Exhausted, James flopped back into the soft grass and just lay there for a moment with his eyes closed. It was the very last day of august and summer had finally decided to make a proper appearance. It had been hot and cloudless for the last week and James had enjoyed it as much as he could. He had just finished his last holiday Quidditch training session and now would just enjoy the evening sun for a while before heading inside for dinner. Maybe he would take a dip in the pond before going back though. It was awfully hot today. Just the way he liked it.

'I have never seen someone training that hard in the holidays,' said Marlene's voice behind him. 'You know that you are complete and utterly mad, don't you?'

'Naturally,' said James without opening his eyes. Even without seeing her, he could feel her sinking to the grass next to him. 'I want to stay the best player at Hogwarts for another year after all. What are you doing out here?'

'Do I need a reason to be out on a brilliant summer's day?' she asked.

'You hate summer,' pointed James out. 'So, I would think so, yes.'

'I don't hate summer,' said Marlene indignantly. 'Just because you are mad and consider thirty degrees a perfectly acceptable temperature, does not mean that everybody with a sane mind hates summer.'

'Keep telling yourself that,' said James. 'Anyway I thought you were doing unspeakable things with Sirius.'

'I was assisting your mother with her brewing and Sirius was content to watch and get in the way. That is hardly unspeakable.'

'Well, I suppose fooling around with each other is not a full time position,' said James ponderously.

'Quit being such a baby about this,' said Marlene, obviously annoyed. 'I know that you don't approve of us, you don't need to repeat it every bloody day.'

'If you say so,' said James loftily. 'I can't believe the holidays are over already. I barely got a week of proper summer before having to get back to bloody freezing Scotland.'

'Are you looking forward to going back to school, Mr. head-boy?'

'Not really,' said James, his expression souring. 'I am not looking forward to the job at all. Dumbledore obviously has finally cracked when he picked me for the position. I have been in close to a hundred detentions over the years and I have not even been a prefect. I don't even know what exactly prefects do! How on earth am I supposed to be ordering them around?'

'First of all, I am not sure that you actually do order them around,' said Marlene and James could hear the amusement in her voice. 'You are going to do fine. Even though you can be a major prat at times, you are a good leader. You have done a great job as a Quidditch caption, have you not?'

'Yes,' said James. 'But I am actually good at Quidditch. No, scratch that, I am brilliant at Quidditch. But I don't know anything about being a prefect. I have broken almost every school rule during my stay here, after all! At least Remus is going to be there. Maybe he can give me a few pointers.'

'And I am sure that Lily is not going to let you wreck everything either,' said Marlene. 'You have told her that you are head-boy, haven't you? She will probably need some time to adept to the idea, so springing it on her probably is not a good idea.'

'I have sent her a letter yesterday, she has not written back.'

'She just probably does not know what so say,' said Marlene. 'And she is going to see you tomorrow anyway, so writing a letter seems rather pointless. She has been quite busy, you know. She has a summer job as assistant in a book store.'

'Yeah, she mentioned it,' said James. 'From what she wrote, it even is a Muggle book store! I don't get it. She is seventeen, she could have picked a number of places to work at in the Wizarding World! Why would she opt to spend her summer in the Muggle world where she can lean nothing worthwhile for her life as a witch?'

'She hasn't told me why she chose this position,' said Marlene thoughtfully. 'She probably wants to stay in touch with her Muggle upbringing. Also, it probably is not a great time to go summer job hunting in our world anyway. With all this tension, people would be hesitant to hire anybody, especially a Muggle-born witch.'

'That's true,' said James. 'Do you think she is alright with me becoming head-boy?

'Why wouldn't she be?' asked Marlene. 'You are friends now, are you not?'

'Yes, but I have been a trouble maker for almost my whole stay at Hogwarts. And she hates rule breakers. She probably would have preferred Remus as Head Boy. He would take it much more serious than I. I just have a feeling that we are not going to work well together.'

'I think you are being overly pessimistic about it,' said Marlene. 'You are going to take being head-boy seriously, aren't you?'

