Knights of Walpurgis

TITLE: The Knights of Walpurgis

AUTHOR: Clio

RATED: PG-13

Summary: With students at each other's throats, mysterious meetings being held at all hours, and a Head Boy that makes her toes curl, Lily's final year is anything but predictable. The only thing she's certain of this year is that everyone seems to have a secret.

DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and the characters and places associated with same are the sole property of J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended. This story was written for my own amusement, as I am currently entertaining a healthy obsession with the books, and, hopefully, the amusement of others. Please do not sue me because I have no money, and what little money I do have is spent on things like food and a place to live. If you feel compelled to sue, rest assured that all you will get out of me is a computer with all the research, plot outlines and character sketches for this story saved on it, a few boxes of Macaroni and Cheese (maybe some Captain Crunch if you're lucky) and my sizable late fee at Blockbusters from renting British movies (the BBC rocks!!). So let us review: No Potter me-owny, but big late fee me-havey. Don't sue!

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IMPORTANT A/N: I am rewriting this fic! Not that the previous one was all that bad, but it wasn't going in a direction that I wanted. I'm also using this opportunity to bring Knights into canon for all seven books since there were some revelations in Deathly Hallows that impact my story. I hope my readers enjoy the new fic, but if you'd still like to read what I had posted of the old Knights you can find it on Fanfiction.net; search the author name “Goddess.Clio” (without quotation marks) or the story title “The Knights of Walpurgis” (again without quotation marks). Thanks for all the reviews I had received and I hope that my reviewers will let me know how the rewrite is going! =^)

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Knights of Walpurgis

PART I

Chapter 1

.:*~* The Girl with the Badge *~*:.

“Confirm your date of birth, please.”

“January 30, 1960.”

“And you live at number ten, Cowper Crescent, Waterford, Hertfordshire, correct?” he asked.

Lillian Evans was no longer reassured by the new security measures the Ministry of Magic had put into effect over the summer. “Yes,” she replied.

“I work in the Hertford office. Why did I not see you come in for registration?”

“You must have been out. So I saw someone else.”

He leafed through the papers on his counter, a worried look on his face, then brightened. “Ah, yes. Mr. Nelson. Good.”

Lily regarded the desk clerk. He was only a few years older than she. Not too bad looking. But maybe she'd been standing there too long. He had probably volunteered thinking he would be thrust into the Ministry's exciting world of intrigue and espionage, or whatever, not stuck behind a counter verify and logging the location of traveling wizards. She said, “That's right.”

He turned back to her papers. “Student?”

“Yes.”

“Hogwarts?”

She said, wearily, “Yes, Hogwarts. Gryffindor.”

“Let me just confirm that.” He shoved Lily's paperwork to the side and consulted a long list of what looked to be students' names. Lily had become impatient with these security measures. She felt as if she were making a major border crossing at every magical locality she visited. At least, she thought, this time it was going smoother than at Diagon Alley.

As the clerk flipped through the pages Lily's attention strayed to the queues stretching out behind her. Her friend Eve Bleher stood behind her boyfriend Mark Cooper. Both looked bored as Mark confirmed his own information with another clerk. She caught Eve's eye and she gave and exaggerated roll of her eyes. Eve smirked in agreement. A Ravenclaw sixth-year named Dirk Creswell stood with his arms folded over his chest and chewing a wad of gum, apparently unaware that the clerk was calling for him to step forward. A few lines over stood Remus Lupin. His parents were standing close around him, glancing around anxiously. He looked pale and sickly, as though he were getting over pneumonia or something, and not at all like he should be sent off to school. His mother brushed a lock of hair off his forehead fussily. Remus looked over and waved at her, embarrassedly. She smiled back.

A gesture in a line closer to her caught her eye. Severus Snape's hand was held up in a wave, his face stretched in a weak but hopeful smile. All around him stood seventh-year Slytherins, Zachary Angston, Isaac Avery and Morgana Flint among them. As Lily appraised the group she noticed the smile on Severus's face fade. Avery gave Snape's shoulder a shove to recall him to the conversation. Lily could feel Morgana Flint's cold blue eyes sear into her from across the terminal and saw her lips form the word “Mudblood.”

“I see it here,” the clerk recalled her attention. “Lillian May Evans. Gryffindor. Seventh year.” He raised his eyebrows. “Head Girl.”

“That would be me.”

