Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognise.
AN: I'd like to thank reviewers, Demon Faerie Aeryka, who was my first reviewer, yay for you! You get extra cookies! And also Sincerity Inkwell, Black Lily, Cam, and Away with the Fairies4. You guys made me want to keep this story going! Thanks 's much!
Chapter Two: Home is Where the Heart is
"Goodbye, Lily, sweetheart, send owls when you can." my mother, Helen, told me, crying a little.
"Yes, Lily, take care of yourself. Be good." my father, Charles said, his arm around me.
"I will mum, dad, don't worry." I gave them a reassuring smile. I hugged them again, and ran swiftly through the barrier with my trunk and Diana in her cage. Almost immediately I was practically knocked to the ground as somebody threw themselves at me. Gathering myself and managing to push the offender off, I saw that it was Sirius Black. I gave him a dark scowl, but I couldn't manage to keep a small smile off of my face. Sometimes I can't stand the boy, and other times he's just the cutest thing you ever saw.
"Lily darling!" he shouted at me, grinning.
"Sirius." I said quickly, trying to get away before he could see I was about to smile.
"Oh, Lily honey, you cannot hide from me, you may as well smile, go on, I won't tell anyone." he gave me an arrogant grin and play punched my chin.
"Sirius, dearest, I wouldn't give you the satisfaction." I told him with a smirk, my hands on my hips. He just grinned devilishly at me, winked, and jumped on the train. I shook my head and pulled my trunk and cage onto the train. I was surprised that none of the other Marauders were will him. Usually they never go anywhere without each other, regardless that it's just boarding the train and they probably all hadn't arrived together.
I heaved my things to my usual compartment, and was greeted with Emma and Maddy.
"Lils! Oh you look great!" Emma pounced on me, much the way Sirius had done, only not as hard, and I grinned over her shoulder. Maddy greeted me happily as well, with a one armed hug, as I had my bag in my hand, and I pushed my things into the storage area.
"Alright, I'm off to the Prefect compartment." I told them, after putting my Prefect badge onto the robes I just put on.
"Oh, of course you are. Can't think about anything but your duties." Maddy mumbled, grinning.
"And Remus." Emma added with a smirk. I sent her a glare.
"I don't like Remus that way at all!"
Emma just stared knowingly and I all but ran out of the room before she could say anything else on the subject.
I walked quickly down to the Prefect compartment, getting nervously excited at the thought of seeing Remus again. I walked in, returning quick hellos with the Prefects, most of whom I was on friendly terms with, and came to stand in front of Remus, who was situated between a Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Prefect, looking absolutely amazing. He grinned up at me, standing, and pulled me into a hug. "Hey, Lily." he murmured into my hair, and I could barely mumble a hello because of the shock at how close he was, that his strong arms were around me, holding me close to his warm body. We held each other a few moments longer than normal friends would, and let go almost shyly. I sat across from him, turning my attention to the Head Boy and Girl. Sally, from Gryffindor, was a real dear, and I could see why she'd been made Head Girl. I didn't know Rick all that well, but I wasn't really acquainted well with the seventh year Ravenclaws, but he was nice enough, and I was on very good terms with Sally.
After telling us our Prefect duties, a speech very similar to last year's, and giving us our times to patrol the train, we all filtered out. I held back a moment, as Remus was one of the last to leave, and we walked together down the train.
"You must be so excited to be back." he said, looking at me quickly, throwing a grin.
"Yes, I'm so happy."
"That's because you're you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I questioned. I used to get like that. I was always a bit angry that everyone thought school was everything to me. I knew I loved it, but it wasn't my entire life. Sometimes I wondered why people didn't see that. Now I realise it's because I took school so seriously, it took most people a while to even see past Prefect Lily.
"Nothing." he said calmly. "Just that you love school."
"School isn't the only thing I'm interested in." I snapped at him.
"I know. You're interested in a lot of things. They make you uniquely Lily."
"Er...is that a bad thing?" I had no clue where he was going with this.
"No, not at all. I like Lily. All of her." he stopped walking, looking at me for a moment. "See you in an hour and a half." Then he turned and walked into the Marauders usual compartment.
I stood there for a moment, surprised and happy at what he said. Realising I was standing with my mouth hanging open in the middle of the train, I regained my composure and walked back to my own compartment, trying to keep the smile from my face, lest Emma make an accurate assumption why.
