Sea of Lights
Chapter 1—Normalcy at Hogwarts
"Hey Lily!" A blonde-haired Ravenclaw called after the redhead in front of her.
Lily Evans turned around. "Oh hey, Shawna," she said before turning back around, hoping desperately that the blonde's name was indeed, Shawna— as she didn't know the girl very well.
"Lily!"
"What's up, Lil?"
"Hi Lily!"
Various people called out to the fiery redhead as she walked down the corridor.
Lily sighed. It was just another day as Hogwarts' most perfect and popular girl. In truth, she hated the attention, but she was just naturally charismatic and easily attracted the affection of people.
Standing at about 5'5", Lily Evans was a stunning girl with wavy red hair and deep emerald eyes, and unfortunately for her, she often was the victim of lovesick teenage boys at Hogwarts.
And while throughout her 7 years at Hogwarts, Lily had always been at the top of the social ladder, she only had two close friends.
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THWAP
Lily dropped her books on a table beside a momentarily startled brunette.
"Hey Marsh."
Her best friend Marsha looked up and smiled. "Rough first day back?"
"Tell me about it," she said. "Three boys asked me out, five tried to get me to sit with them, a couple wanted to walk with me…" she ranted on and on for 5 minutes as Marsha waited patiently beside her. "…Anyways, I have loads of homework."
Marsha made a noise of consent, and they began to delve into the world of numbers, goblins, laws, spells, and herbs.
Marsha DeLaurier was a brown haired and amber-eyed girl. Like Lily, she was popular and didn't like it. Yet Marsha only objected to the attention because she tended to be shy and enjoyed staying away from social events and the public in general. Lily, however, was fiery and more conversational. Nonetheless, the similarity between to the two girls was evident, and perhaps the most noticeable trait was their independence. Both girls had realized early on that boys at Hogwarts had a tendency to be womanizers, and they had resolved to refrain from dating, as they didn't believe that love could come at such a young age.
"I wonder how the giant rebellion actually affected the goblins if they really did—" Lily began, but was quickly cut off by a loud bang.
The entire school turned to see all of the Slytherins wearing purple wigs and bright pink shirts that had a flashing target on it. The Slytherins themselves seemed to be stunned, and they floated around the Great Hall in a trance.
Immediately, Hogwarts' most mischievous group (a.k.a. the Marauders) stood up and began flinging their food at the targets on the hot pink shirts. Apparently, if a target were hit, the Slytherin who wore the shirt would scream out a secret of theirs. James, the unofficial leader of the Marauders, quickly demonstrated this as he grabbed a carrot and struck the bulls-eye of an entranced and therefore unsuspecting Slytherin nearby.
"I love ponies!" Severus Snape squeaked out immediately.
The Great Hall roared with laughter, and soon, most of the school was throwing their dinner at the floating Slytherins.
"Where are the teachers?" asked a worried Marsha.
"Not here, obviously," Lily stated. "Honestly Marsh, have some fun and help me hit Bertha Bullstrode! You're always such a good girl!"
"Oh but… well… oh what the hell!" Marsha cried and flicked a spoonful of pudding into the air.
Ten minutes later, the professors had returned, peeved at some idiot who had called them away for a "teachers meeting."
As they entered the hall, a look of disbelief crossed the face of every teacher and they stared at the chaos. For a moment, every professor was frozen in shock, but then again, they remembered, a day at Hogwarts with the Marauders was never ordinary.
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The evening's events were the topic of discussion throughout the next day.
"Bertha has a crush on Crabbe!" Lily announced triumphantly to Marsha, who laughed.
"I still feel bad, I mean Snape must have been hit so many times that he had no secrets left to spill! And you're head girl, Lily! You should have done something!"
Lily rolled her eyes. "I've always wondered why I'm Head Girl. You're obviously much more diligent and better behaved…"
"Well I'm actually satisfied with being prefect. But you being Head Girl's no mystery Lils, you're at the top of the class!"
"James, however, getting Head Boy—now that's a mystery!" chimed in a brunette who approached them.
"Amy!!" screamed Marsha and Lily engulfing the poor girl in a hug.
Amy Huntsford was a tall, athletic Gryffindor who had missed the first day of school because her sister was getting married. Her idiosyncrasies made her very different from either Marsha or Lily, in that she often looked at things in a different light.
"Yeah well anyways," Lily said, returning to their previous discussion, "James getting Head Boy really is something. I mean, he pranks all the time and has about a million detentions. And even with his stellar grades, I don't see how he can pull it off…"
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"Damn James!" Sirius laughed, recalling last night's incidents. "You must have hit Snape and Malfoy 100 times!"
"Yeah, well, you know, being Chaser really has its advantages!" James responded. Remus and Peter chuckled.
The Marauders, of course, were made up of four troublemaking yet adored boys—James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. James, who was the captain of the Quidditch team, Head boy, and second best student (behind Lily), had messy black hair, that, for some reason, girls found "sexy." And even though James was perhaps the most eligible bachelor at Hogwarts, he only dated a few nice girls and instead focused on having fun and pranking.
Sirius Black was the ladies' man of the school. He had straight brown hair and chocolate colored eyes. He did well enough in school, although he didn't study, and instead liked to play Quidditch (he was beater), womanizing, and of course, being a Marauder, pulling pranks.
Remus Lupin, a Gryffindor prefect, was a sandy haired boy who was generally reserved. He was intelligent and studied hard. He liked to read and observe other people, which were characteristics similar to that of the position he played on the house team, seeker. In most cases, Remus Lupin could read the emotions of people like a book, except for, that is, himself.
Peter Pettigrew was the last member of the Marauders. He was shy and nice, despite the reputation he earned from pranking. He seemed dull to most people, although he really just liked to remain silent and listen to others. Unlike the rest of the Marauders, Peter wasn't on the Quidditch team as he wasn't fond of the sport, so he usually spent time dreaming while he sat on the sidelines of practices and games.
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That night, James and Remus walked back from the library discussing their essays. Suddenly, Remus glanced at his watch and realized they were 10 minutes late for the prefect meeting. Skidding into the room 2 minutes later, the two boys quickly assumed their positions, guilt still plastered to their faces. No matter how irresponsible they were with pranks, they still felt an obligation to their duties as prefect and head boy (which is, perhaps, reassuring…).
"Sorry…" James trailed off as he headed to the front of the room where Lily stood. She smiled graciously and said, "It's okay; we didn't really get started yet."
"Oh ok, good."
Lily and James, surprisingly, didn't really know each other. Despite both being rather popular and both being in Gryffindor, they never really had classes together, and Lily's independence removed her from a lot of the people who weren't normally in her classes.
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After the meeting ended, all the prefects filed out.
"Well I guess we should set up a schedule and meet in between prefect meetings to work on the stuff in the agenda." Lily said after they had all left.
"Yeah, that'd be good. How about we meet in the common room on Wednesday, at 8?" James said hesitantly.
Lily was surprised. She didn't expect James to take initiative. She had only seen him pull lighthearted pranks, and thought he had slacked off. "Okay, sure. I'll see you there then." She said as she packed up her stuff to leave.
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As James climbed the steps to the boys' dormitory, he wondered why he had never truly known Lily Evans. 'I guess it's just because we've never been in the same class before. Although I am in her class this year… maybe I'll get to know her then.' He thought to himself before he promptly went to bed.
A/N: So you're now wondering--- DOES THE TITLE MAKE SENSE?! and yes, it does... but you'll have to wait and see! Meanwhile, I would greatly appreciate it if you reviewed! Thanks for reading!