He checked her off on the list, then gathered her paperwork back into its folder and handed it to her. “I've never been to Hogwarts,” the clerk said. “Wasn't good enough to get in, I suppose.”

Lily couldn't think of a reply to this, so she stayed silent.

“Went to LaRance. Bloody awful school, if you ask me.”

She hadn't.

The clerk picked up a large bag that jingled and extracted a one pound coin from it. He tapped the coin with his wand and handed it to her, along with her paperwork. “This is your pass to get through the barrier. Present this coin to the appropriate representative on platform ten. Do not lose it.”

“Maybe I should staple it to my forehead,” Lily suggested, steering her trolley past him. Either he hadn't been paying attention or the comment was lost on him because the clerk bid her good day and called his next victim forward without a reply. Lily wrestled her trolley to a halt next to Mark who had also finished his paperwork and was leaning heavily against his trunk and reading a folded copy of the Daily Prophet.

“What do you reckon?” he asked, nodding toward the bank of counters. “They worth it?”

Lily stuffed her folder of paperwork into her satchel. “Oh yes,” she replied, heartily. “Despite the fact that they're an inefficient and useless nuisance and have yet to prove that they are effective in performing the only task they were implemented for—” But Lily didn't need to finish the sentence; Mark seemed to understand that she was as fed up with the Verification Stations as he was.

A Muggle family wandered past the queues of students clogging the terminal of King's Cross, looking curiously at the ensemble of interesting people who filled the lines. Lily supposed they were wondering if they had missed some announcement about the vital importance of standing in lines and watched a few stop to ponder whether or not they should join the queues.

“Should I wait?” she said to Mark.

He shook his head and replied that she could save them a compartment on the train. Eve gave her a wave from her counter and steered her trolley in the direction of platform nine and three-quarters. As she strode purposefully through the station she reflected on things. These new Ministry restrictions and procedures were not only annoying, she decided, but a little scary. Sure, there were reasons for them to be in place, more reasons that anyone wanted to admit. But the continual series of check points and seemingly endless supplies of ill-tempered clerks was growing old. Lily tried to recall the article on the front page of the Daily Prophet Mark had been reading. Mishaps at the Ministry, the title had read. The article, which she had scanned that morning, went on to condemn the Ministry's horrible display during the last raid where no less than seven Death Eaters had escaped capture, followed by the equally dismal trial which had resulted in only one incarceration and four releases. It was the kind of article that only fueled public speculation about the incompetence of the Ministry of Magic, and was the cause of the massive exodus from public life that so many wizard families had undergone.

Lily reached platform ten and found an old beggar sitting in front of the barrier rattling a tin can at passers-by. He gave her a knowing wink and she understood that he was the “appropriate representative” the clerk had referenced. She dropped the coin in his tin and passed through the barrier.

Platform nine and three-quarters, usually tinged with an air of excitement, was oddly tense. Lily knew that four of her close friends would not be returning to Hogwarts this year, or rather, Lily thought, their families had given them no choice in the matter, and as she made for a carriage toward the middle of the train she noticed that the sentiment was apparently shared by many other wizard families; the platform had a strangely vacant feeling though there were many people occupying it. The only joyous sounds were coming from two laughing girls. As Lily passed them, however, she realized that they were laughing at a third-year who had tripped over a trunk and the laughter soon died away. She also noticed, as they moved along the platform, that most of the compartments on the train appeared to be empty. Even the students in the long lines of the Verification Stations wouldn't fill the train to capacity.

A Muggle man helped Lily hoist her trunk onto the train as he told her he was dropping off his daughter for Hogwarts.

“It's her first year,” he grinned, pulling his daughter toward himself. Lily looked down at the eleven-year-old girl, remembering fondly her first trip on the Hogwarts Express. “Her mum had to rush into work this morning or else she'd be here too,” the man continued unnecessarily. “Her name is Shannon.” He added, quietly, “She's a little nervous. I am too, come to that - just found out about this wizard stuff five months ago.”

Lily said hello to the girl who smiled back. Shannon had champagne-blond hair that suited her well, and as she looked around the platform she wore an eager, hungry expression as though she could barely contain her excitement. Lily knelt down so she was on a level with her. “I'm Lily, the Head Girl and I'm Muggle-born, too,” she said, kindly. “I know it can be a little scary on your first day but you look like you'll be having too much fun to feel scared. You'll make lots of friends and write to your parents every day if you want to and tell them all about how you're turning cups into kittens and levitating feathers and you can post the letters by owl.” Lily smiled as she saw Shannon's eyes brighten. “Do you have your wand?”

