It had been a month since James and Sirius had run into Lily outside the Leaky Cauldron. A month since they had faced the most evil wizard alive and lived to tell the tale. And tell the tale they had to anyone who would listen to it, which turned out to be only Frank Longbottom and the other Marauders. But even they didn’t want to hear about it after about a week, nor did James and Sirius want to talk about it for that matter. For soon after their run-in with Voldemort and his Death Eaters had occurred, a spree of violent outbreaks erupted throughout the country. It seemed every week a new story flashed across the front page of The Daily Prophet telling of death and destruction caused by the evil wizards.
It was the most uneventful summer ever for the Marauders, but none of the boys had even seemed to notice the slow down in mischievous pranks. A somber mood had taken hold of the country. Lupin’s parents had become even more protective of him than usual and rarely let him out of the house. Peter always seemed to be busy with “other things,” though he could never quite explain what these other things were. And Sirius usually spent the majority of his days ranting about his crazy family and worthless brother. They were all going a bit stir-crazy.
So it was no wonder that when James spotted the owls from Hogwarts bearing their yearly letters he nearly jumped for joy. Never had he been so happy to get a reminder about going back to school.
“Our school letters are coming!” he shouted, interrupting another one of Sirius’s monologues. Sirius sat up from where he had been lying on James’s bed and joined him at the window.
“Hang on. Why are there three of them?” he asked, opening the latchkey and drawing up the window. Sure enough, accompanying the two school owls was a slender, barn owl which swooped in ostentatiously and deposited a note tied with a pink ribbon for Sirius.
“Have you got another girlfriend I don’t know about?” James asked as he untied the heavy enveloped from his owl’s foot and gave it a quick pat before it flew away.
“Nope, this one is from Ginger,” Sirius answered, grimacing at the flowery scent coming off of the pastel-colored paper. “She says she and the other Gryffindor girls are going to Diagon Alley today if we’d like to come along. They’ll be there by eleven.” Glancing at his watch, he continued, “It’s only ten now, so we’ve got an hour to kill… or to primp if you want to look all pretty for Lily.”
When James didn’t make a come-back to this comment, Sirius glanced over to see if he had been listening. Holding something shiny in his hand and staring at the letter held in his other hand, James wore a shocked expression.
Walking over and attempting to read the letter, Sirius asked, “What’s up Prongs? They didn’t expel you did they? Because that dung bomb that exploded in Pringle’s office was totally my fault. I don’t think I told anyone about it because I wanted to leave my own personal mark on the dungeon keeper’s “,”
“I’m Head Boy!” James interrupted him.
Sirius stared at him blankly for a moment before grabbing the letter from him and exclaiming, “Are you pulling my leg? Why would Dumbledore make you, of all people, Head Boy? He’s got to be losing his marbles. Is Felicia Hart Head Girl then? She’d make an excellent one if she could only learn how to read.”
“Ha, ha,” James replied. “I’ll be damned if I can figure out why Dumbledore thinks I’d be the best man for the job, but he certainly wouldn’t give it to the likes of her. Five galleons the Head Girl turns out to be Evans or Davies.”
Sirius put the letter down on the chest of drawers and said, “Wouldn’t that just make your day, mate? Or year actually “having to see Evans every day? There wouldn’t be enough hexes or charms for her to use on you because she’d run out in the first week.”
“More likely she’ll be so impressed by my leadership of the school and see how much I’ve grown up into a man,” James said, puffing out his chest, “that she’ll fall at my feet, begging me to take her out.”
“Right,” Sirius said, laughing, “And then Hell will freeze over. Come on, Lord James, we’d better gather Moony and Wormtail along for our outing with the girls.”
James followed Sirius to the door and said, “You can laugh all you want now, but I’ll be the one laughing when Lily agrees to go out with me. This will be my year! If I can’t get her while we’re both Heads, I’ll never be able to get her.”
“Get off me! Alright, alright. I’ll get up!” Lily cried, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and pushing her covers off.
“Come on Lily, our school letters are here!” May shouted as she ran into the next room.
Lily yawned and stretched one more time before she got up from the floor and padded after he friend. She, Alice, and May had been staying at Ginger’s house for the weekend and she had drawn the short stick and had to sleep on the floor. Rubbing her back, she joined the others in the kitchen where they were finishing breakfast and reading their school letters.
