Authors note: Hi! Hope you're enjoying it so far - please let me know :) As always, I own nothing that you recognize from the Harry Potter Universe - that magical story and all associated with it belongs to the Wonderful JK Rowling! Happy reading!
Mary, Marlene, Alice and Lily were sitting in the Gryffindor common room talking in a corner to themselves; they had been at Hogwarts for just over three months, with Christmas just around the corner. Alice was sitting cross legged on the floor, resting up against one of the walls; she had let her dark hair grow slightly, but she had learnt a charm in the holidays to change it if she got bored. Mary was sitting next to her, her brown eyes flashing with excitement; as she told her story of the muggle boy back home who she spent her summer with, she played with her long, straight hair. Marlene's piercing blue eyes met Lily's bright green ones, they both shared a look and giggled; Mary could always tell a good story. Marlene had tied her short blonde hair up in a tiny ponytail, she had cut her long hair very short in the summer and it had just grown enough to tie up.
Lily smiled, "Alice, you haven't spoken about Frank much lately - what's going on there? Are you still admiring from afar?"
Alice shrugged. "Oh I'm still admiring from a distance, but I doubt that he even knows I exist..."
"Why don't we make sure he knows you exist?" Marlene asked.
Alice shook her head, blushing very hard. "No! I know what you're like Marls. Absolutely not."
"What about if we just walk past him a few times a day, bump into him a couple of times a week..." Mary suggested. "Then he HAS to notice you."
"Or - here's a thought..." Lily said, smiling. "He's looking at you now..."
All four girls turned to see Frank Longbottom, staring at Alice. He noticed the girls all looking and quickly busied himself with a book. Lily smiled at her best friend, she wanted her happy and in love - she had been crushing on Frank Longbottom for much too long for nothing to happen.
"Why don't you just smile and say hi when he walks up to the boys dorms?" Lily said. "We are sitting right near the staircase."
"This is why I listen to you Lily. You have sense." Alice laughed, Marlene and Mary stuck their tongues out at her. "What about you Marls? Mary? Who have you two been eyeballing?"
Mary shrugged. "I liked the muggle boy, but there's a Ravenclaw in the year above us - he's pretty cute: Andre Sanderson."
"Is that the good looking, dark haired one?" Lily asked.
"That would indeed be me, Evans." Came a voice from the stairs. James Potter and Sirius Black were coming down from the boys dorm wearing their Quidditch robes; James had made the team as Chaser and Sirius had made the team as a Beater. "Now, what on earth could you be talking about me for?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "As if I was talking about you Potter."
"Good looking, dark haired one? There's only one of them in this school." James said.
Sirius slapped him around the head. "Excuse me you three star excuse for a male, the perfect TEN is right here - I'm the dark haired, good looking one."
Alice changed the subject quickly before they started squabbling like children. "Don't tell me Samson is making you practice in this weather?"
James nodded. "Only way to make sure we win the cup this year - thank god there was an opening this year."
"Make sure you clobber Slytherin, won't you?" She said casually before picking up Marlene's "Witch Weekly" from the ground that she had finished with earlier.
Sirius laughed, "That will be a piece of cake."
"Yeah, you know what else is a piece of cake Evans?" James said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
"Ignoring you?" She said sweetly.
"Dating me." James smiled. "Go on, one date to Hogsmeade."
"I heard the Giant Squid is still single." Lily said, "I'm still not interested, Potter."
"Why not?" James asked. "I'm the whole package!"
"I don't care what you think about your package, Potter. You're arrogant, irritating and a bully." Lily sighed. "Now leave us alone or I will hex you."
As James and Sirius walked away, they heard Mary ask Lily, "how many times has he asked you out now, Lil?"
Valentines Day, 1975
Alice and Lily sat at the Gryffindor table at breakfast; they had been talking about Alice and Frank when Frank had walked up to Alice and gave her a Valentines Card that he had made. "Happy Valnetines, Alice!" He blushed as he gave her the card.
"Thank you!" Alice was just as red as he was. She dug something out of her bag and handed it to him, "I made one for you too!"
"Ooooooo!" Lily teased as Frank walked away, a spring in his step. "What does it say?"
"He wants to meet with me tonight in the Common Room!" She said excitedly. "We got to know each other a bit over Christmas and New Years when there was hardly anyone in the Common Room."
Lily smiled, "I know! But this is new ground Alice!"
"Looks like you've got one coming too, Lil." Alice laughed. "Look!"
Lily looked to where Alice had nodded. James Potter was walking towards them with a pink card in hand.
"Happy Valentines, Evans!" James said happily, handing her his card.
Lily looked at him suspiciously and opened the card.
"Dear Evans,
Roses are red,
Lilies are white,
If I stop hexing Snivellus,
Can we snog tonight?
Love James"
Alice roared with laughter as she read it over Lily's shoulder.
"So?" James asked, "What do you say Evans? Improvement from last year, eh?"
Lily sighed as she put the card in her bag. "I would prefer less blackmail, but at least it rhymes."
"Go out with me, Evans?" James asked hopefully.