'Of course, I am going to take it seriously,' said James. 'Dumbledore may be insane to give the post to me, but I am not going to prove him wrong on purpose. No, as much as Sirius is going to take the mickey out of me, I am going to be as good a head-boy as I can be.'

'And that is exactly why Lily will be happy with you as her head-boy,' said Marlene matter-of-factly. 'I can think of a lot of people she would be much less happy with. Snape for example or even Palmer. For what Lily told me, he was not overly happy with her breaking up with him.'

'Really?' asked James interestedly. He still had no idea why Lily had suddenly dropped her boyfriend. He finally opened his eyes and looked intently at Marlene. 'Did she tell you why?'

'I knew that you would be very interested in that information,' said Marlene, looking smug. 'Some things never change and your interest in Lily is one of them.'

'Get to the point,' said James, unwilling to discuss his relationship with Lily in more detail.

'Wow, impatient much? Anyway, she did not give me any details. She just said that she realized during the end of the school year that she was not feeling any passion for Luke. She liked him well enough, but suddenly that was not enough for her anymore. So, after sticking around for another week or so, she decided to end things with him. He was livid and even accused her of cheating on him which naturally she didn't. Well, things got downhill from there and now they are not speaking to each other.'

'Well, good for Lily,' said James. 'Blimey, I knew that Palmer was a stick in the mud, but I never pictured him as the vindictive and jealous type. Anyway, it was quite obvious that the two of them would not last, wasn't it? Lily needs someone more adventurous than a stuffy Ravenclaw.'

'Of course you would say that,' said Marlene, rolling his eyes. 'Well, now that both of you are single, don't hate each other and are going to spend a lot of time in each other's company, maybe romance will finally bloom. That would certainly be something.'

'Yeah, something that is never going to happen,' said James automatically, even though he was thinking hard about what Marlene had said. Maybe she had a point. After all, at no point in the past had Lily and he been friends and single at the same time. Despite his rather recent breakup with Amber and his decision to keep his distance from Lily for a while, he still was interested in her. Maybe she had realized by now that he was not as horrible a person as she had believed in the past. Also, his dalliance with Amber might have gotten the point across that he was not going to wait around for Lily to notice him like a mistreated lapdog. James had to stifle a grin as he remembered Lily watching Amber and him in the shower a few months ago. If that had not gotten across how involved he had been with Amber then nothing would. Add the fact that they were going to have to work closely together in the future and you had indeed a rather promising situation. Nevertheless, he refused to get his hopes up. He had been disappointed too often in the past. He did not even know, how she felt about spending more time with him after all.

'Pish, posh,' said Marlene. 'You are just being overly negative. Quit being pessimistic, it does not suit you at all.'

'Why do you even care whether Lily and I are dating? You have never been overly fond of the idea in the past, so why did you change your mind all of sudden?'

'Well, I have decided that maybe you are not as horrible a match as I have thought,' said Marlene. 'Also, Sirius has filled in a few blanks regarding your relationship with Amber, I can't help but feel that you deserve something good to happen to you. From what Sirius has told me, it was quite rough for you.'

'I think I have to give my best mate a rather firm kick when I next see him,' said James, scowling. 'He talks way too much.'

'Oh, don't be mad at him,' said Marlene. 'I had to wheedle it out of him as you were not going to talk to me about it. And he only did tell me, because I told him that I wanted to help.'

'And how are you going to do that?' asked James. 'That relationship is over and there is nothing anyone can do about it.'

'I know that, silly,' said Marlene, rolling her eyes. 'I just want to make sure that you get over Amber properly. Sirius is worried about you as well. He said that you have not tried any of his propositions to make you feel better.'

'Has he also told you what exactly he did propose?' asked James. 'I am not going to shag some innocent Muggle girl just because I feel rather blue. That would not be fair to her.'

'Rubbish,' said Marlene. 'Shagging a girl who wants you to shag her can hardly be unfair to her. So don't come up with rubbish excuses to justify your behaviour. But I get it: You are not ready yet to move on. That's fine. Just keep in mind that there are other girls out there who would be ecstatic to date you.'

