Hello there! All flashbacks this chapter.
I'm curious. What are your thoughts on the people in the Marauders era (not in this story, but in canon)? I feel like most people have some really strong but highly contradictory opinions.
Now, on with the chapter.
Song for this chapter is 'Country Roads' by John Denver.
Lisa headed towards her mother who was standing at the edge of the crowd, her eyes scanning the platform for her children.
She barreled into her mum, wrapping her short arms around the older woman around the torso as tightly as she could.
"Hey mum," Lisa said grinning, her voice muffled from the hug.
"Hello Lisa," her mother said accompanied with the kind of smile that only a mom could give, "How is your first year going?"
Lisa immediately pulled away with a huge grin on her face, "Oh, it was awesome mum! It was like everything you, Dad and James said, but MORE! There were these moving staircases and the sky-like ceiling. And though some people were mean, I met so many amazing people and made so many friends. And our common room was in the dungeons mom, you could see the lake from there, it was like living underwater! You could see the fishes and the merpeople and the grindylows and the GIANT SQUID! It was so beautiful. One time I thought I saw a hippocampus! But it was just a really clumpy seaweed. Kinda disappointing. But the teachers are so good. Dumbeldore always says these funny things and wears these weird clothes. Alice- a friend of mine- is always outraged by that. Says something about it being fashion suicide and that the colours give her a headache. I kinda like it though- don't tell her that she would kill me. And McGonagall is SO much scarier than what you described- but she is so cute when she is a cat! And the food! Oh mom- don't even get me started on the food!The food was so..."
"Lisa, Lisa," Euphemia interrupted, smiling at her, "Relax... we have the whole Christmas break to talk. But you need to breath."
Lisa chuckled sheepishly, realising that she had been rambling the whole time.
Her mother's eyes then fixed on something behind her, "Look- there comes James."
The smile on Lisa's face dimmed upon hearing her brother's name. She moved behind her mother, trying to keep a neutral expression on her face as James ran up to them, giving her mum a hug. Once he had pulled away Euphemia asked him about his year just like she had with Lisa.
Lisa didn't bother listening to his response. Instead, she waved to Frank whom she had just spotted heading towards the barrier with his mother who had a no-nonsense look on her face that would give McGonagall a run for her money. He waved back, a grin on his face before disappearing through the pillar.
"Come on. It's time to go," Euphemia said catching Lisa's attention.
Euphemia headed towards the barrier, her children in tow, who, unbeknown to her, were pointedly avoiding each other's eyes.
Upon exiting the station, they ducked into an alley away from muggle eyes and then apparated, Lisa and James holding onto each of Euphemia's hands.
Lisa steadied herself once the dizzying sensation of the apparition was over.
She looked up and the familiar sight of Potter manor greeted her.
They walked in through the gates and Lisa breathed in relief as the heating charms hit her, melting the snow which had fallen into her hair and over her coat. With cracks of apparition, two house elves arrived by their sides. She greeted them and they smiled back at warmly, bowing slightly before taking her brother and her lugagges.
"Ok- go up and change," Euphemia ordered, "Dad will be home in a few minutes. Lunch will also be ready by then, be down by then." With that, she headed towards the kitchen, a house elf in tow who was hastily telling her of the lunch preparations.
This left James and Lisa all alone.
Sensing this Lisa turned around, wanting to say something.
But James spoilt those plans by rushing up the stairs, towards his room.
She sighed. She wondered how long this would go one.
Not wanting to stand alone in the room for long she also climbed the flight of stairs reaching the first landing. She spared a glance in the direction of James' bedroom hoping to catch sight of him.
All she was greeted by was the posters upon his firmly closed door.
She walked opposite to the direction in which she had been looking towards a mahogany door. Posters of the Puddemore United and Spellbound were plastered all over it except one poster in the middle that said 'In My Defense, I Was Left Unsupervised' with a laughing witch riding a broom in the centre.
Lisa pushed the door open and beamed as the familiar sight of her bedroom met her.
