Fatigue

"COME ON, BOYS! THE GIRLS ARE DOWN HERE WAITING! WE'LL BE LATE FOR THE TRAIN IF YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL!"

"COMING, MUM!" Lily heard Remus' voice from the first floor.

James came bounding down the stairs, his hair standing on end and glasses askew. "Mrs Lupin, Remus has lost his Potions textbook."

Alexandra sighed. "Tell the idiot I'll send it on when I find it, and get a move on all of you! It's a quarter past ten already!"

"Sh-sugar quills. I'll just go get them."

"Dear me, they've lost some sugar quills too? What are they like?"

Lily turned incredulously to her best friend. "Christina Marsden, just HOW blonde are you?"

Alexandra was laughing now, in spite of her aggravation at her son and his two best friends. Sirius came hurtling down the stairs carrying his trunk, crashed into Lily and promptly knocked her to the ground. He was followed by Remus (plus trunk), who descended in a slightly more dignified yet distinctly harassed manner. Then came James, who sauntered down with a cheery expression. How it was possible to saunter while lugging a very heavy trunk was a mystery to Lily, but somehow Potter managed it.

They all managed to squeeze into Alexandra's car (magically expanded with permission from her boss at the Ministry of Magic) and arrived at King's Cross with 10 minutes to spare before the train left.

"Come on boys, give the girls a hand."

Lily and Christina looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Sirius and Remus looked like they were having enough trouble with their own luggage to help them. James, however, was looking rather smug. He didn't, however, offer to help the girls. When Remus (in between curses) asked him why, he said, "That would be unfair on whichever lovely lady I couldn't help."

All three women rolled their eyes and gave up on the boys.

The six of them managed to get through the barrier onto platform 9¾ in enough time for the five students to climb aboard the train and wave enthusiastically at Mrs Lupin. As the train pulled out, Alexandra yelled, "Oh, Lily, Louisa Potter sends her best wishes and says she'll have your owl on her way to Hogwarts in a few days."

Lily barely had time to yell, "Thanks!" before Mrs Lupin was only a dot in the distance.

The friends sat themselves down heavily. Sirius sat next to the window with James opposite him. Chrissy lounged between him and Remus, who looked amusedly at lily, who had settled herself with her head in Sirius' lap.

"What! I'm tired!"

"Ah Sirius, hear that? She only uses you for your incredible pillowlike qualities."

Sirius threw his coat at Remus. "Shut up, Moony. At least I have incredible qualities. Unlike you."

"Yeah," Remus muttered to Chrissy, "because I'd love to be valued as something to throw at people when they piss you off."

She giggled, and Lily smiled at her. "Urgh, Lils, don't smile when your head's all sideways like that. You look really creepy."

"Thanks," Lily sighed. "I love you too."

"See, Padfoot?" James teased with a cheeky grin. "Now is when you find out she swings both ways…"

"James Potter!" now it was Lily's turn to be outraged. Then she grinned. "I'm sorry that I find none of you fellas attractive, but can you blame a girl?"

While Chrissy laughed hysterically, Remus said, "Lily, prefect duty. I almost forgot!"

"Bugger," Lily stated matter-of-factly. However, she managed to get herself upright and stretched. "Well, I'll see you guys later." She turned to Chrissy, who was still laughing at the slightly disturbed look on James' face. "If you see Carrie or Jess, tell them I say hi." All Chrissy was able to do was laugh in reply.

Lily and Remus left the compartment, shutting the door behind them. Halfway down the corridor, they could still hear Cassie's giggles.

As the train pulled in to Hogsmeade station and the group of fifth years stepped out onto the platform, the sky was clear and velvet blue.

"Wow, I'm glad it's not raining," Carrie Stevens proclaimed, shaking her blonde mess of hair.

"Excellent observation, Detective Stevens."

"Shut up, Jess." Jessica Radley grinned at her very bimboish dorm-mate, flicking her own dark pigtails over her shoulders. Jess was half English, half Indian and had inherited her mother's exotic features. Unlike Carrie, who was short and busty, Jess was tall and slim. Both girls were very striking but neither seemed to notice.

"Come on, girlies. Race you to the carriages!" Sirius started to run.

"CHEAT!" all four girl raced after him and Christina managed to rugby tackle him to the ground.

"Mercy! Have mercy! Lily my dearest, my love, my angel…"

Lily smirked. "Get him out of my sight!"

The girls dragged Sirius to a carriage while the other boys got into the one behind. There just wasn't room for seven teenagers in one.

Lily and Sirius faced question after question about their relationship and "hanky panky," as Carrie so delicately put it, but they both (and Chrissy, thankfully) kept their lips sealed. Not that this discouraged either Carrie or Jess, who didn't stop firing questions until they entered the Great Hall, dodging Fillibuster's Fireworks thrown at them by Peeves, whose pranks seemed to be getting steadily more dangerous as the years went by.

Professor Dumbledore stood to speak as the last of the students from second year and above filed in. The hall fell into hush, conversations and anecdotes stopped in mid-flow.

