A/N: Chapter two! Joy! Thank you those who "understand" Lily's horrid character :) Lol, after all, she isn't perfect! I wonder how in the world she's gonna fall for James. . . . I love writing because I have no idea what's going to happen :) It just . . .does. Ok, I'm rambling. On with the story! *exits with a bow*
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After the incident, the four others talked among themselves, ignoring Lily completely, who, at the time, was pouting in a corner. Daintily pouting, mind you. Her mother had always said it was a perfected art.
A long time passed, and Lily was getting more and more annoyed at the four boys she shared the compartment with. They could not just ignore her like this! It simply was not done! She was contemplating how to make them feel guilty – her mother always said guilt was the best weapon a woman could have – when a plump, smiling woman entered the compartment.
"Anything off the cart, dears?" she asked kindly.
The four immediately jumped up and made their picks. Remus grabbed Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans, Peter bought some Pumpkin Pasties, James purchased several Licorice Wands, and Sirius bought Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, and several other wonders from the woman. They all settled back down in their seats after having made their choices, still gibbering about whatever it was eleven-year old boys talked about.
Lily stood up with a sniff and stalked to the cart, which was quite an accomplishment, since she only had a couple feet to do so. Refusing to pick any of the things those repulsive, ill-mannered little twits had bought, she picked the one item they hadn't: Souma's Spinach Goop. The fat lady looked at her skeptically.
"Are you sure, dear? Usually children don't much like those . . ."
Lily's hands itched for Chocolate Frogs, but she drew herself up to her full height and said, as neutrally as possible, "Thank you, no. I prefer these," before sitting back down her seat. The woman shrugged and turned the cart around – magically, Lily supposed – to disappear through the door.
The insolent boy, James, looked up and caught sight of her purchase. He nudged the others and pointed, whispering in their ears. They all started laughing, softly, at first, then louder, until they were all stuffing fists in their mouth's to keep from exploding. James stood up with a grin and walked over to her, settling himself down in the seat beside her.
"So . . ." he said, with that stupid smile still plastered on his face, "You like those?"
Lily compressed her lips and gave him a flat look before answering curtly.
"Yes. I do."
"Well then. Why don't you eat one for me?"
Lily refrained from chewing her lip. She had not counted on this. The very last thing she wanted to do was eat the repulsive thing, but she couldn't very well tell James that. She was almost positive it was just the thing to bring a new round of laughter to the four.
"Very well, although I will let you know that I would have anyway, and that your prompting has nothing to do with it."
If anything, his absurd grin widened. Cursing her luck at having been stuck in this compartment, Lily opened her mouth and stuck a handful of goop into it.
It slid down her throat slowly, burning it all the way. Souma's Spinach Goop did that. Lily's eyes watered, and she fanned her mouth frantically with her hands. James seemed to be holding on to his laughter by a very thin thread.
Sirius, who hadn't done so well, handed James a flask of water while pounding on the seat and howling. Lily could not begin to imagine what the ignorant boy found funny! It was a serious situation!
James handed it to her.
"Here," he said, smiling innocently, "use this."
Lily, with one hand clutching her throat and the other holding on to her skirts in a death grip, snatched the bottle out of James' hand and gulped its contents down.
The pain stopped immediately, but another feeling replaced it. A feeling of pure bliss. Lily giggled dreamily and fluttered her eyelashes. James seemed to be laughing . . . She raised her had to try to slap him – he mother could say what she wanted, this was not going to stand! – and found it was stuck to the seat where she had put it.
She looked at her body. It appeared normal, but . . . peering closer at it, she noticed it was covered in a clear goo. Sirius threw a muggle pencil at her. It stuck. The group erupted into new fits of laughter. Lily writhed inside, understanding what had happened, but was unable to move an inch; she was stuck fast to the seat.
James staggered back over to his friends, clutching his side and still laughing hysterically. His three friends clapped him on the back and exclaimed over how great he had been and how stupid Lily had. At this, Lily flashed them an indignant stare, which they ignored totally.
Soon enough, the boys resumed their talking, only paying attention to Lily now and then to throw something at her. Each object that was caught in the glue-like substance heightened Lily's anger. By the time the train neared the end of its trip, she was infuriated. Grinding her teeth – trying to – she planned silently how to make them pay. First they could be covered in glue. Oh, yes. Lots and lots of glue. She could cloak them in feathers. And stuff Souma's Spinach Goo down their miserable little throats! She would humiliate them until they thought twice about walking into a room with even one person in it! She would . . .
