Disclaimer- Don't own it
Heaven Sent
You've Got A Friend
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When you're down in troubles
And you need some love and care
And nothing, nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you got to do is call
And I'll be there
Yes I will
You've got a friend
If the sky above you
Grows dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind begins to blow
Keep your head together
And call my name out loud
Soon you'll hear me knocking at your door
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there
Ain't it good to know that you've got a friend
When people can be so cold
They'll hurt you and desert you
And take your soul if you let them
Oh, but don't you let them
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there
You've got a friend
You've Got A Friend- Carol King
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"I want you to be careful this year,"
"Don't worry, father, I'll be fine. I won't do anything foolish." Lydia promised her father as they stood together on Platform 9 ¾. The sky was still painted gray from yesterday's rain, and still puddles were splattered here and there across the pavement. The wind was picking up again, blowing children's clothes this way and that. It was getting colder fast, the autumn coming sooner than welcome. The bitter chill in the air had made a decision for Lydia on what she would wear, a pair of denim jeans with a light pea coat. Her trunk rested on the ground by her side, fairly heavy with the number of books she had chosen to take along with her.
"I should hope not. I've raised you to be intelligent. I expect only the best from you." He said.
"Of course father," she said as the train's whistle cut threw the crisp air. He father looked over at the train.
"You should probably be getting aboard."
"Yes… I guess I'll see you at Christmas," she said quietly. He nodded.
"Surely, now get going. I'll see you then." He said gruffly.
"Good-bye father," she said, picking up her trunk and proceeding to drag it towards the train. She swore she saw her father waving to her, and smiled a bit at the thought. He cared more than he liked to show, she thought.
"Do you need help with that?" Someone asked from behind her. She turned her head to see the grinning face of Remus Lupin. She smiled.
"Remus," she greeted happily, "It's been too long,"
"Much too long," he agreed, picking up one end of her trunk while she carried the other, "I went to see you yesterday, but your father said you were out."
"I had some last minute shopping to do before school started,"
"Procrastination, then?"
"Basically," Lydia laughed softly.
"Well, don't worry. I waited until yesterday to get everything on my school list." He said. Slowly, Remus stepped up onto the train as she followed him with the other end of her trunk, "Where are you sitting?"
"Where ever the rest of the Ravenclaws are…" she said, looking in each compartment as they walked by, "Here," she stopped in front of an open compartment with some of the girls from her dormitory. Remus walked inside first, and they both put the trunk overhead in one of the compartments.
"Well, I better be off to the prefects compartment," Remus said, looking towards the door.
"Yeah… hey, thanks for helping me," she gave him a small smile, that was returned by a sheepish one.
"Not a problem," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "So, I'll see you around?"
"Of course, bye then,"
"Yeah, bye," he said giving her a nervous wave as he back pedaled out of the compartment. Lydia watched him as he walked down the small hall.
"Oooooo!"
"What?" Lydia turned, beaming at her fellow Ravenclaws.
"Why, isn't he cute?" commented Fallon Moriarty, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, don't get cheeky with me, Morrie!" Lydia joked, taking a seat next to her friend.
"Don't laugh Lydia! The train hasn't even started! What if your father is still outside?" Fallon, nicknamed Morrie, said in teasing worry. Lydia shook her head, still smiling.
"Shut up, you loser," Elle said from behind her Witch Weekly.
"Ouch, I cry at night about things you know," she said acting solemn.
"And here I thought that was just you snoring," Lydia said dryly. Morrie gave out a barkish laugh.
"It's good to have you back, Lydia…" she said shaking her head in amusement, "I was a little worried after your very suicidal sounding letters." She added, growing serious.
"They weren't suicidal!"
Suddenly Elle looked up, her eyes clouded, "Kurt didn't commit suicide. Courtney did it." She recited in a dark voice. Lydia and Morrie looked and each other, bewildered. Abruptly, Elle turned back to her magazine.
"What the?" Morrie said, furrowing her eyebrows at the girl.
"Hmm, did you say something?" Elle said looking up again.
"Elle, I think you need to put down the horoscopes," Morrie said, like she was approaching an out of control animal.
"Don't be absurd, if you want to know yours, I'll just tell you-"
"This has really gone too far-"
"What were you again? An Aquarius?"
"It's become an obsession-"
"Let's see… 'Forget smoldering about things- talk about them instead!"
"You're going mad-"
"You're holding back something that needs to be brought out into the open-"
"Speaking in tongues-"
"It is better to speak up than to let something eat you up inside.' Now, Fallon, you know you can tell me anything. What ever is going on?" Elle whispered sincerely, reaching across to grab Morrie's hand. Morrie pulled away sharply, scowling.
