Chapter One
"Summer's End"
It was raining, not just sprinkling, but pouring. It came down in sheets clattering on the roof of the train and drowning the surrounding countryside. But even so Lily Evans had never been so glad to return to Hogwarts. She had always loved the summer holidays, sunshine and shorts, no homework, no worries, and best of all no James Potter. She and Tuney always got along during the summer better than any other time of year and she and Sev would spend their afternoons in the park by Spinners End without having to worry about the looming influence of any of his creepy Slytherin friends. But this year...well this year her holidays had been rubbish, just utter rubbish. Two months worth of frustration welled up inside her as she gazed at the countryside whizzing by the window of the Hogwarts Express. Lily bit her lip trying to choke it back down.
Why did Tuney have to turn everything into a fight? She thought as wave an irrepressible anger washed over her. Didn't she see that this wasn't just a phase Lily was going through? She wasn't just going to out grow 'this silly magic nonsense', it was a part if her. It wasn't some persistent cold you could cure with a large dose of logic and common sense. She sat fuming silently, her hands curled into fists, nails digging into her palms.
Lily's train of thought of derailed by a loud crash echoing from the corridor outside her compartment. The crash was followed by a string of rather, (even Lily had to admit), creative curses and Mary McDonald stumbled through the compartment's open door, her curly brown hair falling out of its clips and mumbling alternate apologies and swears.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Who the hell puts their sodding trunk in the middle of the sodding corridor? I'm serious; it's just bloody inconsiderate. Who would-oh, hi Lily." The brunette smiled sweetly, running her hands though her fly away hair, trying to brush it back into some semblance of order.
"Hey Mary," Lily smiled, glad to have a distraction from her thoughts of the terrible summer. Mary flopped on the bench across from Lily. Managing to take up an incredible amount if space for someone who was, in fact, not a large person.
Average was a good word to describe Mary McDonald; she was of average height and average weight. She was an average student, who ranked solidly in the middle of the class. She had a good sense of humor and was always willing to lend a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on. Her deep brown hair fell in tight curls onto her slim shoulders. Mary was always fighting a losing battle to keep it contained and frizz free. Her bright brown eyes were set wide in her round face and framed by thick dark lashes. Freckles dotted her tan skin and were smackled across her button nose.
Lily thought Mary's smile was her best feature, it was wide and bright, the kind that made you grin in spite of yourself every time you saw it.
"How was your summer?" Lily asked.
"It was good, really good. Dad worked a lot of overtime," Lily frowned sympathetically, she knew Mary's dad worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the ministry and things couldn't be easy there, not with the disappearances and murders that seemed to constantly grace the front page of the Daily Prophet. "It really wasn't that bad though. We spent a lot of time with Mum's friends from the ministry. Did you know the de Lapin's' had a summer house in Ottrey St. Catchpole?"
"No, I didn't," Lily deadpanned, Pierce de Lapin was her fellow fifth year Gryffindor, but other than the occasional brief conversations that sharing a dormitory sometimes mandated the two girls didn't talk. And Lily was glad to keep it that way. Ever since an unfortunate potions class accident in the first year the pair hadn't managed to rub along comfortably.
"She's really nice you know." Mary said, "I think you two could really be friends if you tried."
"Mar, she pushed my caldron over once!"
"In the first year! And in her defense you did spill bat spleens into her potion." Lily opened her mouth to respond when the compartment door slid open, interrupting her once again.
"Lily are you coming? We're going to be late if you don't hurry." The girl in the doorway smiled. Her blue house tie was loose around he neck and her shirt a bit wrinkled, but other than that her appearance was flawless, right down to her perfectly tied shoelaces.
Alice Miller could have been Mary's complete opposite. Unlike Mary, the word average would have never been one that crossed your mind when describing Alice Miller. The girl seemed to be made entirely of contradictions. Her round face was at odds with her slim, pixie like body. Her dark brown tresses and tanned skin gave her a sunny Italian look. While her blue eyes, high cheekbones, and slender nose seemed to hint that her ancestors hailed from some far off icy place. Alice leaned against the doorframe, her usually long hair had been cut into a daring bob that skimmed just below her jawbone and she wore a how-do-you-like-it sort of grin.
"Alice! Your hair!" Mary exclaimed, sliding over so the other girl would have room to sit.
"I know, it's so... short now." Alice nervously ran her fingers through the dark bob, as if she were verifying its length. "I wasn't kidding though, we really are going to be late if you don't hurry Lily."
"Late to what?" Mary asked.
"The prefect meeting," Alice gave Lily a sideways look, "You didn't tell her?"
