Chapter 10: And It Begins

"Lily, are you sure you have everything?"

"Positive mum, but if I forget anything, you can owl it to me, okay?" I assured her, but mostly to make her feel like I still needed her. Parents had a hard time letting go.

"Oh, Honey, we'll miss you! Write once a week, okay?"

"Lily, I feel like it was just yesterday we were sending you off for your first day! Now look at you, all grown up and off to your sixth year at Hogwarts!" Dad said proudly.

"Dad, I didn't know you could be so sentimental!" I laughed.

"And Lily, we're sorry we couldn't convince your sister to come." My dad added, frowning.

"It's alright, nothing new there. Oh, the train's going to leave soon. I have to get going. See you at Christmas!" I said hugging each of them. I was happy to say I finally reached my dad's height.

"Bye Lily." They said, waving as I backed away from them and got onto the train. I sighed to myself. Saying goodbye never gets any easier.

The vacation had been interesting. James and Vernon came over at the same time, creating even more of a rift between me and Petunia. Although, I overheard her telling her friend over the phone that James was attractive, so that counted as a win, right? Petunia also said to mum-rather loudly-that she was glad Snape was no longer around. My parents didn't have anything to say to this, but I think they were glad, too.

Now, going back to Hogwarts, I was more excited than ever. I couldn't wait to see Mary again. I hadn't talked to her ALL summer, and neither had Sirius.

I was going to be happy to see James again, of course. I hoped Sirius was comfortably living with the Potters-he was so much like them. I knew Remus had a good summer, too. I'd been writing to him the most because James was usually too busy to write. He said that he'd been teaching Sirius Quidditch with hopes that he'd be good enough for the team this year. I didn't really write to Peter but it was fine because he went to Romania the entire summer.

"Lily!" I heard and spun around to see James, even taller than before.

"James!" I squealed, giving him a hug. It felt nice to see him again and back in his arms.

"Where's Sirius?" I asked, looking behind him.

"Miss me, Evans?" I spun around and Sirius caught me in his bear-hug.

"1…2…3 TIME'S UP!" James said loudly.

"Prongs, you're no fun!" Sirius said, letting go of me.

"Let's go to our compartment" James said, going towards the end of the train. He stopped at the very last compartment, which Remus and Peter were already in. The Marauders had claimed this compartment since their very first train ride.

"Moony, Wormtail! Good to see you again!" James exclaimed

"Hi Remus, Hi Peter." I said. Sirius pushed past me and enveloped Remus in a hug.

"Guys! You didn't tell me you were gay!" Peter snickered.

"I'm not, I can't exactly speak for Sirius." Remus said in a strained voice. "Sirius. LET GO!" When Sirius finally did let go, Remus flattened his hair again and fixed his clothes. James rolled his eyes.

"For your information Wormtail, I'm NOT gay." Sirius huffed. We all laughed and I levitated our trunks to the racks over head.

"Moony, I wish we'd thought of doing that-it took forever to get our trunks up there!" Peter whined I rolled my eyes and sat down next to James.

"Have any of you seen Mary? I asked once the train started moving. They all shrugged their shoulders and replied, 'No.' I stood up. "I'm going to go look for her. Remus, remember Prefect's meeting in a half an hour." I opened the compartment door to go out but James caught my arm.

"You're not going out there alone. Let me come. The Junior Death Eaters'll be less likely to attack if there's two of us." He said, standing up. I sighed.

"Alright, let's go." We search half the train and asked a few people if they'd seen her, but no one had

"Lily, she's not here anywhere. Maybe we'll find her back at the schoo-What?" I grabbed his arm.

"LOOK!" I pointed to the compartment we were in front of. Inside were some boy…and MARY! But she looked different. Her normally curly hair was pin-drop straight and had red highlights. Her clothes were short, tight, and revealing, and she was FLIRTING! She leaned into the boy and kissed him right on the lips!

"MARY!" I screamed and barged into the compartment, with James closely behind me.

"What the bloody hell happened to you?" I asked. Why was she kissing this random kid? She was infatuated with SIRIUS! Now, she no longer looked like my innocent best friend. She looked like one of the bints Sirius used to date! James coughed and turned away, clearly uncomfortable with her outfit. The boy who was in the compartment with her wiped his mouth several times and ran off. It might have been my imagination, but I think he looked relieved that we barged in when we did. Mary sighed loudly and stood up to face us.

"Lily, Italy happened to me. When I went home in June, my parents told me they were getting divorced. So I ran away that night, I went to Italy. I learned things about myself there, Lily. One of the most important things I learned was that I shouldn't tie myself down to one guy. Oh, James, can you tell Sirius I'm breaking up with him? Thanks." James raised an eyebrow. We were probably thinking the same thing: What had gotten into her?

"Mary, you aren't acting like the best friend since I was eleven acts like!" I exclaimed.

