*** The Marauder Chronicles is a fan fiction. It isn' to be sold, reproduced or taken as true. The main characters and most locations belong to J.K. Rowling, as do all
publishing rights. No copyright infringement is intended.***
Part Nine: Reflections and Deceptions
"What one sees is not thyself, but a representation of the physical, forgetting the inner dimensions of the soul."
Sirius Black, tall, dark and hansom as he was, enjoyed many a thing. Girls, Quidditch, girls, picking on Snape, and girls, were just a few things that he was crazy about. But one thing he valued not listed above, was sleep. Sirius could probably sleep through earthquakes, fires, huge explosions, and his mother yelling at him from down stairs. The sleeping was what he was looking forward too the most during the holidays. He wasn't to go anywhere, see anyone, or have an pressing engagements for two whole weeks. He wasn't going to wake up till the morning time had reached two digits, and he was grateful.
Such as it was on the first Saturday of his vacation. Asleep, upstairs in his large bedroom, where he heard nothing, saw nothing, and felt nothing but the warm blankets piled thickly on top of him. He just turned over on his right side, and sighed.
Then there was a small irritating noise. "Rap, rap, rap," on his window. Probably a bird, he thought, it'll go away soon enough. "Rap, rap, rap," again on his window. Sirius, who could sleep through anything loud, couldn't sleep through small rhythmic noises. He put the pillow on top of his head, but then he waited to hear the rapping again. "Rap, rap, rap," and there it was, he could relax til it started again. The sound was muffled, but could still be heard through the pillow.
This was just too much. Sirius, pulled the pillow off his head, and looked at the time, it was 6 in the morning. "Rap, rap, rap," again! That was it. Sirius sat up suddenly, got out of his bed, and walked to his window, wearing only old shorts, and a tank top. He looked up at the window, and dropped his jaw.
"Sirius, let me in!" came James's muffled voice through the window. He was standing in a tree, fully dressed and fully awake, acting as though it were midday. "Sirius!" James said again, "It's cold out here, let me in."
Reluctantly, Sirius opened the window, and let James jump in. It was snowing outside, Sirius noted, for James was covered in powdery white flakes.
"James," Sirius said, trying to sound calm, "what the hell are you doing?"
James looked back at Sirius as if he was an idiot, asking a very obvious question. "Seeing you, of course. It's morning, we have lots to do, you know."
Sirius put his hand on his eyes, frustrated with his best friend.
"Do you know what time it is, James?" he asked with a sour tone.
"Yes, it's six o'clock. Time to rise and shine."
"No, James, that's not right. Look outside and tell me if you can see the sun," Sirius said, pointing out of his window.
"So you're going to waste vacation sleeping?"
"God, isn't even up yet. God, James, he doesn't get up for a few more hours. I need my beauty sleep! You need to go back to your own house, and let me be! For the love of GOD!"
"Somebody's grumpy," James said smirking, "are you alright?"
Sirius almost lost it. If he didn't consider James to be his brother, he would have thrown him out the window. Was he acting stupid on purpose?
"James," Sirius said, trying to be calm, "I'm only going to say this once. Go home."
"Why?"
"So I won't hurt you, possibly by chucking you into the snow from the second story!"
"It's evening in Bermuda right now," James said, as if he didn't hear what Sirius had just said to him.
"Is that what this is all about? Does Lily know you obsess over her like this? Is this what I have to look forward too all summer? She's only gone for two weeks. Two weeks! That's nothing, nothing at all. It'll fly by, it always does. You weren't like this last Christmas, you know."
"I know," James said solemnly.
He does look rather pathetic, Sirius thought to himself. He sighed, walked forward, and put his hands on James shoulders.
"This is what, I'm going to do for you," he said, looking at him. "At eight, that's two hours from now, lover boy, you can come back over, and we'll start researching that spell to jinx the girls bathroom. Alright? Can you make it two hours? Will you live that long for me?"
James smiled, "Yeah," he said quietly.
"Good, now get our of here!" Sirius said with a grin. James laughed and went to Sirius door, as he opened it, he turned back.
