Chances- Chapter 2 - Diagon Ally

CHAPTER 2 ~ Diagon Ally1

Lily and Nat, along with everybody else, found it hard to believe that the summer holidays were nearly over already. 2

“This break has gone too quickly, if you ask me,” quipped Nat as she, Lily, and the rest of the Evans’ were sitting down for breakfast, “It seems like we had finished our O.W.L.’s only yesterday and now we’re in our final year at Hogwarts,” Nat mused as two owls swooped into the kitchen. 3

“Yeah, I agree. If I ever have to see Potter’s infuriating mug again it will be too soon,” Lily muttered fractiously in response. 4

Astonished by her surliness, Nat untied her letter from the hansom tawny owl. The letter was from Hogwarts containing the 7th Year booklist. Lily however received a second letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Nat instantly surmised its contents.5

“It’s a letter from Dumbledore with the approval of our petition to remove Filch from the school,” Nat joked.6

Lily tried to agree somewhat to Nat’s hypothesis, but couldn’t. So instead she opened the letter with much apprehension. It turned out that Nat was indeed wrong. Instead, Lilly had been accepted as Head Girl of Hogwarts.7

Lily was speechless. She had expected a surge of happiness and pride to come right out through her but she was barely able to move she was so in shock. 8

“Lily! What’s wrong?” Nat urged, looking somewhat confused. 9

“Wow,” Lily somehow managed to say breathlessly. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered as she continued to stare at the letter. Suddenly breaking out of her trance, she quickly embraced Nat, showing her the badge.10

“This is just such good news darling,” Mrs. Evans said ecstatically, though she then sobered. “However, its only 2 days until you all go back to Hogwarts, I think there’s some shopping to be done.” 11

Lily was slightly irritated by her mother’s unnecessary reminder. She knew full well of this and then turned to Nat.12

“It’ll be easier to apparate there and send our things ahead of us home,” she deducted. 13

“Yeah, good idea,” agreed Nat.14

With that, Nat followed Lily into the lounge along with her mother. 15

“We’ll be back at about 6 or so,” Lily informed her mother, giving her a peck goodbye.16

“See you later, don’t get yourselves into trouble,” Mrs. Evans said fondly.17

“We won’t,” said Lily tiredly, rolling her eyes at her mother’s usual overprotective fashion. 18

Seconds later, Lily and Nat were reacquainted with the familiar surroundings of the Leaky Cauldron. They were tempted to stop for a drink before they started shopping for their supplies, however Lily thought it a better idea to revisit the pub after their errands were consummated. 19

Just as they walked out of the pub, Lily came across something that ruined the entire day completely. James Potter was standing in front of her wearing his usual cocky grin and accompanied by his sidekick, Sirius Black. 20

“Hey there Evans, Nat. How are you lovely ladies on this fine day?”21

“Go drown yourself Potter! I really don’t want to talk to you after that stunt you pulled last week.” Lily seethed.22

“If you think that I am the least bit intimidated by you Evans, then you are sorely mistaken,” retorted James.23

Lily couldn’t help but be marginally suspicious about James’ suddenly defensive behavior. Nat also had the same outlook on how James approached Lily.24

“A little tempestuous of you Cousin, don’t you think?” Nat commented. Lily simply wanted to abscond the situation.25

”Seeing as the two of you have already done your shopping. Nat and I will be off now,” Lily said pointing to the abundant list of books and potions supplies. They must have come quite early, Lily thought. Nat waved goodbye hurriedly. Wanting to obtain all they needed as promptly as possible so as to take Nat into London where they could stay clear of James. Lily was hastily selecting things she needed from the shelf and was picking out double for Nat, which was much appreciated since Nat also wanted to leave early. Though, however, with Sirius. 26

“Well, we’ve just one more shop to visit,” Lily said feeling quite pleased with the progress they had made with fulfilling the list. 27

That was Olivanders to replace Nat’s wand, which was incidentally broken by Sirius when trying to curse Snape’s potions supply so that Potions would be cancelled for that session. Needless to say, it didn’t help Nat and Sirius’ relationship much. Nat insisted that Sirius pay but he claimed that if she hadn’t lent him her wand in the first place then it wouldn’t have broke. The argument lasted for nearly an hour. Lily had to charm her ears so that they would be muffed. That situation was far worse than then the usual encounters she often had with James, him being his best friend’s cousin meant that there were plenty. 28

Once Nat’s wand was replaced, Lily was quick to make the suggestion that they should go into London for the rest of the day so that they could have some time together.29

“Lily, I’m sorry but I’ve promised Sirius I would meet him and James at the Leaky Cauldron after they visited Gringotts,” Nat said with a noticeable pang in her voice. 30

“Oh, Okay. I will see you at Hogwarts then,”31

“Lils, I’m sorry, I know you wanted to show me Muggle London,” Nat looked extremely guilty about the situation.32

“Don’t worry about it,” Lily replied quickly sounding as though she was worrying about it herself.33

