"Oh, this will not do, this will not do."
Madame Malkin was spending an infinite amount of time searching for the right fabric, not satisfied with the cloth currently draped around Jillian. The young witch wasn't sure why; it fit comfortably just like all the previous robes she'd owned in the past five years. Now her sixth year at Hogwarts was starting in just a few days, and Jillian had still yet to finish her school shopping. Buying new robes was just at the top of her list. She still had to get her books, a new cauldron—the witch now knew that one misplaced ingredient really did make a difference—and a bag of feed for Archie. Jillian desperately wanted to be finished with all her shopping so she could go meet up with her friends at the Leaky Cauldron, but instead she was tied up in measuring tape, still waiting for her robe to be complete.
Just as the soon-to-be sixth year was about to explode with impatience, Madame Malkin's head popped out from behind the curtain.
"Got it!"
The older woman finished the fitting in the minutes after that and sent Jillian out the shop with a new robe and quick pat on the shoulder. It didn't take long for her to buy all her school supplies after that. She even spared an extra ten sickles on that new wizarding book she'd been meaning to get, To Duel with Dragons. Jillian had fallen in love with the creatures the moment she saw a Norwegian Ridgeback in her Care of Magical Creatures schoolbook. It was the one thing she was sure about her future; that'd she'd work with dragons.
After buying all her supplies, Jillian had just enough money for a glass of butterbeer.
On her way to the pub, the witch spotted a small crowd surrounding the quidditch supplies shop. As she got closer, Jillian could see what they were all muttering about. In the glass case stood the most gorgeous broom she had ever laid eyes on. If she squinted, Jillian could read the small writing etched onto the end of the stick.
"The Nimbus 1700," someone whispered from beside her. She could hear the awe in his voice.
All Nimbus brooms were by far more advanced than any other of its time, and this was the newest model. It was sleek and glossy, its wood looking more polished than a bottle of shoe shiner. Jillian wondered how expensive it was; not that she was looking to buy. She found out in her first year at Hogwarts that broom riding was not her forte, when she flew straight into Madam Hooch. Jillian shuddered at the memory. As much as she was a disaster on the broom, she had loved watching quidditch games, and had only missed one in her five years at Hogwarts (she'd especially like to thank detention with Slughorn for that).
Jillian sighed, and with one last glance at the broom, left and headed toward the pub.
She had only walked through its doors when numerous shrieks arose from the Leaky Cauldron. Jillian was seconds away from reaching for her wand before she was bombarded with squealing girls.
Once the other customers realized it was just very enthusiastic pals being reunited and not some dark force come to kill them all, they all relaxed and went back to their conversations. Trisha Tandel was the first to pounce.
"Jillian Mathias Davies!" A very angry looking Trisha had her hands on her hips, trying to look intimidating. It would've worked if not for her very short height and button nose, making her less frightening than a mouse. Jillian could tell that Trisha was putting a lot of effort in her expression though, so pretended to quiver with fear at the sight of her small friend.
"Oh don't say that name out loud. Anyone could've heard." Jillian looked to see if anyone was listening in on the conversation.
"What, Mathias?" Meredith inquired. Meredith Tuft stood shoulder to shoulder with Trisha, a sight Jillian had seen plenty of times before, but never got over. The two contrasted completely and entirely with each other. Where Trisha was short and petite, Meredith was tall and brawny. Where Trisha had a short black bob of hair, Meredith had a tangle of blonde curls. Where Trisha had inherited coffee colored skin from her Indian mother, Meredith had gotten an unnatural amount of freckles from her Irish father. It was like watching the two poles stand side by side. Yet, the two were closer to each other than they were with the rest of the group of friends. It was an odd thing, the way the world worked.
"Stop saying it!" Jillian whisper-shouted.
"Oh, Mathias is a perfectly sensible name," retorted the ever sensible Lily Evans. Lily Evans was a sort of pretty no one ever got tired of looking at. One would've thought that the most noticeable thing about Lily Evans was her red hair, never failing to stand out among heads of blacks, browns, and even yellows. Of course this observation would have been made from afar, because one good look at Lily's eyes told a different story. They were a deep green, the kind of pine trees and firs. It was a common joke among the group of girls that being around Lily was like having Christmas year-round. Not that Lily minded; Christmas was her favorite time of year.
"Yes, a perfectly sensible name for somebody's eighty year old grandpa," Jillian replied back.
