Chapter 3: The Return to Hogwarts

The sun was shining brightly on the morning of Saturday, August 31st. All was quiet outside the McKennely's two-story house. You would think that everyone was sleeping peacefully inside, but once you got close enough, your opinion would drastically change.

"Chelsea Anne McKennely, you and your friends need to be down here and ready to leave in five minutes! We already called a cab," Mr. McKennely called from the first level.

Frantically looking around the room, Chelsea said, "Ok dad. Dacota have you seen my wand?"

Lily lifted the lid of her trunk off the ground to try and cram it down on top and noticed the 10 ½" wand underneath. "Stop fretting Chel, it's right here."

"Oh thank God," Chelsea sighed with evident relief. She shoved it into her suitcase and asked, "Are you guys ready?"

Rolling her own case out of the bedroom door and down the stairs, Dacota called back, "Way ahead of you mate."

The group made their way down to the front door, outside, and into the waiting cab. The muggle driver gave them all weird looks as each girl loaded an owl into the backseat. Mr. and Mrs. McKennely stood outside the cab and beckoned each girl into a hug goodbye.

"We're going to miss you guys," Chelsea's mom said.

Her dad smiled and added, "Yea, 'cause now we won't have all of you keeping us up into the ungodly hours of the morning."

All three girls laughed and hopped into the car. As the cabbie started driving away, they all waved at the shrinking parents.

It took about 20 minutes to get to Kings Cross and they were still 40 minutes early. Once the girls reached the barrier to Platform 9 ¾, Dacota heaved a loud sigh. "Here we go. Our last year at Hogwarts. Are you all ready this?" Without waiting for an answer, she quickly lunged herself and the trolley through the seemingly solid wall.

Chelsea just shrugged at Lily before following their ambitious friend.

Coming out of the gate after Chel, Lily stopped and looked at the beautiful scarlet engine in front of her. "I'm going home," she murmured before galloping off after her, already, lost friends.

When she finally found them, she noticed that they were in a compartment that housed two of the marauders, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Lily groaned and thought about making a mad dash to another room. Wherever Sirius was James was bound to follow, and vice versa.

Right as she was about to turn away, she felt a pair of arms embrace her from behind and the all too familiar voice say, "Hey Evans, I missed you."

Lily pried herself from his grasp and spun around to face James. He stood at a tall 6'2". His jet-black, yet amazingly untamable, hair had grown over summer and was now covering his eyebrows, his hazel eyes, as always, were hidden behind his glasses, and he had a muscular build from playing Quidditch. As usual James was wearing his cheeky, don't-you-love-me grin.

"It's too bad that the feeling isn't reciprocated," Lily spat as she made her way to sit next to Dacota.

James quickly followed in and sat directly across from her.

"Great," Lily sighed. "Now I have to stare at you the whole ride."

The other two conversations had stopped and four pairs of eyes were now staring at the couple. Dacota glanced at Sirius and shared a smile, while Remus and Chelsea did the same.

"What? You weren't gonna stare at this," James gestured to his body, "anyway?"

"Oh, no," she began sarcastically. "You see, I was gonna, but then got distracted by your constantly growing head."

"Why don't you admit you like me Evans? Why do you have to be so difficult?"

Everyone knew that James had pushed the wrong button even before the words left his mouth. Lily was now trying to murder him on the spot using only her eyes, but was unfortunately, not succeeding. She instead settled for, "Number one, Potter, it will be a cold day in hell when I even remotely begin to consider you suitable to be within a 24 foot radius of. Two, I'm only difficult because you make me that way, and three is you're gonna have a helluva year if you keep this up," she said in a low menacing voice.

After a few moments of silence, where Lily glared at James and her shifted uncomfortably in his seat, Sirius nervously cleared his throat and turned back to Dacota. "So, your hair's pink. The color definitely suits you."

Unfazed by his flirtatious ways that would usually have a girl beat red and giggling by now, Dacota gave her own trademark smile. "Yea, well, I had to do something to stand out from the crowd."

Raising an eyebrow, Sirius asked (with a tad bit of jealousy in his tone), "Is there someone that you're trying to impress?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, there is."

"And who might that be?" the jealousy now overtaking the last bit of control he had on his voice.

Dacota just laughed, which caused Remus to look up over the book he was reading and give her an odd look. "Sirius, if it were you, you'd know," she soothed and threw in a wink to emphasize her point.

