Chapter Two

Fifth Year

Trains, Carriages and Unfortunate Walking

"See you later, Al. Watch out for Thestrals" James teased Albus. I rolled my eyes at Rose, my best friend at Hogwarts and my cousin. James spent most of his life either posing or teasing poor Albus. While Albus panicked like always I glanced round the platform absentmindedly. I'd been attending Hogwarts for fours years now but the sight of platform 9 ¾ still took my breath away sometimes. I loved the busy, noisiness of it. First years were looking round apprehensively and clinging to their parents, returning students were squealing and hugging their friends they hadn't seen all summer, prefects, including myself, kept an eye on other students and looking forward to having a bit of authority. The large scarlet, steaming Hogwarts Express stood out from all the commotion. It stood proudly and welcoming, it was the only way to get to the home I loved with all my heart. The train meant I was going home. I would soon be walking through the proud and noble corridors of Hogwarts. I glanced back to my family. James was sniggering at a pale Albus who looked more nervous than normal.

"I thought they were invisible. You said they were invisible!" Albus said spinning round to stare at our mother with a horrified expression on his face. Mum tried to calm Albus down while simultaneously telling James off. Minnie (Short for Minerva) , the youngest child who would be attending Hogwarts the year after next, stood next to my Mother with eyes as wide as Puffskins. The main problem with James and Albus' relationship was that Albus was naive enough to believe James's stories of Werewolves, Trolls and Hippogriffs. He had spent the entire summer obsessing over the fact that he was starting Hogwarts. James teased him about how he'd be disowned if he was sorted into Slytherin. I can't remember a day going by when Albus didn't run into Father's study because James had told him horror stories of the sorting. In some way I felt sorry for Albus, he would have to live in the shadow of not only our father but James once he went to Hogwarts, I had been spared this as it never bothered me, I preferred living in the shadows but I knew Albus would hate to be referred to as the disappointment in the Potter family, a title I hold quite proudly if it meant not turning out like most of my family.

"The Thestrals are invisible Al, James is just teasing you." I said smiling at my youngest brother, a rare feet for me but I had to make the kid smile for once. He simply glanced at me and turned back to Father. It had been weeks if not months since Albus had actually engaged in a full conversation with me, which is quite sad when you think about it and even more sad because I was used to it from him. James allowed Mother to kiss him then got a hug off Father. My father turned to me and gave me "Be Good. Make Sure You Don't Get in Trouble before Bedtime Tonight" look I get every year.

"Goodbye Lily." My father said to me. We looked at each other, our eyes identical, for a brief moment then I gave him a curt nod. Before I could say anything else father turned away from me and engaged in a conversation with Uncle Ron over driving Muggle cars.

"Bye sweetie. Please look after Albus as much as you can." My mother said appearing out of nowhere and hugging me tightly. This was rather odd as I normally just get a "Bye Lily" of her, I think she dislikes me after the comment I made on Quidditch being a useless sport two summers ago. "I know you're sorry about the summer but please, I do not want other letter of Professor Longbottom about you creeping around the castle at one in the morning" Ginevra Potter-Weasley said , I saw a brief smile form on her lips, she was obviously reminiscing over one time that she wandered around the castle in the early hours.

"Bye Mum and I promise" I said. Albus was in deep conversation with Father and James had buggered off to find a compartment. Mother went of to chat to Aunt Hermione, probably about her blossoming pregnancy and how she was feeling. I glimpsed around the platform till I saw Victoire hugging Teddy goodbye. Rose nudged me as she spotted the boy standing discontentedly next to Teddy. Rose was my only really good friend at Hogwarts as well as my favourite cousin but she did have a tendency to get giggly about certain things.

"Lily look! It's Sirius!" Rose exclaimed. I shook my head and smirked. Rose had developed a crush on Sirius years ago but she would never do anything about it for more reasons than I would care to mention.

