Sirius looked around the dormitory that had the sign reading "sixth years" on the door. He went to the far right bed -- the one that was, by custom, his -- and promptly dumped his trunk over onto the floor.
Remus wrinkled his nose. "Why do you always have to do that?" he asked, setting his trunk down at the foot of his bed.
Sirius shrugged. "That's where all my stuff is going to end up anyway. There's no sense in prolonging the inevitable."
Remus snorted. "Yeah, I can tell by the speed you hooked up with Layne on the train today." Sirius grinned, completely unashamed. "It was bound to happen. Besides, I needed a new girl to start my year off. And she is beautiful, not to mention fiery. Not unlike Lily," Sirius said, addressing James.
James shot him a look. "I definitely see a difference between Evans and Layne."
Sirius shrugged. "All I know is, I should have a good time this year with Ms. Redding. Sirius Black and Layne Redding. It even sounds good."
Peter's eyes widened. "Oh, I get it!" He laughed a rather weak, fast laugh. The other Marauders turned and stared at him.
"Layne Redding and Sirius Black. Well, I don't think it sounds all that extraordinary," James said, doing his best to be waspish. Getting yelled at by Evans even louder than usual had put him in a rotten mood, Sirius decided.
"You're not saying it right," Sirius corrected him. "First off, you've got to put my name first, because even though Layne is stunning, I'm more so, on principle. Second, you've got to say it like it's chocolate cake, otherwise it ends up sounding like something as dull as James Potter and Lily Evans."
"I think James Potter and Lily Evans sounds quite good!" James said indignantly.
Sirius waved it away as unimportant. "Too next-door-neighbour sounding. Sirius Black and Layne Redding sounds like an Event."
"Lily and James Potter sounds even better," James declared.
"Layne and Sirius Black!" Sirius countered.
"Moony!" they both shouted at the same time, whipping their heads around to face him.
Remus, who had been organizing his clothing for the next day, sighed. "Sirius Black and Layne Redding sounds better than James Potter and Lily Evans, but Lily and James Potter sounds better than Layne and Sirius Black," he announced, ever the peacemaker. Both Sirius and James accepted this. "I wouldn't ever marry her anyway," Sirius said confidently, and he couldn't have been more right.
Lily was even more happy than others to be back at Hogwarts.
Her summer, unlike everyone else's, had been horrible. She had stayed home all summer, but she wished she had crashed at a friend's house instead. Lily's sister, Petunia, was even more unbearable this summer. It was bad enough that Petunia disliked Lily for the magic in her blood. It was another thing entirely to have Petunia's boyfriend who hated Lily almost as much as Petunia did over for what seemed the entire summer.
Petunia had taken her sister aside what seemed like the minute Lily got home and hissed to her, "My boyfriend is here a lot nowadays and I'm trying to get mum and dad to like him. Don't do anything to screw anything up." Lily stared at Petunia. "Nice to see you too," she said finally, and pushed past her to go up the stairs.
Lily had barely seen her parents the entire summer; she had locked herself up in her bedroom, writing long letters to all her friends to be delivered with her owl, Juno. The one time she'd joined the entire family for tea had been far from enjoyable.
Vernon Dursley, a large young man with a lot of chin and very little neck, was beefy and obnoxious. He spoke his words with his hands, pounding them on whatever surface was closest. He was trying to grow a mustache but having a very hard time about it. Vernon went around speaking as though the entire population was deaf; Lily was surprised she hadn't been able to hear him from her upstairs bedroom the entire summer.
When Lily had entered the room and found her parents, Petunia, and Vernon there, she had braced herself for a time that she thought might be unpleasant. It turned out to be quite painful, in more than one sense of the word.
Vernon knew about Lily's magical blood, and apparently liked it about as much as Petunia did. He didn't taunt Lily like his girlfriend did, though. He rather chose to pretend Lily didn't exist.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Evans," he said, sitting on the couch next to Petunia.
