Ooh, well I have been getting a little over-excited about this whole thing and need to release the artistic tension that is bottling up inside me. Exactly how impressive this artistic talent is I shall leave to the discretion of my dear readers! (Being quite critical of my own work, I am forever feeling that as soon as I post a chapter, it is nowhere near as good as I think I could have made it. Anyone else have the same problem?).

I hope, therefore that this instalment is up to scratch! Please please review- eternal gratification on my part will ensue (woah, big words today… I hope this doesn't affect its comprehensibility!)

R xxx

'The happiest thing in the world is a match well made, and a happy marriage to you both'

- Emma to the new Mr and Mrs Weston.

Screwing up her eyes and taking a deep breath, Lily made a dash towards the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. She had made this run countless times over the past five years, but had never as yet managed to do so with comfort. Her flaming red hair whipping out behind her, she melted into the seemingly solid barrier, arriving on Platform 9 ¾ with fifteen minutes to spare before departure.

Lily glanced around at the milling witches and wizards, her emerald eyes searching for those she knew. Countless parents were tearing over the loss of goodness knows how many children. Cats of all different colours ran unchecked through the crowds, obviously in search of anywhere that might spare them the dreaded seven hour train journey in the bumpy carriages.

Several of the children Lily passed had faces that told her quite clearly that they were new first years (the slightly green pallor of their faces was a bit of a giveaway). Most, however, were greeting class mates, swapping holiday news and eyeing the older students with renewed interest. Lily rolled her eyes- the ages of raging hormones were fast creeping up on these poor, unsuspecting young children. She looked around at the main sources of interest- Gideon and Fabian Prewett, twins and good friends of hers were in the centre of a gaggle of giggling fifth and sixth years as they told tales of… Lily observed their wild hand gestures…

'Quidditch,' she muttered to herself, rolling her eyes yet again.

James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin were similarly occupied, but Sirius Black was nowhere to be seen. A trifle odd, Lily thought, seeing as it was popular belief that Black and Potter had been surgically bound at the hip since first year.

'The' group of popular stupid blonde air-heads were milling around between these two groups, obviously needing a combined brain force of five to work out which of the boys they were most likely to score with. And then Lily saw…

'Alice!' she cried, flinging her arms around the girl fast approaching her on the left. The combined force of their hugs almost knocked them flying into a boy standing right by them who looked as if they might bite him, muttered a very hasty and heartfelt apology for getting in their way and ran off to the other end of the platform, plainly terrified. The two girls laughed loudly.

'Lily darling! How was your summer?' asked Alice, finally drawing back allowing Lily to take a much needed breath. 'And how is the dreaded Mr D?'

Lily made a face reminiscent to someone who has just swallowed Bubotuber pus. 'Ugh, complete nightmare. I swear, the sooner Pet gets up and marries him, the better. At least he won't have to visit the blinking house.'

Alice linked a sympathising arm through Lily's as she said, 'Well, at least you're gaining a brother from the whole ordeal.'

Lily snorted. 'Do you think the relationship will make him more or less likely to kill me while I sleep?'

Alice laughed, but cast a knowing glance up ahead at the group of three boys, with whom the group of blonde bimbos seemed to think they would be better occupied and were now making stupid gooey eyes at under layers of inch thick mascara. 'I think you know I wasn't referring to dear Vernon.' Lily fought back a groan. For the entire summer, she had thought of nothing about her impending legal binding to someone who, until her sister's fiancée had turned up, she liked to think of as the person she disliked least in the whole world. The arrogant prat however, at least seemed to be backing off slightly- she had only received four letters from him over the holidays, reducing the numbers from the previous summer by a staggering twenty-seven.

'Hmph,' Lily retorted, unable to come up with a more witty and cutting response. She looked at Alice, who seemed to be looking out for someone else… and Lily had a sneaky idea who.

Alice Ingleby, although the year above Lily, had become her greatest friend and most loyal confidant in the five years she had spent at Hogwarts. Lily's contemporaries in Gryffindor were all members of the 'prissy posse' and Lily liked to think of herself as slightly less desperate than they. So she and Alice had had become friends and had met properly through the Charms Club which they co-founded along with the Prewetts and James Potter (Lily didn't have the slightest clue why he had decided to join in as he had no special regard for the subject, having always expressed a greater interest in Transfiguration. However, it was obvious to everyone else that the fact that Lily was on the committee and they had weekly meetings might have been something to do with it). Alice was slightly shorter than Lily and not quite as waif-like although by no means fat at all. She had light brown hair which was bobbed just above her shoulders and large pale blue eyes that smiled, even when her mouth was not. She had a round, friendly face and although not beautiful in her own right, her exquisitely kind nature and sun-beam smile made her instantly gorgeous to all who knew her.