"Rose I know its Sirius, God you've seen him nearly every day for the past week at my house"

"But he's just so pretty!" Rose said. I rolled my eyes and dragged her away.

"Rose come on, we need to find a compartment." I said. I knew they would fill up like no-bodies business. "You can stare at Sirius at the feast."

"Oh ok…." Rose said, she pulled away and hugged her parent's goodbye then came trudging after me. I walked down the train looking into each compartment. Each one was full. I kept walking till I found the only compartment not completely full. Too bad it was the one I was avoiding.

"AK Lily Alert!" I heard Ryan Brown hiss as I walked in. Ryan was the child of perky and annoying gossip columnist Lavender Brown. A woman who spent most of her time writing about how "such and such wore purple dress robes instead of navy" which is such fashion mistake (!). Ryan was the result of highly public six month marriage between Lavender and England Quidditch Captain Perceval Lawson. Lavender had got so much money off Witch Weekly and various other annoying witch magazine that Ryan was a spoilt little brat. He spent all his time looking in a mirror and styling his hair. James had become friends with Ryan in his second year; I personally think their friendship is based on the fact that they both love themselves.

"AK Lily?" Twittered Aphrodite Patil-Read, daughter of Pavarti Patil and Welsh Quidditch Seeker Colin Read. She was a silly girl that had the IQ of a dead goldfish. Thanks to her mother and aunt's connection to Ryan's mother, Aphrodite and Ryan were arranged to be married once they were old enough. Aphrodite seemed to think this made it perfectly acceptable to fawn over Ryan as much as possible. Well, 'grope' was a more suitable word…either way it was disgusting to watch.

"Well we call her that cause when she looks at you it's like she Avada Kedavra'ed you!" Ryan hissed snickering.

"Hey man that's my sister you're talking about!" James said harshly. I blinked at him shocked. He never really defended me in front of people. "Anyway, what do you want Lily?" He added as an after thought.

"Is there any room in here? There are no more spaces in other compartments." I said looking straight at James. He glanced at his many friends. Last year he had magically enlarged the compartment that meant it held more of his ever growing fan club. There was more than enough room for me. His friends simply glared at me. How delightful…

"Sure. It's not like we're packed in here" Sirius said while several people groaned. It was the first time I had heard his voice since the night Aunt Hermione had announced her pregnancy. I smiled at him to say thank you but found the cold face of Amelia Blake-Andrews. A muggle born witch that seemed to cling to my brother and his connections like flies on shit. It was common knowledge that she was madly in love with Sirius but he had, on several occasions, turned her down. In his four years at Hogwarts I had never seen Sirius with any girl. James and his other cronies had had numerous girls hanging off them. Sirius just never seemed to be interested in them.

The next three hours went so slowly I thought I was going to scream. There were only so many times I could hear Aphrodite call Ryan baby. Total count by the end of those three hours was three hundred and two times.

"So…Lily." James said making everyone go quite. James Potter was addressing me. The odd and weird one out of the all hallowed Potter family. Was this a joke? He was lowering himself wasn't he?

"Yes brother dearest" I said sarcastically while Rose and Sirius smirked. Sirius knew how much I hated James as on many family occasions James and I ended up having a row over various trivial things. We were never really like this when we younger but Hogwarts had changed my brother.

"Did you have a good summer?" James asked sneering slightly.

"You're asking your own sister if she had a good summer!" Amelia screeched with laughter along side Aphrodite and Dominique, Uncle Bill's second child, a beautiful girl that had inherited her mother's Veela charms; she had the usual four boys gazing at her deeply. Shockingly Dominique was just as smart as Victoire but hid it very well so she wouldn't annoy Aphrodite and Amelia.

"Yes well she spent most of her time rallying for house elves or elves with houses or some other creature." James said laughing. I had in fact spent most of my time in and out the Ministry with Aunt Hermione. I was a big supporter of Aunt Hermione's charity S.P.E.W and the work that they did for House Elves. I had many S.P.E.W badges pinned to my bag.

