Their Seventh Year

Chapter 1- On the Hogwart's Express

Lily kissed her Mum and Dad good-bye and tried to look as thought she was sad as she walked, for the seventh and last time, through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station. She would miss her parents, truly, but she was relieved the summer holidays were over. Her sister Petunia had gone from unpleasant to outright unbearable. About to be married, threats from their parents no longer kept Petunia in line, she took the opportunity to at least whisper "freak" every time Lily was within hearing, and that was only when she couldn't think of anything more offensive to say.

Lily went toward the barrier, carefully glancing around to make sure no one was looking directly at her, and rather than smashing headfirst into the wall, she kept walking, and another platform appeared in front of her, bustling with people, many dressed in clothes that would look decidedly odd on the other side of the barrier. Before her stood a vast scarlet steam engine, and she felt an immense sense of satisfaction as she looked at it. She sometimes wondered where she belonged, but she knew she was closer to belonging at Hogwart's than anywhere.

Lily's eyes traveled over the students on the platform, easily picking out the first years, by their looks of pure terror or false bravado, and she was amazed by how young they were. Am I really so old?

She might have gone on standing there indefinitely, but someone ran into her hard from behind, and she staggered forward.

"Oy, sorry! Oh, hey Evans!"

She knew that voice, and the very handsome boy who owned it. Sirius Black was rich, spoiled, incredibly good-looking…and a complete jackass as far as Lily was concerned. The only thing that made him more tolerable than his best mate was that he was not constantly asking her out. He was too busy making his way through the rest of Hogwart's female population. He was grinning at her, and although she had to admit he was attractive, she couldn't feel anything but aesthetic appreciation.

"All right Evans?" He gave her a cheeky wink. "I know someone who's going to be pretty glad to see you! All summer it's been "Evans this" and "Evans that", and- hey, where's McKinnon?"

"I don't know, if you'll excuse me…" She pushed her cart toward the train, not wanting to run into Potter and irritated by Black's short attention span.

"Hey there Lily!" Another voice called her name, more welcome this time, and she turned to see Gideon Prewett . He was in seventh year as well, but in Ravenclaw- he was popular, and a reasonably good quidditch player, but definitely one of the smartest boys in the school. He'd been in line for Head Boy, and she hoped he was, he would be easy to work with. "Congrats on getting Head Girl."

"Thanks. Are you-"

"Nah, just missed it."

"Oh, I'm sorry Gideon."

"Don't be, I'm not. I actually really wanted to focus on my NEWTS anyway. I want to go into Auror training and they ask for lots."

"You'd be a fantastic Auror." She said honestly. "Do you know who it is then?"

"I haven't heard. I'd guess Remus Lupin."

Lily thought that wouldn't be bad, she actually quite liked him, although she could never figure out why he chose to hang around with gits like Potter and Black. Still, he was quiet, thoughtful, intelligent- a good choice for Head Boy, she decided.

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Having stowed their trunks and claimed a compartment for themselves, James Potter and his best mate hopped back off the train to bid good-bye to his parents.

"Thank you so much for everything, Mr. and Mrs. Potter." Sirius wore an earnest expression, unusual for him, as he was trying to impress upon them how much he really did appreciate their letting him stay. James had to admit his friend was a class act when he wanted to be…it was just so rare he wanted to be.

"It's no trouble at all Dear." His mother insisted, patting Sirius's cheek fondly, and then giving them both a stern look. "Now both of you behave yourselves this year. I don't want a single owl from Dumbledore -not one- telling me you've exploded something or disfigured some poor first year, or-"

The train was beginning to steam from the engine, and James kissed his Mum on the cheek and shook hands with his Dad.

"I mean it James Potter!" She called after him as they both hopped on the train, but she wasn't managing to look very stern anymore, but instead looked near to crying. It was the same every time her only son left for school again, even though he was seventeen and a man in his own right now.

Back on the train, James joined his friends in their compartment, though he barely sat down before Sirius remarked "Oh James? Don't you have to go to the special car with all the other teacher's pets? Otherwise known as the "no fun, goody-goody, brown noser" compartment?"

James chose to ignore this, knowing the entire year as Head Boy was going to let him in for endless harassment from his friends and he might as well get used to it. He glanced at Remus Lupin, who had been prefect for two years and thus come under the same kind of fire. He got an unsympathetic shrug and "better you than me Prongs."

James stretched out his legs and announced "This is it gentlemen, this is the year."

Sirius rolled his eyes. Peter looked curious. "What year?"

"I'm glad you asked Wormtail." Sirius groaned and gave Peter a neat slap in the back of the head. James ignored this and went on. "This is the year Lily Evans is finally going to realize that she loves me."

"Taken to drinking over the summer, have you?" Remus questioned mildly, not looking terribly impressed by the announcement.

"And I'll tell you how I know she's going to realize it." He continued, as though one of them had asked. "At the end of last year, when she would tell me to leave her alone, she would call me a prat, or a git. She's warming to me." He crossed his arms and gave them all a dazzling smile.

"How do you figure that?" Even Sirius, in his relentless optimism as far as women were concerned, could not see how name-calling constituted warming up.

"Well, she used to call me a stupid prat, or and arrogant prat." James explained, looking very satisfied with himself.

