Disclaimer: Much as I wish it did, the amazing world of Harry Potter does not belong to me, but the amazing JK Rowling. All OC's are mine. Umm...that's it. Review please!
"BRRING! BRRING!" I was rudely awakened from a very pleasant dream concerning myself and a certain Hufflepuff in our year alone in a broom closet by my alarm clock. I sighed, and reached out to grab it to check the time. I peered at it in the dim light, before rolling my eyes. It was 4:30. This was obviously one of Petunia's goodbye presents. However I had foreseen this happening, and gone to bed very early the night before.
As there was no point even trying to get back to sleep, I sighed and got up, forgoing all attempts to recapture that one highly enjoyable dream. I looked around at the bedroom, with my neatly packed bags in the corner. I had a quick shower, and then dried my hair. I couldn't wait till I could finally perform the Drying Spell again, to save so much time. I brushed my long, wavy red hair in the mirror, and pulled it back into a loose ponytail.
I waved goodbye to my beaming but tearful parents, and a scowling Petunia, out the window of the Hogwarts Express. As I made my way down the corridor, I caught sight of many familiar faces as I looked in the compartments. In one, I saw Sev's face. Severus Snape was one of my best friends, but as he was a boy and in Slytherin, we didn't get to spend much time together. I opened the door, and went over to him.
"Hey Sev, guess what, I've been made a prefect," I announced proudly. He looked at me uncomfortably. I noticed his companions, Avery and Mulciber glaring at me with loathing. I walked past them and went up to Sev. "Listen, Sev, do you want to come and sit with me and my friends?" I asked him, lowering my voice.
I watched as Sev looked at the hostile, sinister expressions of Avery and Mulciber. As he looked at me, his lip curled into a sneer. "Why would I want to go to your compartment?" he said coldly. "I'm perfectly happy here, thank you." As I left, my cheeks burning, I distinctly heard Mulciber call, "See you later, Mudblood!" I turned around and gave him my Evil Ninja Lily glare, which seemed to make him shrink into himself a bit.
As I walked along the corridor, I tried not to concentrate on the fact that Sev had just publicly rejected me as a friend. He was probably just scared of Avery and Mulciber, and would come and talk to me later. Besides, even if he was rejecting me, I didn't need him as a friend. I was part of the most popular female clique at Hogwarts. Most guys would die to be my "friend" in the hope that they could be more than friends later. But Sev and I had been friends since before I came to Hogwarts, and I thought of him more as a brother than a friend. Trying to ignore the lump in my throat, I bumped into someone as I walked.
"Alright, Evans?" a loud voice asked.
I sighed. Of all the people I could bump into, it had to be him. James Potter and his friends were arrogant, obnoxious, conceited prats who acted like they owned Hogwarts. Potter and his best friend Sirius Black were the ringleaders; Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin were merely considered as hangers-on by most observers. Remus was the only one I could stand, as he helped me sometimes when studying. I had always wondered how someone as nice as him managed to be friends with those idiots without exploding. I know that I, for one, couldn't do it. Worst of all, all the Marauders, as they called themselves, except Pettigrew were extremely clever, and got the highest marks in everything except Charms, at which I was the best in our year, and Potions, where Sev and I normally came joint top. People always expected my friends to like the Marauders, as we were probably two of the most popular groups in school, but, though we normally had to arrange parties and clubs with them, most of my friends despised Potter and Black like I did, and steered clear of them at normal times.
I'm fine, thank you, Potter," I said haughtily.
"I'm fine, thank you," mimicked Black. I gave him my Evil Ninja Lily glare, and he shut up. That glare always works.
"Hey Evans, you look so beautiful today. Marry me, my darling!" I rolled my eyes. Ever since third year Potter had been asking me out, usually by planning pranks to publicly humiliate me as much as possible.
"The day I'll marry you is the day You-Know-Who marries Professor McGonagall and has six children," I replied in what I hoped was a crushing voice, and left in the most dignified way I could, leaving a not much discouraged Potter and his cronies behind.
"LILY!" I heard three voices scream, as I was tackled to the ground by my three best friends in an enormous group hug. "I've missed you guys so much!" I said, breathless, as we lay on the floor laughing.
"Me too," said Mary, the only other muggle-born in our group. "I had so many plans of magical pranks I could have done on my brother. You guys are so lucky that you can do magic. He has this really annoying girlfriend who hates me, and they're always snogging in every room I want to enter. But even without magic, I managed to put some toads in her bed and slugs in her dinner. She tried to get back at me by making my brother hate me, but please, he's never been able to stand me since I kept making him bald when I was 10."
Mary Macdonald was probably my best friend, though we were all really close. She had long, wavy nut-brown hair, pale creamy skin and big brown eyes. She had a large following of boys, and she was very pretty. She had a sweet, angelic face that deceived many teachers and pupils, but most people knew by now that she was really extremely devious. If anyone got on the wrong side of her, or any of us, she would torment them with pranks and curses, but she was extremely kind and protective her friends.
