Lily Evans grabbed the last of her things, shoving them quickly into her trunk. She snapped it shut and gave her room on last look over. Downstairs she could hear her parents waiting for her impatiently.
"Hey sis, you want to help me carry this?" Lily asked, not really expecting a 'yes'.
"Please, you little creep, I just got my nails done." Petunia replied, her voice showing her disgust that anyone could ever ask her to do any manual labor.
"Oh, no, we couldn't have you breaking a nail, now cold we?" Lily replied mockingly, as her sister stomped down the stairs.
Lily giggled quietly to herself at her sister's vanity, pulling her trunk quickly out of the house and towards the car.
When they arrived at King's Cross Station, Lily jumped out of the car, giving her parents a quick hug goodbye, and pulled her trunk and cat onto a trolley. With a mumbled goodbye she began pushing her trolley into the station.
Once through the barrier she slowed her pace, picking her way carefully through families and students, searching for her friends. As she drew closer to the scarlet steam engine, she heard someone yelling her name. She turned in the direction of the yelling and began to laugh when she saw one of her best friends, Rose Larkin, hanging out of a window on the train. When she knew she had go Lily's attention, she snapped the window shut, and ran to the train door, helping Lily haul her extremely heavy trunk into an compartment containing only Rose's things.
Lily plopped down on an empty seat, carefully removing her kitten from the little basket she'd been carrying it in.
"Aw, she's so cute!" Rose exclaimed, carefully scratching the tops of the kitten's head. "When did you get her?"
"My mom got him for me for my birthday, her name is Muffy." Lily replied. Her sixteenth birthday had been a matter of days before, and she had always wanted a cat.
They had been sitting for several minutes in silence when the trains high-pitched whistle echoed throughout the train, and they felt it begin to chug slowly away from the platform. They then settled farther into their seats, discussing their summers and what they expected of the up-and-coming school year.
When the afternoon rolled around, the two could be found wandering the train when they stumbled upon their good friends, Brittney Fairweather and Adelina McIntire.
"Oh my gosh, we've been looking for you two every where!" Adelina exclaimed.
Rose busted out laughing, causing her long brown curls to bounce. Brittney looked at her, somewhat confused.
"What?" She asked.
"Doesn't look to me like you two are doing much of anything besides talk, " Lily answered, giggling slightly.
Brittney and Adelina were sitting in a compartment riddled with sweet wrappers and three boys. The boys were Gryffindors, unlike the four girls who were in Ravenclaw.
They were known as the Marauders, and were renowned for their mischievous ways and their hilarious pranks. Lily didn't know much more than that, she tended to avoid the trio as much as possible. Her main reasons being that she had no wish to be on the receiving end of their pranks (Though she really needn't worry about this as they mainly targeted those in the years below them or random Slytherins. And of those Lily was neither.), and she had no wish to remove house points as her Prefect status deemed she must do.
"You two are welcome to sit," chimed in the Marauder sitting closest to them. He was a Prefect also, but Lily couldn't quite recall his name.
Lily and Rose gladly sat, then Brittney, knowing that neither Rose or Lily were familiar with the Marauders introduced them. She felt stupid when she realized that she had forgotten the name of the Minister of Magic's son. James Potter politely held out his hand to first Lily and then Rose. Lily traded enthused hello's with the other two, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.
Lily and Rose sat as the three Marauder's began a game of Exploding Snap. The train ride passed quickly after that, as the girls talked and occasionally joined in with the Marauders' games. By the time they reached Hogsmeade, rain was beating violently on the windows of the train. As prefects both Lily and James had to stand outside the doors to the train and ensure that all the students made it safely off the train without disruption. Both were soaking wet standing together outside one door, and as the last of the students made it through, they made a break for the last few the carriages.
As they hit the end of the pavement, the path leading to the huddle of carriages turned to thin, slippery mud. Lily quickly lost her footing and began to slide backward into James who was following right behind her. This caused them both to lose balance and topple to the ground, tangled in each others robes and covered in the gooey mess of the path. James was the first to react, laughing loudly, moments later Lily joined him.
Minutes later as they calmed enough, James tried to stand, but slipped again managing to splash Lily's face and robes.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Lily!" He said, attempting to wipe some of it off , but only really managing to smear it and get even more on her.
They laughed, and tried leaning against each other as they stood, which to both of their amazement worked. Once they had regained the best footing to be found, they headed to the last carriage, which was waiting several feet away. Once inside they laughed so hard that Lily might've even let out a modest snort, which only led to more laughter and many denials from her end of the carriage. As they pulled up to the front steps, Lily pulled out her wand and magically dried them and cleaned them of the mud. They climbed out, hurrying the last few stragglers into the Great Hall and seating themselves at their respective house tables.
