QUATRE

head boy and girl!

THE NEXT MORNING, Lily decided to set some ground rules. She woke up an hour before normal ( she usually woke up at 8 am but only at 7 am if she wanted to get breakfast early and avoid the crowds ) to talk to ( or, rather, tell ) James Sirius Potter about the rules. 

So, she woke up, made herself some tea and put on her school skirt and button down — leaving the tie and robes for later. Before going to wake up James, she took in her new living space for this year. It was quite beautiful. 

It was decorated with neutral tones which she greatly appreciated and it reminded her of her parent's house. When she first walked in, she saw a small common room area to the right with a big window, couch and matching chairs, coffee table and bookshelves. The couch was pushed underneath the window with a chair on either side at an angle. On each of the walls next to the chairs sat a bookshelf, empty. 

Across from it was a small square table that looked large enough to fit four chairs, although only two were present. Right next to that was a kitchen counter that led into a small kitchen area equipped with a small stove and small oven in the back. The counter wrapped around in a small "L" formation, leading to the oven/stove set up. 

Above the long section of the counter were a couple of cabinets that housed glasses, mugs and plates. In the drawers below the counter she would be able to find utensils and some basic cooking tools like pots and frying pans. 

To the left of the common room/kitchen set up was a small hallway type thing that led to the bathroom door. On each side of the dorm, there was a door, each leading to the head girl or head boy's room respectively. 

Lily quite liked her room. She had a bigger bed than in the Ravenclaw dorms and across from it was a big, wooden dresser that was big enough to hold everything she brought with her. To the right of her bed was a big bookshelf, which upon waking, she immediately housed her books in and to the left was a beautiful mirror propped up on the wall. 

Next to the mirror was a small closet where she could hang up her robes, some blouses, a couple of dresses and a few pairs of trousers. She loved her room; it was cosy and when she opened the windows on the wall next to her bed, it just became magical. 

She should've expected that by now, but the Wizarding World constantly surprised her. Her room faced the west, so she got the beautiful sunsets and golden hours while James's room faced the east which brought the sunrise. After taking all this in, she remembered her mission and knocked ( or, rather, banged ) loudly on James's shut door. 

After the sound of some things falling, one very heavy and human-body sounding, followed by a muffled "fuck", a very disgruntled James Potter opened the door. His hair was messy and he had no shirt on and his sleepy but annoyed face was clearly not happy that he had been awoken at 7:30 am. He leaned against the door with ease, one arm up, the other rested on his hip. He looked hot and Lily was mentally kicking herself for thinking so.

"Good morning, sunshine," James said ( in a raspy voice ) with a smirk. Shit, even his morning voice was hot. She cleared her throat, reminding herself that this was James Potter, the most annoying and arrogant boy on the planet. 

"Morning, Potter, I'm not here to waste time. I'm setting some ground rules for our shared dorm," she said authoritatively while pulling out a sheet of paper, a quill and ink. 

She really didn't understand why they still had to use quills when pens were so much easier. She motioned for them to sit at their small kitchen table. On the other hand, James was freaking out because a) she looked really cute with just her skirt and button down on and b) she had kind of said good morning to him. 

"Ok so, you can't bring girls back here, I don't want to have to hear it or be roped in to cleaning it up," Lily started as she wrote down the first rule. 

"Aw, are you just jealous because it's not you? All you have to do is ask," James smirked and winked.

"In your dreams, moving on. I don't want to see all of your clothes lying around and stinking up the place, so please keep it confined to your room if you must make a mess," Lily said. 

"I do know how to do basic household things, you know, I'm not mental," James retorted.

"I'd be surprised if you knew how to properly clean a mug, let alone clean up your laundry Potter. Ok, next, no one else gets to know the password. No Fred. No Lysander. Maybe Lorcan," Lily said. 

"But-" James protested.

"No. If my door is closed, that means that I don't want to be bothered. That doesn't mean barge in. If you need me, knock," Lily instructed. "And finally that brings us to the bathroom."

"Ah yes, I'm looking forward to getting to know you in there," James said cheekily.

"You disgust me. If you hear the shower running — and I know for a fact that you can hear it — that means no entering. I don't care if you're about to piss your pants. You can use one of the toilets in the halls," Lily snarled. "If the door is closed, same logic as my bedroom, no entering, just knocking. Please keep your bathroom stuff on your sink's side of the counter and in your medicine cabinet. If I find any of it in my area, I will throw it out. If you touch any of my stuff, I will kill you. Please don't leave any clothing in the bathroom. Also there are towel racks for a reason, use them. I don't want to have to pick up after you all the time." 