Last year, Lily had taken it upon herself to do some match-making, although she would never admit it herself. She merely dubbed it 'propitious persuasion'. It had been common knowledge to all of Alice's friends that she liked Frank, and it had been common knowledge to all of Frank's friends that he liked Alice. But Lily had been the only one to do anything about it. And so, sure enough, with gentle manipulation on Lily's part, Frank Longbottom, had finally worked up the courage to ask Alice out at the end of the year. And, as one can guess, the answer was extremely favourable (when we say extremely favourable, Alice leaping into Frank's arms and kissing him senseless would be termed as mildly favourable).

So when Lily spotted Frank loitering near the other end of the train, she made sure they made an instant bee-line for him. She marvelled at the speed at which Alice's eyes melted as she saw her boyfriend and knew that this was no over-the-summer fling, this was going to be a serious relationship.

'Hi Lily,' said Frank in his soft voice, pulling her into a hug. 'Good summer? Wait, no, don't answer that. I'm sure it was shite what with old what's-his-nit loitering around the house.' Lily nodded, affirming his statement, but grinning all the same.

'Makes it all the better to be going back to school again,' she said positively. Frank smiled back and then turned to Alice, greeting her with a little more fervour than he did with Lily, which was of course to be expected.

'Back in a sec,' she muttered to Alice who broke away from Frank just long enough to confirm she'd heard her, but no longer that that. Lily smiled to herself, glad she was the main cause of their happiness. She wandered off down the platform towards the Prewetts who had lost enough of their audience for Lily to break through to greet them.

'Lils!' they both cried in unison and each trying to grab her for a hug, ending up in a rather messy entanglement of limbs on the ground and a stray cat that seemed to think that the train journey was obviously a better bet than the station and clawed its way out from the melee. When they all finally regained their vertical positions, Lily gave them each a big hug, causing dagger-like looks from the bimbos now boarding the train.

'Have you seen Frank yet?' she asked them.

'Yep,' they replied together.

'Still going on about Alice,' grinned Fabian.

'Bloody besotted,' muttered Gideon.

'Yes, well they're both a little occupied at present,' said Lily, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. At six foot one and a half inches a piece, the twins were able to see easily over the crowds

'But don't you think it's nice that they're both so happy now?' Lily asked, slightly put out.

'Yeah, well after that disaster with… what was her name? Blonde, thick?' asked Fab.

'Oh, well that narrows it down,' said Lily, looking up at the train and seeing five such offending faces peering down at her with revolt.

'Yeah,' laughed Gid. 'Well, she was a disaster.'

'Poor bloke,' Fab said quietly, looking over at Frank.

'Well, at least he's got Alice now,' said Lily. 'And they're both smitten so all's well that ends well.'

'Yeah, she's a decent one,' agreed Fab.

'And it was all down to me,' smiled Lily, causing meaningful glances between the twins. 'What a triumph!'

A derisive snort from behind her diverted her attention. 'Triumph- you made a lucky guess!'

Lily turned on James, her expression deadly serious. 'Have you never learned of the triumph of a lucky guess?'

'Never needed to,' he replied. 'I just don't do guessing, goes against my nature. I know everything.'

'Indeed?' asked Lily, raising a very long and delicately plucked eyebrow. 'Well, I do not believe in anything that tampers with natural ignorance.'

'Good God Lily, it's only eleven in the morning and we're already quoting Oscar Wilde at each other.' Lily's reply was only a wilting smile as she turned her back on James towards the Prewetts who made a half-hearted attempt to hide their sniggers.

'I saw that,' Lily muttered, smiling. 'And I… wait, eleven!'

Sure enough, at her words, the whistle of the great locomotive rang loud and clears through the air and the sound of slamming doors began to mingle with the sounds of crying children and parents.

'My stuff isn't even on the train!' and she started back towards the barrier where she had dumped her trolley before greeting Alice.