"Thanks a lot. You're the greatest friend in the world, Sirius."
"And you're the greatest fruitcake in the world," he replied jovially, as he laid back on his bed. "I'll see you in two hours, Prongs. No earlier, or I'll kill you."
James closed the door behind him, and walked down the stairs, into the main living room, for the entry way, and out into the falling snow.
There wasn't a more welcome place, than Godric's Hollow. The houses all looked different from one another, the snow laid like a white blanket on the roof tops. The sun was starting to rise now, giving the sky a light shade of pink. Everything looked so quite and still, so peaceful and at ease. Red Cardinals accented the beautiful scene, by hopping through the snow covered lawns.
James walked back to his house, the snow crunching under him. As he reached for the handle on the great front door, he heard his mother's laughter. Dad must have told a joke, he thought. He opened the door and walked inside. Getting a bit hungry he headed for the kitchen, only his parents were there, and didn't notice that he had entered.
They were rather involved at the moment, Byron was kissing Samantha quite enthusiastically, the kind of kiss James and Lily often engaged in, but James would rather not see his parents doing it. He looked away rather quickly, but could still hear the sound effects.
"I'm back," he said, irritation noted in his voice.
Byron and Samantha both pulled apart, and looked at their son's back.
"James," his mother said, as if she was just saying good morning, "we thought you went to Sirius's for breakfast."
James turned around, just in time to see his mother wiping her lips. He could have vomited.
"Yeah, well. Sirius thought it was a bit early for talking, so I came back," he replied, but he decided to press the matter. "You two have nine months out of the year, when I'm not here. But you have to pick now to start doing....to start doing....that?"
"Holiday cheer, James," Byron said warmly. Samantha giggled, and hugged her husband, who kissed the top of her head, which made her giggle even more.
"I'm out of here," James said, and he wheeled around, and headed back for Sirius's.
He never knocked on the door, he just entered, went back upstairs, opened Sirius's door very silently, and entered. Not to his surprise, Sirius was asleep. So, having slept here before, when he was just a small child, however, he went over to the corner and laid on what was once his bed. Sirius had one in his house as well.
He lay there for a while, thinking of what lay ahead of him, what would his life be like after Hogwarts. Would things ever be the same?
Sirius began to snore.
James turned to look at him from across the room. His mouth was open wide, so much that James could see his back teeth. His head was at an awkward position, and his hair was standing on end. James couldn't figure out how he slept like that.
He couldn't help but think of Lily as he lay there. What was she doing now, was she thinking of him?
The snoring was starting to get to him.
"That's it," he said to himself. He got up, and looked at the clock, it was 6:15. He couldn't wake him for at least another hour and 45 minutes. He went to the door and left the room, heading down stairs. It sounded as though Jen was up, making noise in the kitchen.
He decided to go and say hello. Their house was decorated beautifully. A large evergreen stood in the living room corner, dawned with thick gold ribbons, and lit candles. Soft colored fairy lights sparkled along the walls, and the smell of pies was in the air.
Jen was in the kitchen, preparing to cook, it looked like. She turned from the oven, and spotted James, who smiled at her.
"Hello, James. What are you doing here so early?" She smiled as she asked. She was a very pretty woman, tall and lean, with medium length warm brown hair, and soft brown eyes.
"I was just going to hang out with Sirius, but he's snoring right now," he replied, taking a seat at the kitchen counter.
"Sirius said he won't rise till it's ten or so," she said, "He can be quite lazy when he wants to." She took out a wand, and started to swirl it around in a bowl, which filled with thick dark chocolate. "So I hear there's a young lady in your life now," she turned up and smiled at him. "I'm glad that you got what you wanted. It's about time."
"That's what Sirius said."
"I remember when you were younger, you used to talk about her all the time. You had the biggest thing for her, I thought it was the sweetest thing on earth. When your mother and father got the notice about the bathroom scene, neither one of them once got angry about it."
"No? What did you all do?"
"Byron was so happy for you. Sam just cried for a while, started to say she was losing you, that you were growing up. It didn't occur to her before, I guess."
"I'm glad they didn't blow up."
