This was beta'd by Deirdre (The Hummingbird's Song on here) and Annabel (trustmeimthedr on tumblr), so I owe my life to them. It's dedicated to Paige, who's bloody fantastic, so if you're reading this, I love you. And this isn't our anniversary gift - there'll be something different for that - unless I forget, then it is.
Disclaimer (do you have to do these with everything? I don't know, but I'd rather not chance it): I don't own anything, except maybe the Candy Lady's name. Cover art is by corlyiris on DeviantArt.
"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!"
Doris Jenkins, her hands firm on the handle of the trolley, stopped in front of the next compartment to see a messy-haired boy with a pair of rectangular glasses askew on his face, wielding an imaginary sword, much to the amusement of the boy next to him.
Opposite him, a redhead and another boy were frowning in disgust. The boy – who had lank hair hanging over his sallow face, and whose nose hooked at the end – made an inaudible comment, which made the boys laugh harder, much to the displeasure of the redhead.
"Come on, Severus," the redhead said to the boy next to her – Severus, Doris labelled him in her mind; she'd surely be seeing this boy for the next seven years, so she should at least know his name. He looked up at the redhead through a veil of grease. His eyes lit up the way that a boy's do when he's looking at his crush. "Let's find another compartment."
The two other boys jeered as Severus and his redheaded friend stood up and pushed the compartment door, fully open. Severus stumbled over the conveniently placed leg of the messy-haired boy, while his friend imitated the redhead.
"See ya, Snivellus!" one of the boys yelled as the redhead and Severus left, the door sliding shut with a bang.
As she rapped on the just-shut door, she heard Severus, his voice now considerably quieter, saying, "There's one here, Lily." Doris assumed that they'd found another compartment.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked when the door opened again, revealing the taller boy – the one with the neater, yet longer hair.
A grin spread across his aristocratic face, lighting up his eyes. "Hey James, do ya want something?"
The other boy – James – popped up beside the aristocratic one, wearing a similarly excited smile. "Budge over, Sirius!" James exclaimed, nudging Sirius with his hip so that he had a full view of the trolley. Sirius pushed him back, the two laughing, until they calmed down and shared the view of the trolley.
"I'll have some Bertie Bott's beans," James said after a few moments, and then, "Ooh, and a few chocolate frogs..."
"Don't forget the liquorice wands!" Sirius exclaimed, grabbing a handful of the black sticks. The two boys pooled their money together to collect fourteen Sickles and four Knuts needed for the sweets, which they handed over to Doris. They collected their sweets, laughing as Sirius stuck an entire stick of liquorice into his mouth.
The door slid shut on the two boys, their mouths now surrounded by sticky sugar.
Lily smiled at Doris as she approached the trolley, her hand going through her money bag as she spoke; "Two cauldron cakes, please."
"Just a minute," Doris replied. She knelt down, her joints creaking, to get another tub of cauldron cakes from under the curtains that surrounded the bottom of the trolley. From behind her, she heard a set of footsteps, which stopped a few feet behind her, and then a cocky voice, saying, "'Ello, Evans."
"Potter," Lily replied in a stiff voice.
Though her hand had collided with the pack of pumpkin pasties, Doris stayed bent down, letting the conversation play out behind her.
"Fancy a date sometime?" the cocky boy said; Doris now recognised it to be the voice of James Potter, and in her mind imagined him to be smirking at Lily as he continued speaking – she had seen the smirk numerous times over the past two years as he had schemed with his friends. "You and me sneaking out of school sometime, and going down to Hogsmeade?"
"I don't think so."
Doris rose back into a standing position, recognising the stilted voice of someone who really wasn't interested – she didn't think it would be fair for the boy to be harassing Lily if she could help it and the girl didn't want it – and handed Lily her cauldron cakes.
Lily paid her the money before hurrying off, her red hair swinging behind her as she did.
James stepped forward with a dejected look as he took a pack of fudge off the shelf. He was uncharacteristically silent as he did; Doris got the sense that he actually liked the girl, and wasn't just doing it to get a rise out of her.
"Six Sickles, love," Doris told him, her words accompanied with a sympathetic smile.
"Thank you, Doris," Lily said. "I hope you have a nice Christmas." Doris wished Lily the same, put the money that Lily had just given her into the money pouch hanging off the trolley, and Lily turned around and walked back in the direction of her compartment.
But then her path was blocked by James – James's hair had grown longer, but was still just as unruly, and his glasses were still askew on his face. "Hey, there," he greeted, a cocky smile on his face.
"Hi."
Then ensued an awkward fumbling of the two stepping in the same direction, then the other, and again, until James stopped, put his hands on Lily's shoulders and turned the two of them around. "There we go," James smirked. "All in working order."