The fact was she was worrying about it. Although she tried her best to hide her jealousy, she envied Nat’s relationship with Sirius at its worst phases, though she was adamant that it was simply a protective feeling towards Nat. It wasn’t the case at all and Lily knew that deep down. What was really her issue was the fact Nat even had a relationship when she hadn’t even come close. Not because she couldn’t find anybody to admire her enough, but because she couldn’t find the right person to admire herself. 34

Tentatively, Nat bade an awkward farewell to Lily as she was going back to Sirius’ for the last two nights of the holidays because he hadn’t seen her at all for nearly a week. “See you at 9 ¾ on Tuesday,” Nat called back as she headed off down the road towards the Leaky Cauldron. Lily followed her; she didn’t have a clue why though. It was if her brain had sent her the wrong messages. She didn’t WANT to follow Nat and experience yet another tedious encounter with James Potter but somehow her body moved in that very direction. 35

By the time Lily entered the pub, her nerves nearly got the better of her. She had been ready to exit the place and get the hell out of Diagon Alley but that wasn’t what happened. What happened was James, who made his way towards the bar to order drinks, spotted Lily standing there obviously lost. 36

“Hey Evans, do you need directions?” James asked teasingly. Lily seemed to find this a little intriguing. It was like James was playing a whole new game with her. Demonstrating a supposed resentment towards Lily so that she wouldn’t be so hard to get, that was his plan. That was his game. Well she wasn’t playing it. 37

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at Potter?” Lily asked curiously and resentfully at the same time. “You’ve been rude towards me since we met up this morning. What’s the matter? Want to try a new technique after I rejected your pitiful excuse for an apology letter?”38

“I’m just showing you how you treat me. Don’t like it huh?” James replied. Truth be told, as much as he was hopelessly in love with Lily, he couldn’t stand the way she treated him. Enough was enough. Sirius BETTER be right about this.39

“Well, it’s not working. It’ll never work,” Lily said with a hint of cockiness in her voice. 40

Somehow, it didn’t come out seriously. A sickening feeling leapt from Lily’s stomach all the way up to her head. James had a self-assured glint in his eyes, which was all too familiar. Every time Lily had rejected James, he’s always come back for more. A regularity would be James and Sirius colluding in a corner about James’ next move where Lily was concerned. As their eyes would meet, Lily would see self-assurance and arrogance. He would always so sure that she would succumb, though she never did. Still, he would never give up. ‘Maybe he will this time,’ Lily hoped. How wrong she was but she had no idea how this sequence of events would turn out. 41

Refusing to contemplate what would happen next simply left there and then.42

“I’ve had enough of your bull Potter,” Lily said, “I’m going and I suggest strongly that you don’t even think of following me unless you wish to be cursed into next week.”43

With that, Lily left a very agitated James to get back to getting the drinks.44

Two days later Lily was tapping her foot impatiently, waiting for the head boy to arrive so they could get a few formalities out of the was before they went into the prefects carriage as directed at the bottom of her Head Girl letter. 45

Lily stowed her trunk and owl in the Heads carriage and looked over the letter on the table. Lily mused about who the head boy was likely to be…… It was possible that Remus Lupin could be head boy. However, due to his ‘furry little problem’ it might be a bit difficult for him to be. ‘That’d be why he was partnered with me’ Lily thought as the compartment door opened and…46

“P.. P… Potter? What are you doing in here? This compartment is solely for the head boy and girl. How long did you have to plead to get Remus to hand over his badge?” Lily snapped at James out of pure instinct. She was determined that she was not going to work along side him all year. Dumbledore would not do this to her.47

“Well, Evans, as you said, this compartment is for the head boy and girl. As I am the head boy, I have every right to be here. Here is my letter if you want further confirmation. In all honesty, I think Dumbledore must have lost a bet.” James simple placed his trunk on the luggage rack and looked over the piece of paper Professor McGonagall had left them.48

“Okay, this is strange. Well, I cannot afford anything to go wrong this year. I will need your full co-operation if this is going to be a successful year for either of us. I’m going to need you to keep your shadow under control this year to the absolute best of your ability,” Lily was already stressed about how tough this year was going to be without needing to worry about the Marauders causing too much havoc.49

“Evans, do you really think I’m going to be causing too much trouble this year? Everyone that knows me knows I want to be an Aurora. I take my responsibilities very seriously,” James scalded.50

“Fair enough. Shall we go in and talk to the prefects?” Lily asked.51

The meeting had dragged on for nearly two hours and Lily was growing bored, she. Remus was drawing on his parchment and Leyanne of Ravenclaw was painting her nails.52

“Does anyone else have any questions before we end this meeting?” Lily asked, standing up.53

“Yeah, I do. James, do you have a date for the first Hogsmeade weekend?” Leyanne asked.54

“Any SERIOUS questions?” Lily was growing impatient. When no one answered, James dismissed the prefects. Lily very quickly exited the compartment, not giving James a chance to corner her. Admittedly, he seemed more mature than ever, but he also seemed aggravated by her presence. Gosh, men were confusing. Lily pondered James new behavior all the way to her friend’s compartment. How was she going to put up with him for an ENTIRE year in such close proximity? HELP!55