"Aren't they expecting you to be home, dear?"
"Well," James began uncomfortably, "When I went into the kitchen, they were a little-um....preoccupied."
Mrs. Black seemed to understand, she smiled brightly. At the same moment, a tall, very hansom man, came down the stairs, entered the kitchen, put his arms around Jens waist and kissed her neck. She giggled, and turned to him and kissed him back.
James got up, and started to walk out of the room.
"Hello, son," The man called out to James. He turned around, smiled weakly, and said, "Hello, Mitch."
Still holding his wife tightly, he started to talk to him. "What brings you here so early?"
Clearly, his parents weren't the only ones affected by the Christmas season. "I was just dropping by, you know. Sirius is still asleep. I was just leaving, though--"
"Do you want me to wake him for you? He doesn't need to sleep all day," Mitch said.
"No that's alright, I'll be back in a couple of hours. Nice seeing you again," he said, smiling and waving as he made his way for the door.
"Nice seeing you too, James."
Eight O'clock didn't come for what seemed like an eternity. James walked quickly up the stairs to his room, and closed the door behind him. He went over to his desk, pulled out plenty of parchment, an ink well, and a quill and began his first letter to Lily.
He told her everything he was thinking, which was mostly about her. That he had never been happier than the times she was with him, all the romantic stuff that she would like to hear, that he liked to write and felt. After he wrote three pages, he thought it was better to just call it quits and try to stay in his world, instead of dream of hers.
At eight, Sirius came bursting into his room, with the Daily Prophet in his hand, swinging it about.
"James," he said rushed, "have you seen the news?"
"No," he returned, adjusting his seat so that he could look at him.
Sirius came over to him, and threw the paper on his desk. He pointed at the headline, which read:
You-know-who kills the McKinnons
James just looked at the paper for a short while, stunned. It was well known that the McKinnons were one of the finest wizarding families in the world, behind them some very serious magical talent. The fact that Voldemort could kill such a powerful family with such ease, sent a chill up his spine.
"It happened just last night," Sirius said solemnly, with a note of sincerity. "The entire family, wiped out. Just like that."
"Why?" James asked, still looking at the paper. He had met the McKinnons, they were a very nice family, everyone seemed to like them. They had a son, just about his age, and a young daughter, younger than he was. All four of them were dead. Found, according to the paper, in different rooms.
"Resisted, we think," Sirius said, taking a seat, "But no one knows for sure at the moment. It's bound to come out eventually though, it always does. This makes two families his killed, and that's only been this year. He killed the Bones' back in September."
"What a monster," he mumbled.
"He's unstoppable. He'll kill anyone that stands in his way, and it doesn't bother him."
"What is he trying to do? Why is he killing all of them?"
"World domination," Sirius suggested, looking at James. "Searching for something only great wizards dream of: immortality. And at this rate, he's going to get it. No one can stop him."
James looked up at Sirius, took his glasses off, and rubbed his nose pensively.
"I refuse to believe that," James said, putting his glasses back on his face. "There is always someone better out there. One can never be the best. And neither can he. One day, one day Sirius, someone will defeat him."
"I hope you're right," he said, "I hope your right."
* * * * *
Once the initial shock of Voldemort's killings had worn off, which was days later, Sirius and James had begun operation mirror hex. They also notified Hogwarts that they would be returning a few days earlier than every one else, just because.
As requested, Remus joined them for a couple of days to aid in the pranking.
"First things first," James said to them, all seated in his living room, "We need to hex all of the girls mirrors, in all bathrooms, this is going to be very tricky, we need lots of back up and planning."
"I agree, we're gonna need Peter playing clueless, and probably one girl saying there's nothing wrong with the mirrors, to keep it going longer," Sirius said.
"Excellent, Sirius, but who can we use. Lily can't keep a strait face."
"Jade can," Sirius said with a grin. "She's the one who helped me with setting up the History of Magic class for you and Lily."
"Send an owl to her," James said convinced of her talent and poise. "Remus and I are going to look in Dad's study, see what kind of hexes he has listed."
Sirius rose from his seat, and went up to James's room. Inside were tons of pictures of Lily.