“Here’s your Lily, dear, and there’s a spot of toast left if you want some,” Mrs. Brown said as she cleared the table.
Lily took the enveloped and started opening it as she grabbed a piece of toast. As she pulled her letter out, something fell out of the envelope and hit her foot before it landed on the floor. Grunting and bending down to pick it up, she grumbled to herself about being required to use her brain in the morning or at least before she was properly awake. The shiny little badge she picked up from the floor however, was more than enough to clear the cobwebs in her brain.
“I’m Head Girl!” she screeched, causing everyone in the room to jump.
“Really?”
“Lily, that’s great!”
“I knew it’d be you!” the girls shouted, getting up from their seats at the table to congratulate her.
“Come on, we’ll all get you something together at Diagon Alley this afternoon to celebrate,” Ginger said.
“You don’t have to do that for me, but thanks,” Lily replied. She’d have to write to her parents and let them know she was chosen for the position. She would have liked to be able to tell them in person, but she wouldn’t be coming home before the term started. With only two weeks left, the anticipation for school to begin along with the growing number of fights with Petunia, had been too much, and she’d begged her friends to let them have her at their houses until September 1st arrived. Now she slightly regretted her early departure from home.
“Ooh, look! We’re going to need dress robes for something this year!” May exclaimed. “I bet it’s a ball!”
“I hope Frank will be able to come if it is,” Alice said excitedly.
“What a way to end our time here,” Ginger added. “Hey Lily, I know what we can do for you. Alice, May, and I can buy your accessories and things to go with your dress robes.”
The other girls nodded and Alice urged, “Go on, Lils, you deserve it.”
Blushing, Lily finally agreed.
“Well, I’d better get cleaned up if we’re going soon,” Lily said as she finished her last bite of toast.
“Oh,” Ginger called as Lily was leaving he room, “I’ve invited the boys along to Diagon Alley, if that’s alright.”
Lily knew she was referring to James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, and nodded.
Surprised, Alice called out, “Really? You mean you’re not going to make a fuss that ‘Potter’ is coming along too?”
Hesitating, Lily answered, “Well, you know I did manage to spend a whole night with him and Sirius in the Muggle side of London, and it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would have been. He really can be civil if he wants to be.” Lily paused and looked around at the open mouths and round eyes staring back at her. Clearing her throat, she went on, “And it would make sense for the boys to come along with us. I mean, the bigger our group is, the safer we’ll be, and the boys aren’t to shabby at defensive magic either.”
“I’m glad at least one of you girls has safety on her mind,” Mrs. Brown interjected into the silence that followed Lily’s speech.
“That’s Lily, always the smart one,” Ginger replied, rolling her eyes.
“And smelly,” Alice said as she wrinkled her nose. “You really should take a bath.”
“Ha, ha,” Lily said as she left the room to get cleaned up before anymore questions could be asked about her feelings for James Potter.
* * * * *
“Where are they meeting us again?” May asked as the girls walked down the deserted street that was usually filled to the brim during this time of the year.
“By Eeylops Owl Emporium,” Alice answered, frowning at a pair of wizards that hurried into a dark alleyway. She shivered and picked up the pace.
“There they are,” Lily said in relief as she spotted the four boys coming out of the local joke shop, grinning and laughing suspiciously.
“Only you boys would be able to make jokes and play tricks at a time like this,” Ginger cried out, her overly cheerful voice ringing out across the empty street.
“Ah, but now’s the perfect time,” Sirius answered back, sporting one of his most charming smiles. “Who else can bring a smile and a laugh faster than we can?”
Laughing, Ginger pulled him into a hug while the others made greetings of their own.
“Good to see you, Remus,” Lily said as she embraced him, “though you do look a little worse for the wear.” The cuts and bruises he’d acquired from the full moon last week hadn’t fully healed yet.
“Hey,” she said awkwardly to James when it was their turn to face each other.
“Hey,” he said back, shifting on his feet. Nervously clearing his throat, he asked, “You haven’t killed your sister yet have you?”
She laughed and replied, “No, I’ve been staying with the girls some so I wouldn’t, though I did come very close at least once or twice.”
“Well, since the boys have gotten their joke shopping our of the way for now,” Ginger said, interrupting their conversation, I vote we get the boring, stuff like books and supplies, out of the way too so that we can do the fun things in the afternoon, like go shopping for dress robes.”
