Chapter Three

Lily's room was only dimly lit. The power had been shut off, and she had transfigured a few candles to float around the room lit up, almost like in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Her trunk was on the bed, packed. Now she was only saying good-bye to the place.

This had always been her bedroom. The wooden floorboards were uneven and had bits of dust and random minuscule things wedged in the cracks; they creaked when stepped upon. The walls were bare now, as Lily had already put her few pictures into her suitcase. They sloped in towards the center of the ceiling in the shape of the roof. It was not much of a room, but she had always been contented here.

In the corner was the old rocking chair. The bedroom had once been a nursery, with the crib where Lily's bed now stood, and then at one point it had housed both Lily and Petunia, until they had grown and Petunia had moved out. The rocking chair, the last vestige of the children's room, had stayed, as there was no other place to keep it in the house.

Lily sat in it, leaned back, and closed her eyes. Here her mother had sat, her mammai, and rocked her to sleep, every night until she was five probably, and then some nights afterwards as well. Always rocking, to and fro, steady and rhythmic, and ever singing…

"Siuil, siuil, siuil a run…

Siuil go sochair agus so go chuin…"

Her voice was soft and low, slowly singing the old Irish song as Lily fell asleep. Her hands caressed, her thumb always rubbing circles on Lily's shoulder, smooth, dependable clockwise circles. She smelled of lavender from the garden in the backyard. The amber pendant on her chest shone in the moonlight that came in through the window.

Lily touched the amber pendant on her own chest and rocked herself, the chair creaking forward and backward like a requiem. She sang quietly to herself, "is go dte tu mo mhuinin slan…"

Noon rose upon September 1st with clear skies. Mr. Evans drove Lily to King's Cross. The ride was long and quiet, though Lily talked about the upcoming year, her privileges as Head Girl, as the importance of NEWT testing. It was as if she were talking to herself; Mr. Evans occasionally nodded, or grunted his thoughtless assent, but it was as if he were preoccupied. Lily exasperatedly supposed that he would prattle on to Mrs. Evans all the way home.

Platform Nine and Three Quarters was less crowded this year, drawing less attention from the surrounding muggles than it had before. Wizarding parents were dropping their children off quickly at the train, and not taking the time to see them off. The less time spent out and about, the less danger, responsible wizards seemed to think.

"Good afternoon, Lily," James greeted her as she approached the scarlet steam train. "What a fine-looking badge you're wearing."

"Hello James," Lily replied, smiling, "Yours doesn't look half-bad either. Hello Remus, Sirius, Peter."

The four boys were standing together, not at all an uncommon sight. James's Head Boy badge was displayed prominently upon his chest, and he was grinning perhaps more obviously than he intended to. Sirius was looking away, one hand loosely inserted into his pocket, sporting a pair of sunglasses which he lifted when a girl walked pass. "Whew, would you look at that, Remus, Emily Abbot got sexy over the summer…" he said in a low tone.

"How was your summer, Lily?" Remus asked, ignoring his somewhat tactless companion. Remus Lupin looked more scholarly than fashionable—he might have been a starving poet. His clothes were shabby and too large for his lanky frame. His hair was lank and light colored and his face a bit drained, but he was prone to looking this way from time to time. His facial features, however, were sharp, connoting an evident alertness, and he tended to rest his hand on his chin when pondering.

"It was very good, and yours?" Lily said.

"Likewise."

Peter Pettigrew was the other boy, taciturn, looking down at his feet, which in boredom or uncertainty, or perhaps both, he shuffled about from time to time. He was less slim and less intelligent than the others, and Lily often pitied him.

"We should get onto the train, it's going to leave soon," Lily told them.

Lily and James went to the first compartment. It was their first duty, and a rather bland one, to patrol the compartments. James remarked that he was more accustomed to being suspected of wrongdoing than he was to watching out for it. Lily said that they only had to patrol once. So, when the train began to move, they walked down the center aisle and back. They spotted a group of third years with dungbombs, which Lily threatened to take but James pretended not to notice, and they came upon a boy who had tried to impress his friends by performing a jinx upon himself that had backfired; Lily fixed him up in a matter of moments.

"All right, so nobody's exploded the train yet," James said. "Any other obligatory measures?"

"Not that I can think of," Lily replied.

"Shall we enjoy the ride, then?" James asked.

"That would be customary," Lily said.

They returned to the first compartment, took off their shoes, and sprawled themselves out across the seats. The train sped continually forward, northward towards Hogwarts, occasionally running over a bump in the track that jostled the compartment. James started giving Lily a long, in-depth recounting of a Quidditch match that he had played in over the summer. She lost interest in the middle of a wronski feint.

The ride was long and leisurely, even with Remus, Sirius, and Peter in the front compartment later on. A friend of Lily's named Kate joined them as well, and the group chatted merrily while eating Bertie Bott's beans, chocolate frogs, and pumpkin pastries that they had gotten from the candy cart.

Author's Note: The title of this story will soon be changing, because, frankly, the current title is very run-of-the-mill. So, if this is on your favorites, you'll be able to find it again easily, as it'll have the same URL. I'm thinking Lily of the Wind will be the title (you might've noticed the reference to this is James's letters in chapter two). Well, I know this chapter was short, but read and review anyway if you'd like.