'I know,' said James. 'It just feels like I am stuck in this loop. I started dating Amber to get over Lily. Then I started to like her and decided to give it a go even though I knew that it would only be temporary. I never expected it to hurt as much as it does, but I feel like picking up another girl would just keep the loop going. What if I start to like her as well and things do sour again? Then, I will be back where I am now, just with more emotional scars. I think I just need some time on my own.'

'Avoiding something good just because it could turn bad does not seem very brave to me,' said Marlene sagely.

'Yeah, yeah,' said James. 'But I find hard to picture you as an advocate of love when you broke up with your ex-boyfriend because he asked to marry you.'

'Well, if he had truly understood me, he never would have asked,' said Marlene curtly. 'But let's not argue over semantics. I just want you to know that both Sirius and I are there for you. If you ever come up with something we can do for you, then don't hesitate to ask. We both want to see you happy.'

'Thanks,' said James, who was touched by their concern. 'And when exactly did the two of you become a "we"? I thought you were strictly not-dating?'

'It is not uncommon to say "we" when taking about a group of people which includes yourself,' said Marlene haughtily. 'And don't worry about Sirius and me. We are still not-dating and perfectly fine with how things are. Oh, and I was supposed to tell you to come to dinner.'

'I will be up in a minute,' said James, closing his eyes again and determined to soak up a bit more of the sun.

'Alright, but don't blame me when you mum stomps down here to get you yourself,' said Marlene, in an amused voice. James could hear her standing up and walking back to the manor, but he could not gather the willpower to follow here. Instead, he just lay there, his mind spinning with thoughts of Amber, Lily and his bloody head-boy badge.

'Oh, yeah, that's good stuff,' said Peter as he took a deep drag of the joint he had just rolled. 'I thought that Gudgeon was pulling my leg when he told me how potent this strain is, but it seems that he was telling the truth.'

'Pass it over, will you,' said James grumpily. He had only just arrived in the seventh year dormitory. After he dinner, Lily and he had had to take care of the first years. Afterwards, Lily had wasted no time and pulled him into a detailed discussion about what she wanted to achieve as head-girl and how he could help. It had not improved his mood.

'Prongs, you are back,' said Sirius exuberantly. 'Blimey, given how long the two of you were gone, I thought Evans had either murdered or shagged you. But you are obviously alive and you don't look like you have shagged anyone. So, what kept you?'

'I don't want to talk about it,' said James. He took the spliff which Peter had offered to him and took a drag. 'Thanks, Pete. I did not expect you to refill our stash that quickly.'

'I had it all planned out with Gudgeon,' explained Peter. 'He asked me back in June whether we would want to restock in September. I told him we would and he offered me a special product for a good price if I agree to take two pounds.'

'And you agreed?' said Remus incredulously. 'Peter, what were you thinking? If anyone finds out that we have two bloody pounds stashed in our dorm, we are going to be in so much trouble! I can see the teachers turn a blind idea to a joint or two, but not to that amount of weed!'

'Oh, who cares?' asked Sirius, taking the joint from James and taking a hit as well. 'As if anyone is going to search our dormitory for weed. I doubt that the teachers even know what it is. It is not exactly a common drug in wizarding society. If they are going to search for anything, they will be looking for illegal potions and dark artefacts. I think you did well, Pete. Running out of weed all the time last year, pissed me off. It is better to buy a huge batch and only have to refill one or twice during the year. I just think that you should have bought more. The two pounds are going to last until Christmas, but not much longer.'

'James, come on, say something,' said Remus. 'You are head-boy after all! You are not going to look the other way while Peter turn our dormitory into a bloody drug stash!'

'Relax, Moony,' said James. 'Take a drag yourself, so you calm down a bit. We have been smoking this stuff for years and always stored it here. It never was a problem in the past, so why should it be one now?'

'I am the worst prefect in the world,' moaned Remus, but he took James's advice and also took a drag from the spliff which was almost finished at this point.

'You can finish it by yourself,' said Sirius. 'I am going to roll a new one. Nevertheless, I think Moony has a point. Maybe we should consider splitting our stash in multiple parts. That way, it will not be as bad if someone finds it.'