"It's like I've entered her shrine," he said to himself, as he looked at all the pictures smiling at him. He went to the corner of the room, and pulled out some parchment and quill from James's desk. He began writing.
Dear Jade,
Hope your Christmas was good, and are enjoying the holidays. Over here, James, Remus and I are all concocting a great plan, and we need your assistance. I remember how well you did when you and I were trying to set up our friends, and how you never let Lily know. I need you to do the same here. Don't tell anyone that we are planning something. It's very important that we keep this to ourselves. If your connected to the Floo network, come over as soon as you can. You can pop over to my house or James, either way you should be able to find us. If not, send an owl.
Sirius
He finished the letter, secured it to James's Great Horned Owl, "Nimbus" and sent him out to find Jade. He smiled as he watched Nimbus fly westward, and wondered when Jade would get it and if she would come right away.
He headed back down stairs and into the study to find James, Remus and Byron Potter all looking up spells and hexes in his books.
Byron looked up as Sirius entered. "We think we found something," he said, quite enthusiastically. Byron, got up and showed Sirius. It looked like a simple spell at first, just mumble a few words and bam, you have a jinxed mirror, but Byron said there was a bit more too it.
"You have to concentrate quite hard, and have a lot of experience with deception charms. I'm afraid they don't teach that till seventh year. Luckily, I remember some," he said, winking at the three of them.
Byron is what you would call a goofy kinda guy. Everyone loved him, he was funny, smart, and sometimes acted like an eleven year old, glad to be in the action again. When James had told him the plan, he simply lit up with excitement.
"We can practice this on your mother," he said to James, "and if that works, go across the street and get their reactions."
"Yeah," James said smiling.
The four of them all got up, and went to the family bathroom, which had quite a large mirror. Byron thought it best to show the boys how it was done before they started waving their wands in the house.
"Okay, so you point it at the mirror, concentrate and mumble, not say, mumble: Sonhoruem, miskus, mafe. Fracturus, bodus, face." After he uttered the words, their images in the mirror changed. For a while none of them noticed anything, but then Sirius spoke.
"Oh my," he said, moving for the mirror, "Is my nose really that big?"
"Dad, it didn't work," James said. He tried not to smile.
Sirius whirled around and frowned at James. James laughed loud and long at his facial expression.
That afternoon, Jade arrived through the fire place in the Potter's living room. She looked very pretty, even with all of the soot covering her.
"I got here as soon as I could, Sirius," she said smiling at him, as she dusted herself off. "What are the three of you up too, this time?"
"I want to show you," Sirius said, and he took her hand and led her into the bathroom. James and Remus were still there, practicing on some other mirrors.
"Now, stand in front of it," Sirius instructed. James and Remus stopped to see her reaction.
Jade turned to look in the mirror, her hand still clutching Sirius's. She started for a while, then frowned.
"What happened to my eyes? There are dark circles around them. I look....ugly."
"You sure do!" Sirius said excitedly. Jade yanked her hand out of his, and faced him with rage.
"Are you saying I'm ugly? And you wanted my help, you ungrateful--"
"Jade!" James interrupted. "That's the joke. The mirror makes you look different, in a bad way. You don't really look like that, get it?"
She looked in the mirror again, and stepped forward, to get a better look. Then she smiled at it's simplicity. The three boys smiled back at her.
"So will you help us?"
As planned, the three boys made back to school earlier than the rest. They informed Peter, but he couldn't get away from his family. Jade also came along, going over the game plan repeatedly. She was very much involved in the prank, and was loving every minute of it.
Once off the train, the four of them traversed through the snow, back up to the castle and into the Gryffindor Common room. There were several people back; this was unexpected, but plans had been prepared.
James and Sirius were to go into the girls bathrooms, one by one. Jade would play look out, making sure no one was to go in. Remus and Peter, once he arrived, would be the show. Everything was rehearsed and planned perfectly. They just needed Peter.
Peter arrived three days later, apologizing the entire time.
"I am so sorry," he kept saying, "I tried to get away sooner, but they wouldn't let me."
