Disclaimer: Non possum mihi scribere characteres similares JK Rowling.
The Set Up
By: Principles of Magic
It was the day after last final feast of the year. The famous foursome raved about their sixth year on the way down to the Hogwarts Express. Sirius assured James that he'd passed his Charms exam, Remus was glad to escape his prefect duties for the summer, and Peter was going on and on about the excellent grade he had received on his essay on Grindelwald and the rising Dark Lord. The four waved to Frank and Alice as they passed by; James a bit jealous that the couple would be spending their holiday together in the south of France. To their right, Emmeline and Lily were consoling a quite tearful Mary.
"I don't see why you're crying; we're going to see each other again next term."
"No, it's not that. It's just that next year's our last at Hogwarts."
The boys laughed at the girls' sensitivity and walked fast towards the train, whispering about how they couldn't wait for their final year.
Thirty minutes later, the train gave a whistle and began to move. Hogwarts castle grew smaller and smaller as the four found a compartment and slammed the door, sinking comfortably into the cushioned seats, but a second later they heard a knock at the door, and Lily pulled it back.
She nodded politely to Peter and Sirius, glared at James, and then turned to Remus.
"Remus, you know the prefects are supposed to meet up front. The Heads want us to give them a yearly overview."
Sirius made puppy-eyes as Remus slowly got up from his seat. "I'll be right back," he said, and turned, shutting the door softly behind him.
Remus took a quick glance down the hall; no one else seemed to be up and about…. What was Lily—?
Lily yanked him into a compartment a few doors down. In the compartment were Frank and Alice, as well as Mary and Emmeline, and they all had wide smiles on their faces.
"Lily, what is going on? What about the prefects meeting?"
Franks laughed, rolling his eyes. "There is none, silly. We need to talk to you."
"Me? About what?" Remus looked shiftily between the two girls. He instinctively wondered whether they knew about his "furry little problem", but they seemed too calm.
Alice finally lifted her head from Frank's shoulder, and looking quickly to Lily for permission, said, "We need to talk about Lily and James."
"Yeah," Lily added quickly, crossing her arms. "If a relationship between me and Potter is ever going to work out, I'm going to need you to deflate his head every few seconds."
They were all laughing nervously, but Remus still stood in the doorway, his mouth lay slightly open.
Emmeline straightened up. "I think Alice had finally convinced Lily to give James a chance. Her theory is that he might act a bit more mature over the summer," and she smirked over at Alice as if this was a very stupid theory indeed. "You know, without his friends always pumping him up with horrible ideas, no offense, Remus."
Remus realized his mouth was still slightly open, and closed it quickly.
"You know, Sirius spends ever summer with James. There's no way you could separate the two."
Intuition flickered in Lily's emerald eyes. "Okay…well why don't you invite Sirius to spend the summer with you, and I'll have James all to myself."
Remus gulped audibly and turned to leave.
Alice jumped up in her seat, nearly knocking Frank over sideways. "Wait! Don't say anything to Sirius, definitely not Sirius. Lily will tell them later, so you just act like you've just spent the ten most boring minutes of your life discussing this year's broomstick policy with Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Black." The threatening look in Alice's eye made Remus take an extra step back, hitting the window before running back to his compartment.
Even before Remus opened the door, he could hear Sirius laughing loudly at some unheard joke.
"…and then Lily said 'Go to hell, Black,' and I said 'Gladly. I'll see you there,' and she totally flipped. For a second I thought she was going to have a meltdown, right there in the middle of Charms!" The laughter was slowly ebbing as Remus took his seat.
"So what'd your perfect prefects talk about this time? Ten more ways to snuff out fun?"
"Yeah," said Remus shakily, completely understanding why Lily saw James as an immature arse.
A second later, Emmeline appeared in the doorway. "Um…" she began nervously, stealing glances back down the hall. "Peter, could I see you for a second?"
Peter nearly jumped out of his chair at the sound of his name, and after quickly looking to James to see if he was okay to leave, he left with Emmeline, quite confused.
"What was that all about?" asked Sirius, and even before he'd finished speaking, Alice was at the door, looking quite flustered at having to separate from her dear Frank for even a few minutes. "Um," she spoke, "Frank says there's a doxy in his suitcase and wants you to come check it out."
Sirius laughed. "How does he know if I even know what a doxy is?" And Alice flushed red.
"I don't know," she almost screamed, "But what am I supposed to tell his cold dying body after he's been bitten? That Sirius Black couldn't help because he's too stupid for his own good?" And without even glancing at James for permission, he jumped out his seat and followed and an angry-looking Alice out.
