Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to J.K. Rowling. Anything that sounds familiar is hers. I just enjoy playing with the world she created. All of the chapter names are lyrics from songs from the various bands, named.

This story is named after a song called "Take This To Heart" by my favorite band, Mayday Parade. (:

The magical world can shock you.

Yes, I know that sounds like the most obvious thing in the world, but it's also the truest thing in the world. Because as I sat there looking—nay, gaping—at the Head Girl badge that had fallen ever so gracefully from it's envelope and onto the hard, caramel-colored wood of my breakfast table… Well, I was incredibly overwhelmed, to say the least.

"Oh, my God!" I screamed, the sound coming out much louder and shriller than I had originally intended.

So much louder and shriller, in fact, that it had my indefinitely-busy mother racing from her upstairs office to the kitchen, appearing in a breathless wonder that had me pondering whether or not she really trusted owl post.

"Lily!" she exclaimed, her expression of panic fading away into one of confusion. "Er… Why are you screaming at a badge?" Her emerald-colored eyes, identical to my own, raked over the object that was the source of all the morning's excitement.

She tentatively poked at the badge, looking at it so warily that it was as if she thought it was going to transfigure into a bomb and blow us all up. When the badge did nothing at her touch (it was but a badge, after all), she turned her suspicious eyes back on mine.

"It doesn't look harmful to me, Lily," she admitted, "In fact…" her voice trailed off as she picked it up to read the words that were so beautifully inscribed on it. I watched her, unable to say anything, completely frozen in the position I had been in as soon as I had opened the envelope, my heart thumping anxiously…

"Lily," she gasped. Her eyes, huge as saucers, met mine again. "Head Girl?"

I managed to nod slowly, the entire time hoping avidly that this wasn't just another one of my fantasies.

The next thing I knew, I was being smothered in a rather uncomfortable hug.

"Oh, Lily! I'm so proud of you! I just knew you were going to get such a high honor someday, I just knew it! We must tell your father, and Petunia…"

I stopped listening to my mother's emotional babbling at the mention of my sister. Against my wishes, a rather painful feeling erupted in my heart. I had sworn, years ago, that I wouldn't care about Petunia, that her blatant hatred and jealously would stop bothering me. But I knew that promise was pointless as soon as I had made it. Though she evidently didn't care about me, I would never stop loving her, because, well…she was my sister. And that's what sisters do.

My mother released me, wiping tears from her eyes and muttering something that sounded like "so proud, so proud" over and over again as she sniffed and practically sprinted to the phone. In a matter of minutes, I heard her gushing the news to my father.

The badge lay abandoned on the table, still laying face-up. I picked it up in one of my trembling hands, thanking every god of every religion I had ever heard of (I was never quite able to pick one) that it was finally mine.

Ever since my first year of Hogwarts, when I saw the badge on Honaria White's robes, I knew I wanted it. And when I was declared a Prefect in fifth year, my hopes rose very significantly.

You see, I had always been different in my family. I was the one with the red hair, the fiery temper, the compulsive blushing, and… the magic. But even as Lily the Oddball Evans, I was completely happy. I liked being different.

That all changed when I received one very important letter. Being only eleven years old, I couldn't understand why my admittance to a special school would upset my older sister. I thought she would be happy for me. At first, she seemed to be. But after I happened to accidentally walk on in her crying, holding a familiar piece of parchment in her hands, she turned against me. I mean really against me. Though she had been my best friend in the world before, Petunia decided that she never wanted to have anything to do with me again.

That's when I snapped. Instead of being perfectly happy with everything I already had, I decided that I wanted to be the best in everything in my reach. With that, I entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry determined, a plan set in my mind. I spent evenings poring over every word of my homework, and practically every second of free time granted to me was spent studying for hours, right from the very beginning.

The rewards were impressive, of course. I managed to get perfect grades, excelling in all of my subjects. My teachers loved me immensely, one in particular. My Potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, took an immediate liking of me as soon as he realized that I had read the entire book of coursework over the summer, and could brew several of the most difficult potions from memory.

Usually, when one was as hard-set in pursuing academic success as I was, they would become ostracized by their peers. Luckily, that wasn't the case with me. I managed to gain two wonderful best friends, Auriola Commissi and Alice Prewett.

There used to be a third best friend. I had known Severus Snape before I went to Hogwarts. Our friendship was different, not as care-free and simple as the ones I experienced with Aurie and Alice. Sev was the one who told me everything I need to know about the magical world and Hogwarts. We grew up together, both so happy to be a part of something so special as magic. But Sev chose to associate with a different group of friends, a group of dangerous people that I chose to avoid at all costs. I warned him; I really did try to dissuade him from hanging out with them, but it was to no avail. Our friendship ended on some harsh words in fifth year, and I decided never to instigate it again, no matter how much it hurt me.

Besides the true friends I found at Hogwarts, I also managed to gain an admirer, much to my annoyance. James Potter was an arrogant and conceited fool who had someone deluded himself into thinking that his greatest goal in life was to fancy me. He was absolutely ridiculous, and never ever gave up, no matter how much I insulted him and begged him to leave me alone. Instead, he would pretend to grow completely somber and depressed and trudge off towards his cocky little group of friends, the Marauders, and return the next day yelling, "Oi, Evans! Go out with me?"

Just the thought of James made me dread returning to Hogwarts tomorrow, which was a pretty spectacular feat in itself. I absolutely loved my old school. Everything about it just seemed to scream "home!" at me, and I was never as calm and comfortable as I was sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room.

