A/N: Just got back from a MUCH NEEDED vacation! So now that I am in a much better mood, I thought I would put you in a better mood by updating. See how everything always works out...
I know this chapter jumps a little bit. I am not going to be so jumpy with their future years at Hogwarts.
Disclaimer: None of it belongs to me, no matter how many times I put on the pretty red shoes, click my heels together, and say "there's no place like Hogwarts, there's no place like Hogwarts...because it belongs to JKR! Thank you JKR!"
The holiday ended all too quickly. Soon, Remus and Holly had returned from rather enjoyable Christmases at their houses. Students could be seen periodically running back and forth from the library with notes in hand. Exams were coming. More students stayed up until the wee hours of the morning preparing. Lily started studying immediately after the holidays with no use. The boys, who appeared to not need to study anymore, were always lurking around if up to something. The only boy who appeared to take any of the studying seriously was Remus.
The day of the first exam, crowds of people were clustered together in the corridor quizzing one another. Lily's first exam was Transfiguration. The students filed noisily into the classroom and took their seats. All fell silent when a young witch in lavender robes handed out the tests. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Arleigh would be administering the exam. After handing out all of the test papers she instructed them to begin. Lily quickly flipped over her paper and delved into the exam.
The test itself was not nearly as awful as she imagined it would be. She was sure her hard work had paid off.
"Dhat was da reasiest exam rive vever daken!" James exclaimed. He said between mouthfuls of Cauldron Cake. They had made a mad raid of the kitchens about an hour prior.
"That was only the first exam and you are already celebrating?" Lily exclaimed incredulously. "You still have six exams left!"
"James believes he has a future career as a rock star." Remus explained. "His banjo playing is incredible."
"I had a hard time with a couple of the questions. Only about fifteen of them." Peter said uneasily.
"There were only sixty questions! Most of them were essays. Fifteen of them would be 25% of them wrong!" Sirius clarified.
"Who's the genius now?" Nichole questioned peering over her Potions book.
"Potter, as much as I dislike you, I will not allow you to fail the exams and make your brain more rotted and useless than it already is." Lily added, yanking James to his feet, thrusting textbooks into his hand, and pushing him up the stairs to the dormitory. James found that dormitories were better equipped for sleeping than studying and soon dozed off.
The rest of the exams went considerably well. That Tuesday, they had Potions. Lily bottled up a sample of her sleeping draft and gave it to a sneering Dougal at the end of the class. Peter proudly handed in his vial, obviously very pleased with himself. Peter did seem to excel at Potions. On Wednesday they had two exams. In the morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and at ten o'clock that same night, the students had to go to the tower for their Astronomy exam. Her favorite exam had to be the Charms test. She was sure that she had aced it.
Finally exams were over and the students could go back to their everyday lives once again. During the spring, the Gryffindors went to cheer on the older students playing in the Quidditch games. James cockily introduced himself to all of the members of the Gryffindor teams saying that "they were his future teammates."
Unfortunately, the Gryffindor Quidditch team hadn't won a game in twenty-two years. James also arrogantly signed parchments and gave them to people claiming that he would one day be famous. Hopefully it was a stupid, eleven-year-old boy type phase.
Most unusually James, Sirius, and Peter continuously claimed that they needed to study, and were often seen in the library.
"It isn't in here guys." James sighed, flopping himself down at one of the tables.
"What isn't here?" Nichole questioned as she, Lily, and Holly walked over to the table.
"That – um – Potions book we needed for class." Sirius blatantly lied.
"I just returned a copy. Go see Madam Pince." Lily said. James wandered over to the desk and picked up the book. He pretended to be diligently reading the pages, despite the fact that his eyes weren't moving at all.
Lily had stayed up late the next night, completing her astronomy homework. She hated astronomy, mostly because you had to stay up to complete your assignments. Remus sat opposite her as he worked on his assignments and kept her company. The quiet atmosphere around them was broken as they heard a loud yell.
