Proving Me Wrong

PROVING ME WRONG

CHAPTER 2

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

"Potter," replied Lily gruffly, half-pleased to see him as a distraction from the pain. "What are you doing here?"

With a quick glance back at his friends, James smirked and said, "I'm Head Boy...naturally."

Lily scowled as she noticed the badge on his chest, and the boys behind him doubled up with laughter at her displeasure. She wouldn't have believed it possible that someone could be so arrogant and bigheaded. James Potter reminded her that it was very possible.

Lily muttered, "What was the Headmaster drinking when he made that decision? One of your concoctions probably..."

James sneered and retorted, "What was the hairdresser drinking when she cut that mop on your head? Oh wait, we can't blame her, it's not her fault your parents made a horrible mistake..."

'Ouch,' Lily thought, 'that hurt.' Her emerald eyes almost gave her away but a second later they were flashing with pure hatred. 'Get out,' she told herself, 'before you do something you'll regret.'

She stood up and faced James, who was at least a head taller than she was.

"Let's get one thing straight, Potter," she spat his name like it was an insult, "You don't like me and I most definitely do not like you, but I worked really hard to get this badge and I won't have you messing it up for me. So make fun of me now, but in front of the younger students and teachers, at least pretend to be civil..."

She walked towards the door and slid it open, and she turned around and cocked an eyebrow, "Or is that too much to ask of his highness?"

She gave a mock bow and before James could respond, she slammed the door shut and preceded to the next carriage to check on the prefects.

"Who the hell does she think she is? The bloody Queen of Sheba?" James exclaimed to his friends who were already raiding the cupboards, which were filled with Butterbeer and Honeydukes chocolate.

James was still standing staring at the closed door until the voice of his best friend regained his attention.

"Zumwon neez pollda stick outer arse," replied Sirius Black with his mouth full of sticky toffee. He was lying across one of the seats with his head dangling over the edge so he was looking at everyone upside-down.

"Too right," said Peter Pettigrew, his brow furrowed in deep concentration as he tried to open a bottle of butterbeer with no success.

"Give it here," Remus Lupin said to Peter, who gave him the bottle, which Remus opened with apparent ease and passed back. He then returned to the desk in front of him where over one hundred of his chocolate frog cards were laid out.

"Prongs," Sirius began finally managing to swallow the toffee, "Do you realise you're going to be living in the same tower as Evans? Evans? For the whole year?"

"Not if I can help it," replied James with grim expression. Then his face broke into a grin.

At this, Sirius' eyes widened with interest and he shot upright from his upside-down position but immediately felt very light-headed.

"Prongs, this is like that time when we all snuck out and stole firewhiskey from the Three Broomsticks. Do you remember that, eh?" he asked, staggering towards James.

Remus sniggered as Sirius tripped over his own feet and lay sprawled out on the floor. James bent down and picked him up by the scruff of the neck. Sirius righted himself and said, "What are you laughing at, Moony? If my memory serves me correctly, it was you who was singing and dancing outside Dervish and Bangs and woke up the owners, am I mistaken?"

At this, James, Sirius, and Peter burst out laughing. Sirius was leaning onto James for support so he wouldn't end up on the floor again, Peter was spraying the compartment with Butterbeer and Remus was sinking lower and lower into his seat, smiling with embarrassment.

James stopped laughing long enough to ask, "Wha- what song was it again, Moony?"

Remus' face went red at this and he sank even lower in his chair until all James could see above the desk was a ruby forehead. The he mumbled, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

This earned a fresh roar of loud laughter, and James immediately burst into song.

"A weem ba wah a weem bah wah A weem ba wah A weem ba wah..."

He was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet and waving his hands as if conducting an invisible orchestra.

Sirius came in with the chorus while clicking his fingers enthusiastically and swaying from side to side, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight,

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.

"A weem ba wah a weem bah wah A weem ba wah A weem ba wah...

"Near the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight,

"Near the village, the quiet village, the lion sleeps tonight.

"A weem ba wah a weem bah wah A weem ba wah A weem ba wah..."

"Come on, Moony," Sirius called, " I don't know the rest of the words!"

Sirius jumped up onto the brown leather seat, which James was already on, and joined in with him.

