"Congratulations Lily, no-one deserves Head Girl more than you." beamed Mary.
Lily smiled as they got onto the Hogwarts express after saying her goodbyes to her parents, she and Mary stumbled into an empty compartment with their luggage and Lily's owl and placed their trunks in the storage compartments above their heads.
"Morning all." said Marlene brightly.
"Hey Marley," replied Mary.
"Head Girl's badge suits you Lily." Alice complimented as she joined them all in the compartment.
Lily smiled as they all finished piling their luggage into the storage compartments and sat down on the seats briefly. She'd only get a small moment alone with her friends before heading off to the prefect's carriage to give out assignments and patrol the corridors of the train for a little while. She had no idea who the Head Boy was, but she found out sooner than she had expected.
The marauders entered their compartment and started loading their luggage into the overhead compartments. The girls looked at the boys with odd expressions, they certainly hadn't been expecting to be spending their journey back to school with the pranksters.
"What are you lot doing here?" asked Marlene.
"No other compartments." Sirius replied in an innocent tone.
"Yeah right." Marlene snorted.
Lily chuckled.
"Right I'm off I'll see you all in a little while." said Lily.
The group made their goodbyes as Lily left the compartment, she hadn't realised that James had left the compartment as well and was following her up the narrow corridor of the train. He made her jump out of her skin when he placed a hand on her shoulder in order to stay close to her.
"Jesus Potter!" she complained.
"What?" asked James.
"Why are you following me?" asked Lily as they continued to walk down the corridor.
"I figured I'd let you lead the way Head Girl." James grinned.
Lily turned to look at him, she was feeling slightly confused as to why he wanted her to lead the way. But lead the way where? she thought to herself. She knew where she was going. After a minute, it clicked in her head as to where James wanted her to take him. Lily stopped in her tracks and turned herself to face James completely.
"You're the Head Boy?!" Lily shrieked.
James grinned, "I am indeed." he confirmed.
"How?" asked Lily, still in shock.
"My grades were up last term." shrugged James.
"Hmm.." Lily hummed suspiciously.
James followed Lily as they continued down the corridor and finally reached the prefect's compartment. They went through explaining all the prefects duties to all the fifth years who had been selected as the new prefects. Lily felt a little confused when James took over on how the prefect nightly patrols would work and what powers the prefects had.
Once the meeting concluded, James and Lily patrolled the corridors for a little while to make sure that there wasn't any trouble going on. Lily was still baffled that Dumbledore gave the Head Boy position to James Potter after all the pranks and mischief he caused and all the detentions that he had had over the years. After an hour of confiscating fanged frisbees and other items that were banned from Hogwarts, they returned to the compartment where their friends were waiting for them.
They sat down and were handed several treats that the others had picked up for them, having missed the lunch trolley themselves. James and Lily tucked into chocolate frogs as Marlene questioned as to how James had been made Head Boy.
"Potter you can't have got the position, this has to be another prank that you and Sirius pulled?" Marlene insisted for the third time since the conversation had started up.
"Marley, he had far less detentions last year than he did in fifth year. His grades were up last year and he could have done some serious damage to Avery, Mulciber and Snivellus after the incident at Flourish and Blotts but he didn't. So give it a rest yeah?" said Sirius in a bored tone of voice.
Marlene glared at Sirius evilly but it was clear that she couldn't argue with Sirius defence of his best friend. Lily chuckled as her best friend sat in sulky silence for the remainder of the journey. When the driver announced that they were only ten minutes away from Hogwarts, the group quickly changed into their uniform. Lily's heart pounded fast in her chest, she had been looking forward to returning to school since the moment she got off the train at King's Cross at the start of the summer. The summer had been a good one, she constantly hung out with her friends but it was the fact that at school she could escape Petunia and the constant 'freak' that her sister spat at her.
The train pulled to a slow stop at Hogsmeade station and the group scrambled off the train and headed for the carriages that would take them up to the school. As the group stepped into the carriage they had taken, Lily looked up at the castle turrets and smiled. She was finally home.