'Well lads, I think we know when out assistance is required,' said Fabian and he, followed closely by his brother and James hurried after Lily, grabbing her trunk, cat and broomstick from the trunk before she could say a word and threw them unceremoniously in through the nearest open door. Lily was then picked up by one of them and she followed her trunk landing, for the second time in five minutes on the ground in a heap. The boy followed after her, just as the train began to pull away and she was righted to her feet by Gideon.

'As you helped me with my baggage, I will, for the moment, shelve my pride and forget that you threw me into a moving vehicle,' Lily said grudgingly, brushing off the bottom of her jeans, causing interested looks from her party. When she ceased in her activity, she found Gideon studiously inspecting his fingernails, Fabian examining something on the ceiling and James staring at her arse quite shamelessly. 'Well?' she prompted them, and their attention napped back to her immediately. 'Are you going to help me find a compartment or are we to spend the whole journey in this cosy little corridor?'

'Ah, your ladyship is too generous and kind to trouble us all with small talk,' said Fabian, heaving her trunk upright.

'Indeed, who needs the words 'please' and 'thank you' when fair Lily graces us all with her presence?' muttered Gideon good naturedly as he picked up her owl cage, gaining him an unfriendly nip on the finger from Archimedes who was obviously not going to shelve his pride and be thankful he caught the train.

'Oh shut up,' Lily said, smiling, and traipsed off down the train in search of her friends, the three boys struggling along in her wake.

'Slave labour,' muttered James.

'I heard that!' called Lily brightly from up ahead. 'Oh, here we go!'

The compartment she had found contained Frank and Alice, Remus, Peter and two other seventh years- Daniel Highbury and Clarissa Edgecott . Once the others were all inside, it was a bit of a squash, but a friendly squash at least.

'God Lils, we thought you'd missed the train,' Franks said with a smile of relief as he saw her and stood up to heave her trunk into the rank as Fabian collapsed into a seat huffing and heaving.

'What do you keep in there Lils? Bricks?'

'Clothes,' she replied brightly. 'Oh, and a new silver cauldron.'

'Girls,' muttered Gideon as he all but threw her owl up along with her trunk.

'Gid!' she exclaimed, standing on a seat to check her owl. 'If you hurt him-' she said reproachfully as opened the door to the cage to let her tawny owl out.

'Don't let that thing out! It's vicious!' cried Gid and as if to emphasise his point he wielded his hand around for everyone to glimpse a tiny, insignificant scratch on his forefinger. But before anyone could think of a cutting remark in reply to his hypochondria they heard-

'YOU ARE SO MEAN TO ME!'

'I'M MEAN TO YOU! WELL, YOU'RE MEAN TO ME!'

'Oh God,' said Fabian.

'Blondes?' offered Gideon.

'YOU CAN BE SUCH A BULLY, MULLET!'

'DON'T CALL ME BY MY SURNAME, QUISTAR!'

'OH, YOU ARE SUCH A HYPOCRITE!'

'YEAH, WELL YOU'RE A HIPPO-CRUT TOO!'

'Yup, it's the blondes,' muttered James.

'OH, JUST GO AND SHAG SOMEBODY!'

'WHY DON'T YOU?'

'Such well structured arguments,' commented Lily, stifling a giggle.

'BECAUSE I'M NOT A SLUT LIKE YOU GEORGIA!'

Disbelieving looks were passed around the group in the compartment, and at that moment both James and Daniel launched into a huge bout of coughing fits.

WELL, YOU'RE NOT EVEN A NATURAL BLONDE!'

'Ooh, touché,' grinned Alice.

At that moment, a streak of bottle blonde hair streaked past their door. Clearly the last comment had just been below the belt. The group exchanged uncomfortable looks. Finally, Lily offered to go after her.

She left the compartment (a feat in itself as there were nine pairs of legs to climb over) and only had to guess where the girl had gone.

'The toilets,' she muttered, wondering if there was ever a greater cliché. Why was it that you had to go to a smelly and slightly unsanitary place to bawl you eyes out? Lily had tried it once but it only seemed to make her condition worse, especially as she had chosen Moaning Myrtle's bathroom in which to do it.

As she approached the door, she heard sniffles from the other side. She knocked gently but was met with no reply. Another typical tact- pretending you don't exist. She knocked again slightly louder.

'What do you want?' came a miserable voice.

'To talk to you,' replied Lily gently. 'That is you Christiana?'