Doris watched as James patted a silent Lily on the head twice. He turned and strode away, down the corridor and up to the trolley; he froze when Lily spoke from behind him.
"James!" she called.
A few emotions flashed over James's face before he turned – shock, confusion, disbelief – before it settled into a familiar cocky smirk, and then he turned and faced Lily. "Finally agreeing to a date?"
"Nice try," Lily scoffed, but she spoiled it with a smile. "I just wanted to say: merry Christmas."
With that, she turned from James and continued her path back to her compartment. When James turned to buy his sweets, he had a wide grin on his face.
"Just two pumpkin juices and some fudge today, please."
"She was such a screamer," Doris overheard Sirius saying as she pushed the trolley down the corridor. Over the summer, the boy's voice had deepened, but it was still the familiar drawl that she associated with Sirius Black. "Good though."
Another voice – again, deeper that it was before summer, but still familiar; James's – replied, "Well anything'd be good for a first shag."
"Like you'd know; you're saving yourself for Evans, aren't you?"
Doris knocked on the window of the door, her knuckles making a rapping sound. The door slid open to reveal Remus, who smiled at her. "Hello," he said.
"Anything from the trolley, dear?"
Remus listed off what he wanted – some Bertie Bott's beans and a bottle of water – but Doris had subconsciously zoned into Sirius and James's conversation as she rustled through the bottom of the trolley for his drink:
"I bet you can't shag someone by the end of this year. Someone who isn't Evans, mind you."
"'Course I can; I can get any chick I want!"
"With what, your chiselled cheekbones and cocky smirk?"
"Are you calling me fit, Pads?" (Doris didn't try to make sense of the nickname)
"I have taste." There was an audible sneer in his voice.
"I'll take that as a yes, then; thanks, mate!"
She handed Remus what he'd requested, and accepted his money, before nodding at Sirius and James, who were discussing a wager for the bet that they'd made. "Do those two want anything?"
"Just ignore them," Remus said with a shake of his head. "They'll end up taking half of mine anyway."
Doris nodded and gave Remus a smile. "Is that all then, dear?"
"Yeah, thank you."
"-but he doesn't seem like such of a prick anymore. Don't hold me to that, though; he'll probably be an arse tomorrow again." A laugh came in reply to Lily's words. "You know, he hasn't asked me out in about six months now, and the last time he did he didn't even argue when I said no. I think he's growing up."
Doris rapped on the door, which opened to reveal Lily sitting cross-legged, opposite a curvy brunette – not, as she had expected, the sallow-faced boy that she usually sat with.
She didn't let it faze her, though; it wasn't her place to get curious about the relationships of students. Instead, she did as she was supposed to, and asked: "Any sweets, girls?"
The brunette stood up and approached her – she was taller than she had looked while sitting down – and said, in a very English tone, "A pack of Fizzing Whizbees, and a few cauldron cakes as well, I suppose."
"I don't understand how you can eat them, Mar," Lily laughed from behind her. "They're rancid."
"I've told you not to call me that," the girl threw back over her shoulder as she dug through her money bag for the sickles necessary. "And it's sherbet; how can you not like it?"
"Oh, sorry, Marlene, I forgot how adverse you were to friendship of any kind."
Marlene handed Doris the money with a half-smile, and then turned back to Lily; she threw the cauldron cake she'd just bought at the girl. "Nicknames are not friendship, Lily," she said, sitting down on the bench opposite. "They're your preferred method of torture."
Over the years, it had become second nature for Doris to knock on every door she came across, and answer it with a smile, but when she reached the last compartment and knocked on that, and the door had opened to show the four Marauders – because even she had heard that name in passing – along with Lily and Marlene, with Lily's head being dangerously close to leaning against James's thigh, her smile hadn't come. It was only when James had stood up and frowned at her that she had composed her face into a smile, and asked, "Anything from the trolley?"
"Um..." James said, frowning, as if trying to remember what he wanted. "I'll have some fudge, a chocolate frog for Sirius – Merlin knows where he is – some of those God-awful Fizzing Whizbees," (Marlene gave an indignant yell of, "hey!" at that), "aaaand a pumpkin pasty."
"Get me some cauldron cakes!" Lily shouted at him, and James grinned.
He nodded towards Lily; "Some of those too, then."
Doris smiled as she got what he'd asked for; it was nice to see their old hatred disappearing. She traded him the sweets for the money, gave him another smile – this one less forced. "If that's all, then?"
James nodded, so Doris slid the door shut and carried on down the corridor.
Whistling a Christmas carol, Doris made her rounds; she reached out to knock on the windowpane of a compartment, but she had the foresight to look through the window first. There, sitting side to side on a bench, mere inches between them, were James and Lily, kissing.
Doris smiled and dropped her hand, continuing past the compartment, leaving the remnants of seven years of sexual tension to unfold.