Our Opening Scene
by: EmpressMLP
Marlene Vance, Alice Prewett, Lily Evans, and Emmeline Vance were the four most respected and well-liked girls at Hogwarts. But on their 6th year journey, they'll realize that there's much more to life than that.
These four girls had just entered Platform 9 and Three Quarters. As soon as they did, all talking around them ceased for a moment, just to look at them and take in their absolute power. But, as in any situation, no one dares to look at others for long, lest they be accused of staring and therefore marked as "weird." So after a moment the bustling began again and the four girls were no longer observed .
"Not a very warm welcome," the tallest of these girls frowned. With tan skin, long light brown hair, and black twinkling eyes she was extremely pretty. The only oddity about her was that along with her artfully ripped muggle jeans, white t-shirt, hoop earrings and silver spangles, she had on knee-length black leather combat boots, something that one does not usually see during the summer.
"Can you blame them? After all that's gone on this summer?" The only blonde in the group answered the brunette with a morose expression. She had soft blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a short and somewhat rounded figure. She seemed to be the kind of person that hates bad news, but who could break it to you gently.
"It's terrible…" the shortest, and most likely least prettiest girl of the group sighed unromantically. She might have been pretty once, but now her hair was dyed lime green and purple, and cut spiked. Her appearance made her seem like one who had an exceptionally rough childhood, yet she led one of the easiest lives anyone could have. Up until this summer, that is.
"It is. Why would anyone want to do that? All those poor people…" possibly the most beautiful girl out of the four, with her stunning appearance of brilliant red hair and shining emerald eyes, she glanced upon the saddened students with a heavy heart.
"When the time comes, we'll fight it." the brunette answered firmly. "But for now, lets board the train." The other girls nodded in agreement, and headed toward the Hogwarts Express.
They boarded the train, and with no difficulty, as many young men had offered to help them with their trolleys. And as soon as their presence was recognized, a group of 4th year Ravenclaw boys left a compartment for them, in hopes of being invited back in. They did not merit such an invitation.
"I dropped Ancient Runes." were the first words out of the brunette's mouth as soon as they were settled.
"Marlene!" The redhead gasped. "How could you?"
Marlene shrugged. She let her shiny brown hair fall down her back and her eyes sparkled brightly in the afternoon sun. Many at Hogwarts would say that Marlene Vance was the most popular girl in the whole school, including the 7th years. She was extremely talented at DADA and Transfiguration, and made excellent marks in almost all of her subjects. She was a pureblood, and her family was extremely well connected. Her family was divided half and half; her mother's side being that which hated anything Dark Arts; her fathers side being of opinion that as long as they leave the purebloods alone they can be of no harm. Marlene herself was very pretty; although not as much as her best red-headed friend. She definitely had had the most boyfriends out of the group; for the reason that she was very playful and carefree, although when she had to be, she was dead serious.
"It was a waste of my time. Do Aurors need to know anything about Ancient Runes? I decided to apply myself in a different area of interest that would better suit my aspiring profession."
Marlene liked using big words. And unlike most people, she knew exactly what they meant. It was partly due to the fact that her mother had had her tutored since she was two, and Marlene learned to read at the age of 3. By her 11th birthday, she could beat Confucius in any logical debate.
"Which would be?" sitting on the floor, the blonde was painting her toenails a bright pink with her wand.
" Muggle Studies!" Marlene exclaimed.
"Oh no…" the red-head shook her head, smiling.
"Won't it be wonderful! Aurors have to deal with Muggles a lot, so I figured it would be just swell for me to have some type of background with them! And finally I'll be able to understand Lily!"
The three other girls giggled, and the red-headed one called Lily whacked Marlene with Quintencesse, A Quest.
"Marly, I highly doubt that you could ever understand me." she smiled. Lily Evans was the type of girl that could take an insult and spit it right back at you. She was definitely one of the most popular girls at school, and used her power well, helping younger students. She was academically the best in her year, and also the most well liked. Even Alice had enemies. But Lily, Lily Evans only had one enemy. And that was James Potter.
"Your right. Probably not. You are an extremely complex person who does not wish to have her own personal mysteries unraveled. Which is exactly why James Potter is so intent on having you and finding out all your secrets." Marlene smirked, while the blonde giggled.
"Please, Marly can we for once not talk about James Potter? I had enough of him this summer."
"Sorry Lily. I forgot how much it pains you to hear a mention of his existence." Marlene sniggered.