'Who's that?'

'Lily.'

'Lily? Evans?'

'Yup.'

A few seconds pause followed this, superseded by the sound of the lock drawing back. The door opened to reveal a girl with long, straight very artificially blonde hair (probably more given away by the fact that it was a totally different colour to her eyebrows), large dark brown eyes and tear-stained cheeks. She launched herself onto Lily, crying into her shoulder.

'I hate them so much,' she sniffled.

'Don't we all?' Lily said, smiling slightly. Christiana pulled away, she really did look quite a mess. 'Come on,' said Lily consolingly. 'There's an empty compartment just up here, let's get you cleaned up.' Christiana nodded dolefully and followed Lily a few paces up the carriage to the said compartment and plopped herself down on a seat. Lily sat down opposite her, regarding her closely.

'Right,' she said finally. 'First thing's first. Let's put your hair back the way it was.' At her words, Christiana looked slightly apprehensive but nodded all the same. Lily whipped out her wand, gave it a tricky little flick and muttered 'Chevanus naturalis' and where very long and very straightened golden locks had been, thick brown curls had formed to just below her shoulders.

'Much better,' Lily remarked, smiling at her handiwork. 'Now that matches your eyebrows.' Christiana giggled slightly, and then hiccupped. 'Okay, spill. What's the deal with you and the prissy posse?'

Taking a steadying breath, Christiana launched into the tale of how she more or less got dragged along with all the girls and had felt so out of place with her Mediterranean features that she had dyed her hair to try and fit in but they had still shunned her. And then she told her about how she thought Georgia had looked up to her (as Georgia was the year below them) but didn't. The rest of the story was a little hard to decipher as Christiana had dissolved into tears again. However between the hiccups and sniffles, Lily thought she'd made out that the main basis of the argument had either been about birthdays or giant tortoises. She was inclined to think the former.

'And now I feel so bad because I've been hiccup neglecting you all these sniff all these years, and I always sort of worried if you were sniff okay, but I never bothered t-to ask and so now I hiccup I know I'm a horrible p-person, so I should be back with th-them. Th-they're s-so self-centred and sniff I n-never wanted to be like that.'

'Need a hanky?' came a voice from the door. Gideon was leaning against the frame, looking slightly uncomfortable that there was a girl crying near him, but handling it remarkably well considering. He held out the proffered hanky which Christiana took with a smile and blew her nose with all the force of a small elephant.

'Thanks,' she said, obviously wondering whether it would be rude to keep it, or rude to give it back.

'Keep it,' he said with a grin. 'Anyway, we were just wondering if you were both still alive, you've been gone for an age.'

'Yeah, we'll be back in a second,' said Lily. 'You will come sit with us?' she asked Christiana.

I-I'd love to,' she answered with a watery smile.

'Yeah, I'm sure we can find some room for you. We can push James onto the floor if needs be.' Lily and Christiana both giggled despite themselves and Lily tried a reproachful glance at Gid which failed spectacularly. Gideon made to go and then stopped, turned around and said to Christiana, 'Oh, by the way. I like your hair.' Then he grinned, winked and walked off.

'He's nice,' said Christiana quietly.

'Yeah he is,' agreed Lily. 'All the guys are actually.'

'You actually talk to them?'

'Yeah, of course.'

'Wow, you must be so brave. I've only ever heard them talk, but I could never work up the courage to talk back.'

'Well, they're just mates, you know. They are human beings… some of the time. Come on, we'll make the introductions, and then you can make all those girls wild with jealousy.' Christiana laughed nervously. 'We might even be able to set you up with one of them…'

'Oh I don't know-'

'I do,' said Lily, excitement getting the better of her as she smelt the promise of match-making looming up ahead. She stood up, and Christiana did likewise.

'Are we friends now then?' Christiana asked nervously.

'Definitely,' replied Lily giving a quick hug, 'Chrissy.' And arm in arm, they made their way back down to the other's compartment where, sure enough, James did get relegated to the floor, but not before he'd pulled half of the other occupants down with him.

Lily made sure that Chrissy was introduced and Gideon offered to sit next to her where they chatted for quite a while. And, naturally, Lily got slightly excited about this.

'Ooh, project!' screamed her mind. Chrissy would, however, turn out to be a much greater project than Lily could ever have anticipated…

Woah, quite a long chappie for me! Tell me what you thought…?

R xxx