"Don't touch me," she warned. That of course didn't stop Elle.
"You can trust me, Fallon," she assured.
"Don't ever call me Fallon," she hissed, once again ignored by Elle.
"I know when something is holing you up inside. It hurts doesn't it?" Elle murmured to her friend, pity swimming in her eyes.
"This is ridiculous! That horoscope doesn't even come close to accurate!" Morrie shouted in frustration.
"Please, Fallon let me help you!"
"Help me?! I'll tell you who needs help! You, you crazy, old bat!"
"Morrie, don't pay any attention to her. She's just trying to be dramatic," Lydia interrupted logically, stopping any hexing she could predict from Morrie in the near future.
"Whatever," Morrie huffed, leaning back and folding her arms.
"Hey, Morrie?" Lydia asked.
"Yeah," she said bitterly.
"If you ever do need a shoulder to cry on…" she said smirking," At least you know you've got Elle,"
"What does that mean? You don't care about me?" Morrie said, feigning hurt.
"Basically," she said simply.
"Good!" Morrie said in relief, "I wouldn't want two Mr. Rogers in the dormitory."
"What?" Elle asked, "Who's Mr. Rogers?"
"It's a show," Morrie said. Suddenly, the train gave a tug, and a whistle sounded it's take off, "Shoot, I should probably go up and meet with all the prefects," she added, getting up.
"See you later," Lydia said.
"I'll be back soon," Morrie said quickly walking out.
"She'll never know what's good for her," Lydia barely heard Elle muttered. She smiled. Her friends were too eccentric for their own good. Shaking her head, Lydia pulled out a large tome that she rested open on her lap, and proceeded to read through it. Occasionally she would look up after a chapter to see what passed by the window or how Elle was doing on her crossword puzzle. About a half an hour after the train started up, their compartment door opened to reveal a very smug looking Sirius Black.
"Elle?" he asked. She looked up and immediately dropped her crossword puzzle on the seat.
"Sirius!" she gasped brightly.
"I- um," he looked over at Lydia before continuing, "I sort of left something in the loo… Will you come with me to get it?"
"Of course I will!" she giggled, standing up and taking his hand. She practically skipped out without as much as a good-bye for Lydia, who frowned. Why was it she always seemed to end up alone on the Hogwarts Express? It was like this every year!
At least she would get some reading done without distraction… that was until five minutes later, the compartment door flew open again.
"Lydia?"
She looked up to see Snape, standing in the doorway. She smiled softly at him.
"Hello,"
"May I sit here?" he asked. She nodded, and he awkwardly sat down, "What are you reading?"
"The Influences of Greek Mythology on the Wizarding World," said Lydia.
"I don't believe I've ever read it. Is it good?"
"Very, the author is actually a charm breaker at Gringotts who did field work in Greece, so she knows quite a bit about the geography itself." She said.
"So many books these days are just a bunch of researchers who have never even been to the real locations. It's awfully hypocritical if you ask me."
"I completely agree! Have you looked at the new History of Magic textbook? It's absurd! You can easily tell the author has no idea what he's talking about!" she said, putting down her book. He nodded.
"I know, not to mention the whole writing technique is dreadful."
"Whose technique is dreadful?" Morrie said, leaning in the doorway, raising an eyebrow, "And why does that sound like such an innuendo?" Snape scowled at her, and she received another glare from Lydia.
"Do shut up," said Lydia.
"Sorry, sorry," she said defensively, taking a seat next to Lydia. Snape cleared his throat.
"Well, I probably should be getting to my compartment…" he said.
"Yeah, that might be good," Morrie said condescendingly. Lydia shot her a withering look, which she responded to with a shrug.
"Severus," she began, feeling bad about Morrie's last comment, "You really don't have to go."
"No, I'm afraid I must. I have some… business to attend to," he said, getting up, "I shall see you at school?"
"Yes, of course," Lydia nodded. He turned and walked out of the compartment shutting the door behind him. Abruptly, Morrie burst out laughing.
"Morrie!" she said, hitting her friend on the arm, "What is your problem? That was completely out of line!" This only made Morrie laugh harder.
"I have some… business to attend to," she said in a deep voice, horribly mimicking Snape's, "Oh that made my day! It really did!"
"I can't even believe you!"
"What? It's only Snape!"
"That's not the point!" Lydia exclaimed. Morrie only looked at her like she had three heads.
"You don't like him, do you?!" Morrie asked anxiously.
