Lily Evans pushed her overloaded trolley through the brick barrier between platforms nine and ten. She arrived on platform nine and three-quarters, her Muggle mother quickly following behind her.
“I don’t think that I will ever get use to that,” her mother muttered, a worried look on her slightly wrinkled face.
Dozens of people, young and old, stood around greeting friends and saying goodbyes to loved ones. A long, scarlet steam engine stood at the far end of the platform, waiting patiently for its passengers to climb aboard. On the side, in gold lettering, it read: ‘The Hogwarts Express’.
“Now, are you sure you have everything?” Mrs Evans asked her daughter.
“Yes, Mum. I checked eight ti-” Lily was cut off by a voice calling to her. A voice she hated. Lily turned to see James Potter jogging towards her, his messy black hair getting messier with every step.
“Lily!” He said, smiling widely. “It’s so good to see you again.” He turned to Mrs Evans. “And this must be your mother. Now I know where Lily gets her good looks from.” He stuck out his hand. “James Potter.”
Mrs Evans shook James’ hand gently. “So you’re the James Potter I heard so much about.”
“Only good things, I hope.” James let out a laugh and turned back to Lily, smiling. “Oh, Lily, you shouldn’t be pushing a huge trolley like this! Here, let me.” He grabbed the trolley from her and hurried away.
“Persistent git!” Lily moaned.
“Oh, honey, James seems like a nice boy.”
“Oh please! You don’t have him asking you out every five minutes. He’s such a prat.”
Mrs Evans shook her head and looked down at her watch. “Hmm, you’d better get going, sweetheart.”
Lily gave her mother a hug and turned away. Mrs Evans caught her arm. “And Lily, do give the boy a chance. Or at least try to be civil.”
Lily grimaced as she climbed aboard the train. To the Prefect compartment first, then to find my stuff. She was still a bit annoyed at James’ behaviour. At least I didn’t have to push my trolley around myself. She headed toward the front to the train where the Prefect compartment was located. The train was already moving away from the station as parents waved goodbye to their children.
Lily stopped at the door of the big compartment and slid it open. Most of the Prefects were already there, not to mention James. She was about to question his being there, but stopped herself when she saw the Head Boy badge pinned to the front of his robes. Ignoring the slight anger in the pit of her stomach, she flopped herself down next to a Ravenclaw Prefect.
“It’s great to have you all here. Now, I’ll have your schedules to you by tomorrow morning. I think that there should be two Prefects to every car.” Everybody nodded and got up, crowding out the door.
“I put your things in compartment 5B,” James whispered to her as he passed.
Lily walked toward the compartment where her things were. As she walked past each compartment, she glanced in to see if her friends were there.
5B. My stuff better be here, Lily thought, opening the door.
“Oh, hello, Lily,” Laura Thrope greeted her from behind her book. “Would you care to sit down?’
“Hey, Laura,” Lily looked up to see her trunk on the luggage rack. “Uh, sure.” Lily threw herself down opposite of the blonde-haired girl.
“Where are your friends? You’re usually sitting with them.”
“Uh, I’m not quite sure. I haven’t seen them yet,” Lily said, shuffling her feet. Boy, this is awkward. “Do you always sit by yourself?”
Laura looked up, taken aback by the question. “N-not always. Most of the time there are different people, who don’t have anywhere to sit, here with me.”
“I’m sorry,” Lily said hastily. “That was rude. I’m just… not in that great of a mood.”
“Why?”
“James Potter.”
“Did he do something to you?” Laura asked, tilting her head.
“Well, no, but-“
“Then why are you mad?”
Lily looked at Laura studying her. She had shiny blonde hair and blue eyes. Her face was round and her skin pale. Even though they had shared a room for six years, Lily had never really been close to Laura. The other girl always seemed to have her nose stuck in a book.
“I don’t know,” Lily admitted.
“Okay. I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I’d like to get back to my book.”
Lily nodded and stared out the window at the passing trees.
Halfway through the trip there was a soft knock on the door. Lily slid the door open to reveal a third year Gryffindor holding a note.
Ah, finally. My friends must be missing me by now, Lily joked to herself, smiling.
“Are you Laura Thrope?” The girl looked past Lily. “I have a note for you.”
Lily’s jaw dropped. Her friends hadn’t even come looking for her! She moved out of the girl’s way and sat back down, blushing. Laura took the note and thanked the girl. The girl raised an eyebrow at Lily before leaving.
“Oh, my!” Laura cried looking up at Lily.
“What? What does it say?”
“Paul Bell wants me to go and sit with him and some of his friends!” Laura squealed.
“Well, go!” Lily told her, smiling.
“I don’t think... I don’t want to leave you alone. That would be awfully rude,” Laura trailed off.
“Don’t worry about me, Laura. I’ll be fine by myself,” Lily assured her.
“Well, okay, but I’ll sit with you on the ride up to the castle, I promise.” Laura gathered her bag quickly and hurried out the door, waving briskly to Lily.