"Exactly, which is why we shouldn't be friends anymore." She said casually and started filing her nails. James put a comforting arm around me. Mary looked up and raised her eyebrows, as thought she was wondering why we were still here.

"Come on, let's go." James whispered. Once we left the compartment, I exploded.

"What was she thinking? What was she doing!" I screamed as James rubbed circles on my back. "Wasn't that Benjy Fenwick back there? Doesn't he have a girlfriend? Who he absolutely ADORES? What was she thinking? I repeated. "I cannot believe she would go that far! And then breaking up with Sirius like that? Telling YOU to tell him! It's like she has no more respect! UGH! And to think I have to share a dorm with...with that for the next two years!"

"Well, well, Mudblood having a tantrum?" A voice behind us said. I turned around, bringing my wand out. It was Mucliber. I put my wand to his throat. It brought me joy to see he was panic-stricken.

"Mate, I suggest you leave now. It's not wise to bother Lily Evans when she's mad. Been there, done that; I landed in the Hospital Wing-literally. I was there a week and she actually fancied me when she did that!" James told him. Mucliber took another look at me, then James. He followed James' advice; He sprinted down the corridor.

"COWARD!" I screamed after him, putting my wand away.

"I'm surprised you could get your wand out so quickly. I've only seen my parents get them out that quickly." James said as he opened the door to our compartment.

"Did you find her?" Remus asked as soon as we sat down.

"Oh yeah, we found her. She was dressed like a bint. Reminded me of one of Sirius' ex's." I told him, taking an angry bite out of a chocolate frog he handed me.

"HEY!" Sirius said, lifting his head from the pile of food he got.

"Speaking of Padfoot's ex's, you've got another to add to the list. Mary told me to tell you that she's breaking up with you." James said.

"Oh, that's good. I was going to break up with her anyway. I realized this summer I don't need girls… as anything other than friends." He added seeing my expression.

"Wow Padfoot, you're more of a Hufflepuff than I thought." Peter joked.

"I know what you're implying, Wormtail! I'm not gay! I'm still attracted to girls and WILL STILL take notice of them and admire their beauty." Sirius huffed.

"Take notice of them and admire their beauty? Are you sure you're not a Hufflepuff in disguise?" James asked.

"Didn't know you could use imply correctly, either. Maybe you're more Ravenclaw than we thought, too." Remus joked. Sirius threw a chocolate frog box in his direction.

"That prefect meeting was boring. It's much less interesting when you've spent a year at it." I told Remus, sitting back in our seats in our compartment with James, Sirius, and Peter. James put an arm around my waist.

"Yeah." He replied.

"I'm really glad Amelia Bones is Head Girl, she deserves it, I heard she got the highest grade on her Defense O.W.L since Dumbledore himself!" I told him.

"Yeah, and you were especially glad Amos Diggory got Head Boy." Remus smirked. I could feel James stiffen next to me. He looked at James' expression and continued. "Yeah, she couldn't stop looking at him, could you? And not that Diggory minded; he couldn't stop looking at you, either." Remus snickered. James looked about ready to explode. His mouth was pressed into a thin line and his eyes were cold and bearing into mine. I was trying to stifle a laugh.

"Oh, Merlin, Remus, I can't take it anymore." We burst out into shaking laughter and started laughing even more at James' befuddled expression. Sirius and Peter just exchanged glances, shrugged and continued their discussion.

"Will someone tell me what the bloody hell is so funny?" James said.

"You are, Prongs!" Remus said, smiling, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"What?"

"I made the entire thing up, just to see how you would react. And Lily, I believe you owe me five galleons?" He said. I handed the money over.

"It was worth it." I told him.

"So you guys made the entire story up? And then bet on it? Moony, I'm going to kill you." James said.

"Hold your hippogriffs, if it weren't for Remus, I'd be patrolling with Diggory for the rest of the year." I said in disgust.

"Yeah, I wasn't lying about the part where Diggory wouldn't stop looking at Lily. He was practically undressing her with his eyes." Remus exaggerated.

"He was not, stop winding him up!" I screeched.

"That's what you think. Innocent girls, they don't notice a thing. Guys know the looks that other guys give girls. Then again, we're still questioning whether Moony's even a guy." Sirius said.

"Git." Remus said, punching Sirius on the shoulder.

"That little perverted Hufflepuff! He should go stick his head down the loo. Thinks he's so good at Quidditch! Didn't catch the snitch once last season." James muttered to himself.

"But being serious-"

"Moony! You're not Sirius, I'm Sirius. Get it right!" Sirius huffed. I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, James, Lily, you have to be careful. Lily's well, how do I put this?" Remus said, running a hand though his hair in a very James-like manner. He was probably nervous too.