Lily shook her head as she put some toast in her mouth and swung her bag on her shoulder; James winked at her and walked back to his friends.
In the Gryffindor Common Room | April 1975
"Potter!"
"Evans, what a lovely surprise!" James' free hand jumped to his hair, messing the already untidy black mess look even more untidy.
"What are you doing to the first years?" Lily asked, angrily.
James laughed. "Now really Evans, did you even need to ask me that? You can see that their heads are invisible, so obviously we put a Disillusionment Charm on their heads."
Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Fix it. Before I fix your face with a Bat-Bogey Hex."
Sirius roared with laughter. "I'd like to see that."
"Don't tempt me Black, or you'll get one too."
Remus laughed. "Change them back, Prongs."
James flicked his wand lazily and the younger students' faces came back into view; before Lily could turn away though, James had flicked his wand and jinxed a first year with the Jelly-Legs Jinx.
"POTTER!"
Remus waved his wand and put the student's legs right, the student ran upstairs, worried that he might get hexed again. "Come on Prongs, lets go up to the dorm."
James sighed, "Fine, we'll be boring Moony."
The boys retreated to their dorm and Lily sat down next to Marlene. Lily, Mary and Marlene had been studying in their corner when she had seen Potter jinxing the younger kids...
"And then, Mulciber showed me this book - it's got some really great spells, Lily, maybe we could practice sometime?" Sev said.
Lily frowned. She and Sev were walking across the courtyard, they had spent time near the lake reading and she had tried to avoid the topic of Sev's other friends. "No, Sev. I'm sorry, but I can't hang out with you when you're practicing that type of magic."
"But-but... I thought we were supposed to be friends?" Sev said, hurriedly. "Best friends?"
"We are, Sev... It's just... I don't like some of the people you hang around with." Lily said, stopping to lean against a pillar. "I detest Avery and Mulciber... Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev? He's completely creepy! Do you know what he tried to do to Mary the other day? It was a dangerous spell and you know it!"
"That was nothing!" Sev tried to brush it off. "He was just having a laugh is all..."
"It was Dark Magic that he was trying to use and you know it. If you think that's funny, well-"
Sev interrupted, he picked at his fingernail angrily. "What about Potter and his mates? What about the stuff they get up to?" There was no hiding the resentment in his voice.
Lily looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "What in Merlin's baggy pants does Potter have to do with anything right now?"
"They all sneak out at night and there's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going - every month at the full moon!?"
"They say he's ill, the poor boy has terrible health Sev." Lily said coldly. "Why do you care, anyway? It's not like sneaking out at night is hurting you."
Sev stared at her intensely. "I'm just trying to show you that they're not as fantastic as everyone else seems to think they are."
Lily blushed and dropped her voice. "They don't use dark magic though, Sev."
"They aren't anything special, Lily!" Sev grabbed her wrist. "I can't- I won't let you-"
"Excuse me?" Lily glared at him furiously, her eyes were slits. She yanked her arm out of Sev's grasp. "Let me? Since when do you have to give me permission for anything?
"I- I didn't mean - I j-just don't want to see- don't want you made a fool of-" Sev was grasping, trying to avoid the bitter thoughts bubbling under the surface. He couldn't hold it in. "He fancies you! James Potter! Potter fancies you! And he- Quidditch hero - everyone thinks he's so-"
Lily raised her eyebrows. "I know James Potter is an arrogant toerag. I don't need you to tell me that!" That seemed to calm Sev down. "But Mulciber and Avery's idea of humor is EVIL, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them!"
She walked away, headed inside for the end of term feast; Sev followed her in, practically skipping.
Platform 9 and 3/4 - end of term
"You three must visit me this summer!" Lily said to her friends as she hugged them each in turn. "Why don't you come over in August and we can all go to Diagon Alley together?"
"Sounds like a plan Lily." Marlene said. "I'll send you an owl and we will try and work it out."
"I would give you my phone number but Petunia is on it constantly and you haven't learnt about them properly yet..." Lily smiled. "We'll figure it out."
The four girls walked through the barrier into Kings Cross Station; they all saw their families waiting for them, gave a wave to their friends and hurried off. Mr and Mrs Evans had both come to pick Lily up this time.
"Mum! Dad!" Lily hugged her parents. "Where's Tuney?"
"She has a job interview at some office about an hour's drive away." Mrs Evans said as she hugged her daughter. "She's hoping to be hired as the receptionist."
Lily seemed surprised that Petunia was applying for a job so far away. "Oh! Well, I hope she gets it if that's what she wants to do... Does that mean that she won't finish school, though?"
Mr Evans nodded, he didn't seem happy about the arrangement. "Come one darling, we'll get your trunk in the car and tell you the whole story on the way back home. For now though, how was school?"
Lily was curious - why was Petunia not finishing school? Why was she applying so far away? She knew that her parents wouldn't tell her anything until the car, so she told them about the last couple of months at Hogwarts. She could wait a few minutes...
I hope you liked it - please let me know anything you would like to see changed, any POVs you would like to see, etc.
Please R&R :)