Ch. 2 - Surprise
"Gorgeous, isn't it?" a light-hearted voice said from her right.
Lily turned to see Bailey Marie Jordan standing there with her trolley in front of her, rocking back and forth on the balls and heels of her feet, and smiled. "Yeah. I just can't get over that."
They both laughed.
Bailey brush the front strands of her rather dark yet bright read hair behind her ears and smiled back at Lily. Her bright blue eyes blazed with happiness at being on her way back to their home-away-from-home. "Me either. It's used every year six times, and yet it still doesn't seem to change whatsoever. Still keeps its shine and glory."
"So you say. and have apparently counted." Lily said with a laugh.
Bailey proudly looked on at the train. "Yes, well, that's a rather simple task, so I thought 'oh why not.'"
The two sixth year Gryffindor girls laughed cheerily as they moved on down the platform to find a compartment.
Lily was in the middle of helping Bailey haul her trunk into their newly found compartment when somewhat larger pair of hands covered her eyes. Considering the large squeak that Bailey let out before dropping her end of the trunk onto Lily's foot, Lily was pretty certain that she, too, had been caught off guard.
"Guess who." An obviously male voice said.
"Umm, Bret?" Lily asked curiously.
In front of Lily, Bailey guessed as well. "If she says Bret, then I've got to say James."
"Hold on a sec, Bailey. How do you get James from Bret?" Lily asked wondering what nonsense logic Bailey used.
"Well, Bret is your best guy friend, so why can't my captor by my best guy friend?" she asked incredulously.
Lily sighed. "He can't be James, because your best guy friend always comes running in at the last second, while my best guy friend gets here early to see me."
Bailey huffed in response seeing her point.
The two boys laughed out loud at their argument before removing their hands. Lily saw with amazement, James Potter standing behind Bailey, and turned around to see, with a relief, Bret Lightning, rather then one of James's friends.
"So, Lily. I guess James Potter isn't always running in at the last minute any more." He said with a smile and a wink.
Lily scowled at her least favorite person other then her sister, and went back to trying to lift her trunk up.
"You want some help?" Bret asked before lifting up the other end with out an answer. The trunk was in the compartment in a matter of seconds.
Lily smiled. "Sure, why not? Grab Baileys."
"You got it whip mistress." He laughed.
"'Whip mistress' Lily?" Bailey snorted.
Lily rolled her eyes at the sky and hopped onto the train after Bret, quickly followed by James, and a laughing Bailey.
As the train ride progressed, James picked up on his never ending tirade of trying to persuade Lily to go out with him. She would catch him adjusting his round yet thin-frammed glasses over his dark hazel eyes, or ruffling his untidy jet-black hair when he thought she wasn't looking, or even asking Bailey questions as to what he should do. A few times he tried to get it so that Bret and Bailey had to leave for something so that he could be left alone with her. Lily suspected Bailey agreed to leave during one of their conversations because she would eagerly get up and attempt to drag Bret away. Bret on the other hand had a different idea, and seemed to want to stick around at all costs.
"So Evans, you got prefect again?" James asked upon seeing the Prefect badge pinned on her robes over her chest.
"Yes, I did." She replied. "Sorry that I can't as much for you."
James shrugged. "Yeah, well, fish got to swim, birds got to fly, and a prankster just has got to prank. Being prefect would tarnish my reputation. Too bad Remus got the badge though, poor guy."
"Oh yes," Bailey sarcastically exclaimed, "I can hardly understand how he'll manage. I mean, what with all of the girls finding him even more of an irresistible stud now that he's got authority. I fret the thought."
"Is that really what you two think?" Bret asked.
"Oh, of course! What else could we possibly think?" Bailey said.
The two girls laughed as the boys looked on in horror. It took them a few minutes before the joke seemed to settle into their confused minds, and then and there the girls paid. In an instant, the boys used the quick quidditch reflexes to flip the girls over and start to tickle them. Lily and Bailey shrieked with laughter until the door slammed open revealing four new figures. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Raelene Goodson.
"Well hello, hello!" Raelene said happily as she walked in and lounged across the now vacant seats where Lily and Bret had been.
The two girls jumped up and greeted her while the boys all grouped on the other side and started to talk.
