“Bye Mom! Bye Dad! Bye…Petunia!” I yelled. The train was moving quickly, and my smiling and waving parents (and a frowning Petunia Evans) seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. I sighed. Another year till I saw my family again. I loved Hogwarts, but I loved my family too…even Petunia.
“Hey Evans!”
I turned quickly, and to my disappointment, it was…
“Potter,” I said stiffly.
“Head Boy and Girl are supposed to be in the head’s compartment with the prefects,” he stated, smiling slightly.
“Yes, yes, I know,” I said hurriedly, wanting to get away from him as soon as possible. “Now go and find your friends.” I turned around and started walking away, but before I could take one step, he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I glared at him expectantly. If he was going to try to keep me with him as long as he could, could he at least have a reason to stall me so long? And would his reason, for once, not be to ask me out?
He grinned, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a gleaming Head Boy badge. I goggled at him.
“You?” He grinned. “I…but”” I stuttered, unable to think “…who in there right mind would possibly…but…you?” I was lost for words. James Potter, head boy?
“That’s right!” he said cheerfully, unhurt by my surprise and incredulity. In fact, it seemed to give him more confidence and make him happier. “Shall we go then?” he asked, bowing and grinning. I grimaced, and not wanting to spend any more time than I needed to with him, walked as fast as I could so he couldn’t possibly catch up to me to the heads’ compartment, where several nervous looking prefects were already waiting. I smiled kindly at them. A few of them returned the smile. James came in a minute later. He beamed, and began to lecture them about their prefect duties, responsibilities, and privileges. Their faces lit up when they he told them they could give their
classmates detention, had special bathrooms, and could take house points, but their smiles left as quickly as they came when they were told that they would have more responsibilities, and would have to go to a meeting every Sunday night. He finished five minutes later, waving them off to go sit with their friends.
“Are you sure they’re allowed to just go and sit down?” I said skeptically as the last one hurried out. Aren’t they supposed to patrol the corridors? That’s what I did when I””
“Nah, they’ll be fine,” James interrupted indifferently, closing the compartment door and slumping on to his seat. He grinned. I glared at him. He frowned.
“Evans, why””
“Just shut up, Potter,” I said, reaching into my bag for my book. I knew what was coming, and I didn’t want to hear it. “Why won’t you go out with me Evans? Please…just one date? And if it works out after that…” Blah, blah, blah. If I had to share a compartment with him, couldn’t he just keep quiet, and not ask me out? At least for one minute…
“Evans”” I opened my mouth to interrupt, but he silenced me with a look. “Evans, we’re going to have to patrol every other night together, and it’s not going to work if we’re always jumping down each other’s throats. Since we’re going to be spending so much time together, can’t we at least just truce, and just be nice to each other?”
At least? How much more could he be asking of me? I won’t go out with him if that’s what he wants, I thought bitterly.
He looked at me expectantly.
“Truce?” he said hopefully, extending his arm. I looked him in the eye, and there was no mockery in the way he looked back at me. He meant it.
“Truce,” I said reluctantly, grabbing his outstretched arm and shaking it. He beamed at me, and I couldn’t help but grin back.
“I’m starving, you?” And as if on cue, we heard the squeaking of a cart being rolled down the aisle, then, “Anything off the trolley, dears?” James winked at me, and began grabbing what seemed like all of the sweets off the cart. In the end he paid 7 galleons and 8 sickles for it all.
“Hungry, aren’t you?” I said, smiling at him.
He grinned, and said, “Want one?” tossing me a couple chocolate frogs.
I smiled. It went on like that for the whole train ride, us just talking, laughing, and eating. I was surprised, and pleased. I managed to have a civil conversation with James potter for over 7 hours.
My worst enemy had become one of my best friends.
However, this wasn’t good enough for James Potter.
“Come on, Prongs! At least she’ll actually talk to you!”
James lay face up on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
“Oh, she talks to me! She should have been talking to me years ago! Who cares if she talks to me? Now she only likes me as a friend! How am I supposed to get her to go out with me?”
“Just give it time Prongs,” coaxed Remus Lupin, one of his best friends. “In time she’ll come to realize she likes you.”
“It’s not just going to happen, Moony! She won’t just wake up one morning and think, ‘I like James Potter!’ How do I get her to like me?” James glared at his unhelpful friend.
“You could stop calling her Evans,” Peter Pettigrew said timidly, another friend.
“So I can call her by her first name! How’ll that help?”
“You’ve gotta lighten up, Prongs. She won’t like you if you’re always so defensive,” replied Sirius Black, yet another friend.
“How do you know?” retorted James, rolling on to his side.
Remus, Sirius, and Peter, (two of his other friends) all looked at each other and sighed, sharing a look that clearly said, “Doesn’t he sound exactly like a 5 year old?”
They heard James snore and though they could tell easily that it was fake, that was their cue to leave him. Though they tried hard, they were being unhelpful to him, and he was dismissing them for the night. But as they all climbed into bed, they knew that the year would be miserable for them too if James couldn’t get Lily.