'You think the teachers will let us off with a warning if they don't find too much?' asked Peter, sceptically. 'I can see Dumbledore being lenient, but not McGonagall. She would have a fit if she knew.'

'It is not the teachers I am overly worried about,' said Sirius. 'I am more worried about the other students. There are a lot of people in this tower and we have had problems with overly nosy "admirers" in the past already. Even if we put protective enchantments in place, there is still the risk of someone finding our stash and taking it for himself. We are not the only one smoking weed in this tower and a stash this big is going to attract thieves. I say we split it into parts and hid it at different places in the castle. That's is going to be way saver.'

'Ah, good idea,' said James. 'I can store some in my locker in the changing rooms. I just have to make sure that the packaging is air tight, so no one can smell it. Nobody ever touches other people's lockers.'

'Don't you have some protective enchantments on the locker?' asked Peter. 'I think I remember you telling me about them quite a while ago. Why do you need them if you are so sure that no one is going to touch your locker anyway?'

'Oh yeah,' said James. 'Right, I forgot about these. I enchanted my locker, because that git over there once put itching power in my Quidditch gloves. I was not amused.'

James pointed at Sirius who barked with laughter.

'Oh yeah, I forgot that I did that,' he said. 'That was the best Quidditch practice of my life!'

'Tosser,' grumbled James, before turning to Peter again. 'You know, we could hide some of it in other places as well. Maybe in the Shrieking Shack or in the tunnel under the hump-backed witch. The tunnel walls there are only earth. We could dig a small compartment there and hide the weed there. Then we just have to put a glamor charm on it and we are in business.'

'Sounds like a good idea,' said Peter. 'Let's head down there tomorrow night and see whether we can manage it.'

'It is not a good idea,' roared Remus. He turned to James. 'You-are-the-bloody-head-boy! You can't waltz around the castle and hide illegal drugs all over the place for Merlin's sake!'

'Right,' said James. 'Wormy, you have to place the weed there on your own, but I can help you make the hiding place. That does not violate any school rules at all.'

'Argh,' said Remus. 'That was not what I meant and you know it!'

'Merlin's beard Moony,' said Sirius. 'Focus on smoking your spliff! You are so tightly wound you are going to explode any minute. It is bloody annoying that's what it is.'

'I am only doing my job,' said Remus, but he did take another deep drag. 'I really am the worst prefect in the world, but at least I have company. James is the worst head-boy after all.'

'Hey, I resent that,' said James. 'You had two years of prefect work already, I have just started. Besides, I don't see how I can mess this up too badly with Lily as my partner. She has more than enough drive for both of us.'

'Really?' asked Sirius. 'Well, that's great, isn't it? That means you can go back to spending your days with Quidditch, pranking and flirting. Let Evans do all the work and relax. Sounds like a great plan. I don't see why you have been so blue about it when you got here.'

'I highly doubt that Lily is going to allow James to slack off,' said Remus. 'When I last spoke with her about her plans as head-girl she was very motivated and she expected him to be enthusiastic as well.'

'Remus has got it right,' said James. 'She spent thirty bloody minutes telling me what she would like to do during the year. And when she was finally done, she asked me what my plans were and I had nothing! Nothing at all!'

'Well of course you haven't,' said Sirius, impatiently. 'You did not plan on becoming head-boy after all. Does she expect you to be ecstatic about the added responsibility and find solutions to every problem the school has in the two weeks that you had to adjust to news? Ridiculous! I don't even remember who was head-boy last year, so I think the impact to the head-students is highly overrated.'

'You can't remember, because you consciously don't pay attention to prefects and heads,' pointed Remus out. 'There is a difference. The heads certainly can have an impact on the school.'

'Oh really?' asked Sirius challengingly. 'Name a change then which was introduced or suggested by a head-student and which had a lasting impact on the school.'

'Er...,' said Remus, who had clearly been startled by Sirius's challenge. 'Well, two years ago we had that Christmas Ball which had been organized by the head girl. Gosh, what was her name again? She had very long dark hair and a curvy figure.'

'The one with the huge breasts?' asked Peter. 'I think that was Martha Spinnings.'