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED! PEEVES IS GOING TO PUNISH THOSE NAUGHTY BOYS." There was a loud cackle as Peeves glided down the hallway. Lily and Remus walked over and lifted the portrait of the Fat Lady, who continued to snore loudly.
The caretaker, Argus Filch, and his cat stormed down the hallway to where Peeves was singing joyously as he floated in circles. "Where are those boys Peeves? I have been trying to catch the pranking culprits for months."
"PEEVES HAS GOT A SECRET, PEEVES HAS GOT A SECRET!" Lily was surprised the Fat Lady hadn't woken up yet. Peeves floated widened his circle and floated right through Filch.
"Peeves!"
"Peeves, will talk when Filch says that he will stop yelling at Peeves."
"Peeves!" Filch's voice grew steadily louder.
"Promise!"
"Fine." He said in a normal voice. "I will stop yelling at you Peeves, now talk!"
"Okay." Peeves said and then shut his mouth. He happily continued to float in circles.
"Where are they?"
"I said I would talk, not that I would answer you! HAHAHA!" Peeves yelled and glided through a nearby wall. Filch swore loudly and rushed down back down the hall he had come from.
"Come Mrs. Norris. We will find the delinquents ourselves." His uneven footsteps and the light from his lantern faded away.
"What was that about?" Lily whispered. "Who is Filch looking for?"
"Take a wild guess Lily." Remus answered. Moments after, she heard scurrying footsteps coming in their direction.
"Morning Lily, Remus." Sirius said cheerfully. "We were just out for a midnight stroll, weren't we boys." They nodded. Lily rolled her eyes.
"What are you up to now?" Remus questioned.
"Nothing illegal of course!" Peter said quickly. The other two glared at him. Lily couldn't help but notice that Peter looked a little pudgier than normal. He had something under his robes. It was another prank, she would see in the morning. They boys and Lily said goodnight and headed off to bed.
But she didn't see in the morning. After that night, the pranks seemed to be kept down to a minimum; there was the occasional screaming portrait and the Slytherin robes being changed to a fashionable hot pink, but nothing too major.
On the last day of school, Lily waited for something to pop out of her plate. It was the goodbye feast and not so much as a single snigger from the boys. Maybe they finally realized how juvenile the whole pranking thing was. Dumbledore stood up and announced the final points. The Quidditch cup was awarded to Slytherin; the House Cup was awarded to those smart little Ravenclaws. They were always getting points in classes.
Severus Snape sauntered over the Gryffindor table. He made a wide smirk and muttered a little incantation. Lily took a swig of pumpkin juice and spat it out quickly. Snape had changed the pumpkin juice at their table into mud. The Slytherins saw the disgusted faces of all of the Gryffindors and laughed. A few students went over to complain to Dougal, but all he would say was, "I think the pumpkin juice is beginning to go bad, we should talk to those house elves," and "The points have already been added up, what am I supposed to do about it?"
Then, there was something rather unexpected. Lily could hear the flapping wings of birds outside the window. It wasn't mail time. The birds soared through the windows and circled around the room. They weren't owls, but pretty tropical birds, scarlet and gold in color. They flew majestically around the room, and then flew over to the Slytherin table and pecked at their food. Now the whole hall was laughing. A few of the birds went to the bathroom on Snape's greasy head. Everyone had stitches in their sides from laughing so hard.
A loud whistle blew as the bright red steam engine rolled into Kings Cross station. Lily couldn't wait to see her parents after such a long, happy year but was less that thrilled about seeing Petunia. Lily dawdled around the train compartments, taking a painstakingly long time to pick up her luggage. Every minute she wasted was one less that she would have to be around Petunia Evans.
"So when do we get to meet the folks?" Sirius said pleasantly.
"The sooner you meet my sister the better." Lily mumbled.
"Like my mum and dad." Sirius replied. "I swear my mum's crazy sometimes." They had just stepped out into the sunlight and had to shield their eyes.
"Home sweet home." James yelled. He ran over and stood beside Sirius. James made a distinct nod, and Lily noticed Sirius pass him something behind their backs.
"What's in your hand, Potter?" Lily inched herself closer to him and tried to grab at the concealed object behind his back.
