Old Friends, New Friends and Boyfriends

Lily made her way to the platform, in a particularly foul mood considering that today was the first of September and the first day of her seventh year at Hogwarts. She had woken up in a great mood this morning and the sun pierced through all angles of her window, everything was fantastic; until breakfast. No actually until Petunia, she had let Petunia make her ridiculous remarks all summer but today was just too much for Lily. It wasn’t anything worse than she had been saying for the last six weeks but today Lily’s famous temper got the better of her. So here she was standing on the platform at half past ten, hopefully, calming down before everyone arrived.

It had been about fifteen minutes; Lily was now placed on top of her trunk flipping through Witch Weekly, when that familiar sound of someone coming through the barrier floated into her ear. She looked up involuntary, sighing at what she saw. Severus, she looked down hurriedly hoping he might not notice her, after all she wasn’t in the mood for his forgiveness speech or his attempt to be rude about whom she hung out with.

“Lily,” his voice was merely a whisper, she looked up to see him towering over her.

“Yes, Sev?” Her tone dragged like she was bored, yet this took a lot of effort. Effort to pretend she wasn’t bothered when really she was.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to bother you.” He began to walk away but Lily couldn’t help herself she grabbed his arm and pulled him down next to her.

Merlin, she hated it when he was like this, she could deal with the Severus who taunted her but when he was being her Severus she almost buckled.

He took the silence as an opportunity to speak, “Lily, I am so sorry, I want you to believe me...”

“I do,” Lily interrupted him before he could recite his speech, he looked at her, confusion flashing across his face, “I do believe you but it doesn’t change anything Sev, I can’t forget what you said.”

“But you know I didn’t mean it! We can still be friends Lily, it doesn’t have to be this way, you don’t have to hurt me.” He turned to look in her eyes, Lily scoffed.

“Hurt you, Sev? How in Merlin’s name did I hurt you? Was it not you who called me a Mudblood? Is it not you who taunts me when your with your friends? If you really wanted to be my friend then how come you picked being a Deatheater over me? I will never hate you Sev, but I will never forget!” Lily’s furious voice rung through the empty station.

“Lily becoming a Deatheater is who I am! If you were my friend maybe you would understand. You can be such a hypocrite you won’t forgive me, but you’ll forgive them, those idiots! They are the reason why we're not friends, you think its easy watching you waltz around with Black?” Severus’ equally enraged voice filled the station, Lily was glad that it was empty.

“DON’T YOU DARE...,” she threatened her cheeks almost crimson, both Lily and Severus were so immersed in their argument that they hadn’t heard another pop as someone entered the station.

“OH, SO YOU DON’T LIKE IT WHEN I TALK ABOUT YOUR PRECIOUS FRIENDS!”

“By friends you must be talking about me, then?” Peter’s sarcastic voice caused both Lily and Severus to turn around. “Snivellous, why is it you always like irritating my friends?”

“This is between Lily and me, Pettigrew,” Severus said turning back to Lily.

“Nope, anything to do with my friends has something to do with me, so why don’t you leave!” Peter casual tone turned more into a threat.

Severus turned back to retort but Lily harsh voice caught his ears “Just go, Sev.”

He didn’t need to be told twice, Severus set off in the opposite direction not giving Lily a backwards glance. But if he would have he’d have seen the hurt and regret plaguing her eyes.

“Thanks,” Lily said, regaining her composure but not before Peter saw it.

“Its fine Lily, don’t worry I won’t say anything to the others.” Lily sighed in relief and really smiled at Peter this time; she loved how caring he was towards people, thinking of them before himself.

They didn’t have any more time to discuss the matter, as the platform was becoming pretty crowded now, not that Lily had noticed.

“REMUS!” Lily called over the students to her sandy haired friend, who at his name turned searching for the owner’s voice.

“LILY!” Remus shouted back delighted, giving her a bear hug. Lily laughed returning his embrace. “Good summer?” he asked beaming.

“Crap really, well apart from when Sirius came over and I dressed him up as a cat,” Lily laughed.

“A...a...cat!” Remus chuckled loudly, “please tell me you have pictures,” Lily nodded still giggling.

“There in my trunk, I’ll show you later. Anyway how was your holiday?”

“It was great, Anna loved it. It was a shame we had to come back but with the full moon coming up...” Lily watched as Remus tried to casually shrug off the pain of his condition, he dealt with it so well considering.

“Anna didn’t mind though, she never does,” a slight smile appeared on Remus’ face as he thought of his girlfriend, whom he’d been dating for two years. Lily had to give it to her if there was someone least prejudice and most sweet it was Anna.