The girl nodded, smiling for the first time and produced a long tapered wand of walnut.

“And a cat,” Shannon pointed behind her where a beautiful chestnut-colored cat with large yellow eyes sat in a small carrier. “I'm going to be the best witch in the world,” Shannon proclaimed, waving her wand. A few errant sparks emanated from the end.

Lily smiled. “I'm sure you are, Shannon. Well,” she said, straightening. “If you ever have a problem or are feeling homesick you come and talk to me, alright?”

Shannon nodded, smiling even more widely. Her father gave Lily a grateful nod as Lily climbed aboard the train. Settling into a compartment, she watched out the window as Shannon and her father hugged goodbye and she boarded the train.

A few minutes went by as Lily settled herself in the seat next to the window. She watched the Slytherins she had seen in line pass through the barrier. Severus glanced down the platform and then followed his friends toward the other end of the train. Several members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team filed through, accompanied by their parents, followed by Eve and Mark. They boarded the train.

Lily shifted in her seat. Her mind drifted to her old friend. She thought she had known Severus Snape well. After all, it was he who had been her first link to the magical world, he who she had spent hot summer afternoon laying by to her on the banks of the river that flowed through Waterford. But it was also he who had shown so much interest in the Death Eaters when they had begun to garner a name for themselves only a few years ago. Lily had thought at first that his interest in them was merely curiosity. Severus did, after all, have a strange fascination with the dark arts. Then she had thought that he was succumbing to some sort of peer pressure from the other Slytherins who were clearly a bad influence. She shook her head. He did hang out with the wrong sort of people. He wasn't who Lily would describe as the most confident of young men and the kind of camaraderie the Slytherins had offered would probably be very tempting to him.

She sighed, thinking about the argument they had had at the end of their fifth year. That was the last time she had really talked to Severus, and even then it was against her will. She didn't know what to think of him anymore. A part of her still wanted to believe that he was still the boy she grew so fond of as a little girl. She wanted to run up to him in the corridors of Hogwarts and beg him to see sense. A larger part of her, however, was still resentful of him calling her a Mudblood, still disgusted by his apology, still disturbed by his growing desire to become a Death Eater. She shifted again, watching the barrier through the clear window. She had never told anyone this before. He had never come right out and said that's where things were headed for him, but she knew. He couldn't hide it from her. Her sixth year had been plagued with the burning desire to tell McGonagall or Dumbledore, or even Slughorn that there could potentially be Death Eaters within the walls of Hogwarts very soon. But the friend in her didn't want to implicate Severus and there was no other way to explain how she knew such controversial information.

The compartment door slid open and Eve Bleher and Mark Cooper entered in the midst of an argument.

“They certainly kept you from visiting me,” Eve said rather huffily, throwing herself onto the seat opposite Lily.

“I visited you loads of times,” Mark retorted.

“Twice. You visited me seven times a day last Christmas holiday.”

“I was in Cornwall with my family for half the summer. And last Christmas I visited so often because I was trying to get in your pants then. Now all I have to do is— Oof!”

Eve had elbowed him in the stomach.

“That is why I didn't visit,” Mark grumbled, massaging his gut.

“I didn't hit you that hard, cry-baby.” Mark muttered morosely and Eve rolled her eyes at Lily. “You look miserable, Lil. What's up?”

Lily shook her head, stood and leaned out the open window. She watched parents reluctantly letting their children board the train, a few calling the back for third and fourth hugs goodbye. Remus's father was hoisting his luggage onto the train as his mother fussed over him some more. He seemed to have twice the usual amount of luggage, which struck Lily as odd. Lexi-Ann LaRayne and Daphne Jones, the girls who had laughed at the fallen third-year, were now eyeing Rodney Lingard, captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, as he walked past with his friends.

The compartment door opened again.

Adriana Devereaux stepped into the compartment, sweeping her ashy brown hair over her shoulder and crossing her arms over her chest. In her hand was a copy of the new room assignments. “So I guess we're rooming together this year,” she said without as much as a precursory greeting.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Eve replied, coolly.

“This means we'll be spending more time together than we have in the past,” Adriana added, unnecessarily.

