September first. There was so much promise in that date. It was the day all magical kids went back to Hogwarts, yes, but for Lily, it promised so much more. She liked to look at it as the start of brand-new adventure.
Yet every adventure has its interesting start, not unlike this one.
“Ouch! Merlin, you stepped on my toe!”
“I did not, Lily Evans. Your bag dropped on your toe.”
“Whatever.”
Lily was a little cranky. (Okay, probably more than a little cranky.) Sirius had woken up the entire household at five o’clock in the morning, jumping on Lily’s bed while screaming, “Wake up! WAKE UP!” Lily had screamed at him to shut the bloody heck up, for Merlin’s sake, and now her voice was hoarse. To give herself an energy boost, she had decided to drink a large cup of extra strong coffee with lots of sugar. SamLin had been afraid that Lily would’ve been jumping off the walls with all the caffeine in her body, but now she just had a wretched headache.
Other than that, she was pretty excited for the first day of school. All of them had gone shopping at Diagon Alley a couple weeks back. They had run into Alice and Katie, but Emily was nowhere to be seen. Lily could only hope she wasn’t somewhere in Knockturn Alley shagging a seventeen-year-old in a secluded alleyway. She may not approve of Emily’s behavior, but it wasn’t something you could ignore.
“Here’s a compartment,” SamLin said, sliding open the door.
Lily immediately sat down and stared out the window, looking at the moving scenery. SamLin managed to heave her and Lily’s suitcases up on the rack. She sat down next to Lily.
“Do have any money for the Trolley Lady?” SamLin asked, looking through her change purse. She frowned, seeing only one Knut.
Lily shook her head. She hated herself for being a loud, complaining crab, so she took to being a silent one.
“Merlin, there you are!”
SamLin and Lily turned their heads. There was Emily and Katie. Immediately, they entered the compartment and flopped down onto the seats.
“We haven’t seen you since...” SamLin looked thoughtful. “Actually, it was two weeks ago, Kate.”
Katie scowled, but it was a sweet one. “I refuse to tolerate even one second of being called Kate “”
“Of course, since your real name is Katharine,” Lily reminded her cheekily. She couldn’t help it.
Katie rolled her eyes. “You guys aren’t helping. Can I help it if my mother and father were into long names, and despised short ones?” Katie had about three middle names, which no one could ever remember.
Emily remained silent as the other girls teased each other mercilessly, which wasn’t common.
“Hey, Em,” SamLin said gently, standing up and sitting next to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Katie,” Emily suddenly said sharply. “I think you have a prefects’ meeting right now.” Emily said it in a way not to remind her, but to make her go.
Lily looked at Katie, expecting some sort of yell, but the black-haired girl got up and left the compartment.
“I don’t really like Katie anymore,” Emily blurted out once the door to the compartment slammed shut, staring at her two other friends straight in the eye.
Pause. “Why?” SamLin asked.
Emily shifted in her seat. “You know. It’s just that she’s kind of weird. And smart. Yeah, Lily, I know you’re smart. It’s just she seems to go around and make sure people know she’s smart, right? So I don’t trust her.” Emily said her last sentence with a note of finality.
Lily’s eyes narrowed. Katie Carroll was one of her best friends. She didn’t flounce around and say what the twelve uses of dragon’s blood were. And she was weird, but they all were, in their own strange ways.
“So I had to get her out of here,” Emily continued. “Before I can tell you that I am in love.”
Lily was shocked and SamLin’s mouth hung open. “With who?” they both asked at the same time.
“W“” Suddenly, Emily was cut off by an argument taking place right outside the compartment. Lily could see the silhouettes of a tall person and a short person with her hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“Merlin! I can’t believe you, Alice! You agree to dance with me “”
“No, Longbottom! Emily set me up! That is the only freaking reason I danced with you!”
“Alice, don’t use bad language.”
“That was a little random,” Emily remarked, listening keenly. Lily could tell this was just another fight for her to gossip about.
“Shh,” Lily said, waving her hand around to silence Emily.
“Me?! Me! You’re asking me to stop using” “ At this point, the voice of Alice got suddenly shrill “ “bad language? Excuse me, but who’s the one hanging with the Marauders and laughing your little arse off and hexing and also swearing at little first and second years?! Yes, it’s you Longbottom!”
