CHAPTER: 11 - The Walker Esatate

By the time Lily and her companions had boarded the train that was to take them home for Christmas break, it was very full and they were struggling to find a compartment that wasn't occupied.

"Hey guys!" Amber called, "you don't mind if we share, do you?"

Lily and the others shrugged in reply.

"Come here then." said Amber, waving them over.

There were only four boys in the relatively large compartment, one of whom Lily recognised as James Potter, the boy from her dream. James was watching a game of exploding snap between a tall, black haired, black eyed someone and a fairly short boy with straw-like blonde hair and watery blue eyes. The last of the four boys was sitting quietly in a corner reading a book and his dirty blonde hair was falling into his hazel eyes.

"Guys this is Remus, James, Sirius and Peter." Amber announced in a formal manner to which Remus, the boy with the book, replied, "Guys this is Amber and ... ?"

"Sky, Lily, Miranda, Jo and Issy." said Amber, pointing to each of her friends in turn.

They all said a short 'hello' to each other, and then the boys returned to their activities.

The train ride was fun, mainly because Sirius and James kept making lame jokes and the eight Gryffindors were continuously laughing. There were only eight of them left in the compartment because Jo and Issy had left nearly straight away, and Lily had a faint suspicion that someone was not going to be quite so 'friendly' to the pair of them once they had finished.

Lily had been right, because a few moments later Jo and Issy had burst into the compartment, breathless, probably from running down the train. They were laughing hysterically at something or other and Lily didn't really want to know what.

The train pulled into platform nine and three quarters and Lily and her friends disembarked the train, dragging their cases behind them.

As Lily looked around for Miranda, who she had lost in the crowd, she suddenly feel forwards putting her hands in front of her just in time. Her knee hurt and when she examined it she saw a graze, but that was the least of her worries; James and Sirius were now laughing at her. She picked herself up, her nose in the air and her cheeks stained with colour. But for some reason James and Sirius only laughed harder and as Lily looked around other people were either laughing or pointing at her. Lily was trying to figure out what was so funny when a lady with a stuffed vulture hat came wandering over.

"Your skirt is tucked into your sweater, dear." she said kindly, but while holding back a laugh.

Lily reached behind and hurriedly pulled down her skirt, blushing furiously to the roots of her hair. She cursed herself for having such a strong blush, before hurrying away from the crowd.

"There you are!" called Miranda, "over here!"

Lily dragged her trunk over to Miranda and company.

"Come on Lily, my papa is waiting for us outside." Miranda said, impatience evident in her voice.

Lily couldn't believe her eyes. In front of her was the biggest house she'd ever layed eyes on. In fact she wasn't even sure it should be called a house, mansion would be more along the right lines.

The twins lead Lily, Amber and Issy up to their rooms. They were both very different.

Jo's room was a mess, with clothes scattered all over the floor. As Lily's eyes scanned over the books on the shelf she noticed that nearly all of them had something to do with Quidditch. Jo's walls were a bright blue but were mostly covered with posters of what Lily assumed were bands, actresses and actors, but on closer inspection Lily saw that they were all of the same seven people.

"The French Quidditch team." Jo explained, "I've supported them since I was six. Maria (A/N btw I pronounce 'Maria' as MER-rie-a, not mar-rie-a) Gomez is my favourite player; brilliant chaser, she is."

"They've got quite a good team this year." agreed Amber, nodding.

"'specially Gomez." bragged Jo.

"But Wales has Morris."

"Wales is no match for France!" scoffed Jo.

"But zey did beat Bulgaria by many points last week." Miranda commented.

"Come on Miranda, you saw the match last month! France is going to win the cup, no question about it!"

"Yeh right, Wales beat Uganda, and they won the cup last year!"

"Pfft." scoffed Jo, "Lochlun retired at the end of last year, and Uganda is nothing without him."

"They still have McIntyre!" argued Amber.

"He may be a good flier, but he doesn't even know where the god damn hoops are!"

Issy entered the conversation, "Wales? France?No chance... England's got the cup for sure, have you seen Jason Briggs fly?!"

"Errr, guys. Lily and moi are just going to go to my room." said Miranda softly as she and Lily quietly crept out of the room.

Miranda's room was hugely different to Jo's. Firstly it was very neat and was painted a light shade of turquoise. Her walls had only three posters; one of what looked like a band called 'White Wendy',another of the French Quidditch Team and the last was a photo of Miranda with a very butch looking girl with dark blonde hair and olive skin wearing quidditch robes.

"Who's that?"

Miranda looked up from packing her robes into her dresser, "who?"

"Her." Lily poked the picture, which moved away from the point where her finger had come into contact with the photo.

Miranda grinned, "Maria Gomez. You 'eard Joanna talking about 'er."

"Your house is pretty big." commented Lily.

"It has twenty-two rooms."

"Twenty-two?!"

"Would you like a guided tour?" asked Miranda with a smile.

"Would I ever!"

REVIEWS:

PadfootProngs- I'm not really sure when I'll have lily and james like talking talkingt to each other, but I want to keep the main action for later on in the story, like 5th year or maybe 4th. I'll prob do something with the dream soon. Thx for your review!

untouched angel - thx for your review!

stephanos - smooth steph, smooth. Lol. Anyway your still evil glares but its all good. Thx for the review btw.

Jacqui - awwww, thank you for all the wonderful compliments!

kirst - well aren't you just lazy then, and stop with the whole cover-up thing, it's... weird.

Jess T - thx for the review.

kiRST - go the drunkness! Feel proud kirst, you get two review replies...

tai-04 - thx, sorry bout not letting Sky come to peeps house for chrissie, but I had to leave someone behind, otherwise it would of been to happiful, and since Sky's an only child ... well yeh, thx for your review!

melly - melly, melly, melly. Thx.

JacquiJack - yay! Go me! L/J fanfics are heaps good! Thx for your review!

thx to all my wonderful reviewers (and friends). Keep reviewing ...

Laters

limbo-gal