"She nearly got arrested,Dad was furious with her because she didn't tell us she was going with Aunt Hermione and Aunt Luna to the Ministry to protest about House Elf rights." Albus said his eyes wide with horror.

"Yes, thank you Albus" I said snapping slightly. I didn't have to be reminded of how mad father was that I kind of didn't bother to tell him or Mum that I was travelling to London with Aunt Hermione and Luna Lovegood, to take part in a protest about the beheading to a family of House Elves who had disobeyed their masters. Just to take part in it had been amazing. The atmosphere was so awe inspiring.

"Oh god! Our House Elf went to one of those rallies without telling Papa, we were so close to giving it clothes" Aphrodite said. Many gasped. I sighed.

"Maybe clothes would have been better for it than having to life with you." I muttered loud enough for most people to hear. Rose smirked while Sirius sniggered; Aphrodite annoyed him about as bad as she annoyed everyone else. Hugo (Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione's youngest and dumbest. Rose hated that she was related to him) looked like he was going to laugh until he caught sight of Ryan's face.

"That was mean." Aphrodite snapped flicking her hair while Amelia nodded like a bobbing dog.

"I call it like I see it" I said. Aphrodite jumped up off Ryan's lap and got her wand (Customised with glitter and sequins) out of her pocket. I flapped my hand away dismissing her.

"Put away Aphrodite, a sequin might fall off then where will you be?" I said cocking one eyebrow while smirking. Aphrodite went a very un-natural shade of purple until Ryan pulled Aphrodite back into sitting position.

"You think you're so smart just because you look your OWLS a year earlier." Amelia said. That was something I was rather proud of. Aunt Hermione was beside herself when I got O's in every subject I took (Twelve, even beating Aunt Hermione which was a great achievement according to Uncle Ron). Father surprised me by congratulating me highly, until I told him "No I wasn't going to become an Auror intern but get a summer internship with Aunt Hermione changing vile laws about creature rights or should I say actually giving them rights." Father thought very highly of House Elves and treated ours very well but he still didn't want me spending all my time with Aunt Hermione, who father thought on some occasions, was a bad influence. This coming from the man who snuck into Hogsmeade in his third year, had broken over a thousand school rules during his time at Hogwarts and once broke into Gringotts.

"I-"

"You may be smart but everyone hates you" Aphrodite snapped.

"You little-"

"Lily you haven't seen Victoire since the party at yours have you, why don't we go and find her?"Rose said stopping me mid-sentence. That was Rose defusing the fight before it happened.

"Yeah. Staying any longer you'd risk losing brain cells." I said walking out of the compartment as quickly as I could.

"Lily! Well done! Victoire told me all about your twelve O's!" Leonie, one of Victoire's friends, said as I walked into their compartment. Victoire's other friends Jasmine and Tom greeted me and Rose and made room for us.

"Thanks. Dad was happy until I told him that I wanted to get an internship with Aunt Hermione." I said

"I heard about the rally. You could have been in serious trouble with the Ministry! Hermione nearly lost her job according to the society page in The Sunday Prophet!" Leonie said shaking her head. Jasmine flicked through her addition of The Quibbler until she got to the page I knew she was looking for.

"You looked fab though!" She said showing us all the photo of me and Aunt Hermione marching though the Main Atrium with around five hundred house elves and even more people. Aunt Luna had taken the photo and I was really proud of it to be honest. My hair for once looked quite decent.

"Mum has had our copied framed." Rose said laughing. "It's hanging in our bathroom before the toilet. Apparently it's something Muggles do." Bless Aunt Hermione.

"My Nan does every time my Uncle is in the paper. He's councillor for our town and the newspaper interviews him a lot." Jasmine said.

"Muggles are weird." Tom said with a snort while Jasmine smacked him on the arm.