“Alice, I am just trying to have a mature “”
“Mature?! You call this mature, Longbottom? Having an argument...” Alice’s voice dropped a bit, but the three girls in the compartment could still hear her. “...with your worst enemy?”
“Alice,” they heard Frank Longbottom say as his silhouette grabbed Alice’s shoulders. “I just asked you to go to Hogsmeade. I thought you might’ve changed, but no, you blow up at me. Why?”
“Why are you asking?” Alice asked fiercely, but Lily could tell she was losing control of the situation and her voice wasn’t as confident.
“I’ve probably asked you thousands of times, and usually you just say, ‘In you dreams.’ Then “ and I’m assuming this “ you probably go to Samantha “”
“SamLin,” Alice hissed.
“Right, HamLin “” At this point, SamLin looked extremely offended at being called ‘HamLin.’
“SamLin,” Alice repeated, sounding exasperated. “You know,” she said, “how are you supposed to win the heart of a girl by asking her out millions of times and then forget her friends’ names?”
Frank ignored her. “Well, you just probably go to your little friends and laugh your little arses off about me. But never, ever, have you ever brought up a fight about it.”
“Then you’re just lucky,” Alice said menacingly.
“Alice Laurel Swith “ Yes, I do know your middle name “”
“You stalker!” Alice accused.
“Anyway,” Frank continued, obviously gritting his teeth. “Has it ever occurred to you, Alice Swith, that I’m asking a dozen times to see if you’ll say yes? Say yes to a date to Hogsmeade?”
“Duh,” she said, even though SamLin got that look on her face when she knows one of her friends is lying.
The Frank silhouette leaned forward so he was nearly eye-to-eye with Alice. “Speak now or forever hold your peace, Alice.”
“What are you, some kind of Muggle something?” Lily saw Alice turn her head to see Frank’s hands on her shoulders. “And get your bloody hands off of me.”
There was a sigh and Frank’s arms crossed. “Alice, aren’t you going to say anything?”
Pause. Silence.
“Fine, don’t,” he said, and started to walk away.
“Not really,” Alice suddenly piped up. Lily could tell she was nervous, not her usual brave self. She could see her friend wringing her hands.
Emily, SamLin, and Lily could see Frank whirl around. “Okay, then. Saturday. Lake. Midnight. And if you don’t come and agree to go to Hogsmeade with me, I’ll tell the entire school your middle name.”
Lily could picture a scowl on Alice’s face. “Fine. Blackmail me all you want, but I’ll stand by what I’ve always said.” And he walked away, most likely smirking.
Alice entered the compartment, her suitcase in her left hand. There was silence. “Great to see you too, guys,” she said sarcastically. More silence. Alice groaned. “Please do not tell me that you heard me and Frank’s argument...”
Lily raised her eyebrows. “Frank?”
They could all see the forming blush on Alice’s cheeks. She rolled her eyes, trying to cover it up. “Don’t be a hypocrite, Lily. We know that the same kind of scenario happened at Netherfield.”
Lily’s eyes shot daggers at SamLin. “You told them?” Part of SamLin being sick in bed meant Lily moaning about all her problems with James, especially when he asked her to the dance.
SamLin shrugged. “They have a right to know. You went to the bathroom, so at the Florean Whatever-his-name-is’s Ice Cream Parlor, I told them.”
“But J “ I mean Potter and I don’t fight. We have never gotten along and choose to give each other the cold shoulder. Until, at least, that...incident.” Thinking about it made a blush form on Lily’s cheeks, too.
“Admit it, Lils,” Emily said in a bored voice, inspecting her nails once again. “You like him.”
“Stop masquerading as a different person, Lily Evans,” SamLin added.
“And speaking of masquerading, SamLin, you better stop doing it, too. Also, casually mention to Sirius that soon you’d like include some personal shagging time, get married, and have lots of kids,” Lily said matter-of-factly.
SamLin’s mouth dropped open. “You know that?” she squeaked.
“Don’t keep up the ruse, Miss Anderson,” Emily said wisely. “Pretending you’re not that interested is going to make him believe that you do not want to have a good shag, which is very bad for you, since you do.”
SamLin hit her head with her hand, defeated. “I guess we’re all not in a position to give advice, if we’re all just bad hypocrites.”
Alice and Lily nodded solemnly, but Emily just rolled her eyes.
