“Oh my god!” shrieked Neala. “We have ten minutes!”
Lily opened her bleary eyes slightly and saw her friend frantically rip back the covers. Neala leapt out of bed and rushed into the bathroom, picking up clothes and calling out to Lily as she went.
“Lily,” she shouted. “We have ten minutes to finish packing and get to breakfast. Now would be a really good time to get up.”
Lily smiled and sat up.
“Yeah,” she croaked, groggily. “I’m awake.”
She put a hand to her hair and groaned inwardly as she remembered the late night. Then she grinned as she remembered why it had been late and swung her legs out of bed. She glanced in the mirror next to her bed and groaned again at the sight of herself. Neala skidded out of the bathroom as Lily picked up her hairbrush.
“Have you seen the top I was wearing last night?” she asked, as she searched through a pile of discarded clothes at the foot of her bed. Lily paused from attacking her hair and glanced down.
“Oh yeah,” she said, going back to brushing. “It’s right here.” She nudged it with her foot.
Neala ran over to where she was standing and picked up her top, brushing it down and folding it as she hurried back over to her trunk. Lily yawned.
“Well,” said Neala, pausing in her packing and turning to Lily, hands on her hips. “Someone was up late.”
Lily carried on brushing her hair whilst watching her friend in the mirror.
“Oh, go on!” said Neala. “What happened?!”
Lily said nothing.
“It wasn’t James?!”
“Neala,” she said, putting down her brush, calmly, and walking away to get dressed. “We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up.”
Neala squealed and hurried off to keep packing.
*
“You two took your time,” said Sirius, smiling, as the girls settled themselves on the benches at the table. “You are looking delightful, Neala.”
Neala giggled and reached across him for the cornflakes. James grinned as Lily sat down next to him and elbowed his side gently to make him slide up the bench so that there was room for her.
“Sleep well?” he asked, as he poured himself some orange juice.
“Mm,” said Lily, buttering a slice of toast. “Bit tired…”
“And why is that, Lily?” said Sirius, leaning towards her. “What could you possibly have been doing last night?”
Lily looked at James.
“I didn’t tell him!” he said, at once, hands raised in defense. “He saw us!”
Lily took a bite of toast and didn’t answer Sirius, who was now laughing at the pair of them.
“Anyway,” said James, calmly. “The party was good.”
“Yeah, you seemed to be having fun,” said Sirius, starting to laugh again. Neala giggled again.
“That’s what I heard, too,” she said, grinning. “Apparently, there was a lot of…friendliness going on.”
Lily glared at her but said nothing.
“Well, I was in bed,” said Remus, from over the top of the newspaper. “But I think I can guess what everyone’s talking about.”
“What?” squeaked Peter, from Remus’ left. “What’s everyone talking about?”
They all stared at him. Sirius, sighing exasperatedly, decided to ignore him.
“Well, does this mean you two are going out?” he said, eagerly, almost putting his elbow in the butter as he leant forward.
James looked down at Lily, who had been quietly eating her toast throughout the conversation. They hadn’t got round to much talking last night so he didn’t actually know the answer to Sirius’ question. After a moment, Lily swallowed.
“Sirius,” she said. “I would appreciate if you didn’t discuss my love life before I have. It’s very unnerving.”
James laughed. At least that meant she was planning on talking about it.
“Anyway,” he said, stretching happily. “What are we going to do for the summer?”
“What do you mean?” asked Neala, pausing from eating her cornflakes and looking at him.
“Well, we have to have a thing,” said James, looking round at them all. “A gathering of some sort.”
“A PARTY!” yelled Sirius. Several first years sitting near them stared at him.
“Yeah,” said James, sarcastically. “A party with six people...”
“Well, a party sounds better than ‘a gathering of some sort’,” said Sirius, haughtily. “You sound like Moony.”
Remus didn’t stop reading the paper but James saw a smile flicker across his face.
“Fine,” said James. “When?”
“As soon as possible,” said Sirius, quickly. “You can’t leave me with my parents for more than a week or I’ll die.”
“Um,” said Neala, putting down her spoon. “I’m away for the rest of July. We’re going to visit my Great Aunt Hettie in Florence.”
“Wow,” muttered Sirius. “She sounds fun…”
“Shut up,” said Neala, playfully. “She is, actually. She has this little Crup called Alfie and he-”
“Sounds lovely, Neala,” said Sirius, waving at her distractedly. “Back to the party.”
“Well,” James said, as Neala flicked a spoonful of cornflakes into Sirius’ lap. “What about the first weekend of August?”
He looked round at them and they all nodded apart from Sirius who was now standing up and trying to clean his robes. The rest of breakfast was filled with talks of what they could do on that distant weekend.
*
“Find a carriage,” shrieked Professor McGonagall, wafting students absent-mindedly towards the train. “Hurry up, hurry up.”
