Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling and I do not own these characters. This is my first fic ever, so please read and review! Hope you enjoy!
"Come on, Sev!" A young Lily Evans, fourteen years old and beautiful with her wavy, red hair and bright, almond-shaped eyes, looked behind her shoulder at a boy with a pale complexion and long, black hair. She ran into the entrance of Platform 9 3l4, ready to board the Hogwarts Express.
Lily stopped in front of the train, sighing with delight and almost tripping over her luggage cart. She fingered her golden heart pendant as she thought of the beauty of the Hogwarts Express—the leading cause of Lily's happiness at the moment. The Hogwarts Express traveled to Hogwarts, only the best wizarding school in the world and the one place where Lily felt like she belonged. There, she restarted her life away from her home, away from the judging and disgusted eyes of her sister and her friends. Lily could be herself and work on what made her happiest—magic.
"Wait up, Lily!" Severus, her best friend, panted as he tried to keep up with his energetic and excited friend.
"Hey Snivellus, having a bit of trouble keeping up with your girl? No worries, I'll be happy to take her from you!" James Potter, a handsome boy in Lily's year, smirked, his hand running through his messy black hair. Severus glared at James, gave an apologetic look to Lily, and rushed onto the train to meet his other Slytherin friends.
"Potter, stay away from us!" Lily huffed, arms crossed and eyes ablaze with fury. "I would NEVER date you, not in a million years!"
"Evans, come on!" James's ladies' man of a best friend walks over beside Lily.
"Sirius Black. Never a pleasure to see you either." Lily crossed her arms, scrunching her brow.
"Fine, Lily-flower, be that way!" Sirius pouts. "Let's go, James. Don't wanna miss the train! The rest of us are waiting."
"Alright, Padfoot. Want me to save you a seat, Evans?" Potter smiled, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Never, Potter."
"Okay, then. Your loss! You just don't know it yet, love."
"Goodbye, Potter!" Lily angrily yells, furiously tugging at her pendant to calm herself as a blonde girl takes her side.
"Hey Lily, you okay?" Marlene, Lily's best friend other than Severus, asks.
"As okay as anyone can be after dealing with that prat. Ready to board the train?"
"Sure," Marlene and Lily finally settled in a compartment on the far end of the train, seeing that their regular compartment had been taken already. "Hey, where did you get that necklace? I don't remember seeing you wear it before,"
"Oh, this? Over the summer an owl brought it to me, supposedly for my half-birthday. I was surprised someone even knew when my half-birthday was. Anyway, I thought it was lovely and decided to keep it. Now, it seems to be the only thing that calms me down." Lily looked fondly over her gift, speculating as to who would be so thoughtful as to not only remember her half-birthday, but to send a totally unnecessary but gorgeous present with the sweetest note.
"Lily,"
"Marlene,"
"It's got to be from James Potter,"
"NO, Marlene, that's impossible! Prats like him don't have good taste in women's jewelry, and especially don't remember people's half birthdays,"
"But Lil, he's been after you ever since he first laid eyes on you on the train first year. It's quite possible he figured out your half-birthday and felt so lonely without your presence over the summer that the only way he would be satisfied was to anonymously send you a gift that he just knew would dazzle you,"
"Whatever, Marlene. All I know is that I am never taking this off,"
"Even though it could be from Potter?"
Lily hesitated. "Well, when you put it like that—"
Then, a loud Sirius Black slammed open the door of the compartment. "HELLO, ladies! Or should I say, hello, Marlene." He winked, and swaggered over to the blushing blonde, past an annoyed Lily Evans.
"Sirius. A pleasure to see you again, as always," Marlene giggled.
Sirus crouched down so that he was right in Liy's face. "You hear that, Lily-flower? You need to learn from your friend here. I'm ALWAYS a pleasure to be around!" Sirius fist-pumps the air and yells, "OI, PRONGS, MOONY, WORMTAIL!"
