Sweet Misery
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A few weeks later, Lily's father accompanied Lily to Kings Cross Station to see her off. She and her father stood between platform 9 and platform 10.
"What platform is it again, Lily?" her father asked.
"Nine and three-quarters," replied Lily, reading it straight off her ticket.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Daddy, look."
Lily handed her ticket to her father, then looked at the platform signs. Nine, then ten. She saw no sign of her platform.
"LIL! Hey Lil!" she heard someone shout from behind her. Lily turned and saw Gwynn running towards her.
"Gwynn, hi!" Lily said waving.
"Having trouble?" Gwynn asked, stopping her trolley next to Lily's.
"Yes," replied Lily. "Where's the platform?"
"Well, it's just right through that barrier right there." Lily looked at the barrier then back at Gwynn as if she was insane.
"Trust me!" Gwynn said.
"Okay," replied Lily, still a little skeptical. She turned to her father and said, "Well, Dad, I guess I'll see you at the end of the year."
"Bye Lily," he replied.
Gwynn and Lily began walking towards the barrier. Gwynn broke into a run, and Lily followed in suit behind her. As a reflex, Lily shut her eyes as she was about to hit the barrier, bracing herself for certain impact, but the crash never came. She opened her eyes and saw the platform and the scarlet steam engine.
"Wow..." Lily said in amazement.
"I know," replied Gwynn, grinning at Lily's stunned look. "C'mon, let's grab a compartment before we have to share with my brother."
"Which one?" Lily asked.
"Either." Gwynn led Lily on to the train and into a compartment close to the front of the train.
"This is going to be so awesome," stated Lily.
"Yeah, I can't wait," agreed Gwynn.
"I bet the classes are going to be great."
"My older brother, Liam, says that the classes are pretty cool except for History of Magic. The teacher drones on and on."
"Ick."
"Yeah, but at least we get to take flying classes."
"Cool! So, how old is Liam?"
"17. This is his last year at Hogwarts. He's Head Boy. Mum's really proud of him, well as proud as she gets for Liam, Sirius, and I. That type of proud is like, 'good job, now leave me in peace."
"Wow."
"Do you have any siblings?"
"Yes. One and she's horrible!"
"How bad?"
"She's practically my parents' favorite and she thinks she's so cool because she's fifteen and has a boyfriend."
"I'm sorry."
The door slid open at that moment, the door slid open to reveal a rather tall girl with long amber brown hair and opal eyes.
"Can I join you two?" she asked. "Everywhere else is full."
"Sure," Lily said.
The girl took a seat across from Lily and Gwynn.
"I'm Lily and this is Gwynn," Lily said.
"I'm Lauren," she replied.
"Nice to meet you," said Gwynn.
"Are you two first years too?" Lauren asked.
"Yep," chorused Lily and Gwynn.
"I can't wait to get to the school," said Lauren almost bouncing in her seat.
"We were just talking about that," stated Lily. "Gwynn has a brother who's in 7th year."
"He's Head Boy," Gwynn said.
"I have no siblings to speak of," Lauren said. "I kinda wish I did."
"The older kind are the worst," commented Lily.
"And twin brothers," added Gwynn.
"You have a twin brother?" Lauren asked.
"Yep, Sirius," replied Gwynn.
"I know you're serious," Lauren said.
"No, his name's Sirius!"
"Oh."
"Does that happen a lot?" Lily asked Gwynn.
"Most of the time," answered Gwynn.
"You guys like quidditch?" Lauren inquired.
"Yeah, I'm hoping to get on my house's quidditch team," replied Gwynn.
"Me too," Lauren agreed.
"Too bad first years aren't allowed."
"I know, it so sucks!"
"Um, what's quidditch?" Lily questioned not sure at all what they were talking about.
"Oh it's the greatest sport ever!" Gwynn said.
"Yeah! After seeing just one game you'll see how amazing it is!" Lauren exclaimed.
Gwynn and Lauren jumped into a huge explanation of Quidditch; it's rules, the players, the balls, and the many different types of fouls. Lily found the game rather interesting and listened intensely as Lauren was talking about the History of Quidditch. Gwynn then took over and talked about all these different moves. When the two finished explaining, they were nearly at Hogwarts. The three girls quickly changed into their uniforms. Upon pulling into the station, Gwynn, Lily, and Lauren hopped off the train.
"First years! First year over 'ere!" a man, who could only be described as gigantic compared to the first years, shouted over the voices of the students piling off the train.