“You think shopping for dress robes is fun?” Sirius exclaimed.
“Well, if you don’t want to join in the fun, then you boys can just get something to eat while we find our dresses,” she answered back a bit haughtily.
“Fine by me,” Peter said, rubbing his belly. “I’m starving.”
“She said after we shop for everything else,” Sirius said as everyone else laughed.
“Come on, let’s buy our books first,” Alice called, walking in the direction of Flourish & Blotts. The others followed her in and dispersed throughout the book shop to find the books they needed. Because they were both studying to be Aurors, Lily and James had to buy the most books and found themselves last in line behind Sirius.
Slipping his bag of heavy books over his shoulder after he was done, Sirius grunted and turned to James and said, “Heads don’t get any special privileges like the answers to homework and tests do they?”
“Probably not,” James answered, but then checked himself when he saw Lily’s shocked expression. “Not that I would give them to you anyway,” he added quickly. He frowned and nervously ran a hand through his hair as her countenance remained unchanged.
Lily blinked and said, “You’re Head Boy?”
He nodded when no words would come out from his suddenly dry mouth.
Lily’s mind was reeling as she stared into his hazel eyes. James was Head Boy?? James?! How was she expected to get anything accomplished as Head Girl if James Potter was Head Boy? She could barely control the butterflies in her stomach now, so how was she going to be able to handle working with him one-on-one all year?
I’ll just have to get a better hold over my emotions, Lily thought to herself. I’m being silly anyway! This is James Potter we’re talking about, the boy who slipped slugs into your cereal every morning for a month when we were in Second Year. Mentally shaking herself by the shoulders, she brought her mind to attention. Breaking eye contact and offering him her hand, she said, “Congratulations, James. I guess this means that we’ll be seeing a lot more of each this year. I’m Head Girl.”
Grinning like an idiot, James slipped his hand into hers and slowly gave it a shake. The slight blush on Lily’s cheeks made her freckles stand out even more and her eyes shine like emeralds. Mumbling something about how he was looking forward to working with her, he could barely hold in the urge to lean down and at least give her a peck on the cheek to see if she could get any redder.
They both jumped when Sirius cleared his throat loudly. “I believe he’s ready for the next customer,” he said, pointing to the store clerk who wore an annoyed expression. Sirius gave James a hearty thump on the back and winked at Lily before leaving the store.
“Right, well…” James said awkwardly before turning around and presenting his books to the store clerk.
Snap out of it! Lily yelled to herself as she absentmindedly rubbed her hand on her side to get rid of the tingling feeling she had felt when they had shaken hands. Honestly, I don’t know what you’re getting all worked up about. You’ve never let James Potter get in the way of getting something done before, and there’s no reason for letting him now. You are a perfectly capable and bright young witch, and you can be a good Head Girl despite the fact that James will be Head Boy.
Paying for her books after James, Lily continued to argue with herself. So James has finally grown up. Big deal. That shouldn’t change anything, especially how I feel about him.
Taking a deep breath and grabbing her bag of books, Lily determinedly headed outside to join her group of friends. She would act like a normal human being around James Potter if it killed her.
Unfortunately for James, this meant that Lily avoided him all afternoon, only looking and speaking to him when she absolutely had to. She can’t avoid me all year, he thought in frustration as the girls were leaving at the end of the day. We’ll have to do patrols together, and I’m sure we’ll be meeting with Dumbledore at least a couple of times throughout the year.
In fact, the first order of business for the two Heads was to see the Head Master in his office after the Welcoming Feast.
“Thank you for dropping in to see me before you slipped off to bed,” the silver-bearded wizard said from his place behind his desk. “I know one’s first priority after consuming so much is to get to bed as soon as one possibly can. I just have a few items of business to discuss with the two of you before we enter that blissful realm of dreams.”
Lily and James glanced at each other.
“As you know, the Head Boy and Girl have several responsibilities, including organizing the nightly patrols, helping prepare the Halloween Feast, and keeping the general population in line. But you now all this from the letters you received. What I really called you here to talk about is this “,” he paused and brought the tips of his fingers together.
“I wish for my school to be a happy and safe place. In light of recurring harmful event promulgated by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, I am especially anxious to keep Hogwarts safe this year. I trust you two understand the severity of the situation from your experience at the Muggle museum some weeks ago.”