Merlin, I would miss it when this year ended. Don't get me wrong, being seventeen has its perks, including being allowed to do magic outside of school for the first time. But, it is also an age of responsibility, and at this age, I was supposed to be preparing for my eventual departure from Hogwarts and my venture out into the real and terrifying world of magic.

Terrifying because I would feel so vastly alone. I would feel small and pressured and horribly alone in a world that hid evil up it's sleeve. Oh, yes, the summer had almost made me forget Voldemort, the disgusting and vile Dark wizard that was rising rapidly to power among us. I felt a small shiver of fear crawl up my back as I thought about Voldemort's goal. He wanted to kill all of the Mudbloods—all of the people who, like me, were of Muggle descent.

I sighed, realizing how far my thoughts had drifted from the happy oblivion that they were when I first saw what the envelope carried by the tawny owl had contained. I stared at the badge some more, still in disbelief. Head Girl. I was Head Girl! My greatest goal had been realized…

"Lily, dear?"

I whipped around as I noticed my mum staring at me with a bit of concern present on her face.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "You've been standing there staring at that badge for the past fifteen minutes."

I smiled. "Just reminiscing is all," I replied wistfully.

The corners of her mouth turned up in an understanding, mother-like smile. "Are you a bit sad about it being your last year?"

My eyes dropped down to the table, tracing the contours of the old wood table thoughtfully.

"A bit," I answered finally. "But I'm more excited, really." I put on a bright smile to keep her from worrying about me.

I jumped at the sound of the piercing whistle of the Hogwarts Express. Even though it was my seventh time hearing it, the sound still made me nervous, as if I were in my first year all over again. The thought made me smile slightly, dragging me out of the melancholy broodings that for some unknown reason had plagued me all throughout the car ride to King's Cross Station.

Not a fan of tardiness, I set off on dragging my heavy trunk, complete with owl cage, up onto the train, panting with exertion. The next thing to do would be to put it on the luggage rack, a much harder task. I sighed, setting my jaw and trying with all of my might to lift it up onto the impossibly high-up rack.

To my immense surprise, the trunk was lifted easily onto the rack. I observed a pair of toned and well-tanned arms pushing it into place and blushed. They were really very nice-looking arms.

I turned to face my savior (for really, he had saved me from a sure and painful death-being crushed by my trunk), but when I recognized the strong jaw, twinkling hazel eyes, and messy black hair, my "thank you" got stuck in my throat. Oh, bother.

James Potter grinned back at me. "Okay, there, Evans?"

I scowled, the muscles in my face amusingly familiar with the expression. "Fine, Potter," I replied coldly.

He chuckled, pretending to be hurt. "I believe the situation requires a thank you from you, dear Lily."

I raised my eyebrows. "Don't hold your breath," I muttered, turning to stow my owl's cage on the rack beside the trunks. Loresis ruffled her gray wings in protest, almost knocking her cage off the shelf with her movement.

James shot an arm forward and caught the cage before it could fall, steadying it back onto the shelf and away from harm's reach.

"Looks like I saved your butt twice in the past five minutes," he commented nonchalantly, messing up his already rumpled shaggy black hair.

I let out a frustrated breath. "Thanks, Potter," I managed to blurt out before pushing past him and making my way down the train.

"Love you too, Lily!" was shouted from behind me. I groaned.

I came to a halt when I reached the second-to-last compartment. I grinned and fixed my hair before shoving the sliding doors open, not caring in the least when they reverberated off of the walls and came close to slamming into me.

"Lily!" shrieked a familiar voice.

"Aurie!" I yelled back, running to hug my best friends. "Alice! It's been so long since I've seen you both!"

Aurie grinned, tucking a lock of straight blonde hair behind her ear. She was a short, pretty girl of seventeen, with dark blue eyes and dark blonde hair, and was never seen without her trusty orange iPod, the only Muggle invention that she couldn't live without.

"How's your summer been, Lil?" asked Alice, the taller, shyer girl with her characteristic pale cream-colored skin and shoulder-length dark brown curls. She sank back into her seat after returning my hug and picked up the thick book she had been perusing.

I plopped myself down on one of the comfortable plush seats beside Aurie, who already had one headphone in her ear and was mouthing the words to one of her many favorite songs. I brushed some of my wavy red hair onto my shoulders before answering.

"Eventful. Petunia decided to find herself an awful new boyfriend. My dad got a new job." I shrugged.

Aurie smiled. "Good old Tuney. We can always count on her interesting choice of men to liven up our lives." She laughed loudly.

Alice rolled her eyes, but a small smile presented itself on her face. "Did you get any letters from you-know-who?"

I sighed. "Unfortunately, James found it necessary to write me almost every single week."

Alice's eyes widened. "Did you answer any of them?"

I laughed. "Just once. To tell him to bugger off or I'd report him as my stalker."

"CHECK YES, JULIET, ARE YOU WITH ME?" Aurie suddenly sang quite loudly. Alice and I turned to stare at her in wonder.

She stared back. "What?" she asked innocently.

The three of us burst into laughter. This is going to be one great year, I thought to myself as I smiled with my two best friends.

Author's Note:

Hey (:, I hope you like the story! Please review, I'd like to see what people think of it.

Auriola Commissi is a character borrowed from a story called "Give Me One Good Reason" by Taylusia, who is my best friend (: Her story is a Sirius Black/OC, and it's really great, so you should read it!

This chapter is named after the song, "Check Yes, Juliet" by a band called We the Kings.

And yes, I know iPods weren't invented in those days, but let's pretend they were (:

Next chapter should come tomorrow, and will include more James, I promise.

Again, please review!

-MQ