There You Were
Disclaimer: I own nothing that has already been presented to you in the fabulous Harry Potter books…always remember that.
Chapter 2: Trains, Reunions and Girls.
The Hogwarts Express stood stationary where it always had at the start of each school year. Lily took comfort in the fact that the nothing appeared to have changed. The excitement she felt walking across the nearly empty platform was much like that she'd felt upon first entering the magical portal.
"This year is going to be perfect!" Lily whispered to herself as she continued to let her gaze wander.
"Talking to yourself again Lily?" A familiar voice asked from behind her, causing Lily to jump slightly.
The voice belonged to a close friend of Lily's, Remus Lupin. Though one of the infamous Marauders; Lily had discovered years ago that Remus was not as obnoxious and self-centred as his best friends. He looked almost the same as he had the previous year, although the tired lines that framed his pale blue eyes and he seemed to have gained a bit of height.
Lily sighed.
"Only on days ending in 'y'." She replied waiting for him to catch up with her. "I see you've had a growth spurt. You're taller this year."
Remus looked quite pleased that someone had noticed his change of appearance. Although Lily wasn't the first to notice. James and Sirius had given him quite a show when he'd seen them the previous week; lots of fooling around and acting smaller than they were. Next to his best friends, Remus was still a lot shorter. At least he had a height advantage over Lily and Peter, the final Marauder.
"It's not much of a change." He mumbled looking down so as to hide his proud looking face. Lily just smiled. "So what are you doing here this early?"
"I – um…wanted to get a good carriage?" Lily stated, though her sentence sounded more like a question than a statement. They both knew the excitement of going back to Hogwarts was what dragged them to the station at such an early hour. "Because you know how hard it is to find a suitable seating arrangement when there are hundreds of students roaming around looking for their friends. This way I can find something fabulous that Dorcas and Alex can join me once they arrive."
"Ah, how is our dear friend Al?" Remus asked pushing his trolley closer to the train. The question was a silly one since the Lupins lived closer to the Wattlebys than Lily did; but she answered as best she could.
"Well the last I heard she was still in Greece and that was only a few days ago. I wouldn't be surprised if she missed the train and had to floo to Hogsmead again." She remembered the time in fourth and sixth year where Alexandra had raced into the Great Hall half-way through the sorting because her parents had lost track of the days and had forgotten to come home.
"Lucky duck." Remus muttered to himself.
By this time the two friends had made it onto the train with little trouble and were searching for a place to stop. Remus found his usual carriage first and hesitated before opening the door.
"Look," He began nervously. "There's no point in both of us sitting around waiting for people to turn up, why don't you come in here too and we'll keep each other company. At the very least think of how lonely I'll be waiting for the other Marauders to turn up. James and Sirius are probably still running around packing right now and who knows when Peter will turn up. Besides, we have quite a nice regular space in there."
Lily smiled at him. "I guess it would be pretty useless sitting alone. I've read over most of the first chapters of each textbook and I don't want to get too ahead of the class otherwise there will be nothing to do during each lesson."
Remus stared at her. He knew she was dedicated to her work, but he hadn't realised she prepared herself so much before school had even begun.
"Uh, I'm going to pretend you said, 'Sure, I'd love to join you. I hate staying in an empty compartment by myself and the silences scare me,' because your reason for staying was just odd."
Shaking his head, Remus entered the carriage with Lily following close behind.
"It's moving! I swear it's moving!"
"Sirius!" James growled through clenched teeth. "Of course it's moving. We're on a train that was supposed to leave at 11 o'clock. And look at that, its 11:03! Now can you keep walking so we can get to Moony and Wormtail?"
"Gees you're a bit touchy today." Replied a pouty Sirius as he crossed his arms over his chest. Luckily for him, Mrs. Potter had applied a Light as a Feather charm to their trunks like she did every year and James had lost the annual 'Who will carry the trunks' competition. Getting onto the train was a breeze.
"Look, the trunks might be light but they're bloody annoying. I just want to put them down." He said in a calmer voice. He'd spotted their carriage and was finally looking forward to enjoying the ride to Hogwarts. The only downside was the Prefect meeting he had to co-run with Lily, but at least every situation had its upside. Little did he know the girl in question was sitting just behind the door with their good friends Remus and Peter.
Sirius ran head and threw open the door. As he surveyed the room a slow smile appeared on his face.
"Hi there Miss Lily," He drew out her name to inform the young man behind him of the company in their carriage. "And before my manners are thrown out the window: Hello to Miss Dorcas and to Mr. Moony and Wormtail."
"Welcome aboard Padfoot." Remus replied. "I'm guessing Prongs is out there somewhere too, He lost the competition?"
"He certainly did! There I was, racing through the house. I was at the top of the steps, no-one in sight-"
"Tell the story correctly Padfoot!" James yelled cutting Sirius off as he stepped into the carriage, finally able to release his hold on the trunks and rest his now aching arms.
