Chapter 1: Trainrides Really are the Most Embarrassing Things in the World...

Angelina flinched. Lily's voice carried even when she wasn't angry, but Potter's presence just really made her voice skyrocket another 30 decibels. Sighing, she turned and kept walking down the long aisle of the train, stifling a grin after noticing a small brunette, most likely a first year, blinking with her mouth slightly agape at the obscenities spewing forth from James Potter's mouth. Honestly, why couldn't he just give up? She thought. Lily had been turning him down consistently since he began liking her and asking her out to Hogsmeade, to the Astronomy Tower, to the Lake, to, well, quite simply, any place he could consider a date, and he still thought Lily was as fickle as some of those wide-eyed first years. James is a Gryffindor, obviously. Since he's been sharing a common room with all of us for a full six years, but isn't stupid, unwavering determination more of a loyalty than a bravery? He may as well be a jolly little Hufflepuff! Angelina started giggling at her observation, closing her eyes and snorting as she walked into someone.

"Oh, hi there, Remus," she giggled quietly, blushing furiously at her clumsiness and dusting away nonexistent dust from Remus's sweater, and blinked up at his strongly featured face while somewhat geekily pushing her glasses back up her nose by the frame.

"Hey, Angelina. Alright?" His grin was slight, reserved. Angelina always knew she liked him best for a reason. None of that ridiculous toothy grin stuff Pettigrew always pulled off, or a dangerous smirk like Sirius. Not even a charming "James Potter smile". A "Remus Lupin grin". Lovely.

"Quite, just laughing at a silly joke I made." Her blush started fading and her confidence was coming back, even with his large hands on her shoulders. Angelina smiled up at him, squinting at his face and looking at his eyelashes, surrounding his large, warm eyes. It was like a fireplace, really. She could see the flames now!

Remus stared at her, slightly confused, but with a growing grin. "And who were you making the joke to? Your shadow?"

Wuh oh. There's the blush again, full force.

"Well…err…Don't you have to be to the Prefect's cabin, Remus? Lots of really important prefect-y things you need to do, I'll bet! See you!" Run, run, run! Get away!

Angelina sighed, pouting and thinking. Already managing to embarrass myself in front of the nicest marauder and it's not even noon! At least I didn't trip when I was making my escape, she added as an after thought. His laugh almost made my face so heated I could've melted the floor in front of my face, and then BAM! I would've been down for the count. Picturing the scene, she started giggling again, and, remembering the ramifications of laughing to herself moments ago, whipped open the door to an empty compartment and walked in, waiting for Lily and possibly the twins.

Lily was always the leader, probably always would be. A true Gryffindor, leading their little pack of friends through the atrocities that are History of Magic, adolescence, boys, make-up, and the Marauders. Nothing tested Lily's bravery like the Marauders. Her hair always looked like liquid fire when she tossed it about, yelling and berating them for something. Yelling at James because of his arrogance and glowering at Sirius from afar because of his inability to take anything but girls seriously, despite the homophony. Scolding Remus for letting the other Marauders copy his school work, and somewhat condescendingly telling Peter he should really try and find himself before he found out everything from the boys. Lily had her head in the sky, full of dreams and aspirations, but her feet firmly planted on the ground. Lily was the rock to maintain the sometimes waxing and waning friendship between the twins and Angelina.

Elizabeth and Emily Marquis were a bit grating to Angelina, at times. It wasn't exactly jealousy, just a bit of confusion. Elizabeth, older by a few minutes and quite proud of it, was petite and thin, and she preferred her hair the natural sandy blonde color she had been born with. Emily had discovered hair dye in 4th year and never looked back; some people had a hard time remembering her without her short raven colored locks. Emily, too, was rather short, but was more on the pudgy side. She had curves, and generally seemed comfortable with her appearance, until her sister started slinking about with boys. In any case, the two were as opposite as night and day, despite the cliché, but managed to keep their twin connection in full flow all the time, as well as stay the best of friends. Elizabeth liked History of Magic and Potions, while Emily liked Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts (Thrown in with Lily's Charms prowess and Angelina's strange green thumb and memory for astronomical points in the sky, they had magnificent grades for the most part, able to tutor each other in their favorite subjects.). Elizabeth liked snogging boys, and Emily liked holding their hands and hugging them. Elizabeth liked to daydream about life and plan the future; Emily liked to be spontaneous and carefree. A bit odd how well they accepted each other and relied on each other, and Angelina always struggled to find anything particularly parallel in their personalities other than their fashion sense. They both liked polka dots and stripes, large bracelets and necklaces, and cute heels in bright colors that few people managed to pull off in day to day Hogwarts-wear. Elizabeth and Emily were girls, and that usually ended up bothering Angelina, because girls were fickle, flighty, and a torrent of emotions.