Lily sat down on the chair closest to the door. She hadn't expected a warm welcome.
There was a spell of silence, and then Mrs. Evans asked, "Lily, could you get the tea from the kitchen? Petunia, could you help her?" Lily sprang up obediently, and Petunia begrudgingly got up as well.
Once in the kitchen, Petunia again had to warn Lily. "Don't try anything. This is a very, very important event and I don't want you to ruin it."
"What's so important?" Lily asked.
Petunia flashed her hand in Lily's face, and Lily could see a very obvious, very gaudy, and what must have been very expensive diamond ring on the ring finger.
Petunia smirked. "Don't ruin this for me, Lily," she said, her tone deadly serious.
"Well, I wasn't going to," Lily said, "But now, because you're really pissing me off, I think--"
"Lily!" Petunia said, glaring at her sister. "Don't even think about it."
Lily thrust a tray of cookies into Petunia's hands. "Get out there."
Lily very much wished she was seventeen, so she could do magic freely, but she wouldn't turn seventeen until the following year. Still, she could incense Petunia without magic.
Lily brought the tea and china out into the living room and gave everyone some. When everyone had settled down, Lily set her cup down and said matter-of-factly, "I really should tell everyone my huge accomplishment. It's a huge deal," Lily said brightly.
Petunia spat out her tea. "What, Lily?" she said in a very dangerous voice.
Lily ignored this and ploughed on. "Well, it turns out that on my O.W.L.s--you know, the tests we take in our fifth year?--I earned an O.W.L. for each of my classes."
Mrs. Evans beamed. "Oh, Lily, that's wonderful!" she cried.
"That's my girl! You never let us down." Mr. Evans smiled at Lily.
Lily took a piece of parchment out of her pocket. "See?" she said, showing her parents. "Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Transfiguration, and Arithmancy. Would you like to see, Petunia?" Lily asked innocently.
Petunia looked murderous.
"Oh, this calls for a celebration," Mrs. Evans said, grinning happily. "I'll go bake a cake, Lily. I knew you'd do well."
Mr. Evans clapped Lily on the back. "You always have been the overachiever in the family, Lily," he said, smiling fondly at her.
"Lily," Petunia said through gritted teeth, "Could I talk to you in the hall?"
"Of course, Petunia," Lily said, smiling sweetly.
Petunia practically dragged Lily into the hallway. "You. Stole. My. Thunder." she said, hardly able to get the words out.
"I just got the letter today; I couldn't not show it to mum and dad," Lily argued.
"No, Lily. You've been doing this ever since we were kids. I'd find five easter eggs, you'd find ten. I'd be citizen of the month for my grade, you'd be citizen of the year for yours. You always have to show me up!" Petunia cried, her voice rising.
"Petunia, calm down!" Lily said, a bit surprised at how irate Petunia was.
"Goddamnit, Lily, everything I do, you have to win. You just have to do something that's so spectacular, everyone will forget about Petunia. I'm sick of it, Lily!" Petunia was shouting by now.
Lily didn't even see it coming before Petunia's fist connected with her jaw. She stumbled backwards, half from the blow and half out of shock. Petunia was normally very prim, and would normally not resort to violence.
"Listen, Lily," Petunia said, her voice low and intensely calm. It was worse than her shouting, Lily thought. "I've never liked your unnaturalness, yet I've always put up with you. But this is the last straw. I can't believe you would purposefully do this to me. God, I can't even tell you have much I loathe you. Just stay in your goddamned bedroom for the rest of the summer and you're lucky if I ever, ever so much as look at you again."
Petunia turned on her heel and headed back to the living room, leaving Lily speechless.
Lily knew she'd done something that wasn't needed, and she would never have done it normally, but Petunia had, in her opinion, asked for it. She also knew she and Petunia had their differences and they didn't get along, but she'd never thought that Petunia actually hated her. Lily thought that one day when they were adults Petunia would ring her and stop this ridiculous spat. But the thought that Petunia really did despise her had never crossed Lily's mind, and now that she realized it was true, it made her feel miserable, empty. Her sister hated her.