James took off running down the platform. Sirius yelled after him, "Study hard James!"
"I will Sirius!" James yelled back. "Argh! Get away Evans!" Lily was still determined to see what they were up to.
"You're up to something bad, Potter. You never study!"
Remus jumped between them in an attempt to be the arbitrator. Nichole helped by pinning Lily's arms behind her back. "Can we have a moment of peace?" Remus exclaimed. "Order in the courtroom!" James stopped running and resorted to making faces at Lily, who still had her arms pinned behind her back. "Now James, Lily, we are not going to leave this summer on bad speaking terms with one another are we?"
"Of course not." Lily said with false sweetness.
"Then please stop bickering." Remus answered.
"I'm sorry Potter." Lily said with the same false voice. She walked over to him and spread out her arms as if to give him a hug. James stared at her confused. Lily reached around his back and just barely caught a glimpse of the book. James quickly pulled the book away.
"That's one of the library books. That's called stealing, thief."
"I call it borrowing." James replied.
"LILY!" a voice called. Lily whipped around and saw her mother waving at her from across the platform. Her mother bounded across the platform, Mr. Evans and Petunia in tow. "Lily I missed you so much! Look how much you've grown." Her mother ran up to her and gave her a hug.
"Mum, you can let go now." Lily wrenched herself away from her mother's death grip.
"You can't blame your mum Lily; it's been almost a year since we've seen you." Her father declared, giving her an equally as big hug. "These must be your friends."
"Freaks travel in flocks, just like geese."
"Shut up Petunia."
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Evans. I'm Nichole Sanders. I met you back in September." Nichole said in an attempt to break the tension. Lily's parents recognized her immediately and began to fire her with questions about school.
"Mum, dad, this is Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew is around here somewhere, and Holly- Holly, come over and meet my parents."
Holly wandered over from the bench she was waiting on. "Himynameshollydelacroix." She mumbled.
"Hello Holly, I'm Violet Evans, and this is my husband John Evans, and our daughter Petunia Evans."
"Are all of the girls in your family named after flowers?" James interrogated.
"I come from a long line of Violets, Petunias, Roses, Pansys, Lilys, and Lavenders." Lily explained. "The flower names are a tradition in my family."
"They're all 'blooming' idiots." James muttered under his breath. Lily glared icily at him.
"Well we had better get going." John Evans exclaimed. "It was nice meeting all of you."
"Bye!" Lily yelled to all of them. She turned to wave and noticed Sirius was signaling her attention. He pointed to Petunia, pulled out his wand, and motioned tying a noose around his own neck. Lily assumed this was some kind of advice from him about Petunia. What? Don't hang yourself? Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. Maybe a year away from Petunia may have straightened her up. How wrong she was.
They walked back through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. As they were leaving, Lily saw a group of wizards huddled around a sardine can. Then they disappeared. They continued to walk out to the car. Lily pulled her suitcase over to load the car with her luggage.
"I get the front!" Petunia yelled. She slammed the door open, knocking Lily over. This was just the start of her summer; it wasn't going to get any better.
Petunia Evans was two years older than Lily, making her believe she had full rights to push Lily around. Lily never tolerated any of her sister's petty behavior. She convinced herself that it was jealousy. It was painful to imagine the spells her sister would do. Petunia was the queen of gossip; her long giraffe-like neck was useful when it came to spying on people in school and around the neighborhood. Petunia would try to brew love potions, find a spying device, and try to alter her appearance so that she could become a supermodel. It was definitely a good thing she was not a witch.
Lily soon fell asleep after an hour of monotonously watching trees pass the car window. She had not slept so well in ages. Lily awoke with a start when the car jerked suddenly outside of a small house. They were home. Lily dragged her heavy trunk through the door and up the old wooden staircase.
She missed the school already. While she was glad to see her parents, Lily felt as though she belonged in the wizarding world. Lily flung herself onto the bed and stared up at the sky-blue ceiling.
