Harry Potter and all its characters belong to JK Rowling. I am just borrowing them for my own amusement.

Chapter 3 A Surprising Proposition

Lily Evans was awoken that next morning just after eight to a tap-tap, tap-tap on her window. She rolled over and saw a brown owl sitting on the windowsill. It looked familiar but Lily couldn't quite place it. She sighed, slightly annoyed at being woken up, but she decided that at least it was after 8 and not earlier.

She walked over to the window, opened it, and held out her arm for the owl to climb on and brought it inside. She perched it on her desk and removed the letter. She was surprised when, instead of flying away, the owl sat there patiently watching her.

Curious, Lily opened the letter and read it. She read it through three times before finally putting it down to think about it. Was he serious? He certainly sounded as though he was. Sure he usually acted like an arrogant prat, but Marlene always said that he was an excellent Captain, the best since she'd been on the team and she'd been playing since second year, during which time they'd had four captains…and he did seem to have calmed down a bit during sixth year. Plus he did say that he finally realized that he'd been a… what was it… a yes, "an arrogant, bullying, toe rag" so maybe he was serious.

Dear James,

Thank you for the letter and congratulations to you, too. You're right we really need to put aside our differences and get along if we're going to work together all year. I must admit I was shocked that Dumbledore made you Head Boy but I hope that what you put in your letter to me is the truth. If it is I'm sure that we will be able to work out our differences and work together.

I think you're right about calling each other by our first names. It would undermine our authority if we don't get along. I know you were not a Prefect so if you have any questions that come up over the summer or once we get back to school please feel free to ask me. I think working together will be easier if we communicate and I would rather you ask me a question that one or both of us might think is stupid than to have us contradicting each other without our realizing it.

I'll see you in the Prefects' compartment on September 1st and again if you have any questions feel free to owl me.

Your fellow head,

Lily

After giving her letter the once over she sent it off with Merlin. She was surprised by the maturity that James had showed in sending his letter. She didn't think he was capable of being mature about anything, except maybe Quidditch practice. Lily looked at the clock. It was only 9:00, which left her with plenty of time to get ready to meet up with Marlene and Katie in Diagon Alley at noon.

Lily and Marlene had been friends since they met on the Hogwarts Express in their first year. Lily and Severus had been walking down the train looking for a compartment to join. They had been sitting with James and Sirius but they had acted like total prats and she and Severus had left in search of a different compartment. Marlene had asked if Lily and Severus were first years too and Lily had said yes. Marlene had invited them to sit with her and the rest was history. Lily and Marlene had met Katie after they were all sorted into Gryffindor and had gone up to the dormitories. The three of them had been pretty much inseparable since then.

At noon Lily apparated from her room to the Leaky Cauldron. She only had to wait a few minutes before Marlene and Katie both appeared with a 'pop.'

"Hey guys, how are you?" Lily asked.

"We're excellent," Katie stated, "and how are you, Miss Head Girl?" she asked with a grin.

"Pretty good, sure Petunia and her boyfriend are coming over for dinner, but getting to see you two makes up for it a little bit," Lily replied with a smile.

"Just a little bit?" Marlene asked grinning.

Lily just laughed at them and headed towards the back of the Leaky Cauldron to the alley that led to Diagon Alley. She tapped the brick wall with her wand and the archway appeared.

"So, where to first?" Katie asked.

"I say we get books last," Marlene said, "that way we don't have to lug them around everywhere."

"I need to go to Gringotts and change some money," Lily told them.

"Gringotts it is then," Marlene said cheerfully. "I need to get some gold out of our vault anyway. Mum gave me the key, along with a death threat if I lose it."

Lily and Katie laughed as the three girls headed over to the wizard bank. After they got their money they headed to the apothecary to replenish Marlene and Lily's potion kits. Katie wasn't taking N.E.W.T. Potions even though she had gotten an E on her owl. She hated the subject and argued that she wouldn't need it to work in the Magical Law Enforcement Department, as she was not planning on becoming an Auror.

After the apothecary the girls headed over to Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. None of the girls needed new school robes but Katie wanted to look for a new pair of dress robes. She was unsuccessful but the girls had fun trying things on.

As they left Madame Malkin's Marlene remembered that she needed to stop by Eeylops Owl Emporium to get some more owl treats for Fred, her owl. Their last required stop was Flourish and Blotts to get the new books they needed for their final year at Hogwarts.

Once they had finished their shopping Marlene had a suggestion.

"Let's go get some Ice Cream. There's this new place called Fortescue's or something like that. The ice cream is supposed to be excellent!"

The other two quickly agreed and within ten minutes they were sitting outside eating the best ice cream Lily had ever tasted.

"This ice cream is wonderful, whoever told you about this place was right," Lily exclaimed.

"My brother stopped here the other day and had some," Marlene told them.

"So, Lily," said Katie with a mischievous look in her eyes.

Uh oh, Lily though, there was only one direction this conversation could possibly go.

"Are you going to give James a chance this year and go on a date with him?" Katie asked grinning deviously.

"Ugh, you two are almost as bad as he is," Lily exclaimed in annoyance.

She wasn't angry, just annoyed. This had become a standard question from her friends since some time in fifth year when Potter, no James, she corrected herself, had started asking her out on a regular basis. They did it mostly to torment her, although part of her suspected that they really believed Lily would like him if she went out with him.

Lily looked down at her watch and realized with a jolt that it was 5:05.