"I am telling it correctly. There was no-one, no thing, not body of worthy existence anywhere near me. Now where was I? Oh right, no-one in sight-"
"I like this story already." Lily stated giggling at Sirius' exaggerated comments about James.
"Look Padfoot, we don't need to hear about the competition. We get it, you won and James lost." Remus interjected quickly before Sirius had a chance to yell at Lily for interrupting. He was certain Sirius wouldn't take it lightly.
"Go on Padfoot." Peter said the picture of an attentive listener, glued to Sirius' every word and waiting for the moments when the story would continue. "You were at the top of the stairs…"
"Well Peter, if you must know. There was no-one in sight, so I jumped onto the railing using my free 'cheat if you must' card, knowing full well that James wouldn't be able to catch up at this rate…"
The rest of the carriage tuned out as the train picked up speed. The tension within the room had built with the growing silence. Never before had the girls joined them in their carriage. James was beginning to wonder why they were even here, but had decided not to ask. It wasn't like he cared that Lily was sitting with them for the entire train ride; saved him searching for her later. At that moment Lily jumped up.
"I should…um, go set up for the Prefect meeting. It'll be starting soon and everything should be ready."
"Sit down Little Miss Organisation." Dorcas said forcefully from where she was seated. "Dumbledore wouldn't have given up an unorganised set of instructions, and it's not like today's meeting is anything important. You're just getting to know each other. Same as last year's Prefect meeting, only this time you're going to be running it."
Dorcas didn't like mornings; and even though it was past 11 her holiday sleeping patterns had not been adjusted yet. With the dislike of mornings came her tendency to become annoyed quite quickly. But it worked. Lily sat down immediately knowing her friend was essentially right. Though she would have preferred to go over what she wanted to say, Professor Dumbledore would have outlined everything necessary. There was nothing to worry about.
"Um…Evans?" James began slowly, afraid of setting Dorcas off. He too had been on her morning side before and it was not a pleasant sight. "What exactly do we do at these meetings?"
Lily stared. She'd forgotten that James hadn't been a Prefect before, so was unfamiliar with the meet-and-greet process that had been developed.
"It's a simple gathering Potter." She replied formally. "We go in, introduce ourselves, get the other students to introduce themselves, outline the Prefect's responsibilities for the year, and then leave. Nothing terribly hard."
"Right," James said nodding. "Got it."
The carriage was silent again, but unlike the last silence built on awkwardness and tension, this silence was purely shock. Lily and James had actually managed a civilised conversation.
When the time came for the Prefect meeting, Lily and James left calmly and quietly.
"Am I still asleep or something, because I almost thought they were friends for a moment or two?" Sirius said breaking the silence.
The prefect meeting went without any problems. No fighting between the Head Boy and Girl, no House rivalry pushed through; just a calm and casual introductory meeting. But when it was just the Head students left, James began to get worried.
"Ugh!" Lily screamed finally showing some of her trade-mark fiery heat. "I just wanted to kill him!"
James stood to the side shocked. He wasn't sure if Lily knew he was still there, and as far as he could remember he hadn't done anything during the meeting that would set Lily off like this. He'd been a perfect angel, helping when needed and letting Lily run the gathering so she could draw upon her previous experiences to run it smoothly. But just because he didn't think he'd been in the wrong didn't mean he'd openly turn her anger towards him.
"Did you not see him?" She asked turning to face James. "He didn't say a thing. No introduction, no input. God, it was like he wasn't there. Or maybe he was just ignoring me! This is just like him, going around acting as though I don't exist. I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Evans, you're going to have to give me more information here. I have no clue what you're talking about." Although James did have a slight inclination about whom Lily was raving on about, but he didn't want to make anything worse. He'd seen Snape walk into the Prefect carriage with that wicked smirk on his face and also knew he hadn't opened his mouth once the entire meeting.
"Your dear friend Snivellus, that's who I'm talking about!" She roared. "Well good riddance. I don't need him in my life anymore. He made his choice 2 years ago and I waited for him to really mean his apology, but obviously he didn't value our friendship as much as I thought he did. Evil bastard."
Lily stormed out of the carriage in a huff. Making her way down the train she heard noises coming from inside one of the toilet cubicles which definitely didn't belong. Taking out her wand she swiftly opened the door to reveal Sirius and a Hufflepuff Fifth year in an indecent position.
"Get out." Lily said sternly. The girl didn't need to be told twice. She quickly grabbed her shirt off the floor and ran out the door. Lily followed slowly aiming towards their carriage.
"Thanks James." Sirius huffed. "I was having a heap of fun and your future wifey ruined it. You must have done something really horrible to get her that angry."
James didn't bother correcting him.
A/N: And there you have it: Chapter 2.
Don't expect all the chapters to turn up this quickly though. I was just bored this afternoon and couldn't be bothered doing uni work.
So Lily and James are being civil towards each other, how long do you think that will last? And Snape's in the bad books. Interesting isn't it?
A big thanks to CookieMonsterxx3 and the lil witch for reviewing already, you made my morning a lot more enjoyable than it could have been.
~James' Girl Lily.