"Merlin, woman, do you breathe? Anyway, I think we should make a shower schedule, so we don't try to use it at the same time. I'd like it every night after Quidditch practice, so around 8 pm-ish," James suggested.

"That's a good idea, I need it every other morning, so it's perfect that you shower at night," Lily muttered as she wrote it down.

"Lily Edwards agreeing with me, I never thought I'd live to see the day," James teased.

"Haha, very funny," Lily deadpanned. "Also, if you don't mind, not all my books fit in my bedroom, so I was wondering if I could house some of them in the bookshelves of our common room?"

She had brought an enormous amount of books to school, some for classes, but other mostly for fun. 

"Uh, yeah sure, just don't leave them on the floor or anything, I don't want to trip and injure myself. This is going to be a tough quidditch season," he said, propping the side of his head on his hand that was resting on the table surface. 

"I assure you that I won't be leaving any books on such a disgraceful place as the floor," she said as she sent him an annoyed look. "I'm going to keep this on the table, if you think of anything else that needs to be on there, let me know and we can work it out." 

She then got up to go finish getting ready for the day. But, no matter how much she'd deny it to herself. Sitting with James and conversing with him like she was — albeit about boring things — but rather the general feel of it all, felt ( horribly ) comfortable. Perhaps it was the way he carried himself that made you feel immediately welcome — the same way he felt the second time on the train — or perhaps it was due to the fact that she was hungry. 

James, however, hesitated and stayed sitting at the table. He glanced down at the list, looking it over one last time and it read ( in her perfect handwriting, he would like to add ):

He stared at it. This was becoming a reality. He was actually sharing a dorm with her. This is what he'd dreamed about since he first laid eyes on her, but now, it was real. But more importantly, that meant that he was now Head Boy. Which means that he had to do well. Their talk with McGonagall had made him realize that actual people were now counting on him. Which meant he couldn't be late. Shit. He had to get dressed soon. 

Breakfast was mostly uneventful for James Sirius Potter, aside from getting his schedule. He had expressed his interest in professional Quidditch to McGonagall late last year and she had given him approval to take courses that related. 

James was weirdly good at magic — Transfiguration being one of his best subjects — and school felt like a breeze for him. That's why he had so much time to mess around. He looked down at his schedule to see that McGonagall had added in some extra classes for him to take because he supposedly had potential. 

The added courses consisted of Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. Aside from those, he was taking Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy and Divination. He was taking Arithmancy because he wanted to learn about the magical properties of numbers so he could have an advantage at forming plays using them, and Divination so Fred wouldn't be alone as neither of the twins took it, otherwise there would be no way he'd be caught dead in that class.

All of his classes were at N.E.W.T. level which was a shocker at first glance, but if you really knew him, you'd know school work came easily so he should be able to handle such advanced classes. Because he had dropped History of Magic last year, this allowed a free period where he would work on homework and quidditch-related activities with some pranks sprinkled in. 

He also realized that he had to ease off on the pranking or rather be more careful to not get caught. McGonagall had always gone easy on him for a whole array of reasons, but he knew that her patience with him was wearing thin as the years went on. 

After getting his schedule, he helped himself to beans, toast and sausage as he had quidditch tryouts later that day. As Head Boy, he got first choice on the pitch and even though this was his second year as captain, he held tryouts again to give others a chance to improve and make the team better. 

Next to him sat Lysander, who was shoveling pancakes with lemon and sugar into his mouth and grumbled when he dropped some lemon juice on his Slytherin tie which Lorcan, who was sitting across from him, quickly muttered a spell at to make it disappear. 

Next to Lorcan, who was eating jam on toast, sat Fred, who was a little bit flustered as apparently Lorcan had adjusted Fred's tie, causing them to be in very close proximity. James was determined to, first, find out if Lorcan actually liked guys and second, if he did, to get them together this year.

"So James, how was the first night in paradise?" Lysander asked through a full mouth.

"Uneventful, honestly I was nice and everything, but I don't know. But this morning I did spy a Hufflepuff, Sara Hotchkins, is it? Summer did a wonder to her," James said with a grin at the end. This earned a nudge on the side from Lysander and caused Fred to sit back with his arms crossed. 