“Speaking of Anna,” Lily said nodding her head in the direction of where the blonde was heading over, she looked into Remus’ eyes smiling but not speaking.

“Hey Lily, how was your summer?” Anna musical voice sang.

“Not too bad, I got Sirius to dress up as a cat,” Anna laughed in unison with Lily.

“Soo Sirius,” Anna said nodding in agreement.

“Speaking of Sirius, where is he and James?” Peter asked, who had just returned after talking to a very pretty Ravenclaw.
****

“We are so late.” James laughed to Sirius as they ran through the Muggle platform. They carried on running until they got onto the Hogwarts platform with only five minutes to spare.

“Where is everyone?” Sirius asked, as he turned his head looking for their friends. Then he spotted the fiery red hair of his best friend, and Moony, he couldn’t quite see Peter but he guessed that he was there. Running over to them, leaving James in his trail, he picked Lily up a spun her around whilst hugging her. “LILSSSSS”

Lily hugged him back as he set her on her feet, no one around them looked shocked or even surprised. This was the normal behaviour of Lily Evans and Sirius Black; at first it had seemed odd, especially after the incident by the lake. But no one bothered to ask, Lily and Sirius had been best friends now for two years; despite having different friend groups you always found them together.

“Where’s James?” she asked casually. Sirius saw through the casual tone, he knew the truth after one of their many conversations.

“Why? I thought you came for me!” he mocked, pouting his lips.

She laughed. “Of course I did darling.” But she stepped round him to give James a quick hug, who was delighted by her attempt.

“Wormtail! Moony! Anna!” Sirius said hugging the other Marauders. “It’s been too long!”

“Padfoot, I was with you yesterday,” Peter laughed, “and speaking of yesterday, I was just talking to Victoria Burke”.

“Nice,” Lily appreciated Peter’s success.

James chuckled and said, “Lily, you are just like a Marauder." Lily shrugged.

“Or she just likes a Marauder,” Sirius muttered underneath his breath, Lily was close enough to hear and nudged him in the ribs. “OWWW! Lils, why did you do that?” he whined.

“Coz, I just love you so much,” Lily replied through gritted teeth.

Sirius grinned at Lily, typical Lily, too proud to admit her feelings. She looked up at him threateningly.
He laughed; she was like his little sister but better his best friend too. He wrapped his arm around her neck as they walked to the train; naturally she put her arm around his waist.

Followed by Peter, Remus and Anna; James walked last his face expressionless and his mind furious. They found an empty compartment and the boys loaded the luggage before joining Anna and Lily inside, any outsider would have found their seating plan rather strange. On one side Lily rested her head on Sirius’ lap and her feet on Peter’s lap, Peter had his feet resting on the seat opposite him, where Anna’s legs should have been instead they were horizontal resting on the wall her head on Remus’ shoulder, Remus was the only one sitting normal, and then next to him was James his feet on the opposite chair besides Sirius.

“Wow!” Lily laughed in disbelief.

“I know,” Anna agreed.

Sirius, who had been talking to Peter, looked at Lily in confusion but she seemed to be having a wordless conversation with Anna. He looked up and James shrugged his shoulders while Remus just watched the girls in a face that resembled how Sirius felt.

“What?” Sirius wondered eagerly.

“You didn’t see?” Lily asked sceptical.

“You didn’t see Mary with her face practically pressed up against the window drawling at you,” Anna finished for Lily, smirking.

“Ohhh.” James’ tone turned to understanding and Lily giggled.

“How could you miss her? I mean she made it pretty obvious,” Peter chuckled.

“Anyways, who wants chocolate!” Lily said tipping a large mound on her stomach, everyone dug in. Remus shuddered.

“You still hating on the chocolate, Moony?” James laughed.

“Trust me when it is more of a necessity rather than a pleasure it really isn’t that great, and plus I’m watching my weight,” Remus finished in a girly accent, sending both him and Anna into hysteria. Peter raised an eyebrow and everyone else looked a little frightened but guessed it was a private joke.

Lily must have noticed that Sirius hadn’t taken any chocolate and looked up at him, “Sirius? Since when do you not like chocolate?”