"Your eighty year old grandpa, if I can recall correctly," piped in Cindy Schmidt, the bunch of the group who always had something witty to say every time she opened her mouth. Cindy was easily the most gorgeous of them all with dark skin and sleek black hair. Her eyes were brown with a golden tint that went unseen by no one.
Compared to all of her friends, Jillian considered herself to be rather plain. She had brown curls and olive skin with a smattering of freckles on her nose. The only thing that made people give a second glance her way was the pair of bright blue eyes planted on her face. Not that she cared much for beauty; what she lacked in looks, she made up with personality. If you asked anyone in Gryffindor who was the most fiery of all the sixth-year girls, they would reply without thought, Jillian Davies.
"I didn't even know the old bugger. My parents only gave me his name because he died a month before I was born. If he had stayed alive just a tad bit longer I could have had a lovely middle name, like Charlotte or Penelope." Jillian sat down at the nearby booth with her friends, where a glass of butterbeer was already waiting for her. Her friends must have ordered for her already, and a warm feeling flared through her, grateful that she had these people in her life.
"Penelope," Lily said with a scrunched up nose, "is a great middle name if you want to sound like one of those old duchesses with the foot tall wig and unbearably powdery face."
"Besides, I like 'Mathias'. It's got...character," Trisha stated, tapping on her chin in thought.
"Character?" Jillian asked, skeptically.
"Yes, character." Meredith agreed. "It's one of those names you could say over and over and not get bored doing so."
The other girls nodded, while Jillian looked at them bewildered. "It seems you all have thought about this a great deal."
"Well, it does happen to be a great source of amusement for us, too." Cindy said, in between gulps of her own butterbeer. The four girls laughed while Jillian rolled her eyes, a small grin appearing on her face anyway.
"So," Trisha started after the laughter cooled down. "Why didn't you write to us over the summer? Were you still furious about the hair dye prank we did? We're really sorry about that, it wasn't supposed to go the way it did, it's just that—"
"Trisha, I'm not mad about the prank," Jillian reassured. "Although it is something I'd like to block out of my mind forever. It's just that, Archie sprained his wing soon after I got home, and I didn't want to rush his recovery. He's still a bit wobbly in flight, even now."
"Oh, poor Archimedes," Lily cooed. "I always did like your owl. He delivered my messages rather quickly."
"Yes, yes, you can see him when school starts. He's quite spoiled already, and the extra pampering lately hasn't been helping." Jillian patted the bag of owl feed she had just bought.
Meredith eyed the stack of books beside it. "Did you just buy your school supplies today? Merlin, Jillian, term starts in less than a week."
"Yes, well, it's not like they have these things in the muggle world. I wasn't able to go shopping in Diagon Alley until today." Besides Lily, Jillian was the only muggle-born in their group of friends. Trisha was a half-blood, and Meredith and Cindy were both purebloods.
Lily nodded in agreement. "I only got my books and supplies last week. The entire summer I spent at home."
"Did you see Snape?" Trisha asked, not thinking before she spoke. Lily's head whipped to the small girl. It was common knowledge that Lily and Severus were childhood friends from even before Hogwarts. As the years went by, their relationship severed (ha, get it?) and eventually ended after Snape called Lily a particularly nasty name the year before. It wasn't the name that hurt the redhead so much so as who said it, the one person she had trusted and loved throughout her childhood. It was a slap in the face of their friendship, and Lily wouldn't forgive the Slytherin boy for it.
"No. Although I'm sure that will change once the school year starts," Lily said curtly.
"And what will you do about Potter?" Cindy questioned, trying to change the subject.
Lily let out an exasperated sigh. "What can I do? I reject his advances and declarations of love over and over for five years! Yet, the persistence in him never dies out. What if…" a horrified look plastered itself on Lily's face. "What if he'll never stop? What if even after we graduate, even after years and years of me saying no, and we're old people by this time, the age one would have grandkids, but I don't because James chased all men away so I never marry and have children, what if I finally say yes? Because I've given up and Potter won and what do I do then?"
"Maybe, for now, just hope he didn't overhear you and get ideas in his head?" Jillian replied. Immediately, Lily's eyes landed on the entrance of the pub to see three rowdy boys enter. Of course, as the universe loved to laugh at her, it was none other than Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter. Unsurprisingly, the three were laughing loudly and obnoxiously, probably about some recent mischief they had been involved in. Lily narrowed her eyes at the group, and James naturally looked up then, not seeming the least bit surprised to see her. Did he follow Lily into the pub? Or maybe after so many years of chasing the witch, he had developed an internal radar for her.