To his friends' surprise, Remus suddenly pushed himself out of his seat and started doing some sort of crazy monkey dance, much to the amusement of his James, Sirius, and Peter. Then he began to sing:

"Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling, the lion sleeps tonight,

"Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling, the lion sleeps tonight."

Taking deep breaths, James and Sirius jumped off the seat and landed on the floor with a bang and continued crooning.

"A weeeeeem, weeeeeiiieeee a weeum-um a way, A weeeeeem, weeeeeiiieeee a weeum-um a way..."

Their singing soon died down and the three of them, out of breath, collapsed onto the nearest seat, on top of Peter.

"Padfoot," came the small boy's muffled voice, "Would you mind getting your arse out of my face?"

The three others jumped up and pulled him off the sofa.

"Sorry, mate," said James with a grin as Peter brushed himself off.

Remus started clearing away his chocolate frog cards while James cast Aridio over the compartment, drying up the butterbeer.

"Prongs? Yeah, what were you saying about Evans?" asked Sirius, who was rummaging through all his pockets, looking for something. Then out of his back trouser pocket, he extracted a silver key for some sort of vehicle, and sighed in relief.

"Oh yeah, her," James answered his question, his smile disappearing, "I found an itching curse in one of the books at home. I forgot to tell you."

"Yeah, so what? You're going to put it on Evans and force her out of your tower?"

"That's the plan, Padfoot old friend."

"Great stuff. When are we going to execute this plan? In public I hope..."

"No, I'll put the curse on her as soon as we're in the tower. It's a good quality jinx, mind you, just wait and see. By breakfast time tomorrow she'll be begging me to take it off..."

"Come on back to our seats, we need to get our robes on," said Remus, who left the compartment followed by Sirius, James, and Peter.

***

Lily strode into the Prefects' compartment, quite confident after having the last word with James Potter, and therefore wasn't that nervous about giving out orders.

She immediately spotted Bellatrix Black in the corner, giving her a look of deep disgust, which Lily was only too pleased to return.

"Right," she began, "welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a good summer." She gave the boys and girls around her a small smile.

"The first prefect meeting will be Sunday evening, eight o' clock sharp, in the meeting room on the second floor. I just need your suggestions for the dormitory passwords to give to Dumbledore, do you have them ready?"

Four pieces of paper were passed up to her, which read:

Shooting Star.

'Gryffindor,' she thought, 'God, there are more important things in life than Quidditch.'

Aut disce aut discede.

'Either learn or leave,' said Lily to herself, 'That's Ravenclaw alright.'

Fidelius.

She hadn't a clue what the Hufflepuff password meant, but there was a bell ringing in her mind. She must have read that word 'fidelius' in a Charms book or something.

Mudblood.

Lily trembled with rage as she read the Slytherin password, "Twenty points from Slytherin, for bigotry,' she said coolly, looking Bellatrix in the eye.

She said, "Hope you have a good year, and I'll see you at the feast," before turning on her heal and exiting the compartment.

She went back to the Heads' carriage and peered in through the door, relieved to find it empty, and clean. After grabbing her robes out of her trunk, she made her way to the toilet and locked the door once inside. She gently removed her denim jacket and threw it on the floor. Next she lifted up her t-shirt and attempted to put a concealment charm on her back, just in case someone would see. The glamour didn't work; she knew her cuts were too fresh, although it had been worth a try. She never looked at her scars until she knew she was totally alone. Maybe in the next few days when Potter was out of their dormitory she would be able to check her wounds, but until then she would have to put up with the discomfort.

Experiencing another searing pain on her back as she pulled her school jumper over her head, Lily whimpered. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror: a pale face contorted in agony, red hair gone frizzy with static from her sweater, and bright green eyes welling up under dark lashes.

Lily couldn't help thinking that she didn't deserve such eyes. They should have belonged to someone who smiled all the time and winked confidentially to friends and only cried tears of laughter.

They were someone else's eyes, not hers. No one in their right mind would give such beautiful eyes to a person who frowned more than they smiled, never winked at anyone, and was sad too frequently for any other pair to bear.

Lily's thoughts were interrupted as the train slowed to a standstill and she heard Hagrid's booming voice.

"Firs' years! Firs' years this way!"