Angelina enjoyed reading and warmth. Books were pleasurable to Angelina at any time and in any place, and the other girls swore she kept her entire library pocket-sized just in case she ever got bored. She slept in slippers, enjoyed the chairs closest to the fire in the common room, and wore the same thick, red scarf from November until March. She had a tendency for losing things, and kept all her important items in the bedside table in their dorm. Her hair was a common shade of brown, and she had kept it long all six years of their schooling, until she somewhat scared herself with a strong urge for change and chopped off a good two feet this past summer. Angelina decided she liked the haircut, and the collarbone length went well with her reading glasses, which she really just wore all the time because of her random desires for literature. But more than anything else, Angelina was passionate about music. Having grown up playing violin and piano, she often felt more at ease with the instruments than other people. Music was the only thing she didn't like to be simple. She lived for the intricacies of the Baroque Era, while at the same time swooning over those fearless Romantic composers. Symphonies could make her cry, and there were a few operas which made her feel strong enough to challenge the Fat Lady to an opera-off, singing their highest notes with as much vibrato as possible until a glass broke (neither ever succeeded). And she could never really adapt to the popular wizarding bands; they just never seemed good enough for her. Yes, simplicity was grand in everything but music.

Still, the four girls got along well enough, and fancied themselves a happy little family, but nothing so disgusting as the Marauders. Oh no, not them. Really, Angelina thought, the Marauders? It's like they're planning to go out onto the lake and pillage someone other than the giant squid!

And then, she was giggling again.

"Can I poke her?"

"Are you serious?"

"Is there ever any doubt?"

"Bad joke, Sirius."

Sirius "hmph"ed and Angelina curled up a little tighter, wishing she had learned to become a porcupine animagus just in case Sirius decided to poke her awake.

"Leave her alo-"

And then she felt it. A finger, in her ear. A wet finger in her ear. Sirius Black was going down.

"YOU JERK! ALL I WANTED WAS A LITTLE PEACE AND QUIET AND YOU JUST HAD TO GO AND STICK YOUR FINGER IN MY EAR? YOU ARE POSSIBLY THE MOST OBNOXIOUS, IMMATURE JERK I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF MEETING! I HOPE SOMEONE STICKS HER WET FINGER IN YOUR EAR JUST AS YOU'RE ABOUT TO HAVE THE MOST PLEASING THING EVER HAPPEN TO YOU, JUST SO YOU CAN BE DEPRAVED!" Angelina started panting, her face going redder when she had more time to think over what she just said.

Sirius was blinking at her, raising an eyebrow, and trying not to laugh.

"Well, uh, you knoooooow, Angiecakes, the most pleasing thing ever might just invol-"

"Sirius, stop." Angelina really couldn't ever find anything wrong with Remus. What a hero, saving her from whatever disgusting thing Black was going to say! "Angelina, are you okay?" Not a hero, a knight! Angelina elaborated to herself. One of those ones in shining armor…

She snapped out of it when the mental image of Remus riding away into on a grand white steed took a turn for the worse and he was suddenly waving his hand in front of her face, with his eyes bugged out, and his gallant white steed became Sirius.

"…Oh." Angelina blinked at them both, letting her eyes refocus, first on Remus looking at her concernedly, bent down to be eye level with her, then on Sirius, looking down at her with that ridiculous smirk on his lovely face. How embarrassing. What did I even say? It must have been ridiculous… She considered. Train rides must be meant to be disasters, because there really is not another explanation. "I'm quite alright, thanks. I just…well, I was sleepy, you know… And Sirius, he just had to come ruin it. And…and, well, I'm really not the best at insulting people… I don't even remember what I said!"

Remus's grin reappeared, and Sirius leaned in close, putting his nice, manly lips near her ear. "Well, you know, Angiebaby, if you wanted to stick your finger in my ear, I certainly would encourage it."

