Live Life...and Love it Equally

Chapter one

"Lily, Lily darling, wake up or you'll be late for the train," said a voice from a good distance.

I sighed to myself upon hearing that sweet and musical voice of my mother. When would she quit calling me darling, sweetheart or sweetums? I was going to be seventeen now. But, she was one of the three people whom I loved the most, and I wouldn't want to point out anything that made her sad.

"I'm ready mum. I'm coming down in a second," I replied and quickly magicked all my school stuff into the trunk.

Passing out sixth year definitely had its own advantages. You could apparate, and use magic. Those were two things that I enjoyed thoroughly over the summers. I applied some lip-gloss, brushed through my hair once again and glanced at the mirror.

I was looking at myself, at my own image, which I had learnt to hate since I was thirteen. I despised my hair. It was deep red, thick, and a bit curly. My face--I usually found something wrong with it, though everyone else said it was perfect. My eyes--No, I didn't hate them; they were beautiful, because they made me different from everyone around me. They were unusually green, bright emerald eyes, just like my grandmothers.

"Lily?" called the voice, more persistently this time.

"Coming," I called back quickly. I threw my brush and make up into the trunk and ran downstairs for breakfast.

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"Good morning dad," I say, making my entrance into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Lily. Everything packed and ready?"dad asked from behind his daily paper.

I nodded slightly as I glanced at my sister Petunia's chair. She wasn't there. As usual, she would never be there on September 1st. The day she would finally get rid of me for the whole year.

"She's not here," I stated simply.

Perhaps dad understood my feelings as the next moment he changed the subject.

"Lily dear, we received a letter from your school early morning. There's good news."

I gave him a puzzled look. What could be the news-Had Professor Marsh had finally agreed to remove me from divination?

"You're Head Girl. Congratulations Lily!" said dad, beaming.

Head Girl? I barely had time to register these words into my brain as my mother pulled me into a hug and heard I things like 'we are proud of you' and 'well done'.

"Wait a minute. You mean to say that I am HEAD GIRL?" I asked foolishly, reading through the letter. Dad nodded.

"I AM head girl!" I said excitedly with a laugh.

"It's me!" I yelled again, ecstatic.

Yes! It was me. I picked up the badge lying on the table and I felt the cool metal surface with the Hogwarts emblem on it and the words 'HEAD GIRL' written below the motto.

But, before my happiness could sink into me, someone passed by me and whispered in a cold voice, "Freak."

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"Now take care of yourself, and study hard. And, keep owling us, and don't-" my mother began saying, firmly.

"Mum. Quit it. I'm not going to Siberia or something. It's just school," I say, cutting her off with a hearty laugh.

"But-," She began once more.

Before she could complete her sentence, the engine gave a whistle; it was time to go.

I gave mum a quick hug and waved goodbye as I climbed into the slowly moving train.

As the train gained speed and the platform vanished out of sight, I made way to my compartment in the hope of meeting my best friend before I went for the prefects meeting. Luckily, I spotted her just outside a compartment.

"Ariana!" I yelled instantly.

"Lily!"she exclaimed in her beautiful voice. Ariana Summers was, you could say, an angel. She had straight, dark, silky waist length hair, which I was always envious of. And beautiful ocean blue eyes. She also sang beautifully and her perfect figure made boys, including Sirius goggle at her all the time. But she hardly gave them any notice.

Ariana was my best friend from first year, and knew me inside out, and so did I.

"Ari! I'm so glad to see you again. Merlin, did I miss you." I said, while giving her a bear hug.

She grinned. "Well, with a sister like yours, summers would be miserable."

I gave a sigh. "Yeah, I guess so. What happened to your lip?" I asked pointing to a small cut, which was bleeding badly. A cut on Ariana's lip bleeding like a pool?She usually fixed up brusies and cuts before they aggreavated.That is unusual.

"Erm...nothing--just a little...something,"she mumbled dabbing the blood with her cloak. She was hiding something, but I didn't want to probe into the matter--at least not right now. I offered her another smile and continued as we walked towards our compartment. I slid open the door.

"Well, you couldn't do--WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I stopped in mid sentence and screamed at the uninvited people sitting in the compartment--the marauders. But before I could continue, I felt Ariana's hand on my shoulder.

"Lils, please… They didn't find another compartment, so I allowed them to sit here." she said in her calmed voice. It sort of reminded me of Professor Dumbledore. It was this tone that calmed me down--always. And now was no exception.

"Fine," I sighed and plopped into the only seat available, immediately realizing that it was the biggest mistake of my life to do so.

For I was left sitting near the first biggest prat on earth, the person I hated from head to toe; the most irritating, pompous prat on Earth--James Potter.

"Evans how was your summer?"he asked, voice filled with relish. Sure he would be delighted. He got another chance to irritate me, and to embarrass me.

"Drastic," I replied coldly, "and the most horrible on ever."

Couldnt he just let me be?

I glanced over to Sirius, Remus, Peter and Ariana. Ariana and Sirius were absorbed in a conversation, while Remus talked to Peter. Since when did Ariana start speaking to Sirius Black? And since when did they start talking without declaring world war three and with blushing occasionally? Interesting.

Before I could ponder on these thoughts, my eyes fell on the badge Ariana was wearing on her robe. She was a Prefect!

"Ari! You are a prefect, I didn't know! Congrats!" I said excitedly.

"Why Evans, I didn't know that either!" said Potter.

I ignored him but he continued.

"Oh! And look. You are head girl. I knew you would become that one day!" his voice was dripping with pride. As if something of his own had achieved a goal. I wasn't HIS. Anger immediately began to well up in me. But I tried to calm down.

"So Remus, you're head boy, right?" I asked Remus so as to block that jerk Potter out of the conversation.

This time, however, Sirius spoke, "Now Lily, you may be right in everything, but not this once. James is Head Boy this year. And quidditch captain too."he added as an afterthought.

I looked at James, surprised by this answer. The familiar arrogant gleam that he sported in his eyes every time he achieved a feat was gone. Instead it was replaced by a more mature and responsible look. Had Potter changed? I chided myself for thinking this and let out a groan at the news I had just heard.

James is head boy. I am head girl. Not only do we do our duties together, we will stay in the central tower or the head tower, as it was called. I will see his face more than perhaps one million times a day. And, also bear with him at quidditch practices, now that he was the captain. We will study together, stay together and work together for the whole year.

Life in seventh year was going to be miserable for me.