Lily :

Lily Evans waved goodbye to her parents one last time before stepping through the barrier onto Platform 9 3/4. Head Girl badge in hand, she made her way through the crowd of families and luggage until she found the compartment that she usually shared with her best friends, Alice Prewett, Marlene McKinnon, and sometimes Mary MacDonald, although Mary was usually off with with her longtime boyfriend, Hufflepuff Amos Diggory, who none of the other girls liked.

Alice and Marlene were already in the compartment when Lily got there, and they helped Lily load her luggage before she left for the prefects' compartment.

"Good luck, Lils!" Marlene called.

As she wandered down the train, Lily wondered who the Head Boy would be. She hoped for Remus Lupin, her fellow bookish Gryffindor, or Frank Longbottom, also a Gryffindor and Alice's crush since the beginning of sixth year, who was shy and clumsy but very responsible.

But when she pulled the compartment door open, the boy standing there was not Remus or Frank, but a tall, dark-haired boy with glasses and hazel eyes winking behind them. James Potter.

"Um, wrong compartment." Lily said, attempting to close the doors. Potter stopped her.

"Nope."  He held out his Head Boy badge. Lily's head spun. *No. This can't be happening. Not Potter. Anyone but Potter.*

"Look, Evans." He said. "I'm over you. No more of that... stuff. Can we maybe be friends, since we're going to have to spend so much time together?"

"Six years, Potter." Her voice shook. "Six years of you following me around, asking me out, and basically being the biggest creep on the planet- and I say that after having known Severus Snape since I was nine- and you just want to be FRIENDS?" Her voice rose to a scream on the last word. "But I suppose I don't really have a choice, do I? I'm going to be stuck with you either way, so I suppose it's better for it to not be awkward. But you're going to have to promise me something, Potter." She warned.

"Anything, milady." Potter joked. Lily giggled. *What?* she thought, confused.  *James Potter does not make me giggle. That did not just happen. Nope.*

"No asking me out." She said firmly. "Not a single time this year, Potter."

"That won't be a problem." He promised. "Like I said, I'm over you"

"Okay." Lily said. "Well, good." They stood there in awkward silence for a moment, until James broke it with a smirk.

"You do know that Remus is totally in love with your girl Mary, right?"

"NO." Lily gasped. "She liked him for ages, but she thought that he'd never like her back, so she went out with Diggory."

"That explains that." Potter said. "Who would ever want to go out with Diggory, anyway? Pompous prat." He muttered.

"What if we-" Lily started.

"Broke MacDonald and Diggory up and got her together with Moony?"

*How did he-?* "Did one of your prank-spells-gone-wrong give you the ability to read minds?" Lily asked. It seemed plausible.

"I wish." Potter replied. "But great minds think alike, Evans."

"Lily."

"What?" The confused look on his face was adorable. Then Lily mentally kicked herself for thinking something James Potter did was adorable.

"My name is Lily. If we're going to be friends, then you might as well use it."

"Oh." He said, visibly flustered. "Well, then, you better not be calling me 'Potter', either." He retorted, smirk returning.

"Alright, James."

"Alright, Lily."

It appeared that neither of them knew what to do after that- Lily's head was certainly spinning with questions- *Why did I tell him to use my first name? Why is he Head Boy and not Remus? Has Dumbledore gone mad? Is he really over me? Why do I want to know that?, and so they just stood there quietly until the prefects entered. 

The first two in were Remus and a fifth year girl who Lily recognized as Julie Finnegan. Remus gave Lily a thumbs up and James an exaggerated shocked face that Lily decided not to dwell on. The Hufflepuff prefects were the same as last year, Amos Diggory and sixth year Minnie Abbott. Lily didn't recognize either of the Ravenclaw prefects, both were fifth years, and last came the Slytherins.

Lily knew Severus would be there, he'd been a prefect the last two years, after all, but that didn't make him any easier to look at, although his shocked face when he saw her standing next to Potter-no-*James*, she reminded herself, was satisfying enough

After they finished giving out assignments, the Head Boy and girl walked back down the quieting hallway toward their respective compartments. "Hey." James said suddenly, turning to her. "Do you want to go get your girls and sit in our compartment? We can work on our Maremus idea."