Just as they sat, the young Professor McGonagall filed the first years into the Great Hall. She ignored questioning looks being thrown at her from her three friends, and attempted to pay attention to the sorting. The Sorting Hat's song was more wonderful than before and several new withes and wizards were accounted to each house. Once the Headmaster Dumbledore had bid them to eat, Lily recounted the story of her and James' messy trip from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. Rose, Brittney and Adelina laughed loudly at this, drawing several looks from those around them, including the Marauders. It seemed that James had told them also, as they were laughing and throwing several bemused looks towards the girls.
The first several days of classes were highly uneventful. Lily spent most of her time getting reacquainted with her home and directing lost first years. The sixth years homework had also been multiplied several times since their fifth year. She already had a foot-long essay for Potions on the way to properly slice Mandrake root for a mandrake Restorative Draught. Also two more essays, one for Charms and one for History of Magic, both of which had to be 14 inches in length.
One Saturday afternoon Lily sat in the library, working on one of her many assignments when she noticed that she was no longer by herself. She looked up and found a certain Gryffindor Prefect staring at her.
"Shouldn't you be out with your friends?" He asked idly. "I think I saw them hanging out at the lake earlier."
Lily closed the book she had been studying from and smiled slowly at him.
"Some of us, James Potter, aren't blessed with the ability to pass and do absolutely no homework or detention."
He laughed, running his hand through his jet-black mop of hair.
"Come on Lily, you need a break," he said pulling her gently away from the table.
After several of her failed attempts at begging him to let her finish, she had been drug out to the shore of the lake where her three best friends were playing a game of Exploding Snap.
"Take her ladies, I just rescued her from a wasted Saturday doing homework in the library!" He said, laughing and shoving her lightly towards her friends.
The giggled and pulled Lily down beside them, where Adelina ensnared Rose in a relaxed game of Wizard's Chess and Lily and Rose began a new game of Exploding Snap.
He's a sweetheart, isn't he?" Adelina said absent mindedly, as she moved her rook.
"Hmm?" Brittney asked, quite lost to what Addy was talking about.
"James, isn't he sweet? I mean rescuing Lily from a whole Saturday of studying, and bringing her out her to be with us. I think he's really sweet."
"Aww, Adds, you like him?" Brittney replied.
"I never said I liked him," Adelina replied, playing with her dark auburn braid.
"Mhmm." Brittney said, electric blue eyes seeing straight through her friend's fib.
Later that evening, the four Ravenclaw girls could be found feasting in the Great Hall, Lily with an amount that looked almost as big as herself, considering how petite the redhed was. They were discussing their first week back, when the Head Boy approached her. Lily remembered him, his name was Kyle Towers. He was nearly six feet with light brown, longish hair. She remembered mostly his sense of humor, but only because he didn't use it in extremes and knew when he needed to be serious.
"Uhm, hi Lily," He stuttered out, with a bashful voice. "There's to be a Prefect meeting Tuesday at 6 PM. If you could please inform the other Ravenclaw prefects, that would be wonderfully helpful!"
He blushed, and she replied with, "Of course Kyle!" And he quickly scuttled off to inform the other prefects.
None of them noticed an icy stare coming from a distant, curly headed Gryffindor seventh year. Nor the blank stare her best friend gave them.
Later in the Gryffindor Common Room, Jackie Keller was pacing ruefully in front of the fire. Murmuring to herself about lowly sixth-year-redheaded-brats beneath her breath. And when her best friend, Keely Jensen, entered some minutes later, Jackie stopped and began waving her hands crazily and mumbling through tears.
"Slow down, Jack. I can't understand a single word you're saying!" Keely exclaimed, easing herself into a squishy maroon arm chair. She really didn't need to understand what Jackie was saying, for she already knew what had her friend in a frenzy.
"That bratty little Ravenclaw prefect, what's her name Lucy or something? She was talking to Kyle. And not just any Kyle, my Kyle. He should have been talking to me, blushing for me. Not her." She then plopped into the chair next to Keely, crossing her arms.
"Jack, I think he was just talking to her about prefect stuff. Anyways he blushes all the time when he talks to people he doesn't know well, I mean look at how he blushed when you and him first met." Keely supplied, trying to make her feel better. She had like Kyle for nearly two years now, and they were really close to dating, or so Jackie felt.
"Why don't you try talking to him about it, I'm sure it didn't mean anything, just casual conversation?" Keely suggested, hoping her friend might cheer up.
"You're right, I'll talk to him. I'll have to wait till tomorrow, though." Jackie replied, seemingly happier.
Then the two decided they were ready for bed, and trooped tiredly up the stairs toward their dormitory.