Chapter 29:

Lily stared out the window as the cab slowed to a stop out side of King's Cross Station. Stepping out, she brushed back her auburn hair and walked to the back of the cab where the driver was unloading her trunk. Lily smiled politely and gave the man the fare and pulled her trunk away from the cab and into the bustling station. Grabbing a cart, she placed her trunk upon it and made her way to the wall between platforms nine and ten. She scanned the crowd as she approached the entrance to platform 9 ¾ for any sign of Lauren, James, Remus, Sirius, or Peter. She spotted James just about to go through the barrier and spend up a little to catch up to him. She opened her mouth to call to him when another cart knocked hers over. The lid popped open spilling a few of her books on to the ground. She and whomever bumped into her hastily placed every thing back into the trunk. After making sure to shut the lid tightly, Lily looked up to see who had ran into her. She recognized him as the guy who had paid for her Knight Bus fare.

"So sorry about that," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"I should've been watching where I was going, it's my fault," Lily replied.

"Oh no, it was my fault completely," he insisted. "You obviously had the right of way. It's people like me who don't yield the right of way that cause these near fatal cart accidents." Lily gave a small smile. "Yeah, I didn't think it was that funny either. Can I walk you to the train?"

"Sure, that would be nice Kyle." She smiled once again at Kyle, but this time meaning it. It had been a while since she had actually smiled since the terrible accident her mother had been involved in. She listened half heartedly as Kyle began to ramble on about frivolous things in Lily's mind, such as Quidditch and Hufflepuff's plans to win the House Cup, careful not to let slip any of their secret plays which he made known to Lily. As he continued to speak half coherently, Lily began to examine the features of his face, occasionally nodding as if understanding what he was trying to explain to her. She noticed he had a habit of running his hands through his golden blonde hair when he started to speak about something he knew very little about and how his pale blue eyes lit up when he spoke about Quidditch.

Someone shouting "Lils!" and the sudden feeling of weightlessness as she was lifted off the ground and thrown over someone's shoulder caught her off guard, snapping her out of her study. She gave a yelp of surprise and tried to struggle out of their grasp, but found her efforts futile. She looked back at the head of her capture and recognized the wild black hair.

"I thank you for finding her, Mr. Giovanni," James said, using one arm to hold Lily over his shoulder and the other to shake Kyle's hand who was a little stunned by the sudden action. Kyle just nodded at James, questioning if he had the slightest bit of sanity in his mind. "I don't know what Sirius and I would have done had we not found our dear little Lily before the train had left! Luckily you found her and protected her from those nasty seventh years! She's too young to be mingling with those rascals you know."

"Um, James?" Lily asked, still trying to escape James' grasp, though not as much as when he had initially thrown her over his shoulder. "Could you put me down?"

"I most certainly can't!" James exclaimed with a look, Lily assumed, of great shock. "If I put you down, you might be lost in this mass wave of students! You are coming straight to the compartment, young lady!" James then promptly turned and walked quickly towards the train.

"It was lovely speaking to you Kyle!" Lily shouted over the dull roar of students' voices as James made his way through the crowd, calling for Sirius.

"I'll see you… at… school…" Kyle shouted back, his voice slowly fading as Lily was carried further away. He sighed in annoyance, dragging his and Lily's abandoned trunk to the train.

"Sirius, I found darling Lily!" James shouted, catching Sirius's attention. Sirius promptly came running over.

"We were so frightened we were going to leave without you!" Sirius said feigning worry. He wiped pretend tears from his eyes. "The trip to Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without you Lil—" Sirius was cut off by Lauren jumping on to Sirius's back, startling him as he tried to regain balance. Lauren clung to him as Sirius straightened up trying to look as though he knew that was coming.

"Hi Siri," Lauren said, kissing his neck. She smiled as he tried to look annoyed with her, but he gave up quickly and returned her smile. "So, I see James has found you Lily, unless you are James's new girlfriend whom I haven't met yet."

"No," Lily replied, looking over her shoulder to Lauren, "it's me. James decided to 'rescue' me from Kyle Giovanni."

"Gasp!" Lauren exclaimed throwing her hand over her mouth. "Has dear Lillian found romance at last in the arms of a Hufflepuff? Say it is so! I do hate 'Depressed Lily'." Lauren looked eagerly at Lily for her reply. Lily did her best to shrug and say something that was drowned out by the shrill whistle of the train. Lauren looked at her confused as she was carried on to the train by Sirius with James and Lily following.

Lily was finally dropped into a seat in the compartment that Peter had been reserving for the group. Lauren sat across from her, resting her elbows on her knees. James and Sirius had pulled out a deck of cards to play exploding snap while Peter watched, afraid to play. The group sat quietly for a moment till Lauren broke the silence.

"So, is he?" she asked, staring intently at Lily waiting for an answer.

"No, he isn't, but there's a possibility," replied Lily, shrugging nonchalant. "Quite chatty though."

"Quidditch?"

