Lily was sitting next to james on the hogwarts express, heading back to kings cross station. It made her sad to be leaving all the people around her, even if it was for just a summer. Remus and peter were in the middle of a game of wizard's chess. Remus was obviously going easy on peter. Sirius, lily, and james were just talking about their year and the ups and downs of it all. Lily had tried to ask them about their exam results but they had simply booed her until she held up her hands in defeat and moved on to another subject.
"So," lily asked "last i heard you and hestia were still together?"
"Oh yeah.." sirius scratched the back of his head "we are, actually, the opposite of together. We broke up yesterday." lily rolled her eyes. She hadn't expected them to last, not in the least, but part of her still felt bad for hestia. Hestia also knew there was no hope for her to be in a lasting relationship with sirius black, but she had a crush on him for so long lily could hardly blame her for going out with him.
"So, red," siruis began, calling lily by the astoundingly clever nickname he had given her "what are your plans for the summer?"
"Not much." she admitted. Her summers were usually pretty boring "i'll probably just sit around the house. Maybe i'll do some reading." james and sirius groaned but remus asked
"What books?"
"The bell jar, maybe to kill a mockingbird." remus nodded
"I read that one last year, it was pretty good." sirius groaned loudly "nothing interesting planned? Nothing at all?"
"Well, i hear my lovely sister has a boyfriend. Can't wait to meet him." she said, her words dripping with sarcasm "I have no idea who would be boring enough to go out with tun- petunia. I guess i'll see."
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" came the call of the elderly woman pushing the cart "anything from the trolley?" she stopped in front of their compartment. Lily stood.
"four pumpkin pastries and a sugar quill, please." she pulled a couple sickles from her pocket and handed to the woman, who continued walking through the train car. "Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked at the next compartment as lily reclaimed her seat next to james. She unwrapped her own sugar quill, before tossing a pumpkin pastry to each of the marauders.
"You know," sirius teased "i really prefer licorice wands." he frowned
"Feel free to give it back then." lily replied, sticking out her hand
"No, it's fine." sirius scrambled to unwrap it and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth "see?" he said, barely audible through the pastry. Lily just shook her head.
"Checkmate!" exclaimed peter happily "i beat you, moony!"
"Hate to break it to you," remus said quietly "but there's a pawn in your way. Your bishop can't actually get to my king."
"Aw, me." peter grumbled. James laughed
"What did you just say, peter?"
"Well," peter turned red "you know. Instead of saying aw rats because," he gave a cautious look to lily "you know." lily pretended not to know what he was talking about, even though she had known the marauders were animagi for pretty much the entire year. She had figured out that remus was a werewolf in third year. It was quite sweet, really, that they became animagi so they could be with him on the full moon. although she would never tell them that.
"Checkmate." remus said with a grin at peter and peter groaned loudly.
The rest of the trip passed much too quickly. Lily wished it would slow down. She didn't want to be apart from them for the whole summer. She would miss all of them. Sirius's teasing, the way james absentmindedly played with her hair, peter's snorting laugh, and the way remus managed to keep them under control, pulling antics of his own when you least suspected him. Lily smiled sadly. Before she knew it the train slowed to a stop. Lily looked out the compartment's window at the station buzzing around them. She collected her trunk and filed off with the other marauders. They said their goodbyes when they got off the train. Lily gave each of them a long hug. When she hugged james she held on longer than she did with the other three.
"I don't want to be apart from you for two whole months." she admitted right before she let go
"Ah, yes, won't you miss my compelling personality and beautiful smile." he winked at her and lily refused to tell him that was exactly what she would miss about him.
"See you in two months, love." he said quietly and leaned down, planting a surprisingly sweet kiss on her lips.
"See you in two months." she agreed when they broke apart and left to find her parents. She spared one last look behind her at the boy she had hated until this year. How things had changed and, Merlin, how she would miss him.
