The sky was a swirling expanse of white when Lily boarded the Hogwarts Express the morning after Slughorn's party. She didn't know how she felt after the night she had just had. It didn't feel like she had been at the party very long at all; she had been separated from Remus almost as soon as they arrived, and accosted by Nettie Harris a minute later. She had barely gotten away from Nettie by passing her off to Dennis Finch and had just started to look for Remus when she'd heard him shout and saw James pulling him away from Slughorn and whoever his guest had been. Then all of that excitement had been overshadowed by the conversation that had followed with James.

That was the part she was most unsure about. She was glad she had apologized to James; she really was sorry for what she had said the weekend before, and she was glad she was able to get some resolution before beginning her holidays. But she didn't want to think about the place that put her in now in relation to James.

The hour they had spent together after the Quidditch game has signaled a significant change in their relationship. No longer could Lily continue to insist that James Potter was just the boy in her year that she hated. He was no longer her best friend's tormentor, since she was no longer friends with Severus. From what she had seen in the past few months, James was no longer the bully she had once accused him of being. And, no matter what she wanted to tell herself, she didn't think he was just her friend, either.

So what was he?

There was an additional problem on the emotional-turmoil front. She had already explained this dilemma to someone, and it was one of the last people she should have explained her complicated feelings about James to. She didn't know what had come over her. If she needed to talk, she should have talked to one of her friends, to—

"Lily?" a voice broke through her brooding.

She looked around; it was Alice. "Are you okay? You look troubled?" Alice asked.

Lily smiled to dispel her continued unease. "No, I'm fine," she said, trying hard to mean it. "Just a little…" Conflicted? "…distracted."

"You're telling me," Alice said, commiserating. "I have another seven hours until I'll get to see Frank. I'm so wound up I could barely concentrate enough to get dressed this morning."

"Oh yeah," Lily said, remembering Alice's preoccupation from the night before as the two witches made their way past half-filled compartments in search of an empty one. "Are you excited?"

"Quite," Alice said, smiling. They passed through the first two cars without finding a promising place to settle for the long ride. Lily readjusted the strap of her purse as they stepped carefully through the connector between the next car, balancing Radagast's basket on one hip and using her free hand to turn the handle. Before Alice could go on, they glanced into the first compartment in the third car to see Dorcas, and they both immediately knew something was wrong. Dorcas was staring out the window, and the half of her face that they could see from where they stood in the corridor was pale and scared.

Lily slid the door open and took a step inside. "Dorcas! What's wrong?"

Dorcas jumped and turned to face them. Her brown eyes were wide and they had a rather manic gleam. Alice followed Lily into the compartment and they both sat down, Alice next to Dorcas and Lily across from her. From inside his carrier, Radagast meowed.

"What happened, Dorcas?" Alice asked quickly. "Was it something with Roger?"

Lily belatedly realized she hadn't spoken or even seen Dorcas since before the party; Dorcas had left Gryffindor Tower for the party before her, arrived back at the dormitory after Lily had gone to bed, and was already gone that morning when Lily up. She hadn't had the chance to ask her how it had gone, if Roger had asked her to go steady, or any of it.

Dorcas stared at Alice for a long moment. Alice and Lily traded nervous glances and then looked back at Dorcas.

After a moment, Dorcas nodded. "Roger…" she said in a slightly hoarse voice but trailed off.

"Did…did Roger do something wrong?" Alice asked quietly, taking Dorcas's hand as though she were ill in the hospital and Alice had come to visit.

Dorcas shook her head.

"Did he do something right? Did he ask you to be his girlfriend?" Lily asked next, leaning forward.

Slowly, Dorcas nodded.

"Well, that's good then, isn't it?" Alice asked, trying to interject some brightness into her voice, though she still looked wary when she glanced at Lily again.

Dorcas nodded again.

"Then what's wrong, Dorcas?" Lily asked.

"He…he wants me to…" Dorcas started, but once again didn't finish. Radagast meowed again and Lily stuck a finger into his basket to soothe him.

"What does he want you to do, Dorcas?" Alice asked, sternly now. "Because no matter how much you like this boy, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Don't let him pressure you, you understand? Don't—"

Dorcas blinked at the change in tone. She looked confusedly at Alice. "What are you talking about?"

Alice blinked too. "What are you talking about?"

A trace of a smile lifted Dorcas's lips. "Are you…are you trying to give me the sex talk, Alice?"