"Come on," Lily said leading Lauren and Gwynn over to the tall man. Once reaching him, they ran into James, Sirius, and Remus.
"Hey Remus, Sirius, James" said Lily and Gwynn, though Gwynn left out Sirius in the greeting.
"Hey Lily," replied Remus.
"Hey," said Sirius. James just gave a quick wave before going back to aiming a dung bomb at some first years near the back of the group. As James threw the dung bomb, Sirius purposely bumped into James, throwing off his aim. The dung bomb flew completely off target and hit a seventh year girl who shrieked when it exploded. She was screaming for her friends to get the dung off her. Sirius and James held back laughter as on of the girl's friends, who turned out to be Head Girl, looked around to try and spot the culprit. After the girl was cleaned off and calmed down, they headed off for the carriages that took the older students to the castle.
"Gimme some of those," Sirius said as James pulled out a bag of dung bombs from his robe pocket.
"Oh, Lauren, this is Remus, Sirius, and James" Gwynn said, pointing to each of the boys. "Sirius, James, Remus, this is Lauren."
"Hi," Lauren said.
"Hey," replied Remus. James and Sirius didn't seem to notice that Gwynn or Lauren had said anything, as they were too busy throwing dung bombs at the older students.
The near giant man lead the large group of first years down to a fleet of boats after all the first years had arrived.
"No more than four to a boat!" he told them getting into his own boat.
The three girls climbed into a boat where another girl, who was carrying a book and began reading immediately when she sat down in the boat, joined them. Sirius, James, and Remus got into a boat with another boy. As soon as the boats set off, Sirius and his friends were forcing their boat closer to the girls.
"Sirius, what are you doing?" Gwynn shouted at him.
"Nothing!" he shouted back.
"This can't be good..." Gwynn said watching as the guys' boat came up right next to theirs.
"What do you think they're going to do?" Lily said softly to Gwynn and Lauren.
Lily's question was answered as James stood up and put one foot into the girls' boat and kept the other in his boat.
"We don't like our seat arrangements, care to trade?" James asked.
"What?" Lauren asked.
"Let's see... let's move you, Lily, " he pointed to Lily, "over to our boat and he will move over here." James grabbed Lily's hands and lifted her up.
"Hey!" Lily said.
"Aw come on!" He said. The boy had already moved on to her boat. Lily sighed and started to step into the guys' boat when suddenly, the boats separated sending Lily and James into the lake.
"Lily!" Gwynn and Lauren shouted as Remus and Sirius laughed their heads off. Lily and James emerged, coughing, from the water a few meters back.
"Hurry up or else you'll have to swim to the castle!" Sirius shouted at them.
Lily and James began swimming as fast as they could towards Sirius's boat. Sirius and Remus helped Lily into the boat and James climbed in on his own.
"That," said James wringing out his robes, "was not supposed to happen."
"I bet," replied Lily flipping back her hair.
"Well, James," said Sirius, "you've seemed to have found a new way to meet girls."
"Yeah, pull her into the lake and nearly drown her," Remus said. "The only way to get a girl."
"Shut up," James snapped.
"Yeah, Remus, Lily probably wants to murder him," Sirius said.
"Nope," said Lily surprising them all. She looked at their stunned faces. "Well, it was an accident. If it wasn't, then why would James have been standing in both boats?"
"Smart one she is," said James.
The group sat quietly till the boat pulled up to the castle. Lily ran to meet up with Gwynn and Lauren.
"This is going to be an interesting year," Gwynn said.
"Of course," replied Lily.
"Since there's James, Sirius, Remus, and me here," said Lauren.
"You?" Gwynn and Lily asked.
"Oh yes, though this place will be too easy, being an experienced prankster," replied Lauren.
"And how experienced are you?" said Lily.
"Let's just say, I haven't been allowed in half the shops in Diagon Alley since I was five," said Lauren.
"Well I think James and Sirius will be upset," said Gwynn. "Sirius is only banned from Flourish and Blotts, and James didn't even get kicked out of Olivander's after what we did."
"And what was that?" Lauren asked.
"Oh just jumping the counter and attacking each other with the wands," replied Lily.
"Just that?" said Lauren.
"Eh, Mr. O was pretty upset," said Gwynn.
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A/n: well there you have it! The revised chapter 4. I'm not bothering with Gwynn's wand containing a veela hair for the core because I made it work for the plot later in the story =^_^=. Enjoy!
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