Change of Heart
Summary: Out of everyone, James Potter was probably the most shocked of all to find out that he was made Head Boy. Lily Evans wasn't as surprised about being named Head Girl as she was pleased. They had different reactions and different reasons to react how they did, and then they'll eventually find out who they've been paired with.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. If I did, I'd publish it somewhere where I could get paid for it because money is nice.
Chapter One: James
For over a week, James Potter and Sirius Black had been waking up at dawn and sitting on the garden wall in front of the Potters' house until noon. It may have been a strange sight for the neighbors - two teenage boys sitting on a wall, staring out at the horizon, and talking quietly to each other for hours on end and in the middle of summer, too - but James and Sirius didn't stop to consider what the neighbors might think. They had other things on their minds.
"They're going to come today," Sirius said firmly. "I just know it."
James rolled his eyes. "You've been saying that for days, Padfoot. I'm beginning to think that we're going to waste our entire summer sitting on this bloody wall."
Padfoot looked at his friend out of the corner of his eye.
"They're coming today," he said softly. "I can feel it in the wind."
"Right, in the wind. That's not strange."
Sirius ignored the blatantly sarcastic remark and took the opportunity to change the subject.
"You know what to do when the owls arrive, don't you?" he whispered.
James nodded and pulled something wrapped in brown paper from his pocket.
"I slip this into my envelope and try to pass it off as the real thing," he replied. "But it's not going to work. We did the same thing last summer when O.W.L. results came in. Mum's never going to fall for the same trick twice."
Sirius sighed. "Then you'll just have to act convincing, and if it works, your mum will probably have a heart attack."
James mumbled something incoherent.
"What was that?"
"I said that she'll be expecting something like this."
Sirius merely shook his head and turned back to stare at the horizon.
James knew that his mother was a little suspicious about what they were up to. He had seen her watching them from the kitchen window on more than one occasion, and he could tell by the look on her face that she knew they were plotting something.
"What makes you so sure that they'll even come from this direction?" James asked. "They could come from behind the house and leave the letters back there without us even knowing it."
"They came from this direction last year," his friend replied matter-of-factly. "I remember because we were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, and your mum had just left to get something, and when the owls flew in, one dropped my letter in her cake batter."
"Oh, that's right," James said simply.
He was suddenly aware of how hot it was getting. It hadn't been his idea to sit outside all day and wait for the owl to arrive. It had been Sirius's, and although he didn't usually argue with one of Sirius's schemes, this one seemed destined for disaster. He knew that if his mother caught them trying to pull off something this stupid, she would have their heads. There wasn't much that James Potter was afraid of, but his mother was definitely on that list, no matter how short it was.
Mrs. Potter wasn't one to trifle with. When angered, she could have a nasty temper, and she sometimes even went so far as to use magic as a punishment. James had learned at an early age not to make her mad. Thus, she had never been at the receiving end of very many pranks, and the only ones he had ever pulled on her were the ones that he knew she would laugh about.
After another hour of sitting on the garden wall, the waiting finally paid off. Suddenly, James saw two small specks in the sky, and as they grew closer, he could tell that they were a pair of owls.
He nudged Sirius, who had fallen asleep sitting up, and pointed in the direction of the owls.
"Look!" he cried. "Here they come!"
Instantly, Sirius was awake and on his feet.
"Okay," he said. "Get ready to stop yours and put the badge in before your mum sees that they're here."
The owls came closer and closer, and when they had almost reached the point where the two boys were standing, James realized that they weren't going to stop until they reached the kitchen window.
He began to back up, hoping that he could catch an owl before it landed in front of his mother, but he tripped over his own feet and fell. From the ground, he watched the two owls fly one behind the other into his house.
"Come on!" Sirius shouted. "We might still be able to pull it off!"
James scrambled to his feet and followed his friend inside. They reached the kitchen just as Mrs. Potter was untying the first letter from one of the owls' legs. Both boys held their breath, one hoping that it wasn't too late and the other hoping it was.
Mrs. Potter looked at the writing on the envelope and held it out.
"Here, Sirius," she said. "This one's for you."
Sirius reached over and took it from her and, at the same time, pushed James forward to retrieve his own letter from the bird.
"I'll get it, Mum," James said, and began to untie his Hogwarts letter.
As he was holding it in his hand, trying to figure out how to slip the badge in without his mother noticing, he realized that his envelope was a lot heavier than it usually was. He glanced over at Sirius, who was watching him from behind the letter he was pretending to read, but the letter was all that Sirius's envelope had contained.
James turned his back to his mum and Sirius and slowly opened his letter. Cautiously, he peeked inside among the sheets of parchment and quickly lowered the envelope, staring ahead with wide eyes.
There was no possible way. He had good marks, but Dumbledore would never…
Or would he?
"James?" he heard his mother calling from far away.
He turned around to look at her.
"James, is there any new information in that letter or is it just a supply list like always?"
"I haven't really had a chance to look," he murmured and raised the envelope once more.