Alice blushed. "No!" she protested. "I thought you were trying to tell us that Roger was pressuring you to…to…to snog in a broom cupboard! Or sneak back to his dormitory, or—"

"She was trying to give you the sex talk!" Lily said gleefully, smirking as Alice scowled, her own worries forgotten. "Blimey, Alice, where did that come from? I thought Dorcas was supposed to be the group-mum!"

Dorcas laughed loudly at the joke and the look on Alice's face. It was true that Dorcas had been the "group-mum," the responsible, supportive, I'm-not-mad-just-disappointed one in their dormitory since their first year, but she had never gone so far as to lecture them about boys and responsibilities.

Radagast meowed again and scratched at his basket, but Lily scarcely noticed.

Alice crossed her arms with a huff. "Well, what did you think she was talking about?" she asked Lily hotly.

Lily shrugged, opening Radagast's carrier to let him out. He jumped onto her lap and started purring. In truth, she had no idea what might be behind Dorcas's behavior. "I dunno. What is going on, Dorcas?"

Dorcas's face fell again when Lily asked the question. Lily was just trying to think about what she could do to prevent her from slipping back into her stupor again when Dorcas mumbled something quietly.

"What's that, dear?" she asked, leaning still closer to hear what her friend was saying.

But before Dorcas could answer, the door slid open again and Mary appeared, Sirius right behind her. "Hello!" she said cheerily. "Mind if Sirius joins us today?"

The three seated witches looked around at the new-comers and shook their heads. "Not at all," Alice said and Mary sat down next to Lily.

Sirius took the seat on her other side. "Hello ladies," he said with far more excitement than he had any reason to feel surrounded by his girlfriend's three best friends. "What are we going to do today? Talk about blokes? Paint each other's nails?"

Lily smirked at Mary, who smiled apologetically. "I asked Sirius if he minded sitting with us, and he got a little overly excited at the idea of 'girl-time,' as he called it."

The train underneath them began to move and Sirius clapped his hands, still grinning excitedly. "Ooh, it's starting!" he said in a much higher voice than Lily would have thought him capable of producing. Radagast meowed and stared at Sirius haughtily. "And there's even a cat!"

Radagast hissed.

"…who doesn't seem to like me," Sirius said, and his face fell.

Mary and Alice laughed, and even Dorcas chuckled. Lily held in a chuckle herself. "Er, Sirius, not that we don't want you here, but why aren't you hanging out with James and the rest?"

Sirius grinned at her and held up two fingers. "Two reasons, Evans. One: Mary asked me to, and when someone that beautiful asks you for a favor, you say yes." ("Awww," Mary said jokingly, pretending to blush.) "And two: James asked me to spy on you and report back to him."

Lily opened her mouth to object to this last statement, but Sirius spoke louder. "Now, I'm not going to report back to him, so you can feel free to say whatever you'd like – profess any hitherto unspoken loves, admire his stupid hair and coo over his Quidditch skills, whatever you'd like – without worrying about it getting out. But between James and Mary, it seemed I was not welcome in the bloke's compartment, and more than welcome in the birds' compartment. So consider me part of the flock!"

"The flock?" Alice repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure, 'the Flock,'" Sirius said, stretching out his arms and wrapping one of them around Mary, pulling her closer. "I think it has potential as a nickname for you lot."

The girls exchanged amused looks but didn't raise any objections.

"So," Sirius went on, reaching a hand out toward Radagast, who glared and went to sit on Alice's lap instead. "Are we going to talk about boys or not?"

He shot a significant look toward Lily, who raised an eyebrow. He winked. But Alice turned back to Dorcas. "I don't know, Dorcas, were we talking about boys?"

Lily expected Dorcas to clam up, as she had done when Alice and Lily questioned her, but instead she blurted out, "Roger asked me to be his girlfriend at Slughorn's party and I told him 'yes,' and he said 'great,' and I said 'brilliant,' and he smiled and I smiled and then he told me that he wants me to meet his parents today at Platform 9¾ and I didn't know what to say so I told him I would and now I only have about six hours and fifty-five minutes to prepare and I don't know what I'm going to do or say or do."

She said all of this very fast. Lily and the others blinked a few times, trying to take it all in. "Sorry," Mary finally said. "Could you say all of that again for me one more time?"

Dorcas sighed and repeated her statement, this time sounding a bit calmer. She looked around at all of them, her eyes resting last on Lily's.

