Lily waited to one side of the platform for Jane and Narcissa to come through the barrier. She scanned the crowd, searching for Charlotte and Alice and caught sight of Alice hanging out a window in the train.
"Lily!" she called, waving. "Over here! Charlotte had me get a compartment for all of us. She had to go up front for a meeting with the Head Boy and the Prefects, but said she'll join us later."
"Oh, of course. That means Jane will be gone too."
"Gone where?" Jane appeared at Lily's shoulder, Narcissa in tow.
"Prefect meeting. You guys get your own compartments too, you know. It's probably twice as posh as those for us lowly students. Think you'll spend the trip there instead?" Lily gave Jane her best 'I am pathetic' face.
"Oh, Lily." Jane giggled.
The three manoeuvred through the bustle along the platform until they made it onto the train and stowed their luggage. Jane said her farewells, with the promise that she and Charlotte would return as soon as they could, then made her way to the front of the train. With a blow of a whistle, the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Kings Cross Station.
Shortly thereafter, Narcissa scampered off down the hall in search of her friends and more gossip, Alice allowing herself to be dragged along for lack of anything else to do. Lily settled down with a book to await the return of her own friends. Quickly absorbed, the time flew by.
She just finished a chapter when the door to the compartment opened. Expecting to see both her friends, Lily was surprised when only Jane came inside. "Hi Jane. How did it go? Where's Charlotte?"
"She is doing the first set of patrols down the train. The meeting was rather dull, actually. Just about our duties and the various rules." She shrugged. "I hope I do everything properly."
"You worry far too much, Jane. You're going to be a brilliant Prefect and everyone will love you. Especially since you are far more likely to give points to everyone than take them away!"
"Certainly not!" Jane laughed merrily, her concert momentarily dissipated.
"But of course you would. Believe me, Jane; after four years at Hogwarts and having made a constant study of this sort of thing, I can tell what sort of Prefect a person would make."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, indeed. Therefore, while you will always be very fair in every decision you make, you are more than likely to give everyone the benefit of the doubt when, perhaps, they should be punished directly."
Jane could do naught but shake her head in amusement. "And you? What if you had been made Prefect?"
"Oh, I am convinced that only the deepest sense of duty and responsibility could tempt me into that role," she said loftily. Jane's eyebrow rose minutely as Lily continued. "Therefore, I will end a lowly student who is renowned for being your best friend and teach all your first years to charm feathers and transfigure matchsticks very ill!"
"Lily!"
"No, no Jane. It's true. And one must bear the truth with great equanimity, especially when it reveals faults in one's character."
Jane laughed yet again. "Is that Petunia's latest?"
Lily grinned. "Indeed it is."
"Oh, good heavens."
"Exactly what I say."
At that, the door opened once again. Charlotte entered the compartment and threw herself down next to Lily. She gave a long-suffering sigh and said, "One would expect seventh years to know better than to use dung bombs for playing croquet in the corridor."
"Sounds like the year is off to a typical start." Lily threw an arm across Charlotte's shoulders. "Shall we have much excitement of that sort this year, do you think?"
Charlotte groaned. "I certainly hope not. I don't quite know what I would do if a bunch of pranksters decided to gang up together and make all sorts of trouble."
"Surely that won't happen though." Jane looked mildly alarmed. "I mean, we always have students who pull pranks now and then, but they would not all group together in a... gang... would they?"
Lily laughed. "Janey Jane, you really are a dear."
"Yes," agreed Charlotte with a giggle. "Can you truly imagine a gang of pranksters?"
Jane blushed sheepishly. "Well, no."
Her eyes lit up with glee, Lily said thoughtfully, "Actually, I can almost envision it. And they'd probably have some sort of name to go with the whole scheme. Something like... like..."
"Pranksters Anonymous," suggested Jane.
"Hedonists United," offered Charlotte.
"Oh! Oh!" Lily waved her hands in excitement. "I have it: The Marauders of Mystery!" After a pause in which the three contemplated the likelihood of such a thing, the girls burst into hysterics.
"Really, Lily. Where do you come up with this stuff?" asked Charlotte.
"Yeah," agreed Jane. "Marauders of Mystery?? That truly is ridiculous. No self-respecting prankster would call himself that."
Lily shrugged unapologetically. "I don't know. I genuinely could see it happening. And in any case, what would you know about being self-respecting prankster? Or a prankster at all?"
"She does have a point there, Jane. After all --" Before Charlotte could justify her agreement with Lily, the witch selling snacks knocked on the door. Tossing their conversation aside, the three quickly pooled their money and purchased a stack of pumpkin pasties and three chocolate frogs.
"So," said Lily between bites of a pasty, "assuming the Marauders never reveal themselves, is there anything of excitement due to happen to us Hogwarts students this year?"
"You mean apart from the excitement of our favourite professor attempting to get one of you two lovelies engaged to a certain Mr Black?" Charlotte answered with a rare mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
The other two slumped. "I had forgotten about that," Lily moaned.
"How can you have forgotten about it?" Jane was rather shocked at that. "You have been so busy all summer with planning ways to avoid Professor Trelawney's, er, plans that I would have thought the whole thing would never be far from your mind."
"Yes, well I saw little reason to focus on the topic since the train journey would likely be our last free moments. Then with all the talk of pranksters and marauders, something that could not possibly be connected with Mr Black," she shrugged, "I guess I got distracted." Charlotte and Jane chuckled at her helpless expression. "Of course, now that you've brought it up, what news of his arrival from the land of Prefects and Head Girls?"
"Nothing, actually," Charlotte admitted.
Lily sat back and looked at her incredulously. "Really?"
"Yep. We weren't told anything about him in any of the correspondence regarding our positions up to this point, and nothing revealed to us at the meeting we just had. Sorry."
"Hm." She thought for a moment before her eyes lit up with an idea and she sat upright again. "Hang on. You did do a set of rounds, right?"
"Well, yes..."
"Then you may have seen him! You'd know if you saw someone new. And first years don't count because there is no way they'd be mistaken for fifth years. And if he's on the train --"
"Just because he's on the train does not necessarily mean he'd be wandering the halls or making trouble in his compartment."
"Oh, good point." She thought once more. "But he is on the train, right?"
Charlotte and Jane exchanged a look. "Well --" began Charlotte.
"Lily," Jane interrupted, "tell me you are not thinking of going up and down the corridor, poking your head in every compartment in an attempt at getting a glimpse of him."
"Certainly not! I don't want a glimpse of him. No offence to you and yours, Jane, but that is more likely something Narcissa would do."
Jane nodded with a sigh. "That's true."
"I simply want to find him to warn him of what lies ahead."
"Lily!" Jane nearly fell off her seat.
"What?" Lily looked completely unabashed. "It's only fair to him, really." Her friends looked amused, but unconvinced. "And it gives us an edge over Professor Trelawney." Lily leaned forward. "Come on, what do you say?"
