But what you've done here
Is put yourself between a bullet and a target
And it won't be long before
You're pulling yourself away

Not mine. Blah blah. Don't sue.

My first thoughts were that he had stolen it. I waited for his handsome face to break out into evil laughter and then reveal who was the actual Head Boy. But as he just silently stared back at me; it hit me Potter was Head Boy. Potter the marauder, Potter the troublemaker, Potter the bully was Head boy. It seemed crazy, but even as I was counting to ten to keep from yelling out, I could see Dumbledore's thinking. Potter was a good leader (as evidenced by Gryffindor's winning season under him as captain last year) and he was typically nice to the younger students (except the Slytherins). And then there was Dumbledore's crazy knack for giving second, or in this case thousandth, chances.

Sirius's snicker broke my chain of thoughts. He was scratching his stubble and looking between Potter and me as if Christmas had come early. Everyone knew Sirius was a fan of our infamous fights; often he provoked us into them just so he could get a front row seat.

"Sirius out." With a disappointed sigh he trudged out the door and slammed it shut. Merlin, this would be an interesting final year. I heaved myself onto the nearest armchair and started rubbing my temples in an overdramatic matter. I didn't really have a migraine but I felt the gesture helped to emphasize my exasperated mood.

"What? No yelling?" Potter sat down in the chair across from me and took his glasses off and cleaned them, pretending as if he didn't believe his eyes.

"Well, seeing as were going to be working side by side all year I thought it best not to start off with another silly argument. Besides I'm sure we'll be yelling about some other thing by the time the day is out." I explained my thoughts to him, and hopefully he would agree. Potter seemed to be seriously considering what I was saying.

"Fair enough. But you know, Lily, arguing is what we do best." I had to agree with him there, we'd had plenty of practice in our disagreements for the past six years. "I was thinking too, we should cut the surname crap, since we're partners and all. You know, start over?" He stuck out a hand to shake, "I'm James Potter."

Whatever works I guess. "Charmed. I'm Lily Evans."

"Lovely to meet you Lily," He exclaimed as he pumped my arm. "Now, do you suppose we should go call that Prefects meeting?" Oh God, I'd completely forgotten. What a way to start the year on a good foot. Already I was forgetting my responsibilities. If I couldn't even remember what to do on the first day…maybe Dumbledore had made the wrong choice with me…

"Of course."

"Well, that's a matter of opinion, yes, but if you look at the facts—"

"That's a load of crap! Facts aren't true, they're created. History and the facts are revised every day by the ministry! The truth is unknown, the masses know nothing."

The little side conversation between the two seventh year prefects from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw wasn't the first interruption of the Prefects' meeting. Now, despite the fact that a Prefects' meeting implied order, respectfulness, responsibility, all that jazz associated with the moral leaders of our fine school, it was chaos. Give any kid even a smidgen of responsibility and their head would swell to a size to rival even James's ego. And well, the compartment on the Hogwarts Express just didn't have enough room for all that hot air.

First it had taken no less than ten minutes to get everyone quieted down, mainly Jan Tugwood, the newest Hufflepuff Prefect, who just had to tell everyone how her summer was. Then halfway through an attendance check it'd been discovered that Seth MacFarlane had decided not to attend. A search party found him in a dark compartment in the back of the train with a few female friends. Apparently Seth was attempting to take Sirius's place as Hogwarts Player. In the time it took to find Seth everyone managed to get rowdy again. After a brief and miraculously quiet argument James went ahead and silenced the lot of them before finally beginning the meeting. We'd gone over the rules and I was just finishing explaining the patrolling schedule when the boys argument had broken out.

"Lies! The ministry puts a smear campaign on those who threaten its power…" Gaspard Shingleton, the Ravenclaw prefect and conspiracy theorist, continued on in his anarchistic tirade. Joshua Jones, the lanky keeper for the Hufflepuff squad, stared at him dumbfounded, as if unsure whether to laugh or punch the kid. Of course, that was the typical response to any one of Gaspard's shocking claims. He'd earned the nickname Gassy a few years back for always blowing smoke out of his ass, and his stories and rumors always managed to incite. Sirius also liked to claim that Gassy's brown hair was proof that he had "shit for brains", at which point Peter would always glance at a loose strand of his own dark brown hair, and I would always wonder if my red hair made me a 'flaming idiot'. More frightening though were the nods and smirking smiles coming from the Slytherin Prefects, they seemed to like what they were hearing from Mr. Shingleton.

I glanced over at James and saw his cocked eyebrow and nearly pleading smile; with a sigh I nodded. Suddenly the room was silenced and all attention was back on James and I. "Anyways, as the lovely Ms. Evans was saying before she was so rudely interrupted; Lily, patrolling schedules."

With a glare I finished off his prompt, "Yes, you will receive patrolling schedules tomorrow morning with breakfast as well as class schedules." I took a deep breath and tried to relax. Public speaking had never really been my thing, but now it seemed that as Head Girl I would have to be getting better at it.

"Now finally the matter of increased security." James picked right up when I finished. I had to admit that we managed the whole working together pretty well. "Due to the incident in Dunhill last month Hogwarts and the surrounding area will be guarded by a team of aurors at all times."

