Lily groaned and rolled over. Through sleep blurred vision, she noticed Addie bustling around the room.
"Whatcha doin, Ads?" She croaked rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Packing. I've gotta get back to Bamarre. Flynn just sent me a letter wondering where I was. I had totally forgotten that I'm supposed to go back early…" She rambled on as she sifted through a pile of clothes.
Lily just stared at her groggily. She hadn't taken in a word of what Addie had just said. Lily was normally a morning person, but this was going too far, after all it was summer.
She rolled over, "Addie, it's 5:30." Lily peered at the clock closely, something must be wrong and it wasn't telling time right. Who the hell sets off at 5:30 in the morning? Apparently, Addie did.
They were in Lily's room, a pale blue corner of the house with a window seat and assortment of stuffed animals. After their shopping weekend, Addie, reluctant to go home, had suggested they just crash at Lily's for the rest of the summer. Lily knew her parents would be delighted to see Addie again ("You never bring your wizarding friends around enough") and found that she didn't really care what Petunia thought.
Addie rarely spent her summers at home. She was always off rock climbing on the coast, or surfing in Australia, or, if all else failed, bunking at someone's house. Lily was often dragged off on these adventures (funded unwittingly by Addie's parents, of course). Everyone loved being with her, and so put up with the seemingly spontaneous trips. She had even called Lily at 3:00 in the morning once asking if she wanted to go Rio. The Pack were some of the few people that knew why Addie never went home. Her family hated her, and was always yelling at her, telling her how disappointed they were. Lily didn't know how she put up with it.
Though Lily supposed she had a similar situation. Thinking of her sister in the other room, she could relate to why Addie never wanted to go back. If it weren't for her parents, Lily wouldn't bother staying in touch with her sister at all. But every time Lily saw her mother with tears in her eyes she knew she couldn't abandon her family. It tore her mother up to see her girls acting the way they did. As excited as her parents were that Lily was a witch, they couldn't just abandon Petunia. Lily felt bad that she stole so much of her parents' affections. But if Petunia was jealous or hurt, she didn't show it. That was Petunia for you, too wrapped up in her hatred of them all to tell them how she felt.
"Later Lils! I'll see you… sometime." Addie grinned mischievously.
"Wait, whadya mean, sometime?" Lily hadn't missed the pause that told her her friend had purposely baited her.
"For me to know my dearest Lillian. And that, is your Point to Ponder for the day." She winked and with a crack, she and all her stuff disappeared.
Lily groaned, "Addie and her 'Points to Ponder'…" Addie was positively obsessed with the idea that giving someone something hard to think about was a sufficient way to wake them up.
Lily sighed and flopped out of bed to go get dressed. Damn Addie for getting her up. Once she was awake she couldn't go back to sleep for a while. She dug through her bureau to find some suitable clothing for lounging around in and dragged a shirt triumphantly from the chaos inside it. She pulled the oversized green flannel shirt over her head. It probably wasn't hers, but it was warm and wasn't dirty (she hadn't done laundry since Addie's arrival).
A familiar smell greeted her as she slipped it over her head. It was Flynn's shirt. Flynn, ex-boyfriend Flynn, Addie's practically-brother Flynn, Flynn, who was always graceful, and kind, and polite, and upright, and law abiding Flynn. Lily groaned. He hadn't worn the shirt in almost 3 months and yet it still managed to smell just like him, just like sandalwood. He never wore that cheap cologne stuff other guys wore. No, he smelled fabulous on his own. Stupid Flynn. He hadn't wanted to hurt her feelings. But that was Flynn. He had girls drooling over him and didn't even know. She decided she wouldn't let it get to her. She would wear the shirt anyway.
It turned out to be a cloudy day. The sky threatened to rain but never quite got there. It was the sort of day Lily just spent sitting around the house. She curled up on an armchair with a book, wrapped in an old comforter of hers. Mickey Mouse, back from the days when Petunia and her had shared a room. She didn't know why they had shared a room; there was plenty of space in the house. She supposed it was so they didn't go running into their parents' room every time they had a nightmare, though it happened anyway.
If Addie had stayed, they would have broken out the old twister game they had. But as it was, the house was quiet and lazy. Lily's mom was in the kitchen cooking a feast for God knows what (the family isn't that big mom!), her father was in the basement fixing Lily's desk, and Petunia… had disappeared. Probably out with that prick Vernon.
August the 25th. 6 days till she went back to Hogwarts. She had already completed all her shopping at Diagon Alley, and didn't really feel like packing already. Addie's departure had left her sort of in a daze. Addie was always doing that, arriving with a blur and whirl of color, then leaving them all dizzy and slightly disoriented. With Addie, life was always fun, a constant party. She always seemed so happy when she got the chance to just be alone and hang out with The Pack.
The thought of the Pack brought back happy memories. Addie, Lily, Tiffany, Vivian, Adrian, Flynn, Andromeda, and Contessa. All of them happy and hyper. They always gave Lily the feeling that she was the only sensible one in the group. Tiffany blamed it on the fact that she was British.
