Chats, Cats, and Chivalry
The beautiful late August weather had continued into September, making for a crisp morning at platform 9 ¾. Lily took a deep breath of the fresh air as she sat on her trunk just outside the platform, waving to friends as they crashed through the barrier, every so often noticing some confused looking first year, and helping them through the wall. This was one aspect of head duties that Lily had never considered before, despite always seeing a head student waiting at the platform. She peered down at Ivy, who was snoring softly as she slept, one ear folded against the mesh face of her carrier. With a few minutes to spare, Lily did one final scan before entering through the platform herself. Moving through the crowds of parents waving a final goodbye to their children, younger siblings running around the platform, trying to sneak onto the train, Lily found her friends. Mary came rushing up to embrace her. Lily, dropping her things, squeezed her tightly, laughing as Marlene and Dorcas joined the hug.
“Hey Evans!” James smiled brightly as he picked up Lily’s bag from where she’d unceremoniously dropped it. Lily extracted herself from the embrace to hug James and Remus
“Nice of you to join us, Evans” Sirius teased, as Lily hugged him. Once she’d let go, He helped James grab her trunk to lift it onto the train. As their group filed through the train, looking for the compartment Peter had rushed in early to reserve, they chatted idly about the upcoming school year. Marlene was loudly discussing how tiny the first years were, describing one particular encounter with boisterous enthusiasm and wild gestures that appeared to frighten several of the first years. Lily smiled reassuringly at them, and out of the corner of her eye she could see James wink at them. Sirius snickered, stage whispering something to Remus about their ‘illustrious head students’. As they found their compartment, there was another round of greetings as Peter joined the fray. Eventually, they found their seats, sprawled throughout the compartment. Lily found herself on the floor, with Marlene’s owl on one side, and James on the other. He turned to her.
“I guess we have to lead the meeting, hey?” She pulled a face.
“Yeah, I guess we do. I don't really fancy having to deal with Rosier and Bradley this early in the term.” she sighed. “I can already imagine what they’ll have to say about two Gryffindor heads, especially with one of them being me, a lowly mudblood.” she said, rolling her eyes. James’ expression darkened.
“Wankers.” He looked down at Ivy, who had curled up to sleep on Lily’s lap. “At least now I can officially do something about them.” Lily placed a gentle hand on his knee.
“You know, I’m getting the feeling that your idea of ‘officially doing something about it’ is a lot different than my idea of ‘officially doing something about it’.” she chuckled, and James’ demeanor relaxed. He widened his eyes with the pretence of innocence.
“You wound me, Head Girl,” he gasped, placing a hand to his chest. “I have never done anything wrong in my life!” Lily nodded skeptically at him, fighting to keep a straight face.
“Mhm hm. Nothing wrong ever. All those detentions… completely unjustified.” James nodded emphatically.
“Truly shameful miscarriages of justice.” he agreed, a grin brightening his features. Ivy appeared to agree with him, rolling onto her back with an insistent meow. Lily giggled, and obliged, rubbing her fluffy orange tummy.
“So demanding!” Lily murmured as Ivy purred happily.
“Who’s this pretty lady?” James asked, chuckling as Ivy batted at a lock of Lily’s hair that had fallen over her shoulder.
“I got her as a present for being Head Girl. Her name is Ivy,” Lily explained, scooping Ivy into her arms so James could see her little face.
“Ivy, huh?”James said, gently scratching between Ivy’s eyes. “Keeping up with the flower theme?” Lily nodded.
“My mum named her. I guess she thought Ivy and Lily went well together.”
“Ivy and Lily,” James nodded, “Two beautiful names for two beautiful girls.” Lily felt her face heat up, and bent over to kiss Ivy between the ears to hide her flushed cheeks.
“Seems like she really likes you,” Lily observed, hoping her face wasn’t red. “She usually takes longer to get comfortable with people.” James grinned as Ivy squirmed out of Lily’s arms to curl up in James’ lap.
“I don’t blame her,” he chuckled, “I am extremely lovable.” Lily opened her mouth to retort, when Marlene nudged (kicked) her with her foot.
“Oi, lovebirds. Stop flirting and play exploding snap with us.” Lily made a face at Marlene, who seemed proud of herself, but stood up to join the others.
