As the train began to pull away Lily took one more good look at Hogwarts. She knew that she would never be as safe as she was there.
She though about the death eaters and she wondered for a moment if Severus hated her so much now that he would do be willing to hurt her or her family. He was a death eater after all, and she was a Mudblood. Was their friendship worth anything anymore? No, she knew that their friendship meant nothing, but she still wouldn't believe that he would purposefully hurt her. She took a deep breath. I wish things were different. She thought.
"Whatcha thinking about?" Mary asked from across the compartment. Lily looked up "Oh, nothing. Just this stupid war." She said.
"Yea, it sucks doesn't it?"
"Yes, most definitely"
"Hey, did you hear that Dumbledore is getting a group of people together to fight against you know who. Like the anti death eaters. Cool, huh?"
"Yea, that's pretty cool. I'm glad someone if doing something to stop him."
"Yea, but you'd think he would just come out and fight him. Get this whole thing over with. He beat the last dark wizard, why not him?"
"I wish it were that easy." Lily said with a strained laugh.
The door of the compartment opened and Alice came in "Look who I found" She said as James and Sirius followed her in and Lily rolled her eyes "Great" she said under her breath and she looked out the window, she rather watch the empty hills roll by then have to suffer another empty conversation with James and Sirius.
"Hey Ladies!" Sirius said
James said nothing but sat next to Lily who was still looking away, James knew, to avoid him.
It was awkward for a moment until Mary said: "Alright, well I'll see you guys later." and she got up and dragged Alice with her. Sirius gladly followed sending an amused smile back to James.
James looked distressed. He had not intended on bombarding Lily like this. Lily looked over at Mary as she left shocked that her friend would abandon her. James looked down and said "Sorry about that, I didn't plan it, I swear."
"Yea, I'm sure."
"Really, I mean I wanted to talk to you. But I didn't want to force you to talk to me like this"
She looked over at him. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked half sincerely curious and half annoyed.
"Oh, uh. Nothing really. We just hadn't talked in a while… and well, I kind of missed you." He said while looking at the ground.
At first she believe his sincerity and therefore thought it sweet, but quickly changed her mind and decided that it must be some sick joke.
"Hmph. So you ignore me for months then all of the sudden you miss me, huh?"
James looked annoyed with a mix of pain as he said "I wasn't ignoring you." Of course he knew she was right but how could she explain to her why he had done it?
"Bull--" She began to say until they both heard a loud crash which brought them to their feet to look at the cause but as soon as they had, all of the lights on the train went out and dozens of people screamed.
They heard something out in the hall and James began to slid the door open. Lily grabbed his arm (with surprising accuracy since she couldn't see anything) and said "James, what are you doing?"
"stopping whatever it is that's happening."
"Its dangerous, It could be anything."
"We can't just stand back and let it happen, Lily. Stay here, I'll be fine" He opened the door and as he walked out he whispered "Lumos" His wand lit up and he saw nothing directly around him. Lily followed him, she wasn't going to let him go alone. She held her wand tightly but relied on his light to guide both of them. When they heard something up ahead but still couldn't see James grabbed something, shushed Lily and wrapped a cloak around the both of them.
They saw a figure looking towards them. The train was still moving quickly so it didn't seem likely that anyone new had climbed aboard. "James--" Lily whispered "Shh, its okay they can't see us. This is an invisibility cloak" and the were both silent. The figure started walking towards the front of the train away from the two of them, they followed. But soon their stranger was gone. "Where did he go?" Lily asked in a whisper.
"My guess is to stop the train." James said. She knew what that meant, the only reason to stop the train would be to let someone else on. Lily was so afraid that she grabbed James hand tightly. He wrapped his arm around her and said " Its going to be okay." and then the train began to slow. "You were right." Lily said with a trembling voice. The figure appeared again and the two quickly hid back in their compartment.
Lily slid from out of the cloak and sat down.
"I thought I heard someone!" A mans voice said just outside the compartment. He quickly came in and grabbed Lily by the arm. "You're a brave one aren't you, poppet, Wandering out there all alone."
"STUPIFY!" James yelled from under the cloak. The man didn't even have time to know see what was happening before he was on the floor. James grabbed Lily who looked as if she were ready to faint. "Shh, its okay." She hugged him tightly, all animosity forgotten.
Then, Sirius ran in followed shortly by Marry and Alice. "What's going on, we heard you cast the stunning spell, figured something was up."
Mary spotted the man on the floor and gasped. "Who is he?"
"A death eater. That's all I know." James said. "Listen, he stopped the train, we need to get it going again before someone else comes on." Sirius nodded. Lily loosened her grip but James held her as if she would fall apart if he let go. "No, I'm okay. You and Sirius go." She said standing up straight. James nodded and the two ran out towards the front of the train.
"What happened?" Mary asked as the three sat down. Lily pulled out her wand and lit the compartment so they could see each other. "We went out to check what was going on under James invisibility cloak. The man heard us, followed us back to the compartment and grabbed me when I got out from under it. He didn't know James was here too."
"James has an invisibly cloak. That's awesome."
Lily laughed "Yea, awesome." she said "I can't believe I freaked like that. James kept his head and probably saved my life."