She had therefore returned to her bedroom and remained there as much as possible.
After the welcoming feast, Lily had immediately gone up to the dormitory for what promised to be a long talk with her friends. Even though they had talked on the train, it had been too open to really discuss anything and there had been too many disruptions (though none worse than when Potter had burst into the compartment). She hoped in the dormitory they could get a lot more talking done before classes started.
"So, Lily, how was your summer?" Lily sighed and gave her friends a small summary of her summer. "I'm just glad to be here," Lily said. "Back with sane people, back with people whom I can say the word "magic" in front of without receiving murderous looks."
"I know how you feel," Vesta Tartanium said sympathetically. "My brother thinks magic is the craziest thing. He may not hate me like your sister, but you should see some of the looks he throws me when I talk about Hogwarts."
Lily smiled wryly. "The looks Petunia throw me could murder Nicholas Flamel on the spot."
The others laughed, and then suddenly, Vesta asked, "Whoa! I can't believe I didn't ask this before. Where's Selene? She wasn't on the train."
Lily had been wondering this as well. Selene Larson was their fifth roommate and very good friend. She was graceful and composed, and never overreacted. She never really stood out, but everyone loved her. Alice McKinnon and Renee Ottoman stopped laughing immediately at this question, and worried looks dominated their faces.
"I keep forgetting that you guys are Muggleborn," Renee said. "It was all over the papers."
"What happened?" Lily said, now anxious.
"That's the thing; nobody's entirely sure. Her whole family disappeared this summer. There was no sign of struggle at their house, so that leads most people to believe that they either went into hiding or went willingly."
There was a pause, and the same thoughts ran through each person's minds. Lily shook her head. "This doesn't necessarily mean Voldemort," she said, mainly to convince herself and not the others.
"Don't be stupid, Lily," Renee said sharply. "I know you don't really believe that."
"It is him," Vesta said shakily. "But Selene's family would never have gone willingly. We've all been to their house. They're good people."
"Not unless they were under their control," Alice spoke up, looking frightened at the thought. "We're learning about the Unforgivable Curses this year in Defense Against the Dark Arts, I've heard."
"That's right!" Lily said. "What about the Imperius Curse? Voldemort could have--" she didn't want to continue. The idea of Selene and her parents under the Imperius Curse was not only horrible but alarming, seeing as they were all very capable witches and wizards. The thought only affirmed Voldemort's power.
"Well, we can't rule the idea that they went into hiding," Renee reminded them.
"That's right. I mean, Voldemort might have known they were a powerful family. He may have wanted them out of the way and the Larsons may have known this," Alice said sensibly.
Vesta shook her head. "Well, whatever it is, it can't be good. I just wish Selene was right here at Hogwarts with us. This is really unsettling." Lily nodded vehemently. "It really kinda makes me realize how big this whole Voldemort thing is. I mean, I know he's bad, and now...it's really hit me." The others nodded in agreement.
"I hope she's okay," Alice said softly. Lily knew she meant Selene.
"We all do. I gues we can just hope that she comes back to Hogwarts soon," Renee said. There was silence for a bit, and then Vesta announced, "Well, I'm going to sleep." The others agreed that it was quite late, and they all climbed under the covers of their respective beds. Lily, however, didn't actually fall asleep for a long time. She lay awake, thoughts about Selene and about the horrors Voldemort had in store heavy on her mind.
A/N: It shouldn't be too long before the next chapter. I think I've been updating this fairly regularly, and if I haven't you have my deepest apologies. Also, due credit to Billy Joel for providing the previous chapter's title, and...uh, Phantom of the Opera/Andrew Lloyd Webber for this chapter's title. I know, I'm completely unoriginal. But hey, I think it gives a nice twist to the story -- having its chapters named by lyrics. Anyway, please review!