Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the glasses that I use to type this, and the typing equipment… which is technically my dad's considering he bought it.
Once Upon a Nightmare's Eve
By: Faerielights
Chapter 1
Prefect Duties
She tossed her auburn curls over her shoulder and prepared to walk through the barrier that separated her two worlds. Waving a final good-bye to her parents, Lily turned, grasped the handle of her trolley and briskly walked towards the wall that pretended it was not hiding a platform 9 and ¾. Within the blink of an eye, the pretty redhead disappeared and her parents left to go to their empty nest. Petunia had headed off to school the day before.
On the other side of the barrier, Lily surveyed the scarlet engine that was the Hogwarts Express with a twinkle in her eye and a happy sigh. She once more grabbed a hold of her belongings and pushed through the throng of magical people. There was no point in looking for Bella and Mackenzie just yet, she would find them on her rounds and join up with them after that. As she strolled past a trio of boys, she glared at them whilst noticing that their sandy haired plotter was missing, she ignored the cat calls they aimed at her ("Hey cutie, wanna go for a moonlit ride on my broomstick?") and brought her trunk to be loaded at the back of the train. Once that had been accomplished, she turned to go find the prefects compartment and promptly banged into someone.
"Sorry," she said, without looking up.
"Watch it mudblood, you might give me your dirtiness," Severus Snape growled at her, acting as if she had a flesh eating disease. He didn't acknowledge that normally she tried to help him out, out of pity more than anything else, when the Marauders were near. Lily just rolled her eyes and was about to retort in a less-than-kind way.
"Well, Snivellus, bugging beautiful maidens when you should be oiling your nose, or off in the dungeon grueling over some hideous potion that does absolutely nothing? Shame on you, you know, maybe I should teach you a lesson, eh?" Sirius Black beat her to the chance of humiliating Snape. Had it been Potter, Lily would have promptly smacked him and told him off for being such a nosy jerk, but it wasn't him, although Sirius Black wasn't much better. The difference between the two being that Sirius would welcome any attempts to be humiliated, even join in, he was that kind of person. Lily decided to settle for glaring at him, which he ignored.
Potter stared at the two in shock; surely Lily would ridicule Sirius for standing up for her when she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself? It appeared not, and James resorted to glaring evilly at all three of them. Why couldn't he have the glory of rescuing Lily fro the Slimy Slytherin's wrath? Without having her try to maul him afterwards that is.
Snape grabbed his wand out of his pocket warily, checking to make sure that the ignorant Black did not see him. He was eager to try out some spells that he had been working on over the holiday. He hadn't tried them out just yet, but who cared if they horribly disfigured Black? If they did, maybe he could use them on the rest of those cronies. He prepared to start the wand motions, hissing slightly under his breath, but found he could not move. Lily had petrified him upon seeing him draw out his wand. (A/N: yes, in Harry's time they can't use magic unless they are at Hogwarts, but that's about 20 years in the future.) Sure she didn't really care for the loud Marauders, but she wasn't about to let a future Death Eater hurt them at this time, once they were in school and had teachers to monitor them they could go at it, but being a prefect, she had to uphold her duty to protect others.
"Now, Snape, that was a lousy, underhanded attempt to try and do something to Black," Lily began. Meanwhile James and Sirius were frozen in shock that perfect Evans used magic against another student, in their defense no less! Sure, she'd hex them every now and then, but that was different, they provoked her into it.
Where were the blue rubber ducks to ensure they'd fallen asleep? Sirius wondered.
Lily continued on, ignoring the stricken boys. " I think that as a punishment we shall leave you here, maybe you will be lucky enough that someone will take pity, though I doubt it, on you and allow for you to get on the train." With that said Lily turned her back on the scene and boarded the train, heading for the prefect compartment so as not to be late for the first meeting of the year.
Lily turned her large emerald eyes to take in the other occupants of the large compartment. So far only several prefects were there. Looked like the fellow fifth year prefect was to be Remus Lupin, which would also explain why he hadn't been outside with the others. For the Hufflepuff fifth years, there was Rita Skeeter and. rather miraculously in her opinion, Gilderoy Lockhart. Bellatrix Black was the only fifth year Slytherin present for the time being. And the Ravenclaw prefects, Jon Chang and Eleanor Whittle, were sitting in a corner, discussing homework. The rest of the prefects should be arriving soon, as the Hogwarts Express had just given off the five minute warning whistle. Smiling a little uncertainly, Lily sat beside the least obnoxious Marauder, who gave a slightly wolfish smile back.
"How've you been Lily?" Remus politely asked. For some reason he didn't annoy her as much as Potter, Black and Pettigrew, maybe it was because he had manners, didn't act like he was god's gift to women, and he didn't whine about every little thing.
"I've been pretty good," she responded casually. "How was your holiday?"
"Eh… it was pretty boring, I just basically hung around my house, but I did go to visit James and Sirius over the summer a couple of times though. What about you?"
"Well, I was fortunate enough to spend time with my lovely sister. We did go to France for a week though, to visit some cousins. But other than that, nothing interesting," Lily smiled, maybe this year wouldn't be too bad, at least she had a dependable fellow prefect. She'd had nightmares since she'd gotten her letter that Potter had been chosen. Just then Frank Longbottom and Alice McFerrin joined the two fifth year prefects.
"I'm so pleased you got chosen, Lily," Alice said warmly. "You do so well in school; it would have been an outrage if Dumbledore hadn't chosen you." Frank turned away from his Quidditch conversation with Remus to smile indulgently at his girlfriend. Before anyone could say anything, Bellatrix Black just had to open her mouth.
"Well I think it's a shame that the mudblood loving fool let someone so dirty and obviously talentless have such a high position of honor, although… there probably wasn't much of a choice. All of you Gryffindors may as well be filthy muggles the way everyone in your house acts. Acting like mudbloods could be as good as a pureblood. I mean, you are so pathetic. You honestly think that you belong at our school… people like you make me sick."
"Perhaps if you feel sick you should stop looking in the mirror," Remus coolly replied with a glint in his eye. Someone cleared their throat at the door. Immediately everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the source of the noise. The Head Boy (a Hufflepuff) and Head Girl (a Ravenclaw) entered the room, casting glances about to make sure that everyone was present. During the course of the last five minutes, nearly everyone had come into the room.
"Where's the other Slytherin prefect?" Jenny Armstrong, a.k.a. the Head Girl, asked. As if in response to her question, the door to the compartment banged open to reveal Snape. Lily let out a very quiet groan. If only no one had unfrozen the slime ball.
"Sorry I'm late, I was –"
"No excuses," she snapped. "I'm sure you have a good one, but we need to get down to business. Now, we will need you to patrol the halls of the train in pairs of two. Each pair, as you may have guessed, consists of the two prefects from your house in each grade level. When we get to the school, McGonagall well go over hall patrolling with us. She will also hand out the common room passwords right before the feast. Any questions? No. Good." She looked expectantly at Amos Diggory.
"Right. For patrolling the train we're starting off with Gryffindor, followed by Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff, next Slytherin, ending up with Jenny and myself. Each patrol starts out with the fifth years moving up to the next year and then on to the next house. If there are any problems come find us right away. Remember, do not abuse your privileges or there will be serious consequences to face. You can go now." With that said and done, the prefects filed out of the compartment to head towards their respective spots. In Lily and Remus's case, it was to head of any troublemakers, in other words, the Marauders.