KAILYNN'S GAZE WAS COMPLETELY transfixed on her window as the Scarlet Steam train swept across the countryside, billowing puffs of smoke dissipating into the air as it travelled by. on the rolling hills and mountainside outside the window.

The countryside stretched before her like a great quilt of golden, brown and green squares held together by the thick green stitching of the hedgerows. It rose and fell like giant waves on a gentle ocean and was dotted with animals. Occasionally there was a wood that separated the fields, or a farmhouse or barn, but it was mostly open fields.

But her peaceful contemplation was abruptly cut short as the compartment door was slammed open, causing the window rattled dangerously and the door bounce back on to the furious individuals' arm.

Thick, dark red hair and bright green almond-shaped eyes were all the poor Ravenclaw was able to see before a body threw her off her seat, a loud, irrigated scream almost bursting her eardrum as they both tumbled to the floor.

"I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!"

Snickering from the compartment entrance prompting Kailynn to look up and frowned at the smug looking culprit, painfully trying to ease the tight grip her friend had on her so that she could get off the dirty floor.

"Are you really sure about that, Lils?" The other girl teased. "You looked pretty cosy back there, if I do say myself."

This only caused the red-haired girl to let out another scream and squeezed the Ravenclaw girl tighter.

"Lily, would you possibly mind-" Kailynn wheezed out, her elbows becoming sore from keeping both herself and her friend from collapsing completely to the floor. "-moving a bit?"

With a squeak off embarrassed surprise, the girl practically leaped off her, hands going to her mouth as she apologised profusely to her slightly-blue-in-the-face friend. "It's just- ugh! He makes me so mad sometimes, like I could just rip his dragon sized egotistical head off and feed it to an actual dragon!" She huffed, lending a hand to Kailynn to help her off the dirty floor.

"That's not the only thing you want to rip off, isn't it, Evans." The girl in the doorway said with a dramatic wiggle of her eyebrows as she lazily flopped on a seat. "And speaking of dragon sized, have you ever-"

"Marlene!"

Sporting a small smile, Kailynn shook her head at her loud friends as they bickered back and forth about making the appropriate comments at the appropriate times. "So why exactly do you hate him this time?" She asked quietly, both curious and wanting to calm the growing argument.

If she had thought Lily was mad before, the fire that ignited in her eyes surely proved her wrong, even before she had opened her mouth to explain.

"That plug-ugly, mingebag, toerag of a git!" She spat, eyes wide and furious, her fists clenched tightly in ager. "I don't know how he did it and I don't wantto know how he did it, I just wish that he didn't do it!"

Kailynn's gaze steadily became more confused and concerned as her friend continued to rant and insult the boy, somehow managing to make herself even more angry in the process.

"What did he do?" She whispered to Marlene, fearing the consequences of interrupting Lily's tirade and facing her wrath. However, her stealth was deemed pointless at the screech of anger that the Gryffindor produced when Marlene answered her question.

"James Potter is Head Boy."

The realisation that dawned on her face was instant, her eyes conveying her sympathy for Lily as she bit her lip and leaned back in her seat.

"Oh."

The next couples minutes of the train ride was spent trying to convince Lily that James Potter was in fact not going to be her 'impending doom'.

Within their little trio, the two Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw, they have a tradition. It's not a particularly complex tradition, and nor does it have any particularly special meaning behind it, but it somehow came to be and the girls had suck by it religiously as for some reason, it allowed them to not only learn more about each other and sometimes, themselves, but it also allowed them to forget about the worries of the world outside the safe confides of the train.

And no, it's not playing 'Truth, Dare or Fire Whiskey.'

"But that makes no sense!" Marlene whined, her head tipping back with an eye roll and a groan. "We've been on this for half an hour now, and the only conclusion I can draw, is PENIS!" She shouted, arms flailing around as she made her point for that the thousandth time. "It is literally the only possible answer!"

It was a game of riddles, cleverly titled, 'Riddle Me This.' Full credit goes to Marlene.

"Well it's certainly not the answer to this!" Lily told her forcefully, equally as frustrated and visibly uncomfortable with how flippantly the other Gryffindor used the male anatomy in her sentences. "And seeing as that's not the answer, could you pleasestop finding excuses to say pe- that word!" She hissed, red flushing quite easily to her cheeks. She looked around fugitively, as if someone was going to haul her away to Azkaban for saying penis.

Well beyond the stage of reason, Marlene raised an eyebrow in challenge, the brief smirk that resided on her face disappeared as she opened her mouth dramatically wide and took a deep breath-

"PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PENIS! PE-"

"OH MY GOD, SHUT UP!"

Kailynn watched her two crazy friends argue back and forth in quiet amusement, not usually the one to participant in any sort of loud activities. True to her Ravenclaw name, the girl had told them tricky, but seemingly simple riddle, and had taken out a book to read while Marlene and Lily had their heated discussion about the answer – as per usual.

"What's this I hear about penises?"

The effect was instant.

It was like the compartment had been rapidly filled with water from the Black Lake and just as rapidly being drained, leaving the two previously arguing girls void of their intense and exuberant emotions. Instead, they were filled with varying degrees of dread – albeit, all three had different reasons. But just as soon as the fire left Lily's eyes, it came back in full force, making Kailynn vaguely surprised that her hair hadn't followed suit and caught ablaze.