Automatically, James began to head towards the girls' booth, with Sirius and Peter by his side. Lily turned her head away and pretended not to see them, instead glaring straight ahead at Meredith's forehead. Jillian let out a huff in contempt at James' and Sirius' arrival. She was nothing if not a grudge-holder, and there was plenty to hold against the two. Trisha instead sighed with infatuation, not bothering to hide the fact that she was eyeing Sirius Black up and down. It was true, though idiots and complete barbarians, the two in question were not bad on the eyes. James Potter was notorious not only for his endless pranks, but also for his unruly hair, which could never seem to be tamed (a trait, though Jillian would never admit, she found endearing). His hazel eyes were encircled by a pair of rimmed spectacles, and had a lean body formed by years of quidditch practice. Sirius, on the other hand, was drop dead gorgeous (though Jillian would die before telling him that). He had dark black hair that reached right above the shoulders and grey eyes that could pierce through anything. Once upon a first-year, Jillian would have been head over heels for those eyes and that cocky smile. That all ended the moment he turned her breakfast into a pile of slugs, a memory that continued to traumatize her to this day. Despite her immense dislike towards them, she would not deny that they were attractive. The witch pitied Peter Pettigrew at that moment, for although he was a decent looking fellow if one concentrated hard enough, standing between James Potter and Sirius Black really didn't help his case.
"Evans!"
Lily visibly grimaced.
"Hey, Evans," James repeated once he got closer to the booth. "How was your summer?"
"It was fine, aside from all those love poems you sent me." Lily replied.
James' grin grew. "Did they make you swoon?"
"More like resist the urge to puke."
"You should really get that checked out," Sirius jumped in. "Spontaneous Vomiting isn't something to joke about."
"Don't you three have something better to do than pester us? The school year hasn't even started yet." Lily said.
"What? But that's only our favorite activity of the day," Sirius exclaimed. "Isn't that right, Peter?"
"You must have dull days, then," Jillian countered.
Sirius slid into the seat next to her and leaned back, causing Jillian's face to scrunch up and Trisha's mouth to drool. "On the contrary, they're quite interesting. Just today, the three of us invented a new innovative way to travel."
Lily arched an eyebrow, looking unimpressed. "Did you now?"
James piped in. "You've heard of broomsticks. You've heard of floo powder. You've heard of portal keys. Now get ready for—"
"Flying cars!" Peter interrupted.
Blank stares were plastered on each girl's face.
"Mate, I was just getting to that!" James exclaimed, annoyed that he didn't get to say the climatic statement.
Peter shrugged and apologized, not looking very sorry at all.
"Flying cars?" Asked a bewildered Cindy.
Sirius grinned at the girl. "Yes, exactly. It's all in the name, you see."
Lily looked at the boys, trying to see if this was some kind of hidden joke. Seeing that they were completely serious, she sighed and leaned her head against the booth. "I don't know why I'm surprised you've come up with this nonsense."
"Well, I wouldn't call it nonsense. There's a way you could do it, with specific…charms and…" James began muttering to himself. "Oh, Moony could figure out all the technicalities. Where's Remus when you need him?"
"Visiting his grandmother," Lily responded.
"I knew that, it was a rhetorical question," James answered back, then paused for a moment. "The question is how did you know that?"
"We owl each other," Lily said looking at James as if he was an idiot, which, to her, he was.
"You owl our Remus?" Sirius asked. Then to James, "he's getting more action than you, mate. Maybe you should ask for some tips."
James scowled. "I do not need any advice, from Remus of all people."
"While we do appreciate you hanging around and babbling about flying cars, except we don't, could you please go talk about your love lives somewhere else?" Jillian interrupted, tucking a curl behind her ear and narrowing her eyes in clear dislike at the boys.
"I thought we were bonding," Sirius said slyly.
"Funny." Jillian replied. "I thought we-," she gestured to her friends. "-were having a perfectly decent time until you three interrupted. But maybe that was just me."
"The likely situation," Sirius answered back, his infuriating grin not wavering.
James yawned very dramatically, getting everyone's attention and being pleased about it. "While we're all enjoying your sparring session, us, mates, will have to be off on our way now. We do have a schedule to keep up with, you know."
