I am fixing this chapter! Look at it, skim, whatever, but I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: J.K. owns this, not me. I only own what you don't recognize…
~Neutral POV~
Lily Evans walked out of her house and to the house next door. She had a look on her face, like someone was tickling and punching her at the same time. It was her birthday, but it didn't feel so happy after breakfast. When the owl swooped in and changed her life forever. When she accepted the owl, she accepted the fate of going with it.
Walking up the steps of the house, Lily took in a deep breath, and rang the bell. Waiting about five seconds, she walked in.
"KARI!!" she yelled up the stairs.
"Coming!" a voice yelled from up the stairs.
Karina came down the stairs looking as upset as Lily felt.
"What's wrong?" they asked at the same time.
They giggled a little nervously. There was a yell from upstairs. Karina grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her outside and down to the little park. They both sat on the swings, lightly walking back and forth.
"So, what's going on with your parents today?" Lily asked.
Karina black hair hung over her face. She looked up with her crystal blue eyes and said, "My mom wants me to go to this boarding school, and dad says no."
"Oh, Kari! My mom and dad decided that I can go to this absolutely wonderful boarding school! I don't want to leave, you, but they said that it could give me a really good life, and its just, well, I want you to come."
Lily's vivid green eyes looked away from her best friend and towards the ground.
"Lily, you just said that really fast and I almost didn't understand it. Don't worry about me, though, I'll be fine. Daddy hasn't gotten drunk in a month! Go, or I'll be mad at you." Kari said, looking at Lily, "And besides, I'll probably be going to a boarding school to. The one my mom wants me to go to sounds just as lovely as yours."
Lily swept a piece of her auburn hair out of her face and said, "Really?"
"Yes, really, really."
"Well, if that's the case, then I'll race you home! My party starts in half an hour and I get to decorate this year!"
"You're on! I want to put up some streamers!"
And with that, the two girls raced down the street, each feeling a little lighter at the heart, but another weight of another kind settled on them, not sad, but scared of leaving their normal lives.
~August 31~
"Bye Lily. I'm going to miss you." Kari said, her eyes brimming with tears.
"I'll miss you more Kari." Lily said, her eyes overflowing.
The two eleven year olds hugged each other with promises of writing, and then broke apart.
"This is for you." Kari handed Lily a wrapped box.
"I have something for you too." Lily took out a second wrapped parcel.
Both unwrapped the boxes and giggled sadly. There were two identical necklaces. A long silver chain with a crescent moon and a star.
"I'll see you at Christmas. I'm coming home." Lily said.
"Me too. Have fun."
"Yeah, I'll try. Bye Kari."
"Bye Lily."
Karina walked out of Lily's room and down the stairs, a tear falling each time she stepped farther away from her friend, wondering if she would really keep in close touch with her, or if it was just a childhood friendship meant for failure.
…The Next Morning…
"I'm going to be late!" Kari screeched as she ran along the platform. "Nine and three quarters…where is it?"
Looking around, she saw platform nine, and ten, but nothing else.
Sighing, she leaned on the brick wall, and instantly, she slid through. The first thing she saw was a scarlet train with the words 'Hogwarts Express' written on the side.
"I made it!" Kari said brightly, then headed off to find a compartment.
Lily made her way down the station looking for the right platform. 'Good thing I asked about the platform in Diagon Alley.' Lily thought. She looked at the barrier, and took a running start and suddenly, the 'Hogwarts Express' materialized in front of her. Smiling, she went off to find a compartment.
Kari found an empty compartment in the very back of the train. She went in and sat down.
'I wish Lily was here.' she thought. Then, the compartment door opened.
Lily walked down the aisle to find a compartment. She opened the very last one and screamed.
"LILY!"
"KARI!"
Kari jumped up and her and Lily hugged. They sat down and proceeded to tell each other their stories.
"I got the letter and I wanted to go, but I didn't want to leave you. My mom and dad said whatever I wanted and Petunia just screamed 'freak' and ran off." Lily said smiling, though it still hurt to think Petunia, her adored older sister now thought of her as something to scoff at.
"Well, I got my letter and my dad read it. He was like, no, her abilities are our responsibility. My mom wants me to get away from there so she agreed and tried to convince my dad. That's when you came over. When I got home, mom was yelling something along the lines of, 'You know what she can See! They will help her so she doesn't wake up screaming.' And then it was decided I would go." Kari said frowning.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked.
"Do you think they can really help me control what I See?" Kari asked.
"I hope so."
"Me too."
Suddenly, the compartment door opens again and two boys come in, followed by two more.
"Can we sit here?" a boy with black hair asks.
"I don't care." Lily said.
"Me either." Kari said.
