A/N: The last of the chapters written last December... yes, a long time ago, I know. This is slightly teen-romance-novel-ish, but the rest of the story won't be quite so bad, don't worry!
"Wake up sleepy head!"
Lily moaned, someone was shaking her, and a rather annoying voice was calling her name. I am going to kill Rianne, she thought, before groggily opening her eyes.
"Caron!" she exclaimed, immediately sitting up and throwing her arms around her best friend.
"Who did you expect?" she asked smartly, "Father Christmas!"
"Well, maybe!" Lily said, playing along, "Did you bring me any presents?"
"Actually, yes," Caron replied, and handed her a letter. "Your mum called mine and asked us to pick it up on our way."
Lily took the letter, thinking about Caron's mother. She was kind and gentle, but she was also a muggle who was quite apprehensive about magic, but that hadn't stopped her from marrying a wizard—Caron's father.
"It's from your boyfriend," Caron said with a smirk. Lily immediately became apprehensive. Carl wasn't exactly her boyfriend, but she knew the letter was from him. He had come to call at least twice a day since Lily's father's death, but Lily's mother always shooed him away. Now she wasn't sure what he had to say. Lily had expected to have time to say good bye, but Rianne had made the offer…
She tore open the letter and began reading it.
Dear Lily,
I missed you the rest of the summer. It was so strange the last time we spoke. I don't know who that James Potter bloke was, or what he was doing with you, but that's all I have had on my mind. I feel so bad about your father. Your mother half-explained to me what happened, but I really didn't understand, I got the idea it was rather more complicated than anyone really wanted to say. When your mother told me you had left for school without so much as a goodbye, I decided to write this letter. I don't really know what was going on with us, but I realize now that it's over. But perhaps you are okay with that. Something was up with that Potter boy though. I am not going to ask, but I really don't like him. Don't hurt yourself.
Carl
"What a prat!" Lily said loudly, throwing the letter down on her bed.
"What?" Caron asked, perplexed. She snatched up the letter and began reading it. When she had finished, she turned to Lily, "Maybe I'm being thick, but I just don't see what in this letter caused you to call him a prat. Obviously you guys weren't going to be together…"
"Well," Lily began, positively fuming, "It's not that I care about, it's that." She pointed to the paper, and Caron read the sentence out loud.
"'I don't know who that James Potter was, or what he was doing with you…'" She trailed off. "Okay Lily, I'm not getting this… Wait! What were you doing hanging around with James Potter! We didn't even see each other all summer!"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Lily cried and stood up, unable to control herself any longer. "He stopped by the bookshop for Merlin knows what reason and didn't leave! Carl came and thought something was going on, and I just can't believe it!"
Caron smiled warmly, Lily's face was twisted into an expression of absolute rage. "The way I see it," she said, "It's not Carl's breaking up with you that you are so angry about. It's the fact that he implied there might be something going on between you and James."
Lily was about to retort, but thought better of it, knowing Caron was right. "You always know don't you?" she said.
"One of the many perks of being your best friend," Caron replied. "Besides, how long were you expecting it to last with a bleeding muggle?"
"I wasn't really," Lily admitted. "Actually I was planning on breaking it off with him. But still, the nerve of him, right? If he knew Potter, then he'd see…"
Caron just chuckled.
"And what's so funny now?" Lily shot at her.
"Not a thing," Caron said, trying to sound innocent, but failing miserably.
"Right," Lily said disbelievingly.
"Well, don't get mad at me," she glanced at Lily nervously, "I know you try to deny it, but there has to be something going on, there just has to be. Why else would he even mention it? If you were acting the way you normally act around Potter then it wouldn't really have been a problem now would it?"
"Caron, I don't know, I really don't understand it either," Lily paused and sighed. "I'm under a lot of stress right now I guess, I'm sorry for being so cross with you."
Just then, Rianne burst through the door.
"What are you two still doing up here!" she yelled, "Get dressed Lily, we need to go shopping!"
Lily smiled and pulled herself out of bed. Somehow, it seemed to Lily that Rianne had picked that exact moment to step in on them. She had a slight suspicion that Rianne had been standing outside the door waiting for a proper time to interrupt.