"Don't worry about it, Peter, just do your job, and follow Moony's lead," James said to him.
It was Friday, most people would be back the next morning, including Lily, so everything had to be done today.
In the middle of the afternoon, Remus and Peter came into the common room, arguing. James and Sirius watched from over head on the stair well.
"Peter! How can you be so stupid and clumsy?!" Remus began. People started to watch.
"I said I'm sorry! It wasn't my fault, I--"
"It was your fault you stupid git! I told not to follow me around like a puppy, and what did you do? You went and ruined everything! I could just kill you!" Remus then decided to take the cake, every one was watching, the word traveled quickly, and people were running out of the dorms, and the bathrooms.
"Take this, you...you....RAT!" Remus swung at him, and hit him in the gut, not hard, but Peter faked out, and dropped to the floor.
"OOOO, and Ahhhh's" came from the every growing audience in the Common room. Peter got up, and tried to hit Remus, but Remus hit him again, and he fell.
Jade ran into the girls bathroom, yelling, "Peter and Remus are fighting!" They all dropped their make up, hair brushes, and nail files, and ran down the common room. Jade came out quietly, and winked at James and Sirius.
James nodded, and he and Sirius went into the bathroom. Taking one mirror at a time, the mumbled "Sonhoruem, miskus, mafe. Fracturus, bodus, face" and watched their own image change ever so slightly. It took them no more than a couple of minutes to fix all the mirrors. Once they had checked them, James knocked on the bathroom door. A knocking came back, and they exited.
Jade smiled at them. They both ran down the stairs, making to break up the fight between Peter and Remus. Everyone looked quite entertained, indeed.
"Hey!" Sirius said, "Hey, stop this, you two!" James went and held Peter back, Sirius took Remus. Moony was having way too much fun, and decided to struggle against Sirius's tight grip.
"What's going on?" James asked.
No one said anything for a while, then Remus spoke.
"That ugly bastard!"
"What happened?" Sirius asked.
"Nothing," Remus shrugged, freeing himself from Sirius, "nothing, just leave me be. And keep this ugly prat out of my way!" he said, pointing at Peter and leaving the common room.
"Are you alright?" James asked Peter.
He nodded. Mission accomplished.
The other bathrooms were a bit more challenging. Slytherin would be the most difficult, so they decided to leave that one for last. They had to pull out some old fashioned tricks to get the ones in the corridors. Jade took some dungbombs and throw them in the stalls. Girls scrambled out of there as quick as the could. And the smell carried through the corridor, so there was no one there, except James and Sirius, who got in the bathrooms, and out as fast as possible, covering their noses with wet rags.
Now the other three common rooms were left. The Invisibity cloak was needed for these three jobs. The decided they would do Hufflepuff first.
Sirius spotted Hannah, a girl he had dated for a short while, and followed her into her common room, not being seen or heard. James and Sirius were perfect together; their movements in sync. They could read each other's minds, it was perfect.
Never having been inside Hufflepuff, they didn't know where anything was. So the just followed Hannah, and luckily she went in the bathroom.
James nodded to Sirius, who ripped off the dungbomb pin, opened the bathroom door, and tossed it in. Then the two of them leaned on the wall, and waited for the girls to poor out. And boy did they. In not more than thirty seconds, ten girls came running out of the bathroom, complaining that some one had too much rich food over Christmas. Seconds later, James and Sirius entered, preformed the incantation, and left, never being seen.
Ravenclaw was done in the exact same way, but Slytherin, that was a different story.
Back in their third year, Sirius and James had snuck into the Slytherin bathrooms and rigged all the toilets to back fire. The two were indicted for the crime, and since then the Slytherins had been very wary of their toilets, and wary of their two greatest enemies.
So roles were reversed. Because Remus had so much fun, and did a spectacular job, he was sent to pick a fight with James, just outside the Slytherin's Common room. Surely, all Slytherins would enjoy seeing James get the snot beat out of him, so the whole room would no doubt be vacated.
Noting that no teachers were to be found, Remus started down the cold corridor, looking miffed about something. James was walking the opposite direction, coming towards Remus, also looking upset. And then it happened, the two met.