Lily rolled her eyes at the childlike boy in front of her as three more boys entered her compartment. James Potter, who, if you couldn't tell from earlier, she loathes, Remus Lupin, who was actually quite nice and was a reliable study partner and friend, and Peter Pettigrew, a short, pudgy boy who seemed to have the least intelligence of his friends. Together, these boys made up the Marauders, a notoriously naughty group of pranksters who were never afraid to get in trouble.
Two girls heard the ruckus going on in the compartment and poked their heads through the door. "Hey, Lily and Marlene! We're so glad we finally found you! We've been searching for—"
"MARY! ALICE! Thank Merlin you're here! Hurry, save us from the hands of these trolls," Lily exclaims in relief.
"Hey, that wasn't nice, Lily-flower. I thought we were friends," Sirius pouted.
"Since when!?" Lily huffed, dragging Alice and Mary to sit next to her and Marlene. Finally, the dorm mates could update each other on their summer vacations as well as they could with the other four boys causing a ruckus. Lily recounted her story about her necklace when Mary had an idea.
Alice, who was always known as the kindest of the crew, offered, "Would you boys like to sit down?"
Mary excitedly said, "Yeah, come on! We're gonna have a contest!"
Worried for her own embarrassment, Lily asked, "Um, Mary, what contest? Shouldn't I have some consent in the matter?"
"Sure," Mary said. "but I think these boys could help out!"
Marlene, curious and always ready for a little excitement, said, "Tell us your idea, Mary!"
"Well, since Lily clearly loves her new necklace, she should be able to thank the person who gave it to her properly. Whoever can guess the date of Lily's half-birthday, be able to tell us where the necklace was bought, which is indicated on the back side of the pendant, and tell us what was in the letter that accompanied the gift, will be the person Lily's been wanting to thank since the middle of the summer!" Mary exclaimed.
On a completely unrelated note, James and the other Marauders seemed very interested in the goodies they bought from the trolley.
"Nice idea, but how are we going to get the person to want to reveal themselves?" Lily speculated.
Marlene lit up, "Oh, that's easy! We'll say that the winner gets a date with Lily!" She and the other girls smirked, while the Marauders, sans James, seemed to catch on to the girls' plan.
James choked on his chocolate frog and Lily's eyes bugged out from her head. Lily jumped up from her seat, yelling, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
Mary said "Relax, Lils! Think about it—this necklace seems to be the only thing that keeps you sane whenever you're mad at Potter—"
"HEY!" Potter yelled indignantly.
"—so you should probably thank whoever gave you that gift. I mean, whoever gave it to you must really care for you and probably would jump at any opportunity to get to know you better,"
"And," Alice piped up, "discovering the sender could give you —BOOM!— instant boyfriend and a guaranteed date to the Yule Ball this year!" (A/N: There will be no TriWizard Tournament. I just love the aesthetic of the Yule Ball… I mean, swoon)
"Fine. I'll only agree because dates are hard to come by for a girl like me," Lily frowned.
"What?! Lily, you're like the most wanted girl in our year! Well, aside from Sirius," Marlene insisted.
"Hey!" Sirius shouted, hands on his hips.
"At least she basically said you were pretty," James shrugged.
"You're right. I'm prettier than all the girls combined," Sirius flounced, flipping his hair dramatically. Marlene giggled.
"Attention all witches and wizards: The Hogwarts Express will be arriving in less than thirty minutes." The loudspeaker stated, grabbing the attention of the Marauders and the girls.
Remus, who had taken to reading a book most of the trip, spoke, saying, "Alright, boys. We should leave these girls so they can get dressed. We should get our robes on too."
"Okie-dokie, Moony. Although I'm sure these girls wouldn't mind seeing my gorgeous body up close." Sirius winked at the girls while they giggled, excluding Alice, who already had a boyfriend, and Lily, who rolled her eyes.
"This is going to be an interesting year." Lily sighed, wondering why anyone (ahem, Marlene) would fall for those annoying Marauders.