After Lily had dressed, the trio went downstairs and ate breakfast, laughing and talking happily. They went into Diagon Alley to shop for Caron's school supplies, Rianne flittering around from student to student, talking like mad. Hours later, the three girls had finished shopping, and they were back in the Leaky Cauldron for dinner, before retiring to the room they were sharing to compare purchases.
"Girls, I want to leave early tomorrow morning," Rianne's mother poked her head in to say. "Be sure you have your trunks all packed."
"Right Mum," Rianne said, and her mother sighed and closed the door.
Hours later, the girls finally decided to retire for the night.
"It's nearly one!" Caron exclaimed. "I am going to look horrid in the morning!"
"Quit your rattling then and go to bed," Lily said. She herself had already changed into her bedclothes and was lying down. Rianne seemed to have only needed the time for her natural clock to kick in; she was snoring happily in her bed as well.
"Oh shut your face," Caron laughed, before happily climbing into bed.
The next morning was rather hectic, seeing as none of the girls had taken Mrs. Shield's advice and packed their trunks. Soon enough, however, they were heading toward King's Cross in a borrowed Ministry car.
"Hurry now!" Rianne's mother exclaimed, checking her watch as they rushed through the train station, each pushing a rather heavy cart. Rianne's owl was making a rather large racket and she was a little on-edge.
"It's ten-fifteen, Mum!" Rianne shot at her. "We've got ages!"
"You may have ages," he mother replied calmly, "but I need to be at a meeting back in Diagon Alley at eleven, so I need you to get settled and on the train as quickly as possible.
"Told you it was about more than relaxing," Rianne muttered to Lily, who inclined her head slightly to show she had heard.
When they had reached the barrier dividing platforms nine and ten, Rianne's mother uttered a quick goodbye, stating that if she went in with them she wouldn't be out until eleven-fifteen. Caron and Rianne pushed their carts toward the barrier, chatting happily. Lily watched as they disappeared, amazed muggles weren't more observant. She followed them through the barrier, not really doing anything, just walking purposefully forward.
When she emerged onto the platform, however, she was greeted with a rather unfamiliar sight. She had always arrived before around ten forty-five, and the platform had been crowded with Hogwarts students and their families. Now, however, it was bare, with no more than thirty people mulling about.
"Well," said Caron, "There's really no point in hanging around here. Let's get a decent compartment then."
Lily agreed, Rianne merely grunted, which the other two believed to be in concurrence. They found a compartment near the center of the train and Rianne immediately opened the window. When the other two looked at her, perplexed, she explained—
"First of all, for air," she said. "It's sweltering in here. Second, I want to know who's coming in, so I can talk to people as they board."
Lily smiled to herself. Typical Rianne. She couldn't really keep herself from gibbering on, even if it was about nothing.
As time passed, more and more Hogwarts students filed on to the platform. Rianne spent more time leaning out the window than actually in the compartment. Lily and Caron laughed at her to begin with, but they soon were leaning out the window as well.
Promptly at eleven, the train started to move.
"Oh, bugger!" Lily yelled, "I've forgotten I had a prefect's meeting!" She hurried off up the train.
"Lily!" a voice called from behind her as she hurried up the train. "Wait up!" Lily turned to see Remus Lupin hurrying toward her. He looked rather pale.
"When was the full moon?" Lily asked him concernedly as they continued to walk towards the prefect's compartments.
"Two days ago," he replied wearily. "It was a really bad one too, you know, away from… school." he trailed off, and Lily had the distinct impression he had let something slip he probably shouldn't have. She didn't question him further, however, because they had reached the compartment.
"Lily! Remus! Hi!" a boy already sitting down called. His name was Devlin Ashby, and he was a year above them, also a Gryffindor.
"Hi Devlin!" Lily said with a smile. He had always been quite nice to her, despite the fact she was a year below.
"Did you hear I made Head Boy?" he asked, talking more to Lily than to Remus.
"Did you?" she replied, "That's great! Who's Head Girl then?"
"Alice Eggleston," he said. "Haven't really talked to her much, though."
"Oh, she's wonderful!" Lily said. She and Alice had become friends in the last year when Lily was made a prefect, she was in Ravenclaw.
"Yeah," said Devlin. "So, how was your summer?"
Lily was about to reply when Alice herself came into the room, and she beckoned Devlin over to talk about 'head business.'
