Lily didn't feel warm again until she'd nestled under a blanket next to the roaring fire of the Heads' common area. She was sure it was warm outside in early September, but something about the cold stones of the castle made it feel like it was winter all year. And there was some kind of storm brewing, too, with dark clouds that had been looming angrily in the horizon. It matched Lily's first week of school: everything was going wrong.

She took out a piece of parchment and wrote the familiar heading: "Dear Mum and Dad," before pausing. How would she twist reality and keep the conflict a secret?

It's been rather stressful to be Head Girl these two days, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. My classes seem challenging but interesting, and I have my hands full with everything here. I'll send another letter soon. Send news from home, and don't forget to feed the owl, it'll be hungry after traveling.

Lily

"Are you angry?" James asked, and Lily suddenly looked up, before realizing that she was practically hiding under a thick blanket like a little child. She tossed it off immediately, straightening up from her curled-up position.

"What?"

"You seemed… odd. After the library."

"I don't think you should be that tough on first-years! They're all scared and they've heard all sorts of rumors about Dark wizards from their friends. Besides, I find it extremely hypocritical to scold them when you're practically the biggest troublemaker in the school."

"Is that what you think of me?"

Lily sighed at his wounded demeanor. "Isn't it what everyone thinks of you?"

James didn't answer, instead staring at the fire.

She looked back down at her letter, and couldn't think of anything else to say that wasn't worrying or an outright lie. "Barley!" she called out, and the barn owl came fluttering down from her room.

Lily had gotten him as an owlet, and had trained him to come back to her room by dark, and he was free to hunt by day. He had never gotten used to the Owlery as Lily had had him before coming to Hogwarts, and the old owl preferred to stay in her room.

Barley nipped at her finger in greeting, and stuck out his leg for Lily to tie the rolled-up parchment to. "Bring this home, yeah?" she said. Barley flapped his wings and Lily went over to the window to let him out. While she did this, she shot a backwards glance at James, who was still as a statue, looking gloomily into the fire.

She let out a little laugh just as Barley was hopping off the ledge, which startled both the boy and the bird, who fluttered anxiously in the air to regain his balance. "What?" James asking, looking at Lily, panicked.

"Don't be so dramatic," Lily said, still giggling. "I'm James Potter," she said, deepening her voice. "Look at me, brooding and looking into the fire. Oh, woe is me."

"I'm not exactly having a great day—" James ground out, but Lily was still laughing until she plopped down into her chair.

She covered herself in her blanket and busied herself handling her thick red hair, trying to coax it into a knot at the top of her head. For all her bite and bravado, Lily now wanted nothing more than to keep the peace with James.

They sat in comfortable silence while Lily seemed to be losing the battle with her hair.

"So," James said. "I think you said something about getting to know each other."

Lily dropped her hands, and her hair fell down over her shoulders again. "For Head duties purposes only," she warned.

James chose to ignore that last bit and plowed on, while Lily was reaching for the pile of books and parchment that she had left on a table next to the armchair she had now claimed for her own. "Who were you writing to?" he asked.

"My mum and dad," Lily said, dipping her quill into ink, never one to leave homework to the last minute.

"Right. Stupid question."

"It was," Lily agreed.

James thought for a while. "Don't you have any questions for me?"

"No," Lily said, unconcerned. "Golden boy, troublemaker, generally well-liked, rarely works, torments those less popular than him, and Quidditch star. That's all I need to know."

Lily was right, of course, but her comments still stung. "Right," James said. "Can't say that I've been the model student, but…"

"What, are you going to say that you still deserve sympathy? That you're not what you seem? Merlin, James, you do anything you want and people still seem to worship you. Others, meanwhile, have to constantly work for good marks, to be liked, to gain approval, and one mistake, and it's all down the drain," Lily said, scratching at her essay viciously.

James had no response to that. "Is that why you don't like me?"

Lily looked up. There was something about his tone that had tugged at her deep-rooted sense of empathy, and she put down her quill, biting her lip pensively.

"It's just… you have everything. Everything comes to you, and you seem to use it selfishly. Like that invisibility cloak, could've been used for things far better than sneaking down to the kitchens at night."

"You know about the…?"

"I'm not daft, Potter."

"Right…"

James wasn't sure what to focus on first: the fact that she still stubbornly called him by his surname, or that she had known about the cloak all these years. He felt a wave of guilt. His father had given it to him to protect himself, not for practical jokes. But James had been so caught up in being the bad boy. And Lily was right, he never seriously considered the consequences of his actions.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly said.

"For what?" Lily asked. She had gotten absorbed into her Charms essay, and it took her a minute to look up at James again.

"For… being that way, I suppose," James said with a sigh.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Lily said with a snort, but there was a small smile on her face as she continued her writing.

! #$%^&*

Lily woke up with the uneasy feeling of being watched, and as she slowly opened one eye, she saw a figure standing above her. "Aah!" Lily shouted, standing up suddenly, and sending a book, quills, parchment, and her ink flying. The ink broke with a tinkling sound and started to stain the rug violet.

"Sorry," James said sheepishly.

"Why were you staring at me! That's not normal behavior! Reparo!"

The glass of the inkwell stuck together, and what was left of the ink sealed inside it. "Scourgify!" she said, cleaning the carpet, before turning to James. "Well?"

"You fell asleep in that armchair, and… I wanted to see that you were all right."

"'Course I'm fine!" Lily huffed. "Why wouldn't I be? Doesn't mean you have to watch me sleep like some bloody psycho."

James nodded weakly while Lily went around, gathering what she'd knocked onto the floor. When everything had been put back into order, she glanced down at her rumpled shirt and lopsided skirt. She straightened her clothes out, deciding to just wear it again instead of bothering to change.

"Going to breakfast, lots to do," Lily muttered, tying her hair into a bun and holding it in place by sticking her wand there. James followed, trying to keep up with her manic pace.

"Aren't you afraid you'll accidentally blast your ears off?" James asked, looking at the precarious pile of hair.

Lily looked at him curiously. "No. And you know, you don't have to follow me around," she said, but she didn't seem to really mean it. "We've got to start sorting through the third years' permission slips by next Monday with forgery detection spells, then there are the Prefects' meetings schedules to work out, and Professor Slughorn has asked us to review the dates for his dinner parties—"

"Actually, I've got Quidditch tryouts tonight…" James said, holding his breath. Lily stopped clear in her tracks, and turned towards James, her eyes flashing. He didn't have the time to decide whether she was stunningly beautiful or utterly terrifying, because she'd said, in a very calm, very low voice, "What was that, Potter?"

"Sorry," he said, wincing in advance.

"I'm trying to run a student body here!" Lily exploded, throwing her arms up. "You are supposed to be my partner in doing this work, but it's all Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch with you!"

"Want to come?" James said, the words leaving his mouth before he could stop them. He saw Lily get rather red in the face, like she really was going to explode.

"No, I do not!" she hissed, before running down the stairs. James let out a long breath of air, then headed towards the Great Hall.