Lily followed James, glancing sideways at him, hoping to catch his eye. She had wanted to thank him for helping her out with that creep Malfoy. But his friends had burst in. James was either very interested in the floor, or he absolutely refused to look at her. After a few minutes of silence, Lily spoke, not wanting to have to say it in front of the other Heads.
“James, I…” Lily began, but James cut her off.
“Hey, it’s no sweat, red. Don’t even think about it, it never happened,” he said, rather sharply. Then he sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. Just…let’s just say it never happened.” Lily was confused, but she nodded anyways. When they reached the front compartment, they nodded to the other people in the room. Lily only recognized a few of them.
“Hello, there,” said a girl with long blonde hair. “I’m Haley, prefect of Hufflepuff. This is Sean, he’s the other prefect.” The boy nodded. He was tall and had jet black hair. Lily and James shook hands with the two. Lily opened her mouth to introduce herself but James spoke first.
“I’m James Potter, I’m the Head Boy. And this is…”
“Lily Evans, who is very capable of introducing herself,” Lily said, pointedly. James grinned and bowed in mock apology. The two Hufflepuffs stared and then Haley grinned.
“Are you two together?” she asked slyly. James and Lily stood dumbstruck. Then they both burst into exaggerated “NO!’s," explaining how they would rather eat slugs than so much as look at each other. Then they both heard each other’s insults and turned to argue.
“And what, exactly, do you find so repulsive about me?!” they both snarled at each other. But then Lily realized that Haley and Sean had left during their fighting.
“See what you did?” James said. “You made Haley leave.”
“Haley? Is that the only person you noticed? For your information there was a very handsome guy with her. And you made him leave!”
“Sean,” James snorted. “He looked like an idiot to me.”
“Well, I should trust your judgment, being an idiot yourself,” Lily retorted. They both succumbed to silence until they noticed the other people that they were supposed to introduce themselves to. They were greeted by the Ravenclaw Prefects; a rather short, plump boy named Carl Ferguson, and a brown haired girl named Ivy Finnigan. Lily smiled at them, and they carried on a conversation for awhile without fighting. Then the Slytherin Prefects came up. Lily stopped talking as she stared at them.
They were the creepiest looking people she had ever seen. James and the Ravenclaws stopped talking too. The girl had long brown hair, reaching past her waist. Her eyes were almost black, they were so dark. She had many a piercing in her eyebrows and lip. She had on heavy make-up, and looked very bored. Standing next to her was a very tall boy. He had extremely pale skin, and small, narrow eyes. They were the strangest color eyes, almost a deep, dark, blood red. They were looking her over, and Lily felt very uncomfortable. She saw that he had the dirtiest fingernails she had ever seen. They were long, longer than hers, and had a large amount of brown underneath. James moved uncomfortably, realizing that they had been standing and staring at these people for a very long time. He extended his hand. The girl shook it, but when James offered it to the boy, he just looked at him. When it was obvious that the boy didn’t want to shake hands with him, James put his hands down. Lily tried to smile at him, still feeling his gaze heavily upon her.
“My name is Lily. Lily Evans.” The girl nodded.
“My name is Patricia,” she said, with a deep, scratchy voice. “People call me Trish.”
“Alright then, Trish,” Lily said, smiling. Trish nodded. Lily looked at the boy, who still hadn’t spoken. The Ravenclaws, who still were staring avidly at the Slytherins, muttered something to each other, and then scurried away. James watched them, obviously wanting to go with them, but certainly not wanting to leave Lily with these two. Finally the Slytherin boy moved. He put his hands in his pockets and sniffed loudly through his very thin nose.
“You’re a Muggle-born,” he said. Lily nodded, wondering what he was getting at. “I thought so…” he muttered.
“Excuse me?” James said testily. The boy looked at James, then extended his hand, nodding.
“You come from a strong wizard family. I’m pleased to meet you.” James shook his hand. This was definitely the most bizarre, and creepy, person he had ever met. “I think we will be good friends.” James smiled slightly, though it was obviously strained.
“My name is James Potter, I’ve mentioned. But, I still don’t know your name.” James resisted the urge to wipe his hand off on his robes.
The boy nodded, taking his hand back and stuffing it in his pocket. “I’m Jack Mallon.”