"I went to Rome," announced Alice. "My dad spent the whole time dragging us around monuments and telling us all about some famous ancient wizard called Paulinus the Prat. He had discovered some old documents about him and wanted to find proof. But I made some nice friends there. Italian muggles are so sweet!"
"I've read all about Paulinus the Prat," I announced. "He was the first person to be put in Azkaban, for creating diseases using magic to kill muggles. In one of his plagues in Rome, about 4,000 muggles died, and –"
"No-one cares Lily," said Mary affectionately, while Alice giggled. Our whole school loved Alice Peverell. She had medium-length curly black hair, and flashing black eyes, but inside she was completely innocent. She always said hi to everybody, and was often needed to smooth things over when the rest of us got into arguments. She occasionally dated Hogwarts boys, but she hated breaking up with them so much she didn't like to commit to serious relationships that much.
"Lucky, Italian guys are really hot. I once dated one called Roberto, but then he started acting really gay, so we broke up," said Marlene McKinnon. "Anyway, my family went to the south of France to visit my uncle Jean-Claude, who teaches at Beauxbatons. Well, there was this adorable French boy who lived next door, called Pierre, and anyway –"
"Please Marl, spare us the gory details," I laughed. Marlene had long, straight blonde hair and tanned skin. She dated about one guy a week, but always found some excuse to break up with them later on. Jealous girls called her a slut, but she didn't usually go further than kissing boys. She was afraid of nobody, and stood up or answered back to the teachers all the time, landing her in millions of detentions. But she was a fiercely loyal friend, and would never betray us to anybody. She was also a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
"My summer was awful," I said. "I couldn't get hold of any wizard news, and my parents won't let me subscribe to the Daily Prophet because Petunia finds the owls annoying. Honestly, if she makes one more snide comment to me, I swear I am going to hex her into oblivion. I know she's really jealous, but couldn't she just forget about herself for once? Anyway, I read loads of muggle and wizard books over the summer, and just because I couldn't practise magic didn't mean I couldn't read about it and learn things. Did you know, the Draught of Living Death was invented by –?"
"NO!" they all shouted at once. I sighed. Everyone always says that Alice, with her sweet nature and love of Herbology should be in Hufflepuff, Mary, with her devious plans and revenge plots should be in Slytherin, I with my outstanding grades and love of reading should be in Ravenclaw, and only Marlene, with her fear of nothing, deserved to be a Gryffindor. I do get top marks in most subjects, and because I read so much, I tend to know most answers.
"Anything to eat, my lovelies?" said a voice. It was the food trolley lady.
"Lily, it's your turn," said Mary. They all handed me assorted coins, as I proceeded to buy almost all the food on the trolley. "Thank you," I said, smiling as I paid.
I came over and dumped all the food on the table. As we all grabbed for something, Alice caught sight of my badge, and said, "Lily! You're a prefect!"
"Oh, yes, I forgot, the owl came last week" I said, embarrassed. They all thumped me hard on the back, and congratulated me.
"Did you hear," said Marlene, her mouth full of a pumpkin pasty, "Emmeline Vance fancies Frank Longbottom. How ridiculous?" Marlene was an incorrigible gossip.
"No, it's sweet. They'd be really good together," I said, looking for Alice to agree as she usually did, but she remained silent, her eyes cast down.
"Ew, no she's like a foot taller than him," said Marlene. "But I've also heard that Sophie Jordan went out with..."
We all sat back munching on chocolate frogs or Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and half listened to Marlene's long update on the romantic histories of every pupil at Hogwarts, occasionally adding our own stories we had heard from other people.
Mary was just finishing her anecdote about how awful Katie Stonewall's new hair colour looked, and how Andrew Wood had said that she looked like an enormous grapefruit, when I glanced at my watch. "Guys, I'm really sorry, but I have a prefects' meeting now," I said apologetically.
I left my seat and made the way to the front of the train. On the way, I heard a voice saying, "Give it a rest mate, she meant no." Another voice replied, "No Sirius, actually I think it was cryptic. You see, McGonagall is about the right age for You-Know-Who, and maybe she thinks they'd look good together. They're both talented witches and wizards, and maybe McGonagall can reform him. At least, that's what Evans was trying to say. Trust me, she wants me."
I glared at the two faces in front of me. Potter and Black. "Trust me, I don't," I replied, annoyed.
"Hey Evans, will you –
"Still no, Potter," I replied, cutting him off, before walking past them to the prefects.
A/N: Phew, that's over. Unfortunately I am not an accomplished legilimens, so I can't tell what you think. PLEASE REVIEW! If anyone does, the first reviewer will get the next chapter dedicated to them. It should be up within a week. That's all for now, folks. Goodnight!