"Potter." She ground out, teeth grit, eyes narrowed and back so rigid she could put Professor McGonagall to shame.

If her tone of voice and aggravated body language were meant to deter the confidence-oozing boy, then they were doing a very good job. In anything, it was having the exact opposite of the desired effect. This was proved by the growing of his grin and the quick ruffle of hair to make it even messier that what it was as he stood there in his full and true cocky, Macho Man glory. "You haven't answered my question, Evens." He replied, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

She huffed indignantly and refused to make eye contact with him. "None of your business, Potter." She said snidely. But in true Gryffindor style, James Potter simply lifted his hands to his heart and clutched it, a very dramatic and pain filled expression on his face as he leant against the doorframe.

"Oh, Evans, how you wound me. My sweet, sweet Lily-flower, I never knew you could be capable of such cruelty."

"Shove off." Was Lily's only response, to which he found great amusement in. Knowing that he would get no more out of the girl of his dreams, he briefly looked at the other Gryffindor, but was met with a swift 'no' and a smirk before he even got his question out. Pouting like a kick puppy dog, he turned to his last resort, who was currently trying to become one with her book in order to not attract attention.

"Kaiilyyyynnn." He sang, causing her to try and bury her head further into the upside-down book, if that was even possible. "Kailynn, you know you want to tell me. Just look at these poor puppy dog eyes. Who could possibly resist these babies?"

In a split second of momentary weakness, the girl glanced up and was met with the full power of Puppy Potter. Knowing that she would be unable to hold the fort that protected her social awkwardness, she sent a silent, but desperate plead with her eyes to her two friends. However, that proved to be useless as one girl simply smirked at her, and the other mouthed 'don't you dare' with a murderous gleam in her eyes. But all it took one was one more glance at Potters' infamously hazel puppy dog eyes and she was almost be ready to sacrifice her cat to get off his radar.

"It's a game!" She blurted out, and immediately felt the beginnings of a blush creeping into her ears at her unnecessarily loud voice. She cleared her throat and carefully marked her place in the book, tactfully ignoring Lily's piercing glares. "We were playing a game."

Confused, James' face scrunched and he wiggled his nose in way that many of the female population would fight each other to see in such proximity. "A game? What kind of game is about penis? I mean, I know a fair few myself, I can even give you a little demonstration, if you know what I-"

"Like I said, Potter, none of your business." Lilly interrupted, both Kailynn's and her own face going red at his provocative suggestion.

"No, you know what?" Marlene said slowly, a smug smirked plastered across her face. "I think it is his business."

Lily's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide as she stared at her in disbelief, unable to comprehend that one of her best friends would just betray her like that.

"What?" James asked dumbly, but Marlene just waved his confusion away with a lazy flick of her hand.

"Go get the rest of your posse, and bring them back here." She grinned devilishly at Lily and cracked her knuckles, ignoring the slightly alarmed look that the she and Kailynn shared. "We're going to settle this once and for all."

With a slight narrowing of his, James also adopted a smirk and crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow in intrigue. "And what do I get out of this?"

"Lily will let you snog her till your hearts content."

Completely ignoring Lily's heated protest, his eyes lit up and he pumped his fist into the air, a large and happy grin overtaking his face, making him look like a kid who had been banned from chocolate being told they could eat the entire chocolate supply at Honeydukes.

Suffice to say, he wasted no time in stumbling out of the doorway and tearing down the length of the carriage, all the while practically screaming the names of his fellow Marauders.

Pulling her gaze away from the door, Kailynn immediately wished she had just stayed in bed that morning, curled up with a nice book and a very sugary dark hot chocolate.

'I cannot believe you two!" Lily berated the two girls, hitting them respectively on the head with her hard cover book. The Ravenclaw's face somehow contorted in a look of confusion, remorse and pain at the same time as the red-head continued to glare at her supposed friends. "Why? Why on earthwould you think that telling Potter that we were playing a game with penises was a good idea- and yes, Marls, I said penis. Grow up."

"Somebody's a bit testy today." She sang in response.

"Oh, don't even get me started on you." Lily hissed, pointing her finger right in her face. "You not only invited the Potter's entire entourage, you told him he could kiss me! I did not consent to that!" Frowning slightly, Kailynn contemplated Lily's word choice as she breath deeply in an attempt to calm herself.

"But, wouldn't saying 'Potter's entourage' mean that James is an important person or figure that people follow?" She mused subconsciously, causing one of her friends to look at her like she was a box of sugar quills and galleons, while the other looked at her like she had just beenriding a motorcycle for two hours, wearing plastic rain pants as she had violent diarrhea. "I mean, most people would consider them all equally important, but the way you phrased that implies that not do you think James is important, but that you consider him to be the most important of them all, which completely goes against anything and everything you said about him in the past."

"Kailynn?" Lily said in a sweet voice, after a brief moment of stunned silence.

