Lily Evans chatted amiably with her two best friends on September first as they wheeled their Hogwarts trunks through King’s Cross Station. Checking for Muggles before walking through the barrier wall protecting Platform 9 ¾ had become second nature to the students, who were now entering their seventh year. The girls strolled through the brick barrier as if it wasn’t even there (for them, it really wasn't), towards the scarlet Hogwarts Express waiting for them.
“So Andy, how was your summer?” Lily asked her friend Andromeda Black, grinning as they sat down in their usual compartment.
“Nothing, really- except for Sirius apparating all the time. He so loves the attention,” Andy rolled her eyes and smiled a little.
Sirius Black was Andromeda’s cousin, and he was in seventh year with the three girls. He had taken his apparition test over the summer, when he turned seventeen. He and his best friends James, Remus, and Peter were the school’s most popular troublemakers, and they loved that title.
Dorcas Meadowes, the third friend in the group, smiled. Cassie liked Sirius a lot, and Lily and Andromeda were the only people who knew.
Andromeda said, “Why don't you just ask him out already, Cass? He may be a git, but he likes you… you’re totally gorgeous, and I know him.” Sirius and Andy had been friends since they were tiny; they were very close and knew everything about each other. Especially how to get on each other's last nerve.
Andy was right; Cassie was easily one of the most beautiful girls in their year, tall and slim, with exotic dark skin, black eyes, and shining black hair. However, she was painfully shy. Cassie looked out the window and tried to hide her blushing cheeks with her dark curtain of hair.
“Cassie, you’ve only got one more year, go on! Just ask him, or you'll lose your chance,” Andromeda interjected. Andy was more on the cute side than Cassie. She was medium height and curvy, with short, spiky blonde hair, huge blue eyes, and fair skin. Despite her sweet looks, she was usually rather blunt, sometimes with disastrous results.
Lily looked at Cassie with her bright green eyes. Lily was insecure because she was the shortest of the group. It seemed to her that the whole world towered over her; she believed she had to make people see her. Pushing her long, wavy auburn hair back from her face, Lily said, “Cassie, don’t worry. What’s the worst he can say?”
“No?” said Cassie, smiling. Her friends could always make her feel better when she was down on herself. “Oooh, look, the snack cart!”
The girls giggled at Cassie’s abrupt change of subject, but they did take the hint and began talking about their summers.
Lily had gone to America with her family (she was Muggle-born). It had been interesting, but her sister Petunia was completely horrible, just the same as every summer, for seven years now.
The two had once been not just sisters but best friends, before Lily's Hogwarts letter came. Petunia had been fiercely jealous of Lily, and longed for magic power of her own. As Petunia grew up, she learned to hide her jealousy under a thick mask of disdain for Lily.
Now, Petunia was twenty, and engaged to a horrid, uptight, fat Muggle named Vernon Dursley.
Lily wished she could have her best friend back, but seven years of trying had gotten her nowhere. If her sister wanted nothing to do with her, Lily would let her go, no matter how much it hurt Lily herself.
Andromeda really got into telling her friends about the Black family reunion. The whole, extended Black family had been invited to Sirius’s family’s London mansion for three weeks. It had been all Andromeda and Sirius could do not to just up and leave because most of the family were dark wizards. Andy and Sirius were against these morals, but they had had to suck it up for what had seemed like the longest three weeks in eternity. Andy described Sirius’s mother with a grimace, and said she would never go back there, because the house was filled with the dark arts.
Cassie was telling about her summer, a trip to her family’s home in the South of France, when the Hogwarts Express finally arrived at school. The girls had already changed into their long black robes; Lily’s with a big HEAD GIRL button pinned to the front. They walked awkwardly with their trunks toward the horseless carriages, talking with several other people they knew. Among them were, Alice Winters and her boyfriend Frank Longbottom; Sirius, talking to Cassie (who had turned very red) and Andy; and James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin.