This was how the train ride went. People came and left their compartment through out the ride. At one point, Lily had to leave for her prefect duties and didn't return for quite a while, which Bailey said upon her return that Bret had gotten quite worried about her 'sudden disappearance.' Finally though, after a long ride, the train pulled to a stop and they all stood up to leave. Bailey and James went off together. Bret said, all though sadly, that he had to meet up with Andrew and Stephen, and left as well. Lily quickly walked up to the large horse-less carriages and found one with only three people. Willow, Kennedy, and Jade. She quickly jumped in just as the carriages began to roll away and closed the door behind her.
"Hey Lily!" Willow exclaimed. Her bright green eyes looked excited about something and her tone of voice held it as well, but Lily said nothing to her about it. Even as her long black ponytail bobbed up and down behind her head as she bounced in her seat.
"Hey Will!" Lily said right back. "How have you been?"
"Oh just wonderful!" she said awfully too cheerful in Lily's opinion.
Catching Lily's quizzical look, Kennedy leaned over to her once Willow and Jade were immersed in conversation. "Don't ask. She's been like that since she got some owl around noon on the way here. I swear she's lost it."
"I can see why." Lily said just before Jade started to shake Willow by the shoulders.
"For the love of Merlin! Will! You! Just! Calm! Down! Already!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "What is so important that you have to flip out?"
Willow simply waved her off. "You'll understand once the feast starts."
None of them tried to get it out of her for the rest of the trip, but once the carriages came to a stop, Lily was yet again forced to split up from her friends. While her three previous companions made there way over to the Ravenclaw table, Lily seated herself on Bailey's left at the Gryffindor table near the end of the table. The marauders were all sitting near them and Lily could only pray she was able to ignore them.
Finally, the sorting began. Lily watched as all of the new students came walking up to the front of the hall. All of which, she noted, looking rather nervous or frightened. She was so tired by now that the whole sorting seemed to blow past her. She, of course, clapped with the rest of her house to show her support, being a prefect and all. By the end a total of seven students had been added to Gryffindor, none of which, Lily remember the names of.
"LILY! THERE IS A GIANT FROG ON YOUR HEAD!"
Lily jumped at the sound of her name. "Huh?" She looked curiously at the now laughing boys, Bailey, and Bret, Tessa, Adriana and Raelene who must have joined in during the sorting. "Seriously, what?"
"Are you tired or something?" Raelene asked.
Lily looked at her oddly for a second before it dawned on her. "Oh! Actually, quite, to be truthful."
"Well crew. that would explain the not paying us any attention." Sirius said as he rolled his misty gray eyes behind the bangs of his chin length raven-black hair that most girls loved.
"Oh yes, because you have to be in the spotlight all hours, don't you?" Adriana retorted.
"Quite right you are, my dear girl!" he exclaimed brightly.
Lily laughed a true laugh as Sirius continued to argue off and on with her dorm mates. She tried to follow it for the next ten minutes as everyone ate their food. Lily, personally wasn't all too hungry and only ate about half a plate of food whereas the rest of hr friends and enemies stuffed themselves full. She then felt her attention drawing across the room to Willows seat, only to see her looking up right past her at the large double oak entrance doors. She had only touched a chicken leg and a spoonful of mashed potatoes from what Lily could see. She continued to watch Willow, unnoticed by her peers, until when Lily finally thought that there was nothing to see, a loud bang coming from the giant doors behind her, changed her mind.
Lily whipped around in her seat as well as many others wishing to get a look at the large doors which had been thrown open moments beforehand. What she saw astonished her. A young girl, not possibly older then 18, stood there with her arms sticking out at her sides, having not dropped them quite yet from when she had personally opened the doors. At lest, that was what it appeared as to Lily Evans and her schoolmates. The girl wore slightly tight yet loose, white pants. She had on a matching white jacket with a collar and cuffs and the wrists. Under that she wore a form fitting, deep brown, sleeveless t-shirt, which held no design or pattern what so ever. Her boots were also a deep brown and were definitely for large travels. All of her clothing (as Lily was quick to notice) was slightly dirtied by various patches of dirt and mud. Her pants and boots worst of all.
