been another attack!" Someone screamed, as if to answer her question. "Quick! Run before they return!"
An attack could only mean one thing; death eaters. Recently their numbers had been growing and the casualties of muggle-born, half-blood and even pure blood 'traitors' were being killed. No one was safe in the world anymore. No one, only those under the leadership of Lord Voldermort seemed unharmed. Even then, death eaters were occasionally caught by the aurors, but they were usually soon released if they gave any names.
"Let's go!" Mrs. Potter hustled the boys quickly, and they followed without hesitation.
They would take the long way home. Floo powder network was not safe. Wizards would be rushing to get home and the system would get clogged, resulting in misplaced destinations, or even worse, someone could attack you from within. They rushed down road. Panic rising all around. The screams were getting louder as they approached their neighbourhood. Worried expressions were etched deeply across their faces. And then they saw it. High above in the sky, a rotating skull with serpents slithering through the eyes; it was the Dark Mark.
And it was floating above James's house.
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"Eeeeeeeeeeek!" The shrill screaming of Petunia woke Lily with a start.
The door to Lily's bedroom burst open with a raving Petunia holding an envelope in her hand. "Sister!" She screeched, "One of those ruddy owls just flew through the window and dropped this in my cereal!"
"Gnhh…" Lily groaned, covering her head with the pillow, "Bright…"
"Are you listening to me!" She shrieked again.
"Yuh-huh," Lily mumbled, hardly awake. "Loud and clear."
"Why, do you have those people write to you this way! I thought you knew I was afraid of birds!"
"Those people are my friends, Petunia, and I'm one of them. They don't have the same kind of mailing system." Lily snapped finally awake.
"I've noticed!"
"Look, you don't have to like it, just learn to deal with it. Okay? Now pass me my letter please…" Lily asked in a calm manner.
Petunia scowled and tossed the slightly soggy mail onto the end of Lily's bed before leaving the room. Lily reached over and picked it up gently. She looked over the envelope, it was from Hogwarts. 'It's a little early for the booklists to be here.' Lily thought to herself, a little confused. She glanced over and clicked on her bedside lap, before ripping open the edge of the sopping mail. She pushed a tangled lock of red-hair out of her eyes, and began to study the letter.
"Oh my God…" Lily breathed.
Dear Miss Lily Evans,
We are pleased to inform and congratulate you on becoming
Hogwarts Head Girl for the following term. Enclosed is your
honorary Head Girl badge. We hope you wear it with pride.
You have been selected based on your school performance
over the past years. Please meet with the Head Boy at twelve-
front compartment of the Hogwarts express. You will be
ssing prefect patrolling schedules as well as distributing
o each house prefects. We are pleased to inform you, that
new Head Boy duty, your partner for the year, will be
er. Once again congratulations on this new
lity.
ely,
mbledore.
Each night before Lily went to sleep she would read over the letter that made her so happy. However, some parts of her letter were smudged or unreadable due to the milk from Petunia's morning cereal. At night she would try to decipher what the missing parts were, so that she could understand the instructions better. She would write over top of the messy letter with pencil, trying to place words that made sense.
"I'm not sure about the time," Lily mumbled quietly to herself, "So I'll just show up at twelve. The next part must be…We will be discussing? That sounds right."
Soon Lily reached the part with the name. She tried hard to think of all the people whose first name or last name ended up with 'er'. 'It must be part of the last name. It only makes sense.' Lily thought. She grabbed a separate piece of parchment and began writing down all the last names of people from Hogwarts ending with 'er'. 'Let's see…There's Potter...urgh cross that one off. Fletcher… hah! As if Mundungus would ever be Head Boy, he's such a thief.' After crossing off most names from her list, she narrowed it down to Christopher Clearwater from Ravenclaw and Marcus Towler from Hufflepuff. Satisfied with her selections, she set her letter aside for another night.
-------------
"Oh Lils! That's so wonderful!" Melody shouted happily wrapping her arms around her friend in a tight hug, once Lily had spread the news.
Melody had been vacationing in Japan, with her muggle family, over the summer and so Lily had been unable to contact her until they met at the train platform. Kat already knew but was excited for Lily just the same. Kat, however, noticed the time, and suggested Lily go to the front compartment soon. Lily nodded, she was eager to see if see was correct in her careful deductions. The front compartment was empty, just as Lily had expected it to be. There were obviously a number of minutes after twelve she would have to wait, judging from the wording of the letter. The red-headed girl didn't mind, she had her new textbooks to read through.
Fifteen-or-so minutes later, Lily heard the compartment door slide open. She glanced up, and nearly threw up.
"P-Potter?" She groaned.
James raised one eyebrow giving Lily a confused stare. "Who else were you expecting? It's in the letter…"
"Fell in the cereal…couldn't read parts…" Lily mumbled.
James gave a weak grin. "Guess we're stuck together, huh?"
Lily glared and shrugged. "So what is it that we have to do exactly? I couldn't read that part."
"Make patrolling schedules for all the prefects, and give the passwords out." James was clutching a piece of paper in his hand. Lily assumed it had a list of the passwords and the new prefects.
"Fine. I'll make the schedule, you go tell the passwords. Is that all?"
"Guess so…" James turned to leave the compartment but then turned around and handed her the sheet, "Here…it's the names of all the prefects."
Lily was once again by herself. 'Has Dumbledore gone insane? Why would he make that creep Head Boy? He commits to nothing, he takes nothing seriously, and he's always causing trouble!'