"Helga, am I the only one who knows how to treat a girl here? I don't even like them!" Lorcan exclaimed, growing red in the face at the information that he had revealed. 

It was too easy. The fates were listening to James as he now had the information that he needed. Fred looked like he was about to faint, Lysander just kept eating, they had clearly already talked about it, and James just smiled at Lorcan. 

"If this is you coming out to us, Lorcan, then thanks for trusting us, mate and if you need any guys to hook up with, I will personally not be one of them, but I do know a couple of people who would be down," James said with a wink.

Everything was falling into place. He looked over at Fred to see if he was still breathing, and was relieved when James saw that he was. James had always suspected Lorcan didn't like girls just based on the fact that every one who asked him out, he turned down. 

At first, James thought that Lorcan was just super picky, then he thought that he had a crush on his Lily, but then he started to catch on when he caught Lorcan staring at a Slytherin boy a year ago. 

"Uh yeah, I've been wanting to tell you guys for a while, but I never really found the right moment and I guess now or never right?" Lorcan said, suddenly fascinated with pushing his food around on his plate with his fork. 

"Yeah," Fred mumbled with a soft smile, he had never directly told the other two that he was Pan, but he had definitely not tried to hide it either. 

He placed his hand on top of Lorcan's in an attempt to comfort him as butterflies erupted from his stomach. Lorcan looked grateful at the sudden contact and his whole body relaxed, as if he had been holding his breath for a while and now he was letting it go. 

"Thank you guys for being so cool about it," Lorcan said as he took a deep breath.

"Why wouldn't we be?" James asked with evident confusion.

"I agree with James, we love you and we honestly don't fucking care who you're attracted to as long as they treat you right. If they don't, we'll beat them up," Lysander said, earning a fist-bump from James who nodded in agreement. "That goes for you too Fred." 

"Hey, what about me Ly? I don't believe you!" James complained, huffing and crossing his arms like a child. 

"Well you're going to end up with Lily Edwards, if everything goes according to plan, and we already know that she's great, so no need there, mate," Lysander shot back with a teasing smile. 

At the mention of her name, James searched the room for her. His eyes finally landed on her and he started smiling because she was laughing ( which was really the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, he'll swear ). He saw that she was sitting with her friends — Estelle the Hufflepuff, Little MacMillan and Charlie Oswold, Ben Thomas and Henry Stints. 

He wondered where Nyah was, as the twins usually stuck together, but a little bit of searching found her flirting with a 6th year Ravenclaw further down the table. He should have caught that considering how many suggestive motions the group was sending her way from Henry waggling his eyebrows to Estelle and Lily dramatically re-enacting it. 

The entire group was in a fit of giggles and he desperately wanted to go over but he knew two things: 1) Lorcan had just come out to them and leaving right now might send the wrong message considering how shy he can be and 2) he knew he would not be well received by the group as shown in years past. 

So, James stayed with his friends, laughing if Lysander said something stupid, quietly observing Fred and Lorcan and the hands that touched. About ten minutes after he elected to stay, James felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked up from his almost finished meal to catch Lily Edwards quickly looking away as one of her friends teasingly nudged her in the side.

He wondered why Lily would possibly be looking at him. Could his plan actually be working? Was she actually falling in love with him or had he just caught an odd moment?

How Lily ended up staring at James Sirius Potter while he laughed with his friends was beside her. It must have been some subconscious brain malfunction because she really had no reason to be looking at him. 

Objectively, yes he had a god-like body and was completely gorgeous, how could he not? He was a Potter and a Weasley, BUT as a firm believer that personality can affect the way you look, Lily thought he was ugly. And she had good reason for it. He very much took after the unevolved personas of first James Potter and Sirius Black. 

Every year, every other week, in fact, since he stepped foot in the Great Hall, James Sirius Potter and his band of misfits pranked the school. The pranks were no longer targeted towards a singular house, as they had one of every house except Ravenclaw in their group, but James would never prank his dear Lily Edwards's common room. So, that meant that they had to step it up a notch. This included ( somehow ) gluing every piece of furniture in the Potions room to the ceiling, blowing up an entire wing of the school and convincing younger students to drink Polyjuice potion so they would create body doubles or even triples to confuse the professors. 