"At least you got in the news for doing something good unlike Lavender Brown. Did you hear that she now says that she suspected Perceval Lawson of slipping many women love potions during their marriage?" Leonie said wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Don't, I've just had to sit with Ryan for the last three hours." I said.

"I don't know why you didn't just come in here straight away." Tom said. I liked Tom; he was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team but despite this was incredibly sensitive and smart. Many people though something was going on between him and Victoire last year even though she was with Teddy, this caused him to become rather unpopular with a lot of people. Tom being Tom didn't let it affect him and just carried on like normal. He was an amazing Quidditch player and couldn't bear leaving this year as it was obvious that James would become his predecessor. That was something we had in common, we both thought my brother was a jerk.

"Me neither, but it wasn't all bad, Sirius was sitting next to us…" Rose said.

"How is he? Teddy's really worried about him. We didn't see him nearly all summer. He just stayed in his room, even when he was at yours." Victoire asked. I instantly thought about the night when I had bumped into Sirius.

"He's ok…Father was speaking to Dora about him. I think everyone is really worried." I said sighing.

"Teddy's so worried about him." Victoire said shaking her head. I gave her a weak smile. Victoire and Teddy had been dating each other since before any of us can remember, they'd been best friends when they were little and that had turned them into the closest couple in the world. Victoire cared deeply for the entire Lupin family. She had grieved just as much as Teddy and Sirius after their father's death and stuck by the family for everything. She cared about the whole family so much it physically hurt her to see Sirius so depressed. Just another reason why I thought she was brilliant probably.

"Dad and Uncle Harry were talking about it the other day." Rose said "Did you know your Dad is planning to ask Dora, Teddy and Sirius to move in with them?" she asked me. I shook my head but was secretly trilled by that idea. Me and Sirius, in the same house. All the time… Plus I'd get to see Victoire even more in the summer as she'd always be with Teddy.

"Minnie would love that" Victoire said laughing, Rose, Victoire and I all sniggered at my sister very obvious crush on Teddy John Lupin. Bless… "I'd have to make sure that she didn't try and use the old Weasley-Potter charm on him."

"What Weasley-Potter charm? Half of them look like walking tangerine make-up counters." Rose snorted. Jasmine, Leonie and I burst into pearls of laughter. Rose had a point there. Roxanne and Lucy wore about an inch of make-up and they were only little.

The journey was a quiet but enjoyable one. I started reading and to pass the time Rose and Tom started up and game of Weasley's Wizard's Whizzes Super Exploding Snap, it was even more dangerous than the normal game, and we had to extinguish the table twice after it caught on fire. We were having so much fun that we hardly notice the time fly.

"I can see the station!" I said suddenly causing everyone to jump. "I can see home!" I said laughing. That was one thing I had in common with my father, we both considered Hogwarts as home.

"Oh damn it! We haven't got time to change!" Rose said panicking. This was true. We had been so preoccupied that we hadn't got changed. I had also forgotten to do my rounds…opps.

"No problem. Verto induviae" Victoire said transforming our muggle clothes into our school robes.

"Umm Victoire…" Tom said pointing to his robes. We all burst out laughing as Tom stood there in sliver and green Slytherin robes instead of his normal Gryffindor.

"Yes well that's what you get cheating at cards." Rose said with a smirk. Leonie patted him on the shoulder after she had finished re-tying her Ravenclaw tie.

"I think you look very distinguished in green." She said with a snort. Tom rolled his as he quickly righted his robes. Jasmine was still sniggering loudly to herself.

"You belong with the first years and even then they might tell you something about maturity." Tom said. Victoire rolled her navy eyes heavily.

"Oh stop pouting, let's go find Hagrid and help him with the first years. We'll see the rest of you at the feast." Victoire said grabbing Tom by the wrist and striding off down the corridor. Jasmine nudged Leonie.

"Just can't keep your hands off him can you." Jasmine asked with a wink.

"Oh shush you" Leonie said with an eye roll to rival Victoire's. Rose and I chuckled to ourselves as we walked off the train.

