DISCLAIMER: Anything that was in any Harry Potter book belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me. If you see something that wasn't in the Harry Potter books, then I suppose it's mine.
A/N: It's been done over and over again, I know, but this is another James and Lily story to throw into the mix. I suppose you would call this AU now because of what happened in OOTP. Or you could call this a pre-OOTP. Whichever tickles your fancy. Read, enjoy, review (please).
Slow Down Chapter One - Introductions and a Train Ride.A red-haired Lily Evans woke up to a knock on the door. She groggily eyed the door with her green almond shaped eyes.
"Lily, if you don't get up now, you're going to miss your train," said her mother's muffled voice through the door.
Lily waited until she heard footsteps going downstairs before reluctantly getting out of bed. Today was her first day back to school, and despite her slow movements to get ready, was actually very excited to get back to it. Not really because of the classes, although some were very peculiar, but because she hadn't seen her friends all summer.
Lily finished putting on her clothes and brushing her shoulder length wavy hair before going downstairs. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast that was sitting on the table. Slowly she ate it while looking around at the familiar surroundings that she wouldn't see for around almost nine or ten months.
As she did every year on September first, Lily was going away to school. She had been doing this ever since she had turned eleven and had learned about magic. Lily Evans just happened to be a witch who was going into her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Lily," called her dad. "We have to go. Get your trunk and come get in the car." Lily stuffed the rest of her toast into her mouth and grabbed her trunk. She was halfway out to the car when she ran back inside to grab a bag, which had her school robes that she would change into.
An hour later, Lily was found saying goodbye to her parents and her sister, Petunia, at King's Cross Station.
"Yes mum, I'll be careful. No dad, I won't go sneaking around with guys after curfew. No Petunia, I won't send owls to your friend's houses. But I am glad nobody asked me not to hop on a broom and fly to Germany," joked a bored Lily. She laughed at her parents' horrified faces. "I'm kidding. I'll owl you soon. I have to go through the barrier now, or I'll never find a seat on the train. Bye!"
The redhead ran straight at the seemingly solid brick barrier and soon found herself on Platform 9 3/4 with twenty minutes to spare. She pushed her way through the crowd of eager students, scared first years, and concerned parents to the train. Lily put her trunk on the train, and with her bag on her shoulders, went in search of her friends.
After a couple of minutes of checking compartment after compartment, Lily started to hear some soft singing. She listened intently before heading in the direction of the music. When she was almost at the end of the train, she finally got to the compartment where the singing was coming from. She looked in through the window to make sure it was her friends before opening the door and stepping inside.
"I figured if I followed the singing it would bring me to you two," said Lily as she shut the door and turned around.
"Lily!" both girls in the compartment cried. They both got up and gave Lily a hug.
The tallest girl, Kyne Burcent, sat back down and pulled Lily into the seat next to her, while the other girl, Shea Ulric, laid down in the seats across from them.
Kyne and Shea were Lily's two closest friends. They were also the first friends Lily had made when she first came to Hogwarts. The three of them were friends ever since they met in their first year on the train. Kyne and Shea both had explained to Lily about the wizarding world and everything that they had known about Hogwarts. They told her about the four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, quidditch, the most popular wizarding sport, and about Dumbledore, the headmaster at Hogwarts.
Kyne Burcent was the tallest out of all three girls. She was around 5'7", and never let Lily or Shea forget it. Kyne was the most diverse looking of the group. Her curly, dirty blonde hair went almost past her shoulder blades, but because she dyed it a dark red, almost nobody had seen her natural hair colour. Her round, dark blue eyes were usually shining with amusement, and her emotions could be read just by looking at her face. She was a very loud and bold person, and often protected her friends.
Shea Ulric was the shortest one of the group. She was a whopping 5'2" and was very proud of it. Her straight black hair went down to her waist and was slightly blue at the ends. She had almond shaped eyes that were dark brown. They could hold all the emotion in the world, but in the blink of an eye, could be devoid of anything seen there before. She was extremely good at keeping her emotions to herself and hardly ever let herself blow up at people.
The three girls talked for a while about their summers before Shea got bored and stood up to look into the rack above their heads that held all of their bags. Shea found her's and pulled it down. She took out a muggle radio. Lily started to wonder why Shea had brought it, so she asked.
"Shea?"
"Well," she answered the unasked question. "First of all, we aren't at Hogwarts yet are we? So it should work until we get there, right?" she waited for Lily to nod before going on. "That, and I happen to know that you found a charm last year that made your hairdryer work even though that was electronical," she said the last part with a little smile, while Lily and Kyne sat there with surprised faces.
Just then, the door to the compartment opened and let in four boys. A tall boy with black hair ran over to Shea, who was still standing, picked her up, and started to spin her around.
"Sirius Black!" Shea nearly yelled. "Put me down!" She swatted at his head while laughing at her friend's antics. He spun her around a couple more times before letting her down. He looked around the compartment for a free spot to sit in, and saw one next to Kyne. He walked over to her, got down on one knee, and took her hand. She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Miss. Burcent."
"Mr. Black?" she played along.
"Will you do me the honor," he paused, "of letting me sit here?" She hit him over the head.
"Of course Sirius. Sit down."