“Looking forward to it,” Lily replied, hoping this statement would prove true. She had never really cared much for Adriana Devereaux, who, in Lily's estimation, was one of the more irritating girls in Gryffindor. She was often in the company of Salendra Prasad and Camille Castillo of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff respectively, and the three were known throughout Hogwarts as the biggest gossips in their houses. One had to be cautious of what was said around Adriana, Salendra and Camille lest it be school wide news the next day.

“Congratulations on Head Girl, by the way,” Adriana said.

Lily grunted as she watched the number of new arrivals through the barrier peter off. “Much good it'll do me this year, only half the school's come back.”

Eve said, “You'll have an easy time of it then.”

“With the fearsome foursome entering into their last year?” Lily scoffed. “Fat chance.”

A tall, very handsome boy with dark hair paused outside the open compartment door. He stuck his head in. “You rang?”

Mark looked up. “Hi, Sirius. Good summer?”

“It was alright,” Sirius replied, unenthusiastically, his grey eyes roaming the compartment and landing on Adriana. He wagged his eyebrows at the brunette who returned his leer with a steely glare and sat merely to put distance between them. “Already in your uniform, eh, Evans?” Lily leaned her back against the window. Every year she came to King's Cross in the skirt and white button-down shirt of her Hogwarts uniform, and every year Sirius made a point to comment on it, despite her numerous attempts to explain: It was just easier than changing on the train. Her indulgence this year was to wear her newly minted Head Girl badge, which she was now wishing she hadn't put on. Sirius said, “Say, has James been by to hit on you yet?”

Mark snorted, Eve giggled, and Adriana rolled her eyes disgustedly.

Lily accidentally-on-purpose trod on Eve's toes as she shifted her weight. She said to Sirius, “No. And I don't care for him to. Could you tell him that for me?”

Sirius's handsome features twisted into an expression of deepest regret. “I could, but… I mean, you know he won't listen.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said, despondently, turning back to the window.

“If you see him, could you let me know?” Sirius asked. Lily noted there was an undertone in Sirius's voice as he asked this. Was it concern?

She shrugged noncommittally and heard him leave, but she remembered something and called him back. “Could you tell Remus that the prefects are meeting at half past eleven?”

“Sure. See you later.” He nodded at her Head Girl badge. “Congratulations, by the way. I look forward to working with you this year.”

“Ha ha,” Lily replied, tonelessly, though she was wearing a small smile. “Do me a favor and go easy on me the first few weeks?”

Sirius grinned, knowingly. “Oh, Miss Evans, just you wait. In time you'll realize that I'm the least of your problems.” With that he disappeared from view.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Lily asked the others, “'I'm the least of your problems.' If he's the least of my problems this year, than I'll be a monkey's uncle.”

Lily collapsed into the seat opposite Adriana noting that Eve and Mark hadn't heard a word of this as they were engaged in a hushed conversation behind an open leaf of the Daily Prophet. Adriana, however, was watching Lily closely. Lily hoped the rest of the year wouldn't be like this. The train's whistle gave a sharp blast and the carriage shuddered.

“Shouldn't you be gathering the Prefects?” Adriana asked suddenly.

Lily blinked at her. “They know what to do.”

“You just told Sirius Black to remind Remus…” Adriana replied, open-endly.

“I wasn't reminding Remus.”

“Yes you were. You told Sirius to tell Remus—”

Lily sighed, feeling irritated. “I told Sirius to tell Remus about the meeting, not because I actually wanted him to tell Remus or because Remus needed reminding, but because Sirius and James need to be told every so often that Remus has responsibilities to the school that they can't override with stupid jokes and time-wasting funny-business.”

Adriana raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Lily returned to the window, knowing that tomorrow the whole school would be informed of how Lily felt that Sirius and James were useless lay-abouts and Remus was irresponsible when in reality only the first half of that statement was true. Okay, Lily reconciled with herself, James and Sirius weren't entirely useless, just occasionally overly rambunctious. Great, she thought, just great.

“Did you hear what happened to him over the holiday?” Eve asked, curiously.

Adriana asked, “Who?”

“James.”

“I heard he broke his ankle,” Mark said, absently, turning a page of the Prophet.

Eve's face fell. “Really? I heard it was his wrist.”

Lily asked, “Why not his neck?” Adriana laughed in a way that unsettled Lily. “Where did you hear that?”

“From Camille Castillo,” Eve replied. “She's in the next carriage; We ran into her looking for you.”