"Hey there, Lilo. How'd it go?" Emma asked, staring pointedly.
"Fine, same as it was last year."
"Uh huh. And how's Remus?" she asked, an evil grin starting to form.
"I suppose he's fine."
"Uh huh." she said again. Thankfully, though, she stopped.
Then Maddy began describing her trip to Switzerland visiting her grandparents, and we listened and laughed for another half hour. We then discussed school for this year, and the position of the wizarding world, something we were all worried about. We discussed Voldemort gaining power, and the mild hysteria that had sent in, that was sure to increase as our time at Hogwarts drew closer to it's end.
A bit afterwards I realised it was time for me to go patrol, and bid my friends farewell for a bit, shutting the door behind me. Remus was leaning against the other side of the hall, looking rather sexy, slouching like that.
I blushed a bit. "Sorry, am I late?" I asked softly.
"No, I'm just early." he said, smiling shyly to the ground, probably because of what he had said earlier.
I wondered if he was early because he had wanted to see me, or if he was just early because he was a good Prefect. I decided not to ponder on this, as it'd probably make me feel badly, even if it was just a small thing. I'm like that, even now. Small things can make me so upset. I suppose sometimes it's funny something so miniscule can set me into a frenzy, but at the moment when it happens, it pierces me.
We started down the hall in a comfortable silence, listening for trouble and randomly peaking into rooms to make sure everyone was okay, and that the first years weren't too afraid, or hadn't gotten so scared they wet themselves. In my fourth year a first year had done that, and ever since the Prefects had been told to keep a look out. We reached Snape and Malfoy's compartment, looking at each other, silently asking if we needed to check on them. After a moment we just walked away.
"I don't hear anything, so they're not killing another student. If they're killing each other, though, it's probably best not to interfere anyway." I said shrugging. He looked at me, grinning.
After we had been up and down the train once, we were done and he walked me back to my compartment. "Right, well, bye then." he mumbled quietly, and walked quickly back to his friends. I smiled at his back and went in to my own.
A bit after lunch, after the girls and I had eaten an indecent amount of candy off of the trolley, we got a rather unexpected and unwanted surprise.
"Hello, ladies!" Sirius Black called, swinging the door opened and leaning in, holding the knob. I groaned loudly. Oh no, not the Marauders, we hadn't even reached school yet. But alas, Sirius just grinned and strode inside. He picked up Emma's hand, kissing it, and she pulled back, swatting him in the process, and trying to look annoyed. She fancied him, it was painfully obvious, to me anyway. But to everyone else she remained his sweet enemy, constantly fighting and slapping him. "Maddy, darling." he said, nodding to her. "Lady Lily." he addressed me, also with a nod.
And after Sirius came my greatest adversary. The one boy I truly could not stand. James Potter himself. He swaggered up to me, smirking, and ruffled his hair. "Why, Lily, don't you look beautiful. Even more so than last year, if that's possible."
"I don't think it is, Potter, as you said the same thing last year, as well." I retorted.
It didn't faze him in the least, though. "Ah, well, it's true now, also." He smirked down at me. I hated that smirk. I longed to reach up and slap it off of him.
He sat down across from me and next to Emma, who had Sirius on the other side of her. "Oh, you're staying then?" Maddy asked politely.
"No, they're not." I snapped.
"Nah, I think we'll stay a bit." James said, leaning back and propping his feet up on my lap. I shoved them off quickly and gave him a dirty glare. Maddy, beside me, placed and hand on my arm, trying to calm me. "Come on in, guys." James yelled.
Remus came meekly in, as though worried I'd bite his head off too. As if I ever could. Maddy scooted over a bit, and he took the space between her and the window, and across from Sirius. Emma sent her a stare, saying that she should have made room for him near me, but Maddy just rolled her eyes, clearly telling Emma she was being stupid and childish. Peter followed last, and comfortably made room for himself on the floor.
"Okay, no fair guys, why do I get the floor?"
"Because. I want to be near Emma, James wants to stare at Lily, even if it makes him look pathetic, Remus wants to do the whole sensitive guy, staring out the window thing, and we can't make any of the ladies sit on the floor." Sirius answered matter of factly. Remus sent him a playful glare.
