“Excuse us, ladies, but would you mind if we joined you on this fine day?” asked a sly voice from the compartment front. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were all standing before them, looks of pride plastered upon their smug faces. Lily rolled her eyes.
“What’s the occasion?” Amber questioned unsurely. Sirius smiled at her confidently and strolled up to the seat beside her.
“Well you see, Amber, there were no compartments available and we figured you all would welcome us with open arms as you always do. Am I correct, Moony?” Sirius asked with a hint of sarcasm. Remus winked at the girls and took the seat next to Nicole who rolled her eyes at the three of them. Peter, who seemed much less confident, took the farthest vacant seat from any of the girls and sat next to Remus.
“And where, may I ask, is your leader?” Lily asked in a fake tone of interest.
“Right here, my charming flower! Did you miss me?” she turned her head once more to face the compartment door. James Potter stood in front of them, his messy black hair ruffled and hazel eyes dancing with joy as they locked upon Lily. He had a smirk on his face and had a sense of pride that outdid them all. Lily cocked an eyebrow.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but no, I didn’t. Actually, we were just having a private conversation until you four barged in,” Lily stated in her usual aggravated tone. Remus gave his friends a look that read ‘I told you so’ but said nothing still. James fake pouted and took the seat closest to Lily, which was between her and Jade, who blushed a light pink as he sat down.
“So ladies, are we all ready for our final year at Hogwarts?” Remus asked casually. Amber rolled her eyes, but Nicole smiled sincerely.
“Well I believe that Miss Lily over here definitely is. She’s been made Head Girl.” Nicole smirked over in Lily’s direction. Lily, who had not expected Nicole to say anything of the sort, blushed a light crimson.
“Oho!” Sirius commented loudly. “Well Prongs, this just may be the year for you! You see Lily, our good pal James over here has been made a Head as well!” Sirius slapped his friend on the back who looked at Lily with an expression that read clearly “Sorry about him”. Lily simply gaped.
“You? Head Boy?” she asked, the statement not completely registering yet. James, who had also gone red in the face, nodded feebly. Lily continued to stare, but pulled herself out of the small trance quickly. Straightening up, she cleared her throat loudly, yet only responded with a small “I see.” Seeing the look of desperation for a new subject on Lily’s face, Jade cleared her throat as well.
“So, any new teachers this year? Slughorn get sacked yet?” she asked suggestively. James snickered.
“Why would we want Slughorn sacked? His parties are great…sometimes…” Sirius smirked at him, mischief gleaming brightly in his eyes. None of them had yet forgotten Slughorn’s Christmas party last year. It had been the most ‘exciting’ party yet, thanks to the Marauders…
“Well, at least none of those will be happening again.” Lily commented with a sigh of great relief.
“What do you mean?” Nicole asked her friend.
“You see, Nicole, since their Head Marauder is now Head Boy, I highly doubt there will be half as many pranks as there were before.” She smirked obviously and received a deep glare from Sirius.
“You just wait, Evans. Just because Prongs here is an authority figure-”
Amber snorted loudly.
“-doesn’t mean that we won’t be pulling any more pranks.” Lily looked at Sirius with mock belief.
“Okay, Black. We believe you.” Once again, Sirius glared. James looked down at his silver wristwatch.
“Oh shoot! Our Prefect meeting starts in two minutes!” Both James and Lily leaped out of their seats and bolted out of the compartment, not bothering to shut the door behind them. Only arriving a few seconds late, the two Heads slipped into a compartment full of students, walking in casually as if the fact that they were both desperately out of breath from running gave nothing away.
“Hello, everyone,” Lily began with a smile, “welcome to your first meeting of the school year. As you may know, James Potter and I are the Head Boy and Girl this year, and we’ll be giving you your rounds schedules, explain the jobs you’ll be doing, etcetera.”
“I’ve got your schedules right…erm…oh!”
James reached into his pocket and pulled out tiny bits of what looked like dust. He whipped out his wand, directed it at the miniscule specks, and muttered something lightly under his breath. Rather quickly, the small dots grew into a thick stack of papers, to which James began to pass around.
“These are your schedules for this year. It includes every corridor you are to patrol and what times you are to do so,” he informed. Slight murmurs spread through the compartment as students looked down on their sheet of parchment.
“Does anyone have any questions?” Lily asked kindly, emerald eyes dancing. Nobody raised his or her hand. “Okay then, you’re all free to go! If anybody has any questions at all, please feel free to ask either James or myself.”
The murmurs began to grow and soon students were
chatting happily, checking who was doing rounds with whom. Everyone cleared, and the compartment was soon deserted except for Lily and James. An uncomfortable silence quickly filled the air.
“So,” James began lightly, “how was your summer?” Lily’s eyes widened at his question. Two familiar faces flashed across her mind and, without warning, tears were slowly inching their way across the rim of her almond eyes.
“Erm…it was okay…how was yours?” This didn’t seem to pass. James easily caught the dread in her words and the shine of tears in her eyes.
“Evans? You okay?” he asked in a soft voice, sweeping the wisps of red hair out of her face. The tears weren’t even falling yet and he already knew there was something wrong. Lily jerked her head away abruptly.
“Um, yes. Yes, I’m fine, Potter,” Lily lied quickly, turning away from James while wiping her eyes. Instinctively, James began to reach out to touch her shoulder, but thought better of it, imagining her reaction.
“You sure?” he spoke to the back of her head. Her flaming red locks bounced off her shoulders as she nodded. Hating himself, James turned around and began walk out the door of the compartment, to leave Lily alone to mourn.
“James?” she addressed, taking him by shock. She had just called him by his first name…
“Yeah?” He answered, whipping back around. She looked at him, emerald eyes shimmering with tears.
“Thanks for caring,” she said with a watery smile, droplets of salty water now gliding freely down her pink cheeks. James smiled back lightly and walked out of the compartment.
Right To Be Wrong by HPLoverForever
Chapter Notes: Well, chapter 1! Not very much action here...at all...but hopefully you'll believe me when I say that more is on its way! Thank you all for your lovely reviews! They mean so much to me. And thank you all for your sorrow about me deleting Stuck. I know that sounds terrible that I'm happy that you are sad, but I don't mean it that way! Haha. You all are amazing!
Hayli*
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