"Don't forget to write!"
"Yes, mum," I said for at least the four hundredth time that morning. I leaned in for a quick hug as I attempted to make my escape onto the train, which would depart any second. You'd think after four years she'd realize that leaving for Hogwarts was in fact not the same as falling off the face of the planet.
"You promise?" my mother asked, giving me the guilt-inducing look that I'm pretty sure all mothers are required to pass a course in before they are allowed to raise children.
"Of course! It'll be like I'm not even gone. You'll be sick of me," I told her with a conciliatory pat on the hand. My eyes nervously flickered to Hogwarts Express. "Speaking of which, I really need to get on the train before it leaves without me. Tell daddy and Petunia I love them and I'll see them at Christmas."
I jumped onto the nearest car without waiting for an answer, and turned to give her a final wave before making my way through the corridor in search of Severus. I was eager to see my other friends as well, but after a disastrous attempt at a joint seating arrangement at the beginning of second year, it had been the unofficial standard that I would spend the first half of the train ride with my childhood friend and the second half with the other girls from Gryffindor.
It didn't take me long to find Severus sitting alone in a nearby compartment. I pulled the compartment door open, causing him to jump and his hand to fly to the pocket of his school robes where I knew he kept his wand before he saw who I was. A look of relief passed over his face before it was replaced with an unusually large grin.
"Lily!" he greeted me and immediately slid over to make room for me next to him. "How was Italy?"
"Molto bello!" I gave my best attempt at an Italian accent, hand motions included "Oh, it was amazing, you should have seen it! Ugh, and the food!"
I slumped back in my seat and let myself revel in the memory of it. My father had been called to Italy on business the last two weeks of Summer holiday and my parents decided to turn it into a family vacation so we could still have "family time" before I came back to school.
"Thank you for picking up all of my school supplies for me, by the way," I glanced at him, and a silver glint off of his robe caught my eye. I grabbed the front of his robes to inspect it more closely. "Severus, why didn't you tell me?" I practically shouted at him. He had the same prefect badge pinned to the front of his robes that I had tucked safely in my trunk. I, however, had immediately sent him a letter when I received my badge with my Hogwarts letter while I was in Rome.
He shrugged, "I guess it slipped my mind."
I refused to dignify his statement with anything but an incredulous look.
"I don't know, I guess I just didn't think it was that important," he shrugged.
"Gee, thanks," I said, throwing him a mostly joking glare. He threw his hands up in surrender. "Anyway," I drawled, "what have you been up to? Besides pining away over the absence of your dearest friend and neighbor, obviously."
"Obviously," he matched my joking tone, but there was a bit of seriousness in his eyes that made me slightly uncomfortable. "Not much, to be honest." He seemed to hesitate before continuing. "I went to Diagon Alley, of course. And I tested what you said about crushing rather than chopping sopophorous beans."
I glanced at him expectantly.
"You were right," he muttered.
"Ah, yes. The three finest words in the English language," I sighed with a self-satisfied grin.
"Don't let it get to your head," he warned, but his smile gave him away.
"Of course not," I exclaimed in mock offense. "Besides, you can't be perfect at Potions all the time. Some of us have to have strokes of brilliance every once in a while."
We spent the rest of the time before the Prefect meeting talking about what I had done in Italy. Now don't get me wrong, I was excited to be going back to Hogwarts, but it had been nice being away from real life for a change. Things had seemed almost normal for Tuney and me. She had even willingly started a conversation with me, which hadn't happened since I was nine. That is, things were better until my prefect badge arrived by owl. I didn't bother telling this to Severus, though. He didn't really understand my relationship with my sister, so it was easier to just not bring her up.
We left for the Prefect compartment just before two in the afternoon, and were the first to arrive. We settled in on opposite sides and sat in silence until our fellow prefects arrived. The others slowly trickled in, and I recognized Amos Diggory from Hufflepuff and Amelia Bones from Ravenclaw, both sitting proudly with their new badges gleaming on their chests. I suddenly wished I had changed into my school robes before coming to the meeting. I briefly glanced at my trunk, which I had brought with me, and considered whether I would have time to change, but I got distracted when I saw the male Gryffindor prefect arrive.
"Remus!" I greeted him happily, a knot untying in my stomach that I hadn't fully realized was there until it was gone. I don't know who else I expected to walk through the door; Remus was really the only reasonable choice among the fifth year Gryffindor boys.
"Hullo, Lily! How was your Summer?" He asked, taking the seat beside me.
"It was great! I definitely needed a break before we start our OWL year. What about you?"