Lily was alone for the first time in a long time. Since it was getting dark outside, they had lit the lanterns in each compartment and the hall. Lily tried to look out of the window, but with the reflection of the light, it was near impossible. Lily took a deep breath before something caught her eye. Under Laura’s previous seat was the book she had been reading. Looks like she was too excited to see Paul, Lily thought, getting to her knees to grab it. Sitting on the floor, she studied the cover carefully. It was a heavy leather-bound book of brilliant green. The writing on the cover was in gold.
‘How To Win His Heart’ by Lady Arilla Stone.
Lily jumped at the sound of the door sliding open and a voice.
“You know, Evans, you don’t need to read that. You already have my heart.” In the doorway stood James Potter and his friends; Sirius Black tutted and Peter Pettigrew smothered a laugh. Remus Lupin stood behind them, looking at the floor.
“What? No, it’s not mine!” Lily told them defensively. She let out a sigh. “What do you want?”
“Old James here couldn’t stop talking about you, so we thought we would pay you a visit,” Sirius told her, sitting down opposite her, his hands behind his head. Remus and Peter followed him in, one taking a seat next to Lily and the other standing by the door.
“So, how about it, Lily, care for a stroll around this most glorious train?” James asked her, sitting down next to Sirius, shooting Remus a dark look for taking his seat next to Lily.
Lily heard Remus mutter something about James and prat. She glanced at him. He caught her eye, blushed, and looked away quickly.
“Don’t make me laugh. I wouldn’t go anywhere with you even if we were the last two people on earth, James.”
“Ouch. Now, don’t be like that. I know you truly feel something for me.”
“Yeah, I do, but I can tell you it’s not love. I’d rather go with Black than you,” Lily told him smugly.
James threw Sirius a dirty look and punched him in the arm.
“What can I say? I’m irresistible,” Sirius said lazily.
“If you don’t mind, we’ll be at Hogwarts soon and I need to change,” Lily told the boys, standing up.
“We don’t mind,” James told her, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Out…now!” she barked, pointing at the door.
The boys quickly got up and headed out of the door. Turning around, James blew Lily a kiss before sliding the door shut.
With the Sorting Ceremony behind them, Lily and Laura, along with other Gryffindors, headed up to the seventh floor.
“Paul is so amazing,” Laura told Lily for the tenth time.
“That’s nice.”
They walked up to the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the portrait hole.
“Listen, Laura, I need to work on the schedules. I’ll be up in a bit okay?” Laura nodded and turned to go up to their dorm.
“Ready to get to work?” James stood behind Lily a smile on his face. Nodding Lily sat down on the couch in front of the fire and started writing on a piece of parchment.
“Now, I think that our best bet is to maybe put the house Prefects on together so that they don’t have to make the journey to find their partner. It’s pretty easy to follow. What do you think?” Lily looked over at James who sat on one of the armchairs.
“I think that it’s perfectly fine. Are we done yet?” A slightly bored look came over James face.
Lily sighed. “Yes, we’re all done. Good night.”
Lily walked up the stairs and pushed open the seventh year girls’ dormitory door.
“So about Paul,” Laura said as soon as Lily walked into the room. “He’s really funny, too.” A dreamy look washed over Laura’s face. “And smart and cute and-”
“Laura,” Lily said, turning to her, “Sleep.”
Laura nodded and started to undress. Lily followed suit and pulled on her pale yellow pyjamas. She watched as her friend climbed in to bed, wished her goodnight, and pulled the curtains across. Making sure Laura couldn’t see her; Lily pulled the green book out of her trunk and jumped into her bed pulling the curtains tight. She had thoughts throughout the Sorting Ceremony about giving the book back to Laura, but just thinking about the book made her wonder what the girl was so interested in.
With the light from her wand she started to read:
‘The first thing you need to know about winning your warlock’s heart is that boys don’t like plain, dull girls. You also have to be yourself, unless, as I have stated before, you are plain and dull- then you can be someone else.
Boys like outgoing girls. If you are not outgoing, they will not notice you. The next thing you need to know is that males like girls that take pride in their looks. Make-up is a must, as is lovely, but stylish, hair.’
What kind of foolishness is this? Lily asked herself. What self-respecting woman would listen to this? She read on:
’Men also like to feel superior. To achieve this you have to make him feel as though he is smarter than you. Also, if he wants something, don’t be afraid to bring it to him.’
Lily slammed the book shut and shoved it under her bed. Why would Laura read such a thing? It’s completely superficial.
“Complete rubbish,” she muttered, yawning.
If You Change Your Mind by Sagen
Story Notes:
I would like to thank my betas, Stacey (iloverupertgrint) and Natalie (hestiajones), Elene (CoolCatElly) and also Russia (Russia Snow) for all of her help. You really couldn't ask for better people.
This is a sequel to my story, Daddy's Little Girl.
Chapter Notes: I'm not JKR, and I never will be. I'm just borrowing her stuff for a bit.
Chapter Endnotes: Thanks for reading! What did you like? What did you hate? Tell me with a review! :)