Lily Chapter 5: The Four Mauraders, a harry potter fanfic

The Lily Series

Chapter 5

Running her fingers through her hair self-consciously but smiling at the fact that she was in Gryffindor, Lily searched for the entrance to her House. She had never been anywhere like Hogwarts before. It truly was a castle, with huge portraits and tapestries hanging ominously off of stone walls. Was it just a trick of the candlelight, or were the knights in that picture really jousting? A cold gargoyle seemed to growl at her from the shadows...

"Whoa! Hey, watch where you're going!" Lily jumped at the sound - and feel - of the person she had just ran smack into. Both of them lost their balance and fell backwards. Little candies seemed to fall out of nowhere, skittering like skipping stones across the cobbled floor. A stream of silver cloth slithered to the ground out of thin air as three boys about Remus's age materialized to pick the candies back up.

Lily gaped as she got to her feet and backed up against the wall, her eyes wide with disbelief. What kind of a place was this, anyway? Things and people appear out of nowhere, gargoyles growl, paintings move, werewolves nearly kill humans...

"Aw, look," one of the boys said, bringing Lily back to the situation at hand. "We've gone and frightened a poor ickle first year." He approached her paternally and held out what looked like a little peppermint. "Here." His longish black hair hung down over mischevious brown eyes, and he was smiling a little more than was warranted. Lily pushed his hand away,

much to the delight of his comrades.

"She's not falling for that one, Sirius!" The taller of the two hooted. "This one's too smart to take a peppermint toad from you."

"Might want to work on your approach."

"Yeah, the whole 'ickle first year' deal wouldn't even sell to a fish."

"Ah, bug off," Sirius said. Then, he pocketed the candy and turned back to Lily, putting on a regal air. "I do beg thy pardon of these two villainous rogues that do speak so roughly in thy presence." He made an ornate bow and kissed her hand chivalrously. While the two other boys rolled their eyes, he looked up, winked, and whispered loudly. "This working

better?"

Lily wasn't sure what to do, but she was spared the decision when the first boy who had spoken to Sirius pushed him out of the way. "Ignore him. He's the resident prat." He smiled a little crookedly, lighting up his grayish-colored eyes – or was it just the candlelight reflecting off of his glasses? Lily couldn't tell why (his black hair stuck up comically in the back, and he was a bit too tall and thin), but he seemed rather nice-looking to her.

"Oh, come off it, you're twice the prat I am!"

"I'm James," the boy said, ignoring his friend. "James Potter." He extended his hand, and Lily took it.

"Lily Evans. I just got here."

Sirius chimed in sarcastically. "Really? 'Cos judging by the fact that you're miles from everything but the Astronomy Tower, and I'm assuming you aren't doing some late-evening stargazing, especially on such a cloudy -"

The caustic banter was cut off by the other boy. "Hi, Lily. My name's Peter Pettigrew." Lily's first impression upon seeing him in good light was to wonder when the Gerber baby grew up. His mouth hung open slightly, giving the impression of not much going on beneath the swirly light brown locks on his head. He had little watery blue eyes and a very triangular nose.

She greeted the third member of the ragtag crew, then hesitated before stating what was really on her mind. "Where did you three come from?"

James jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "The kitchens. Nicking desserts and such. Remus's the one who figured out how, actually, but he's..."

"Sick?" Peter suggested.

Sirius laughed. "Always. But I think he said something about his mum, and having some kind of Tanzanian flu. He's not here tonight, in any case. I mean, we were tickling the apple, the lemon, and then finally, we hit the - yowch!" James had apparently driven a sharp elbow into his friend's ribs.

Lily shook her head, deciding to not explain where Remus really was, since he HAD told her not to tell anyone. "No, that's not what I mean. You just popped out of thin air...how did you do that?"

"Well," Sirius began, taking a step towards her. Then his face broke into a huge grin. "That's for us to know, and you to find out! Now, it's our turn to ask a question. What are you doing all alone in this corridor when you should be in the Great Hall, stuffing your little face?"

"I'm looking for Gryffindor house. I guess that's my question. Where is it?"

James clapped his hands together delightedly. "Well! Incidentally, that's exactly where we're headed." He stooped and picked up the silvery puddle of fabric, stuffing it into his Hogwarts robes. "Care to join us?"

Lily nodded and followed them. The three boys chatted and laughed very raucously, and when they passed a coughing suit of armor, Sirius turned around. "Oi, Lily! Come on up here with us, we don't bite. Well, except James here, but that's only when he's hungry."

"All right," Lily said bashfully. Wow, she thought. This is nice. I haven't been at Hogwarts for a day, and already I've got a lot of friends.

Peter started the next conversation. "Boy, I hope Gryffindor wins this year."

"How can we NOT? We've got James on the team now." Sirius clapped James on the back, a satisfied grin plastered across his face.

"Team?" Lily crinkled her brow in confusion. Maybe she didn't belong here after all.

"Quidditch?" James said, in a very 'hello? what planet are you from?' tone.

Her cheeks flushed a temperamental pink. Was that some kind of wizard insult? "What does that mean?" she asked defensively.

"Hey, hey, calm down! Muggle-born, right?" Sirius had thrown himself in front of James quite in the manner of a bodyguard.

"Yes."

"Ah, well, that explains it. Quidditch is just a sport, you play it on broomsticks."

"Kind of like soccer in the Muggle world." Peter winked at her. "I'm a half-blood, so I'll probably be able to help you out more than either of them...pure-bloods, through and through."

"Not like any of that matters," James threw in hastily.

"Yeah, don't want to turn you into one of those stinking Slytherins...now, about Quidditch." And Sirius began rattling off all the rules and positions.