Lily's eyes then traveled to the various accessories she had brought along with her. Around her waist she wore a deep brown, leather, type of belt, which from what Lily could perceive, carried the sheath of a sword. She wondered if the sheath actually held a genuine sword, but was not about to stand up and ask. She also noticed a rather tan and color faded backpack was swung over the girls left shoulder with one strap, and that it looked to be rather full of whatever it was that this girl carried. Then Lily's eyes fell across one of the strangest methods of wand keeping she had ever seen. On the outer side of the girls right thigh, starting at the knee, was a tall and thin personal made pocket. Then from within this pocket, protruded about two inches of the end of a dark colored wand. The girls' wand, as Lily assumed.
Carefully and closely, not only Lily, but everyone, watched as the girl removed the pair of brown leather gloves that had been hidden by her jackets long sleeves. Once that had been accomplished, she calmly began her walk past the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables, before making her way down the long middle aisle up to the head table. Curiously, every eye was on this new girl. Dumbledore had not seemed at all disturbed by her sudden and strange arrival, where as the rest of the staff surly had. In a matter of silent seconds, the girl had walked up the Dumbledore and placed her hands on the table in front of her. The room was so deathly quiet that you could almost hear a pin drop, there fore, making it so every soul, living or not, could hear her every word.
"Well hello sir. So very sorry about arriving so late and missing the train." She apologized.
Dumbledore smiled. "It's quite all right, but if you could please do me the favor of taking a slight trip to my office after the feast before you return to your old room, then I think all will be forgiven."
"Of course sir. I would expect you to expect no less." She said brightly, before turning to face Professor McGonagall, who sat on the Headmasters right. "Wonderful to see you once again, Professor McG." She added with a wink as the Professor's face held the sign of slight shock.
"Take a seat now, please." Dumbledore instructed with his hand.
Lily watched as the girl smiled at them both before turning around and facing the Gryffindor table, just as Dumbledore rose from his seat.
"Students!" he said with a proud air in his voice. "May I be the first to welcome back an old and missed student into our midst, Miss Ashlyn Kateri Sephre!"
The room went even quieter. Deathly quiet.
"Gorgeous, isn't it?" a light-hearted voice said from her right.
Lily turned to see Bailey Marie Jordan standing there with her trolley in front of her, rocking back and forth on the balls and heels of her feet, and smiled. "Yeah. I just can't get over that."
They both laughed.
Bailey brush the front strands of her rather dark yet bright read hair behind her ears and smiled back at Lily. Her bright blue eyes blazed with happiness at being on her way back to their home-away-from-home. "Me either. It's used every year six times, and yet it still doesn't seem to change whatsoever. Still keeps its shine and glory."
"So you say. and have apparently counted." Lily said with a laugh.
Bailey proudly looked on at the train. "Yes, well, that's a rather simple task, so I thought 'oh why not.'"
The two sixth year Gryffindor girls laughed cheerily as they moved on down the platform to find a compartment.
Lily was in the middle of helping Bailey haul her trunk into their newly found compartment when somewhat larger pair of hands covered her eyes. Considering the large squeak that Bailey let out before dropping her end of the trunk onto Lily's foot, Lily was pretty certain that she, too, had been caught off guard.
"Guess who." An obviously male voice said.
"Umm, Bret?" Lily asked curiously.
In front of Lily, Bailey guessed as well. "If she says Bret, then I've got to say James."
"Hold on a sec, Bailey. How do you get James from Bret?" Lily asked wondering what nonsense logic Bailey used.
"Well, Bret is your best guy friend, so why can't my captor by my best guy friend?" she asked incredulously.
Lily sighed. "He can't be James, because your best guy friend always comes running in at the last second, while my best guy friend gets here early to see me."
Bailey huffed in response seeing her point.
The two boys laughed out loud at their argument before removing their hands. Lily saw with amazement, James Potter standing behind Bailey, and turned around to see, with a relief, Bret Lightning, rather then one of James's friends.
"So, Lily. I guess James Potter isn't always running in at the last minute any more." He said with a smile and a wink.
Lily scowled at her least favorite person other then her sister, and went back to trying to lift her trunk up.
