A/N: Thank you to JKR for giving us this playground to run in. I'm just borrowing it for a while. Sorry for the wait! This has been written for about 6 months, just haven't been able to commit to posting.

Chapter 3: Confrontation

Lily was jolted out of a light doze when the Hogwarts Express stopped and she began to hear compartments open and the booming voice of the gamekeeper saying "Firs' Years! Firs' Years, this way!" She double-checked that her robes were in order and her badge straight, then levitated her trunk out to the hallway, following slightly behind it.

After depositing her trunk in the Gryffindor pile, she headed straight for Hagrid. "Hello, Hagrid! How was your holiday?"

Hagrid beamed down at her and chuckled. "No' as good as yours, it seems! Head Girl Lily Evans, eh? You have a tough job ahead of ya' if you mean t' keep those Gryffindor boys in line!"

Lily shook her head fondly at the half-giant and grimaced. She began to open her mouth, but a voice from behind her stepped in first.

"Ah, but Hagrid, she's never had me to help her before!" Hagrid guffawed, looking over Lily's head to that familiar voice behind her.

"James Potter! An' yer parents mus' be very proud of ya'! Head Boy! Yer gonna be great, I say. With you two on the job, Hogwarts will have t' fall in step!" Hagrid beamed at both of them, and Lily grinned back, before turning to look at James.

"So, round up the first years, Evans? I'll look for the second years to herd them to the carriages, alright?" James shot her a small smile, hoping she'd agree.

Lily thought it over for a second, and nodded her acquiescence. "Sure. See you inside." With that, she smiled at Hagrid, and began to slide through the crowd looking for any stragglers who seemed entirely out of place.

Sure enough, not 30 seconds later, she spied the first year she'd bumped into on the platform. "Claire!" She called out to the girl, who looked a bit lost in the crowd, even with Hagrid's loud cries of "Firs' Years!" resuming.

The younger girl looked up at the sound of her name and seemed extremely relieved to have found a familiar face. Lily made her way to the girl and said, "Here, let me help you. Hagrid will get you all sorted out once all of the first years are with him."

Claire looked slightly apprehensive, glancing towards the towering figure of the gamekeeper. "Is he… is he nice?" she asked timidly. "He's awful big."

Lily grinned at her, then bent over to whisper in her ear. "He's only so big because they needed a body large enough to fit his enormous heart. No need to worry." Lily leaned back to give her a reassuring glance and Claire smiled tentatively back at her, then suddenly they were in front of the towering mountain of a man.

"An' who d'we have here?" Hagrid smiled kindly down on Lily and her charge.

"Hagrid, this is Claire Fraiser. I'll leave her in your capable hands." Lily grinned again at Claire, and nodded once at Hagrid, before walking back towards the train to see if anyone else had been slightly intimidated by Hagrid.

As she walked, she heard Hagrid say "Rubeus Hagrid, groundskeeper here at Hogwarts! It's nice t' meet ya, Claire! I say, you're at the bes' place for magic in the whole world, what with Albus Dumbledore as your Headmaster. Great man, Dumbledore!" Lily gave a small smile at the groundskeeper's predictable rejoinder and continued on her way.

She had finished walking down the trains, and had stopped to look at the boats by the lake when she was startled from her reverie by a snort behind her.

"Head Girl, Lily? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, what with Dumbledore's penchant for, shall we say, different students." This stopped her in her tracks as she forced herself to remain composedly silent. Her only acquiescence was the small sigh she heaved.

The commentary continued, undeterred by her unresponsiveness. "You must realize you're drawing unnecessary attention to yourself. There are those who aren't going to take too kindly to a mud—muggleborn being made Head Girl."

Lily closed her eyes, having recognized the voice instantly as that of her ex-best-friend. She sighed, resigned to the conversation. "What do you want, Severus?" She felt a hand touch her shoulder, trying to turn her around.

She finally turned, realizing the only way to get rid of him would be to confront him. She was filled with a sudden and unbridled anger for having this conversation forced upon her. "What?" She scowled at him.

He looked quite taken aback and for a split-second she felt slightly guilty, but then his face twisted and he leaned into her. "Your title won't protect you from the people who want to see you hurt. You've royally brassed off the wrong people, and you'll suffer the consequences if you're not careful." His words and his face didn't match, the sneering visage making his words sound insulting, rather than cautioning.

She was shocked that he seemed to be threatening her outright, and before she could come up with a proper retort, she heard a voice from close to her shoulder berate him. "Leave her alone, Snape. Just because she's too polite to hex you into next Thursday doesn't mean you can threaten the Head Girl with impunity. 10 points from Slytherin and detention Friday, for disrespecting a Head." James Potter stepped forward farther into her sightline, and her anger and shock transformed into consternation.

"Potter-" both she and Severus had spoken at the same time, and suddenly Lily remembered what he had said to her, and her anger sparked back into life. She started again. "Severus, get up to the castle, before you get yourself in more trouble. I'm sure your little friends are wondering where you are."

With that, she abandoned the two boys to head to her own carriage, away from the shadows of the hulking Slytherins, who she had correctly assumed were waiting for Snape farther up the trail. She saw Severus slink off to the other boys out of the corner of her eye and attempted to let go of her anger as she reached for the handle of the carriage door.

As soon as she had climbed in, the door opened again and Potter looked timidly from the doorway, as if expecting a hex. "Is it okay if I ride up with you? All the other carriages are gone."

She sighed and nodded, gesturing to the seat across from her, but remaining silent.