Lily shrugged. "Don't look at me; I've never met a bloke's parents," she said.

Dorcas looked next to Alice. "You've met Frank's parents, right?"

Alice nodded and, for some reason, winced. "Yes, and I wish I hadn't. Frank's mum is terrifying." Dorcas's eyes widened and Lily shot a meaningful look at Alice. "Oh…his dad is lovely, though," Alice continued. "Really. And his mum warmed up to me quickly enough. I mean, Frank says she only hated me for the first year or so—"

Lily shook her head vigorously at Alice and she broke off abruptly, but the damage was done. Dorcas looked more alarmed than ever.

"Erm, I mean, she never really hated me. That was just Frank's joke. He, er, he said she just didn't like me because she thought I was…was going to taker her son away and…" By now, Alice was staring around desperately for something else to say, or for something to take the focus off of her. "Mary! How…how was it when you met Sirius's parents."

Mary and Sirius exchanged the briefest look and burst out laughing. They laughed until their faces were red and tears were gathering in Mary's eyes. Alice, Dorcas, and Lily exchanged confused glances.

Finally, Sirius recovered enough to explain. "Mary has never met my parents and she is never, ever going to," he said firmly. "Not unless some very great misfortune befalls me and the only way to save me if through the magic of a mother's love for her son. In which case, Mary will meet them long enough to tell them that their oldest son is dying and there's no hope at all for recovery."

His tone was still light, but Lily thought she saw a steely glint in his eye. Mary too had sobered up quicker than she might normally had done. "Besides," she said. "The Blacks wouldn't want to meet a half-blood like me, anyway."

Dorcas, far from being reassured, now looked positively horrified. "So those are my options? Never meet his parents or meet them and have them hate me?"

"What?! No, of course not," Mary said. "Sirius's parents are just nutters and Augusta Longbottom is the most terrifying woman to ever carry a wand. But I think the Nixes are alright, aren't they?"

"I don't know," Dorcas said frantically. "Because I've never met them."

"Well, there's a first time for everything, right?" Lily said bracingly. "Besides, Roger is nice. His parents can't be that bad."

Sirius snorted again. "Haven't you been listening, Evans? Kids are nothing like their parents! My parents are horrible and I'm wonderful. Frank is nice and his mum is an angry hippogriff in a vulture-topped hat and a handbag. And James's parents are the sweetest people you could ever meet, but look who they have for a son." Here, he winked at Lily too. "As you may find out yourself one day."

Lily ignored his last comment. "Well my parents are quite nice and I like to think I've picked up at least some of that from them. And the Fortescues are just as sweet as Alice, and your mum is like you, right Dorcas?"

Dorcas thought for a moment and nodded.

"So everything will be fine," Dorcas repeated to herself. "Everything will be fine."

"That's the spirit!" Sirius said. "Now, are we going to braid each other's hair or not?"


The rest of the ride back to King's Cross station passed in a blur. The lunch trolley came along and Alice treated them all to as many Pumpkin pasties, Chocolate Frogs, and Whizzing Worms as they could eat. Mary got Sirius to recount the set-up and planning for some of the Marauder's more famous (or infamous, depending on the audience) pranks. Sirius, never having had the chance to sit and talk to Lily and Dorcas uninterrupted for so long, peppered them with questions about living as a Muggle ("Blimey, they can only teach you so much out of a textbook in Muggle Studies," he observed after Lily explained electric hairdryers to him). And Lily tried not to obsess over who James might be talking to and what hitherto confidential conversations that they might be discussing.

Radagast moved from one lap to another as they talked, avoiding only Sirius.

But all too soon, the Hogwarts Express slowed down and they all stood up and grabbed their bags and as the train made its way into Platform 9¾. Dorcas once again looked nervous, and she kept glancing out of the compartment into the corridor, presumably looking for Roger. Lily gave her an encouraging sort of smile as she coaxed Radagast back into his basket and picked it up.

"Ready to go?" she asked Dorcas. The two of them were the only ones left in the compartment now, Alice having practically flown off the train to meet Frank as soon as it stopped, and Mary and Sirius having slipped off to find a private place to say goodbye.

Dorcas made an odd gurgling noise, but she stood up and followed Lily along the corridor and down the steps onto the platform. Lily was about to turn around and start coaching Dorcas again, but before she could, Roger Nix appeared beside them.