He paused again to peer over his finger tips at them.
“I do not wish for this somber mood to fill my school, however,” Dumbledore continued. “For this reason I have scheduled a Christmas ball to occur the last night of the school term before the Winter Holidays, as well as a special Halloween Feast to celebrate our wonderful wizarding history. It is your responsibility to plan these events as well as to inspire school unity among the different Houses throughout the school year.”
I wonder how well James will inspire feelings of unity with Severus Snape and other Slytherins, Lily thought to herself, but was quickly interrupted by Dumbledore.
“I know I can trust the two of you to act as leaders for your fellow students, which is why I selected you to be Head Boy and Head Girl. I look forward to the ideas you come up with for the ball. I don’t believe we’ve had one for quite some time. In fact, I believe the last one was held before Professor Slughorn was here, because I distinctly remember Professor Coleridge, who was the Potions Instructor at the time, whipping up a delicious concoction that left your ears ringing to the tune of Jingle Bells. It had a delightful chocolate-mint taste, but unfortunately, made conversations very difficult to maintain.”
“But I won’t bore you with an old man’s memories any longer. It’s late enough as it is, and I believe you have the first night’s patrol duties to perform.”
They bade the Head Master a good night and walked out of his office to start their patrol of the school.
A million thoughts were jumping through Lily’s head as she followed James down the old spiral staircase. Amid plans for the ball, and her own feelings of pride for being chosen by Dumbledore to be Head Girl, was the surprising new-found respect for James.
Dumbledore trusted James, which said a lot about his character. He believed James could act as a role model for the younger students. Two months ago she would have seriously doubted James could lead anyone in the right direction, but now….
She glanced at James out of the corner of her eye. Now, strangely enough, she felt like she could trust him. He was certainly an active proponent against the use of Dark magic and anyone following Voldemort, and he wasn’t afraid to risk his neck to save others. Maybe she should give him another chance. After all, who stayed the same person they were when they were fourteen?
Feeling Lily’s eyes on him, James looked over at her questioningly.
She stopped next to a suit of armor and turned to him to say, “James, I think we need to go over a few things before we get in the thick of it.”
He nodded, still confused.
Taking a deep breath, Lily went on, “I think we’re both starting this year with preconceived notions or feelings about each other, and I think if we want to present a united front to the school and inspire feelings of unity between the different Houses, we need to be on the same page as well. That is, we can’t be fighting all the time, but rather we should be friends.” She glanced down at her hands.
“Which is why I think we should call a truce.” Peering back up at him, she quickly continued, “I know I haven’t always given you a chance because I’ve decided things about you beforehand, and I’ve been horribly rude sometimes, but I think it’s time for me to apologize and for us to move past this. And I don’t know if there’s any biases about me that you have had that you need to get rid of in order for this relationship as Heads to work, but there it is.”
This was not going how she wanted it to at all. Why was it so difficult to say the things that she wanted to say? Flushing at James’s quirked eyebrows, she forged on, “So, what I’m proposing is that we start over. I’ll forget about all the times you asked me out and hexed other students if you’ll forget the times when I wasn’t very civil to you. I think we can be adults about this.”
“I agree,” James said as he realized that she was just as cute when she was determined about something as when she was mad, because the same fire lit up her eyes and made them glow with intensity.
“Truce?” he asked as he offered her his hand.
Lily hesitated.
“Really? Just like that? You promise not to ask me out anymore or hex the younger students just for sport?” she asked.
“Really,” James answered. “I promise.”
Still doubtful, she probed his hazel eyes for any flicker of dissent but found nothing that indicated dishonesty.
“Truce,” she said and slipped her hand into his.
After a few awkward seconds, the two dropped hands and continued their patrol of the halls.
Taking a secretive glance at Lily, James smiled to himself. Sometimes Lily surprised him. He thought he would’ve had to fight every inch, tooth and nail, to get her to be nice to him, but she had voluntarily taken a step towards being friends. Finally, she was taking him seriously. Now he could interact with her without worrying about making a fool of himself. He could take things easy and just act like himself without trying to impress her. Yes, this would definitely be the year that Lily Evans fell in love with him.
Stronger Together by Pevensies_Pensieve
Chapter Notes: As everyone gears up for the beginning of Seventh Year, Lily and James do some re-evalutating.