By headupintheclouds
Lily Evans was greeted in the morning by sunlight shining through her window, and she slowly brought herself to full consciousness, but lay staring at her ceiling for more then an hour that morning. She tried to make her thoughts face Remus, who she would be seeing that day, but Potter kept intruding for long periods of time, while she tried to convince herself she wasn't thinking about him.
Finally prying herself from her comfortable, warm hole in her covers, she started for the door when a large commotion was heard downstairs, a sort of high pitched clanging and clattering. She wrenched open the door and sped down the steps with ease. Upon arriving in the kitchen, she found Petunia standing nonchalantly in the doorway to the dining room while her parents clutched each other. The look on her mother's face was a mix of horror and hurt, while her father's was pure rage.
"What happened?" she asked, eyeing the scene cautiously.
"I'm getting married," Petunia shrugged.
"To Vernon?" Lily asked in distaste and disbelief. "But- but…"
Lily had only met Vernon once, and saying it hadn't gone well would be an understatement. He spent the entire time sputtering, so much that the dining room table had needed a full wipe down afterwards. He was either sputtering in disgust or ignoring Lily, while Petunia fawned on him. Afterwards, Petunia had accused her of trying to steal Vernon, and Lily had stormed up to her room, losing her temper with her sister, which she rarely did.
"But what?" Petunia asked coldly, snapping Lily back into the scene that was fast unfolding in their kitchen.
"You- you can't do this!" Lily exploded, as she watched her parents' nervous, outraged clutter. Taking a step toward her sister, she continued, "You can't spring this on me! Or on Mum and Dad! It isn't fair to any of us! He should've- you should've… you can't be serious?"
"Oh yes, darling sister," Petunia said, uttering the last two words as one would the name of an extremely volatile poison.
"Arg! I can't believe you! Selling your parents and your sister for that- that- toad!" Lily burst. When Lily was truly angry, she never cursed, and her light headed, halfhearted responses were often the biggest clue that she was hurt.
"I'm not selling Mum and Dad so much…" she replied coyly.
Upon this remark, Lily stormed up the stairs and proceeded to pack, which mainly consisted of throwing random items in a bag while muttering unmentionables that even Petunia would've been shocked at.
Half an hour later, most of her possessions collected into bags, which were then stored in her trunk, Lily hurried downstairs. A silent ride to King's Cross followed, during which Lily and her parents fumed in different way, and Petunia sat stiffly staring out the window.
Arriving at the station, they all piled out. Her parents and sister followed Lily onto the platform, where Lily hugged her parents for a long while, all the while being wordless. Her father kissed her head, and then released Lily.
She turned, leaving Petunia looking hurt and shocked. Every year to date, Lily had tried to encase her sister in a hug on the platform, but this time Lily had turned on her heel, ignoring Petunia. It hurt Petunia more than she would ever let on, as she let out a soft noise of indignation.
Lily trudged up to the train and lugged her trunk onboard, before storing it in the Head compartment, awaiting James' arrival with equal curiosity and anxiety. While waiting, she pondered her move on the platform, wondering if Petunia had even noticed.
A few minutes later, James Potter sauntered in, not noticing that Lily was seething, and ready to spit venom at anyone who crossed her.
"So, Evans-" he started.
"I'm not in the mood," Lily said dangerously, her eyes unfocused on the bench in front of her. James sat down on it, still unaffected by her state, and she turned her eyes to stare out the window blankly.
"I- what's wrong?" he asked with a kind of sincerity that Lily had never heard from him. But, in her affected state, she failed to notice.
"Nothing," she whispered with an animosity that scared James.
"Lily! You're going to have to trust me this year, you know! All I want is for you to trust me!" he exclaimed, looking frustrated.
"I- I can't. I can't trust anyone." Lily replied quietly, still dazed and staring out the window. The train slowly started to move.
"Yes, you can. You can't bottle things up, Lily!" James told her gently.
"It's worked quite nicely until now," she pointed out sarcastically.
"At some point, you'll have to trust me. Even if it's with punishing somebody, even with something as trivial as turning in an assignment when you're sick, you're going to have to. And I will find out what's bugging you. Actually, I'd be surprised if I got off the train not knowing." He said, half to himself and half to her, although he was quite sure she wasn't in a normal mood.
"No, you won't. I can't talk to my friends, and I certainly can't talk to you about it." Lily said stubbornly, never moving her eyes off the rolling hills the sped through.
"Well… let's at least prepare for the meeting. I've never been a Prefect, so what're the duties again?" James asked.
"Monitoring the halls after hours! We'll have to draw up schedules, and until then, you and I will have to do the rounds. Every night." Lily sighed heavily at this prospect, but James didn't so much as drool.
"Well- all right then. When are the puny munchkins getting here?" he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.
"They're fifth and sixth years!" Lily exclaimed, indignant.
"The difference being?" James asked lazily.
"Arg! They should be here ASAP. Otherwise they're late, and if they're late, we dock points." Lily said tediously.
"It's the first day of term! We can't dock points!" James voiced.
"Yes, we can." Lily replied.
"No."
"Yes."
"Noooooo."
"Yup."
"Uhn-uhnnnnnnnnn."
"Yeah."
"Not fair!"
"Entirely fair!"
And then a knock was heard on the door, behind which was a snickering group of fifth- and sixth years. Lily blushed, and pulled open the door.
"Prefect meeting? Or were we interrupting something?" asked one Slytherin, sounding bored.
"Nope, come on it!" James said warmly, but without looking at the Slytherins.
Half an hour later, the group was dismissed, partially because they knew their duties and partially because James and Lily were arguing. Again.
"The Hogsmeade trip should be sooner than later, so it won't be cancelled because of snow." James reasoned.
"But who ever heard of doing Christmas shopping in October?" Lily articulated, pulling out a book.
"Well- we'll talk about it later I guess." James said, deflating. He started to get up, and had his hand on the door handle.
"Stay." Lily said in a dull tone, without looking up from her novel.
His eyes lit up as he joined her on her side of the bench.
"Not for," she said, pushing him to the other side, "The first years were told they could come and meet us if they were nervous or anxious or anything,"
"Last thing I want to do on the train to school—tell munchkins to stop being stupid." James muttered.
Another knock sounded, outside of which a merry looking Remus was standing.
"Hello there!" Lily exclaimed happily, pulling open the door and forcing herself to encircle Remus in a hug.
"'Lo Mate" James said, sounding none too eager to be joined.
"I can't stay," Remus explained hurriedly, "but I just wanted to check on two of my favorite people!"
Lily beckoned for him to sit, but he shook his head and left.
"I just love Remus," Lily said, more trying to convince herself than James.
"Don't we all?" James said congenially.
"Lily furrowed her brow. Last year, James would've considered hexing Remus for letting Lily hug him. This year, he just… sat there… and looked almost… hurt. Could that be?
A/N: This is my most popular fic by far, so I decided to put up another chapter of it, as opposed to starting a fic I can't figure out how to start :P Enjoy, review, and live long, prosperous lives!