"You got made prefect! Congratulations! Wait, why didn't you tell me?" Mary asked. But Lily wasn't listening. She was on her hands and knees, digging through her trunk, searching for her prefects badge, which she had shoved somewhere in the crevices of her trunk.
"Dammit, where is it." She reached her hand far into the recesses, grasping at old quills and old scraps of parchment.
"Could it possibly be in your rucksack?" Mary pointed at Lily's beaten old bag, which slumped on the seat.
"Maybe, oh I don't know." Lily let out a huff of frustration, "You know what, blast it all!" She pulled out her wand, "Accio prefect badge." The badge zoomed out of her trunk and Lily caught it rather deftly. She pinned it on the front of her robe and with one last check of her reflection in the glass she and Alice started off.
Alice and Lily walked through the train's corridors. They were relivitly quiet (almost everyone had settled into a compartment for the journey) but every now and then a shout of laughter would ring out or they would catch a snippet of conversant as someone opened their compartment door.
"So, who are the new Heads?" Lily asked. She'd been running late this morning and hadn't had a chance to catch up on any summer gossip.
"The girl's the 7th year Huffelpuff, you know the one David Abbot's dating? And the boy is the Gryffindor-"
"Oh, yah, I know him," Lily cut across her friend, "His name's something like Phil, or Fabio, or Fredrick-"
"Frank?" Alice suggested. "The new Head Boy is Frank Long bottom. They should be a good pair. Cerella's got a good head on her shoulders and Frank's a decent sort of bloke." They walked in silence for a while before Alice asked,
"Have you seen Snape yet?" Lily raised an eyebrow. Alice and Snape had exchanged, maybe, five words in the whole time they had known each other. Lily had never gotten the impression there was much loved lost between them.
"Nope," Lily said popping the P. Of course she had looked for him on the platform, but she hadn't been able to find him. "Do you think he got the badge?"
Alice laughed, "Who else would? Avery and Mucliber? Please, those two make Potter and Black look like saints."
"Don't let Potter hear you," Lily muttered, "he doesn't need anymore reason to inflate that already over large head of his."
Alice had been right; they were late to the prefect's meeting, but only by a few minutes. Even so Lily blushed and she and Alice entered the prefect's car. What a great way to start the year, she thought, running late. Alice found a seat amongst the other Ravenclaw prefects, right next to her fellow sixth year, the stunningly handsome Xavier Davies. Which left Lily to slide into the only other available seat. The one on the right of Remus Lupin. Lily smiled when she saw him, if anyone deserved a prefect's badge it was Remus. It seemed laughable now that this summer she had been dreading the badge going to James Potter. That would have been unbearable. Three years full of patrols, meetings, and report writing with him. Just the thought of it was enough to make her sick. James was a constant troublemaker, who spent more time in detention then out of it. In comparison Lupin was the perfect student. He was a bit quiet and bookish. But once you got to know him he was really quite fun. He and Lily had fought for the top spot in newly every class last year and the two had been study partners for the end of year exams (none of the other Marauders had wanted to study with him. In fact, Lily highly doubted James Potter knew the location of the library, much less been inside it.) And Lily would have bet a sack of galleons that Remus could count on one hand the number of times he had been in detention.
Lily looked around at the other 5th year prefects. Amelia Bones and Andrew Spinnet were the Ravenclaw pair and she knew both the Hufflepuffs by face, but she couldn't remember their names, although she though that the girl's might be Nancy. Lily smiled when she saw the Slytherin pair, it seemed that Alice was right on more than one account today. Sev slouched in his chair next to a rather pug-nosed blonde girl. He looked uncomfortable, his school robes were several inches too short, he badly needed a haircut, and his skin was pale and pasty. He stuck out like a sore thumb amongst everyone's glowing summer tans, but never the less Lily had never been happier to see her best friend. Sev looked up and returned her smile with a grin of his own.
"Nice badge," he mouthed, pointing to his own emerald one.
"You too," Lily mouthed back.
"And remember, you have to fill out a report after docking points otherwise they won't be counted," Frank Longbottom said, snapping Lily's attention back to the meeting. He ran a hasty hand through his dark hair before turning to Cerella and asking, "Is that all?" The Hufflepuff looked thoughtful for a moment,
"No, I think that's all." There was a russle of cloaks and creaking of chair as everyone stood.
"Do you want to walk back with me?" Remus Lupin asked, smiling at her. Despite he fact that he was a Marauder Lily genuinely liked the 5th year, so it was with real regret in her voice when she answered,
"Thanks, but no thanks, I'm walking back with Severus." Lily gestured to the Slytherin, who was eyeing Lupin with suspicion. Remus returned the glare with one of equal dislike.
"Well, anyway, it was good to see you Lily."
