The residents of Thicket, Essex woke on September first with a collective groan; the school children were heading back today which meant many things, good and bad. Firstly, it was officially the end of summer, and evenings had already started to become shorter, not that there was much of a summer to have had due to the unseasonal storms and even some icy mist occasionally. Then due to schools being back in term today, the traffic in London would be hectic with schools buses once again taking places in the traffic jams, school kids in gangs in all of the train stations. There was only one school that didn't start today at nine o'clock.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, since it was founded almost four hundred years ago, started its term with a start of year welcome feast in its Great Hall on the evening of September first. Although classes didn't normally start until the second at the earliest, for the students however, term started at eleven in the morning when the great crimson steam engine from Kings Cross station in London. This train was hidden on a secret platform in the station which required you to run through a wall. Although this seemed farfetched to most of the residents of Thicket, one family knew all too well where they would be going today.
The Evans family lived at number seven, Griffin Lane, and seemed to be just like any other family. They had two daughters, Lily and Petunia, both pleasant girls who never got into trouble or caused a disturbance. Their father, Harry, it was known, had served thirty years in the army and had retired early to spend time with his daughters whom he missed terribly when he was away. His Wife, Rose, had just retired from her post at the local hospital. She had been a nurse when Harry was in the army and they met when he had come back wounded to the base she was training at.
Fifteen years later they were married with one daughter and their second came along three years after that. After knowing from birth that she was special, there was no doubt when they were told officially of her magical abilities. The supported her completely and revelled when she told them all about her magical world each time she came back for her holidays. Today, they prepared to send their youngest daughter back for her final year of education.
Lily Evans sat at her mirror as she thought of the day ahead of her. Her emerald green eyes were glazed over as she absentmindedly ran a brush through her silky, flaming red hair thinking of the first day of her last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A smile spread across her lips as her Head Girl badge gleamed up at her from the table. She had received the letter weeks ago, and was utterly delighted when the red and gold badge fell onto her lap in July.
The second thing she thought of was her co-worker. Who was to be Head Boy? She began thinking of all the Prefects that had worked with her since her fifth year. Severus Snape, a Slytherin was a possibility, yet Lily hoped this wouldn't be the case. Severus had been her first magical friend, the person who had told her almost everything she knew about the magical world. He was the one who told her she was a witch, the one who helped her at school. They were inseparable until they started to grow apart and were placed in different houses at the school. Severus had made new, dark friends. Lily remembered the last time they had spoken, he was pleading with her outside her common room but she wasn't listening. Her friend had insulted her, an insult that couldn't have been forgiven, not in Lily's eyes.
In any case, Lily highly doubted that any of the Slytherin boys would be chosen as her partner. It was widely known at Hogwarts that Severus, and several of his friends were part of a growing number that had begun to follow a dark wizard, Voldemort. A heinous beast who despised Muggles (people that did not have magical powers), people who consorted with them or even the witches and wizards, called 'Muggleborn', who were the rare product of two non-magical parents.
The second reason, thought Lily, was the fact that she was Muggle-born herself with non-magic parents. It was highly unlikely that the Headmaster, Dumbledore would consider putting her alongside one of the group which openly despised ''Mudbloods''. Lily sighed as she thought of the possibilities from the other houses.
Remus Lupin, a former Prefect and a boy who was also in her house of Gryffindor, was undoubtedly mature and clever enough to fulfill the role, but he often got quite sick and missed a lot of classes, therefore ruling him out of performing all of his Head Boy duties. This had also apparently caused him to resign at the end of their fifth year because of all the missed rounds and paperwork.
There was that and the sad fact, Lily noted, that he came from a band of merry troublemakers who called themselves ''The Marauders''. A group, that besides Remus, Lily despised.
Their leader, one James Potter, was always hounding Lily for a date; that is when he wasn't pulling pranks in the hallway, bullying innocent bystanders or serving detention with his partner-in-crime, Sirius Black. Lily would admit that both were charming and very handsome, but that, for Lily, was hard to see under all that arrogant, confident and crude behaviour. She vowed this year to not let James Potter get to her, to simply ignore him in the hope that he might disappear. She had to admit he had calmed down a bit in the past year, undoubtedly linked with a fight the four Marauders had with each other in their fifth year, and his receiving of the Prefect position in place of his friend.
What it was over she didn't know, nor did she care in the slightest. Though Lily loved a good gossip, she never once cared what happened with the foursome, as long as it didn't involve her.
Her eyes snapped back into focus as she heard her mother call her from downstairs. They were leaving for Kings Cross Station in ten minutes and Lily had yet to finish packing. She started packing her clothes into her trunk and not before long she realised she was 17. It was her first summer being allowed to do magic at home, and she had forgotten completely about it.
Well, she thought, no time like the present.
She swiftly extracted her wand from her cardigan pocket and with a swish and flick her belongings raised, folded and floated easily into her school trunk, which then closed itself and gave a short 'click'. Lily performed a charm on the trunk to make it feather light and carried it with ease down the stairs.
On arriving into the kitchen, she smiled brightly at her mother, Rose. Like Lily, she had fiery, silky hair but not without the appearance of a few greys here and there. She looked exactly like Lily, except her eyes. Lily had her father's dazzling green eyes, which held a constant sparkle behind them. She also got her quick wit from him, and had his sarcastic sense of humour.
Her practicality and studious nature however, was an attribute from her mother. Rose was a fully-fledged doctor and juggled well while Lily and her sister, Petunia, were young. Lily remembered the days when her mother arrived from work to pick them up from their kind, middle-aged neighbour, Arabella Figg.
Mrs. Figg, Lily later learned, was a squib (a child from magical parents that could not perform magic). Lily frequently visited her after she had been accepted to Hogwarts, and kept in touch during the school year. Her neighbour would always be full of news from the Wizarding World during the holidays, especially during the dark times they were going through now.
Lily lifted her trunk easily into the car and took on last look at her house before ducking her head under the roof and sitting down. Her mother turned from her spot in the passenger seat.
''Have everything you need, dear?'' she asked, smiling back at her daughter.
Without hesitation the young witch nodded, and began to double check everything in her head.
''Trunk, robes, Prefect folder,'' she spoke quietly to herself, ticking her belongings off on her fingers. ''Wand, Head Girl Badge...''
''Stop!'' She cried as her father began to pull out of the driveway. ''I'll just be one second.'' Lily swiftly jumped out of the back seat and ran up the stairs, spotting her badge, she snatched it from the dresser table and slid down the banister and hopped out the front door and into the car again.
''Now,'' she panted. ''I have everything.''
Her parents smiled and her father drove out onto the road for their forty minute journey while Lily gave her badge a kiss and a rub with her sleeve. Putting her wand safely in her handbag with her badge, she took out her folder to look over the Prefect duties she would have to give out on the train.