About ten minutes later, they were standing in front of a huge portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. Lily jumped when the fat lady shifted sleepily and mumbled, "Password, please."

Peter must have noticed, because he leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Every house's got a password. They're usually a little strange, but you get used to them." Then, he looked up at the portrait and shouted a single word aloud. "Icklesickle."

The fat lady swung outward on her hinges, revealing a large hole in the wall. They clambered through it and into a warm, circular room. Red velvet carpet lined the floor, leading up to an ornately carved fireplace. Polished gold lions pounced in liquid motion from a brick mantle, shining angrily in the firelight. Lily's eyes wandered up the pale yellow walls to the ceiling, where hung a huge red banner. In golden lettering, it read "Welcome all first years!" Two lions were drawn at either end of the message, both reared up and ready to attack.

She was drawn out of the reverie by Sirius's hand turning her around to face a spiral staircase. "That, Lily, is the girls' dormitories. I think you'd better go up there and fix yourself up...you look like you'd need it, eh?" Amid the stifled snickers of the three boys, Lily ascended the stairs, wondering what new surprises would await her in the dormitory.

When she opened the door, Chrissy was standing at a dresser unpacking her trunk, Chantel sitting on an elegant four-poster bed, wringing her hands worriedly. "Lily!" Chrissy dropped a black robe that she was in the process of folding and Chantel leaped up from the bed. "What happened? Where were you?"

"It's...a long story." Lily sank wearily down onto the third four-poster and fell backwards onto the red satin comforter.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Chantel sat right down next to her and yanked her up by the shoulders. "We've got time, so tell that story."

Chrissy crossed her arms indignantly. "Chantel! What if she's hurt or something? You are all right, aren't you, Lily?"

"No, I'm fine! I'm just really tired."

"Well, tell us what happened, then you can lay back down and sleep as long as you want."

"What about...classes?" Lily asked, yawning.

"Cancelled. Some stupid boys skipped the feast and decided to explode a few classrooms

instead."

As Chrissy rolled her eyes, Lily smiled to herself. That was probably James, Sirius, and Peter. "All right. When the boat tipped over, I panicked. I don't know how to swim; I never learned. I probably would've drowned, but the squid pushed me up onto land, and I went through the forest...they don't call it Forbidden for nothing! It felt like everything was alive and watching me, and then this huge spider came out of nowhere! I shouted out the first spell I could think of, and it made the spider shrink to normal size. Then..." Lily paused. What had really happened next? She had met up with Remus in werewolf form. She couldn't tell them that. "I found the edge of the lake, but the one closer to the castle. I, er...I walked around a lot and tried to find the entrance. And now I'm here, and I really want to go to sleep."

"After the boat tipped, Chrissy and I swam our way to the castle."

"Yeah, we thought that you were right behind us! We're really sorry, Lil!"

Much as she liked her new friends, Lily knew that the chatter wouldn't stop until they were diverted. "Listen, I ran into a few second-year boys on the way in who had some candy and stuff. I think they're down in the common room, having a bit of a party for themselves." Almost before she had finished talking, Chrissy and Chantel had flown from the room eagerly.

When they had left, Lily flopped back down with her head on the soft feather pillow. Her arm dropped over the side of the mattress, bumping against the top of her trunk on its limp descent. "Hmmmmm," she groaned discontentedly, resentful of the new task. It would be rather hard for her in the morning if she didn't take advantage of the chest of drawers at the other end of the room. Dragging herself out of the welcoming bed, she threw the trunk open. The scowl on her face dissolved when she saw the tiny yellow music box lying atop her belongings.

Lily flicked open the latch, watching the false blanket of ice rise with the tiny ice-skater. The little glass girl slid gracefully across the mirrored surface in an impossibly complex pattern that Lily's eyes had never been able to follow. The familiar

tinkly melody had her on the verge of sleep again, so she hastily closed the music box and set it gingerly on her bedside table.

She began to unpack her trunk. First, the set of robes and pijamas; she turned in her torn, dirty robes that currently hung off of her thin frame for a cozy flannel nightgown. Then, she extracted a terrycloth drawstring bag that contained everything she needed to fix herself up. After a short while in front of the mirror, her once scraggly red hair was toweled-dry and pulled into a light blue ponytail holder. The smudges of dirt on her face were washed away; leaving only the soft brown freckles that had always decorated her button nose and made her look like a little girl. She sighed, wishing that she could have washed those away, too. Whenever she had complained at home, though, her father had begun a speech about how the freckles just made her emerald-green eyes shine brighter. A few tears poked painfully at those emeralds as she longed to be home with her family in London.

The door slammed open. "How d'you like that?" Chantel said thickly, through a mouthful of honey lemon drops. "They throw a party without inviting us!"

"Thnrrv!" Chrissy agreed, munching on a biscuit.

"Yeah, the nerve of those two."

"Two?" Lily's eyebrows knitted. "There were three when I met them."

Chrissy swallowed her biscuit. "There was some guy...Grim? Was that his name?"

"I dunno."

"Oh, well. One of the guys was off at the kitchens, robbing those poor cooks blind. Again. But you know something," She bit off another hunk of the biscuit. "I don't really care how he gets it, as long as he teaches me."

Chantel sighed. "I wish I could get to know those guys better."

"Oh, I could...re-introduce you to them, I guess." Lily took one last glance in the mirror, then turned and smiled broadly at her two friends. "Actually, there are four."

Chantel and Chrissy exchanged looks and spoke in unison. "Four?"

"What are all their names? And how did you meet them?" Chrissy demanded, now seeming very interested.

"Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter...oh, yeah, Pettigrew."