Letters From A Stranger || James and Lily ||

To Witches and Wizards

"But it's not just mine to say." Marlene said after pondering for a few moments, "I- I don't think he'd want me to say."

Lily listened intently, observing Marlene as her best friend gulped, looking more uncomfortable and at conflict with herself than Lily had ever seen her. She immediately felt bad for prying so much about this particular topic.

"I don't like keeping secrets from you either." Marlene continued, "Trust me when I say it makes me feel bad that I can't tell you. But just this once, I need you to give up questioning about this. It's not important anyway. It's a closed chapter."

Lily had always prided in being able to understand Marlene the most but at the moment, she could barely understand the anguish and sadness that lingered in her best friend's words.

Lily was curious, of course, but she valued Marlene more than any unimportant secret. This was her best friend, the one person who had always been by her side ever since they met six years ago. If Marlene didn't want her to pry, she wasn't going to. What kind of best friend would she be if she couldn't do this much?

Lily was pulled out of her thoughts as someone tapped her arm. She looked away from the window to see a smirking Mary McDonald pointing at a confused James Potter who stood at the doorway.

"We have Prefects' meeting in five minutes." James reminded her and Lily stood up immediately, following James out of the compartment and subtly flipping off a still smirking Mary.

She quickly caught up with James's long strides, chastising herself for forgetting about the meeting. She couldn't make a bad impression by being late to her first meeting as head girl.

"I'm nervous." Lily admitted as she stood with James outside the Prefects compartment.

"Honestly, me too." James agreed and Lily was instantly relieved at the thought of not being alone. Later she felt stupid for feeling nervous when she had been to countless prefects meeting while James had been to none.

She saw James's hands shake slightly as he opened the door and walked into the mostly empty compartment. A few of the prefects were already present, including Remus and Emmeline who took Lily's place as the seventh year prefect.

Both Lily and James waited nervously as the remaining prefects filled in and soon it was time to begin the meeting. She did not miss the shocked faces of many of the prefects, including Snape, at the sight of seeing James with her.

Once all of them had settled in, James cleared his throat, facing the crowd.

"I guess most of you would know me." he began, "But I'll introduce myself anyway. I'm James Potter and I will be the Hogwarts head boy this year."

Whispers rose from the crowd of prefects, most of them blatantly expressing their shock and to an extent disappointment, at James being selected as head boy. From the corner of her sight, Lily could see James's confidence falter seeing the confusion among the prefects.

She discreetly moved closer to James, taking his hand in hers. At the point, she could care less about what people would think about her actions, much less expect anyone to be scrutinizing what she was doing. James relaxed almost immediately at her touch.

"And I'm Lily Evans." she spoke, her nerves dissipating when she felt James squeeze her hand in reassurance, "I'll be your head girl for the year. Emmeline Vance will be replacing me as the seventh year prefect for Gryffindor. I hope we can all get along well and work for the school."

Rest of the meeting went by smoothly and Lily marvelled at how quickly James had taken up the role of guiding the prefects. She realized that she wasn't one bit wrong about him being a natural leader. She could feel the sense of pride as she watched him bustle around the room, handing out schedules to the prefects.