"Duty calls," he said playfully. "Can I get a rain-check on that conversation though?"
"Sure," Lily smiled. It was nice to be talking and flirting with guys again.
As they had been talking, more prefects had filed into the rather large compartment. Lily scanned the compartment for someone to talk to before the meeting started, but she was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see a rather tall blonde boy, who was a Ravenclaw prefect.
"Hello Keagan!" she said, turning to talk to him. "How are you doing?"
"Not bad at all Lily," he smiled. "Better now, actually."
"Why's that?" Lily asked.
"I've actually been looking for you," he said, but he didn't get a chance to elaborate, because the prefect meeting was called to order.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Devlin began, but Alice nudged him and he said, "I mean, started." Everyone in the compartment laughed. Devlin was very funny and likeable, but he was definitely one to go by the rules.
"I know the sixth and seventh years here probably want to get this done, so we'll make it quick. Prefects have the power to give and take points as well as assign detentions. This is a privilege, and if you do not use your power fairly, it is the duty of the Head Boy and Girl, that would be Devlin and I, to replace you. Everyone is paired up by house and year, and you will be patrolling the castle at least twice a week at night." Alice paused, and allowed Devlin to take over.
"If there aren't any questions, then, the sixth and seventh years can go," he said. "I, however, will need a word with the fifth years."
Lily smiled at him quickly and left the compartment, making her way towards the back of the train. When she had gotten back to her compartment, she could distinctly hear Rianne telling Caron all the gossip she had accumulated over the summer.
"Seanna West!" Caron screamed—Rianne had obviously just told her the news of James's newest admirer. "She's so smart and cute—she lives down the road from me you know—I never would have expected her to fall for him. But she's so pretty, he would date her in a flash."
Lily had typically stayed out of these sorts of conversations. She had never been one for gossip, no matter how 'juicy' it was—as Rianne so eloquently put it. However, at the mention of this, Lily felt the words slip from her mouth.
"Well, he's got to move on to the fifth years hasn't he?" Her tone was rather sharper than she expected, but she continued none the less, "I mean, he's dated practically every girl in our year, and half the seventh years at that."
Rianne looked positively taken aback. She composed herself, though, and was able to reply nonchalantly, "Every girl in our year except the two of us, you mean. And the Slytherins, but who really counts them anyways?"
Caron blushed slightly. She herself had dated James in the fourth year. The only time she and Lily had ever had a fight Lily had come early to transfiguration to find James and Caron snogging in the empty classroom. The two of them had broken up 'mutually'—though rather loudly—in the common room later that night. When Lily had seen this she knew it was probably over her, and went up to their dormitory to find Caron crying. No matter what Caron said, it was obvious the 'mutual' breakup was more James's doing.
Lily was pulled from her musings by Rianne, who continued her speech about the going's on of Hogwarts students.
"Lily herself has got a couple of admirers to be going on with, though," she said, and Lily turned.
"What are you on about?" she asked, trying to sound as though she wasn't really interested. Rianne however detected the curiosity in her voice.
"Well I'm just saying, my sources tell me that more than one boy is looking your way."
"The one boy being James Potter, then?" Caron asked, slightly lost.
"Yes, but I said more," Rianne said. "But… I suppose our dear Lily is far too busy to want to know who fancies her."
"Oh, shut up you!" Lily joked. "Tell me who it is, then."
"Keagan Byrne," Rianne said matter-of-factly.
"That Ravenclaw seventh year?" Caron asked, and Rianne nodded. "Oh! He's good looking!"
Lily smiled, "Yes, he's not bad." She suddenly remembered he said he had been looking for her, but she shrugged it off. Obviously it hadn't been too terribly important.
"And he's a prefect," Rianne grinned as though she was thoroughly enjoying this. "That's not all though. Devlin Ashby, I hear he's in the running for Head Boy. I'd be quite surprised if he didn't get it, too."
"He did," Lily cut in, "I saw him at the meeting. And Keagan, too. I talked to both of them."
"Oh," Rianne said with a smug smile. "But we mustn't forget Liam Hogan. Sure, he's a Hufflepuff, so he's undoubtedly a bit daft, but he's quite nice and rather pleasing to the eye. Plus, he's not a prefect, so you wouldn't have to worry about having to work with him if you broke up."