Wham!

There it went. That mental restraint over the physical body? It snapped.

"LENA!"

Angelina looked towards the compartment door. There stood Lily Evans, best friend, with James Potter, best friend's arch nemesis. Her face was pale, her jaw dropped. James just looked from Angelina's raised fist to Sirius' body on the floor of the compartment, blinking several times before grabbing onto the side of the door to keep from falling over laughing. Full out laughing at his best friend sprawled on the floor. Angelina could've sworn she heard some snickering from the corner, and when she looked, there was jolly little Peter Pettigrew. Didn't even notice him over Black being a total idiot... She thought.

"Yes, Lily?"

"Well, I…You can't do stuff like that, Lena! I'm Head Girl!" Lily sounded extremely distressed, and Angelina resisted the mighty desire to roll her eyes.

"Let's go, Lily. We'll find a new compartment. Seen Emily and Elizabeth?"

Angelina took a few steps towards Lily, hooked her arm over hers, and paraded down the train to look for the twins, trying to fight off the extreme urge to blush when she heard Remus explode into laughter with James and Peter at Sirius Black, laid out on the compartment floor.

Elizabeth and Emily dragged Lily and Angelina into a compartment towards the rear of the train. Of course, Angelina only realized that was the case after a pair of hands had roughly grabbed her arms and covered her mouth, she had tripped over a pair of nicely arched feet in bronze heels, she had landed face up on the floor of the compartment, covered by a body vaguely familiar, she had stood up laughing, and peeked out the compartment to see where she was after recognizing the twins. And still, she couldn't quite get the nagging thought from her head that train rides to Hogwarts were meant to be embarrassing…

"So." Emily said, standing with her hands on her hips and blinking down at her sister, still on the floor from her tangle with Angelina.

"Hi, Em. Liz." Lily beamed at them, completely unruffled. The twins always preferred their nick names; they seemed to find the assonance of Elizabeth and Emily to be kind of infuriating after a while of being grouped together as a whole phrase: "Elizabeth and Emily".

Elizabeth grinned from the floor. "Summer treated you well, Lily? Lena?" Seeing their shrugs and smiles, Liz's grin grew. "We went to the Bahamas. Have you ever been? No? Shame. Lots of cute boys." Emily giggled in agreement and stood next to her sister. They looked strange. Their freckles had disappeared underneath the layer of bronze skin they had captured in the tropics. Elizabeth really did look like one of American beach girls, but the tan just looked a bit awkward with Emily's dark hair.

"I stayed around the house. Did homework. Avoided cute boys." It was common knowledge that Angelina lived very near the Potters, and ignored the fact as much as possible. It wasn't that she hated them, she just…tolerated them. Remus was all well and good, but Peter was a bit too quiet, James and Sirius a bit too loud and arrogant. Angelina smiled slightly, curling up on a seat with Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Oh, Edmond…you're better than ANY marauder…She was tuning them out for the rest of the ride, while they giggled about the cute, tan American boys in the Bahamas. Angelina was totally lost in the tangling webs around the characters of her novel when she felt the cushion sink in beside her and she noticed the voices arguing and getting louder with each word.

Remus smiled at her and rolled his eyes at the rest of the people in the compartment: Lily pushing her finger into James' chest as he grinned at her, Em and Liz staring at the particularly shiny Head Boy badge gracing James' robes; Sirius and Peter smirking and trying to smirk and failing, respectively, at the girls, proud of their leader. Angelina grinned at Remus and went back to reading her book, oblivious to his leaning close and peering over her shoulder, reading the pages.

After a while, a whistle sounded and everyone scrambled, frantic to find their robes before they arrived at Hogwarts in a good ten minutes. Remus looked confused and blinked as suddenly he was in the compartment, alone with a softly smiling Angelina. He blinked at her face a few times, and couldn't quite decide if he was stunned by the way her lips were a vibrant shade of pink, or the speed with which the rest of his train ride had passed.

Catching her brown eyes, he grinned. "I never realized how much faster that ride went when you just ignored everyone's whining and arguing."

Angelina stifled a giggle and squinted her eyes at him. "Well, Master Lupin, how do you think I've survived these past six years?"

Remus blinked before he could laugh at her joke, and then she was out the compartment, heading to change and part from the train, giggling all the while.