Visibly relaxing, Sirius kicked up his feet, leaned back and pulled his hat down low over his eyes while giving off a lazy smile. "With that accomplished, I'm going to sleep." Before Dacota could retort, he was out.

"Now if that doesn't boost his ego, I don't know what will," Remus commented without taking his eyes off of the book.

Chelsea snuck a peak at the sandy haired man across from her and gave a content smile, which he didn't notice but the remaining awake members did.

There was a brief moment of silence before the compartment door opened. Snape stepped inside and scowled.

Sirius jolted awake and looked around the compartment with a dazed look on his face. His eyes finally came to rest on Snape before he tilted his hat back down. While attempting to fall back asleep, Sirius muttered, "I knew I smelt something, Snivellus. Get outta here before I hex you with my eyes closed."

"So Black, you've lowered yourself to hanging around a couple of mudbloods have you?" Snape eyed both Dacota and Lily before continuing. "You have no respect for your heritage."

Sirius, Remus, and James were on their feet with their wands at the ready at the mention of mudbloods. Within seconds Snape was hit with three different curses, sending him flying backwards and into the compartment across from them.

"Oh my God, you guys get a grip!" Lily yelled and chased the laughing/purple/boil covered Slytherin into the other room. She immediately muttered the counter curses. "Are you alright?"

Getting a reproachful look on his face, Snape pushed past her and growled, "I don't need your help, filthy mudblood."

When Lily came back to her seat she looked around. James was sitting down again and had a look on his face that could only mean complete and utter hatred. Remus was patting him on the back and muttering something. Chelsea hade moved to the guys' side to make room for Sirius on theirs. He was currently holding Dacota who had a few tears making a line down her face.

"He didn't deserve your help."

Lily turned around to see James's eyes boring into her own. "It doesn't matter if he deserved it or not. What matters is that helping him is right. I don't expect your ego-inflated brain to understand the concept between right and wrong, but try. Besides, you act as if he said it to you."

"No one deserves to be called that."

"Oh come off your high-horse and join the real world."

Scowling, James gave up and went back to muttering under his breath.

Nothing much happened on the train ride after that. Sirius and Dacota fell asleep in each others arms, Remus read his book, Chelsea and Lily talked about the upcoming year, and James sat in the corner staring out the window. In no time at all, they were sitting in the Great Hall waiting for Dumbledore's annual welcome speech.

They didn't have to wait long. "May I have your attention please?" asked the old man with a long silvery beard. The whole crowd immediately grew silent.

Lily felt a pair of eyes staring at her from behind, so she turned around to face the Slytherin table. Suddenly, her eyes met the ice blue gaze of Lucius Malfoy. He gave her a twisted smile before turning to face Narcissa Black. (a/n that's her last name isn't it? I know she's related to Sirius but I dunno if that's her name) Shaking herself from his penetrating stare, Lily turned back to the headmaster's speech.

"As many of you know, the Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits and only students in their 3rd year and above may go to Hogsmeade. There is something new this year for our 7th year students," Dumbledore said with all eyes intently focused on him. "Since this is their last year, we have decided to have the Head Boy and Head Girl plan a formal. They will decide when it is to take place and who will be able to come. The staff also decided that the girls are going to wear a formal dress instead of their normal dress robes in order to make it more memorable." The head master paused to let the news sink in to his new head boy and girl. "Dig in."

The topic that dominated the 7th years conversations was the formal. Dacota and Chelsea would talk of nothing else so Lily was forced to join.

"I can't believe my luck!" she shouted. "Of all the guys in the year, Dumbledore had to pick the one I hate the most to be head boy."

James heard her say that and flinched. "Aww come on Evans, you know you you're gonna have fun!"

"Bugger off, Potter."

Dumbledore watched as the school's new head boy and girl bickered. Slowly, a smile crept across his face as he turned to face the witch sitting next to him.

"Are you sure you made the right choice, Albus?" asked Minerva McGonagall, the stern looking transfiguration teacher.

"There is not a more suitable couple," Dumbledore replied with a knowing smile.

A/N Here's another chapter done. I'm thankful that I finally got them back to Hogwarts to start a new year because at first, I didn't know if it was going to be a smooth transition or not. Well tell me what you think! Flames are welcome, just try to base some CC in it and not just "OMG YOUR STORY SUCKS TAKE IT DOWN!" :P

Xoxo,

Sammie