"My dear students, welcome back for another year at Hogwarts! I hope your holidays have been happy ones, and that at least a little of your knowledge has remained between your ears. Now, we welcome our newest members to the school."

The huge doors creaked open and Professor McGonagall, her dark hair pulled into its usual tight bun beneath her pointed hat, led a bunch of tiny first-years between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables towards where Professor Dumbledore stood. Hagrid, the bushy-bearded gamekeeper, brought the sorting hat and its stool to the front of the teachers' table, in view of all in the hall.

As the hat began to sing its song, Lily didn't listen very hard. It was never as interesting as watching the reactions of the first years, most of whom had not been told about the extraordinary way in which it greeted them to the school.

One little girl in particular caught Lily's eye. She was small and pale, with long mousy hair. She looked very nervous, although not surprised at the sorting hat's ingenious song. The girl smiled in the direction of the Gryffindor table and lily turned to see who the smile was directed at. She saw Peter Pettigrew smile back at the girl and give a small wave. Like the first year, he had a rather pointed nose and pasty complexion. She was undoubtedly his sister.

As Lily watched the sorting, beginning with "Anderson, Marie," who promptly became a Ravenclaw, her suspicions about the girl were confirmed. Her name was "Pettigrew, Lucy." Gryffindor ended up with seven new first years: Laura McDonell, Francesca York, Adam Chatel, Joseph Valentine, Serena Lovelock, Josephine Pickle and Andrew Dillon. All of them looked oddly small and scared, but all had given wide grins as the hat pronounced their house. This caused the whole of the Gryffindor table to give them enthusiastic applause as they sat down; clearly the newest batch possessed the famed Gryffindor pride.

Lily enjoyed the magnificent (as usual) welcoming feast immensely, as she and Remus had missed the food trolley due to their prefect duty. Lily didn't mind though; prefect status was still too new to her for her to want to complain, however much her stomach rumbled on the journey.

When the students had finished eating and the golden plates became sparkling clean again, Professor Dumbledore stood again to address the school.

"Well, after another truly delicious feast, I think it is time for me to introduce to you the new Head Boy and Girl. Please stand, Matthew Kiedis," a tall dark-haired boy stood at the Ravenclaw table, looking slightly embarrassed, "and Bellatrix Lestrange!" this time a girl with dark curls and a smirk of satisfaction very unlike Matthew's rose at the Slytherin table.

Lily noticed Sirius narrow his eyes into a scowl. Well, that wasn't a surprise – no Gryffindor would be happy with a Slytherin Head Girl.

"They will be attending to any needs any of you might have through the year, along with their team of prefects," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in Lily's direction before he looked to the other tables. "As I have said every year to no avail, the Forbidden Forest is, well, forbidden, and I would advise you not to enter it. I must also introduce to you our new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Van Spyk, and our new caretaker, Mr Filch."

Lily saw a stooped and scowling man who must be Mr Filch, and looked over at the teachers' table to see a black-haired woman with dark eyes and a rather offputting smile. She was beautiful, but Lily couldn't help feeling slightly wary of her. She reminded Lily too much of Bellatrix Lestrange for her liking. The new Head Girl got good grades, but was Slytherin born and bred and certainly lived up to the house's evil reputation.

"So, Peter," James said before Dumbledore continued, "still the only Gryffindor in the family, I see." Lily frowned slightly at this remark; she couldn't tell if James was mocking Peter or not, but the smaller boy didn't seem to have taken offence.

"Yeah," he murmured, "I dunno why I'm not in Hufflepuff like the rest of them."

Lily kicked herself for not noticing the house Lucy Pettigrew had been sorted into before. Poor Peter, one on his own.

"Now, on that note, bed! I'm sure you all need your beauty sleep so you can be ready for a day of wonderful lessons tomorrow! Prefects, please show the first years to their common rooms."

"Yeah, bloody wonderful. A day of lessons," Sirius said grumpily. "That man's bloody mental."

"Shut up, Sirius," Lily whacked him playfully on the arm and went with Remus to escort the first-years to Gryffindor Tower.

Surprisingly, Remus didn't mislead the new students, but did take them through a selection of secret passages lily had never known existed. Some she knew about, of course, and Remus seemed surprised at her knowledge of a few, including one behind a full length mirror which required you to distract the suit of armour beside it to get through. After showing the first-years their dormitories, Lily made her way up to her own dormitory and her bed beside the window where her trunk already lay. Without bothering to undress, she lay down and fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Yeah I know, it was short, but what do you expect when it's two in a day and no one reviews? At least 13 people read that last chapter, and did anyone bother? No. If it's crap and you don't wanna review, why read this far? And if it's good, please tell me so I continue and don't give up cos I'm really considering it. This story is really important to me and I don't wanna give it up, but not getting any kind of feedback is so frustrating! I don't know what I'm doing right or wrong or anything, so please review!

Right, rant over.

Becca ♥