James gingerly sat across from her and after a couple seconds, began to speak. "Look, Evans, I know you can take care of yourself. I'm sorry I stepped in where I probably wasn't needed or wanted, but I just couldn't let him speak to you that way. You have enough trouble on your hands just trying to get me up to speed with this Head business to deal with threats from Slytherins on your first night back." He sped through his apology, rambling on as quickly as he could, in order to forestall any interruptions. "I'm not giving back the points or taking back the detention, I think they were appropriate for the amount of disrespect he showed you, but I'll try to let you handle things in the future, okay?"

He finally looked up from his hands, which he had been staring at all since beginning his apology, to gaze into her eyes, shadowed by moonlight. She looked withdrawn, determining what to think, how to respond.

She settled on a neutral expression. "Potter, I think this might be the first time I've ever said this to you, but apology accepted. And…" She hesitated slightly, casting about for another way—any other way—to say what was on the tip of her tongue. "Thank you."

He gave her a small smile, hiding the somersaults his heart and stomach were turning. "You're welcome."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

When they arrived at the castle, James handed her down from the carriage and bid her goodbye, off to look for his friends, she supposed. She still wasn't quite sure what to make of the boy she was going to be working with this year. They'd spent the rest of the carriage-ride in silence, and as they rode, she contemplated his actions and Severus' words.

She hated to admit it, but Severus had really upset her. She hadn't been expecting a warm welcome—even when they were still "friends" he didn't do warm welcomes, tending towards ignoring her in public—but she certainly hadn't expected a threat, or a warning, or whatever it was he had been trying to do. One thing Lily was certain of: she would have to look after herself more carefully this year.

And James Potter continued to astonish her. She had initially been furious that he had intervened where he was unwanted, but his levelheaded response and decisive end to the unpleasant conversation was so relieving that she couldn't hold her anger. When he had apologized to her, she once again wondered who this boy was, and what he'd done with James Potter. Wonders never ceased, apparently.

Finally reaching the Great Hall, she scanned the Gryffindor table for Alice and Marlene. They saw her searching for them, and waved excitedly from the far end of the table. She felt her spirits lift as she took in the sight of her best friends waiting for her.

Lily wandered over and plopped herself down in between the two girls, dropping an arm around both of them, and squeezing gently. "Girls, I have missed you more than I thought possible." Alice and Marlene quickly threw their arms about her, hugging her tightly and bouncing a little in their excitement.

Alice pulled back first and exclaimed "Head Girl! I knew it before, but now, with the badge," she gestured to Lily's robes, "it seems more real!"

Before she could respond, Marlene leaned her right elbow on the table and asked rapid-fire, "So who's the Head Boy? Marcus Gregory? Andrew Corbin? Remus Lupin?" She peered around the table to where Remus was sitting, chuckling with his friends over something, then over to the other tables, searching for Marcus or Andrew. "Hmmmmm?" She was so excited that Lily couldn't help but laugh at her antics.

She took a breath and rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't believe it!" Marlene looked puzzled at that, and scanned the Slytherin table.

"It's not Snape, is it? I don't know what Dumbledore is thinking putting him in as Head!" Marlene looked worried and exchanged glances with Alice, who shrugged her shoulders and gestured to Marlene.

"Lily? She's not right, is she? I mean, about Snape being Head Boy?" She was hesitant to broach the subject of Lily's former friend. Severus Snape was no one's favorite topic of conversation, and had been even less so since the end of fifth year.

Lily shuddered, realizing she had never even thought about that possibility. Her assumption had always been that Remus or Andrew would be Head Boy. Remus, as he was brilliant in his studies and a friendly acquaintance to most of the school, and Andrew, the Ravenclaw Prefect, who was a bit more serious than Remus, but would have made an excellent Head.

She laughed a bit, realizing James Potter might not be the best choice, but he was far from the worst. "Nope… James Potter."

Alice and Marlene looked at each other for a beat, and back at Lily, then dissolved into a laughing fit. "Hooo! Lily, you really didn't have to do that. I don't need a broken rib from laughing so hard! Hehehe!" Marlene almost fell off of the bench, pounding her fist on the table in mirth.

Alice's laughter trailed off when she realized that Lily wasn't laughing, although there was a small smile on her face from watching her friends. She reached out to her right and poked Marlene from around Lily's back, and gestured back at Lily. Alice peered closer at Lily's face and then sat back, disbelief across her face. "He is, isn't he?" she asked, as if she didn't want to hear the answer.

"Oh, Lily! I'm so sorry!" Marlene commiserated with her best friend. "Maybe Dumbledore made a mistake?" She looked hopeful.

Lily just smiled a bit more and shook her head. "No, no mistake. And, while I can't believe I'm actually going to say this, he actually might do a good job." Silence greeted this pronouncement, and Lily glanced at her friends to see that they were staring at her like she'd grown an extra 2 heads.

"No, really! He was very attentive when we went over things for the Prefect's meeting, helped the first and second years find their way and he hasn't been a prat yet at all." She intentionally didn't mention her run-in with Snape and continued on. "If he keeps it up, this will be a fantastic school year. Didn't even ask me out at all. And strangely enough, kept having a hard time forming his sentences."

Alice and Marlene still looked a bit skeptical, but less like they thought their friend needed to see a healer. "You're sure?" Alice asked, making sure Lily wasn't just bluffing for their sake. The Head Girl had a habit of understating things to make them seem less serious than they were to prevent her friends from worrying about her (in her mind) unnecessarily.

Lily nodded. "Yes. I'm going to keep an eye on him, but he seems to really want to do this right." She saw McGonagall enter with the first years trailing behind her and shushed her friends. They shook their heads in disbelief, but turned to watch the Sorting ceremony (Fraiser, Claire was sorted into Gryffindor, to Lily's delight) and listened to Dumbledore's welcoming speech ("Fizzle! Mermish! Snidget! Hollow!") before loading their plates with food.