Chapter One – First day nerves
Lily Evans sat in an empty compartment reading a muggle book but after every line snapped it shut, looked out the window and wished the train to hurry up so that she could arrive at Hogwarts quicker. 'You know a watched pot never boils.' Looking up Lily could see a girl, a few years older, watching her amused, her black hair streaked with pink. Lily smiled as the girl entered, dragging a boy with a mane of shaggy black hair into the compartment with her. 'I'm Andy.' She held out her hand but Lily, forgetting her manners blurted out;
'That's a boy's name.' Before covering her mouth with a hand, a pink blush creeping into her cheeks. 'I'm so sorry, Mother keeps telling me to think before I speak, I should probably start listening to her.' The boy, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, said seriously,
'But where would the fun be in that.' Before a large lopsided grin crossed his face, Lily also smiled, while Andy rolled her eyes dramatically.
'I am sorry, though,' Lily started saying, apologetically. Andy raised her hand to silence her before saying with a laugh,
'It doesn't matter, besides its better than being called Andromeda, I don't know what my Mother was thinking.' She turned from staring at Lily to looking warningly at Sirius, 'Try not to get into too much trouble, at least not today.' Sirius smiled innocently, which only helped to confirm her fears that he was planning something. 'I'm warning you Sirius, if I hear that you have caused any trouble I will give you detention for the rest of your life.' Sirius laughed, looking wounded, as Andy turned back to Lily. 'I have to go,'
'Oh yes, you need to find Teddy Bear,' Andy turned to face Sirius, a look of mock anger in her eyes.
'He is not called Teddy Bear, his name is Ted.' She turned and stormed out of the compartment, before reappearing moments later and warning Lily, 'Be careful around Sirius, he likes to play pranks on people.' Lily smiled back at her as she disappeared from the compartment.
'I'm Lily by the way.' She held her hand out to Sirius, who smiled at her and held out his own hand,
'Sirius.' Obligingly they shook hands before relaxing into the seats, Lily re-opening her book, while Sirius watched her. 'Do want any chocolate or anything?' Lily shook her head before returning to her book. 'Well I'll see you later.' Lily looked up, gave a smile before starting to read again.
The compartment door slid open, closed and opened again. Looking up Lily saw that a girl had entered; her clock patched and faded, her hair was in a dishevelled mess around her face and full of knots. 'Hi,' Lily said, closing her book with a snap, replacing it in her bag, realising that she wasn't going to get very far with it. 'I'm Lily.' She held her hand out; the girl looked at it unsure before taking and stating her name.
'Laney,'
The two girls started talking together about Hogwarts; mainly it was Laney telling Lily about the four houses, and as much as she knew about the teachers and the new headmaster. The door suddenly opened and three boys walked in, there arms full of chocolate frogs, and other types of confectionary, the first boy Lily recognised as Sirius but the other two were foreign to her. 'Hey Lily, this is James Potter and Remus Lupin, I hope you don't mind if they join us.' A look of mock anger passed across her face as she started to tell Sirius that he couldn't invite people into the compartment, though her eyes shone with laughter, which the two boys and Laney noticed and were snickering behind their hands as Sirius looked at Lily petrified and when she was finished started apologising profoundly.
'Sirius, I was joking, it's fine.' Lily gave a sweet smile, but Sirius turned away offended.
'Well it wasn't very funny.'
'Yeah it was mate.' James said slapping him on the back. Sirius pouted miserably while James continued to talk, 'I think I may have competition for the best prankster in the school.'
'Well, mate, you won't actually have any competition for best prankster, as that is me, but maybe second best.' James looked offended.
'Well, mate, you can't really call yourself a prankster when you were pranked by a girl. At that Lily and Laney shared indignant looks.
'Now this is personal.' Lily pulled out her wand, and with a flick of it James' glasses turned from black to a flaming red and started squeaking whenever he blinked. Everybody apart from James started laughing, until he drew his wand and turned Sirius' hair to a bright pink. Sirius corrected it in an instant, but not before turning Lily's hair to a mixture between bubblegum pink and acid green. Taking a strand and examining it briefly Lily declared,
'I like it,' everybody started laughing before starting to throw jinxes around the compartment. By the time the train had stopped Lily's cloak had become a ghastly yellow, that clashed badly with her multicoloured hair and, now, purple hat, James's face had become a bright blue, while the rest of his skin was flashing orange and indigo. Sirius meanwhile was now wearing an orange robe and his hat kept yelling abuse at the occupants of the compartment.
Laney and Remus were both lying on the floor, Laney from a well placed laughing charm by Lily, and Remus from a jelly legs curse from Sirius. They both struggled to get to their feet, but whenever they were nearly stable they collapsed again. With the help of the other three they managed to get of the train, just before it pulled away. Looking around they saw a man head and shoulders above the students calling for the first years. The group of five made their way to him, all laughing, clinging on for support. 'Wha's happened to ya? Ya all look a righ' mess.' He shook his head deciding he didn't want to know before ushering students into small boats, calling as he did. 'No mor' than four to a boa''
Lily and Laney climbed into a vacant boat and were followed by the three boys. 'You can't come in this one.' Lily said as James climbed in, he ignored her and squeezed in between the two girls.
'It will be fine, I promise.' Lily sighed, as the boat pulled away from the edge of the lake.
About half way across Sirius got bored, without thinking he stood trying to see the castle, tripped on one of Remus' failing legs and fell into the cold water, at once the four remaining occupants leant across to see if he was alright, but the uneven weight caused the boat to capsize and all of them ended up in the water. Lily gasped at the impact of the cold water, as she struggled to reach the surface, her clothes pulling her down. Eventually she broke the surface and started gasping for air, before swimming madly towards Sirius. 'I'm going to kill you.' Sirius began swimming as fast as he could, though that wasn't very fast as his clothes were weighing him down.
'Hey, wha's happened here?' The big man asked as his boat passed them. He stopped it with a tap of his umbrella, and yanked the five of them out and placed them back in their boat. 'I though' I said no mor' than four to a boa'?' He said shaking his head, again not wanting to know. Lily sat glaring at Sirius sharing the man's giant moleskin coat with Laney and Remus, refusing to allow the other two near it.
Eventually they reached the other side, at once the five of them dashed out of the boat and towards the warmth that waited for them inside the castle. Hagrid gave a small smile as he saw them laughing together, and in his heart knew that they were going to become the best of friends, little did he know the pain that would taint their lives. Little did he know how fate would intervene and rip them apart. Little did he know the horrors they would have to go through, both separately and together, little did he know what the future held, and little did he know how that future would destroy their lives, time after time.