“I still cannot believe,” Aimee said, walking beside Lily and munching on her usual pumpkin pasty before breakfast, “that you and James Potter have to spend the rest of the year together.”
“I try not to think about it,” Lily said bitterly, dodging a first year who was apparently late to class. “No running in the halls!” she instinctively called after her.
“If I had a knut for every time I’ve heard you say that in the past two years,” Alice said, shaking her head. “I’d be able to buy those dress robes I’ve had my eye on.”
“Dress robes? Where would you even wear them besides Slughorn’s dinner parties?” Leela asked skeptically. “Hogwarts hasn’t hosted a ball since the Triwizard Tournament.”
“How the bloody hell,” Aimee asked, dumbfounded, “did you know that?”
“Don’t act so surprised, I’m not that bad of a student,” Leela snapped. Aimee let out a bark of laughter.
“Last year you thought mandrake roots were troll babies.”
“I told you that in confidence!” Leela said loudly as Lily and Alice started laughing. A second later, Lily heard someone call her name. She turned to see James Potter and Sirius Black walking in her direction.
“Alice,” Lily muttered, grabbing her friend’s arm before she could walk away with Aimee and Leela. “Stay with me.”
Alice looked enviously back at her two bickering friends, who were obliviously strolling into the Great Hall for breakfast. Her stomach growled quietly.
“Do I have to?” Alice whined in a hushed voice. Lily’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, fine.”
“Morning Evans, Bristow,” Sirius greeted as the two boys walked up. Lily gave a tight smile and saw Alice do the same.
“You ready?” James asked, looking down at Lily. She nodded.
“Bye, Alice,” she said, shooting her friend a pleading look. Alice just gave her a sympathetic smile and squeezed her hand comfortingly.
“Bye, Prongsie,” Sirius said, clapping his friend on the back. He turned his gaze to Lily’s brunette friend. “Can I walk you to the Great Hall, Bristow?”
“Doubt it,” Alice said, rolling her brown eyes. “With your intelligence, I’m surprised you can even walk yourself. Have fun, Lily.”
Lily muffled her giggle as she watched Alice turn on her heel and walk in by herself. Sirius just chuckled good-naturedly and walked in after her letting his body fall into a sort of natural swag.
“Well?” James asked. “Shall we?”
“Where are we going?” Lily asked, struggling to keep up with James’ fast pace.
“Room of Requirements,” James said shortly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “It’ll have everything we need.”
“The room of what? Ow-Potter!” James had just stopped short, causing Lily to run into him. James turned around and Lily saw his expression was one of shock mixed with glee. His hazel eyes danced teasingly.
“Don’t tell me,” he said slowly, “that Miss Lily Evans, Prefect for two years, Know-It-All for six-going-on-seven years doesn’t know what the Room of Requirements is.”
“Well, I don’t,” Lily said, already annoyed. “What is it?”
“Actually,” James said, considering her for a moment, “I’d rather just show you.”
“Like I’d trust you enough for that,” Lily scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest and looking up at him stubbornly. James stared at her.
“Are you always this difficult?” James asked. Lily glared at him and he rolled his eyes. “Oh, unclench Evans." He turned on his heel and continued on his way. Lily stood there for a minute, a little surprised at the James she was seeing. She wasn’t used to him having such a...backbone. James turned around a few meters later and sighed. “Dumbledore was the one who suggested we use it.”
“Dumbledore suggested it?” Lily echoed skeptically. Her eyebrows floated toward her hairline. James nodded, growing increasingly impatient as he checked his watch.
“I suppose it’s okay then,” Lily said, hurrying to catch up with him. She vaguely recognized the irritated look on James’ face.
“You know things will run much smoother in the future if you start trusting me, Evans. I’m Head Boy.”
“Well you’ll forgive me if I find that hard to do,” Lily said, shortly “Your past does not speak highly of you.” James let out a ghost of a snort. “And for the record, I still find your appointment as Head Boy questionable.”
“That’s not your judgment to make,” James snapped, surprised at how offended he was by her statement. It was one thing when his friends pointed that out to him, it was quite another when this haughty girl in front of him decided to start making assessments. “It’s Dumbledore’s, and Dumbledore chose me.”
