Milly had survived her summer with her family. It's not that she didn't love her family, they were wonderful people but they were just so over the top sometimes it just annoyed her. Her little sister, Ava whined too much and her older brother, Alec just acted like he knew so much because he graduated from Hogwarts the past spring. Her mum always silenced her when it came to her views, and never really appreciated her art as much as she would like her too. Milly sat on the train waving to her family. She really did love her them and they loved her and that's what mattered. Her head turned at the sound of the train cart clicking open, her friend Darcie entered the train cart.
"Hey Mills!" Milly stood up at the sight of her friend and hugged her, "How was your summer?"
Milly helped her friend put her stuff in the compartment above their heads. "Crazy, my mums side of the family came up, you know how that can be," they laughed. Mully's mum was born in Italy, then moved to England when she was 5. So her mums side of the family was very large, her grandfather had 4 sisters and 1 brother, needless to say there were lot of relatives over for a couple of weeks. "How was yours?"
"Oh you know, same old same old, my brother being a jerk-butt," they laughed together.
There was a yell outside of the door and suddenly it whipped open. Standing in the doorway was a flustered Lilly. She stomped inside and sat down next to Darcie. "James Potter will be the death of me."
Milly rolled her eyes, "Hello Lilly how was your summer." James Potter was all Lilly talked about, Milly knew her hatred for him was just a mask, she knew Lilly loved him.
"Hello Mills it was great, how was yours?" She pushed her hair out of her face, collecting herself.
"It was crazy."
The friends caught up, talking about the summer adventures they had. Those three plus one other girl, Sabrina, were roommates since the beginning of 1st year. They were lucky they all got along very well. Sabrina had joined them half way into the journey to the school, along with her hufflepuff friends David and Vicky. Lilly left before they got there she had head girl duty, everyone liked to tease her about it. The marauders had bothered them a couple of times along the train ride but Sabrina and Milly had managed to shoo them away without having to do much damage to their self esteem, sadly.
"We should probably change into our school uniforms you know, we're almost to the school," Dacrie said.
Milly groaned "I hate that we have to wear uniforms, they're so stupid. Like why can't we wear our own clothes," she said as she pulled her clothes out of the trunk above her.
"Because they think we'll distract all the boys with our stunning bodies," Sabrina snorted.
Milly rolled her eyes. "Yeah ok."
The girls left and went to the bathrooms that were in the back of the train. They changed one at a time. By the time they were done the train was pulling up into the stop.
"Shit we should probably change quicker next time." Darcie said as they rushed to get their bags.
The crew made their way to the carriages through all the commotion of school. They all managed to pile into the carriage, with maybe one person too much but no one mind being squishy. Vicky and David were a thing so she sat on his lap to make room for Darcie. Milly was squished up against the window, the coolness of the window paine felt good against her warm cheek. She watched people walk past them, laughing and chatting. The marauders past by, she made eye contact with the one with the biggest head, Sirius. He winked at her and she rolled her eyes. He really bothered her, he was always flirting with the girls in the common room and making them squealy it pissed her off.
The carriage gave a lurch and they were off. Milly couldn't see the creatures that were attached to the carriage but Darcie could, she said it was because of she saw her cat die but Milly knew that was a lie but she didn't push. The ride there was quiet, except for a bit chatter, small talk really. Everyone was tired and hungry, they always got like that at the end of the trip to Hogwarts. Milly yawned as the carriage gave another lurch, their ride was over. They all spilled out of the carriage and made their way up to the castle. Luckily it wasn't a long walk, they made it to the enchanted hall in no time. The clouds were rolling in on the floating candles, it was going to rain tonight. David and Vicky bid goodbyes and walked over to the hufflepuff table.
"Hey, hey guys! Over here!" Lilly waved the three girls over to a seat at the gryffindor table.
Darcie waved as they walked over there. Milly was always so stunned at how beautiful the school was. It always looked so gothic but it didn't have that feel that most gothic castles gave off, this place gave off the feeling of safety. She sat down next to Remus and Darcie, as much as she complained about the Marauders when they were being hot headed teenage boys they were really nice people. So that wasn't very often, but she was able to put aside her annoyance for them most of the time and have conversations with them.
"'ello girls how was your time off, lovely I presume we didn't get to say hello much on the train ride," James said in a very formal manner with a smirk on his face.
"Oh it was so lovely, filled with unicorns and rainbows," Darcie muttered.