"Dorcas! There you are! I've found my parents, are you ready to meet them?" he asked.

She gave Lily one last nervous look as Roger grabbed her hand and started leading her through the sea of students and their families. Lily smiled and gave her a thumbs-up, and then Dorcas disappeared in the crowd.

Lily turned around and hoisted Radagast's basket more firmly into her side. As she began to make her way toward the barrier that separated the magical and Muggle worlds so she could meet her dad (and, she hoped, her mum), her eyes found Mary, Sirius, and James standing with four adults. Lily recognized two of them as Mary's parents. The other two, she assumed based on the way they were taking it in turns to hug James and Sirius, were the Potters.

She slowed down and ducked behind a pillar, studying them surreptitiously. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were old, far older than Lily would have expected. She recalled James telling her once that he had been a "surprise." He must have meant that he had been born when they were already late in life. But, she thought as she watched Mr. Potter bound around James to pull Mary into a hug, they still acted young and full of life. They must be, she thought, to have raised a son like James. She kept watching.

Mrs. Potter had a kind face and she gave the Macdonalds a warm smile as she embraced Mary. Mr. Potter wore glasses like James and there was still some black mixed in the grey of his hair. He laughed genially at something Mr. Macdonald said and slapped him on the back.

Lily was just wondering what it might be like to be introduced to the Potters, and to have them look at her the way they looked at Sirius, James, and Mary, when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

She whipped around, nearly losing her grip on Radagast's carrier as she did so. She pulled her wand from her purse. But it was just Alice.

Alice didn't look well, though. She seemed nervous. "Lily," she said right away. "Frank isn't here."

Lily frowned and looked around the platform. It was true, she didn't see Frank anywhere, and he was so tall he would have stood out above the heads of the dwindling crowd. "I'm sure he'd just running late," Lily said, turning back to Alice.

But Alice shook her head. "He said he would arrive early, at exactly six o'clock so he could be waiting when I arrived. It's ten past six. And he was supposed to Apparate here, so I can't think why he would be late."

Looking around the rapidly clearing platform once more, Lily thought about what else might have kept Frank. "He didn't have something do so for the aurors, did he?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Alice said, biting her lip. "But—oh! There's Hestia Jones! She's in the auror training program too, a couple of years ahead of Frank. I can ask her."

She dragged Lily along after her to a blond witch about five years older than Lily and Alice. "Hestia!" Alice hailed her, and the witch turned.

"Alice," Hestia greeted her right away. They had clearly met before.

"You haven't heard from Frank, have you?" Alice asked without preamble. "Because he was supposed to meet me and he isn't here."

Hestia looked around the platform, presumable for Frank. "No, I haven't heard from him," she said slowly, her eyes narrowing as she failed to locate her colleague.

"He isn't on a mission, is he?" Alice went on.

"No," Hestia said, frowning. "Not for the Auror Department, anyway…"

Lily didn't know what to make of that last remark, though she thought it sounded rather cryptic.

"Where is he, then?" Alice said, more to herself than to them, Lily thought. She sounded worried.

"I'm sure he's—" Lily started, intending to say "fine," but Hestia interrupted.

"You'd better come with me, Alice. I'll take you home. Then I'll ask around about Frank."

Something in the witch's tone caught Lily's attention, and apparently Alice's too. They both looked at her nervously. "You don't think something bad happened to him, do you?" Alice asked, her voice barely audible over the sounds on the platform around them.

Hestia fixed a smile back on her lips. "I'm sure he's fine, Alice. And if I see him before you do, I'll send him your way and tell him he's a git for making you wait. Now let's go, I'll take you Side-Along."

The two witches walked away, leaving Lily to make her way toward the barrier into King's Cross by herself. She passed Sirius and the Potters as she went, and she smiled to herself as she heard Mrs. Potter ask Sirius, who had turned around to grin at her, "Sirius, who on earth is your hair braided?"

She was still smiling when she stepped through the barrier and looked around the station. Her parents usually waited for her near the ticket stand. She walked through the rush of Muggles towards it, trying not to think about Frank and what might have befallen him. But as she neared the ticket stand and saw not her mother, or even her father, but Petunia waiting for her with a tense expression on her face, Lily felt her stomach drop. Maybe it wasn't Alice and Frank she needed to be worried about.

Author's Note: I'm not exactly pleased with this chapter, but I wanted to get it posted today. Let me know what you think!