'Oh, yeah, she was nice to look at,' said Sirius. 'But the ball was rather boring, wasn't it? And it hardly had a lasting impact on the school. I mean, they have not held it since then, have they? So, I was right: Head-students cannot change anything meaningful.'

'Well, Lily certainly does not agree,' said James. 'Merlin, the way she looked at me when I said that I did not have a master plan for my time as head-boy. She actually was disappointed! Can you believe it? I have not even made it through the first one on one meeting with her without disappoint her. Being head-boy is going to be a disaster.'

'Relax, will you?' said Sirius gruffly. 'It is only Evans for Merlin's sake. You were never going to impress her anyway. Don't be so hard on yourself. Personally, I think you should be satisfied with your time as head-boy if you make it through the year without losing the badge. I mean, we have to realistic here. You are still a Marauder. You spend every full moon with running around with a werewolf in your animagus form which of course is not registered with the Ministry. I think it would be a bit much to ask you to be a fantastic head-boy.'

'Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sirius,' said James darkly. 'And it is not just Evans. Everybody knows that I am a troublemaker at heart and quite a few people are not fond of me as head-boy. If I do a lousy job, then they will feel like they had been right all along.'

'Is this about Snape?' asked Remus. 'You should not let him get to you, James. He is just jealous that you made head-boy and he is still only a prefect.'

'What about Snape?' asked Sirius sharply. He looked angry at the mere mention of the Slytherin. 'Do we have to hex the slimy git? Has he forgotten his place again?'

'It's fine,' said James. 'Snape made a few snide comments about me being head-boy that's all. I ignored him and that is the end of this nonsense. And you are not going to hex him Sirius. Remember: He knows about Moony and I don't trust him to keep his mouth shut if we provoke him too much.'

'He would not dare to defy Dumbledore,' said Sirius. 'If we don't retaliate he is going to think that we have lost our touch. He will keep pestering you and it will become worse every time. We have to strike back and teach him his place.'

'You heard James,' said Remus curtly. 'We cannot take that risk. Also, I doubt that Snape is going to be too much of a nuisance. I think he is more than occupied with becoming a Death Eater.'

'You think he wants to be one of them?' asked Sirius. 'I do not think he has the guts for it. But it is one more reason to hate him, so I will take it gladly.'

'The point is that Snape is not the only one who disagrees with me being head-boy,' said James, thereby bringing the conversation back on track. 'And I want to prove them all wrong, but I don't know what to do.'

'For the moment, I think it is best if you follow Evan's lead,' said Peter. 'If she is as enthusiastic as you say, you can get by with just supporting her and everyone will think that you do a great job.'

'That's true,' said Remus. 'Also, I think coming up with new ideas of your own in addition to Lily's is not a great idea as long as she is so enthusiastic about things. She is so preoccupied with her plans that she will probably not even listen properly to yours. And both are going to compete for your time and resources, so there can be a lot of friction there. So, your best course of action is probably to support her plans at first and thereby come up with your own or reshape hers.'

'Yeah, that could work,' said James. 'I will probably have to kill half of her plans though. She actually has suggested to appeal to the board of governors to make Muggle Studies mandatory for each student. And this includes N.E.W.T.-level! She says that it will send a signal against all the Muggle hating in wizarding society, but there is no way this is going to work. She is just going to get everyone riled up even more.'

'That's Evans for you,' said Sirius. 'Full of well-meant ideas that she is hell-bent on sharing with you whether you want to hear them or not. Maybe that is why Dumbledore chose you as her partner. You know how the wizarding world actually works. You are a pure-blood from a good family which is well-connected. You can temper her plans so that they may actually work! On her own, she is never going to gather any support, she is not popular enough and she lacks the necessary connections.'

'You know, that does make sense,' said James. 'Maybe this is the way I can be a good head-boy. I will have to think about that.'

'Yes, but not tonight,' said Sirius. 'I have had it with all this talk about Evans and head-students. It is our first night back and we are going to continue our condition and get smashed.'

James laughed at Remus's resigned expression as Sirius whipped out the fire-whiskey. Sirius was right, there was enough time to worry about being head-boy and Lily in the morning.