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Lily gave a sigh of relief as soon as she entered the Great Hall. After the torturous months of sharing a room with her sister, it felt wonderful to be at a place where there were people like here. She couldn't help but grin the entire way to her seat. Gari caught her eye as she sat down across from her.
"Happy to be home?" Gari asked, smiling right back at her best friend.
"Of course," Lily replied as Rayven sat down next to her. "This is our last year, I'm Head Girl, and Professor McGonagall said she'd owl a recommendation for me to the Ministry of Magic at the end of the year. Things are near perfect."
Gari raised an eyebrow as the rest of the students settled. "Near perfect?"
"Well…" Lily let her words trail off as she looked across the room at the Ravenclaw table. Gari followed her gaze to a handsome blonde boy with clear blue eyes and dimples.
"Are you still mad about Gideon Prewett?" Gari teased. "I thought a summer away from him would have done you good."
Lily flushed and shrugged. "I didn't think about him all summer…but then I saw him on the train…and…" She gazed back at Gideon, and a dreamy smile fell over her lips.
Gari rolled her eyes in a friendly sort of way, but rolled them again in an annoyed fashion as Sirius Black plopped down into the seat next to her. As if on cue, James Potter took a seat next to Lily in a similar fashion. Rayven met Remus Lupin's eyes as he walked by and they shared a small smile at the all-too-familiar routine the boys and girls went through each September. James would pursue Lily, and Lily would reject; whereas Sirius and Gari preferred to share banter while Sirius would throw in a flirtatious line here or there.
"I think they're getting worse," Remus told Rayven as he sat in between her and Frank Longbottom.
"Who, the boys or the girls?" Rayven replied, grinning.
"Both," He glanced at Gari and Sirius, both trading remakes. James tried unsuccessfully to put his arm around Lily, whose glare was enough to make him stop.
The Hall immediately quieted when the Headmaster got up to speak. Even Sirius and James stopped going on and on to listen. Dumbledore smiled at everyone, but his eyes could not.
"So we begin another year at our beloved Hogwarts," Dumbledore began. "I hope many of you come back to us after a wonderful summer. However, for those of you who are troubled, I assure you that you have my sympathies."
Dumbledore's eyes did not rest on anyone, but Lily leaned towards the table a little and whispered, "Mary Gibbon's parents were killed by Death Eaters. Alice Bell's too."
James, despite his outward carefree image, felt his heart and stomach lurch as he glanced down the table at Alice, who was being comforted by Frank. Tearstains decorated her usually happy, soft face. James looked at Lily next to him, who looked just as miserable. Without thinking of what he was doing, he reached for Lily's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. Lily looked up at him with searching eyes, and for a moment, she looked at him almost gratefully for the comfort. But the moment passed, and Lily looked away quickly.
James sighed and then looked back at Dumbledore. James thought he saw Dumbledore look directly at him and Lily for a second, but then he continued his gaze across the Great Hall.
"On a more pleasant note, I should tell you that this year," Dumbledore continued. "Our Head Boy will be James Potter; the Head Girl will be Lily Evans."
There was immediately a murmur at each table.
"Potter and Evans?"
"Talk about a match."
"Yeah, made in hell."
"Anyone betting on how long before Lily slaps him?"
"Sirius!" James frowned at his best friend, who had made the last remark. Sirius just smirked back at him, and then winked at Lily when he saw her glaring at him.
"Without further ado," Dumbledore said, raising a hand and his eyes gleaming. "Let the feast commence."
"Thank Circe," Sirius breathed as he quickly helped himself to everything on the table.
"Circe?" Gari raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't she the witch that seduced men and then turned them into pigs?"
"Yes," Sirius replied through a mouthful of chicken. "What's your point?"
Gari shook her head with a half smile on her face. "Nothing, just that she seems like your kind of witch."
"You're my kind of witch," Sirius told her seriously, looking her straight in the eyes.