"Er yeah, it was good. I'm ready to be back, though," he said with a grin, undoubtedly thinking of his friends who were doing Merlin knows what somewhere else on the train. Probably turning first years' eyebrows green whenever they walked by, if I had to guess.
I tried, but couldn't quite manage a genuine smile at the thought of that particular group of boys. I shot a concerned glance at Severus, but he was looking pointedly out the window. I vaguely noticed that his fellow prefect, Narcissa Black, had taken the seat beside him.
Everyone had arrived and gotten comfortable when the Head Boy and Girl walked into the crowded compartment. I recognized the Head Boy as a seventh year Gryffindor, Caradoc Dearborn, and he threw Remus and I a quick nod of greeting. I didn't know him particularly well, but what I had heard about him had been positive. I had mixed feelings about our new Head Girl, Charity Burbage. She was a Hufflepuff and well known to be particularly sweet, but she had taken it upon herself to find out who every muggleborn in Hogwarts was and proceeded to question us all about every mundane detail of muggle life. She waved at me with a large grin that I knew meant that we would be having a talk later about the merits and failings of hairdryers. Remus shot me a knowing glance, which I returned with a sheepish grin.
"Congratulations to all of you for being chosen to become prefects!" Charity began in a voice that gave me flashbacks to primary school. "It's a big responsibility, but so rewarding, and I feel personally honored that I get to share this experience with all of you!"
Severus was looking at her with poorly concealed distaste while I attempted to silently communicate to him that he should stop scowling. His lack of enthusiasm didn't inhibit Charity whatsoever, and she focused her attention on people like Amos who were watching her with rapt attention, eagerly nodding at her every word.
"We hope that you'll feel free to discuss absolutely anything with Caradoc and myself, and that doesn't mean just your new duties. It can be schoolwork, personal problems, even your life outside of Hogwarts..." She threw me a significant look as she said those words and it took every ounce of my self-control to not roll my eyes. I could feel Remus shaking in silent laughter beside me and reached over to elbow him as subtly as possible.
"OW!"
"Oh dear, Remus are you all right?" Charity asked, her eyes glistening with concern.
"Er, yeah fine. I just er… stubbed my toe?"
Charity gave him a confused look before continuing, and Remus gave me a quick glare that quickly dissolved into a smile once she looked the other way. After about twenty minutes and at least fourteen times mentioning that being a prefect was a privilege that we should cherish and use to grow as individuals and as a group, Caradoc finally interrupted her.
"Well now that you have all been thoroughly educated on the opportunities for growth in your position, you should know that you will be required to patrol once a week with your house partner. Charity and I will inform you all once a schedule has been made, so if you have a conflict of interest such as Quidditch let us know as soon as possible. If you need anything, feel free to reach out to Charity; she'd be delighted to help you. I think that's about it, so you can all go now! So long!"
His "so long" sounded a whole lot more like a "get out", but we weren't about to miss the opening for escape he had made for us. We all quickly stood up and walked out before Charity would realize what had happened and call us back for icebreakers or some other such rubbish. I noticed Remus give Caradoc a grateful slap on the back as we left.
"Bye Sev, I'll catch up with you later, yeah?" I called out to him. He responded with a brief nod before heading back the way we had come. I turned to walk beside Remus as we went in the opposite direction.
"Do you happen to know where Mary, Dorcas, and Alice are sitting?" I asked Remus.
"Yes, interestingly enough. I'll escort you there," he said with a wink.
"My Remus, how chivalrous of you! Be careful, I might swoon from the exertion!" I threw my hand over my eyes dramatically.
"I don't think I could help you out there," he said, chuckling.
"Some knight in shining armour you are," I scoffed, shaking my head.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find some fine bloke in full body gear who'll sweep you right off your feet."
"Maybe Amos Diggory is single," I joked.
"He'd definitely agree with everything you said."
"I've always considered that a useful character trait in a man…"
A scene just at the end of the corridor suddenly distracted me. I could just make out Dorcas Meadowes, one of my friends from Gryffindor playing an intense game of Exploding Snap in the middle of the hall between two compartments. I was trying to determine whom she was playing with as we got nearer.
"Damn you, Sirius Black! You're going to pay for that!" she yelled. She turned when she heard our footsteps and I saw that her right eyebrow had been entirely singed off. "Lily!" she shouted, drawing the attention of the occupants of both compartments.
Two more girls emerged from the compartment on the right, and they both broke out in grins when they saw me. I practically ran the rest of the way to them, and was enveloped in a huge group hug. We all tried to talk over each other at once.
"Oh Merlin, I've missed-How was your-? Why didn't you- I knew you'd- Were there any- You look- your hair!"