"So all seventh years then?" Lily asked, rather disappointed. They were all nice, good looking, and popular—not to mention quite willing to talk to her—but she didn't really want to date anyone older.
"Well, naturally," answered Caron. The other two looked at her in surprise. "Oh, think about it, James has surely scared off all of the fifth and sixth years, probably half of the seventh years too. Those are the brave ones."
Lily grimaced slightly. That certainly was a rather annoying trait of James Potter. He was incredibly talented—all the teachers admitted behind his back that he was probably the most talented student in the school. He knew that though, and he was quite keen to threaten anyone who got in his way. This, of course, meant any boy who fancied Lily was quick to hear from him. Try as she might, Lily just could not convince him she would never go out with him.
Lily shook the thought out of her head. Perhaps this year would be different. After all, these boys were the best of the best; the finest Hogwarts had to offer. Lily, however, was sick of talking about herself though.
"So what about you two then?" she asked, and both of them blushed furiously. "I mean, you are both smart, fun, funny, beautiful—"
"Beautiful my arse!" Rianne exclaimed. But she blushed all the same, because she knew this wasn't true. Her chocolate brown hair fell just past her shoulders, and she was quite tan, even in the dark winter months. Her eyes were bright blue and she had one of the most beautiful faces Lily had ever seen. Lily remembered thinking she was foreign when she came to Hogwarts, because there was something mysterious about her, but she swore her family could be counted back six generations of Irish wizards.
"Oh come off it Rianne!" Caron shouted. "You're up to your ears in admirers, they know you are beautiful!" Her shouts contained a bit of jealousy, but Rianne didn't notice. Lily didn't really understand why, but Caron had always been slightly jealous of Rianne when it came to boys. Caron was stunningly pretty, there was no doubt about that. She had fair skin and pretty hazel eyes, and her hair was a gorgeous tumble of wild black curls, which she knew how to treat just right. Caron, however, just didn't give off the confidence that Rianne did around boys.
"Both of you stop!" Lily shouted. "You are both attractive, so drop the act. Rianne, I know you know who fancies each of you. So, do tell."
Rianne sighed and began.
"Well, actually Caron's got a fair few admirers as well," she said. Caron's ears seemed to perk up, and she straightened her back, as if preparing to take in some rather important information.
"Who, then?" she asked.
"Well," Rianne began, "there's Bevan Weller. He's rather nice, bit short, but, eh, you can't have everything, can you?" Lily chuckled. Caron wasn't exactly tall herself, in all actuality she was one of the shortest girls in the year.
"And..?" Lily urged her.
"Right," Rianne said. "There's that fifth year Hufflepuff, whatsisname, Torrance Bishop? He's sure matured quite nicely. Oh yeah, and Remus Lupin, I hear, but no one really knows about that bloke." Lily and Caron exchanged brief glances. Lily was the only one who knew about Caron's crush on Remus.
"So who fancies you then?" Lily asked. Rianne sighed, knowing she had avoided the inevitable long enough.
"Sirius Black," she said.
"No way!" Caron cried. "How do you know?"
"Told me himself," Rianne answered. "In Diagon Alley two days ago. I wasn't up for much conversation, though."
Lily understood the disappointment in Rianne's voice. Had she been any other girl, she probably would have been positively giddy, but Rianne wasn't much into the popular-guy deal. Because of her quirky and outgoing nature, Rianne was quite often stereotyped as the common 'popular girl,' but she was nothing of the sort. She was a fierce beater on the Gryffindor team for the third year running, and she spent a lot of time in the dormitory alone writing music on her acoustic guitar. The only time she had ever dated was in the fourth year, and he had been a sixth year Ravenclaw.
"Anyone else?" Lily asked, hoping some other prospects might bring more cheer.
"Well, yes," Rianne replied. "There's Iain Faulke and Maddock Goodrich." She let out a sort of smile.
"Oh, well they are both good guys!" Caron said.
"How's Kael then?" Lily asked. She knew that Rianne was still keeping in touch with her former boyfriend.
"Oh, he's fantastic," she replied. "Say's Venice is marvelous."