The Marauders, Lily and Neala all piled onto the scarlet Hogwarts Express, which was sparkling in the sunlight as it stood at the small Hogsmeade station. They dragged their trunks down the train, searching for an empty compartment.
“Nope…nope…nope,” said Sirius, looking left and right. At the next carriage, he suddenly stopped, causing a domino effect behind him. Neala hadn’t stopped in time and walked into Sirius’ back. James had tripped over her stationary trunk, causing Lily to fall on top of him and kick Remus who dropped his luggage onto Peter’s foot who fell over backwards. Only Sirius remained standing. He turned round and saw them all lying on the floor.
“Um,” he said, slowly. “What are you all doing on the floor?”
James was helping up Lily and Neala who had each taken one of his hands while the others got up and smoothed down their robes.
“Just fancied a rest,” he said, sarcastically. “Why did you stop?”
“Well,” said Sirius, a smile creeping over his face. “I’ve found an empty carriage…almost empty, that is.”
He slid open the door and stepped in, allowing them all to follow him. Sitting next to the window was a skinny boy with long, black, greasy hair. He looked up when they walked and Lily recognised him as Severus Snape, a Slytherin boy in their year.
“Well, well, well,” said Sirius, putting down his trunk. “If it isn’t Snivellus. Having fun, Snivelly?”
Snape glared at him through black, beady eyes.
“What do you want?” he said, quickly, his oily voice matching his personality.
“This compartment,” Sirius said politely. “So if you wouldn’t mind leaving…I hear the corridor floor’s comfy nowadays.” He looked round at them all, grinning. Snape didn’t move.
“Oi,” said Sirius, smile gone. “If you don’t move, James will jinx you. Won’t you, Padfoot?”
Lily looked at James. He was standing between her and Sirius, hesitating, wand still safely inside his robes.
“Come on, James!” said Sirius, eagerly. “One for the road!”
James took a step forwards but Lily grabbed his arm, holding him back.
“Don’t,” she whispered, looking up into his brown eyes.
Sirius didn’t seem to have noticed her doing this as he was too busy glaring at Snape and apparently deciding what spell to cast on him. James was staring down at her and she felt the familiar urge to smooth down his hair rising up somewhere inside her. Suddenly, James turned back towards Sirius and Snape.
“Get out,” he said. “Or I’ll make you.”
Snape didn’t move.
“Move,” said James through gritted teeth.
Lily felt a sinking feeling in her stomach; she thought he’d changed from the stupid sixteen year old who hexed people just because he could. She glanced at Snape and was about to suggest finding another carriage when Lily saw his eyes flare. He looked back at James.
“What are you doing with that Mudblood, Potter?”
The room froze. Lily felt Remus’ hand on the small of her back.
“What did you just say?” said James, advancing on him, wand now out and ready.
“Don’t bother,” muttered Lily, urgently. “He’s not worth it.”
James was now a foot away from him, breathing hard. Snape was smiling maliciously.
“Well?” he said. “Are you going to do what it says?”
James pointed his wand at Snape’s chest. His hand was shaking.
“Get...out.”
Snape smirked and stood up; he was much shorter than James. He pulled his trunk down from the luggage holder and edged his way past them all to get the door. As he passed Lily, he looked into her eyes.
“Have a good summer…Mudblood.”
James and Sirius shouted, in no uncertain terms, for him to shut up and get out and Remus pushed him roughly out of the compartment door and slammed it behind him. Lily sighed and dragged her trunk into the centre of the small room.
“Why, Lily, why?” said Sirius, putting his wand back into his robes.
“It’s what he wants,” she said, feeling slightly annoyed and tucking her hair behind her ear before settling herself where Snape had just been sitting. “He knows he can’t get into trouble for saying things like that but he knows that he can get you lot into trouble for jinxing him. What’s the point?” James looked at her guiltily. “Do you see where I’m coming from? It’s a waste of time.”
“But,” said Sirius, sitting down opposite her and looking completely bewildered. “But…you heard what he called you…how can you just…let him go?”
Lily didn’t answer. The rest of the group began stowing their luggage away and taking seats in the compartment. James hesitated before sitting down. Lily looked up at him and saw his questioning expression. She was still feeling slightly bristled but shrugged and he took a seat next to her. She felt something flicker in her stomach and her annoyance slipped suddenly away. He looked down at her and grinned apologetically; she knew he had felt something too. It felt strange, not hating James. Strange, but good.
“I don’t really want to go home,” said Neala, placing herself next to Sirius. He put his arm round her and she leant against him.
“It’s all right for you,” he said, darkly. “You don’t have a family full of Dark Art worshippers and people who cut off the heads of house elves and think all Muggle- borns are the scum of the earth and collect implements of torture and would probably use them if they got half the chance…”
There was silence as the train pulled away from the station.