Adriana perked up at the promise of juicy gossip and said, joyously, “Camille told me that she saw James every time she was at St. Mungo's this summer. Her granddad is ill, you know, and she visits him quite often, and she said that James seemed to always be there.”

Curiosity took hold and Lily turned. “Why was he there?”

Adriana leaned forward, conspiratorially. “That's the big secret. Nobody I've talked to seems to know. I've heard some things, of course,” Adriana waved her hand dismissively, “but I know they're all lies.”

Lily moved back to the window, listening as Eve prodded Adriana for more tidbits about James Potter. She was annoyed with herself for feeling curious about how James spent his holidays, but couldn't help but strain her ears to listen as Adriana sped through all the possible reasons for his frequent appearances at the wizard's hospital.

Just then Lily saw a familiar head of untidy black hair pushing its way through the crowd of parents still on the platform followed by a thundering out in the hall of the train. She turned in time to see Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew sprint past, their heavy foot falls hammering onto the floor of the carriage. She leaned out the window and saw many others doing the same.

With two sharp blasts of the whistle, the train shuddered and began to creep forward. Lily could see Sirius's hanging out the door two carriages back beckoning to the boy in the crowd. Lily glanced around. The students hanging out the windows of the Hogwarts Express cheered and waved and James Potter ran down the platform, his robes flapping behind him. Putting on a burst of speed he sprinted forward, clasped Sirius's outstretched hand and was wrenched aboard the train.

“I'm going to find Celeste. Do you want to come?” Eve asked Lily, standing. Lily turned her back on the window as it dived into the tunnel on its way out of London.

“No, I need to find Clay,” Lily said, referring to Clayton Bosworth, the Head Boy.

Eve turned to her boyfriend. “Mark?”

“Nah, I'm off to see the chaps down the way to talk about bloke things.”

“Bloke things?” Eve cocked an eyebrow.

“Bloke things,” Mark repeated. “You know: Quidditch, brooms, girls… maybe exchange a few stories of recent sexual escapades, see whose porn collection as grown the most over the summer…”

“Alright,” Eve laughed. “Go, go.” He grinned at her.

“I'll come with you,” Adriana said, standing as Eve and Lily moved toward the door.

“Oh,” Eve said, unable to hide the surprise in her voice. “Er… okay, I guess.”

She and Lily exchanged looks as they stepped out into the narrow hallway, but it was already crowded.

“—He could have been really dramatic and jumped onto the caboose,” Remus Lupin was saying as Sirius heaved a trunk through the awkward, narrow hallway. “Then you'd be dragging that trunk about ten cars farther than you already are.” James slapped his friend on the shoulder, an exhausted sort of smile spread over his face.

“Good to see you, mate.”

“Almost missed the train, James,” Remus chided in a friendly manner. “Remember to set your alarm next time.”

“What made you so late, Prongs?” Peter Pettigrew called, bobbing along carrying James's great horned owl.

The groups collided as the boys stopped in front of Lily's compartment, Sirius panting from his efforts with the trunk.

Adriana pointed out to Sirius, “Potter is right behind you.”

Sirius gave her a withering look. “Yes, thank you. That's very helpful.” He gave the trunk a great tug, lost his balance and toppled to the floor. Adriana laughed. He climbed to his feet, muttering obscenities under his breath.

“Excuse us,” came a tittering voice behind Mark. He pressed himself to the side of the corridor and Daphne Jones and Lexi-Ann LaRayne squeezed past. They unceremoniously stepped over what Lily realized was James's trunk, wiggling their way in between the boys. Lily suppressed a smile as Peter went pale and Remus blushed. Daphne stopped in front of James and put a hand on his chest.

“I'm so sorry to hear you were ill this summer,” she simpered. James brow furrowed.

“Pardon me?” he said.

“Are you feeling better?” Daphne asked.

“Er… yeah,” James replied, wearing a puzzled grin. “Much.”

Daphne leaned into him and cooed, “Perhaps we could get together sometime and I could help you feel even better.”

Remus and Sirius snorted back their laughter.

James replied, “Sure.” And Daphne and Lexi-Ann continued into the next carriage. James's hazel eyes turned to Sirius who adopted an innocent expression.

“Don't look at me, Prongs, I never said a word.”

Mark moved away and Sirius righted the trunk blocking the corridor and began heaving it forward again. Adriana, Eve and Lily made room for him as he passed.

