Lily returned to the compartment where her friends were halfway through the ride to Hogwarts, silent and confused. Rebecca immediately sat her down and began questioning her, for she knew that Lily was rarely totally silent. She was always laughing, talking, performing spells, or looking for things in her book bag, but she was never silent.
“Not only is he Head Boy, but he seems so… mature… this year,” Lily murmured. No matter what other questions Rebecca asked, that was all Lily would say.
“That’s it,” Rebecca declared. “Tara, Trista- come with me. Devan, stay here with Lily.”
Tara and Trista walked out into the hallway, while Rebecca whispered into Devan’s ear, “Sorry… I just don’t trust her alone.” Devan nodded understandingly.
Rebecca proceeded out into the hallway. “We’re going to find out who the Head Boy is,” Rebecca declared to Tara and Trista, a determined look in her steely grey eyes. “We’re going to find out who he is and why on Earth Lily is so worked up over him.”
Turning sharply on her heel, causing her jet-black hair to whip around her head, Rebecca walked quickly down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, searching for a Prefect- or better yet, the Head Boy.
Tara and Trista hastened to catch up, keeping a sharp eye out for anyone with a Prefect’s badge pinned to their chests.
Tara, Trista, and Rebecca had walked the length of the Hogwarts Express twice and seen no one who knew who the Head Boy was. They were on their way back to their compartment, totally hopeless as to finding out the Head Boy’s identity, when Tara spotted Remus Lupin about to step into a compartment.
“Remus!” she cried out. “Remus!” The boy in question turned around and smiled widely.
“Hello, Tara, Trista, Rebecca,” he said, acknowledging each girl in turn. “What’s going on?”
“We were hoping you could help us with something. We need to know who the Head Boy is,” Rebecca said. “Lily keeps muttering strange things about the Head Boy and maturity.”
Remus’ face slowly drained of color. He stuck his head inside the compartment and said something to whoever was inside. Pulling his head out again, he said, “The Head Boy is right here.” Pulling the door open, Remus revealed none other than James Potter. With a Head Boy badge on his chest.
“Oh,” said Trista weakly. “That explains a lot.”
“Okay, so we’re going to calmly ask Lily who the Head Boy is and why she’s acting so loony. We’re going to pretend we have NO IDEA that James is the Head Boy. We will tell her that she probably hurt his feelings when she screamed at him- because that more than likely happened. We will NOT tell her that she should apologize- we don’t want to get yelled at. We WILL insist that she at least pretend to be nice to him when in front of other students, but especially in front of teachers. Got it?”
Devan Kincaid, the quiet one, the one who didn’t like being the center of attention, had just given a rather forceful speech. Tara, Trista, and Rebecca stared at her, wide-eyed, but nodded their heads. Devan’s ideas were perfection itself.
The four girls trooped back into their compartment and surrounded Lily, their hands on their hips.
“All right, Lily. We want some answers, and we want them now. Who is the Head Boy and why are you acting so weird?” Rebecca demanded.
Lily slowly turned her head away from the window.
“Potter. I don’t understand him!”
Following Devan’s plan, the girls faked confusion. “What?” questioned Tara. “What does understanding James Potter have to do with the Head Boy?”
“Everything,” Lily muttered.
“Is- Is James the Head Boy?” Trista asked, her eyes growing large with fake horror when Lily nodded. “But I thought you had to be a Prefect to be the Head Boy!”
“Apparently not, Trista, otherwise James wouldn’t have the position!” Tara snapped.
Lily sighed and turned back to the window, back to her thoughts, leaving her friends to argue.
They had brought the first-years up to Gryffindor Tower, and had then begun their first patrol. They were not speaking, Lily still slightly shocked, as if realizing that she could be in his company and be civil to him.
James was silent. It was strange, Lily realized, to be in the company of the infamous James Potter and to hear silence. She actually missed his incessant chatter, his constant attempts to ask her out. I don’t quite get it, but I actually wish James was being his annoying old self, chattering about whatever came to mind! Lily thought. Desperate to break the silence, Lily asked James a question sure to get an answer out of him.
“So, why do you like Quidditch? It never really appealed to me.”
James immediately brightened. “It’s exhilarating! Seeing all those people cheering for you, knowing you are one of just seven people who come between your entire house and either winning or losing the Quidditch Cup… Even just flying. You know, when I went out for the team in second year, I didn’t think I was really that good. I just wanted to have an excuse to fly.
“But the captain then, Hargrove, said he thought I was really talented. He tried me as Seeker, but I didn’t really have the eyes for it,” James grinned, tapping his glasses. “Then he tried me as Chaser. And… something just clicked. He said I was brilliant. So I stayed on.”
Lily nodded. She knew the feeling you got when you didn’t think you would like something but found out that you were pretty good at it. She knew the feeling very well…
“Did you play any sports at your Muggle school before you got your letter?” Now that they were talking, James seemed quite interested to continue the conversation. She let herself drift off for a moment, back to earlier that evening, back to when she was blissfully ignorant of everything that was even somewhat good about James Potter. It was a bit fuzzy, but she still remembered most of what had happened.
“Lily.” It was a statement and a question at the same time, coming from a deep voice from the door of the compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Lily had her back to whoever was speaking, and she turned around to find none other than James Potter.
“Get out, Potter. Heads only,” she said, already exasperated by the boy.
“Then I guess I’ll come in.” As James stepped into the compartment, Lily saw a badge gleaming on his chest- one that looked like the badge pinned to the front of her robes. A Head Boy badge.
“Oh, very funny, Potter.” Lily stepped out into the hallway. Remus Lupin was making his way down the hall. “Remus, good. Potter took your Heads badge. Can you send him on his way? He doesn’t listen to me.”
Remus looked nervous. “Erm, Lily… James didn’t take my badge.” He showed Lily the badge on his chest. A Prefect’s badge. Lily’s eyes grew large. And then she fell towards the floor. A pair of muscular arms caught her just before her head hit the ground, but her last thought was not of her savior. It was, How on EARTH am I going to be able to work with Potter ALL YEAR?
Lily remembered that, after she woke up, all she had been able to do was stare at James while he talked about ‘being more responsible’ and ‘living up to Dumbledore’s expectations’. She had barely been able to comprehend that James had wanted to call a truce. He would not ask her out, as long as she would not scream at him daily. She had agreed, though her friends told her that they thought that it was due to fainting that she had had a civil conversation with James Potter in the first place. And the truce was working well so far.
But still, Lily could not help feeling that something was not quite right. She enjoyed routines. She did not like it when things did not go as she had planned or as she expected them to go. And this year was starting off quite unexpectedly…