"This shouldn't create any problems, so long as you don't go adventuring on the grounds after hours." Even as I was saying it I could picture in my head James throwing Remus an obnoxious wink. "The aurors have been instructed not to interfere with our activities so I ask that you do not interfere with their jobs. Ok, any questions or concerns from anyone?"

Gaspard immediately had his hand shot into the air, waving it around impatiently like a little child. Reluctantly James removed the silencing charm and nodded at him. "What if the aurors are planning their own attack on Hogwarts?" Even the Slytherins kind of boggled their eyes at that. I think everyone was wondering if maybe Gassy had gotten himself on the wrong sort of magic pills. James pulled off his glasses and gave them a cleaning as if he didn't believe what he was seeing.

"I'm not going to answer that on the grounds that it's completely ridiculous."

"Potter!" A quick kick to the shin shut him up good. No matter how crazy our peers might seem, making fun of them was unacceptable. "Look, if you're really concerned about that talk to Dumbledore, but that really isn't a topic to discuss here." That's the way its supposed to be done, effectively (and maybe a bit condescendingly) shut down, but not blatantly rude. Alexis Prewett, a sixth year from Gryffindor, sheepishly raised her small hand. Behind Remus's tall frame she was barely visible. "Ah, yes, Mrs. Prewett."

"Will we still be having trips to Hogsmeade this year?" No doubt she was looking forward to many dates with her now two year boyfriend Will Sheffield. At a Prefect meeting two years ago she had confided in me that the two of them would be getting married. At the time I had thought she was a bit 'touched', but now two years and still going strong, maybe…

"Yes, there will still be four trips this year. Of course, if safety does become a concern they may be cancelled, but for now they are on. Mr. Black, you have a question?" Regulus's pale hand had slipped into the air, the sleeve on his robes fell down revealing a tattoo that was becoming all too familiar. That had to have been intentional, he wanted everyone that he was now a member of that club.

"Yes." Regulus paused to run a hand through short black hair. Different as they were Regulus seemed to inherit the same vanity about hair as Sirius. "Since when has Hogwarts allowed mudbloods into positions of authority?" He sneered and I felt his cold icy glare fixed upon me. I shivered and felt my fists clench involuntarily. Fighting is unprofessional, isn't it? I took a deep breath and started to open my mouth to respond, but James beat me to the punch.

"Lily Evans is the best witch in this school, she is talented and hard working, not to mention loads more respectable and decent than you. Why with your inbred family it's a shock you can even do magic. Until you can do even half the things Lily can I suggest you shut the hell up!" James was leaning over the table nearly spitting into Regulus's calm face. His face had gone noticeably red with anger and I noticed that his right hand was fiddling with the wand in his pocket, probably itching to hex Regulus into next week. Remus glanced up at me nervously and I think we were both thinking the same thing; James was going to lose his position as Head Boy before it even began for killing Regulus.

"I understand letting their kind in here to 'experience' the fruit of life, something they'll sadly never get to taste. But allowing such filth to be in power is disrespectful to the pure few who attend this school. Soon we'll be wanting to go out and share our magic with muggles." He spat out the last word with such venom. "If this is how Dumbledore intends to lead then perhaps he should be removed from his office." Deep breath, count to ten. And let it out. Fighting is unprofessional.

"You listen, you little, keep your sick ideas to your rotten group of friends." James took a deep shaky breath, clearly there was much more he wanted to say. I watched him clench and unclench his fists, before grabbing his wand. Time for this show to end, now. With another well aimed kick James was on the ground clutching at his ankle.

"We're done here. Everyone out now." At my command the whole room scattered. I noticed though as Barty Crouch Jr. went out the door he was whispering with Regulus and smiling. I wondered what Couch Sr. would think if he heard of this. I waited until nearly everyone had cleared out before rounding on James. "Get up." He clambered to his feet, holding his hands up to show he wasn't going to do anything. "What the hell do you think you were doing? Starting a fight with him over something so stupid! Are you out of your mind? Are you trying to get in trouble?" No more than an hour after our lets be friends talk and I was yelling at him again. But damnit if he weren't such a bigheaded git I wouldn't have to do it. Honestly, he nearly got into a fist fight with Regulus.

"I was trying to defend you! You heard what he called you! He can't say that!" James was up and yelling in my face. Ah, good to be back to our old habits.

"Don't defend me! You made me look weak, cutting me off! I can defend myself without your help! I don't need you to fight my battles!"

"I was trying to help!"

"Well don't! And you can't be getting into a fight! So he said something offensive. You have to learn to control your anger! You can't go about hexing whoever you please because they ticked you off!"

"You're getting on my case for controlling my anger? You're the one who started yelling at me! You're a hypocrite! You hold everyone to such high standard but don't live by them yourself!" James stepped back and took a deep breath, then proceeded to slam his head into the wall in frustration. I started pacing back and forth in circles, eyes closed, not wanting to have to look at him. I didn't even know where to begin with that. He was infuriating, he wasn't even listening to what I was saying, just attacking me at every turn. If he would just grow up…Some days I wanted to kill James Potter.

I opened my eyes to the throat clear that definitely did not come from James. Standing in the corner near the door was Remus, leaning against the wall looking bored. He scratched at his chin, then smiled when he had our attention. "Well if you've finished now I had something I wanted to say."