James shoved Remus into the damp wall that covered the Slytherin door. He made a loud "THUD" as he hit the wall. It was very hard for the two of them to keep a strait face.
Remus swung back at James, and pushed him on the damp wall, making another loud, "Thud" James was trying to think of what to argue about, if anyone asked. He went to hit Lupin hard in the stomach, and he connected as Remus went backwards into a curious Slytherin fourth year.
"You stupid GIT!" James yelled at Remus when he knew that now there was an audience.
The Slytherin turned around and yelled, "FIGHT!" And in no time at all, the Slytherin house was cleared, and had made a huge circle around James and Remus. The two of them had practiced fighting, so that they didn't hurt each other too bad, but they both agreed that a little pain would bring them great enjoyment in the end.
James swung at Remus' head, but he ducked, and pummeled him in the gut. It hurt like hell, and James doubled back, holding his stomach.
Slytherins loved this, and starting cheering, "Lupin! Lupin!" and "Kick him, get him, Lupin."
James got back up, and ran for Remus, biting his lip as not to laugh. He rammed Remus into the opposite wall, and punched him repeatedly in the gut. The crowd hated this, but the movement from one side of the corridor to the other was necessary.
Sirius, who had been standing alone in the cloak just 20 feet or so from the large crowd, slid past the group and entered the still open door to the common room. It looked completely empty. Sirius slinked down the stairs into the girls bathrooms, and noted that it was empty, just like the rest of it. Quickly, yet quietly he preformed the jinx on all mirrors, and he left. But wouldn't it be fun to do the same to the guys?
So he went across the way and entered the boys' bathroom. There was just one problem, Snape was in there.
Snape looked to see who had opened the door, and thought it very peculiar that there was no one in the room with him. Slowly, Sirius moved to the side of the door, not moving a single thing. He stopped breathing, Snape came to the door, and opened it.
"Severus!" A young Slytherin said, "Potter and Lupin are fighting just outside!"
As if Christmas had come twice this year, Snape smiled and ran out of the bathroom.
Breathing again, Sirius ran to all the mirrors, and jinxed them, then got out of the bathroom, through the open common room door, and passed the large gaggle of Slytherins, cheering the fight.
James made a connection with Remus' jaw, and sent him back a few feet. Remus charged James and punched him in the nose. James came back at him, and flipped him on his back, landing on the floor much to hard. Remus showed pain, but James could not relent.
Sirius, having stuffed the cloak in his black cloak pocket, came running over to them, shoving his way through.
"Get out of my way! James, Remus! What the hell are you two doing!" He got to the middle and pulled James off of Remus, and held him back. James gave Remus an encouraging look, slight but definite. Remus got the hint, and punched him in the stomach.
The crowd went wild.
"That's enough!" Sirius yelled, while holding the two apart.
They really out did themselves, Sirius thought. James had a bloody lip and black eye starting, Remus had a nose bleed and a swollen jaw.
"What got into the two of you?" Sirius asked sincerely. They weren't supposed to kill each other. "Well?" he asked again.
James and Remus both looked at Sirius. He could tell it was hard for them not to burst out laughing.
"Let's get out of here before a teacher comes, shall we?" and taking the two by the collars of their shirts, he escorted them out of the crowd, and down the corridor.
"My goodness. Am I going to have to keep you two separated?" he asked sarcastically, once out of earshot of the Slytherins.
James smiled. Once they rounded the corner, the three of them ran all the way back to Gryffindor tower, laughing their heads off.
"They really hate you, James!" Remus said, as the came to the portrait of the fat lady.
"I'll say they do. Did you hear the way they were cheering you? Like you were some kind of Greek hero or something."
"You both did excellent," Sirius said, "You'd think you really wanted blood, with the way you two were going at it."
"A real stress reliever, I'm telling you," James said. Remus nodded and smiled. Still they hadn't entered the tower.
"Sirius, go in, why are we waiting here?" James asked.
"Um..." Sirius started, "What are we gonna tell them? I mean, about you two?" he asked, pointing to the portrait.
"Uh..." Remus started. "That's a mighty good question."
