The compartment slid open and a redhead stood peering in at the messy raven-haired boy, who happened to be the only occupant. The boy blinked at her, adjusting his glasses before picking up his polishing cloth. He ran it along the smooth mahogany of his wand, ignoring the girl.
She frowned at him, and jerked her luggage into the compartment. She looked at the boy, as if waiting for him to speak. She continued being ignored for a couple more seconds.
"Well, can I sit here?" She demanded.
The boy looked up and cocked his head at her. Then grinned impishly. "If you must." He replied. "I'm just going to warn you, Sirius isn't exactly a gentleman."
The girl rolled her eyes and dragged her trunk inside the compartment. She slid shut the door and shoved her trunk under her seat. She sat down across from the boy and looked around at her surroundings.
Suddenly, the compartment burst open and a handsome boy, even for his young age, stood there. He grinned at the other boy and the messy haired boy grinned back. He tossed his wand into his bag. Then stood and gave a high-five the other boy.
"Jamsie, m'mate!" The new boy greeted. "I haven't seen you since Andromeda's birthday!"
"What'd you do, Sirius?" The boy named 'Jamsie' asked.
"Who says I've done anything?" Sirius replied, trying to look hurt, unfortunately, his smile peeked out from the corner of his lips.
"Honestly, you've always done something by now." Jamsie drawled. "And you didn't owl me even once. I was starting to feel unloved."
Sirius grinned and leaned against the frame of the compartment. "You caught me. They restricted me to my room, locked me in there. Fed me cheese through the keyhole! Like an animal!"
Sirius continued to rant, but Jamsie interrupted. "Sirius, you are an animal. But that's beside the point. Are you going to get to the point and tell me what you did?"
"Oh right." Sirius replied. His grin faded and his brow wrinkled in concentration. "Now I've forgotten…"
Jamsie sighed.
"Oh, wait! Now I remember. I think mother dearest blew it way out of proportion. I mean, I was grounded for a month! All I did was put a dead spider in Bellatrix's bed."
"Ah, well, she deserved it."
"Oh yeah, did I tell you? She's coming to Hogwarts this year, too."
Jamsie looked indignant. "Seriously?"
"Siriusly." Sirius replied, grinning and ducking as Jamsie aimed a cuff at his head.
Suddenly, Sirius straitened and noticed the redheaded girl behind Jamsie. He stared for a couple seconds and clapped Jamsie on the back. He grinned, turning Jamsie around so he could sling an arm over his shoulder.
"There's a girl in here!" He exclaimed.
"How observant of you." Jamsie replied sarcastically.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your new girlfriend?" Sirius asked, cocking his head.
The girl's cheeks flared with heat for a moment. Whether it was anger or embarrassment, neither of the boys could tell. The girl shifted away from them, staring out the window. But Sirius wandered over and flopped down beside her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Her head whipped around so quickly at some of her hair smacked Sirius in the face.
He shook it off and the girl continued to glare at him, scooting away a bit by bit. Sirius simply grinned. At eleven, they were just beyond the 'cootie' phase, and just before the 'hormones' phase. So, naturally, the girl still detested boys because they were immature and annoying. Not because of cooties.
"What's your name?" Sirius asked cheerfully.
"Lily." She replied. "Lily Evans."
Finally, she jerked out of his grasp and he simply grinned. He extended a hand.
"Sirius, Sirius Black." He replied. Then he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Jamsie. "That there is James Potter, Lord of the messy hair."
"Hey!" James, previously Jamsie, objected. "Just because your hair is always perfectly in place, doesn't mean you need to rub it in!" James was still standing at the compartment door. Self consciously, he ran his fingers through his hair, only mussing it up further. Then he poked his head out then turned towards Sirius again. "Your trunk is still out there. And the trolley is coming, come get it."
"You get it."
"It's your trunk."
"You're the one that wants food."
"You do, too!"
"Touché! My friend, touché!" Sirius replied happily. "But can you get it for me?"
