The Train Ride Sixth Year

"How could I have lived all summer without you guys?" Lily laughed, wiping tears of mirth from her startlingly green almond-shaped eyes.

"I don't know," Marlene McKinnon laughed, doubling over, her long wavy brown hair covering up her face.

"You certainly wouldn't laugh as much," Emmeline Vance giggled, her green eyes sparkling as she pulled a curly strand of brown hair out of them.

"You couldn't. What other pack of girls would help you put a frog in James Potter's underpants?" Dorcas Meadowes asked, her blue eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Hey, we haven't done that yet!" Alice Merrythought interjected, her black eyes dancing with laughter. "I'm not sure Lily would like that view!"

The girls all doubled over laughing again. "The day I want to see James Potter's bum is the day pigs fly!" Lily laughed.

The girls were on the train to Hogwarts for their sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All five of these girls were Gryffindors and roommates and had been best friends since their first day at Hogwarts.

"Hey, I've got to run to loo; I'll be right back," Lily said abruptly, hoping she wouldn't wet her pants, she was laughing so hard.

She walked down the aisle, smiling happily. She loved being with her friends from Hogwarts. They were more like sisters than her own sister, Petunia.

Suddenly, she was jerked left into a compartment. Someone had pulled her by the arm. "Potter!" she exclaimed when the door closed behind her, revealing the usually cockily smiling messy-haired boy. He actually looked serious for once, now. "What are you doing?"

"I need to talk to you, Lily," he said. His hazel eyes were pleading. Lily had no choice but to nod. "I know I've been a jerk these past few years, but since that whole thing by the lake last year, I've been thinking about it, and I've realized that I need to change. Please give me another chance. Can we be friends?"

Lily arched one red eyebrow. "That's it? No asking me out? No hexing people in the hallways?" she asked. James had nodded, his messy black hair flopping about with the movement of his head. "No pranking me and my friends?"

"Now, my dearest Lily," James said casually, a mischievous glint appearing in his eyes, "friends prank each other. We would only be merely acquaintances if I didn't prank you anymore." He grinned wickedly.

Lily found herself smiling back. "Well, if you've really changed for the better, I might as well give you a chance. We'll only be friends if you have changed for the better. That's it." And she gave him a sisterly punch on the shoulder and walked out of the compartment to use the loo.

As Lily stepped off the train with her friends, she heard a "Hi, Lily!" James was waving at her from one of the horseless carriages.

"Hi, James!" Lily called back cheerfully as she and her friends found a carriage of their own.

"James?" Marlene asked, arching an eyebrow. The other three girls looked equally as puzzled.

"We've decided to be friends---just friends," Lily explained as music started playing in the background.

"There's something sweet, and almost kind. But he was mean, and he was coarse and unrefined, and now he's dear; I'm so unsure. I wonder why I didn't see it there before," she sang to her friends. Marlene, Dorcas, Emmeline, and Alice all exchanged looks.

Meanwhile, James was explaining to his friends about his and Lily's agreement to be friends. "She glanced this way, I thought I saw," he sang hopefully, "and when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw! No it can't be, I'll just ignore, but then she's never looked at me that way before." He looked hopefully at the way Lily smiled at him before she climbed into her carriage.

"New, and a bit alarming. Who'd have ever thought that this could be? True, that he's no Prince Charming," Lily sang, grinning at James through the window as he picked himself up out of the puddle that Sirius had pushed him into. "But there's something in him that I simply didn't see!"

"Well who'd have thought?" Marlene asked.

"Well, bless my soul!" Emmeline mused.

"Well, who indeed?" Dorcas asked.

"And who'd have guessed they'd come together on their own?" Alice pondered. "It's so peculiar."

They all sang together. "We'll wait and see, a few days more. There's simply something there that wasn't there before."

"You know, perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before," Remus mused.

"What?" Peter asked.

"There maybe something there that wasn't there before," Sirius explained.

"What's there, Padfoot?" Pettigrew whined.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Sirius replied, winking.

a/n all of these awesome characters (including Peter. . . he's awesome to hate) belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling and the song "Something There" belongs to Walt Disney Productions (or whatever the company is called)