"Yeah..." James agreed. "Maybe we should clean up first."
"Good idea, where?" Remus asked.
"Myrtle's Bathroom, right James? Isn't that where you go to get care?"
"Ha ha ha," James replied unenthusiastically. "Actually I think that's a good idea, Remus, let's go."
After cleaning all the blood off, and working magic to lessen the swelling, James and Remus looked almost normal. But not normal enough to pull it off. Certainly the entire school would learn of the fights, so now they had to think of why. After much debate, they decided that it had to be an event that occurred over Christmas, but what they didn't know.
Both of them had steady girl friends, so they couldn't really use jealousy. So insults were all they had left. The exchanged words over the holiday, and today, James insulted Remus's mother, and visa versa. It seemed like a good plan.
Of course, as they suspected, people had heard the rumor. So, in accord to their friendship, the two made up in front of all Gryffindor's present, shook hands and smiled
at each other.
The next morning, Lily was expected to arrive, and James couldn't have been more pleased. He spruced himself up, tried combing his hair, picking out the right shirt, with the help of Sirius of course, and conjuring a bouquet of flowers for her. He almost ran down to Hogsmeade station, and was glad to see that the train had not yet arrived.
"Hiya, James!" shouted some very pleased young first years, all waving enthusiastically at their Quidditch idol.
He, of course, waved back, and smiled. Just then the Hogwarts express rolled into the station. James looked around to see who else was waiting, and to his dismay, he saw Snape, who was looking daggers at him.
James did a backward nod, or don, to him and smiled insincerely. Snape just turned away.
When the train came to a stop, half the students of the school poured out of the train. James jumped up on a bench and started scouring the mass of people for a short red head. And then she came out of one of the end compartments, looking very pink indeed.
He got off the bench, parted the crowd and ran to see her. Once she saw him, she smiled and ran to him, like a scene in a romance movie. She jumped into his outstretched arms and held him tight.
"God I missed you," he said to her.
"So did I," she said, pulling away and looking at him. "I got sun burned. I should have expected that."
"Did you have a good time, at least?" James asked, hoping she would kiss him soon.
"Mostly....no" she rolled her eyes, and put her arm around his waste and started back for the castle. "My parents yelled at me for putting a hex on Petunia, but I could've swore she spit in my drink!" she said defensively.
James tried to say something, but she continued on. "And she brought her boyfriend, the joke that he was, even though we were told it was a family trip! I tried to be nice to him, but he was so rude, James, just so rude to me. He's one of those people that is only nice to you if you have a lot of money, you know. Gosh, I don't even remember the fat oaf's name. What was it.....? Viktor? Vinny, no...Vernon! That's it, Vernon! What kind of people name their child, Vernon? How do you have a baby Vernon? Gross. You should have seen him James, he was a slob, just as gross as they come. He talked about working at this really boring business the entire time. Oh, and you should have seen the way Petunia was looking at him! Gag me! Like he was a god or something. She kept saying, 'Isn't he wonderful' and all. Ew, ew, ew! And if you think that was gross, then they kissed!" Lily did a very funny facial expression, "Oh my goodness, I am so glad to be out of that! She must have said a load of trash and lies about me to him. Not that I care, but come on. Am I a really bad person? NO! I tried to be nice to her, but her attitude, atrocious." Lily rolled her eyes, then sighed. It sounded as though she was glad she had gotten it out of her system.
"It was beautiful though," she said, halfway up to the castle, looking up at him. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, stopping in the snow and looking at him. "And you got me flowers. And all I did was complain to you. I'm so sorry."
"Not to worry," he said calmly, "I am just so glad to have you back. I missed you so much."
She smiled, and went to kiss him. "So what kind of trouble did you get into while I was away?" she asked, grinning broadly.
"Me? Trouble? I don't know what you're talking about. I've been a good boy, Lily, just like you asked."
She laughed, and kissed him again. He was so euphoric that he picked her up, and carried her to the castle, never once taking his eyes off of her. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe it is true. But James and Lily had only missed each other, there was no possible or conceivable way that they could love each other any more.