"I saw yeh in the Quibbler. Bet yeh Dad wern' 'appy bout yeh being there" Hagrid said to me as I walked over to say "Hello" and give him a bone crushing hug. Eighty-Eight years old and still teaching at Hogwarts, then again it wouldn't be Hogwarts without him.

"Not really…Aunt Hermione was though. Personally that means more to me." I said grinning.

"Personally that means more to me than the respect of my father who defeated You-Know-Who" Aphrodite said mimicking me flouncing past with Dominique and Amelia. They giggled away pointing at me.

"Ignore them" Leonie said. "She's just jealous that you actually posses more than one brain cell unlike her and that you became a Prefect."

"Yeah I heard her blazing you in the corridor" Jasmine said.

"What on earth is 'blazing'?" I asked.

"It's a Muggle expression, it means dissing, cussing, and slagging off." Jasmine said. "Oh come on!" she added when she saw our blank faces. "God sake…you backwards people." She muttered.

"You're too Muggle for your own good sometimes Jas" Leonie said laughing. "Come on we need to find the choir" she added to Jasmine waving at me and Rose.

"See you later!" we said walking off.

We looked round for an empty carriage so we could ride alone and talk properly for the first time all summer. James was happily jumping into a carriage with Ryan, Hugo, Aphrodite, Amelia, Dominique, Louis (Dominique's twin brother), Fred (Uncle George's son who was now in his final year along with Victoire) and Albus. Sirius waved his hand motioning that he was going to find another carriage. He spotted me and Rose and waved at us.

"Hi" I called.

"Hi, do you want to share this carriage?" He called while Rose squealed beside me. "No offence but your brother is driving me crazy along with Ryan." Sirius added.

"Sure, how have you been?" I asked as we climbed into an empty carriage. "I haven't seen you all summer really, it's been odd." I said, I didn't mention the other night and neither did he.

"Yeah, you were kind of busy being a rebel." Sirius said grinning.

"Saving House Elves takes up a lot of time" Rose said laughing. Rose was a great friend as well as an awesome cousin. Originally we couldn't stand each other as Rose hard been raised with Hugo who hated me simply because he idolised James, once we'd gotten to Hogwarts Rose and I realised that we were so much alike and we'd instantly become the best of friends, at least I now had someone to talk to at family events when everyone else was plastered.

"You're more like you father than you think" Sirius said making me stop.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was nothing like my father. Well I tried hard not to be like him.

"Dobby." Sirius simply said. Yes, Dobby. He was a brave little elf that had nearly killed my father in his second year at Hogwarts, it wasn't on purpose; on the contrary Dobby was trying to help my father. He was a fabulous little elf, according to my father, yet he sadly suffered a dreadful death when he was stabbed by the notorious Bellatrix Lastrange. My father rarely talked about him without tears coming to his eyes.

"I just want the world to be a better place" I said simply.

"You sound like a Miss Wizarding World contestant" Rose pointed out, I stuck my tongue out in a very un "Miss Wizarding World" fashion.

As the carriage rumbled along the driveway of Hogwarts I felt a sense of warmth. I was coming home. I loved Hogwarts with all my heart. The library with so many books even I couldn't read them all in my time at school, the dormitories in winter when the fires were light filling the rooms with warmth, the lake in summer with it's cooling shade coming from the old trees. It wasn't until I was at Hogwarts that I realised just how much I loved it.

We were about a mile away from the castle when the carriage gave an almighty jerk.

"What the-!" I cried starring around the carriage as it stopped suddenly. "We can't be there yet can we?"

"No, we're about a mile away from school…"Sirius started to say but he stopped when he heard laughter coming from outside. He looked out the carriage window and swore.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"Scorpius! The git stunned the Thestrals!" Sirius yelled jumping out the carriage. I swore and followed him only to see Scorpius Malfoy running off with his various cronies and back into their carriage. Rose came out and joined us.