Lily could remember a time when the entire Great Hall was a vibrant pink, the same color that flushed each of the boy's faces when they were doubling over with laughter. So why the hell was she staring at him? She must have been having an aneurysm because there could be no rational reason for her to be. But what was even worse is that he caught her and Estelle noticed. This would cause years of teasing from her and from everyone else if she shared Lily's slip up because of Lily's known hatred for him. 

"If I knew any better, I might say that you were interested in him," Estelle whispered as she leaned in to Lily.

Lily could practically hear the grin in her voice and scoffed.

"Like I would ever consider James Sirius Potter in the romantic sense! No, I was zoning out and I happened to be looking in his direction. That's it. End of story," Lily retorted.

"Whatever you say," Estelle sang followed by a wide grin. 

"I'm not kidding Stell, I don't like him and I never will like him," Lily declared firmly. 

"Sorry, but you have to admit that he is cute ... objectively," Estelle said.

"If I didn't know what his god-awful personality was like, then yes, he is cute. But as you know I'm a firm believer-" Lily said haughtily. 

"-That personality can also determine looks. Yes we know. I'm just teasing. Hey, what do you have first today?" Estelle asked, snatching Lily's schedule to see if they shared any classes.

Lily took Astronomy, Arithmany, History of Magic, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts and Herbology. All at N.E.W.T. level. She was a wonder. But what really happened was that she was a muggleborn who loved learning and when introduced to an entirely new world she wanted to learn everything there was to learn about it. Simple. Not really, but that was the only explanation she could give. 

"Hey! We have Herbology, History of Magic and Charms together!" Estelle said with a grin. They always liked to sit together as they studied well together. 

"Henry, Ben, Charlie, what do you guys have. Sorry Rubes," Estelle grimaced, offering Ruby a comforting smile. 

She was in the year below, so she never had classes with any of them. Ruby waved it off, even if she wasn't particularly close with the people in her year, she didn't mind some of them and sometimes found herself in happy conversations with them.

"I think I have Herbology with you guys, but that's it. Lily, it seems like we have potions together, let's hope we can choose our partners," Charlie said after taking both girl's schedules and comparing them with his own. 

As a part of a new initiative to promote house unity ( which Lily thought was a little overkill, but never said anything ) they no longer had classes with their houses, rather, it was randomly assigned like muggle schools. As much as she adored and respected the woman, Lily felt McGonagall had over-compensated. But, who was she to judge? That was how she met Estelle. And Lily wouldn't give Estelle up for the world. 

With the exception of Ruby and Henry, the program was how she had met all of her friends. As schedules were passed around, Lily discovered that in addition to Herbology, History of Magic and Charms with Estelle and Herbology and Potions with Charlie, she also had Transfiguration with Ben, History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts with Henry and Defense Against the Dark Arts with Nyah. For the rest of her classes, Astronomy and Arithmancy, she was alone. That means that she had at least one friend to sit with during most classes, and for the classes that she didn't, she would be the good Head Girl that she was and sit with someone new. 

"Speaking of, we should start to head to class," Lily said as she started to pack up her things. "I'm going to go ahead of you and say hi to Lunes, I haven't seen her since the train ride." 

"That's sweet, we'll see you in class!" Estelle beamed, waiting for Charlie and Ruby so they could drop her off at Charms on their way to Herbology. Lily headed over to the Gryffindor table in search of the small red-head and instead ran head first into someone.

"I'm so sorry, I should've looked where I was going!" she said stepping back, dusting herself off and offering a smile. "Oh, hi Fred! How's the start of your year going?" 

"It's good! I got into the classes I wanted, how about you?" Fred replied cordially. 

"It's going great! Where are you headed?" she asked, picking up a book that he had dropped. She looked at the cover and saw the title. 

"Oh, Herbology! Me too. I'm going with Charlie and Estelle. Well, I'll see you there!" she said as she turned to leave. "Oh one more thing, by any chance have you seen your cousin?" 

"James?" Fred asked hopefully.

"No, Lily Luna. I've been meaning to say hi to her," Lily replied. 

"Oh, I think I saw her head out with her friends. Hey, by the way, from the family I mean, thanks for looking out for her last year. I know it was a hard year for her," Fred said with a smile. 

"Oh! Yeah anytime! She's a lovely person and I love spending time with her!" Lily admitted. 

"Yeah, she does too! She wouldn't stop talking about you over break! I think she views you as an older sister, which is good for her considering her family is mostly male!" Fred joked. 

"Walk to Herbology with me? If she's left with her friends, I don't want to interrupt her," Lily asked. 