For the better part of an hour, Sirius talked Emma's ear off, despite her constant retorts to shut up, James trying much the same thing with me, only resorting to talk to Peter when it was clear I wouldn't even listen to him, Remus stared out the window, looking a bit uncomfortable when James said something flattering, but to me, insincere, and Maddy looked on with amusement at it all.
"Sirius, chess?" Peter asked from the floor.
"Yes, alright." Sirius got up, sitting across from Peter giving Emma room to spread out a bit again, making Remus chuckle, and Maddy lent them her chess set.
I pulled out Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six, which served two purposes. Read, which I loved to do, and hide my face from James. Remus, who also loved to read, looked over, and told me what spell he really liked from that book. He switched positions with Maddy, pulling my book closer to him and flipping the pages to show me. His hand would randomly brush mine, searching for it, and I let my hair fall around my face to hide my blush. Maddy and Emma shared a knowing smirk at this.
"Hey, Evans." James spoke. "Go out with me? Come on, just once this year?"
"No." I said, barely glancing up. I bent my head back down to the page Remus was showing me, trying to ignore James' whines.
During Peter and Sirius' fifth game of chess, which had gone on that long because Sirius refused to lose and kept declaring Peter was cheating every time he won, Maddy announced they'd probably be arriving soon, as it was getting dark, and forced the boys out so that she and Emma could change.
The train ground to a halt, and we opened the compartment. "Ready for an awesome year girls?" Emma asked us, grinning.
"Oh yeah." we both grinned back, and walked off the train, arm in arm. We found an empty carriage, and were soon joined by Isabelle Wellman, another good friend of ours and another fellow sixth year Gryffie.
We chatted happily all the way to the castle. I looked out the window a moment, and my head whipped back to it, suddenly intrigued. As you may have seen, I have a fascination with the sky that I can't even fully explain. One can surmise one of my favourite classes is Astronomy. It was growing dark, looking as though it might rain as well, and the sky had turned grey, but was tinged with orange hues, and though a painter had taken his brush and thrashed it onto the canvas. You're probably wondering why I found this so captivating, and it's because it was pretty and depressing at the same time. It gave you that feeling of happiness and sadness all at once. I looked away after a bit though, because I was home, and was immensely happy about this. I didn't need to become immersed in my thoughts just then.
When we arrived, I was pulled from my thoughts and felt a tugging on my arm. "Come on Lily, honey, up to the castle." Belle said as though I was a child. Her voice was full of laughter and I smacked her.
We ran into the school, and flowed with the throng of students into the Great Hall, taking seats in the middle of the Gryffindor table, Maddy going to Ravenclaw. The first years came in, and it struck me, as it had for a few years, that I was once that small and scared looking, which hardly seemed possible now. McGonagall brought out the hat on the stool, and the frightened first years, one by one, ascended the stairs next to her to have their fates decided. You may think that's silly, referring to it has deciding their future, but it's not.
You see, to me it's like Slytherins, may not be bad going into the house, but a lot of them are evil coming out of it. Like Gryffindors may not be brave going in, but once their education is over, they've learned to be, just being surrounded by people who are, and expected to be because of their house. There are exceptions, of course, some Slytherins work against Voldemort, and some Gryffindors aren't all good. I know this, because currently my husband is suspecting one of his close friends to be in a league with Voldemort. I don't know if it's true or not, but if it is, well, you see my point.
After the feast, in which James and especially Sirius stuffed their faces to the point of utter revoltingness a few seats down from us, Dumbledore stood up to make his start of term speech.
"Ah, welcome to another year of Hogwarts. Mr. Filch has kindly asked me to remind you all that no magic is to be used within corridors, and the objects forbidden in hallways can be reviewed in his office. I'd like to remind all first years, and older students as well, that the Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits. I'd also like to remind you all that you must be in your common room by curfew, as your professors, as well as Prefects and Head Boy and Girl will be patrolling the halls." Here he shot an amused look at the Gryffindor table. "Alright, off to bed with you then."
Remus and I immediately stood up. "First years, this way!" I called out down the table. "Come on now, all first years please follow me!" A group of rather small children came toward me, and Remus appeared next to me, and we silently made our way up the stairs. We kept glancing back to make sure we hadn't lost any of the first years, and when I did while we were on the third floor, I immediately scowled and nudged Remus. "Reem, would you go tell your friends to stop corrupting the first years?" I asked, annoyed. He looked back and saw James and Sirius were talking to the first years with grins on their faces, and many of the students looked either scared or in awe.