"Here-Lily's gotten hotter over summer. Way hotter." Sirius said frankly. I fidgeted in my seat and felt my face turn red. Not exactly something you wanted to hear from your boyfriend's best friends.

"And that's just Sirius, who's going easy because you're his best mate and you're right here. If you heard what McLaggen was saying about her back at the station, you would've torn him apart with your bare hands." Peter added. James' eyes widened and his arm around my waist pulled me closer, and I could feel my neck and ears turn red. This was quickly turning into an embarrassing and awkward conversation.

"They will regret anything they say, they will lose their eyesight. They'll melt! They'll burn at the stakes! Their heads'll be chopped off! They-" James ranted, fire burning in his eyes.

"Oh, will you shut up? Lily will be fine. She can defend herself." Remus told him with a roll of his eyes. I nodded in agreement. The last thing I need was one of the Marauders following my every move. And, the subject was thankfully changed.

"And mate, you've grown about one and a half feet over the summer. Once they all realize you two are still going out, they'll back off, you look scary as hell." Sirius told him as he pulled out an old blanket from his trunk. I looked towards the window and Peter was already in a comfortable slumber. James nodded meekly.

"Wake me up when we reach Hogwarts, will you?" Sirius said as he closed his eyes.

"Me too" Remus nodded, yawning. In five minutes both were snoring.

"Do they usually sleep on the train rides?" I whispered to James.

"No, they stay awake for me, because I can never sleep on the train. But now that you're here, they sleep." He told me. He bit his lip, like he wanted to ask me something, but wasn't sure if he should.

"What is it?" I asked, encouraging him a little.

"Well, I was wondering. That kiss," He didn't have to clarify, I knew which one he was talking about. After all, we only shared one. "Was it your first?" He asked so fast, it took me a moment to think about was he asked.

"Yeah. It was." I smiled. He grinned ear to ear.

"I accomplished the top two things on my life goal list."

"Which were?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"One: Have my first kiss with you. Two: Be your first kiss." He said, turning a bit red. I laughed and put my arms around his waist and my head on his shoulder.

"You know what I realized?" I said after a few moments.

"What?"

"There's no Lucius this year. I'm sure they'll feel lost without their head Junior Death Eater." I laughed at the thought.

"Who do you think they'll make the new head?" James said with amusement.

"Well, it could be Avery. You know what he did to Mary last year." I said.

"Or it could be Mucliber."

"Nah, did you see how he ran earlier, when he found out I was angry?" We laughed.

"It could be Snape, too." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, they're going to make the slimy, skinny, half-blood dork their new leader." I said sarcastically.

"He's a half-blood?" James asked, surprised.

"Yeah, you didn't know that?" I asked, equally surprised. Had he really been telling everyone he was a pureblood? James just shook his head in response.

"But, it would be smart of them to make him his leader. You know, he's made his own spells." James said.

"Yeah, but they haven't been the smartest, have they?" I said

"Hey guys, how many Slytherins does it take to light up a wand?" Sirius said groggily.

"How many, Sirius?" I asked, humoring him.

"Four. One to light it, two to argue over whose father in the Ministry could afford someone else to light it for them, and another to take the credit for it." He said with a grin. Our laughter woke Remus and Peter.

"Are we there yet?" Peter asked, stretching.

"We should be soon." James replied.

"I guess we should go change into our robes, then? James, you stay here with Lily and Sirius, Peter, and I will go change." Remus said, as they grabbed their clothes. "By the way guys, remember, full moon lands on the end of this month, and Lily, it lands on the day we're supposed to patrol." He said as he left.

"WAIT. WHAT!" James screamed and got up, pulling Remus by his collar back into the compartment. "Moony, we can't leave her to patrol alone!"

"Then why don't you not come, and go with her?" He asked, rubbing his neck.

"No, no, I have to come! It's a marauder tradition! Can't you convince Diggory or Bones to change it?" He asked desperately.

"Well, I am well acquainted with Amelia, so maybe I can convince her? Or maybe I'll convince her to go with Lily?" Remus asked.

"Really, guys, is this necessary?" I asked, getting impatient. They were making too big of a deal of this.

"Or maybe we can get Benjy Fenwick to go with her." Sirius pitched in, completely ignoring me.

"Ha, he couldn't even stop Mary when she just tried snogging him." James snorted.

"Yeah, but Mary's a girl." Peter pointed out. "You remember what he did to Lucius last year? And, he's in his seventh year. They'll be scared of him."

"Okay, it's settled then, I'll ask him." Remus said, leaving with Peter. I sighed to myself.

This was going to be a long, long year.

A/N: Hope you guys liked it!

PLEASE REVIEW. I ONLY GOT ONE LAST CHAPTER!

I know you guys can relate to school/work interfering with writing, so please bear with me if I don't get chapters in once a week anymore :/

Thanks,
SAM :)