"Really, Lily, I don't see how he's all that bad…" the blonde on the floor smiled tentatively. "First of all he looks rather… sweet."
Marlene gasped. "Is that our Alice making a remark about a boy! Yes! She has moved on from her bloody prude-ness state into a world that we all recognize! What a momentous occasion!"
It was, actually, a momentous occasion if you considered the blonde. Alice Prewett was very well known for her prudish ways and her general indifference towards boys. Brought up in a humble but courageous pure-blooded family, Alice was a very wonderful person to be around, someone who always stood very strongly in her beliefs. The first and foremost of them being that the Dark Arts would be the death of the Wizarding Race. How right she would be…
"Don't sound so surprised, Marlene. I have done quite a lot of growing up over this summer." Alice said, rather pleased with herself at getting Marlene so excited.
"Alice, we do not want to hear about your pubes." Marlene said, a disgusted look on her face.
"Ewww!" Lily shrieked. She threw her Advanced Charms textbook at Marlene, who (employing her talents as a star Chaser) caught it deftly with her left hand. She dropped it on the shortest girls head.
"Marlene, I really don't want to hear any of that rubbish right now." Emmeline Vance, spiked hair, bad temper, and all could not keep a smile from her face. She enjoyed Marlene jokes, although wild hippogriffs couldn't get her to admit it. Emmeline and Marlene were first cousins and the best of friends when they were smaller. But as they grew older they grew apart. Emmeline loved to draw and loved solitude. Marlene loved to read, but she also loved people and hated being alone. It was what made her so much more companionable and popular then Emmeline, especially with the boys.
"Sorry Em. Wouldn't want to tear you away from your fantasies about Sirius Black now, would I?" Marlene teased playfully.
"You shut up." Emmeline cast her a withering glare and returned to staring out the window. Marlene simply shrugged and went back to verbally torturing Alice.
"I'm sure, Alice dear, that as much as you have physically matured over the summer and as however interesting it may be, you might not want to talk to us about it. I think that Frank Longbottom would be a much more suitable candidate." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Lily laughed and Alice turned a bright red.
"Shut your pie-hole Marlene. Frank is a wonderful person and, my friend." She said the last word with such conviction that Marlene had to laugh.
"Oh alright Alice dear. You know I was just joking." Marlene smiled, turned around and smacked her lips loudly at Lily, who buried her head in her textbook to prevent herself from laughing.
"Besides, I'm not the one who has 'physically matured' over the summer. Just look at Lily!"
Lily Evans blushed and hugged her book to her chest.
"She's almost as curvy as you, Marlene!" Alice exclaimed, looking at Lily with admiration.
"Are you serious? Alice you know that nobody is as curvy as me." Marlene smiled and puffed her chest out. This threw the group of girls into another set of laughter, and teasing, and the train ride progressed.
"Have you seen Lily yet, Prongs?" Sirius Black, in all manners of his glory, strutted down the train with his head held high. Next to him, James Potter, in all his glory, also strutted down the train. Never apart were those two, they lived so closely with each other that they had begun to walk the same.
"Nah. You don't think she's avoiding me do you Pads?" A frown spread across James face. The mere thought of Lily avoiding him brought him down.
"Course not. Why would anyone avoid you, James Potter, God of All." Remus Lupin, a constant source of satirical wit, smirked and lengthened his stride to catch up with Sirius and James.
"Exactly! Why would anyone want to avoid me? Brilliant point Moony, you just do loads for my self esteem." James frowned and punched Remus in the arm, while Sirius laughed at the Remus's remark. "No seriously guys," James said his big hazel eyes wide with innocence, "Do you think Lily is avoiding me?"
Remus rolled his eyes and Sirius laughed once again, pushing Remus ahead of him and leaving James in an utter tizzy.
"So then he came up to me, and he was drunk, (I mean, how could he not be drunk, considering that he had all that Odgen's stored under his bed?) and said to me 'So Marly', except he slurred it horribly, so it sounded more like, 'Somrluy' and-- Lily stop snickering!"
Lily Evans brought down her textbook from her face, final stopping her vain efforts to hide her amusment at Marlene's impersonation of her latest love interest.
"Sorry Marly its just--" and she went off again into a fit of giggles.
"Well I've had about enough of Marlene's summer love stories," interrupted Alice, "Lily, why don't you tell us about your holiday romance."