"You want some help?" Bret asked before lifting up the other end with out an answer. The trunk was in the compartment in a matter of seconds.
Lily smiled. "Sure, why not? Grab Baileys."
"You got it whip mistress." He laughed.
"'Whip mistress' Lily?" Bailey snorted.
Lily rolled her eyes at the sky and hopped onto the train after Bret, quickly followed by James, and a laughing Bailey.
As the train ride progressed, James picked up on his never ending tirade of trying to persuade Lily to go out with him. She would catch him adjusting his round yet thin-frammed glasses over his dark hazel eyes, or ruffling his untidy jet-black hair when he thought she wasn't looking, or even asking Bailey questions as to what he should do. A few times he tried to get it so that Bret and Bailey had to leave for something so that he could be left alone with her. Lily suspected Bailey agreed to leave during one of their conversations because she would eagerly get up and attempt to drag Bret away. Bret on the other hand had a different idea, and seemed to want to stick around at all costs.
"So Evans, you got prefect again?" James asked upon seeing the Prefect badge pinned on her robes over her chest.
"Yes, I did." She replied. "Sorry that I can't as much for you."
James shrugged. "Yeah, well, fish got to swim, birds got to fly, and a prankster just has got to prank. Being prefect would tarnish my reputation. Too bad Remus got the badge though, poor guy."
"Oh yes," Bailey sarcastically exclaimed, "I can hardly understand how he'll manage. I mean, what with all of the girls finding him even more of an irresistible stud now that he's got authority. I fret the thought."
"Is that really what you two think?" Bret asked.
"Oh, of course! What else could we possibly think?" Bailey said.
The two girls laughed as the boys looked on in horror. It took them a few minutes before the joke seemed to settle into their confused minds, and then and there the girls paid. In an instant, the boys used the quick quidditch reflexes to flip the girls over and start to tickle them. Lily and Bailey shrieked with laughter until the door slammed open revealing four new figures. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Raelene Goodson.
"Well hello, hello!" Raelene said happily as she walked in and lounged across the now vacant seats where Lily and Bret had been.
The two girls jumped up and greeted her while the boys all grouped on the other side and started to talk.
This was how the train ride went. People came and left their compartment through out the ride. At one point, Lily had to leave for her prefect duties and didn't return for quite a while, which Bailey said upon her return that Bret had gotten quite worried about her 'sudden disappearance.' Finally though, after a long ride, the train pulled to a stop and they all stood up to leave. Bailey and James went off together. Bret said, all though sadly, that he had to meet up with Andrew and Stephen, and left as well. Lily quickly walked up to the large horse-less carriages and found one with only three people. Willow, Kennedy, and Jade. She quickly jumped in just as the carriages began to roll away and closed the door behind her.
"Hey Lily!" Willow exclaimed. Her bright green eyes looked excited about something and her tone of voice held it as well, but Lily said nothing to her about it. Even as her long black ponytail bobbed up and down behind her head as she bounced in her seat.
"Hey Will!" Lily said right back. "How have you been?"
"Oh just wonderful!" she said awfully too cheerful in Lily's opinion.
Catching Lily's quizzical look, Kennedy leaned over to her once Willow and Jade were immersed in conversation. "Don't ask. She's been like that since she got some owl around noon on the way here. I swear she's lost it."
"I can see why." Lily said just before Jade started to shake Willow by the shoulders.
"For the love of Merlin! Will! You! Just! Calm! Down! Already!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "What is so important that you have to flip out?"
Willow simply waved her off. "You'll understand once the feast starts."
None of them tried to get it out of her for the rest of the trip, but once the carriages came to a stop, Lily was yet again forced to split up from her friends. While her three previous companions made there way over to the Ravenclaw table, Lily seated herself on Bailey's left at the Gryffindor table near the end of the table. The marauders were all sitting near them and Lily could only pray she was able to ignore them.
Finally, the sorting began. Lily watched as all of the new students came walking up to the front of the hall. All of which, she noted, looking rather nervous or frightened. She was so tired by now that the whole sorting seemed to blow past her. She, of course, clapped with the rest of her house to show her support, being a prefect and all. By the end a total of seven students had been added to Gryffindor, none of which, Lily remember the names of.