With that comment, a whole new conversation was sparked. The three girls talked for about an hour about studying abroad. Kael, as Lily remembered, was very artistic. He had moved to Venice to paint as soon as he had gotten out of Hogwarts. After boring of the subject, they decided to start a game of exploding snap, and just as they were about to begin, a rather tall, muscular boy with curly brown hair slid open the compartment door.
"Hello," he said shyly, "Just come to say hi to you girls, it's been awhile. How are you Lily?"
"Hi Liam," she said, and the other two in the compartment giggled, but stopped abruptly at a rather sharp look from Lily. "I'm pretty good, how was your summer?"
"Nothing to complain about," he said, slightly uncomfortable. "My mum's an Auror, though. Heard about your Dad. I'm really sorry."
"Thanks, Liam," Lily said, smiling sadly. "That really means a lot."
"Well, I had better go," Liam said. "See you at Hogwarts." With this, he left the compartment.
"That's three out of four of your admirer's you've had run-ins with Lily," Caron remarked.
"One left," Rianne added. Lily was about to respond, but before she could, she heard a rather loud "Oy!" from outside the compartment. She wrenched the door open, just in time to see James Potter walking purposefully towards Liam.
"What do you think you're doing?" James asked indignantly.
"I," Liam said, "Am walking down the train, is there a problem with that?"
Oh no, Lily thought to herself. This is going to be bad.
"Walking down the train, are you?" James continued with a sort of growl. "And what were you doing in that compartment?"
"This is ridiculous!" Liam yelled, "What rational reason do you have for questioning me like this? I was talking to friends."
"You and Evans are friends, then?" James shot back, looking at Lily. Liam didn't know she was watching, but James sure did, and he just seemed to get more angry.
"Yeah, we are!" Liam said. Lily could tell he was getting angry, he was holding his wand rather tightly, as if trying to force himself not to use it. James was doing the same.
"Potter, listen," Lily began, finally cutting in. "You need to calm down. Just turn around and walk away. Liam and I are friends, and there is nothing wrong with that."
"Stay out of this, Evans," he said, "This doesn't concern you."
"It very well concerns me!" Lily cried. "You are talking about me. I would think that would mean it concerns me!"
"Potter, she doesn't like you, okay?" Liam said, attempting a little harsh reason. "Can't you just get over that and move on with your life?"
"And what makes you think she likes you?" James spat, as if the thought was very unlikely.
"I never said she did!" Liam shot back.
"Neither did I!" James shouted. By now there were faces poking out of compartments up and down the train—Rianne herself had crawled around Lily's legs to get a view of the action—but this just seemed to anger Liam even more.
"So why are you acting like she's your property?" Liam asked, and James didn't seem to have a comeback. Perhaps encouraged by this, Liam continued.
"Potter," he said calmly, pulling out his wand. "Someone's got to tell you this, and hopefully my words will penetrate your thick skull. She. Does. Not. Like. You. So get over it, and let her do what she pleases."
Lily saw what was about to happen about a second before it actually did. James pulled out his wand, about to curse Liam, but Lily already had her wand out and was pointing it straight at him.
"Don't even think about it Potter," she said, her voice hardly above a whisper. "You need to calm down. Go back to your compartment, and do not come around this section of the train—or me, for that matter—for any reason. If you curse anyone, it will be forty points from Gryffindor, and a week's worth of detentions with Filch. Now, go."
James just stood there, in shock. Just when Lily was about to go and make him move, Sirius came bounding up the train, apparently searching for all the fun. When he saw what was happening, his face immediately fell.
"I'll just take him, then," he said, grabbing James's arm and pulling him away.
"Yeah, that would be a smart move," Lily said. As the two boys walked away, she saw Sirius smack James upside the head and yell, "You stupid prat!"
"There is nothing to see here!" Lily yelled at the dozen or so faces poking out of compartments. "I'm going to count to five, and if I see one head sticking out of the compartment doors when I am done, the body attached to it is getting a month's detentions!"
Lily didn't really need to count, because as soon as she said that, every head pulled back into its compartment, probably to discuss what they had just seen with the other occupants. Lily sighed and walked back into her compartment, slumping onto the seat.
"That's four, then," she sighed.
A/N: Very fun to write, hope it was fun to read. Chapter 7 will be up soon.