"Yes Lily, do tell." Marlene requested, allowing a smirk to cross her face.
"I know for a fact that you had several encounters with a certain James Potter over the summer." Alice said, arching her eyebrow artfully.
"Oh please. I talked with him once at Florean Fortescue's ice cream shop; it can hardly be called a scene of passionate love."
"Really now? I could swear that I heard a tale of James ravishing you on top of old Fortrescue's countertop." Marlene winked.
"You are absolutely disgusting." Lily countered. "All we did was talk about classes."
"Sure..." Marlene said, suggestively raising her eyebrows.
"I'm serious. All we did was talk about the Hogwarts curriculuum. You know, classes and all that. Which reminds me, Marly--"
"Oh I don't want to hear it miss Perfect-Prefect Evans," Marlene drawled, now stretching across the length of the compartment seat.
"The prefect meeting! Bloody -- I almost forgot-- thank you Marlene!" In a whirlwind of movement, Lily stood up, reached into her trunk, retrieved her prefect badge and slammed the compartment door behind her.
"That girl." Alice said, shaking her head. Marlene stretched out even farther, and laughed.
"And now, students, I have only two words for you: Tuck In!"
"Finally!" Marlene said, anxiously tapping her gold-plated fork on the table. "I'm so hungry I could eat Emmeline!"
"I rather don't fancy being your dinner, Marly." Emmeline said, barely taking her eyes off the mounds of food in front of her.
"Sure you do! Why, just last week we were discussing the options of marinating yourself in Italian dressing! Remember?" Marlene smiled, heaping mashed potatoes onto her plate.
"Got enough there, Vance?"
The voice over Marlene's shoulder made all four of the girls stop in their frenzied actions of gathering food. After all, it was said that Sirius Black made even McGonagall stop in her tracks.
He smells wonderful, Marlene thought, slightly wistfulfully. "Sure do, Black. Did you come over here to give us a show, or would you like some potatoes?" She smiled up at him, her voice layared with fake sweetness.
"Both, dear." He laughed, put his hands on his waist, and swiftly did a little dance. Alice erupted in giggles, Emmeline blushed violently, Lily smiled, rolling her eyes, and Marlene clapped.
"Dance for your supper, that's right Black. Here you go." Marlene smiled, and handed him the bowl of mashed potatoes. He saluted her, and walked back to his end of the table. All the girls followed him with their eyes (it was hard not to), and looking at him as he sat down, Lily found herself meeting the gaze of James Potter, whom, it had appeared, had been watching her all along.
She blushed, almost as brightly as Emmeline, before turning back to her supper, and hearing Marlene's discussion with Alice about the apparent firmness of one Sirius Black's buttocks.
"You know girls," Marlene said, starting her customary "First-Night-In-the-Dorm" speech of the year, "We have only two years left at Hogwarts. Two!"
"Its depressing." Lily murmured from her bed on one side of Marlene.
"It is." agreed Emmeline from the other side.
"So what?" Alice said, propping herself up on her elbows, "All it means is that we've got to try harder this year, in... well everything."
"Yeah" Marlene said, rather wistfully.
"Like keeping a steady boyfriend." Lily said, lightly hitting Marlene with her pillow.
"They all seem to escape from me..." Marlene retorted tiredly. "I can't help it..."
"Escape from you!" Alice cried, "Marlene, you've invented more excuses for dumping a boythan I thought was even possible!"
"I can't help the fact that I ... stray. By Godric, it's my nature." she countered defensively.
"We know Marly, we know." Lily answered, attempting to calm the newly arisen tension in the room.
"Well anyway, having many boyfriends, even if not for long Alice snorted is better than having no boyfriend at all... or denying the boy I truly like." Marlene said smugly.
"I think that's enough, Marly." Emmeline said. After a few long, tense moments of silence, Marlene spoke again.
"Ah pumpkin shit. Who even cares about boys anyway?"
One at a time, each girl began to giggle, until all were absolutley possesed with a fit of outrageous laughter.
"I'll tell you who," said Alice, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "Dorcas Meadowes, thats who gives a pumpkin shit."
Marlene giggled in reply and said, "Did you hear about what she did with that awful Hufflepuff keeper behind the greenhouse?"
And so the first night commenced, and as each girl finally shut her eyes for sleep, they closed with a comfortable assurance that they had three best friends in the world; that nothing nor noone could bring apart.
A/N: So what did you think? Please leave me a review!