"True love, blossoming before our eyes." Said Remus dryly.

"So really, all I have to do is use our duties as head boy and girl to get closer to Evans." He scooted over in his seat towards Sirius, as though demonstrating how "getting closer" would work. Sirius, only too glad to play the part of "Evans" in this little fantasy, laid his head on James' shoulder and batted his eyes flirtatiously. "And she will no longer be able to resist my charms."

"You're a little too good at acting feminine there Padfoot, what have you two been doing this summer?"

At this suggestion, Sirius jumped up from his seat and launched himself across the compartment to pummel his friend, and James took this opportunity to leave, as he actually did have to report to the front car to organize the new prefects and get instructions.

Most of the fifth year prefects were there already, as well as-

"Evans!" James boomed as he entered. She turned in surprise and then her green eyes narrowed. He noted happily she looked even prettier than he remembered.

"You can't be in here Potter, it's only for the Head boy and girl and the prefects."

"Right." he nodded and took a seat, smiling up at her. She looked outraged.

"I said you can't be in here." She repeated.

"You said it's for the heads and prefects."

"Yes."

"Right."

She opened her mouth to say something again, and then snapped it shut. "Oh no." She said after a minute.

"Oh yes Evans."

"It can't be you, it has to be Remus, or Gideon, or-"

"It should be Remus." James admitted, wanting to give his friend due credit. "But he wasn't feeling well during exams last year. As it were, he didn't really want the job anyway. So it's me and you Evans." he looked around at the fifth years, one boy and one girl from each house. "Shall we get started? Hm, Head boy and Girl both from Gryffindor. Not hard to tell which house is superior, huh?"

He winked at the prefect for Gryffindor, Maureen O'Connor, who turned a deep shade of red. The others glowered at him but seemed too intimidated to actually say anything. Lily ignored him, and while she gave the prefects their assignment, which was to patrol the corridors and make sure no one got hurt or hexed on the way to school, he got to enjoy watching her be angry. It brought a pretty flush to her cheeks and sparks to her eyes.

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Lily was still fuming when she sent the prefects off, and Potter gave her a little mock salute and swaggered out......he was so...arrogant. If there was one person in the school she did not want to deal with on a day-to-day basis, it was Potter. Looking for someone to vent to, she left the front car and found two of the other Gryffindor seventh year girls, and two of her closest friends, sitting with a girl from Ravenclaw who they were sometimes friendly with. She stepped in and slammed the compartment door behind her. "Guess who is Head boy?" She said, expecting to shock them.

Flora McKinnon looked up from a chocolate frog card. "James Potter." She replied, calmly.

"What? How'd you know?"

"His mates were in here, they told us." replied quickly, so Lily wouldn't think they'd know about this outrage all along and kept it from her.

"And I heard it wasn't Gideon, so I figured it must be James." Added Lauren Emerson, seemingly not minding that Potter had beat out someone from her own house.

"I don't know why you hate him so much Lil. I think he really does like you, just like any idiot male he can't show it without being a git."

"I can't stand him." She replied vehemently.

"Lily, he's cute, he's smart, he's rich, he's a decent dancer. I think you may want to consider the possibility that your standards are a little too high?" Flora ignored the look Lily gave her. "Well, at any rate you were better off with Potter than with this one." She jerked her head at . "She's going to be no fun at all this year, all she's done so far is sulk about Frank."

"I am not sulking." Said in a dignified voice, though Lily thought it very likely she had been. Her boyfriend had graduated the previous year and had already been hand picked to train as an Auror at the Ministry, and she was understandably depressed she would only see him on holidays or the occasional Hogsmeade week-end. Lily figured she would perk up after she got back into the routine of school, was not one to stay down for long.

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully, Flora and Lauren making most of the conversation since was thinking of Frank and Lily was thinking about the daunting prospect of a whole year dealing with James Potter regularly. Wasn't it bad enough he was in her house and all her classes?

The train pulled into Hogmeade Station as it was just turning from twilight to dark, and Lily and her friends joined the other students spilling off the train. Off to one side, she spotted Sirius Black surrounded by a whole group of first years, and figured that was a situation worth checking out.

"Nah, it's nothing to worry about." She heard him saying as she came closer. "The sorting is no problem, nothing to be nervous about at all. Really easy in fact….I mean, you all do know how to fight a dragon, don't you?"

Their looks of absolute panic pushed Lily to act.

"Sirius Black, you stop that right now! Don't listen to him, it's nothing to do with dragons!" She assured the first years. "You all just go on with that big man over there, he's going to take you to the school." She pointed to the familiar figure of Hagrid, towering over everyone else. While some of the first years looked more afraid of him than they had of the prospect of dragons, they trooped off obediently. She turned back to Black. "That was cruel."

"I was just trying to make your job easier Evans. Keep them scared and in line."

"They're eleven."

"I was eleven once. Look how I turned out." He raised his eyebrows.

Lily wasn't sure if that was meant to be an example or a threat, as she turned away from him and directly into Potter.

"Why Hello Evans. May I accompany you on the ride to school?"

"No." She replied flatly, and brushed past him to get into a carriage with Flora and Alice before he could follow.

He stared after her, and sighed. "She even smells good."

Sirius snorted, and then grabbed his arm. "Let's go Romeo, I'm hungry."