Remus walked by and Lily said, “The Prefects' meeting is in half an hour. Make sure these dimwits don't make you late for it.”

James adopted a pained expression, put his arm around his friend's shoulder and addressed the Head Girl, “Now, Evans, we would never do anything to infringe upon our dear friend's responsibilities in any way, shape or form and it hurts that you feel that way about us. It truly does.”

Eve giggled as Sirius clambered over the trunk blocking the hallway and tapped Remus on the shoulder. “Did you know you have a prefect's meeting in half an hour?”

Remus leaned toward Sirius and they exchanged shifty looks. “Where did you get this information?”

Sirius cocked his toward Lily. “Heard it from the girl with the badge.”

“But do you think she can be trusted? This information may be… unreliable.” Peter joined in, throwing an appraising eye at Lily, who leaned against the wall and cocked an eyebrow at the mousy boy.

“Well,” James pointed out, “She does have a badge.” The four boys turned and gave Lily's Head Girl badge a calculating look.

“And Remus has a badge as well…” Sirius noted, tapping the piece of metal pinned to his shirt so that it gave a little tink-tink-tink in the crowded hallway.

Peter scratched his chin, “Fair point, that is. Never thought of that.”

“So does that mean Remus is reliable, then?” James asked, casting a suspicious look at his friend.

Sirius thought a moment, then said, as though it were the only explanation, “It must, he's got a badge.” His eyes flickered to something in James's hand. “And, what do you know! You've got a badge as well!”

James did an exaggerated double take and held up his silver Quidditch Captain badge. “So I have!”

Remus nodded. “That settles it then. We've all got badges.”

Peter's face fell and he said sulkily, “I don't have a badge.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “Get out of here, you silly sods, or you'll make Remus late.”

Sirius pretended not to hear her and said, seriously, “You know, we'd better get a move on. We don't want to make Remus late.”

Peter turned to him quizzically. “Late for what?”

“Oh, didn't you hear? I have a prefect's meeting in half an hour.”

“Did you happen to see Clay Bosworth at that end of the train?” Lily interjected, before the absurd routine really got out of hand.

“Why would you be looking for him?” James asked, “Unless…” He grinned, roguishly. “You two aren't…” He made an obscene hand gesture.

“No, we aren't—” Lily repeated the gesture. “I need to talk to him before the meeting.”

“Why?”

“None of your business, Potter.” He raised an eyebrow at the use of his surname, which she had stopped using the previous year. Lily rolled her eyes. “It's Head stuff.”

“Clay's not Head Boy,” Peter said, suddenly.

She looked at him. “Yes he is.”

Remus shook his head. “No, he's not.”

Lily's shoulders slumped. Clay Bosworth wasn't Head Boy? But he was the only possible choice out of the seventh-year Prefects to be Head Boy! Fletcher Stebbins was too indecisive, Remus was too nice and Lily would resign her post if she had to work wit—

“Oh god…” she said, feel a little queasy as the train picked up speed. “It's not… It's not Rabastan Lestrange?”

The group erupted in exclamations.

“What?”

“I'd rather die than—”

“It can't be—”

“Rabastan?”

“IT'S NOT LESTRANGE!!” Remus bellowed, securing everyone's attention.

“Is it you?” Lily asked, hopefully.

“No,” Remus said. “It's James.”

Lily thought her heart had stopped for a moment as she stared at James, who looked didn't look unhappy with the appointment but neither did he seem over the moon about it.

“James… Oh,” Lily said, forcing a strained smile onto her face. “That's…” Pretty awful.

He said, bluntly, “You don't have to pretend to be happy about it.”

The smile wilted, but she kept staring at him. James Potter as Head Boy? Why? What was Dumbledore thinking? What in the world made James Potter qualified to be Head Boy when he had spent most of the previous six years in detentions?

“We need to go,” James pointed out to his friends. “The meeting and all…”

Lily watched the four boys shuffle into the next carriage and vaguely heard Eve and Adriana call good-byes to her as they wandered off. Lily found herself sitting back in her compartment a moment later, staring blankly at the opposite seat, a squirmy feeling in her stomach, as though she had eaten a plate full of live worms. A single thought kept swirling through her head as she envisioned the homework, the studying, the exams and the stress she was already going to have to endure in her N.E.W.T year without his stupid jokes and the never ending drivel about Quidditch:

Why Potter?

.:*~* Clio *~*:.

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