James sighed, shaking his head as he dragged the trunk inside. He barely got it inside before he dropped it. It landed with a loud 'THUMP,' startling Lily, who hadn't been paying attention.
"Hey, er... Lily, right? Want something?" James asked, peering out as the trolley slowly made its way towards their compartment.
Lily glanced over at him. She paused thinking. Then replied rather nervously, "I don't know what they have."
"You know, the usual." James replied, rolling his eyes. "Just choose something."
Lily frowned at him. She had to wonder if the wizards had the same candy as… What were they referred to as in her book, again? M… M… Something… Muttle…? Muggles! She was a witch now, but she still didn't really know anything about being a witch. Until she'd gotten her books, she hadn't even realized it was different from flying around on broom with black cats and cackling evilly.
She'd looked through her books, but they were mostly about spells and about some magical creatures. She'd heard of some of the creatures, but the rest were strange mysteries. She'd read about the boggart, but she'd never heard of them. At least not with that name. Personally, she called it the monster under the bed.
"Umm… I'll have some Twistlers then…" Lily replied, finally surfacing from her thoughts.
Both the boys turned to look at her like she was crazy. She felt heat rise to her cheeks and wished she could just get swallowed up whole by the seat. Sirius cocked his head, while James continued to stare at her with a furrowed brow.
"What's that?" He asked after a moment.
Lily shifted uncomfortably. "Um… It's… Er… Muggle candy." She muttered.
The boys burst out laughing, and Lily failed to see what was so amusing. Her cheeks became red-hot and she buried her face in her sleeves. The boys laughed for a couple more minutes before dwindling down to a panting wheeze.
"Well-" Laughter. "-They don't sell-" More laughter. "Muggle candy!" Sirius managed.
Lily glared at the fiercely. "Well, I'm muggleborn." She replied angrily. "How was I supposed to know what 'the usual' was?"
James had managed to find his self-control because he replied, without laughing, "Oh, sorry, how about we pick something for you?"
Lily looked at him suspiciously. She had no motive to suspect him, but for some reason, she didn't want to trust him near her food. She frowned, studying him for a moment. He raised a brow at her, and then glanced outside the compartment again.
"Well, hurry up."
"Fine." Lily replied huffily. "But I can pay for myself."
James waved her off nonchalantly as he leaned out of the compartment. "Okay, here it is. What do you want, Sirius?"
"My usual." He replied. Sirius was already busying himself by flicking through a comic book, which was more like a show, because the characters were running through the panels, and doing whatever they were supposed to, sometimes shouting whatever phrases were in the dialogue bubbles.
Lily, against her will, as interested in the comic and peered over Sirius's shoulder at the small man running around in spandex. But her head snapped up as James turned around and tossed a box at Sirius. Lily looked at it and the label said "Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans'
James had a box for himself and he tossed something thing at Lily. She managed to catch it, albeit, clumsily. It was something that looked similar to a caramel apple. Something brown was speared by a plastic stick, and appeared to be covered in caramel.
"I got a bunch of stuff for you to try." James informed her. For some reason, he was smirking. Lily hadn't checked, but Sirius was smirking too, judging from the amused look James traded with him.
Lily unwrapped the plastic from the caramel encrusted thing. She peered at it suspiciously for a minute. Then carefully took a bite. She chewed thoughtfully. It was crunchy and sticky. It was sweet and… And what? Something weird. But she liked it.
She took another bite and peered at the plastic. There wasn't a label. She peered at the unmarked plastic then turned to James.
"This is good." She mumbled through her mouthful. "What is it?"
"Cockroach cluster." James replied.
Lily stared at him for a second, not quite registering what he'd just said… Cockroach? Lily gasped and dropped what was left of the candy. Then she began spitting it out into the wrapper. She hesitated for only a second before using her nails to scrape the contaminated caramel form her tongue. Her hands were probably filthy, but it was better then having a cockroach on her tongue!