"Of course, he's Hufflepuff's seeker, though he did stray to other topics proving himself to have a multi-track mind. Though Quidditch is fantastic to watch, listening to someone talk about it isn't always so fascinating." Lily opened her mouth to continue, but the door to their compartment slid open and in walked Remus. He dropped into the space between Sirius and Lily and shifted his robes a little, trying to hide a shiny pin under folds of fabric.

"Our resident prefect has just arrived!" Lauren announced as Remus rolled his eyes. "So, how are the other prefects of our year?"

"Dull," Remus replied. "I honestly don't understand how I was chosen to be a prefect. The others refuse to stray from any rules set by the school and if it's not in the rules, you absolutely cannot do it. Those people do not know how to have any fun." A small rustling was heard from his pocket as a white rodent stuck its head out of the top of his pocket. The rodent blinked its bright ruby eyes as it slowly crept out of his pocket and up his arm. Remus had seemed to have taken no notice to the rodent and continued to complain about the prefects that had been chosen. The rodent climbed up to Remus's shoulder and stared across towards Peter, who looked as if he had seen a ghost. The rodent then climbed down Remus's chest and down to his knee. Peter tried to back away from the creature, but found it no use thanks to the seat behind him. In a quick movement, the rodent jumped to Peter's leg and ran up to his shoulder, where Peter promptly gave a yelp of fear and tried to push the rodent off him as the rodent dodged each swipe. Remus looked over and grabbed the white rodent and held back laughter.

"Sorry 'bout that Peter," Remus said, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. "Rai's a curious little bugger." Peter was trembling and staring at the albino creature in Remus's hands.

"What is it?" Lauren said reaching out and petting it.

"A ferret," replied Remus. "My parents gave it to me as a late birthday gift." Remus loosened his grip on the ferret and let it run around the floor of the compartment. Once the ferret was set on the floor of the compartment, Peter pulled his feet off the ground and clutched his legs close to his chest.

"Aw, what's wrong Peter?" James said teasingly. "Scared of a little ferret?" James snatched the ferret from the ground and held it inches from Peter's face. Peter shrieked and covered his face. The group laughed as the ferret gave a quick chirp and crawled up James's arm and up to his head, where it curled up. After sharing a good laugh, the group resumed their prior actions. Remus joined Sirius and James in a few games of Exploding Snap before losing interest in the game and using the deck for a game of poker. They some how managed to rope Peter into the game. Not wanting to waste money as bets, they put up future homework assignments for the upcoming year. Lily and Lauren's interests were perked when they heard about this and joined the games. Using the rules that who ever had the lowest hand or whose hand exploded first would take the assignments, Peter ended up with the greatest amount of assignments to do. The train was just pulling into Hogsmeade station when Sirius threw down his cards saying "Full house, baby!" As the cards hit the table, there was a loud 'bang' as the cards exploded, catching the corner of the sleeve of his robes.

"I was so close to escaping with no homework to do!" Sirius said checking the little burn left on his robes by the cards. He sighed disappointedly as James swept up the cards and put them in his pocket. The group stood up and made their way out of their compartment and into the hallway with all the other students trying to make their way off the train. Remus's ferret jumped off James's head and on to Remus's shoulder, where he remained.

Once off the train and onto the platform at Hogsmeade station, the students, minus the first years who were herding around Hagrid, walked down to the horseless carriages that would take them up to the castle. Peter once again saw the creatures that he had seen at the end of the prior year. He once again pointed this out to the other Marauders and to Lauren and Lily. The Marauders looked at Peter as if he was losing his mind and continued to walk on. Lauren shrugged and replied, "Sorry Pete, I don't see anything," but Lily stared at the front of the carriages questioningly.

"When did they get creatures to pull the carriages?" she asked. The creatures resembled a horse though it had a face more like a dragon and large wings. They were completely skin and bones, as if they hadn't been fed in a while. The others paused and looked back at Lily then back at the carriages.

"Lily, there's nothing there," James said.

"Yes there is, can't you see them?" Lily replied.

"Maybe they're invisible?" Lauren suggested, shrugging. "You know it's possible for some things to be seen by some people and not by others."

"Let's stop worrying about what's there or isn't there," Sirius said. "I'm starving and I can hear that feast calling my name."

"That's all you ever think about Sirius," Remus commented, shaking his head and moving his ferret into his pocket. Peter and Lily, taking one last look at the creatures in front of the carriages and separated into two carriages; Sirius, Lauren, and Remus in one, and James, Lily, and Peter in another. As soon as the doors to their carriages shut, they began to head down the dirt path towards the castle and the beginning of their fifth year at Hogwarts.


A/n: HOLY CRAP! I'm alive! It's only been… nine months. He he… At least I continued, right? Could be worse I guess. I could have never finished this story. It's just been a really hectic year. In school from 7-6… It can really kill a girl, you know? Anyway, I'm going to move on and work on the next chapter of Lose it All before starting on chapter thirty of Sweet Misery. That's going to be my pattern of work from now on.