Mischief Managed.

Chapter One: A Worrisome Night

If you were to walk along the streets of Manchester on August 14th 1977 near the secluded district of Spinner's End and looked toward the large grey clouds overhead, you would have seen a large, brown owl swoop from the sky and gracefully glide towards a small, semi-detached brick house and land, very precisely, on a window ledge of the second floor. The parchment attached to its right-leg contained a letter for a young 17 year old witch and this is where our story begins...

Lily Evans' desk had just one item on it. This very same item had been resting there, quite motionless, for 10 minutes. The item was a letter, unopened and branded with a red wax seal.

"Lily, darling, just open it."

"But, mum-"

"Don't 'but mum' me." Rose Evans said, torn between amusement and annoyance at her daughter's antics. "You've been harping on about this letter for weeks, and when you finally get it, you leave it unopened!"

At this, Lily let out a small pathetic whimper of protest, and continued to stare at the letter with reverence. Her eyes were of the brightest green and encased in naturally long eyelashes. Her hair, past shoulder length, was straight and crimson with her fringe sweeping across her face from right to left. She stood at an average height with a slender and attractive physique; her cheeks dotted with light brown freckles.

"Fine then, I'll open it for you - "

"NO!" Lily screamed, causing her mother to reel away from her in shock. "Sorry, but I want to open it! It's my last one, and I might - "

"- be Head Girl." Rose finished for her. "I would never have guessed." She murmured under her breath.

Lily took the letter in her hand and carefully broke the seal. Something small dropped out of the folded parchment and onto the table. Fighting back her glee, Lily chose to ignore this and read aloud her letter first.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sroc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards.)

Dear Miss Evans,

We are pleased to inform you that will you are the Head Girl of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this coming year. Please find your badge your badge enclosed as well as the lists of all necessary books and equipment you may need to buy for your subjects this year.

We wish to remind you that the responsibilities this position brings are not to be taken lightly. You shall meet with you fellow Head Boy, James Potter –

Lily froze. She quickly re-read the sentence. Twice. But it still wouldn't change. It really did say James Potter. She decided not to dwell on this longer than necessary and continued to read,

- on the Hogwarts Express on the morning of September 1st at 10:30am.

We, once again, offer our congratulations and look forward to seeing you in September.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Lily placed the letter down and examined the badge that had fallen out from the fold in the parchment. It was shield-shaped, pale gold in colour with a diagonal scarlet band going from the top left of the badge, to the bottom right, with the words HEAD GIRL embossed in black letters. Smiling to herself, she turned to her mother who was beaming at her.

"I'm Head Girl!" she shrieked and allowed her mother to embrace her.

"See? What did I say, Lily?" Rose laughed, tearfully. "Oh, wait until I tell your father!" And with that, she rushed down stairs to tell Lily's father.

"As well as the whole neighbourhood" Lily murmured under her breath after her mother had departed her room.

Still wearing a large grin, however, Lily decided the first person in the wizarding world that she should tell would be her best friend; Alice Prewett. She found some clean parchment in the bottom of her chest of drawers, along with her deluxe eagle feather quill that she had received as a present from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop for her seventeenth birthday, and composed her letter:

Alice,

I can't believe we still have another two weeks until term starts again and I can't wait for our final year; it's going to be great! I'm really missing you here, being stuck Petunia and Vernon for most of the summer. Do you remember how I told you at the end of last year how much I disliked Vernon? Well, I was wrong. He's much worse; but I don't want to waste ink talking about him, I have some more important news.

I'm Head Girl!

I know, I know; I can't believe it! I've wanted this since I was eleven and I thought they might just give it to me...and they have! You have no idea how much I am smiling at this.

There is only one problem though, Potter's Head Boy. Maybe Dumbledore thinks that he's influential so people will listen to him, but I don't know. He breaks rules, he duels in corridors, ends up in detention with Black seemingly every day and he wasn't even a prefect! He's going to try to make my life a misery; I know it.

Still, I will have my own room in the Head's dormitory but I'll still let you and Mary in to visit me, don't worry!

I'd better be going, Petunia and Vernon will be here for tea soon...oh the joy. I hope you had a lovely time with Frank over the summer! I expect to hear all the juicy news on the train!

See you soon!

Love,

Lily.

Lily folded the parchment and attached it to the leg of her beautiful white owl, Lugo. After opening the window and watching Lugo fly away to deliver her letter to Alice, she briefly considered writing to her other best friend, Mary, but then remember that she would still be on holiday in Australia and the letter would never get to her soon enough.

A knock at the front door brought her back to her senses, remembering that it was Petunia and Vernon who were now being greeted inside, her smiled began to fade. It was going to be a long afternoon.

It was almost midnight and yet Lily still couldn't get to sleep. It had now been two days, nearly three, since she had received her letter telling her she was Head Girl, yet she could not stop thinking about one detail in that letter. The Head Boy.

Lily was frustrated beyond belief. She wondered how on earth Potter, James Potter, had managed to become Head Boy. After this of course, thousands of questions sprung to Lily's mind like a torrent of water. Will he contribute to any of the prefect meetings? Will he embarrass her as Head Girl? Will he ruin all her plans and organisation? Will he bother making any decisions for himself? Will he start badgering her for help on his own work? Will he keep asking her out?

Thinking that she needed some time out of the house and to keep her mind off her worries, she decided to go to Diagon Alley the next day. Slightly more comforted by this prospect, Lily drifted off to sleep, not knowing that in just 24 hours she'd be in exactly the same place but more confused than she'd ever been before.