Remus looked uncomfortable. "I'm sure they're not doing any permanent damage." I sighed, exasperated. I may be mad about the boy, but when it comes to reprimanding his friends because he was a Prefect, he just couldn't do it.
We walked the rest of the way to Gryffindor tower in silence. "Faerie dust." I said loudly to the Fat Lady, so that the students could hear, and walked in first. The first years came after, Remus bringing up the rear, and some other Gryffies in older years behind him. "Alright then. This is the Gryffindor common room, where you'll probably spend a lot of your time. Boy's dormitories are up the stairs to the left, girl's to the right." The first years scampered up to their dormitories almost immediately, as well as a few others, but many of us plopped down into the comfy chairs around the room.
I had always loved the common room. It was a nice soothing red colour, with random gold bits sprinkled in the walls and threads on the rug. The pillows on the furniture were also the same golden colour. There was a sofa with a warm blanket on top of it, a love seat, and a few cozy chairs in a semi-circle around to the massive fireplace, along with a table in the middle. Of to the right of this circle were the large stairs up to the dormitories. The rest of the common room had random other comfortable chairs, along with harder ones surrounding work tables. I settled myself on the couch in front of the fire, content on looking into the flames.
I sat there, basking at the feeling of my home until midnight, when I forced myself up the stairs so I'd be refreshed for class tomorrow. I changed into pajamas acquired from my trunk, and fell into the cool sheets and large bed I had missed so much over the summer. I drank in the smell of the freshly cleaned pillow cases, and drifted off to sleep, happy now that I was finally back where I belonged.
I woke up the next day invigorated and ecstatic. The sun was just creeping to the room. Emma's bed was situated right under it. Looking at her bed from the middle of the room, to the left of it was the bathroom, and then following the circular wall came my bed. To the left of mine was the dorm door, next to this a closet, and to the left of that, Belle's bed, and then came the wall and back to Emma's. Neither of them had risen yet, so I stretched, grabbed my clothes, and went to take a shower.
Afterwards, when I was dressed in my school robes, my hair a bit damp, because I always preferred the dark curls as opposed to the bright red my hair usually was, I walked out to Emma's bed. I patted her feet a bit, trying to wake her, and listened to her mumble. Then I pulled Belle's covers down again, laughing at her messy blond locks, and waited for them to rise. After they battled it out for the bathroom and both were dressed, we gathered our books and talked down to breakfast.
"Evans, you're looking charming today."
I eyed Potter suspiciously, knowing something was up.
"First Hogsmeade weekend. You and me."
"Yes, I imagine we'll both be going."
"Really?" he asked, excited.
"Separately of course." I smirked. "When will you give this up, Potter?"
"When you agree to a date."
"Never then." I sighed dramatically.
Emma, Belle and I went off to Transfiguration. The room was styled like Muggle college lecture rooms, with rows ascending upwards. I walked up the stairs to the second row from the front, and we plopped ourselves in the middle, our usual seats. The Marauders sauntered in a few moments before the bell, taking their usual seats in the back.
"Thank you, for deciding to grace us with your presence." McGonagall said to them, giving them a stare.
"Anything for you, Minnie." Sirius answered back, grinning cheekily, his chair tilted back, feet propped up on the table, hands behind his head.
"Five points for Gryffindor, Mr. Black." she said, almost with no emotion, having been through this for four years prior.
After we'd reviewed what we'd done last year, we left for Herbology. "Ah." I mumbled happily as we dug in the dirt to place in the ground one of the more dangerous plants.
"You are sick. You have a dirt fetish." Emma told me.
"I do not!" I all but shouted at her.
"Er...Lil...you sort of do..." Belle muttered, trying not to smile.
"I do not have a dirt fetish!" I screamed at them, standing up. The greenhouse went silent. I felt my face glowing red and slunk down to the ground, working intently.
"Gee Evans, I didn't know you were so dirty." James smirked at his own joke.
"Oh, shove it Potter." I told him.
"Where?" he asked. I just about slapped him. I stood up to face him, glaring up into his idiotic eyes. Oh, little did I know I would love those eyes later.