There were only two boys left in the compartment. One hazel eyes boy looking completely stupefied, and one Remus Lupin, biting his lip in an attempt to hold back laughter. Just when he thought he was going to lose it, Mary swung around the door, beckoning him into the hallway. "Hey Lupe, can I talk to you a second about holiday?" She winked and licked her lips, putting on quite a show. "I was wondering…" she said slowly, then turned to James as if he was just about to hear something indecent, and yanked Remus from the compartment. The two could be heard laughing down the hall.
"What – the – hell?" yelled James, frightening the second year girls in the compartment beside him. Had he not just seen his three best mates stolen from under him? Where was his random excuse to leave the compartment—?
And there she was; just as he envisioned her in his dreams: hand on hips, pouty, and with emerald eyes glaring daggers in his direction.
"You know we can all hear you, halfway down the train, Potter."
"Hmph," spoke James, collapsing back into his seat, but straightening back up as Lily closed the door behind her. They were alone. In a train compartment.
"Oh, you know," said Lily, taking her hands off her hips and waving them in the air. "Lucius went on about how no one ever docks points from their own house and Bellatrix raved about how she didn't care anymore because she'd technically graduated already, and then that Hufflepuff Smith wished us all luck in the running for Head Boy and Head Girl next year. And then Remus Lupin put up his hands an decided that we should go out, and everyone agreed, and then we left. Awfully boring, really."
James, who had stopped paying attention after 'Bellatrix', met Lily's eyes and quickly asked, "What did you say?" He was answered by Sirius Black, slamming open the door, quickly followed by Frank, Alice, Remus, Peter, Emmeline, and Mary.
"Moony's a bloody liar! There was no prefects meeting, and there's no doxy!" Sirius barked, settling into a seat haughtily, letting the other squeeze in behind him, pushing Lily and James together.
"What the hell, Sirius, what the hell? Can't keep your mouth shut for a second, can you?" Alice hissed from her awkward position, scrunched up against Sirius's back.
"W-wait," said James, "are you yanking my tail, is this some crazy set up? Are you all in on this?"
"I wasn't," squeaked Peter from beneath Emmeline. "I was kidnapped. She tried to knock me out."
"Oh, stop overreacting,"
"I can't believe Sirius didn't want to help me, I mean, it was a doxy! Did you see how big it was?" Frank growled, pressed up against the glass of the door, and Remus double over – or tried to – brining the attention back to Lily and James.
"Oi, I think Evans just asked out Potter!" And the loud sounds of the eight people trying hopelessly to sit comfortably in a compartment made for four silenced.
"Wait, she did?" James blinked, confused, and they all looked at him. "I mean, of course she did, of course she did."
And the Sirius said, "Dude, that's so uncool, a girl just asked you out. I thought it was your dream to ask her out.
James tried to swing at Sirius, but instead hit Emmeline, Frank, and Alice. "That was not my dream!"
"Of course it was, you told me all about it: there were flowers and a fog machine…"
Another badly thrown punch hit Peter square in the jaw and he howled in pain.
"I'm waiting for an answer, James," and he could tell that for the first time, Lily was being serious.
"Y-yeah," was James's brilliant answer: the most pathetic sound to come out of his mouth in a long time.
Nevertheless, she grabbed him from under Sirius and gave him an awkward kiss on the cheek.
There was an off-toned chorus of awww and a squeal from Peter, broken by a loud knock on the glass, making Frank wince.
"Can somebody get the door?" said Emmeline.
"I don't think anyone's in any position to get the door—" Sirius began, but the door slid open from the outside, and Frank fell face-first out into the hallway with a loud crack as something broke. A girl with a brown clipboard and straggly black hair stepped to the side as Frank howled, clutching his nose.
"I suppose," she scowled, "that these are the Gryffindor sixth years…ah yes, such valor, such dignity," Bellatrix sneered. "Yes, I think I see my dear cousin Sirius, I think he's under that pudgy-looking girl, I think."
"Yes," said Sirius with a long, drawn-out drone that would have seemed condescending except for the position he was in.
"I'm here to fetch R. Lupin and L. Evans," she said, looking down at her clipboard. "The prefects meeting started fifteen minutes ago."
Lupin threw his arm out to reach the door, causing the people above him to tumble to the ground. Lily, after slowly drawing her hand out of James's clutch, was able to step over her friends and reach the door, brushing off her robes. James blew her a kiss as the compartment door closed on Franks legs, and as she started down the hall after the Head Girl, she whispered her thanks to Remus who shook it off with the slight of his hand and a quick chuckle.
"Hurry up, Gyffindorks," Bellatrix sneered, the only facial expression she seemed capable of making these days. "Lucius is just finishing up broomstick policy, and then we have to collectively come up with ten ways to snuff out fun next year…."
Wasn't that a riot? It was fun to play How-Many-Students-Can-Fit-In-A-Train-Compartment, and poor Frank. And wasn't Remus such a good little helper? Read and Review, and check out the full story, The Time of Their Lives –PoM