"Lily, darling, come down, we are going to be late!"

Coming, mum!" I shouted back.

I put my cauldron on the top of my clean robes and pushed down on the trunk lid. I couldn't believe we were this late. I never leave packing until the last minute. I sat on the lid and forced it shut. With some difficulty I fastened the latches and dragged it down the stairs. Unfortunately, I almost ran into Petunia, who was seething.

"Off to that . . . little . . . freak school of yours. You think you are so extremely cool. I bet you don't even have any friends! "Petunia hissed. I tried not to wince at her horse teeth.

I knew this was her evil, jealous way of telling me goodbye, so I forced a smile and said, "Bye Petunia. Have a nice school year."

She just made a really nasty face and slunk back upstairs to her room.

In the car, Petunia's absence drew a few nasty looks from my mother.

Finally, we got to King's Cross Station. I got a trolley while mum and dad parked the car. We went through the barrier together while I pretended that the mist in my eyes was because some dirt blew into it in the parking lot. Truth to be told, I was sad because this would be my last time at Hogwarts, unless I pursued a profession as a teacher, which was unlikely. (Hey, I may like studying, but I still have a social life.)

I kissed my mum on the cheek.

"You're coming home for Christmas, right?" My mum asked, tears gathering in her brown eyes that seemed like home as much as the scent of pine-sol and my dad's cologne.

"Yes, mum," I replied, trying not to cry. I was leaving for Hogwarts for the last time.

"Write to us often, okay?" the worry lines between my mother's eyes creased.

"Yes, of course mum." I smiled, trying to push the tears back as far as they could go and hugged her again. My Dad had told me goodbye last night as he couldn't miss a very important meeting he had at work today. I said goodbye to my mum one last teary time and pushed my way through the crowd.

I was preparing to haul my trunk on the train when a loud voice interrupted my thoughts obnoxiously.

"Hey, Evans! Evans!" A masculine voice called.

"What?" I asked, turning around to face . . . James Potter? I was so not prepared for the rush of hormones that arose inside of me when I saw his toned, tan body.

"Evans! Earth to Evans!" James said, impatiently.

"Sorry . . ." I apologized, trying to think logically about him. He's James Potter, and you're Lily Evans. He's just an ugly toe rag, I told myself.

"You've grown a bit." He said, looking me up and down. A familiar spark popped inside of me.

"Don't get any ideas, Potter" I said, smirking. Things may change, but I guess James Potter never goes away.

"Oh, I'm not getting any ideas. I'm over you." He said, smiling confidently and running a hand through that blasted hair of his.

"What?" I said, trying to think if my muggle pediatrician had said anything about a massive brain tumor growing inside of me.

"Over you, Evans. Over the summer I started dating other girls. "He said, looking completely comfortable with that fact. What the hell….

"Oh . . . well . . . okay." I couldn't help but feel the tiniest twinge of disappointment. Wait . . . hold on here . . . I was NOT disappointed that James didn't like me anymore. This was good. No more following me around in the corridors . . . no more asking me out every Hogsmeade trip.

"This isn't good, it's bad." The tiny voice in my head said.

"Shut up," I told it. Realizing that I had said that aloud, I sighed.

"What?" he asked, looking at me like I actually did have a brain tumor.

"Nothing." I said shortly.

JP&LE

"He actually said that?" Alice asked for the millionth time as the train picked up speed. Alice Prewett, Marlene Pierce, and I were sitting in our familiar compartment that was claimed every year.

"Oh my God, I can't believe it!" Marlene screamed with her usual craziness.

Always the considerate one, Alice asked, "Are you disappointed?"

"No!" I said a bit too quickly. "This year is going to be awesome."

"Hell yeah it is," Marlene said enthusiastically. "With or without James Potter."

"By the way, Lily, congrats on being Head Girl," Alice said, motioning to the shiny badge pinned on my robes.

"Shit." I said." I can't believe I forgot the meeting. I'm supposed to be there," I looked at my watch. "Now." I stood up.

"Have fun," Alice teased.

"You're in for a surprise." Marlene said. I paused opening the compartment door.

"What surprise?" I asked her.

"Nothing," she said, but her mischievous smile betrayed her instantly.

JP&LE

"Potter?" I asked sharply when I walked into the prefects meeting a little late. "What are you doing here?" He smoothly turned around from where he had been talking to the prefects, probably trying to persuade them to play some sort of prank on me.

"Evans, see you finally made it." He said. I could hear the amusement in his voice. Again, I felt that familiar spark of hatred.

"Potter, I'll ask once more before I hex you. What are you doing here?" I said, channeling my inner Professor McGonagall by putting my hand on my hip.

"Oh, Evans, didn't you hear?" He said, smirking. I think the sparks inside me were igniting now. "I'm Head Boy."

"Come again?" I said, now knowing for sure that I had a brain tumor.

"I'm Head Boy." Potter said slowly, pointing to the badge on his chest.

"But-"I spluttered disbelievingly. What about Amos, or Remus? I looked out at the crowd of prefects, who l all looked like they were watching a mildly amusing one-on-one squash match. I found Remus' sympathetic face and Amos' slightly annoyed face. I needed to get over myself and Potter and start the meeting.

As I found out, Potter had already paired up everyone, putting two Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw together to compensate for the odd number. I passed out patrol schedules, and finally everyone filed out, Amos brushing my arm as he left and Remus giving me a kind smile and then going to wait outside for Potter.

"What the hell was Dumbledore thinking, making you Head Boy?" I asked, pulling at the ends of my flaming red hair and pacing as if the floor was on fire. Potter stood waiting patiently, which reminded me not to let him push my buttons.

"I initially wondered that myself." Potter said calmly. I stopped my frantic pacing and looked into his eyes. Bloody hell, they were hazel. I never noticed Potter's eye color. I took a few moments to get myself under control.

"The point is, Potter, can you stop playing you stupid pranks long enough to assume the highest male student leadership position at Hogwarts?" I asked him.

"I'm going to bloody try, Evans. It would be easier to work with you if you gave me the benefit of the doubt at least sometimes." Potter said, a small stab of annoyance jumping out of his voice.

"Fine," I said, exhaling and feeling a headache coming on.

"If we're going to work like this, we need to at least act like we don't hate each other." Potter said, looking me straight in the eyes. Damn, that hazel.

"Fine," I said, again. "But friends, nothing more," I added warily. He rolled his eyes.

"I don't like you anymore, Evans." He said, obviously annoyed now. There were a couple of awkward-tension filled seconds before I spoke.

"Okay. Friends, then." I said, trying to keep up.

"Sounds good." Potter said, and with that, he left the compartment, leaving me to pick up all the papers from the meeting.

Later, as I crawled into my warm four poster and cuddled with my scarlet sheets, one thing remained in my mind.

Seventh year was going to be bloody weird.

A/N:

Okay, I hope you all liked that first chapter. Don't lose hope in James! I swear there's going to be plenty of steamy Jily moments in time. Please review because it'll help me get up chapter two quickly

-PAR