The other three boys who had walked in and sat down sniggered. They were James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Together they made up the infamous Marauders that played pranks on unsuspecting students, teachers, and ghosts alike. Possibly the only ones immune to their pranks were the three girls, but that was probably because they helped out with various charms and gave alibis.
"Sorry about him," said Remus. "We hope you don't mind us sitting here." Remus was probably the most refined out of the four guys. He had light brown hair and grey blue eyes that were always kind unless you got him mad. Lily preferred talking to Remus out of all the marauders. He was good to have a conversation with.
"That's ok. We don't really mind. We were actually getting kind of bored, weren't we, Shea?" Lily replied. Shea stuck her tongue out at Lily in retaliation before she returned to talking to James who laughed at the two girls. James had incredible hazel eyes that were usually found behind thin-rimmed glasses. His hair was always in a state of disarray and no matter what he did, it always stuck up at odd angles.
Lily looked around the compartment in wonder. She was good friends with Remus. He had been the only real connection she had had with the marauders before 5th year. He was usually considerate of other people, although he did have a cheeky side.
Lily didn't know Peter all that well because they never got around to talking. He was also extremely shy, and didn't talk all that much. He seemed to talk to Kyne, but she wouldn't exactly call the two close.
Lily didn't know exactly what to think of James yet. She had gotten to know him better through the last year because they had both been made prefects. They had gone to meetings together, and patrolled together, and the whole time he had been sweet, funny, and nice, but Lily didn't know or rather didn't want to say how she actually felt about him.
Lily thought Sirius's antics were funny, and she was friends with him through Shea. He and Shea were extremely close. He probably knew more about her than Kyne and Lily did.
"Lily?" A voice broke into her thoughts. It was Remus.
"Yes?"
"Are you ok? You spaced out for a bit."
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. "I was just thinking."
"Well then do you want to play wizards chess?"
"Remus," Lily whined. "You know you always beat me when we play." He smiled a bit evilly.
"That's why I like to play you," he retorted. She slapped his arm lightly.
"Fine, let's play," she told him, knowing that she'd be conned into playing with him somehow or another.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
About twenty moves later there were a dozen smashed pieces, a fallen king, and a defeated Lily. Remus and Lily sat on the floor where they had set up the game, while Sirius was sleeping against the window with his legs spread out all over the seats on his side. Kyne was currently sleeping too and was using Sirius as a pillow. Shea had watched the chess game for a while before taking out a book and reading. James had brought out an old looking piece of paper and was talking to Peter.
Lily moved back so that she was leaning against the wall. She looked over to where Kyne and Sirius were and gave them an odd look that Remus caught as he moved to sit beside her. They both laughed as Kyne tried to roll over, but ran into one of Sirius's legs. Peter and James were the only ones talking.
"We could put a charm on it that would show our own writing on it," said Peter.
"Yeah, but why would we need that?" James asked him in reply. Lily wondered what they were talking about. The guys let the girls in on some things, but other times they were so tight lipped about things. "I guess we could put a security charm on it. Say, if someone tried to open up the, "he looked up and saw Lily looking at him. "Well, if someone tried to open it, it would reply to him or her by insulting them. Or if they said their name to it, it would tell the person what we thought of them. And that could be in our writing."
"But we'd need somebody who knows the charms for all that."
"Yeah I guess we would, or we would have to do a lot of research," James looked up at Lily who now had her eyes closed and her head tipped back against the wall. She stifled a laugh as Sirius mumbled something about raining ducks and flying sausage. He lowered his voice. "We could always ask Lily. She's never not agreed to help us before. Or if not help us, give us the spells to work ourselves," said James.
"When are you going to ask her?"
"I'll see if Remus'll do it. She always helps us if he wants her to," whispered James so that Lily couldn't hear him. James was a little jealous of his friend. He wanted to be close with Lily, and although they were friends, they didn't have a really close friendship yet. And so long as Sirius didn't find out, he would actually admit that he had somewhat of a crush on the redhead. If Sirius found out, he'd probably go around trying to set them up. Sometimes Sirius acted like such a girl.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A couple hours later, all seven teenagers had changed into their robes and were leaving the train. The marauders all got into one carriage, while the girls found their own.
Shea looked over at her two friends. Kyne was still a little groggy from her nap on the train with Sirius, so Shea decided to play around with her.
"So Kyne, did you have a good nap?" she asked innocently.
"Shut it Shea," was the response, which sent both Lily and Shea into a fit of laughter. Kyne had gotten a surprise when she woke up. One of Sirius's arms was draped over her waist, while one of her hands was on his chest. She had squeaked and shifted which woke Sirius up. He had looked down at her and had barely muttered a hello there before she tried to get up which was nearly impossible because their legs were tangled. So as she tried to roll off the seats, Sirius had to roll off the seats too, which made them end up with Sirius on top of Kyne on the floor, just inches from Remus. The rest of the compartment had been in hysterics for the rest of the train ride.
The carriages slowly pulled up to Hogwarts, and the three girls stepped onto the grass. They looked up at the castle that had been their home for the last 5 years.
"Ready for another year?" asked Lily.
"Well it's too late to go back now," said Shea, while Kyne said,
"Do we have a choice?" The three girls laughed while walking up the steps into Hogwarts.
A/N: Well that was fun to write. This was my first fic, so please be merciful. I'm open to criticism, just be nice, please.