“James!” Lily heard Remus shout. Lily peeked over the top of Reviving Spells and nearly dropped it. She saw Remus ran as fast as he could towards James’s unconscious body and flip him over. Sirius stopped giggling abruptly and he and Peter Pettigrew, another friend, followed suit. Lily closed her book and jogged over to James and bent down next to Remus. Blood was flowing slowly from James’s forehead.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Remus responded, “He just… kind of…”
“Fainted?” Sirius suggested.
“When? Before he fell or after he fell?” Lily asked.
“Well… kind of in between, now that I’ve come to think of it…” Sirius remarked. “What do we do?”
“Well, if YOU had listened to me and put him down, none of this would have happened!” Remus shouted curtly.
Lily, who decided to take no notice of Sirius’s jokes, placed her hand an inch over James’ mouth.
“He’s not breathing!” she said in a stressed voice.
“Well DO something, Miss Smarty-Pants!” Sirius shouted at Lily. Lily withdrew her wand and pointed it at Sirius.
“Watch your mouth, Mr. Black,” she warned, “Before something foul comes out.” Sirius didn’t move a muscle. Lily, changing the direction of her wand tip and, instead, pointed it at James. She closed her eyes, whispered, “I know I’m going to regret this,” and then conjured the spell (“Respiraro.”).
A light blue spark shot out of her wand tip and it flew into James’s mouth and down his throat. Suddenly, James’ chest rose as he gasped for air. A second or two later, his breath became steady and normal.
“He’s alive!” Peter shouted, happily, thrusting his arms up towards the heavens.
“That’s not funny, Peter,” Sirius stated.
Peter immediately dropped his arms. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He then lowered his voice and said something else about being a total loser.
“You shouldn’t be the one apologizing. He should!” Lily shouted, pointing at Sirius.
“Well, sorry,” Sirius said in a mocking voice.
“Don’t mock me, Black,” she reminded, “I just saved your best friend’s LIFE!”
“And you’re Head Girl,” Peter added.
“Oh, shut up, the lot of you,” Lily grumbled.
“What should we do with him now?” Remus asked Lily.
“He should lie down,” Lily replied.
“O.K. What next?” Sirius inquired.
“I meant in a compartment, not on the platform floor!”
“Alright, alright! Geez…”
Remus and Sirius lifted James from the ground and carried him to the train. Peter followed.
Lily made to stand up, but she slipped and fell on something. Groaning, she picked it up. It was James’s wand.
“Wait, you forgot his wand…” Lily called out to the backs of Remus, Sirius, and Peter, but they had already gone. Lily pocketed it and carried her book. Lily resumed her position on the bench, reading it.
Half an hour later, a group of boys emerged from the wall. In their group, there was Amos Diggory. Lily’s heart fluttered.
Amos Diggory was every girl’s eye-catcher. He was astonishingly handsome, even though he was a bit arrogant.
Just like James, Lily thought.
Yes, except Amos is more… mature and never got in trouble, Lily argued with herself.
As they passed her, Lily greeted them with a friendly “Hello.”
“Hi, Lily.”
“Hey, Lily.”
“Nice badge.”
Everyone returned the greeting, except for Amos. Lily’s heart sank. She suddenly lost interest in what Gilbert Brigham had to say about knocking-out wild billywigs and went into her compartment and waited for her friends.
Five minutes later, Julianne, Lily’s friend, entered the compartment.
“Hi, Lily!” she said.
“Hello!” Lily answered.
“Did you have a nice summer?”
“Mmm… not bad. Yours?”
“Fine…” Julianne twirled her brown hair, swiftly lost in thought. “Oh, I got an owl from Sofia this morning.”
“Why? What happened?”
“She’s not coming this year.”
“What? Why not?”
Julianne owed her voice to whisper. Lily had to lean in closer to hear her.
“It’s because of… of You-Know-Who.”
“She’s not going to Hogwarts because of him?”
“That’s what I was told.” Julianne crossed her arms. Her eyes fell on Lily’s badge. “You’re Head Girl?!” she asked.
“Oh… yeah. I am.”
“You go girl!” cheered Julianne, “Potter better watch out for you. I’m gonna LOVE this year!” Julianne stretched her arms out as far as they would go and started to do a little victory dance.
“Julianne…” Lily laughed, playfully protecting her face with her arms, “Stop it!”
“Alright, alright.”
“What is this?” a girl with brown skin and black hair asked. “You are having fun without me?”
“Oh, Maya, we would NEVER had fun without you,” Julianne joked.
Maya smirked, strolled in the compartment and levitated her truck so it rested on the shelves above their heads. She sat down next to Lily and stared at her, intently.
Lily turned her head and faced Maya’s and gave her an expression that clearly asked, “What?”
Maya titled her head the other way and revealed, “I heard you talking about James Potter.”
Lily let out a short breath of air. “What?!?! Julianne was talking about him, not me.”
“Why don’t you like him? He’s so-”
“Arrogant, proud, nastily clever, trouble-making, annoying-”
Maya cut her in saying, “Charming, positively clever, independent, loyal, brave, and SUCH a true Gryffindor.”
Lily just shrugged. James fit all those categories that Maya described, but Lily believed that he found himself at home in her categories as well.
“Ooh, Maya, tell me my future!” Julianne jumped up and down. Maya’s mother was a Seer, and she had passed down her talent to her daughter.
Maya smiled, trying to be modest, lifted her wand, and shouted, “Accio crystal ball!” Her trunk burst open and a large, glass crystal ball flew into Maya’s hands. Maya closed her eyes and whispered, “Wingardium Leviosa!” The ball rose a few inches from her hands, and then paused in midair.
“Well, what do you see?” Julianne asked itching to find out. In their first year, Julianne refused to believe that Maya was a seer… until Maya predicted that Sirius would give her antlers, hooves, and a shiny, red nose for Christmas. So, after Julianne had rampaged after Sirius and gotten the spell reversed, Julianne believed everything Maya told her.
“Nothing... you're future it kind of boring, Juli..."
“O.K. O.K., Maya, I get it. What do you see for Lily?” Julianne looked kind of depressed, but Lily's future was always interesting.
“Hmmm…” Maya sat back up, still giggling, and Lily returned the ball. “I see… ooh… I see LOTS of stuff in your future, Lily. But it’s going too fast that I can’t recognize any of them…” She frowned for a moment, but then her expression lifted. “I see a silver stag being ridden someone…”
“Who?” Lily asked eagerly.
“I can’t tell, his back is turned… but he’s definitely a Hogwarts student with rather untidy black hair…”
“JAMES POTTER!!!” Julianne cried happily, “Oh. Lily, he’s rescuing you!”
“Yeah, from what?”
“I don’t know. The background’s all black.” Maya scratched her (thanks hippogriff9494!) chin, thoughtfully.
Lily checked her watch and jumped up. “Oh, I’m sorry guys, but I have to go to the head-compartment now. I’ll see you later.” Lily trotted out of the compartment and ran, headfirst, into none other than Amos Diggory.