The whole thing had started when Addie had befriended the werewolves at Bamarre (the American Wizarding School). Tiffany, Vivian, Adrian, Flynn, and Contessa were the makeshift pack at Bamarre. They quickly nicknamed her the "Pack Pet". But before long she had become the unofficial leader. Lily, upon visiting Bamarre during her first year Christmas break, became another pack favorite. She started visiting more and more frequently, over weekends, and during all the breaks. She soon became just as well known at Bamarre as she was at Hogwarts. The Pack accepted her as a full-fledged member and they formed their "family".
Over the years the pack had changed little. Contessa had graduated to become a healer, though she still stayed in touch. Then they found Andromeda.
Andromeda had transferred from Durmstrang to Bamarre during fourth year. Feeling a little alienated from the rest of the clique obsessed school she had retreated into her studies, utterly miserable. During one of her shorter visits, Lily was the first to offer friendship. To tell the truth, Andromeda reminded her of a younger Contessa. So she gave her a way into The Pack through her. Andy, as she came to be known, told them what they looked like to outsiders. They were the envy of the school, and had no idea. They knew people thought they were funny, but what Andy had told them made them sound like people worshipped them. It bothered Lily, and she wasn't sure why. At the beginning of the summer it had finally sunk in. What Andy had said… made them sound a lot like the Marauders.
That Lily couldn't tolerate. But the more she analyzed it, the more it made sense. The Pack was just a toned down version of the Marauders. They didn't follow the rules, girls worshipped Flynn and Adrian, and boys drooled over the "Pack Girls". Sure they didn't walk down the corridors cursing people just because they breathed, but they played pranks, sometimes cruel ones on people who definitely didn't deserve to be pranked.
And now Lily was dreading the upcoming year. She didn't know if she would be able to face James Potter. All those times she had yelled at him never realizing how alike they were. She would be lucky if she could look him in the eye, much less tell him off. But she was a prefect, how would she keep order if she felt guilty? She couldn't rely on Remus, he was friends with them. And the prefects from other houses wouldn't see what goes on in the common room. Plus the younger prefects would be too scared of the legendary James Potter and Sirius Black to do anything about it. Not that the Marauders would listen anyway.
Lily came back out of her thoughts to realize she had been reading the same line over and over again and still had no idea what it said. Why couldn't she ever read anything that took no thought to process?
A considerable distance away, James Potter woke to the sound of Sirius' snoring. Moaning he rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. No luck. If anybody needed an anti-snoring spell, it was Sirius. James knew he should have been used to it by then, since Sirius had been living with them for the whole summer.
It had just happened, all of the sudden, out of the blue. The door bell rang in the middle of the night, and there was Sirius, with all his stuff, "Can I stay for a while, mate?" So Sirius had moved in. As it turned out, Sirius had run away after a particularly bad fight between him and his folks. They were always on his case about him not being a pure blood maniac. James could see why he left. Sirius's family was about as evil as it got. Sirius happened to be the oddball. James didn't know by what genetic fluke it happened, but it had happened. Sirius was the only one that didn't look down on other wizards because of their blood. Maybe it was because he had been exposed to James at a young age. They had known each other for as long as each could remember.
James heaved a pillow at the lumpy form in the next bed over. Sirius woke with a start. "Wha- Huh?"
James rolled over and went back to sleep, deciding he didn't have enough energy to tell Sirius to stop snoring.
"Oi! James! Wake up! C'mon, don't make me sing to you mate." James closed his eyes tightly and tried to block out the sound of Sirius' voice. He had been having a good dream, involving a certain red-haired someone. But as the window shattering awfulness of Sirius' singing reached his ears, he decided it wasn't worth it.
"Why the hell are you getting me up this early?" He inquired irritably as he dressed hastily into his robes.
"Because, mate, it's the last day of summer vacation and your mum says, if we aren't downstairs and ready to go shopping in three minutes she's gonna ring our necks." James just stared at him blankly. That had been a rather long and complicated sentence, and it being morning, James was in no fit state to comprehend it. Sirius sighed, "Just get going, Prongs!"
Two and a half minutes later, a very disgruntled James, and a far to peppy Sirius were in the kitchen scarfing down toast. Mrs. Potter was screeching at James to hurry up. She had decided to go shopping for school supplies today. At James's protests that he didn't need anything new, she had simply pointed to his robes, which were a good two inches above his sneakers. In James's opinion, he really hadn't needed anything new. He was completely stocked up on all the newest supplies in pranking. His candy stock was guaranteed to never run out. He had spent countless time with Sirius at Diagon Alley, but had never bothered to set foot in Madame Malkins.
Which is why James found himself standing on a stool feeling slightly exposed in just his boxers as he was fitted for new robes. The lady was short and pudgy, with frizzy gray hair that curled out in all directions.
"Cold, Dear?" Her gray eyes sparkled with laughter. Yes, James was cold. Not just cold, Cold, capital c. He was shivering from head to toe, and all his hair was standing on end. He, personally, didn't find it very funny. Sirius, on the other hand, was paralyzed with laughter on a chair in the corner. It was one of Sirius's favorite activities to laugh at James. Despite his demeanor, James was really quite awkward. He didn't like to be laughed at, or rejected. But then again, nobody did.
Everyone deals with such things in their own way. Some hid and hoped that nobody would point them out. And others, like James, put themselves directly in public eye, and gave themselves a name that no one would laugh at.
Only one person made him feel insecure. And that one person just happened to walk in on James as his attendant left him, shivering on a stool. Almost immediately, Lily's face went as red as her hair.