"Mm?" The Ravenclaw replied, a curious expression washing over her face. However, that was quickly shut down when Lily dropped the nice girl act and hissed out two words. "Shut up."

"You know." Marlene said after Kailynn slouched back in her seat, her arms crossed with a small pout on her lips as she looked outside the window. "With all that hissing you've been doing, one might think you were truly in Slytherin all along." She continued, sending a cheeky wink at the fuming girl.

"Lily Evans in Slytherin? I think not!"

For the third time that day, Kailynn's heart almost exploded from the large amount of vicious palpitations it performed within the span of a single second. A hand flying up to her heart, she turned her head to find three slightly out of breath boys, all somehow squished into the one doorway in attempt to see within the compartment.

"What happened, what's wrong." Remus' panicked voice asked, looming just behind James shoulder in order to search the small space. "James said it was life or death, but he refused to tell us anything." Seeing that the only thing mildly concerning was his frantic eyed friend, and the very out of breath Peter behind him, he raised an eyebrow at his aforementioned friend. "Clearly we were wrong to believe him."

"It is a matter of life and death." James insisted with wide eyes. "Lily said she'd let me kiss her if I got you guys to come here."

With a war cry to rival an Amazonian princess, Lily leaped out of her seat and gave the Gryffindor boy a deathly glare, her hands clenched so tightly they were white. "I have never and would never say anything remotely close to that you overzealous, arrogant, toerag!" Before she could try to rip his eyeballs out, Marlene intervened.

"Alright!" She yelled, standing up and placing a hand on the raging Lily's shoulder. "Enough with the sexual tension! I brought you here for a very important reason!"

"But you didn't." Kailynn pointed out meekly. "You got James to-" However, Marlene waved her away like a fly that was buzzing around her head before she could finish her sentence. "Your argument is invalid and irrelevant."

Sporting a slight pout, Kailynn turned and glanced the three boys, faintly realising that the trio was missing their fourth member. "Where's Sirius?" She asked curiously, becoming confused when James nudged Remus' side with a wide smile,

"Sirius couldn't come." Peter squeaked with a cheeky grin, poking his head under James' arm to see into the compartment. "He was too embarrassed t-"

"Ha, ha, he must be on the toilet, oh well." James said, slapping a panicked hand over Peter's mouth and smiling widely as he wrapped his arm around his neck. Marlene rolled her eyes huffed impatiently at their strange behaviour. "Well, wherever he is, it doesn't matter. I need your intellectual help to prove to Lily that her answer to Kailynn's' riddle, is wrong."

While, normally, Remus would try to avoid being involved in such over exaggerated and pointless debates, he couldn't help but be feel a small tingle of excitement about possibly being able to solve a riddle composed by the smartest girl in Ravenclaw. "What's the riddle?" He asked curiously, moving past James to take a seat, James and Peter quickly following suit and cramming themselves next to a very uncomfortable and angry Lily.

"Kailynn, if you'll do the honours." Marlene said dramatically, rolling her hand forward the way a presenter would to present a circus act. As she fiddled with the corners of her book, the Ravenclaw vaguely noted that Marlene loved to talk with her hands, whether it be exaggerated gestures, or just wild waving. In fact, now that she thought about, the girl noticed that the girl loved to talk in general, always finding an excuse to talk about something or other. Coming out of her thoughts, she cleared her throat, already feeling her ears burn at having everyone's attention on her. "Is this really ne-"

"Kailynn." Marlene said warningly. "It wasn't a question."

Heaving a sigh, she cast her eyes down at everyone's feet and muttered her riddle. "I am owned by every man, though my length differs. Their wives use me after getting married. What am I?"

"A penis." James said instantly, barely giving his answer a second thought as Remus frowned in disappointment, and Peter quickly started nodding his head in agreement. Marlene pointed her finger at Lily, a triumphant grin growing across her face. "Ha! He said penis too!"

"It's not penis! The answer is wealth."

James furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, not understanding her thought process. "How the bloody hell could it be wealth? It's obviously penis."

But by this point, Lily had reached her tipping point and was not in the mood to deal with explaining things intellectually. "You know what, Potter? Out! I want you out, right now." She said as she stood up, harshly grabbing him by the ear and throwing him out of the compartment. Peter quickly scrambled after him, fear of Lily's wrath causing him to crash into James in attempt to get away from her.

While she yelled at them for invading her personal space, and Marlene cackled evilly behind her, Remus sighed and lazily stood up, offering a small smile to a traumatised Kailynn.

"Sorry about them." He apologised sympathetically. "Unfortunately, they're not the best at being civil." Feeling far more comfortable with less attention on her, the girl let a shy, but kind smile grace her lips. "It's fine, they're not so bad. They're just a bit . . . energetic?"

He through his head back and laughed, ignoring the cries of his friends as got kicked away from getting near the doorway. "I swear Kailynn, if you were so smart, you would be the perfect Hufflepuff." He glanced back and sighed, regrettably finding his friends to be pouting pathetically at the fire breathing Lily. "I should probably go intervene before they get themselves killed." He said, moving to the door. But before he left, he turned back with a curious expression on his face. "By the way, what's the answer?"

"Sorry, Remus. Just going to have to figure that out yourself."