"NO! Why does everyone seem to think that?" she asked wearily.
"Why else would you talk to- that?" she asked, like it was completely obviously. Lydia pulled a look at her.
"Do you have to be so pricky?!"
"Ah, well… I try," she said arrogantly with the wave of her hand, "So tell me, what is going on between you and the rat?"
"Nothing and he is not a rat. We were just talking,"
"Yeah, about books. Good lord, you are such a nerd!" Morrie exclaimed.
"Excuse me?" said Lydia, looking offended, "I am not a nerd!"
"Once you start having conversations with Severus Snape, the nerdiest and not to mention evilest guy in the school, you can pretty much consider yourself a nerd too."
"I am not a nerd!"
"Whatever helps you sleep at night,"
"You know, I am just going to ignore that and get back to my BOOK. Reading just happens to be an activity that intelligent people tend to participate in. Maybe you should try it." She suggested sarcastically.
"And I am going to ignore that. Hey, do you know if there's other bathroom on this train? Somebody's shagging in the one at the end of the hall."
"Oh, great…" Lydia sighed, "You do realize that it's Elle in there?"
"What?! Elle and who?!" she asked, shocked.
"Sirius Black,"
"NO WAY! I thought he was going out with Emmaline Vance!"
"I think he still is…" Lydia said wearily.
"Good Merlin, is Elle really that stupid?"
"Apparently," she had no idea what Elle was doing getting involved with Sirius Black, but she was almost sure it had something to do with James Potter. Elle had had her eye on Potter since third year.
"I need to go tell Lily. I'll be back." Morrie said, rushing out of the compartment. Lydia opened her mouth to call after her, but shut it, knowing it wasn't going to stop her. Morrie, like Lily Evans, was a muggle-born and the two were best friends. Their friendship got irritating at times since everything with Morrie had to do with Lily, leaving Lydia with Elle. That's really how Elle and she became friends, from being left out. The other two girls in their dormitory were two very snobbish purebloods, making that as not an option. Of course, nowadays, Lydia was seeing Elle less and less, with boys such as Sirius Black to blame.
Morrie never did come back to the compartment, nor did Elle. Lydia was left alone again, but this time, her book wasn't interesting enough to hold her attention. The window became her one distraction, and let's just say, it was a very long trip.
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A/N- Yes, another chapter! Woohoo!
So yeah, this was basically just a character development chapter. You get to see that Lydia actually does have somewhat of a personality. I didn't even plan on adding Morrie in, but she just seemed to spill right out onto the page, so…
I'm having a hard time writing Snape, basically because it's not really from his point of view, which it will be eventually, but right now, too much is going on.
I hope I'm not making Lydia a Mary Sue. Please tell me if you think so. I tried to make her have some faults (a lot of which you haven't seen yet) and I tried to make it so she's tied to some characters who are from the actual books, but not so Mary Sueishly, such as
"Oh yes, she's dating Sirius and they are in love and she just happens to be Lily's best friend, but James really likes her and not Lily, so there's some jealousy over her, but then she finds Snape to be amazingly sexy so she cheats on Sirius, causes Lily and James to get together and single handedly makes Peter turn to the Dark Lord, and then she and Snape get married, she makes him leave the Death Eaters, but she leaves because she is so upset over Lily and James death, and then she comes back in Harry's sixth year, turning out to be Harry's godmother, and ends up being the one most important person to help Harry kill Voldemort. Oh, I did I mention that she's amazingly beautiful with aquamarine eyes that change colors when she's angry or that she has a distinct smell of vanilla or that she was the best student at Hogwarts and is even better at potions than Snape, which is why he loves her, and she's an Auror too, and she just happens to be able to perform magic without a wand, oh, and don't forget she's Dumbledore's long lost daughter who is the only person who ever gave him socks for Christmas, and of course, it's only fair if she beats everyone at wizard's chess."
Because I abhor those stories, but then again, I'm being bitter and babbling so I'll stop…
YAY! I love the song in this chapter! I am such a loser because one minute I'm listening to Silverchair and the next its Carol King. I guess you can say I like everything.
I'd just like to thank all my fabulous reviewers! You guys are great!
Miaou- Don't worry, your English is better than mine. I originally wasn't going to put that line in, since I absolutely loathe foreshadowing, hoping that Severus disappearing a bit at the beginning of the chapter was good enough to say that his attitude was changing for a reason. Then I read through it a few times and found that I couldn't even pick up what I was trying to convey, so I put that last line in. I hope it's not too hint hint, wink wink.
So,
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GIVE ME SOME NICE LONG RAMBLY REVIEWS!