"And here I was thinking that you bunch were a spontaneous sort," Jillian muttered sarcastically.
The three boys scooched out of the booth, Peter looking quite glad to be out of there. Sirius saluted the girls very casually, and James bowed very theatrically. Trisha was too busy being infatuated with the scene before her to notice that she was spilling butterbeer on the table.
"And now I bid you all adieu." James made a point of kissing Lily's hand, who in turn yanked it out of his grasp.
"Thank Merlin for that," Lily said, her face the color of her hair. James, satisfied with this, left the table and headed for the entrance of the pub where Sirius and Peter were patiently waiting.
When the three boys exited through the doors, Meredith let out a chortle. "You should see yourself, Lily. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you have a thing for a certain bespectacled classmate of ours."
Cindy, nudging Meredith's side, let out a wicked grin. "I sure hope you're not talking about Manny Wilkins. I could've sworn I caught him picking his nose in Transfiguration once."
Lily muttered something under her breath and glared at Trisha's spilled butterbeer.
Trisha grabbed a napkin and started wiping the table. "I don't get it Lily. What's so bad about Potter anyway? He's hot, the quidditch captain, has a sense of humor, not so bad in classes, oh, and did I mention he's hot?"
The redhead sighed. "He's a bully. A spoiled one at that. All that other stuff doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, because in the end, that's all he is."
Meredith gave her a pointed look. "Is this about Snape? Because that was two years ago, and things are different now."
Lily looked appalled. "No, this isn't about Snape. This is about James Potter being a real jerk all these years I've known him, including the last two."
"Whatever." Trisha cleaned off the last drop of butterbeer. "All I'm saying is, who cares if he's a prat sometimes. We're young. We're still at school. After I leave Hogwarts, sure, I'll get married and have babies. But for now I'm gonna have fun while I can. And if Potter ever looked my way, I wouldn't give it a second thought, because let's face it—quidditch practice really did his body good."
All the girls laughed, even Lily, because there was no denying that quidditch practice really did James Potter's body good.
"I don't know. Nice to look at as he may be, I wouldn't want to hang around that bunch." Jillian stated.
Cindy rolled her eyes. "You're just talking about Sirius and your stupid grudge against him for the slugs."
"Well, you didn't have your French toast turn into that disgusting creature, just as you were about to bite into it. I still have nightmares about that." Jillian shuddered. "Besides, it wasn't only the slugs. What about that time he hexed me so I could only speak in tongue twisters for a week before a cure was found? Do you know how much I hate alliteration now? Or how about when Black switched the color of my robes and uniform, so it looked like I was in Slytherin!"
"Look," Meredith reasoned. "It probably wasn't personal or anything. I mean Potter and Black are always causing trouble for students in Hogwarts."
Jillian crossed her arms stubbornly. "Personal or not doesn't change the fact that I got sent to the infirmary because Black decided I would be the perfect random target to test out his new 'Ear Enlarging potion'. I ended up missing my Charms exam and Flitwick wouldn't let me retake it."
"I always did wonder how he got you to drink the potion," Lily pondered.
"He poured it into my orange juice at breakfast! He literally drugged me!" Jillian's voice rose, attracting the eyes of other customers.
"Breakfast hasn't been turning out too well for you, has it?" Cindy commented with humor in her voice.
"Oh, I miss the breakfasts at Hogwarts so much," Trisha sighed, only half paying attention to the conversation. "No one at home knows how to cook so it's always either instant oatmeal or cornflakes. If we're really lucky, Dad will be able to cook the eggs without burning them."
The five girls murmured in agreement. There was truly nothing like a Hogwarts breakfast.
Hi guys :) Thanks for reading this far. Now I just want to make this clear. This is not a jily fanfic. It's not a Sirius/OC love story. It's not even entirely about the Marauders. It's about how these teenagers are affected by the First Wizarding War. They go from being students and having to worry about their Newts and exams, to fighting in a frickin war. Of course, we're going to have some jily love. Maybe banter with Sirius. Definitely Marauder mischief. But at the end of the day, we see how these kids have their lives turned upside down.
On that note, I have no idea when I'm going to update, possibly next week, maybe next month. Either way, I appreciate it if you review and continue to read on.
Kay :)
And here's a pun stolen off the internet:
Some aquatic animals at the zoo escaped; it was otter chaos.