Hello! This is a Marauder-era story featuring the lovely characters Lily Evans and James Potter, whom we all love very much. Right? Right.
Disclaimer: Thank JKR.
Chapter 1: Alliteration
It was raining, cold gray monotonous rain that streamed down window panes and made everything so shiny it seemed as though the world had been coated in glaze. Not the most auspicious start to the day, Lily thought as she pushed her luggage trolley carefully through the crowd of people. Finally she arrived at the brick barrier between platforms 9 and 10.
"Ready?" she asked her parents. This was her last time to pass through the magical barrier as a student. It was the first of September, the beginning of her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and it was raining.
Her parents murmured assent and gripped her elbows as they passed through the barrier onto platform 9 ¾. Lily smiled at the sight of the scarlet steam engine. As a first year, she had been quite close to terrified as she had boarded it. Now she was elated to return to the magical world.
"LILY!" A dark-haired girl shrieked as she ran towards Lily and bowled her over in a warm embrace. "How are you? How was your summer? What –"
"Hold it, Diane," Lily said, laughing. "Save it for the train. Don't you want to greet my parents?"
"Of course!" Diane bounded up to them, not the slightest bit abashed. "Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Evans!"
"Hello, Diane," Lily's mother said, smiling. "How are you?"
"Very well, thank you. Oh no!" she cried. "It's 10:45! We'd better go!"
Lily hugged her parents. "I'll write you when I get there," she promised. Her father, Thomas, smiled down at her.
"Of course you will, sweetheart, Congratulations. Your mother and I are very proud of you," he said, patting her shoulder.
"We love you, Lily," her mother said. "See you at Christmas?"
"Of course," Lily smiled. "I love you too." Diane grabbed her wrist, but Lily hugged her parents one last time. "Bye!"
They waved her off. Lily helped Diane wheel her trunk toward the train. "Have you seen Mary or Marlene yet?" Lily asked. Mary MacDonald and Marlene Stewart were other friends of theirs.
"No, I haven't," Diane said. "We should go look for them!"
"Or we could get my stuff on the train and then go find everyone," Lily suggested, rolling her eyes at Diane's enthusiasm.
"Oh yes, let's do that," the other girl replied. Together they hugged the trunk onto the train. They entered their usual compartment, and Lily tried to hoist her trunk onto the luggage rack. A pair of arms reached around hers, helping her lift her trunk onto the rack, and a warm chest pressed into her back. Lily felt a twinge of annoyance and something else she couldn't quite place.
"Potter, just because we call each other friends does not mean I may rescind the title," she said sharply. "But thank you."
James Potter lowered his arms and ran a hand through his hair, almost tiredly. Then he sunk into an elegant bow. "You are quite welcome, Lily dearest."
She glared at him with those brilliant green eyes and sat down. Maybe he'd overdone it.
"What, I don't get a hug?" he complained. "I thought we were friends. And I thought we'd agreed to call each other by our first names."
Lily glanced up at him. "And your point is?"
James smirked and pulled her up from the seat, crushing her in a hug. After a split-second's hesitation, she hugged him back, almost relishing the comfort that he provided.
"When you're done hugging him, we have to go find Mary and Marlene. And everybody else," Diane said, smirking at Lily's behavior.
Lily blushed a flaming red and withdrew herself from James's arms. "Come on, then," she said, going out the door.
When she had gone, James turned to Diane. "Do you think I have a chance?" he asked quietly, nervously.
Diane was astonished. James Potter, nervous? Then she returned to his question. "With Lily? Definitely. Give it…three months. Now that you're friends, she'll realize…"
She never finished her sentence, however, as Lily came back in. "Are you coming?"
Diane winked at James. "Of course, Lils. Let's go."
Ten minutes later, Lily, Diane, and Mary were crammed into a compartment along with another friend, Marlene Stewart. They had all greeted one another and settled down for the train ride, when Lily remembered she had duties.
"I have to go," she exclaimed. "I'm Head Girl. See you!" And she was off to the prefects' compartment.
Mary turned to the other girls. "D'you know who's Head Boy?"
"Oh, yes," said Marlene, smirking. "James Potter."
Lily dashed into the compartment, thanking God that there were only two people in there, and she was not late. Then she realized who the two people were.
"Hi, Remus!" she said to a brown-haired young man of medium height. "How was your summer?"