"Yeah, awesome! I just have to wait for the boys, if that's alright," Fred replied with bright eyes.

"Oh ..." Lily muttered awkwardly.

"Right, sorry, James," Fred cringed. 

"What about me?" James asked, popping out of nowhere.

"You're a right git, that's what," Lorcan responded with a roll of his eyes. "Hey, Lily! How was your summer?" 

"It was great, thanks Lorcan! Well I better to go, I don't want to be late. It was lovely talking to you Fred!" Lily said with a small smile, turning to go. 

"Wait! Maybe, we could all walk together?" James asked as he reached out and grabbed her hand. "I have some questions I need to ask you and I swear on Astaire that I won't ask you out."

James Sirius Potter's cat was probably one of the cutest things Lily had ever seen. She was grey with white fur that covered her feet and belly. With the coloration, she looked like an old dancer so Lily Luna suggested calling her Astaire after Fred Astaire because of the resemblance and it stuck. 

The cat lived with Lily and James ( with her permission of course ) but she had stayed in James's room the previous night, so Lily had only gotten glimpses that morning. 

"Um .... sure. Why not, but we better get a move on, we don't want to be late on our first day," Lily conceded as she pressed her lips together in a thin line.

The group started walking towards the greenhouses. Lorcan and Fred walked in the back, talking about a new plant that Lorcan's mother had brought into the house. Lysander walked in front of them, but eventually ran off when he saw a member of the Slytherin quidditch team to ask about their chances. So, that left Lily and James walking in the front, together. 

"So, I was really wondering — will the firsties always be this scared of me? They love you, but they won't say anything to me? Is it because of my reputation? I want them to like me! They're so small, but they're fucking terrified of me! What can I do?" James asked, legitimately freaking out. 

He'd tried to say hi to a couple of them that morning, but they looked terrified and fast walked away. Lily felt a flutter in her stomach. She laughed a little. She paid no mind to the singular butterfly.

"Slow down! They will like you! You just have to be kind with them, talk about things that they like. And you're you, I'm sure they'll come around! Every first year loves you, they always have. It's just your big and popular and a Potter and Head Boy and the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. It's a lot when you're new, especially if you're a muggleborn," she said with a laugh, cocking her head to the side and offering a small smile. 

She'd be nice to him, she decided. He was acting moderately cute and he was actually concerned about a big part of his role. Plus, it was endearing and she couldn't help but smile. 

"I remember meeting Teddy Lupin on my first night. I'd gotten lost talking to the paintings and so I didn't know the way to my common room. I guess he was doing his rounds as Head Boy and he found me. He led me back and on the way there he was so kind. That was the moment that I felt like I belonged. He answered all of my questions and he would check up on me from time to time that whole year. That was when I also knew that I wanted to become Head Girl, because if I could do that for someone, then ... I don't know. I also got to know your cousin, Victoire, quite well that year and the year after. We mostly talked about how we were both French and English. And she's also a total bad-arse and really sweet," Lily recounted nostalgically.

 She wouldn't stop smiling while remembering it. James was entranced. She was beautiful. 

"Well you've done that with Lil. And thank you for that by the way. I sometimes get caught up with the boys ... with myself ... that I don't really notice her or Al sometimes. I do try, I want to be a good older brother to both of them. But I don't know, I have all this stuff going on and sometimes it's hard. So thank you, for you know. Also yeah, Vic is awesome and she mentioned getting to know you, but I really think she was bragging to me," James joked. 

"Of course. I would do anything for your family," Lily muttered. 

"Really?" James asked. 

Lily nodded. Albus and Lily Luna were two of the best people that she knew and if they turned out so well, then their parents had to be wonderful. And these quieter moments with James were serendipitous. Though she'd never admit it. 

They'd arrived at the greenhouses too soon. Lily disappeared inside in search of Estelle and Charlie, leaving James by the door. He had a soft smile on his face as he walked away to the library for one of his free periods. She just kept getting better. 

Because that's the best part about getting to know someone, is that they can become even more wonderful than you originally thought. 

Fred and Lorcan, who were behind them the whole time, while spending time together also noticed the way that Lily and James looked. Together. They were both really attractive, no denying it. But they also looked really happy and at ease — Lily a little bit less so — but they thought that the remaining tension would ease out as she got to know him. They weren't perfect, no couple is, but they looked like the people that would try for each other and that's really the best you can do.