But Sirius couldn’t take his gaze of the window he still felt confused, why hadn’t he noticed it, but then again he rarely noticed girls these days. Okay, that wasn’t correct; he noticed them but not the right things. Not things that normal boys noticed, like if they were wearing too much make-up; if their hair was too perfect or too wild; if what they were wearing matched; the colour of their nails; if their hair colour was natural or died; the list went on and on. He’d been hanging out with Lily way too much! But it felt better this way, Sirius preferred just talking to girls rather than talking to them for the sake of it. He could actually tell if they had personality now, the only down side, these things meant that they just weren’t interesting enough.

“Hello! Earth to Sirius,” Lily said waving her hand in front of his face.

“Huh?” Sirius asked, as Peter, Remus, and Anna laughed at him; Lily and James however mirrored worried expressions.

“Are you all right?” Lily's motherly instincts creeping in.

Sirius laughed, his classic Lily, “Lils, I’m fine just a weird day dream.”

Sirius could tell that Lily wanted to press the matter and he would rather not share to everyone that he was having women problems, well more that he didn’t notice them like he used to. “Err Lils, James don’t you have Prefects meeting?” he tried to add casually.

“Oh yeah, Lily?” James said jumping up, enthusiastically;
Sirius knew that he was more excited than he was letting on.

Lily got up more reluctantly, not as easily fooled as James. “Later!” she muttered to Sirius.

He sighed quietly he knew that he wasn’t getting out of this; Miss Lily Evans could be to observing for her own liking.

****
James walked alongside Lily to the Prefect’s carriage. Her face was thoughtful she was obviously thinking about Sirius. Sometimes Lily treated him to much like a girl, boys told people when they were ready, James knew that but then if you have a girl as a best friend the circumstances are different.

James sighed, he wasn’t jealous of their relationship; no if anything he was relieved. Lily dealt with the emotional side of Sirius after all his life was emotionally disturbed, and he needed Lily to talk to. Which left the marauders to do the entire boy stuff with but still he wished that Lily cared for him like that.

It was like she hadn’t forgiven him for that day by the lake, for Snape. Yet, she’d forgiven Sirius, hell; she’d probably even forgiven Snape. Actually, thinking about it now Lily was always different with him, the way she acted around him looked uncomfortable, maybe she only put up with him so she could hang around with the others. That was it! How could he not have noticed, she always chose to sit with Peter or Remus or Sirius but never him. She barely even spoke to him, what had he done that was so bad, that the others hadn’t? Nothing! James suddenly became extremely irate, why did he deserve this treatment? He wanted to interrogate her, while she sat there all worried about Sirius; not caring if he was all right!

“Do you know what I don’t get, Evans?” At the use of her surname Lily’s head snapped up, instantly, astonishment and alarm filled the depths of her face. Obviously, she saw the fury etched in his face.

“James?” her voice like a whisper, instead of calming James it maddened him.

How could she sit there pretending like she didn’t know, acting...innocent.

“I don’t get how you treat me so differently from the others.”

“I...” Lily began.

“No, let me tell you!” His harsh words hit her, Lily’s protest stopped. “You always single me out, just me, but your all buddy buddy with Sirius and he is worse! He hates Snape; he is part of the pranks! I just don’t understand? I am no different to Peter. Peter uses the Map; Peter sneaks food out of the kitchens.” James let out a long sigh, the redness of his cheeks fading.

James stared at his feet now, whispering, “I just don’t understand why you do not like me?”

He finally looked up, prepared for a livid Lily; the Lily whose eyes were so narrow they were almost slits; her face scarlet and enraged; breathing heavily as if restraining herself. So when he did finally look up a hushed cry escaped his mouth, was Lily crying? Yes, a fugitive tear scuttled down her cheek.

Was she upset, or that mad? James didn’t want to cause either emotions, “Lily, I...” But she was quicker.

Her voice poignant, “Why do I act odd, uncomfortable, strange, uneasy, maybe even rude?” She was ticking off every box in his list but where was she going with it? James asked himself. “Because I like you, James.” She looked up veracity emitting from her eyes.

James was not expecting that! His mouth open with a small pop but he couldn’t eliminate the shock to be able to close it and stood motionless.

She giggled; moving in closer, James suddenly caught on to what she was doing pulling her closer to him. He lifted her chin with two fingers smiling at the faint blush on her cheeks.

“Oh sorry,” a high pitched voice squeaked. Both James and Lily jumped apart from the shock, to see Jessica Johnson standing in the doorway, looking rather awkward. “Shall I come...”

“No, come in, Jessica, the meeting is about to start,” James gestured to one of the seats.

Lily sighed in annoyance; James smirked at her impatience and laughed, “Later.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Later,” she agreed but that was all she could say as prefects began to pour in.