“Er,” Remus replied, setting down his pumpkin juice, and looking straight at James. “Sure.” As Lily stood up to allow him to follow, James caught Remus’ gaze. Remus jerked his head subtly towards the Great Hall exit. A second later, James had vanished.
“I’m ready,” Remus said, straightening up and turning to Lily. Behind him, Sirius Black was eyeing Lily with interest. Again deciding not to point out the curiously awkward tension, Lily turned her focus back to Remus.
“So you never told me why you missed the Prefects meeting on the Hogwarts Express,” she said as they exited the Great Hall. “I had the hardest time instructing the Prefects by myself.”
“I’m sure you did fine,” Remus assured her. “Prefects mostly know what their responsibilities are anyway.”
“That’s true,” Lily agreed. There was a pause. “So what happened?”
“Oh, er…”
“Remus?”
“Well, you’ll find out sooner or later why I wasn’t there. Trust me, I had a very good excuse,” he said with an ironic smile. Lily gave him a curious look. What was going on?
“You’re being so cryptic,” she observed. “What was it?”
“Well here’s Dumbledore’s office,” Remus pointed out as they arrived in front of the gargoyle statue. “I suppose you don’t know the password?”
“No,” Lily admitted with a guilty grin. “Didn’t read the letter, remember?”
Remus nodded, looking around uncomfortably. Lily’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“Remus,” she said slowly, “shouldn’t you know the password?”
“Well -”
“It’s Bertie Bott’s,” came a voice from behind them. Lily turned to see James Potter loping forward, tousling his dark hair as she had only come to expect. Her jaw clenched at the sight of him and her green eyes turned to slits.
“How would you know that?” she asked shortly. James nodded his head toward the gargoyle and Lily saw that it had stepped aside. She blinked in surprise.
“’Bertie Bott’s’?” she asked the gargoyle. “Really?”
“Dumbledore does love his candies,” Remus muttered, smiling to himself and shaking his head in amusement of his headmaster. “Er, can you give us a minute, Lily?”
“I’ll be inside,” Lily said, glancing between Remus and James in slight suspicion. After she left, James turned to Remus and cocked an eyebrow.
“She still doesn’t know, does she?” he demanded, slipping his hands into his pockets and looking at Remus expectantly. Remus took a deep breath and then patted James on the shoulder.
“No,” he said seriously, and then he suddenly grinned. “I thought it’d be more fun this way.”
“Moony!”
“Now go in there and tell us about it later,” Remus said, turning and walking away.
“You planned this?” James asked, unsure of whether to feel impressed or betrayed.
“Well,” Remus said, half-turning around to look at his friend. “I really didn’t know how to tell her that she had to spend the majority of her seventh year with you. But this was also just a great opportunity.”
And with another grin, Remus turned the corner and was gone. James stared after him with a sort of impressed half smirk before turning back to the gargoyle, which was now looking at him with an impatient expression.
“Sorry,” James muttered, running another hand through his hair. “I’m coming.”
Sitting inside Dumbledore’s office, Lily Evans was now incredibly confused. Where was Remus during the Prefect meeting? Why did James Potter know the password? And why was Remus acting like he didn’t?
“Ah, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore said with a nod of his head, “late, I see, as usual.”
Lily Evans cricked her neck as she snapped around to see a tall athletic figure walk into the room. He had black hair and soft hazel eyes, the chest of a Quidditch player, and the confidence of a Chaser. And he was most definitely not Remus Lupin. Lily’s soft pink lips parted in horror as she lifted her hand to massage her neck gingerly.
“Sorry, Professor,” James apologized, walking forward and shaking his headmaster’s hand, “it won’t happen again.”
“That’s wonderful to hear,” Dumbledore said cheerfully, gesturing James to the empty seat besides Lily. After James settled down and both he and Lily were looking at Dumbledore with the utmost attention, Dumbledore smiled at them over his half-moon glasses. “Well, now that we are all here, I’d like to congratulate you two on being the new Head Boy and Head Girl of Hogwarts!”
And that’s how Lily Evans had to be sent to the Hospital Wing on the very first day of her seventh year.
“Here, drink this up, dear,” Madam Pomfrey said, hurrying over to the red-headed girl lying flat on a stark white hospital bed. She stuffed a green potion into Lily’s hand and helped her sit up against the pillows. “It helps with shock.”
Lily accepted the goblet and stared into it blankly. Madam Pomfrey waited a few impatient seconds before huffing.
“You have to drink it,” she reminded her pointedly. “Not stare at it.”
“Lily,” Alice said, trying hard to suppress a smile from her chair beside the bed, “drink the potion.”
“It looks nasty,” Lily said hollowly, still looking at the bubbling potion in her hand. She stretched out her hand to give it back to the nurse. “I don’t want it.”
“I’ll take care of this,” Alice promised, standing and taking the goblet from Lily. With a slightly disgruntled look, Madam Pomfrey hurried back to the fourth year with burns. Alice turned back to her friend.
“Drink this,” she offered again, lifting the potion to Lily’s mouth. Lily screwed up her nose in disgust. “Drink this and your problems will go away,” Alice tried. Lily grabbed the goblet from her and chugged.
“Ugh,” she coughed out after. “That was as nasty as it looked.”
“So want to tell me what travesty inspired this trip to the hospital wing?” Alice asked, sitting next to Lily on her bed. Lily took a deep breath and fought back the urge to vomit.