They both watched the boys settle into seats.
"I'm Sirius Black, by the way," the boy with black and dark blue eyes said, holding out his hand. Karina and Lily both took it.
"James Potter." said the boy that walked in with him. He had dark, unruly hair and hazel eyes, nodding his head.
"Remus Lupin." a boy with light brown hair said, he smiled a little nervously.
"Peter Pettigrew." the fourth boy squeaked. He was the shortest, with a dirty blonde hair color. He blushed when Lily and Kari smiled at him.
Lily looked at them, then said, "Lily Evans."
"Karina Karr."
Lily and Kari eyed them. Remus seemed a little sick, his eyes had dark circles under them, and he looked really tired.
"What year are you in?" Remus asked.
"First." Lily and Kari said at the same time.
"Same here." James said.
"What house do you want to be in?" Sirius asked nonchalantly, glancing out the window as they left London behind and the green countryside coming up quickly.
Lily considered the question.
"Well, I think Gryffindor sounds great, but Ravenclaw doesn't sound too bad either, so I guess it's a tie…" Lily said.
"I think Ravenclaw sounds really good, more like my type of place, from what I've read, but Gryffindor would be awesome to be in." Kari said, thinking on it.
"Gryffindor is what I want to be in!" all four of the boys said.
"We'll just have to see when we get there." Kari said.
"Yeah, I guess so." Sirius said smiling.
"Are you girls Muggle born's?" James asked.
"Yes. And what of it?" Kari said. She had a rather nasty experience at Diagon Alley with being a 'mudblood' so they put it.
"Nothing. I just wanted to make conversation."
"Alright then."
Lily started laughing at this point.
"Hey stop laughing!" Kari said, "Stop! People in Diagon Alley were making a big deal out of it, and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to put up with it the whole way there. It wasn't the most pleasant time I had having my robes fitted."
Karina made the mistake of looking back at Lily, and she was laughing still.
"What, may I ask, is so funny?"
"You looked so stupid saying the bit about the robe fitting!"
Karina looked at Lily, who was almost crying she was laughing so hard, that she couldn't help but start laughing too.
Peter looked at them and asked Remus, "What's so funny?"
"She…takes everything…as an…offense…" Lily laughed pointing at Kari.
"I do not." Kari stopped laughing suddenly.
After a while, Lily stopped, but wouldn't look at Karina, or she would start giggling.
The witch with the food tray came by, and they bought their food.
"I've never even heard of half this stuff." Lily commented, dumping some of her chocolate on the seat, "I just saw chocolate and bought it."
"Lily, so you remember the last time you did that? You ended up being allergic to the filling." Karina smiled at the memory.
"Well yeah, but some on, how bad could this get?"
"No comment on my part."
"Shut it."
Karina didn't say anything, but picked up a chocolate frog and stuffed it in her mouth.
"How long have you guys known each other?" Remus asked suddenly.
"Ummm… well, forever. Even before we were born, our parents knew each other from the army. They were trooped together when stationed in America, so they knew each other quite well." Lily said, cocking her head to side while thinking.
"Did you guys live in America?" Peter asked quietly.
"Yeah, from when we were seven till we were nine. Sometimes, when I get angry, you can here my little southern accent coming through. Its rather funny." Karina said, a little thoughtfully.
"That's interesting." Remus commented, opening a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.
"What about you guys, you seem pretty chummy, how long have you known each other?" Karina asked, picking up a pumpkin pasty, and handing it to Lily, who swapped her for a licorice wand.
"Well, me and Sirius here, have known each other since we were about six. We met Remus in Diagon Alley after we knocked down some bookshelves in Flourish and Blotts, he was laughing at Snape, who had a large bruise over his eyes because of it." James paused to laugh at that and then continued, "We just met Peter on the platform. He looked alone, so we took him under our wing, and here we are."
"Ah, that's interesting. DO you, umm, often, pull off things like that?" Lily asked hesitantly.
"Well yeah, you're only a kid once ya know." Sirius popped into the conversation.
"That's interesting. Just listen to me now, I better not find anything like that being done to me, or you can be sure you'll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life." Lily said, in a pleasant conversational tone, like she was commenting on the weather, or a new piece of clothing.
"Oh, we're scared now." James put on a mock scared voice.
"You should be, she's bad enough without magic, but just think, with it, she'll be terrible. I still remember that one time, remember Lils, when you did that to Pet?" Karina left off laughing.
"Oh yeah, " Lily blushed then looked up, "She deserved it." She burst out laughing.
All four boys looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
Some hours later, after small talk, and many inside jokes that left one group or the other in the dark, the train slowed down. Then, the train stopped, and they were there.