“Dumbledore also chose to make the password to his office ‘Bertie Bott’s,’” Lily countered.
“And which one of us was actually responsible enough to know that?” James asked, tilting his head to the side in mock confusion, and for the first time Lily Evans was at a loss. She gaped at him.
“I liked you better when you were simpering over me,” Lily mumbled quietly to herself in frustration as they turned a corner and headed up a flight of stairs. She knew for a fact he would never have spoken to her this way, say, two years ago. Lily saw James’ eyebrows rise ever so slightly and she realized with a gut-wrenching knot that he had heard her.
“I never simpered over you,” he said defensively, all humor gone. Lily scoffed and muttered, “Oh, please.” This, however, was apparently the last straw. James froze and faced her, his jaw set and his hazel eyes ablaze. “All right, Evans. Let’s have this out now." Lily could honestly say she had never seen him so furious, and she found herself falter in spite of herself. "Whatever it was I felt for you before is most definitely not there anymore. I realized I was dealing with an uptight insensitive little girl who has an undeserved ego the size of an entire Quidditch stadium.”
Lily’s cheeks reddened immediately. Her eyes were the size of two green pygmy puffs. In all her years at Hogwarts, no one - let alone James Potter - had ever spoken to her like that. Yet here he was, James himself, looking down at her with a concentrated look of pure disgust. Anger began bubbling up inside her, and before she could stop herself she was yelling back.
“This coming from the boy who should be applauded on a daily basis for being able to squeeze his massive head through the halls of Hogwarts? Messing up your hair, stealing Snitches because you think you look cool…I don’t know what Dumbledore was thinking making you the Head Boy. Anyone can see all you are is an inconsiderate toerag whose only two goals in life is to shag as many people as will have you and wreak as much havoc as humanly possible.”
“Last I checked, your best mate Snivellus was caught shoving a first year’s head into a second floor toilet with his friends,” James snapped, continuing to walk up the white marble staircase and leaving Lily behind him. “So you’ll understand if I don’t take your poor judgment of my character to heart.”
“He “ what?”
Lily felt her stomach fall straight into her knees and she looked at James with a sudden expression of absolute terror. He turned to face her, a few steps up. Her face was white, her eyes big. “When did this happen?” she breathed.
“Yesterday morning as part of their ‘Welcome a Muggle to Hogwarts Day’,” James responded in disgust. “I’m surprised your precious ‘Sev’ didn’t tell you all about it.”
“Stop,” Lily said softly, turning away from James and grasping the banister to steady herself.
“Didn’t hear about his conquest against an innocent first year muggle, did you?” James taunted.
“Potter, stop,” Lily said weakly, closing her eyes and mentally trying to stabilize herself.
“Though he probably didn’t use the word “muggle,” to be fair. Knowing Snivellus and the company he so proudly keeps, his exact choice of words was probably along the colorful lines of -”
“James, please,” Lily yelled, feeling her knees give way under her and hitting the steps below her with a loud thud. Letting out the tiniest of moans, she gingerly rested her head against the banister and screwed her eyes shut, willing away the horrible spinning she was feeling.
“Evans?”
He had rushed to her side. Lily kept her mouth shut for fear of this morning’s eggs resurfacing. “Evans, are you okay?”
“H-hospital wing,” she could barely get out. Her head was spinning uncontrollably, and she felt as if her heart were fighting for a way out of her ribcage.
“Hold on.”
A moment later, a pair of strong arms scooped her up off the floor. Lily kept her eyes shut but rested her head against a toned chest, her arms encircling the person’s neck lightly.
“Thank you,” she whispered almost inaudibly.
“Shh,” came the response. Lily felt his chest rumbling as he spoke, “We’re almost there.”
The next thing she knew, Lily was being placed delicately on a crisp hospital bed. Her red curls fanned out around her head. A pair of warm fingers gently brushed away a stray strand from her face and then someone was going to call Madam Pomfrey. Blinking her bright green eyes open, Lily swallowed hard and felt a cold dread wash over her. The room formed hazily around her and she squinted through the bright lights above her.
“Last I checked, your best mate Snivellus was caught shoving a first year’s head into a second floor toilet with his friends.”