"Okay, okay, okay, one at a time!" I shouted, now unable to contain my excitement to see my three roommates.
"We missed you!" shouted Alice Tripe. She stood on her tiptoes to give me another hug. Not that I'm particularly tall, Alice just happens to be almost absurdly tiny. "Of course, we all knew you'd be chosen as prefect."
"Well yeah, you should have just by process of elimination. I mean-" James Potter started, but stopped when Alice uncharacteristically glared at him. "Well done Evans."
"Merlin, you look amazing! What happened to you?" Dorcas asked, staring at me.
"I wasn't aware that I was such a troll, thanks for clearing that up for me," I told her, rolling my eyes.
"You know what I mean," she said, sticking out her tongue at me. "You're all tan and your hair looks like it's grown about a foot. And not to mention," she lowered her voice, glancing to her right, "your boobs look huge."
I couldn't control the blush that spread up from my neck. So I had gained some weight in Italy, I mean honestly, who doesn't? Even Tuney put some meat on her particularly pointy bones.
"I guess Italy was kind," I said sheepishly.
"Italy?! Why am I only hearing about this now?" asked Mary Macdonald, the only other muggleborn Gryffindor in our year.
"It was kind of a last minute thing," I shrugged.
"You're off in Italy having adventures while I was stuck watching my ten year old brother play Pong on the living room television all Summer," Mary shook her head. "I'm gonna need details."
"Excuse me, I would like details on what happened to your hair!" I pointed at the blonde curls that replaced her straight brown hair.
"I dyed it! You like it, right?" she asked, toying with her hair self-consciously.
"You could wear a traffic cone on your head and you'd still be gorgeous. Unlike me, I gather," I said, sending Dorcas a dirty look.
"Orange does clash with your hair…" She looked at my indignant expression before continuing, "You'll forgive me, you've missed me too much not to," she insisted confidently, leading the way back into our compartment.
"What about our game?!" I heard Sirius Black's voice call out from behind us. I had completely forgotten about the occupants of the other compartment. The self-proclaimed Marauders had all gathered in the hallway to watch us.
Dorcas waved her hand dismissively, "Peter can finish for me."
Sirius seemed to accept this and picked up the game, leading the way back to his compartment.
I turned to close the door behind us, and was surprised to see James Potter still standing in the hallway watching me. He ran his hand through his already messy hair and threw me a smirk before turning and entering his own compartment.
"Well, that was weird…" I muttered to myself.
"What was weird?" Alice asked.
"Er, nothing. It was just… nothing. Nevermind," I stuttered.
"Okay, crazy," Mary muttered, looking at me disbelievingly. "Anyway, did you bring it?"
"'Did I bring it?' she asks, it's as if she doesn't even know me," I scoffed. I pulled my trunk up onto the seat, and opened it, reaching farther than should have been possible. "Undetectable Extending charm," I explained to Mary, whose eyebrows had been steadily rising up her forehead the farther my arm reached.
"And you couldn't have shared that little trick with is at the end of last term?" she questioned me accusingly.
I settled for throwing her an apologetic look as I continued my search.
"Aha! Got it!" I shouted in victory, my hand finally grabbing the object of my search. I pulled it out with a flourish.
"Yay!" Mary clapped.
Dorcas and Alice merely gave us confused looks, unsure why Mary and I were so pleased.
"What is it?" Alice asked?
"It looks like some method of torture," Dorcas eyed it warily.
"It's a record player," I explained enthusiastically. "And it's going to make the Gryffindor common room much more fun this year."
"I don't see how," Dorcas looked at me skeptically.
"What is it supposed to do?" Alice asked.
"Play records. Merlin Alice, do you listen at all?" Mary teased her.
"Muggles use it to play music," I explained to Alice.
"Can't we just play music on the radio?"
"Well, yes, wizard music. But Mary and I are going to expose you to muggle music!"
Mary cackled evilly at Dorcas and Alice's concerned looks.
"Don't worry, you'll thank us later," I smirked.
"We'll see about that…" Dorcas said doubtfully.
"Anyway, you're supposed to be telling us all about Italy, Miss Evans," Alice chastised.
"Meet any fit Italian blokes?" Mary questioned me. "I bet you did, and he fed you spaghetti while you floated through the canals of Florence in a gondola while acoustic guitars gently strummed in the distance…" She looked off in the distance dreamily.
"Well it wasn't precisely like that," I began. "It was actually linguini…"
"I bet it was," Dorcas laughed and threw a chocolate frog at me as we settled in for the ride back to Hogwarts.