"Lily!" Remus said as she hugged him. "Hello! It was pretty good. I stayed at James's for a while…how was yours?"
"Go – oh, hello again, Jam – Po – James," she said, glancing up at the tall, tousle-haired boy. "What are you doing here?"
James glanced at Remus and pressed something hard into Lily's palm. She examined the silver badge with the letters "HB" engraved on it. Then she glanced at Remus, utterly bewildered and shocked. Remus only nodded.
"Oh, er—congratulations," she said.
"CONGRATULATIONS?" James nearly shouted. Lily winced and covered her ears. "What d'you mean, congratulations? This isn't a cause for celebration or an astonishing accomplishment or a – er –"
"Verifiable victory?" Lily suggested, extremely amused.
"Yes! This is the end of my career! How shall I ever manage mischief and mayhem, and harbor havoc when I am an authority figure? Dumbledore must be going bonkers!" he exclaimed, just as Lily muttered," Dumbledore must be out of his mind."
She half-smiled. "You're such a drama queen. But you do use admirable alliteration."
James turned to Remus, throwing his hands in the air. "See? Even Evans – Lily Evans – agrees with my splendid speech, terrific talk…marvelous manner!"
Remus rolled his eyes. "He's been using alliteration all day. So has Sirius. It's driving me up the wall."
"But Remus, aren't you the lord of literary devices? Why don't you join them on their jubilant journey?" Lily couldn't help it.
Remus groaned loudly while James turned to Lily with admiring eyes. "I knew that you're awesome and amazing and accomplished and all that, but I didn't realize you could maraud too!" he exclaimed.
Lily raised her eyebrows, refusing to let the color rise to her cheeks. "Maraud?"
"It's what we do," James explained. "As Marauders."
"I see," said Lily amusedly.
Remus grinned apologetically at her. "Don't mind him," he said. "James thinks it's his purpose in life to play pranks."
James looked shocked from his toes to the unruly ends of his jet-black hair. "I do not!" he exclaimed vehemently. "It is merely a habitual hobby in which I choose to partake!"
"That's redundant," Lily pointed out. James glared at her. "But really, are you capable of being serious?"
Just then, the compartment door slammed open and a handsome, black-haired boy walked in, followed by a rather short boy with mousy brown hair.
"Lilykins!" Sirius exclaimed, running forward and tackling Lily. She shrieked but hugged him back, laughing.
"Hello, Sirius," she said. "And Peter. How are you?"
"I'm fine," Peter Pettigrew said in his unusually high-pitched voice. "How are you, Lily?"
"Pretty good. Well, now that Sirius is here, I'm –"
"WONDERFUL!" Sirius boomed. "Honored to stand in the presence of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Due-To-His-Powerfully-Perfect-Perfection!"
"Actually, I was going to say somewhat sickened," Lily remarked calmly.
Sirius stared at her, his grey eyes wide. "You're doing it too!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms around her once more. "Moony! Wormtail! She's doing it too!"
"We know, Sirius," Remus said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes.
"Black, would you get off me?" Lily was being suffocated by Sirius's arms.
"No," Sirius said calmly. "You know, most girls would kill to be in this position," he added, winking.
"Most girls haven't an ounce of sanity," Lily retorted. "Put me down!"
For Sirius had picked her up and thrown her over his shoulder. Lily pulled out her wand.
"No! No!" Sirius cried. "I'll put you down, I swear!"
She pointed it at his trainers and murmured an incantation. Sirius's shoelaces knotted together in a complex knot.
"Evans! No magic on the train!" James said in an uncanny impression of Lily at her most authoritarian. Remus and Peter sniggered. Sirius was too busy trying to untie his shoes to notice.
Lily smiled sweetly at him. "Oh, James, you wouldn't report me, would you?" she said, batting her eyelashes.
James looked away. "That's not fair," he grumbled, while Remus, Peter, and Sirius roared with laughter. "You could get away with anything and I couldn't stop you if you did that."
"Nice to know our Head Boy is so susceptible," Lily said sardonically.
"Only to you," James mumbled.
The uncomfortable silence was broken by the entrance of the prefects. "Out," Lily commanded Peter and Sirius, who waved and winked at her, as he walked out the door.