James reached inside and pulled the parchment letter out to read. As he did, something heavy and shiny fell out. With quick reflexes, he caught whatever it was before it hit the floor and looked at it in disbelief.
"What's that?" Mrs. Potter asked.
"Head Boy," James read aloud softly and then slightly louder. "Head Boy!"
"What?" she asked, snatching the badge from him.
James glanced up at Sirius, who was seated at the kitchen table, observing the scene in silence. He was smirking, obviously thinking that their plan had worked. James tried to think of a way to signal to his friend that he hadn't had a chance to put the fake badge in the envelope and that the badge was real, but nothing he did seemed to get the message across, and Sirius merely winked back at him.
Mrs. Potter stopped turning the badge over in her hands and looked up at the interaction between the two boys. A frown formed on her face.
"I know what you're up to," she snarled. "And if you think I'll fall for that half-brained scheme of yours two years in a row, you're wrong!"
"But, Mum-"
But she cut him off. "Don't waste your breath, James. With all the trouble you cause, Dumbledore would have to be out of his mind to make you Head Boy. You think I'm stupid, but I'm not. I know how your mind works, and I know when you're trying to pull a prank on me. Well, better luck next time."
And with that, she stormed from the kitchen and out of sight.
Dumbfounded, James stared at the badge that his mother had left on the table. He had almost forgotten that Sirius was there when his friend cleared his throat and began to speak, causing James to start.
"Oh well." Sirius let out a deep sigh. "They can't all be successes. Sometimes we have to have a failure. It's too bad this one didn't work though because the look on your mum's face would have been priceless."
"Sirius-?"
"Of course, I thought you did a brilliant job with the acting. And you said you wouldn't be able to. Ha! But it wasn't your acting that threw everything off. It was just that your mum was expecting it. I guess you were right about that all along."
"Sirius-"
"Do you know what I think was the most amazing part of this whole prank? It was this badge. It looks so close to the real ones that you would have to know about the flaw on the back to be able to tell the difference. And there wouldn't even be a flaw if you hadn't-" He paused and looked at the badge. "Wait a minute. Where'd it go?"
He glanced back at James who pulled the fake badge out of his pocket.
Sirius gaped.
"You mean-?"
James nodded.
Sirius leaned back in his chair and dropped the real badge onto the table with a clatter.
"I can't believe it," he muttered. "Do you know what this means?" He was slowly but surely becoming more excited and more animated. "This means no more house points taken off for pranks. This means we can go wherever we want at any time of the night without being worried about getting caught. This means we can finally give the Slytherins what they deserve!"
James snorted when Sirius got up to do some odd little victory dance in the middle of the room and fell down, knocking over a stack of pots and pans. The noise brought Mrs. Potter back into the room in a hurry.
"What was that?" she cried. "What are you boys up to now? Oh, honestly," she said with a grin when she saw Sirius on the floor, buried beneath her kitchenware. "What were you trying to do?"
"I was celebrating," Sirius explained, taking Mrs. Potter's offered hand and pulling himself to his feet, "because James is the new Head Boy!"
James smiled at his mother and held up his badge. She looked at it for a moment and then at her son and then at Sirius and back to James.
"You're serious, aren't you?" she said finally. "The badge is real?"
James nodded.
"Well, you do well in school," she continued softly. "But you weren't a prefect. Why would they make you Head Boy without you being a prefect first? You're sure it's real?"
James nodded again.
"Look, Mum." He grabbed his letter from the table. "There's a letter and everything."
Mrs. Potter read the letter to herself, placing her hand over her heart as she did so. When she was done, she looked up at James with tears in her eyes.
"I never thought I'd see the day…"
Sirius stood behind her, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at her motherly antics, making James laugh.
Suddenly Mrs. Potter gasped.
"Wait until your father finds out!" she cried. "He'll be so proud! We should have a big celebration dinner. I'll make all of your favorite foods, and we'll invite the neighbors…" And she left the room, still talking to herself and making plans for dinner.
"Sounds like fun," Sirius said once she was out of earshot. James caught the sarcasm.
"She's just trying to be a good mother," he replied. "You're just jealous because you have nothing to celebrate."
Sirius huffed. "Hey, Dumbledore's letting me back into school for another year. If that doesn't call for a celebration, I don't know what does."
- - - -
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story. It's going to be a total of three chapters long when complete. This was James's chapter, the next will be Lily's, and the final one will be about both of them. I have all three chapters completely written, so updates should be quick and painless.
I give you permission to ignore any errors you may find in this chapter. I seem to have a curse on me that makes my beta readers mysteriously disappear. My newest beta (the fifth or sixth one, I believe) did a lovely job with my last story and said she'd start working on this one, but she's been MIA for the past four months or so. It's a little frustrating, but I decided to take a risk and post this without any editing (except for that on my part, which isn't quite the same). So just bear with me, and hopefully I'll have a new beta by the next chapter.
Again, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy it and decide to stay for the rest of the ride. And I wouldn't object to a few reviews.
Cat
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