"Are we sure about that name?" Lily asked. *Oh. My. God. I'm joking with James Potter. What is happening?*

"Maybe not. Sirius'll have some ideas." James replied. "But, compartment?"

"We'll come over in a while, maybe when the prefects get back." She said.

"See you later, Lily."

"See you, James." She said as he disappeared into his compartment.

Lily's head spun as she made her way over to her own compartment. *This is probably a terrible idea,* She thought, *but I'm going to believe him. He may or may not be over me, but I guess I can give this friendship thing a try. And I can always just kick him in the balls if he breaks his promise.* The thought was satisfying, to say the least.

"So, girls, how would you like to spend the rest of the train ride with a certain group of Marauders?" Lily said, smirking at her friends.

'WHAT?!!!" Mary, Marlene, and Alice exclaimed. 

"Who are you, and what have you done with Lily Evans?" Mary asked.

"Well, guess who's Head Boy?" Lily asked by way of answering.

"Lupin, right?" Marlene guessed. "If it's not Lupin, then life makes literally no sense."

"Actually, it was James Potter."

"WHAT?!!!" Lily's friends chorused again.

"No bloody freaking way." Marlene whispered. "I think Dumbledore's a matchmaker."

"Mar!" Lily exclaimed, taking one of Alice's chocolate frogs and throwing it at her friend. "It's not like that. We're just going to be friends so the Head Boy-Head Girl thing isn't so awkward. He said he's over me, anyway."

"And yet he invited you to sit in his compartment." Alice pointed out in her annoyingly sensible way.

"Al, he invited all of us, not just me."

"Because he's trying to make it *seem* like he doesn't like you anymore" Alice said.

*Could she be right?* Lily thought. She shook her head, not knowing where that thought came from. "ANYway, do you guys want to get ready, or are we just going as-is?"

"We're going NOW?!" Marlene asked. "Mary, hand me your makeup bag, Al, braid Lily's hair, Lily, sit still, for Merlin's sake."

"Mar, I told him we'd be over in an hour. Calm down, we have time."

"Thank Merlin for that. Still, I refuse to go to any compartment with Sirius Black looking any less than my best." 

Everything stopped. Alice dropped her brush. *Did I just hear that?* Lily wondered. They all stared at Marlene for a minute before Mary yelled, "SIRIUS BLACK?! MARLENE MCKINNON FANCIES SIRIUS BLACK?! What is happening to the universe? First Lil-flower here is Head with James Potter, and now Mar likes Sirius Black?"

All four of them broke down in giggles. "You didn't have to say it so loud." Marlene complained. "I bet he heard you."

"Mar, their compartment is on the other end of the train. Speaking of which, are we going to finish getting ready, or are we going over to the boys' with my hair half braided and Mary's mascara like that?" Mary, who had been laughing so hard at Marlene that she was crying, had rivers of black trailing down her face.

"Merlin's pants, give me a napkin or something." Marlene grumbled.

An hour later, the four girls made their way to the Marauders' cabin. When Lily opened the door, Peter was asleep, Remus was reading, and James and Sirius were trying to catch an escaped Chocolate Frog.

"Ah, welcome, ladies." Sirius said, bowing exaggeratedly when he noticed them. "Miss McKinnon, you shall sit with me, Miss Macdonald is with Mister I'm-Too-good-for-you-all-bookman, and Miss Prewett is with the King of Naptime. Which, of course leaves our Head Boy and Girl together, if they don't mind." He winked suggestively.

"Black, if you don't shut up, I'm going to shove that Chocolate Frog somewhere you really won't like." Lily warned.

"Ah, but Prongs here told me that you all are on first-name terms here, so it's Sirius to you, missy."

"Sirius. Shut it." Lily said, as Marlene mouthed *first name?* at her.

"Fine, fine." He replied grumpily.

The rest of the train ride passed mostly uneventfully, although with a few highlights like when Sirius was seeing how many licorice wands he could stick up Peter's nose and then Pettigrew sneezed them all over him- in his sleep. In Lily's opinion, Sirius had definitely deserved that.

When they reached the castle, Lily paused to hear Hagrid yelling to the first years, and she caught Alice crying. "Last time we'll hear that." Lily's friend said. Lily tried not to dwell on that as she squeezed into a carriage between Marlene and James.

First chapter finished! (All characters + story belong to JKR)