Ten minutes later, Lily wandered absentmindedly through the train, thinking about James's admirable performance as Head Boy. Sure, she'd noticed that he'd changed, but he had shown a much deeper level of maturity in the past few minutes than she'd thought possible…
They'd become friends towards the end of sixth year, when both their groups of friends had journeyed past the awkward stage where boys could not be friends with girls without being romantically involved. And they were friends, of a sort. They still bickered constantly, but it was nothing like the first five years they had known each other. James had changed. There was no denying it. He was no longer the immature, insensitive, arrogant toerag she'd accused him of being practically every day.
She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't notice she was walking straight into another person. The inevitable collision occurred.
"I'm sorry! Oh, hi, Marcus," she said, recognizing the person to whom she'd bumped into.
"Hey, Lily," he said, smiling and showing every one of his brilliant white teeth. Lily avoided his gaze. "How are you?"
"Fine, but really I have to go now," she said, itching to get out of his company. "You know, Head Girl duties and all that." She tried to give him an apologetic smile but it came out as more of a grimace.
"Oh, right. Congratulations! But we can talk later, don't worry! See you soon!" He headed down the corridor.
"I won't," Lily growled through clenched teeth.
"Won't what?" said a voice. Remus had mysteriously appeared beside her.
"See him soon," she responded automatically.
"Corner? Yeah, I don't like him either," a familiar voice said on her other side. She turned.
"James?"
"Glad you know my name," he replied, smirking. "He's going to ask you out in about a week, you know," he said conversationally.
"And you'll let him?" she raised a dubious eyebrow. James had thus far discouraged her other suitors, evidently preferring to have no competition. Beside her, Remus snorted.
"Of course! When have I ever not –oh. I suppose sneaking gnome saliva into your suitors' pumpkin juice is somewhat discouraging…" James trailed off.
Remus said drily, "Yes, I suppose it is."
"So that's why they were all declaiming in Mermish or singing opera or quoting Julius Caesar!" Lily exclaimed. She'd begun to wonder, after the seventh boy, if James had done something.
"Yes, that's why," James said patiently. "But the point is, darling, I'll stop – er – discouraging them if you want me to. I mean, if you want to be able to date anyone without me doing something about it."
Lily said quietly, "Thanks, James. That means a lot. But don't you think you're a bit – protective?" A teasing note entered her voice.
"A bit," James replied, shrugging. "But, y'know, I have to keep an eye on you, darling."
"James," Lily said in a patronizingly sweet voice, "don't call me darling." She walked off.
Remus saw James's vacant expression and knew immediately that he was in his Lily-gazing mode. "James. James!"
"Hmm?" James said, turning back to Remus. There was no denying it. James was completely, irrevocably, and unequivocally in love with Lily.
"I thought it would help, Remus!" James said in a very frustrated voice. "I thought being friends with her would help me – give up, but—"
Remus looked at his friend intently. His hazel eyes were glowing with the frenzy only Lily could drive him to, and he looked on the verge of ripping his hair out.
"James, calm down," Remus pleaded. "Prongs, please, listen to me!"
James finally looked at him. "Moony, I – sorry –"
"'S'ok," Remus said quickly. "I get it."
By now they had reached the compartment where Sirius and Peter were. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for James, Lily and her friends were sitting in the compartment across from theirs. James saw this and turned away, his face stony.
"What's up with Prongs?" Peter asked.
Sirius snorted. "He's just being a lover again. Don't worry, Pete. He'll get over it."
"But I can't!" James exclaimed suddenly, his face anguished. "That's the problem! I can't get over her!"
Sirius, Remus, and Peter rolled their eyes.
"Maybe if you were to keep behaving the way you did today," Remus began delicately, "you might have a chance."
James's whole countenance changed. "Really?" he asked, alight with joy.
Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius. "Really," he replied.
"So all you have to do," said Sirius condescendingly, "is be a good little Head Boy and not get up to any mischief this year."
"I don't think that's possible," James said seriously.
Sirius laughed, instantaneously becoming an entirely different person. "Too right you are, mate." He reached over and clapped James on the back. "Glad to have you back."
A/N: I'm terribly sorry, but I have no promises on when this will be updated, except as soon as possible. I'm going to be very busy for the next several weeks, so...
Please don't favorite without reviewing. It's extremely frustrating to me as an author to have very little feedback.
Also, I'm trying to make this as non-clichè as possible...did I succeed?
Bye for now!