“We have to go do the prefect meeting soon, but there's probably time for a couple rounds before we’re late.”
“You can't be late, Evans, you’re running it. It starts when you say it does.” Sirius yawned, sprawled out on the bench with his head on Remus’ lap, taking up about three seats. Lily hummed skeptically.
“Somehow I doubt Professor McGonagall would see it that way.” Dorcas said, as she dealt out the cards.
“Ah, Minnie wont mind, she loves me!” James piped up from the floor, and Lily had to agree with him.
“I guess someone has to,” Remus teased, reaching over Sirius to play his hand. James feigned an affronted sigh.
“Hear that Ivy? They all hate me.” He booped the cat’s nose with his pointer finger. “At least I have you.”
___________________________________
A few rounds of exploding snap, and several attempts to feed Sirius some of Bertie Bott’s more disgusting creations, it was time for the prefect meeting. Remus extracted himself from Sirius, Jily, with James’ help wrangled Ivy back into her carrier, and the three of them made their way over to the prefect’s compartment. As they walked, Lily and Remus caught James up to speed on general prefect’s duties, as well as some of the more unorthodox duties.
“What’s the number one thing that we want to avoid at this meeting?” Lily asked, and Remus smirked, imitating an epic duel.
“Now Prongs, think long and hard about this one.” James rolled his eyes.
“Not hexing/cursing/jinxing Rosier.” Lily nodded, waggling a teasing finger at him.
“/charming/spelling/magicking anybody.” Remus chuckled, clapping his friend on the back.
“Just pretend they’re your quidditch team. It'll be great.” he assured him as they arrived at the compartment. Most of the prefects were there already, save for a few older ones. As Lily looked around, greeting familiar faces, and ignoring several piercing glares coming from the Slytherin corner. The last few prefects trickled in, and Lily met James’ glance. He nodded, and she stepped forward.
“Alright, you lot! Let's get started.” The muffled chatter stopped, as everyone turned to look at her. “My name is Lily Evans, most of you already know me,” she said, “And this is,” she gestured towards James who stepped forward.
“James Potter.”
“And we are your head students for this year. We’re here to support you, so if you have any questions about patrols, discipline, or even just need someone to talk to, please don't hesitate to come to us.” She turned to James.
“We’ve written up basic patrol schedules for this first week, but we’ll be moving stuff around as the week goes on, so please let us know if something isn't working for you.” The rest of the meeting went smoothly, until the end, after the schedules had been distributed and the prefects were filling out. Lily, James and Remus had held back in case anybody had any questions.
“ – s’typical of Dumbledore, my Ma says,” Hannah Bradley was stage whispering to a group of Slytherins, just outside the compartment. “Two Gryffindor heads..”
“A blood traitor and a mudblood,” Rosier sneered. “I honestly can’t believe the board isn't doing something about it.” Lily clenched her jaw, staring at the floor. James stomped towards the door, one hand on his wand, but was stopped by Remus.
“Let – me— go!” he grunted, trying to wrestle Remus’ arms off of him. Lily laid a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not worth it, James.” she sighed. “Pick your battles.” James stilled, and after a moment, Remus let him go.
“You honestly can’t just expect me to let him insult you –insult us– like that, can you?” Lily shook her head, realizing her hand was still on James’ arm, and removed it.,
“No, but you can’t just go around hexing people. We’ll go to McGonagall.” James hung his head.
“I still don’t like it.” He grumbled. Remus chuckled, clapping James on the back.
“You wouldn't be Head Boy if you did.” He smiled wryly. Lily nodded. She had to agree, James, always the Gryffindor, had a very strong sense of justice. Unfortunately for bullies – especially blood supremacists – and occasionally for himself, he was often in the habit of imparting that justice himself, with heavy use of his wand. Still, Lily found herself secretly glad he had tried to stand up for her. Although aggravating at times, it was comforting to see someone like him, who came from a long line of pure-bloods defending people like her, who had come from a world without magic. She often thought about how much easier it would be for him to stay silent. He could stay out of this conflict, this inevitable war that was lurking on the horizon. But he didn't. He adamantly fought against people who sought to harm people like her. Even at the cost of his own safety, at times. She didn’t need him to protect her, but sometimes it felt good that he wanted to. That there were people like him out there. That maybe, just maybe, the world wasn’t completely going to shit after all.