Previously: The first years take their final exams. Lily and Mary run into Belvina Travers. Mary tries to be intimidating by standing up for herself, but she fails. Lily, however, shuts Belvina down pretty quickly, and she drags Mary away before it can erupt into a duel. The Marauders do their end-of-term prank.
Chapter 18: The Ride Home
"Why are you still reading books, Remus? The school year's done with," said James as he threw himself to the seat next to Sirius, munching on a Licorice Wand, one of the dozens of sweets the Marauders had bought when the witch pushing the trolley passed them.
Their end-of-the-year prank had gone off flawlessly. The chaos that had ensued once the sparks released from the fireworks returned to their Untransfigured forms of Fanged Frisbees was simply marvelous. Every student was left scrambling to find shelter as the Frisbees turned on the crowd, and the end-of-term feast was delayed by two whole hours. Of course, McGonagall had given each of them a month's worth of detentions, which would start next year, but in James's mind, it was worth it.
Remus barely glanced up from the book in question – James had to tilt his head to read the title: World Mythology.
"Books aren't just for studying, James. I encourage you and Sirius to read one once in a while – you might even sound smart for once," he said, turning the next page. Despite the past weeks full of exams, James thought that his friend looked much better than he had at the start of June. Both he and Sirius were convinced that something had to be wrong, but Remus remained mum on the subject.
Sirius gave a bark-like laugh.
"That's funny, Remus – trying to get me to put down exploding fireworks and pick up a boring book? Ha, that's a good joke."
Shrugging, Remus returned to his book, and Sirius resumed his game of Exploding Snap with Peter – he would not let James join them.
"Well," announced James after a while had passed, "Excuse me, I've got to use the loo."
Carefully stepping over Peter who drew his legs up to let him pass, James stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
It was impossible to believe that he was all done with his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – impossible but amazing. In what had seemed like it had happened just yesterday, he was leaving to enter the magical school he had been looking forward to since he was old enough to know what magic was, but now he was leaving for an entire summer, free of duels with the Slytherins, Hospital Wing visits, violent Quidditch matches….
How was he going to survive?
He had expected the walk to and from the loo to be quite ordinary as it was a natural occurrence, but on his way back, after passing compartment after compartment full of either giggling girls whispering about all their plans for the coming summer or boisterous boys, wrestling and trading Chocolate Frog cards, something very far from quite ordinary caught his eye – or rather, caught his ear.
"… doesn't matter. My father was one of the Dark Lord's closest friends in school, and he says he is the heir of Slytherin!"
James immediately flattened himself against the wall, straining his ears to overhear the tempting conversation. The door to the compartment was open, and once the "Dark Lord" was mentioned, it was impossible not to eavesdrop on the voice that was clearly Lycoris Mulciber floating through the air.
"My father and his sister were also friends with the Dark Lord."
Another voice, whinier but deeper as well – this one was Evan Rosier.
"Apparently, he's the reason a Mudblood died a couple decades back – ha, he's been cleaning them out since he was in school! Imagine what he can do now!"
"He's been getting rid of those bothersome vermin, that's what he's been doing now," said Avery. "Dad says that he's been telling his friends to go after high profile Mudbloods like that Gobsworth and Thatcher – wants to get rid of any who he thinks could be bad enemies."
As the group of Slytherins spoke, James felt the hair on the back on his neck prickle uncomfortably. The way they were talking about the Dark Rebellion, those dead Muggle-borns…. Before he could take the time to vomit at that sickness, he took off down the hallway, suddenly very eager to get back to his friends with humor that was not the sick, twisted laughs that echoed for the compartment full of Slytherins.
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Despite Lily's constant worrying, she had surprisingly passed exams with excellent scores. She even had the top grade in Charms and Potions – tied with Severus, of course. She was not the only one who was the sleeper hit: Mary had, much to everybody else's complete amazement, succeeded in achieving an O in Herbology. She had always been the quieter one in classes and such, but apparently Sprout had seen her natural talent since the beginning of the year, something Mary had not wanted to boast about. Much to Lily's immense displeasure, Marlene had told her that Potter and Black earned the top spot in Transfiguration class rather than Marlene herself.
So here the four Gryffindor girls sat, munching on sweets and chattering about their summer plans. Charity and Smith twins, Elena and Elizabeth, had also crammed into the compartment when they were unable to find open spots on the train. They were good company, but Marlene had always been friendlier with the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs than Lily was, and as such, she spent more time talking with her best friend.