“Are they really that bad?” said Neala, twisting to look at him.
“Yes,” said Sirius, who quickly broke her gaze and stared out of the window at the now speeding countryside. Neala knew not to push it any further.
“Well,” said Lily, trying to fill an awkward silence. “I have my lovely sister to look forward to…”
Neala laughed.
“I remember you telling me about the time when she thought that you could set fire to her with one look,” she said, grinning.
“Yeah,” said Lily, smirking. “Wish I could…”
The girls continued to chatter, with James occasionally chipping in and Peter listening. Remus read and Sirius stared quietly out of the window until the food trolley arrived.
“Want anything?” said James, nudging Lily.
“No, I’m all right, thanks.”
James and the rest of the boys stood up to purchase their lunch and Neala took the opportunity to interrogate Lily.
“Tell me exactly what happened!” she said, leaning forwards.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Lily. “We haven’t even been able to talk about it ourselves yet and-”
“But you did kiss?” Neala hissed. At that moment James turned around and returned to his seat. Neala sat back, glaring at Lily.
*
James pushed his robes into his trunk and shut it as the train pulled into platform nine and three quarters. He turned round and saw that Lily had just done the same. He caught his breath as he saw her in Muggle clothing rather than robes. Her red hair fell elegantly onto her shoulders and looked perfect against the green sweater that showed of her figure beautifully. She looked up at him and he quickly turned away to drag his trunk out of the compartment.
The students tumbled out of the train, calling goodbyes to people around them and craning their necks to see their families. Lily dropped her trunk next to James and waved at the woman and young girl, both with brown hair, who were standing a little further down the platform.
“Is that Petunia?” asked James, nodding his head in the browned hair girl’s direction.
“Mmm,” said Lily, quietly. James could tell that she wasn’t looking forward to going home. In fact, he thought as he looked round at his friends, no one seemed to be that happy. Neala had her arms around Sirius’ neck who was muttering in her ear. Peter was sitting on his trunk, dejectedly waiting for someone to come and pick him up. Lupin was hovering near James, obviously wanting to say goodbye to Lily.
“Think Remus wants you,” he said, looking over Lily’s shoulder at his friend.
“Oh,” she said and slowly walked over to him. James watched him put down his trunk and take Lily’s hands. He said something and Lily laughed, head back, before kissing him on the cheek and swiftly hugging him.
“See you lot in August,” called Remus. They all called out farewells as he walked down the platform to meet a tall man with a beard who looked exactly like an older version of Remus. Lily returned to stand in front of James.
“I guess I should go too,” she said, looking at the ground. James nodded. They stood in awkward silence, both nervously examining their shoes. James felt, rather than saw, Lily look up at him.
“Oh,” she said, after a moment. “This is stupid.”
She put her soft hands to his face and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. He snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her closer so that he could feel her body against his. Somewhere, he heard Sirius wolf whistle. Slowly, she pulled away from him, looking flushed.
“I hope your mum didn’t see that,” he said, smiling. Lily laughed and looked up at him with those eyes. Suddenly, she reached out a hand and put it to his head in an attempt to flatten his hair.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that,” she whispered. “Bye, Potter.”
“Bye, Evans.”
After kissing her quickly on the head, he let go of her and saw Neala rush up to her, looking delighted. Sirius approached him.
“Get in there, mate,” he said, punching him lightly on the arm.
“Shut up,” said James, grinning.
Lily, having said goodbye to Neala, picked up her trunk and, with one last look back at the group, walked down the platform with her mother and sister until she was out of sight.
Neala came up to James, smiling.
“Nice one,” she said, happily. “See you in August.”
They hugged and James looked away as she and Sirius shared a final kiss. They watched her blonde head bob away down the platform and James caught sight of his parents, talking to another wizard they must know through work.
“See you in a week, mate,” said James, turning to Sirius. “You need a lift home?”
“Nah,” said Sirius, shrugging. “I can walk.”
“All right. Don’t go evil while I’m away.”
Sirius laughed.
“I’ll try,” he said. “See you.”
With a wave in Peter’s direction, James picked up his trunk and made his way through the fast dispersing crowd to his parents.
“Hello, Son,” said his father, taking his trunk from him and ruffling James’ hair. “Good term?”
James grinned.
“Yeah, pretty good,” he replied. A flash of red caught his eye and he saw Lily turn the corner of the car park and out of sight.
AN: Woo! So I finally got round to putting this up.
It's so odd because my writing style now (I'm halfway through chapter 15) is so different and the characters are so much more real and I feel like I know them better so I really don't like this chapter any more. Lol. But, hey, it gets better.
Anyway, hope you liked it and please review. Thanks xxLivsxx