"Yah, you too Remus." The boy nodded, cast one look of hatred towards Snape, then turned and left. Severs waited until the Gryffindor had completely disappeared down the corridor before approaching Lily.
"I can't believe they let someone like him become a prefect." He hissed, incredulous. Lily rolled her eyes. Couldn't they have one conversation that didn't have to do with James Potter and his stupid friends?
"I still don't believe it Sev."
"Come on Lily, think about it! I mean he disappears every month, always around full moon-"
"He's visiting his mum Sev!" Lily cut across him, anger seeping into her voice, "Dumbledore would never let a werewolf into Hogwarts, it's to dangerous. And anyway, if, in the slightest possible chance, you were right, which you're not, I wouldn't care. I like Remus, and whatever he does, or doesn't, turn into during the full moon isn't going to change that."
They walked in silence for a while, each still smarting from their argument. It had been a small one, but it was one they had frequently and it only got worse with time. Lily sighed, this was far from the reunion she had imagined, but still, they were here, with each other heading to Hogwarts, they shouldn't be fighting. She tried again,
"How was your summer? Were they any better?" Severs shrugged.
"Not really. It was just the same old same, same old. He drank, they fought, she cried."
"I'm sorry, Sev," Lily said sympathetically
"It doesn't matter. Two more years and then I'm out." Hone hardened and his eyes took on a glazed look, as if he were focusing on something far off in the distance, something Lily couldn't see." Things are changing Lily. Things are going to be different real soon." he changed topics, " So, how was your summer with the muggles?" Sev's voice twisted as he spoken the last word. He said it, almost sarcastically, sneering. Lily flinched, she hated when he talked like that. It made it too easy to see why her friends hated him. She kept silent, biting the inside of her cheek. Pick you battles, Lily. She reminded herself.
"Tuney and I got into a fight, a big one."
"About what?"
"Oh, the usual, Hogwarts, magic, and this time we fought over my prefects badge. It was stupid mostly, but she didn't come and see me off..."Lily's voice faded. Her and Petunia's fights seemed to last longer and longer each time they had one. Lily was afraid one day they would never makeup.
"I don't see why it matters what she thinks," There was no disguising the hate in Severus's voice. It poisoned it and like venom it seemed to seep icily into Lily's veins.
"Because, she's my family, Sev."
"But they're all just-" He stopped and shook his head, " never mind."
"Just what, Sev? Just muggles?" Lily's tone was heated. It was one of their old arguments and Lily was tired of it. Muggles or not her family was her family, and Sev never seemed to get that.
"I wasn't going to-" Lily cut him off again,
"Isn't this you compartment?" she gestured to where Avery and Mucliber sat with the pug-faced girl from the prefect's meeting and several other Slythrines she didn't know the names off. They were evidently deeply engrossed in their conversation because they hadn't noticed, or were simply ignoring, Snape and Lily's arrival.
"Lily, I'm really-" Snape started, but Lily shook her head,
"See you at the feast."
Lily returned to her compartment, still thinking on her and Sev's fight. She slid open the door, only to find her seat occupied by a very blonde, very tan Pierce de Lapin.
"Lily," Mary broke off midsentence, "how was your meeting?"
"It was good." Lily looked at Mary, then Pierce, and back to Mary, shooting her daggers. "I saw Sev there, he got the Slytherin badge."
"I think I'm going to get going." Pierce stood up and made to leave.
"Oh, are you sure?" Mary asked.
"Yah, my friends think I'm getting Cauldron Cakes. I have to back soon." Pierce said, "Well, anyway, it's been nice talking to you." Pierce gave Mary a nod and slipped out the door.
"Pierce? Mary? Pierce?" Lily asked her best friend.
"Lily she's really not bad."
"Mar, she pushed. Over. My. Cauldron." Mary rolled her eyes,
"I'm going to go get some snacks, want anything?" Lily shook her head, "Can you please try to give her a chance?" Mary added as she followed Pierce out the compartment door.
Lily sighed and flopped back in her chair, thankful for the peace and quiet when for the third time that evening the compartment door slid open and broke the peace. But this time the person occupying its frame was neither welcome nor wanted, well by Lily Evan at least.
'What do you want Potter?" She snapped already irritated by the things he hadn't yet said. Lily had little tolerance for James Potter or his friends, the Marauders, as they had coined themselves. They were childish immature pranksters, but this opinion seemed to belong to Lily alone. To everyone else, girls particularly, Potter and his crew where akin to saints. If the Marauders did it you could be sure that everyone would be trying to be doing the same within the next 24 hours.
"Oh, only to talk Evans," He flashed he a toothy grin and mussed his black hair with one hand, "Lupin told me you were made prefect, congrats."