“James Potter is Head Boy,” she said dully, and as she could only have guessed, Alice let out an involuntary gasp.
“How?” she demanded through her raised hand. “I thought Head Boy had to be a Prefect.”
“Apparently not,” Lily answered meekly, the color slowly returning to her cheeks.
“But I thought you said Remus was Head Boy.”
“Right,” Lily said bitterly. “Remind me to transfigure him into a rat.”
“He lied to you?” Alice asked, appalled. “Why would he do that!”
Lily thought for a minute.
“I’m going to find out,” she decided, hopping out of bed and walking out of the Hospital Wing. Anger mixed with shame bubbled inside her so much that she didn’t even listen when she heard Madam Pomfrey running after her and trying to bring her back to bed. She walked with purpose and determination and even Alice struggled to keep up. When they reached the common room, Lily stood stoically in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.
“Password?” the Fat Lady asked, looking up from a hand-held mirror in which she was checking her hair.
“Mandrake root,” Lily responded, and then stopped. She turned to Alice mischievously. “But I’m Head Girl so I want to change it.”
“Very well,” the Fat Lady allowed, curling stray hairs around her finger and then framing them around her face. “To what?”
“Remus is dung,” Lily declared. The Fat Lady paused and looked up at her again.
“Excuse me?”
“Remus,” Lily repeated slowly, “is dung.”
“Lily!”
“Well?” Lily asked, ignoring Alice. “Is the password changed?”
“I-I suppose,” the Fat Lady replied, looking as if she didn’t quite know what to do.
“Great,” Lily Evans said happily. “Now open up please.”
The Fat Lady swung forward and Lily and Alice stepped inside.
“Attention everyone,” Lily yelled at the crowded common room. She waited until the roar died down. “The password to the Fat Lady has been changed. It is now ‘Remus is dung’. If it’s difficult for you to remember, just think about what a load of dung Remus is -”
“Lily?”
Lily turned to see Remus Lupin staring at her in surprise.
“Oh, hello, Remus,” she said. “Did you hear the new password?”
“I guess you found out about James, then?” Remus asked, a shadow of a smile playing on his face.
“Oh, yes. Thank you so much for telling me,” Lily replied dryly. She paused dramatically. “Oh wait -”
“I can explain,” Remus said quickly. “I was going to tell you but I didn’t exactly know how. It’s not exactly a secret the way you feel about him.”
Lily narrowed her eyes at him before stalking towards the girls’ dormitory staircase. She couldn’t believe her luck. James Potter? Really? What was he even doing as Head Boy? Dumbledore couldn’t possibly have thought he’d really be a good choice. On the last day of sixth year, James and Sirius released a cage of pixies in the Gryffindor common room. With an exasperated huff, she fell onto her bed and let out a little scream into her pillow.
“Lily Evans?” came a soft voice that was followed by a knock. “Are you in there?” Lily looked up to see a scrawny first year standing hesitantly in the doorframe.
“Yes?” Lily responded, lifting her head off her pillow.
“The Head Boy says he needs to see you. He’s downstairs in the common room.”
Lily’s lips turned into a thin line. She swallowed hard and tried to manage a somewhat friendly smile
“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll be right down.”
As the first year turned to go, Lily seriously considered bringing her wand down with her so she could get rid of Potter once and for all. Then taking a deep breath, she straightened up, made sure her robes were hanging right, and walked down the stairs. The common room had thinned a little, but there were still students lounging on the sofa or playing wizard’s chess in a corner. In the very center of it all, sitting casually in front of the fire, was James Potter, and on his chest for, the very first time, sparkled a gold badge.
Head Boy
Lily’s hands clenched into little balls as she walked over and sat next to him. For a minute they sat in silence. Then James started chuckling.
“I can’t believe you had to go to the Hospital Wing,” he grinned, unable to stop. Lily resisted the urge to smack him in the back of the head and simply sighed.
“What do you want?”
“Not me,” James corrected. “Dumbledore. You had to leave “ er, sorry “ be escorted out before Dumbledore had the chance to tell you what our duties are.”
“I know what our duties are,” Lily said shortly. “We make sure gits like you are kept in line.”
James looked over at Lily in amusement. Lily kept her eyes trained on the fire in front of her.
“Essentially,” James replied. “But Dumbledore still wants me to walk you through everything. Not to mention, you missed training.”
“I’m sure I don’t need it, Potter,” Lily said, rolling her eyes and looking over at him with an impatient expression. “I know how to block, Disarm, and Stun. I’m a fully capable seventh year.”
“Dumbledore said teaching you was part of my Head Boy duties,” James said, ignoring her and turning back to face front. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be waiting near the Great Hall.”
Lily said nothing. She took a deep breath and quietly snuck a glance in his direction. He was casually hunched over, resting his elbows on his knees and watching the fire in front of him. The slightest hint of a smirk was playing across his lips, as if he knew Lily was looking. Her gaze snapped forward again.
“Goodnight, Potter,” she said, standing up. She paused, waiting for some sort of response. When none came, she turned to look at him and found his hazel eyes sparkling up at her, a distinct smirk lighting up the features of his face.
“’Night, Evans,” he said, standing up. He stared teasingly down at Lily as he casually messed up his hair, aware of how much it bothered her. Lily had to stop herself from hitting him right then and there. Grinning, James walked past her and headed up the staircase, leaving a slightly disgruntled Lily in his wake.