“Two hospital trips in two days?” Lily heard Madam Pomfrey say with a frown as she hustled over. “What in Merlin’s name is Professor Dumbledore having you do? Oh dear, you’re looking quite pale. Another potion for shock is my guess. One moment, Miss Evans.”
“How are you feeling?” James asked, appearing behind Madam Pomfrey as she hurried away. He looked appropriately abashed.
“Fine now,” Lily muttered, glancing around the Hospital Wing to find it completely empty. “Did you bring me here?”
“Obviously,” James said, taking a seat in one of the visitor chairs. “Who else would it have been?” Lily paused.
“Well, thanks,” she said, avoiding his gaze. He considered her for a moment.
“It’s my fault you had to be taken here anyway,” he said slowly. Lily looked at her feet, swallowing again, and James suddenly found himself stumbling over what to say next. “Sorry about that, by the way.”
“Not your fault,” Lily mumbled unconvincingly. She turned back to face James with a serious expression. “For the record, though, Severus and I haven’t spoken in over a year.”
James nodded. “Why?”
“Because I knew eventually someone would tell me what you did today,” she replied sadly, and James thought he saw Lily’s emerald green eyes turn into tiny pools.
“Here we are,” Madam Pomfrey said, appearing again and handing Lily a goblet with the same potion she’d had to suffer through the day before. “I’m keeping you here overnight, Evans. If Professor Dumbledore has a problem with that, he can come straight to me.”
Lily accepted the potion with a sigh this time and drank it without a fuss. After she emptied the goblet, James watched in amusement as she pulled a face and coughed.
“Still disgusting,” Lily said under her breath. Her gaze flickered towards James and saw he was continuing to watch her with his hazel eyes. “You don’t have to stay, you know.”
“I put you here,” he said in terms of a response. He leaned back casually, balancing his chair on its hind legs.
Lily blinked in surprise. “Well, thanks,” she said quietly. James cocked his head to the side and looked at her for a moment.
“You are something else,” he muttered, shaking his head.
“What do you mean?”
“One minute you’re going absolutely mental,” James explained, “and the next you’re a demure little thing.”
“Demure?” Lily repeated, unaware of what she was supposed to make of that statement. James looked around the room distractedly.
“Sure,” he said, shrugging. Lily waited for him to continue and then turned away uncomfortably when she realized he wasn’t going to.
“So much for Head Girl training,” Lily mused to herself. James let out a ghost of a laugh.
“Maybe next time you can try not to land yourself in the hospital wing.”
“Maybe next time you can try not to be a complete prat,” Lily snapped back. James’ expression turned hard before it dissolved into one of resignation a few moments later.
“I suppose that’s fair,” he sighed. “Tomorrow is Quidditch try-outs, but I’m free most of the day after that.”
Lily nodded. “That sounds fine, depending on the amount of homework I have.”
“It’ll be the second day of classes, Evans,” James pointed out. He had to fight from rolling his eyes at her. Typical…
“The workload is much different as a Seventh Year, Potter,” Lily argued quickly. She saw James immediately open his mouth to retort before pausing and giving her a funny look. He squinted his eyes, as if trying to find something hidden in her expression. “What?” she asked, looking unnerved.
“You called me James,” he remembered. There was a beat.
“What?”
A most curious expression had crawled its way onto James’ face. He was half smiling, half taken aback. His hazel eyes were alight with trouble. He looked as if he were trying to find a way to stir something up.
“When we were arguing about Snivellus on the staircase,” he said slowly, carefully reading Lily’s face, “you called me James.”
Lily fought back the rush of blood to her cheeks as she struggled to maintain a straight face. She tried to give James a puzzled look. “What are you talking about?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. James’ smirk widened for just a fraction of a second. He took his time in finding a response. Finally, he stood up and straightened his robes.
“You’re right, you should probably get rest,” he said, suddenly unsmilingly. “We’ll schedule a time for your Head Girl training later.”
Lily’s lips had parted in surprise. The change in his attitude had been so quick, so sudden. She stumbled over the words, “Uh, okay, that’s fine.”
James nodded, reaching up to tousle his hair and then turning to leave. He was out the door before Lily could even register what was happening.