"I'll write to you, promise," said Alice as the Hogwarts Express rolled into Platform 9¾, screeching to a halt and blaring its horn. "Perhaps you can come over this summer so that you can get away with underage magic."
"Alice …" said Lily in warning. She had been looking forward to practicing magic with Severus like they had before coming to Hogwarts, but Professor McGonagall handed out notices saying that they were no longer allowed to use magic outside school, lest they get expelled.
"What?" she asked indignantly. "It's only the Muggle-borns who can't get away with it, which – if you ask me – I think is a little unfair."
She reached up to pull her trunk off the racks along with her owl Marigold, while Lily reached up to get Crackerjack, who was looking at her expectantly for more food, and her own trunk – she at least had the sense of mind to cast a Weightless Charm on hers to lessen the weight before she was no longer allowed to use magic. Around her, the other girls in the compartment were also getting their things.
"Oh, look! Grandmamma's here," said Mary happily, pointing out the window. Lily followed her finger and peeked herself to see that the platform was even more crowded than it had been during Christmas or Easter break, though not by much. It was impossible to tell which person Mary was pointing at.
It was impractical to move through the throng of students disembarking the train before running to hug families and friends they had not seen since the Easter holidays, so Lily simply let herself get carried away with the crowd until she was given more wiggle room off in the corner of the platform with Alice and Mary – Marlene was still with Charity and the Smith twins.
"Grandmamma!" yelled Mary after a minute of disengaging from the other students. She jumped up and down, waving her arms over her head to try to catch the attention of someone – most likely her grandmother. Pausing, she turned to the waiting Lily and Alice and said, "You have to meet Grandmamma. She's so cool!"
There was not much else to do, so Lily and Alice followed Mary until she stopped in front of a short, rather portly older woman with flyaway white hair. Though there were numerous wrinkles and other signs of age in the skin around her face, it was very easy to tell that she was as lively as she most likely was fifty years ago. Her brown eyes, which were the same shade as Mary's, sparkled with amusement and pride at seeing her granddaughter.
"Polly! My goodness, sweetheart, look how you've grown. What are those house-elves feeding you?" clucked Mary's grandmother said as they approached.
"Polly?" whispered Alice, looking quite confused.
"Nickname," said Mary hastily before turning back to her grandmother. She gave her a wide smile and a tight hug. "Hi, Grandmamma! I've missed you so much. Oh, these are my friends, Lily Evans and Alice Prewett. Marlene's also a Gryffindor, but she's not here right now. Lily, Alice, meet my grandmother, Gracie Penrose."
Lily stepped forward and held out her hand. "It's lovely to meet you, Mrs. Penrose."
Mary's grandmother grasped her hand firmly, the twinkle never leaving her eyes. "Polly's told me so much about her roommates, but please, dear, call me Gracie. I know I'm getting on in years, but Mrs. Penrose makes me feel like my mother."
And speaking of mothers …
"Mum! Dad!" yelled Lily suddenly. "Sorry, I'll talk to you later, Mary – lovely to meet you, Mrs. Pen – Gracie!"
Without anther word, she turned and ran straight into her mother's open arms, hugging her so tight she was sure ribs would crack, but Mrs. Evans did not complain.
"I missed you so much!"
"Oh, Lily, I missed you too, more than you could possibly imagine, darling," said Mrs. Evans as she squeezed Lily tightly, smothering her in kisses. Running a hand through Lily's silky red tresses, Mrs. Evans commented, "Your hair's longer, Lily. Last I saw you it was only a little past your shoulder blades."
Lily beamed at that.
"Rose, your hogging our daughter," joked Mr. Evans. After another minute, she finally released her daughter as he pulled Lily in for an even tighter hug. "Lilykins, you must have stories of Hogwarts. Tell us about them: funny moments in Charms, projects that were really hard, late-night adventures –"
"Richard," warned her mother, "I don't want to hear anything about you corrupting our daughter."
"… food fights …"
"Richard!"
"Sorry, dear," laughed Mr. Evans, not looking sorry in the least, more just amused with his wife's reaction. "But really, Lilykins, tell me about any troublemakers and how you dealt with them the Evans way."
Her father grinned, and Lily laughed as they fought through the crowd to the waiting car.
"Well …" said Lily slowly, wondering where on earth to begin, "starting in Gryffindor, there are four boys that call themselves the Marauders, and they are the most annoying troublemakers that have walked the face of this earth.…"
And that is the end of Lily and James's first year, ladies and gentlemen, so if you just head on over to the next chapter, you can start on their second year …