"That was horrible!" She gasped at James. While she'd been trying to spit all the cockroach out, Sirius and James had erupted into laughter again. At her expense. Again. She glared fiercely at them.
"I-" Laughing. "Thought you said-" More laughter. "You liked them!" Sirius panted.
"You're horrible! That was disgusting! How can you be so unsanitary? I mean, that was terrible!" Lily snapped.
"Okay, sorry, sorry." James wheezed. "Here, try this then."
James tossed her a small box. Lily caught it and examined it suspiciously. It was colorfully decorated, and in bright gold letters the words, "Chocolate Frog" were emblazoned across the top.
"Is this a real frog, too?" She demanded.
"Of course not!" Sirius replied, entirely too cheerful.
Lily glared at him. Slowly she opened the box and peered inside. To her relief, it simply looked like a piece of chocolate shaped like a frog. She opened the box all the way and picked it up. She turned it over, peering at it. It looked perfectly normal.
She took a bite, eating the head and front legs. She glanced at Sirius and James. They both looked amused and surprised. What? The frog was perfectly normal… Right?
It was then that Lily learned that if it was too normal looking, it was a bad thing.
There was something kicking and squirming on her mouth, and the severed bottom half of the frog wriggled and kicked her grasp. Lily opened her mouth to scream but it was filled with half melted frog, which continued to twitch and shudder in her mouth.
In a panic, Lily stuck her head out the slightly open window. She began spitting it out, watching it fall the hundreds of feet below. Once she'd finished spitting out as much as she could, she glared at the boys again.
They had exploded this time. James and Sirius were rolling around on the floor, and tears were running down James's cheeks. Lily glared at them, but they continued laughing and rolling around.
"You should have- have seen you're face!" Sirius gasped.
"It was still enchanted, wasn't it?" James laughed. "I bet it was!"
Sirius only managed to nod as he continued laughing.
"You two are disgusting! And horribly immature! I can't believe you got into this school!" Lily shrieked.
James continued laughing this time and Sirius spoke. "Anyone can get- into- into this school, as- as it appears, since we st-still have Slytherins."
Lily glared at them, heat rising to her cheeks, created from a mix of embarrassment and anger. She put her fists on her hips and pressed her lips together, trying to suppress her anger. Couldn't they stop laughing at her? It's not like it was that funny.
"Re-relax!" James panted, still falling in to spasms every now and then. Over all, he'd managed to stop laughing. "It was just en-enchanted."
Meanwhile, Sirius was managing to calm down. Both boys lay on the floor with Lily towering over them. She glared sourly at them.
"Don't pee your pants, Black." She hissed. She'd forgotten his first name, but remembered his last name, at least, because it was so particular. "I thought the boys here would be more mature, but I guess I was wrong."
With that, Lily grabbed her trunk and headed towards the door.
"Wait! Don't you want to try the jelly beans?" James asked, he looked as if he were trying to contain his laughter.
Lily paused just inside the compartment. She turned to glare at them. "The every flavor ones? Judging from the rest of your candy, you'd probably give me earwax or something." She hissed, slamming the compartment shut.
James and Sirius remained on the floor. James had broken into a fresh burst of laughs, and Sirius began laughing again as well. The two friends lay in a laughing heap on the floor. Finally, their laughs died down into gasps and James sat up. He picked up something off his seat and offered it to Sirius, who was also sitting up by now.
"Cockroach cluster, my good man?"
"Yes thank you, I do believe I'd love some."
Lily Evans vowed, on that day, that she'd never ever forgive James Potter. No matter what.
But for some reason, nine years later, she found herself with a wedding ring on her finger, and James Potter's arm around her waist. Oh the irony.
-
Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to J. K. Rolling
AN: Okay, this was just Lily and James' first meeting on the train. I just felt like doing this for no reason, really. I was just sitting around and the thought came upon me suddenly. This will not be continued.