The look was so un-Sirius-like that Gari couldn't help being hypnotized by the sapphire depths. When she realized what she was doing, she blushed and quickly put her concentration back on her food. Sirius smiled gently and continued eating as well.
"Here guys," Frank said, passing a handful of papers down to the group. "Seventh year schedules. Pass them down the table."
The group quickly took theirs and passed the rest down. Sirius looked over Gari's arm at her schedule and grinned. "Well, look at that! Advanced transfiguration together, potions too….herbology….oh, and arithmancy."
"You take arithmancy?" Gari asked, looking doubtful.
"Of course," Sirius seemed surprised that she didn't know. "You need all of these classes if you want to be an auror."
"You want to be an auror?" Lily asked, her eyebrows nearly hitting her hairline. "I would have thought you'd want to open a joke shop with James."
"I did want to," Sirius replied, helping himself to more pumpkin juice. "But James insisted on being aurors. I would be useful, especially now." His eyes shifted over to Alice.
"That's…that's really decent of you, Sirius," Gari said.
"Glad you think so, love," Sirius smirked at her. He leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear, "That's just about the only decent thing about me."
With the last comment, Gari came back to reality, where Sirius was a jerk and she hated him. She shoved him away, and turned back to Rayven and Lily. Sirius chuckled and caught Remus' eye, who merely gave him a look that said 'You're wasting your time.'
Sirius shrugged at him and was about to try and talk to Gari again, when a seductive voice came from behind him.
"Hello, Sirius."
Sirius whirled around to see the flirty redhead from the train behind him.
'Lynn Carrol,' Sirius thought, finally putting a name with the face.
"Lynn," Sirius greeted, though somewhat absentmindedly. "How are you?"
"Amazing, now that I'm near you," Lynn replied, flashing him a cheeky and inviting grin.
Rayven heard the last comment and nearly choked on her pumpkin juice. She turned around to look at the look Lynn was giving Sirius, and rolled her eyes. Rayven faced Remus once again, and they shared the same thought, 'What a bloody tart.'
"Yeah…well," Sirius just wanted her to be gone. "Look, I'll talk to you later, alright?"
Lynn just nodded and walked away slowly, then she sat down next to Bellatrix at the Slytherin table.
Sirius breathed out a sigh of relief.
"That was something I thought I'd never see," Remus told him. "You actually trying to get rid of a girl throwing herself at you."
Sirius flashed him a cheeky smile, revealing his dimples. "Well, it's no fun if she throws herself at you."
"Funny, that was never a problem for you before," Rayven intervened, causing Remus and Gari to snort in amusement.
Ignoring her, Sirius continued, "It's much better if there's a challenge."
He glanced at Gari, who looked back at him unimpressed. "Well then, you're up for a bloody great challenge."
The four of them stood and followed the rest of the seventh years out as the feast ended. Lily and James had already gone ahead with a group of Gryffindor first years, but as usual had gotten sidetracked with their bickering.
"Potter, just because we are sharing a tower together does not mean I'm going to start liking you all of a sudden."
"I don't want you to start liking me."
"Really?"
"No, I want you to start loving me."
Sigh
"Lily, I'm not as bad as you think."
"James, every time I see you, you're either pranking or hexing someone."
"You just catch me on my bad days."
Sigh
"Lils, when was the last time you saw me hexing someone?"
"The last day of school. You put a hex on a toilet so that it would flush Snape's head."
"Oh, yeah….that was such a brilliant day."
"Potter!"
"Oh, Lily, he's called you you-know-what every time he sees you. You remember fifth year."
"In fifth year, I remember you and Black cursing Snape outside so that his underpants came off."
"Why should that bother you? It's not like there was anything to see."
"Potter!"
And on it went….
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Can you tell I don't like Snape? Heehee. Sorry about the wait, I hope it was at least sort of worth it. Next chapter will be Rayven and sigh Remus centered, but also some Lily and James bantering.