It was a fairly big room with a queen-size bed pushed against the middle of the wall to her opposite, over a plush mustard-coloured carpet, covered by a white bedsheet. This was covered by a red fluffy blanket and a bazillion pillows ranging in white, golden and maroon colour (yes, she was a sucker for pillows). On one side of the bed was a door leading to the bathroom. On the other side was a bedside table with just a lamp, a radio and a picture of her and her family on top. The wall behind that was yellow, unlike the other walls which were off-white in colour, on which was painted an apple tree with little hummingbirds surrounding it.
Near the wall to Lisa's right was a shelf. The lower rack of the shelf was filled completely with comics. Above that were some prank items from Zonkos and records from various wizarding artists. On the third shelf ranged all kinds of knick-knacks from hair ties and clips to random muggle stuff that she had found as a toddler and hadn't bothered to clear out afterwards to the gramophone on which she played music. Right beside that was a desk which she rarely ever used. It was now just covered with clothes which she had been too lazy to put back in their places.
On the third wall was the door from which she had entered. Beside that were pictures and posters that she hung much like on the outside of her bedroom door. A guitar and her broom lay in the corner leaning against a trunk in which her other quidditch equipment lay.
On the last wall was a door nearing the bathroom door which led to a walk-in closet. A gold shimmery fabric covered a section of the wall through which the small jets of the noon sunlight filtered into the room.
Lisa walked towards those curtains and pulled them apart. She grinned looking at her favourite part of the room.
A bay window was in front of her. It's surface had a thin mattress, pillows (loads of them) in all colours and a thin blanket on it.
That wasn't the best part though. A huge twisty tree was right outside her window, it's extensive leafy canopy sheltering her view from the scene ahead. Small coatings of snow covered the leaves outside which had been charmed by her father to be in its green and blooming state despite the weather. Through cracks which had formed in the wall around the window, vines and branches had poked into the room, clinging to the walls forming the image of an intricate spider's web.
Lisa pushed the window up and poked her hand out slightly feeling the cold breeze which couldn't enter the room, again courtesy to her father. She placed her hand over a branch of the tree feeling its rough bark. The branch extended forward towards the main trunk as if forming a path for her to follow. She often did climb out, imagining herself walking through a portal into another dimension.
Not that she would do it now. It was too cold. And she hated the cold.
She pulled back from the window remembering that she had to clean up and change.
She headed into her closet in which the house elves had placed her trunk and changed into something more comfortable, just in time too as her mother called her downstairs right at that moment.
Lisa headed down to the ground floor, skipping every alternate stair on the way.
A man stood in the centre of the room, his back faced to her, talking to James who had arrived just a few moments before her.
A wide smile crossed the girl's face upon spotting the man.
She bounded down the remaining stairs and ran up to him, wrapping her arms around from the back with so much force that he stumbled forward a bit.
"DAD!" she exclaimed.
When he had regained his balance, her father shifted slightly in her grip so he could face her and patted her softly on her head.
"Hello Lisa," he said, "How about we head towards the lunch? Euphemia must be waiting."
Lisa pulled away with a frown and her father headed towards the table, James following, but not before sending a scowl in her direction.
She ignored that, instead focusing on her dad's words.
Did he call her... Lisa?
He never called her Lisa, unless they were in public. He always called her kiddo. Or occasionally princess. Heck, he even called her Potter jr. more than he called her Lisa.
And now that she thought about it, was it just her or did her father leave her pretty abruptly?
The moment she had pulled away from the hug, he had walked towards the dinner table. Forget talking, he didn't even look at her. All he did was awkwardly pat her on the head. Once.
Even the house elves had been friendlier than this.
Lisa shook off those thoughts.
She was reading too much into this. She has been living at Hogwarts for about 3 months by this point, that was the longest she had been away from her home, her parents. That was probably why everything felt so weird.
Yeah, that's what it is.
"Lisa," her mom called out as she walked out the kitchen, floating delicacies by her side.
"Huh- yeah coming," Lisa said, snapping out of her thoughts.
She walked towards the table and took a seat just as her mom started laying down the food, neither of the male Potters sparing her a glance.
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