"And I see you were made Quidditch Captain." The shiny scarlet badge as impossible to miss juxtaposed next to his dark school robes. Of course, Lily thought, he was here to show off. James grinned even wider,
"It's quite an accomplishment you see, with me being only in the 5th year and all." Lily sighed,
"What a shame, I enjoyed watching Gryffindor win." James's smile faltered, but only for a moment.
"Say what you want Evans, but I know you're impressed. I-"
"Mary, you're back," Lily cut across him and addressed the brunet, who had returned, with snacks in hand. Mary's eyes flickered from Lily to James, to Lily, then back to James, and finally to the shiny badge on his chest and to Lily's scowl.
"I see you were made Quidditch Captain Potter. That's quite an accomplishment for only a 5th year." Lily huffed as James pretended to tip an invisible hat to Mary,
"Why thank you ma'am. And I think that makes my point Evans. Unfortunately I must bid you two adieus. I have an appointment with several delusional 3rd year who are under the impression that they can be me at Exploding Snap." He tipped the nonexistent hat once more and disappeared down the corridor.
"You know he only wins at Exploding Snap because he cheats. Not because he has skill." Lily said sourly.
"Oh, I know," Mary said, still grinning, "But he managed to find a way to cheat at Exploding Snap. Isn't that something?"
James Potter happily clinked together the galleons he had recently obtained from his successful game of Exploding Snap as he entered the Marauder's compartment half an hour later. Lupin saw them and sighed,
"You'd think you'd get tired of cheating 3rd years eventually."
"I might, eventually," James grinned, "And I would call it giving fate a slight push in the right direction, not cheating."
"I just think we've outgrown it, that's all." Lupin shook his head and turned his attention back into his book.
"Oh, come off it Lupin," Sirius Black spoke up from behind his copy of Which Broomstick.
To a stranger Sirius Black and James Potter could have been brothers. They had the same black hair, though Siruis' was styled long, it fell just past his jawbone with a casual kind of elegance. James' was styles short and constantly stuck up every which way. They both shared the same impish grin that seemed to exude charm and mischief. When they stood it was apparent that they were within half and inch of each other's heights and had identical builds, lean and muscled, the kind that comes from a lifetime of Quidditch playing. But it was more than the physical similarities that suggested a bond deeper than friendship. They had the same walk, a long relaxed swagger that came perilously close to a strut and the pair seemed to lack a need for communication. What one thought was automatically know to the other and they moved in unison, like separate parts of the same machine.
"Honestly," Sirius continued, "no wonder you and Evans got the badges. The pair of you have sticks shoved so far up you arses-"
"Oi! Just because I didn't spend every Friday last term in detention like you two," Lupin glared at James and Sirius.
"Don't get your nickers in a twist Moony." Sirius cut across him, "We don't care about the badge. Come on…patrols…report writing, it's all yours." James jingled the coins one last time before shoving them into the pocket of his robe.
"Your folks must have been upset Potter," Lupin said and James laughed.
"Not really, I mean they were a bit disappointed at first but," he shrugged, "they got over it. Dad didn't really have that much time, things got really crazy at the Ministry this summer. And Mum was busy as well, she was named chairwitch of the board at St. Mungo's," The rest of the Marauders let out an appreciative breath, "Yah, she was pretty pleased, but she spent all summer flooing from one meeting to another. We didn't even have time to open the country cottage."
"You know, I heard about your mum over the summer. My mum wasn't too pleased. I hadn't heard her shriek like that since cousin 'Dromeda ran away with that Tonks bloke. I meant to send an owl round, but I never got to it."
"What about you Sirius," Lupin turned to his other friend. "Your parent must have been pretty upset." The young Black shook his head.
"I think they reckon they have another chance with Regulus in another two years. They might've actually dropped dead if I'd gotten it, which, mind you, might have been worth it." He tore open a Chocolate Frog Card and flipped it over, "Ah, Appergia again, you want it Peter?"
"No, I've got about five of her. I need Flamel though, if you come across one." Peter shoved his hand into the Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans box and overused the multi-flavored candies for one that looked promising. He settled on a dark green bean and popped it into his mouth. "Ew, spinach, gross." Peter made a face and put down the box.
Peter Pettigrew was a bit of an anomaly among the Marauders. Unlike James and Sirius he wasn't a talented Quidditch player. He wasn't top of the class like Lupin, but rather the opposite, it was just short of a miracle that he managed to pass his exams every year. He was a short, chubby boy with dishwater brown hair and dull, watery brown eyes. But never the less he was as much part of the gang as Sirius, Remus, or James.
The train rounded a bend and the boys slid slightly in their seats. When they managed to right themselves the twinkling lights of Hogesmede Station glowed in the distance.