Lily's hands raised and clenched in a fist. Surprised, she looked at it, then observed the rest of her body. It was clean. Blessedly, blessedly clean! A rather large pile of dust and random little objects lay in a pile around her, where they had finally fallen off. The four were grinning at her. Sticking out her tongue, she stood and walked to a corner of the room and tugged on her robes over top her dress. The result was a very odd-looking, puffed-out robe, which did not work at all. Sighing in exasperation, Lily pulled off all her petticoats and piled them up at her feet.
She smoothed out her robes. Much better.
"We are about five minutes from Hogwarts. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken care of," a droning voice announced.
Lily bent down to pick up her petticoats . . . and found they were not there. She looked over to the four boys. Sirius and James were putting them on their heads, fluttering their eyelashes and making cooing noises, while Remus and Peter laughed loudly.
Lily could almost feel the anger bulging inside her, pleading to get out. She stalked over to the boys and crossed her arms. They looked insolently at her, then continued "playing." Calm. Lily took a deep breath, and asked them, in a calm voice,
"Give me back my petticoats, you insufferable twits!" Well, maybe not that calm.
James turned to her. The other three quieted down, though Sirius was still making soft "Oh, my!" sounds in the background.
"Oh, yeah, Evans?" James sneered, standing only slightly higher then her. "What are you going to do, take them from us?"
Lily pursed her lips. Calm.
"Perhaps."
"Well. Go ahead then! Take them!" James said, smiling almost cruelly.
Lily lunged at the petticoats, grasping for them, and fell flat on her face when James neatly stepped away from her hand.
She stood up quickly, furious. The three others were laughing! Did they never stop?
"Well, Evans! Seems you won't get your petties after all!" James said mockingly.
That was it. Lily couldn't take it anymore. Using all her strength, she pulled her arms back and punched James squarely in the eye.
He staggered back, clutching his face, and was caught by his three companions behind him. He took his fingers off for a second, revealing a rapidly growing purple lump surrounding his eye.
"You little . . ." he moved his hands as though to pull out his wand, but Remus held his wrist.
"James!" he said urgently. "Forget it! It really doesn't matter."
James shot Lily a murderous look that could have withered flowers, but turned away nonetheless.
Lily massaged her fingers. She never realized how much that hurt! She looked at James angrily, then spun on her heel for good measure. Not that they were paying attention to her anyway!
The train came to screeching stop, knocking Lily down into her seat. She supposed they had arrived. Standing up and smoothing out her robes, she stepped through the door and walked quickly so as to outdistance the boys. She was not afraid of them; of course not! She simply . . . did not want to be near them. Yes, that was it.
She stepped out into the cool night air and shivered, wondering where to go next. A large shaggy head towered above the crowd, yelling.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"
She walked towards it, threading her way through the crowd with soft "excuse me"'s. She finally reached the big man, who already had several wide-eyed children clustering about him. Lily dearly hoped she did not look half as pathetic as they.
Soon, it seemed that a goodly number of kids had arrived, and no more were coming. The odd man looked satisfied, and waved for the children to follow him.
They went down a rather slippery path – Lily had to catch herself on braches twice; most unladylike – with Hagrid – she thought that was his name – leading them. Soon, they rounded a corner and saw their first sight of Hogwarts.
Lily was amazed. The amazing castle that stood in front of her, off in the distance, was gigantic, with turrets and towers, and windows sparkling dimly from the stars in the cool night sky.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called.
Lily saw what she was pointing to, a small fleet of tiny boats, and immediately stepped over to settle herself in. She was joined, soon enough, by three others.
One had a very round face, brown hair, and extremely white teeth, which she flashed every two seconds in a smile. The second was average-looking, with a slightly turned-up nose, and flat, lifeless brown hair. The third was pointy-faced, glaring, twig of a girl, who seemed to have something disagreeable in her mouth.
Lily ignored them, since they made no move to talk to her, and instead looked wonderingly at the castle, which loomed large overhead.
"FORWARD!" Hagrid roared.
The small vessels moved at once, gliding across the still lake like swans. Lily sighed blissfully at the beauty around her. She very much would like to live in a place like this.
The boats moved silently, and even the few measured whispers seemed out of place. It was a time for quiet.
Finally, they reached some large stone steps after a patch of green grass, which they clambered out of the boats on. Hagrid raised a fist like a ham and knocked three times on the large wooden door.
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A/N: The rivalry begins . . .mwahaha. This should be interesting! I can't wait to see what happens in the next chapter, can't you? What's that? No? Well fine! Will you review anyway? Please?