*
“There’s something wrong with me!” James yelled to the people in his compartment “ Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Frank “ while waving his arms around. “I mean, if Frank can manage to get a sort-of date out of Alice, how can I not do it with L “ Evans?”
“I thought you said you didn’t like her,” Peter piped up. Frank and Sirius hit him using their Acid Pops.
“Try to please keep up with the program, Pete,” Sirius groaned.
“I am,” Peter said, scowling and rubbing his head.
“I didn’t like her,” James said, pacing around the compartment. “I didn’t.”
“Why?” Remus asked.
“I thought something was wrong with me. We’ve had a mutual loathing, but it’s nowhere near Swith’s and Frank’s, and I just accepted that. Suddenly, though, I felt compelled to just ask her out. I don’t even know why.” James ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Everyone in the compartment stared at him. “There’s something about her, like what Sirius said about an aura around SamLin.”
“This is crazy,” Sirius muttered, munching on a Cauldron Cake.
“Do you think I haven’t thought of that?” James suddenly exploded. “Do you think I haven’t thought to myself how...ridiculous this is?! I mean, I dislike her, and then I like. I have tried to talk myself out of it, but it’s impossible.” He stared out the window, watching the scenery rush by. “And just when I feel that she’s going to give me a chance, it just slips out of my hands.” James looked down at his hands, as if it was their fault.
“James,” Remus said, standing up and looking at him. “I think you just have to come face to face that you like her, and stop thinking about the social ladders of Hogwarts, or what her background is.”
“I think it’s more complicated than that,” Sirius chimed in. “I mean, Prongs, you’re a basket case. I think you’re psychotic and need therapy or possibly anger management.”
Remus shot him that ‘you’re-definitely-not-helping’ look as James rolled his eyes.
“I think it’s all really simple.” They all stared at Frank. He chewed on his bubblegum thoughtfully. “I mean, all you have to do is not behave like the prat that everyone thinks you are, and you’ve got yourself a date. That’s what I did,” he said proudly, snapping his gum.
James immediately started waving his arms around again. “That’s the problem! I just can never seem to act like that person around her. I always have to be arrogant, proud, and cold. I can hardly smile without worrying if I’ve got something in my teeth!”
“Merlin, stop worrying!” Frank yelled. James stopped and stared at him. “Good,” he said, resuming his loud chewing again. “Okay, James. Advice: Tell her your feelings. I’ve made my feelings obvious, and maybe that’s what you think too about Evans, but you have to tell her. Confirm her suspicions. Females love this sort of thing.”
“Tell her?” James asked in disbelief. “Just tell her and expect “ Poof! “ everything to become perfect and for her to come running into my arms?”
Frank shrugged. “Well, it’s a start.” The others nodded.
“Okay,” James said slowly, running a hand through his hair again.
“But,” Remus suddenly said, “if you want to confess, do it soon.”
“Why?” all four other boys asked him.
“Well, at the Netherfield Ball, I wouldn’t exactly say that Lily’s behavior toward your cousin wasn’t cordial. It was flirting.” Remus looked slightly nervous at having said this.
“WHAT?!” James roared, making everyone jump. “She was flirting? And was he hitting on her? Merlin, I’m going to kill his sorry little a “”
“James.” Remus held up his hand, which silenced his friend. “It’s normal. You have to let her know how you feel though before she stomps on your heart with someone you hate. And in the meantime,” he added, “don’t kill your cousin.”
James scowled. “Out of all of Hogwarts, it had to be Willard...”
Everyone was silent. They all knew about the tension between Willard and James and their past, and preferred not to bring it up.
“Another reason,” Peter said slowly, “is the fact that Sirius’ cousin” (here Sirius scowled; he hated any mention of his family these days) “is practically all over our James here.”
“She is?” Sirius and James asked in unison.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Frank asked. “I mean, she wouldn’t get off your back at the Netherfield Ball and when you danced with Evans, she looked like she was ready to murder.”
James sank down into his seat. “Great. Just great. Yet another problem for the infamous James Potter.”
Silence.
“Look, Prongs,” Sirius said, sitting down next to him. “Eat some candy and try to nap. After all, with what seems to be ahead of us this year, you’re going to need it.”
Is it Pride or Prejudice? by Stormbringer
Chapter Notes: School starts again, along with a long-going feud, a grumpy attitude, and a plan--more of those changes that Lily despises.