It was the summer of 1977. The summer before my seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was the summer when I realized I was in love.
My best friend Marlene and I climbed onto the Hogwarts Express at the end of our sixth year. It had been a truly lovely year and I was sad to see it go. I had begun my N.E.W.T. classes, gotten my ex-best friend Severus Snape out of my head, and made a few new friends.
Unlike many of my fellow students, I was not looking forward to the summer holidays this year. It meant having to spend time with my rubbish sister Petunia and her boorish fiancé. It meant being bored for hours on end and re-reading books I had read multiple times before. My family never went places during holiday. My summers were never any fun. But I was especially dreading this summer because my sister's wedding was set to take place at the beginning of August. And I was not looking forward to it.
Petunia didn't want me to be in her wedding. I knew this because she had told me as much last Christmas. But our mum told her she was being ridiculous and I was going to be in the wedding whether she liked it or not. This was unfortunate for me as well because I didn't want to be in the wedding either. I didn't even want to go to the wedding. That's how much I disliked my sister. But of course I couldn't tell Mum this. She would have gone ballistic, telling me I was being silly and of course I wanted to be in the wedding. Mum never understood why Petunia and I didn't like one another. Maybe this was because Petunia made sure Mum never heard her call me freak.
I was thinking about all of this as I sat in our compartment on the train ride home. Marlene had gone off to find her boyfriend Robbie, so I was alone. Or at least I was until the Marauders found me.
"Evans!" Sirius Black said, opening the compartment door. "What are you doing here sitting by yourself? Mind if we join you?"
Before I could answer he shouted down the hall, "Oi! Come on, you three," and sat down on my left.
The others came in, and they all sat on the bench across from me. I smiled good-naturedly at the four boys whom I had so recently come to call my friends. We sat, talked, joked, and, when the lunch trolley came round, ate. Marlene found us some two hours later just as Sirius and James Potter, the leaders of the group, were finishing their second game of Exploding Snap. Peter was watching in what I could only describe as awe, and Remus was reading a book and occasionally looking up to laugh at his mates.
The ride passed with ease, but I was more somber than usual as I was so focused on my thoughts. I didn't think anyone had noticed, but I was wrong.
As the train pulled into King's Cross, we got up to leave. Peter, Remus, and Sirius were the first to go seeing as they were closest to the door. I grabbed my trunk and turned to see James and Marlene waiting for me.
"Lily," James began. "Will you wait a moment?"
I knew something was up the moment he called me by my first name. He never did that. I was always "Evans." He had a serious expression on his face and a look of concern in his eyes. I turned to Marlene to see surprise and confusion etched onto her face. I had a feeling my expressions were probably reflecting hers at the moment. Trying to look calm, I said, "I'll meet you later, Marlene, yeah?"
She nodded and left, still looking confused.
I turned back to James.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked innocently. I knew then that he had noticed my lack of interest in the conversations during the ride.
"You haven't been your normal self today. You were awfully quiet and your smiles seemed forced."
"Oh," I said, giving up the charade. "Erm, I'm just not looking forward to this summer. Kinda sad to be leaving Hogwarts, you know?"
"Well, it's only two months," he stated, obviously trying to console me.
"Yeah," I said, even though his sentiment had done nothing to comfort me. He could tell. He could always tell.
"If it helps, you can come hang out with me and the blokes if you want. We're going to the beach in two weeks. You should come. It'll be a lot of fun!"
This, on the other hand, did cheer me up a little. It was something to look forward to at least. I smiled. "Yeah, sure. That sounds like fun. I'll keep in touch."
"Okay," he said, smiling. "I'll owl you sometime this week with the details."
"Okay." With that, we left the carriage, and I went to say goodbye to Marlene and find my parents. Maybe my summer wouldn't be so bad after all.