Chapter II: Er…

"This is impossible, we can't have arrived" James said.

"Why not? What time is it?" Peter asked.

"We left King's Cross Station only two hours ago. Something must've
happened. I'll go and ask, I'm Head Boy and I've got the right to know, don't you think so, Sirius?"

"Out of my sight."

James smiled and went out of the compartment, he really wanted to know
what was going on. He had always thought he was the centre of the world and it was everyone else's duty to treat him as if he was king.

He walked along the train's corridor for five minutes and then he saw what was happening, well, he imagined what it because the crowd was blocking the way.

"MOVE AWAY!! I'M HEAD BOY!!!!!" James barked. The crowd parted and then he saw the Slytherin gang, leaded by Lucius Malfoy, beating up somebody.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, MALFOY??"

"None of your business, Potter" Severus Snape snapped.

"NO ONE ASKED YOU TO TALK. GO AND SELL YOUR GREASE TO THE OIL INDUSTRY, YOU'D BECOME RICH AND YOU'D DO ME A FAVOUR" James bellowed. That did shut Snape up.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Potty is Head Boy? Oh, good on you! I knew you had it in you, Potheaded!" said Lucius Malfoy in a sweet but fake way.

"Bet you'd like to be where I am. All the teachers would love you and you actually get loads, no, tons of girls-"

"Oh, yes Potter, I'm green with envy. I would really like to be worshipped by teachers, who would ask for more?" said Malfoy ironically. "I would also love to be in your shoes because all the ugliness of this world has fell for you" Lucius spatted." Oh, get lost Potter, you know Hogwarts's girls are rubbish"

"That includes the only girlfriend you've had, in fact the only one who can stand you, Narcissa Black, doesn't it?"

"Go to hell, Potter" said Bellatrix Black, Narcissa's sister.

"Ladies first"

"Oh, let's get out of here" Snape said.

"Yeah, go but - " James fixed a pixie smile on his face, "don't forget to take with you the grease you've spreaded here, all over the place, Snivellus, I don't want to slip and break my neck and anyway the oil price's raising"

"You won't live enough to-"

"What, you're going to kill me, Snivellus? WOOOOOOO! I'm really scared, I think I've wet my pants."

With that, all the Slytherins left. James went to see the victims. There was a tiny lump on the floor that James supposed to be one person. He bended and realised the lump was just a first-year. She was a little red- head and had bruises a very nasty cut on her lower lip.

"Hey, you Ok?" James asked softly.

The red-head turned her face on him and hugged him tightly around the
waist. Her face did remind him to the one he was crazy for.

"Th-thank you, you saved me…"

James didn't know why, but he didn't pull the little girl apart. She was just demonstrating her gratitude and he felt well liked that. He didn't also know that another red head was watching him in a complete amazement. She didn't give him time to discover that she was there and she siddled into a near compartment staring at him incredously.

"Are you injured or something? If you are I can easily set a prankfest on Malfoy he'll never forget…" James said, making the girl smile. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Milla Skadi."

"Your name doesn't sound very English…"

"No, I come from Norway but moved here last year with my grandparents."

"How come?" But just as he finished the question he regretted it, Milla started crying. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"My-y pa-parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort"

"Oh, so sorry" James said truthfully and felt silent. "Were they Aurors?" he added as an afterthought.

"No, Death Eaters"

James backed away, terrified, what the heck was he doing comforting the daughter of two of Voldemort's followers?

"My parents were useless to their master, they were quite clumsy and used to ruin all his plans so he disposed of them. My grandparents decided to leave Norway because it was very dangerous to live there with the Death Eaters hanging around and because they were awfully ashamed of their son and daughter-in-law. They wanted me to grow up in a better place" Milla said, still shaken. She looked up at James's face and Knew that he thought that she would turn out to be as her parents. "I usually got beaten up because I thought the thing about blood purity is rubbish and I only cry because when somebody mentions to me the word parent I start thinking about the parents I never had."

James felt immediately ashamed of himself, how could he be so narrow- minded? Especially since one of his best friend was a werewolf and everybody in the magical community despised them and he knew that was not true? How could he be like that when another of his best friends had been brought up in a family who thought all hal-bloods and Muggle-borns didn't desrve to live and he ended up ruunning from his so-called home at the age of sixteen because he couldn't stand his family? "You turn out to be who you want to be, that your parents were in a way or another doesn't mean that you'll be like them" he thought.

"Well, I'm sorry, Milla, it's just that it's dark times we're facing and… um… er… well, you don't really know how trust. Anyway, I'm James Potter and -" Just then two figures appeared.

"James, I thought you were going to find out why did the train stop?" Remus said, watching Milla.

"Oh, guess I didn't. I just came down the corridor and found the Slytherin gang beating up this girl, Milla."

"They stink" said Sirius fiercely

"Yeah, well, we found out what happened, Amos Diggory and Mark Davies put on the engines a Niffler and it ruined the machinery, but I guess that'll be repaired any time now."