"Miss Anti-social! Are you planning on joining your family for dinner?" Petunia said nastily from the doorway. Lily silently stood up and walked down to the kitchen, not even making eye-contact with Petunia. At dinner that night, she told her parents everything about the school, her friends, the classes, and the spells she had learned, much to Petunia's disappointment. Her parents stared at her with wide-eyed interest and curiosity. They were always so pleased to have a witch in the family.
After dinner that night, she decided what she wanted to get as a present for her birthday, an owl. Lily realized that she had no contact to any of her friends in the wizarding world. She pulled out her Charms assignment and worked until she was too tired to keep her eyes open.
As Lily wandered slowly down to breakfast the next morning, she noticed Petunia sitting impatiently at the kitchen table.
"You slept in." Petunia said briskly. "I have a friend coming over any minute, and you are to be out of sight at all times."
"I am your sister you know." Lily said tersely. "I have a right to be in this house as well."
"Then just none of the magic, voodoo stuff." Then the doorbell rang. Petunia quickly dashed to the door and invited her friend inside. Lily found a note saying that her parents would be out for the morning. That means she was left in the house alone with them. The two giggling girls dashed up to Petunia's bedroom and slammed the door.
Lily went back up to her room and pulled out her homework again. There was no way all of this work was going to last all summer. The giggling coming from the other room was beginning to get on her nerves. If only she could cast as silencing charm. She looked over for her wand on the bedside table, only to notice it was missing. Petunia.
She ran across the hallway and put an ear to her sister's bedroom door. They were giggling and talking about this boy in her class named Vernon Dursley. He sounded like an extremely boring person anyway. She turned the knob and barged into the room. "Have you ever heard of knocking, you rude little girl." Petunia snapped.
"What did you do with it Petunia!" Lily yelled. She scanned the room quickly. Pictures and clothes flooded the floor, her dresser was covered with various tubes of make-up, and the broken window had been fixed. No, her wand was propping up the broken window.
"What did I do with what?" Petunia said smugly, seeing her sister's eyes wander over to the broken window. Lily knew she wasn't supposed to talk about magic, but she was too angry to remember.
"My wand you imbecile!" Petunia and her friend just stared at Lily. Then the friend had a look of understanding on her face.
"That stick?" Petunia watched her younger sister's expression, "It works a much better purpose in my room."
"So this is the one who left during the year to go to that boarding school. What was it called?"
"Colson's Institute for the Mentally Instable. She seems to think she is a witch for some reason." Petunia said offhandedly.
Lily pulled her wand out from under the window, causing it to slam shut. "I will hex you into next week Petunia, you know I will." She pointed the wand straight at Petunia's forehead. Petunia looked utterly shocked, her friend continued to laugh.
"I'll tell Mum that you are threatening people with magic, again." Lily wasn't exactly sure what the again was for. Her friend probably thought she threatened people on a regular basis and continued to giggle uncontrollably.
"She is such a jokester Marissa. Now go back to your bedroom and be a good girl." Petunia chuckled nervously. Lily pulled the wand away from Petunia and put it back in her pocket. She walked back to her bedroom and tucked it into a safe drawer. Why did she always let Petunia win? Why don't I ever stand up to her? She is nothing but a bratty pig. Lily decided to entertain herself by researching how to transfigure someone into a pig. Not that she would ever be able to try it outside of school. She remembered Sirius's advice, if you could even call it advice. She was going to have to learn to deal with Petunia for the summer.
Why does summer have to be so long?
A/N: That was part one of the really long chapter I wrote. The good news is that chapter six is therefore already written! I have work tommorow, but I will try to format and upload it after. Please give any suggestions or comments you may have. I had to edit the first chapter because I realized I had no sense of alphabetical order with Black being after Evans. I know this chapter wasn't as eventful, but I needed to split the two somewhere.
And consider this your last warning, there will be OotP spoilers coming up soon. Please read the book if you haven't. You don't know what you're missing!
~North*Star (or at least for now. Currently I am North*Star4 because of the fanfiction.net thing. I need to think of a new authors names. If anyone is dying to give ideas, you are free to.)