Lily said, “Hi, Remus… Peter! How were your summers?” She deliberately ignored James, who had always been very obnoxious, asking her to go out with him every other thing since fourth year. James lagged behind as she chatted easily with Remus (they’d been good friends ever since they had been assigned prefects together) while Peter walked along silently. It seemed as if James hadn’t even noticed her snub. He looked so deep in his thoughts, even sad! Lily did her best not to scream when she saw that James had also been made Head Boy! How can that be? she wondered. He wasn’t even a prefect! Remus should be Head!
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It was, so far, an uneventful ride to Hogwarts this year for the Marauders. Sirius ribbed James for being made Head Boy, Remus was reading a book, and Peter was acting thicker than usual.
James wondered. About his new classes, his upcoming NEWTs, his friends. Hmm, he thought, Wormtail seems odd lately. It was true that the quiet, round boy had become more and more detached since they had last seen each other in July. He had refused to tell any of them about the rest of his summer, shrugging their questions off with a blustery, “Oh, nothing…”
Then James thought of Lily. He hadn’t seen her all summer. Would she be any different? He doubted it. She would probably still hate him. But maybe-
“Hey Prongs, you think that girl likes me?” Sirius aked, interrupting James’s train of thought.
“What girl? Have I heard this question before? Yesterday, maybe?” James said sarcastically.
“I’m serious this time!" (Peter laughed nervously at the old joke, and Sirius glared.) "You know, the Meadowes girl. Cassie, or something?”
"Oh, probably, she's always looking at you! Hey, why didn’t you just ask Andromeda over the summer?” Sirius’s cousin was best friends with the girl.
"Well, obviously. I just noticed her today! I think I’m going to ask her to go with me to the first Hogsmeade weekend. She is really pretty! Gorgeous in fact.”
“You do that, buddy. When you break up with her, be nice, OK? She’s one of Lily’s best friends. You could mess up my chances!”
“Will do, sergeant,” Sirius said with a salute and his usual harsh laugh; as always, it was similar to the bark of a dog.
The friends became quiet once again. James’ thoughts drifted back to Lily. Whenever he thought about her, he wanted to either be sick or snog her. Obviously asking her out every other second wasn’t working. He decided he would have to try a new tactic this year.
As the boys struggled with their trunks, pulling them off the racks clumsily and narrowly avoiding squashing Peter, James continued his reverie. What if I just let Lily come to me? It was what Moony had told him just a few years ago, and he had ignored it then. But now… He needed to try a new plan; maybe this would work.
James motioned to Remus to hang back, and told him quietly about his theory, so as not to get teased by Sirius.
Remus seemed to think carefully before he answered. “Prongs, I’m not like Sirius. I get what you’re talking about, and I think you should act less big headed and prat-ish around her. You know she is Head Girl, right?”
“She is? That’s great! I’ll have plenty of time to show her I’ve got a small head and I'm not a prat!” James said excitedly, not even realizing how idiotic he sounded.
Remus shook his head at the strangeness. James was very bright and outgoing, but lately all he had seemed to do was slip inside, a shell of himself. Probably thinking about Lily, Remus convinced himself.
But, in truth, James had a lot more on his mind since the end of last term. His father had been killed by a man with a weird, made-up name, Voldemort, and he was trying to numb himself, by thinking about other things and forcing his brain into overdrive. He had so far avoided telling his friends, and hoped they wouldn't ask him what was wrong anytime soon. He wasn't ready to tell them why he was so upset. He wasn't even ready to admit to himself that his dad was gone.
The four boys caught up with Lily, Andy, and Cassie. Some other people were there from their year, too. Sirius immediately struck up a conversation with Andromeda and Cassie.
“Hey Rommie. And it’s Cassie, right?” Andromeda glared at being called her baby nickname and swore loudly at Sirius, but he just laughed at her. He smiled at Cassie. The three talked for a while, until they reached the horseless carriages. Then Sirius helped Cassie into the carriage and sat next to her. He whispered something into her ear. Cassie blushed and nodded. He must’ve asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him, James thought.
Then, Lily's soft voice broke through his thoughts. She said to him, “Why so quiet today, Potter?”
James lied. “Just tired, I guess. Hey Evans, when is the first Head Meeting?”
“Thursday, at five. After lessons.”
James spent the rest of the ride wondering why Lily was acting so much more civil than usual.
And wondering why this Voldemort guy had killed his dad.