"That's so good to hear," James laughed.
"Lilly-flowers?"
Milly snorted and Lilly scowled. "Do not call me that James Potter! I have told you many times!"
They were all silenced by the first years who scurried in. They had a look of pure terror on their face. Milly giggled and leaned into Darcie.
"Remember when we were first years," she breathed out to Darcie "Didn't I trip you on your way up to the hat?"
"Yes! I hated you for that," they both giggled at their antics with one another in first year.
The hat opened it's mouth, the wrinkles in it protruded as it sang a very long song. Almost everyone knew the song by heart, they heard it every year.
"Malarne, Andrea," A short girl walked up, her hair was drawn tightly into a bun.
"Hufflepuff!"
"Cork, Frank,"
"Slytherin!"
"Pond, Amelia,"
"Gryffindor!"
"Kelly, Velma,"
"Hufflepuff!"
The list of first years went on, Milly ended up drowning them out. There were a lot of Hufflepuff kids this year, which was odd. Dumbledore said his usual speech, don't go into the forbidden forest, don't touch the whomping willow, death will follow. She felt Remus tense up when he mentioned the whomping willow, Milly took his hand and squeezed it giving him a warm smiled. She knew of his "little furry problem" she walked in on the marauders talking about it and she eventually pieced it together. She didn't mind, he was a sweet person who had a bad condition nothing more.
With a snap of Dumbledores fingers the food appeared and Milly's mouth was watering.
"Hot damn I love their food. Gimme some meatballs!" Milly said as she piled food onto her plate.
"I can give you some meatballs," Sirius said, winking at her.
"You are gross Black," Milly snapped at him. He chuckled and plopped some mash potatoes onto his plate.
Remus past her the plate of meatballs with a disgusted look on his face. "I do not know how you can eat that."
Remus was a vegetarian he said it was because when he tried to eat meat it reminded him of the things he ate as a werewolf, it's a pretty good excuse not to eat meat.
"It's tasty that's why Rem," she smiled at him.
"If you say so..." he chuckled.
They sat in silence for a bit, the teenagers scarfing down their food as if they've never been fed before. Milly leaned up against Darcie, her stomach felt as if it was going to explode.
"It's a new year guys, we're 6th years!" Sirius said with a sense of pride.
"Good job- Padfoot you can- count," Peter said between mouthfuls of green beans.
"Oh screw off wormtail, you know what I mean. We have to set our pranks to a whole new level," he said with a wild look in his eyes.
"Yeah!" James agreed "We have to do better than last year, no more half ass pranks."
"Oh lord," Darcie mumbled.
Milly closed her eyes, the squabbling of the marauders gave her a sense of familiarity that she missed. Lilly and Darcie talked softly about the class they were going to have, they were excited.
"Oi Milly, pie," Darcie pushed her head off of her shoulder.
"Mmmm pie," she opened her eyes, the table was filled with desserts that would make the Gods jealous.
She reached for the pumpkin pie that was in front of her but there was another hand on it.
"Hands off Black, this is my pie," Milly growled.
Sirius smirked at her, "Awh come on Mills I bet we can share it,"
"No get your own pie!"
"Coome oonnn you're not gonna eat the whole pie!"
"Watch me!"
Their friends laughed at the childish antics and Sirius was happy to have what was left of the pie. Which he was surprised to see which wasn't much.
People were beginning to make their way out of the great hall towards their dorms.
"Oh! Come on Remus, we got to show the little first years to their dorms!" Lilly said, jumping out of her seat.
Remus pushed his plate towards the middle of the table and nodded, "Oh yeah, well see you guys back there I guess."
They bid goodbye to their friends and rounded up the little first years.
"Well Laides, Prongs, Wormtail I'm going to head up, if you want to join me that's cool," Sirius said, standing and stretching making his shirt rise up and expose a bit of his stomach.
"Yeah I think I'll join you there buddy," James yawned, "all this food has made me tired."
"Me too," Peter pied up.
The three boys disapeared into the crowed, leaving the three girls to themselves.
"Damn those boys are weird," Sabrina sighed, standing up.
"Yeah, sometimes I wonder why we hang out with them," Milly chuckled.
The three of them made their way slowly towards the Gryffindor common room. They didn't really want to go there just yet so they walked slowly converseing about the things they hope to do together this year. The hallways hadn't changed since the last time they've been here, the castle seemed timeless. Milly smiled, this was the place she liked to be, it was home, she was home.