"LILY! THERE IS A GIANT FROG ON YOUR HEAD!"
Lily jumped at the sound of her name. "Huh?" She looked curiously at the now laughing boys, Bailey, and Bret, Tessa, Adriana and Raelene who must have joined in during the sorting. "Seriously, what?"
"Are you tired or something?" Raelene asked.
Lily looked at her oddly for a second before it dawned on her. "Oh! Actually, quite, to be truthful."
"Well crew. that would explain the not paying us any attention." Sirius said as he rolled his misty gray eyes behind the bangs of his chin length raven-black hair that most girls loved.
"Oh yes, because you have to be in the spotlight all hours, don't you?" Adriana retorted.
"Quite right you are, my dear girl!" he exclaimed brightly.
Lily laughed a true laugh as Sirius continued to argue off and on with her dorm mates. She tried to follow it for the next ten minutes as everyone ate their food. Lily, personally wasn't all too hungry and only ate about half a plate of food whereas the rest of hr friends and enemies stuffed themselves full. She then felt her attention drawing across the room to Willows seat, only to see her looking up right past her at the large double oak entrance doors. She had only touched a chicken leg and a spoonful of mashed potatoes from what Lily could see. She continued to watch Willow, unnoticed by her peers, until when Lily finally thought that there was nothing to see, a loud bang coming from the giant doors behind her, changed her mind.
Lily whipped around in her seat as well as many others wishing to get a look at the large doors which had been thrown open moments beforehand. What she saw astonished her. A young girl, not possibly older then 18, stood there with her arms sticking out at her sides, having not dropped them quite yet from when she had personally opened the doors. At lest, that was what it appeared as to Lily Evans and her schoolmates. The girl wore slightly tight yet loose, white pants. She had on a matching white jacket with a collar and cuffs and the wrists. Under that she wore a form fitting, deep brown, sleeveless t-shirt, which held no design or pattern what so ever. Her boots were also a deep brown and were definitely for large travels. All of her clothing (as Lily was quick to notice) was slightly dirtied by various patches of dirt and mud. Her pants and boots worst of all.
Lily's eyes then traveled to the various accessories she had brought along with her. Around her waist she wore a deep brown, leather, type of belt, which from what Lily could perceive, carried the sheath of a sword. She wondered if the sheath actually held a genuine sword, but was not about to stand up and ask. She also noticed a rather tan and color faded backpack was swung over the girls left shoulder with one strap, and that it looked to be rather full of whatever it was that this girl carried. Then Lily's eyes fell across one of the strangest methods of wand keeping she had ever seen. On the outer side of the girls right thigh, starting at the knee, was a tall and thin personal made pocket. Then from within this pocket, protruded about two inches of the end of a dark colored wand. The girls' wand, as Lily assumed.
Carefully and closely, not only Lily, but everyone, watched as the girl removed the pair of brown leather gloves that had been hidden by her jackets long sleeves. Once that had been accomplished, she calmly began her walk past the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables, before making her way down the long middle aisle up to the head table. Curiously, every eye was on this new girl. Dumbledore had not seemed at all disturbed by her sudden and strange arrival, where as the rest of the staff surly had. In a matter of silent seconds, the girl had walked up the Dumbledore and placed her hands on the table in front of her. The room was so deathly quiet that you could almost hear a pin drop, there fore, making it so every soul, living or not, could hear her every word.
"Well hello sir. So very sorry about arriving so late and missing the train." She apologized.
Dumbledore smiled. "It's quite all right, but if you could please do me the favor of taking a slight trip to my office after the feast before you return to your old room, then I think all will be forgiven."
"Of course sir. I would expect you to expect no less." She said brightly, before turning to face Professor McGonagall, who sat on the Headmasters right. "Wonderful to see you once again, Professor McG." She added with a wink as the Professor's face held the sign of slight shock.
"Take a seat now, please." Dumbledore instructed with his hand.
Lily watched as the girl smiled at them both before turning around and facing the Gryffindor table, just as Dumbledore rose from his seat.
"Students!" he said with a proud air in his voice. "May I be the first to welcome back an old and missed student into our midst, Miss Ashlyn Kateri Sephre!"
The room went even quieter. Deathly quiet.