"What are we gonna do?" she asked looking panicky. She had a reason to be as well. We were about a mile away from the castle and the sorting started in ten minutes.

"I could send a message to the castle." I suggested. I had learnt how to send a Patronus message years ago thanks to Victoire.

"But it could get intercepted." Rose said. I nodded there was that possibility with Scorpius.

"We better get walking or we'll be in bigger trouble than we are now." Sirius said. Great, just great...

I had never realised just how long the walk to Hogwarts was. My feet grew tired and I slowly began to freeze. It was a cold and cloudless night and the twinkling stars stared down upon us.

"We must nearly be there." Sirius moaned. I could hear his stomach rumble over gentle breeze.

"If aren't then you can just leave me here to die, I think my feet are about to drop off from the cold."

"I'll drag you there if I have to." Sirius said.

"I'd prefer a piggyback ride to be honest." I said with a smirk.

"Wait…who's that?" Rose said causing us all to look slightly up at the sky. Someone was flying towards us at great speed. They dived next to us making Rose jump out her skin. My heart sank when I saw who it was.

"Good evening Professor." I said waiting for the ear bashing.

"Lily what do you think you are doing? This has to stop! School hasn't even officially started yet and you're already trouble! Just what in Merlin are you doing out here? Why are you not up at the castle?" Neville Longbottom, professor of Herbology and bane of my existence, yelled at me.

"It's not her fault sir! Scorpius Malfoy hexed the Thestral!" Sirius shouted.

"Nonsense! I know his father would have enjoyed doing things like that simply for the fun of it but it is impossible. Scorpius was one of the first students to arrive at the castle! Now up to the castle now!" Professor Longbottom ordered pointing at the three brooms he had magically summoned. "This is your last chance Lily." He added as we started to fly to the castle. Lovely, this was all I needed...

Author's Note:

Hi I was asked by eMMeD (Thank you for the review by the way!) to include all the character ages so here you go (I'll do it in order of families to make it easier):

Harry and Ginny's children:

Lily and James are fifteen year old twins. Their birthday is on October 1st so they'll turn sixteen in their current year at Hogwarts. Albus is eleven, his birthday is in May. Minnie is six and her birthday is in December.

Hermione and Ron's:

Rose is fifteen and her birthday is in February. Hugo is thirteen and his birthday is in July.

Remus and Tonk's:

Teddy is nineteen and his birthday is in January. Sirius is fifteen and his birthday is in November.

Bill and Fleur's:

Victoire is seventeen and her birthday is in June. Louis and Dominique are fifteen year old twins. Like Lily and James they will soon turn sixteen as their birthdays are in October.

Draco and Astoria's:

Scorpius is sixteen and his birthday is September 1st. His younger sister Cissia is eleven and her birthday is in May.

George and Angelina's:

Fred 2nd is seventeen and his birthday is April 2nd, the day after his father's and his namesake's. Roxanne is eight and her birthday is in July.

Percy and Audrey's:

Lucy is nine and Molly is six.

Lavender Brown's:

Ryan is fifteen and his birthday is in December. He has a half sister who is a squib and her name is Megan.

Pavarti Patil's:

Aphrodite is fifteen and her birthday is in July. She has three younger siblings. Two brother aged four and nine and a sister aged ten.

Others:

Tom, Leonie and Jasmine (Victoire's friends) are all seventeen. Tom and Leonie are purebloods while Jasmine is a Muggle-Born. She is the first witch in her family. Tom has an elder brother who is a professional Quidditch player and plays for Scotland. Leonie is an only child. Jasmine has two elder siblings, a brother and a sister both of whom are Muggles, and a younger sister who is eight. It is unknown yet if she is a witch like Jasmine.

Amelia (Aphrodite's second best friend) is a Muggle-Born but isn't the first witch in her family. Her Aunt is a witch and works in Diagon Alley at Flourish and Blotts.

Hope that clears it up.