"I'm sure it's small enough to fit anywhere." I told him brazenly. He stared as though I struck him, and Emma was practically killing herself trying to cover up her laugh with a cough.
Sirius walked over to her at proceeded to smack her on the back, which only caused the laughing to worsen, and she was having a harder time trying to maintain them.
After lunch, two more classes, and dinner, I lied down and fell into a right sleep, happy with how my first day had been, and happy that James had been fuming over what I'd said for most of the day.
I woke up the next morning, pulled the other two out of bed, and we went to breakfast rather early. I was annoyed, however, as James began to walk up to me. I could tell by his face he was going to answer about what I said the day before. "Ah, Evans. I'd just like to inform you, that it most certainly is not small enough to fit anywhere." Oh, James Potter, for the love of Merlin, why could he not leave me alone?
"Potter, I don't give a rat's arse the size of it, or where it's been."
"Well, would you like to find out for yourself?"
I just about smacked him, I had the urge to so badly. But with the teachers at their table, and my wanting to be perfect and a good student, I refrained. "I would rather someone stabbed me in the heart and laughed maliciously as my dead body spread blood in a pool around their feet."
He just stared. "That's..."
"Morbid?" Sirius interjected.
"Gross?" Peter offered.
"Funny?" Remus asked innocently.
James glared at him.
"See, Remus gets me." I told James, and walked away from him, taking a seat near my friends. I didn't see him shoot a jealous stare at his close friend.
Suddenly, when breakfast began, every Slytherin at the table turned into a bat.
"Potter!" two voices screamed. One was mine. The other was McGonagall's. James looked almost confused as to who to pay attention to, but since McGonagall was a professor, of course he was her's to handle.
"You, you, you, and you." She pointed at each of the Marauders in turn. "Come with me." she walked out of the Great Hall, the four boys behind her, and so ended a usual morning.
At the end of the week, at seven at night, I made my way down to the common room and met up with Remus. We had the first Prefect meeting of the year. One was held every two weeks. He was standing by a couch, looking expectant. And also gorgeous. He looked at me, giving a soft smile, and I practically swooned. He let me walk first out of the portrait, and we walked in silence to the meeting. This was almost funny. All the time during the day, and when I was lying in bed at night, I was forever thinking of things I'd like to say to him, to talk to him about. And then when I was with him, I couldn't think of anything, and if I could, it seemed stupid then.
We walked into the room, sitting almost as far away from Lucius Malfoy as we could get, almost by second-nature. Sally talked about duties, most of which I zoned out, because I had heard this last year, and Remus Lupin was sitting so close to me, that if I reached out my fingers, they would brush him. She handed out the schedules for patrol times, and then Rick took over.
"The first Hogsmeade weekend is the third Saturday of October. Please be sure to leave this message on your house bulletin. That's all, and sixth year Hufflepuffs, remember, you're patrolling tomorrow. You may all go."
Everybody rose, and I was almost surprised to see that everyone managed to get out of the room without a skirmish. We may be Prefects, but Slytherins still didn't get along with most people. Remus and I walked slowly back up to the tower, both purposefully walking as leisurely as possible so as to stay with each other longer. "So, how was your first week?" he asked me quietly.
"Oh, it was fine, thanks. Yours?"
"Good. I've found it especially amusing to see you outwit James all week, though."
"Yes, well, it's not all that amusing from the other end." I told him, albeit lightly.
He frowned a bit, and I was at once angry with myself for upsetting him. "Oh, I'm sorry." he mumbled.
"No, no, it's quite alright." I gave him a reassuring smile, and the smile a received back in return made my heart melt.
We entered the Gryffindor common room. I stopped, grabbed a parchment, quill, and ink from my bag, and wrote neatly the notice that the first Hogsmeade weekend was the third week of October. Remus stood still and waited while I scribbled it and tacked it on the notice board.
"Goodnight." I mumbled softly, because his friends were still in the common room, and I'd rather not have to deal with them.
"Goodnight, Lily." he said softly and sweetly, shooting me that amazing smile, and I hurried up the stairs before James could ask me out again.
AN: Sorry if it's getting too Lily/Remus for you. This isn't an AU, she'll end up with James, don't worry. But, I am somewhat of a romantic, and I'm having enough problems trying to not put too much Lily/Remus fluff in it already. Right then, well, kay. Review then.