"Sorry guys, I know you're just getting warmed up tormenting me, but I was supposed to be home five minutes ago," Lily said quickly gathering her things. She knew her mother wouldn't be angry if she was a few minutes late, but Lily liked to be punctual.

"Don't worry Lily, it's a long ride to Hogwarts, we'll have plenty of time to torment you then," Katie said, grinning deviously.

Lily rolled her eyes as they walked over to the apparation spot and she disapparated back to her room. Lily put her bags down and then headed down to the kitchen to see if her mother needed any help.

At exactly 7 o'clock the doorbell rang. Lily's mother was occupied with the evenings roast and Mr. Evans was upstairs changing out of his work suit into "something less officey" as he said, so Lily got the pleasure of answering the door.

"Good evening, Vernon, Petunia" Lily said trying to sound as pleasant as possible. "Mum is in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner and Dad is upstairs, but he will be down in a minute."

With that Lily turned and headed back to the kitchen to help her mother set the table while Vernon and Petunia headed to the living room to wait for Mr. Evans to come downstairs.

So far, dinner had gone well in Lily's opinion. At least she and Petunia hadn't started fighting, Lily thought to herself, looking over at her sister.

Suddenly Petunia made a very dramatic display of clearing his throat. Lily looked up curiously, as did Mr. and Mrs. Evans.

"Mother, father, Vernon and I have an announcement to make," Petunia said in a very formal voice. Lily's parents exchanged a glance. "Vernon has asked me to marry him and I have accepted," Petunia said this as if she were reading a notice at a very formal meeting and not at all like she was excited about being engaged. She probably is, Lily reasoned, but it's Petunia, getting engaged is what you're supposed to do, she wouldn't act excited about it.

"That's wonderful darling!" her mother exclaimed. Her father nodded in agreement, smiling.

Why were they acting like they were excited, they thought Vernon's as big a dolt as Lily did. Maybe marriage would make Petunia less cranky. Did she really just think that, if anything it would probably make her worse. Wait till Marlene and Katie heard about this.

The rest of the evening was terribly dull as Mrs. Evans and Petunia discussed wedding plans and Lily was very glad when they finally left. They had insisted on renting a room at a hotel claiming that they wanted to head back to London very early and didn't want to bother anyone. Lily suspected Petunia was really worried that if they stayed at the house too long Vernon might witness something, like an owl delivering mail, and find out about Lily's "abnormality."

Two weeks later

James and Sirius were sitting in the formal living room when the dying flames in the fire suddenly burst to life turning emerald green. Remus Lupin appeared spinning very fast. As he came to a stop he looked at James and Sirius and smiled.

"Moony, we were starting to wonder if you would ever get here!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Hey, Moony," James greeted.

"Padfoot, Prongs," Remus answered. "Is Wormtail here yet?" he asked looking around.

"Not yet," James answered.

Suddenly the green flames shot up again and Peter appeared in the fireplace.

"Hey, Wormtail," all three boys greeted.

"Hey, guys," Peter said dusting some of the soot from his clothes. "So, what's the plan?" Peter asked nervously. "Are we still going to Diagon Alley to get our school supplies? Because my Mum really doesn't want me too…"

"Well, that was the original plan," Sirius said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Before the attack last week," James added. "But after what happened last week my Mum doesn't want us going alone either," James explained.

"If you didn't need new robes she probably wouldn't let us go at all," Sirius pointed out.

"What those Death Eaters did was pretty awful," Remus spoke up.

Peter and Sirius nodded.

"It was disgusting," James replied vehemently.

"They're getting bolder. Attacking in broad daylight, with witnesses," Remus added.

"They've added extra security. They have Aurors patrolling all the time now," Sirius said.

"And that doesn't make it any safer," said Mrs. Potter entering the room. "You boys can go but your father and I are coming too, James."

"Alright," James agreed.

The other three boys nodded. Her tone left no room for argument.

"Oh," Peter suddenly piped up. "Moony, did you get Head Boy?"

James shot a nervous look over at Sirius. He knew this conversation was coming but he had hoped it wouldn't come so quickly. In addition to being slightly nervous, and rather confused, about being made Head Boy he also felt guilty that he had been chosen over Remus.

"No," said Remus smiling. "And thank goodness. Being a prefect is one thing but I don't think I would have particularly being Head Boy. Plus, with my, schedule, it would have been rather difficult."

The four boys shared a look at the mention of Remus's schedule and James shot a quick glance in the direction his mother had gone but could no longer see her.

"I wonder who did get it though?" Remus added. "I do hope it isn't the Slytherin Prefect."

"Don't worry it's not," Sirius replied.

"How can you be so sure?" Peter asked.

"Because I know who it is," Sirius replied.

"And how did you find out?" Remus asked skepticism evident in his voice.

"Because," James began and then hesitated. "Because, it's me."

Peter started to laugh, "Good one, James."

"Oh, he's not kidding," Sirius stated.

Remus gave James a confused look, "You?"

James nodded, still feeling guilty despite the fact that Remus had just told Peter he was glad he didn't get it. James knew that Remus would blame his furry little problem. James could not understand how Remus thought that made him any less valuable than anyone else. It drove him mad. Remus was one of the best people he knew.

"I don't believe it," Peter said.

"Neither did I," James said. "If it wasn't such a ludicrous idea I would have suspected Sirius of playing a prank."

"It's not completely ludicrous," Remus disagreed. "You are a natural leader."

The other three boys looked at him curiously.

"What, it's true," Remus said. "Everyone thinks you're a great Quidditch Captain. And people look up to you and respect you."

"I guess," James said.

Remus rolled his eyes.