"Well, we didn't really find it out, did we Remus, someone did it for us more likely" said Sirius with a huge grin. "The Head Girl told us" Sirius added, grinning even more if that was possible.

"Wouldn't you like to know who she is, Prongs?" Remus said, a pixie smile on his face.

"Who?"

"Your angel love, darling, Lily Evans." Sirius and Remus chorused, singing. Had this been said, the redhead who was spying them blushed completely and closed behind her the compartment door.

"What was that?" James asked.

"No idea."

"It sounded like a door when it's being closed to me" Remus said.

"Guess it doesn't matter." Just then the train began to move at breakneck speed and they all fell with a loud thud to the ground.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Sirius wailed.

"What's wrong, are you injured?" Remus asked worriedly.

"My bum is, I'll have bruises, that's not fair, how will girls kiss it?"

James and Remus rolled their eyes and got up hoisting Milla to her feet but not helping bum-sored-Sirius. James dusted of his clothes and suddenly remember that there was somebody missing.

"Where's Pete?"

"Oh, the lazy dog didn't want to move his butt and stayed in our compartment"

"I think we should go with him" Remus said and headed off to the compartment followed by Sirius. James stayed to say goodbye to Milla and went after his friends. Milla went in the opposite direction.

As they reached the compartment, the found Peter sleping soundly and muttering things like "He'll pay for all of what he's done to me" and "he's as good as dead", but they thought he was dreaming about Lucius Malfoy and left him to it.

Meanwhile, in another compartment a seventeen year-old girl was talking to another girl of the same age. This girls' names were Lily Evans and Kristen Adams. Lily Evans was slim and petite, only 5'4, with fiery dark red hair and sparkling emerald eyes. On the whole, she was extremely beautiful. The other girl, Kristen Adams, was taller than Lily, with jet-black hair and also green eyes but mingled with grey. She had a hidden beauty, you had to look at her for a while to realize it, and then you would say that she was even more than Lily, though at first sight you wouldn't.

"… and he was there, letting the girl hug him, is that really swollen-head- James Potter?"

"That's weird, Lily. Maybe he's changed during the summer… Don't know." Kristen sighed. "What did you do this summer?"

"Oh! I enjoyed it a lot!!! Since we're now allowed to do magic out of school and my family, though Muggles, know about magic and stuff, I can perfom charms at home so I spent half of the summer frightening Petunia out of her wits…" Lily said as Kristen began to chuckle. Petunia Evans was Lily's elder sister and since Lily received the letter from Hogwarts, Petunia, who used to be Lily's best friend, turned on her and rebirthed he as 'Freak Thee Useless'. "Did I tell you she's engaged?"

"What?? Can anybody stand her?? Who's the stupid guy?" Kristed said amazed. She knew only too well Petunia and even though she didn't usually insult anyones's family, Petunia was an exception and as Lily didn't complain, she carried on with it.

The previous summer, Kristen met Lily and her family and Petunia was awful to them, all day trying to make them look like fool when someone came into the house so Kristen hated only too much Petunia. Even if she didn't look like it, Kristen was very proud, so was Lily and that's why the got on so well.

"Actually I wouldn't consider him as a 'guy' more lilkely a bull with a bushy moustache and a wig."

"Pitiful… Is he as dumb as Petunia?"

"Worse, I don't even know how he can stick two words together…"

"I'm sorry for you, Lils." Kristen checked her watch. "We should be arriving any time now."

"Let's change into our school robes, shall we?"

"OK"

They changed their robes silently and sat down again. Kristen peered trough the window and sighed. "It's getting dark… I'm sleepy"

"You're always sleepy, always, you should be called Sleeping Beauty instead of Kristen Adams."

"Ha, ha… Hey, I wanted to ask you, why aren't you in the Heads compartment?"

Lily blushed and began to stutter "I… er… well… er… um… er… I didn't… er… er… er… wanted to leave you alone" she finished.

"Fancy the word 'er', do you?"

"Er… yes."

"Wouldn't it be more likely that you didn't want to go there because of the Marauders?"

"No."

"Sure?"

"Completely"

"Oh, go on, live in self-denial. I know you fancy Peter"

"You stupid git, I don't!!"

"Maybe then James, does it ring a bell in your head?" Kristen said making Lily blush.

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Yeah, you do fancy Sirius, don't you?" Lily said grinning. It was now Kristen's turn to blush.

"Er… look, we're getting now to the station, let's go out" Kristen said not meeting Lily's eyes.

The train finally stopped and Lily followed Kristen out of the compartment, a triumphant smile on her face. As they descended the train they saw the horseless carriages and got into one sitting across of each other as they heard the gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, yelling "First-Years' com' over 'ere".

.Before the carriage began to move, however, four people climbed in (A/N: guess who?) and settled themselves at each of the girls sides. James ruffled his hair and asked "You don't mind us here, do you?"

"Of course not, Your Majesty, we're honoured, you don't have to ask if you're allowed, Royal Privileges" Lily said sacarstically. James rolled his eyes while Kristen stiffled a laugh.

Soon enough, the castle came into view and they left the carriages to step into the Great Hall.