'I hate trains,' Lily grumbled, trying (and failing) to put her trunk away for the fifth time, nearly falling over every time the train made a slight movement. 'Keep trying Lils, you're almost there,' Marlene replied sweetly, turning the page of her magazine as she crossed her knees, perfectly at ease. 'Bite me.'

'Mhm, but then I wouldn't have this amazing view.' Finally succeeding with a ha!, Lily plopped down on her seat and leaned her head back.

She was sitting in a compartment with just Marlene, although Lily knew this wouldn't last long, as the train had departed less than five minutes ago and the trolley visitors were soon to have purchased all they desired, and would be in search of a seat. Marlene was flipping through an old Witches Weekly, whilst wondering whether it would be too soon to break up with her boyfriend; or if she should wait a few weeks, as it might be a rather harsh welcome back to Hogwarts. She and Lily had discussed the matter thoroughly over the past few months and Marlene was determined to end it. What with it being her final year, and his irritating her to no end she was sure that he would get it into his head to propose, and while she liked him a great deal, and the time they spent together was fun, she was certain she would never under any circumstances marry him or wish to continue the relationship outside of Hogwarts. Lily had agreed with her that after coming to this conclusion, it would be best to just end it as soon as possible. 'If only he wasn't so nice,' she lamented, throwing down the magazine detailing 25 ways to break the news. Lily, tearing her mind away from her thoughts smiled sympathetically and patted her hand, 'Niceness doesn't equate to loving someone.'

'But what if he looks at me with those eyes and starts to cry? Merlin Lils I don't know what I'll do if he cries...you'll just have to do it for me.'

'What a display of courage, oh wise old sorting hat, must you never be wrong?' Marlene flipped her off, to which her friend blew her a kiss, and the compartment door slid open.

'Oh good, tolerable people.' Without waiting for a reply, Leila slid the door open further and all the seventh year Gryffindor girls trickled in. 'Bit of a squeeze, you couldn't have chosen a bigger compartment?' Leila grumbled to Lily, who stared at her in disbelief,

'I apologise, your highness, it will never happen again.' Leila, who was being completely serious in that moment and not knowing how to respond, just rolled her eyes and pulled out her own magazine. 'Charming.' Lily thought, resisting the urge to roll her own eyes. Mary smiled wryly, before taking out the Daily Prophet. 'Oh put that rubbish away,' Dorcas scoffed, batting at it. 'It's the first day Mare, let's not depress ourselves just yet.' Blushing, Mary stuffed it into her trunk, as Marlene stretched and noted that they were all rather cramped this year. 'I swear I didn't have this many friends last year.'

'We're not here for you, we're here for Lily,' Alice replied sweetly and Marlene was about to respond with something not incredibly polite when the door slid open again.

'We're full.' Ignoring Leila, Benjy locked eyes with Marlene,

'Sit with me?' Panicked, Marlene met Lily's eyes, who raised them in what she hoped was an encouraging look- if one could be encouraging their friend to break up with their boyfriend. 'Um, Marly?' Flashing a plastic smile, Marlene stood up and (with great difficulty), managed to maneuver her way to him. Grabbing her hand Benjy eagerly pulled her through, and with a last despairing look at Lily, the witch was gone.

Stretching, Dorcas sighed happily, 'Wonderful, now we have more space.' Lily refrained from pointing out that if Marlene was successful, she'd be back in no time. Leaning over to poke Alice, Dorcas added, 'And now you have to tell us what happened with Frank last summer.' Grinning, Lily pulled her thoughts away from Marlene's predicament and watched as Alice shot Dorcas a look, blushing. 'It's not a big deal, we just hung out a lot.'

'No way. You didn't just 'hang out' Alice. Don't pretend like I didn't see it.' Magenta now, with her eyebrows drawn in a frown Alice insisted, 'Absolutely nothing. I promise. There was a moment where I thought...but it didn't happen. Nothing happened. He's just been normal again.' She leaned back, looking dejected. 'Sorry Al,' Leila supplied, holding out a chocolate frog. Laughing slightly, for it wasn't in Alice's nature to be moody, she took it and thanked her. Sitting back, Lily felt for the poor girl; Alice had been waiting for Frank to propose to her ever since he'd told his mother that she was going to marry him- who had just before been insulting her to his face. But as that was three months ago, nothing had come out of it. Alice, having been the one to ask him out and say she loved him first, was nervous that he didn't love her as much as she did him. If she proposed, as she had admitted to Lily in the middle of the night, drunk on firewhiskey, she wasn't sure if he would say yes, and she didn't want to ruin anything. Frowning, Lily fiddled with the hem of her skirt, thinking of Frank made her think of-well it was no point to dwell on it. She just needed to push the whole incident from her mind, forget it ever happened. Still, she couldn't help but wonder...it was Mary who drew her out of her stupor by knocking her in the shoulder.

'Ow.' Lily was more surprised than anything else. Flushing, Mary emitted an embarrassed laugh as she averted her eyes. 'What was that about?' Shaking her head, Mary muttered something about clumsiness and close quarters. At any rate, she had awoken her attention, and after assuring Mary she was fine Lily, resolved to put the whole business of last summer out of her mind, leaned forward and joined the game of exploding snap that Dorcas was setting up.

'Don't slouch Brosia, it's most unbecoming.' Straightening her spine at her mother's insistence, Ambrosia Flint scanned the crowd on the platform, looking for a familiar smile. Her mother was nattering on about something or other, and she was counting down the seconds until she could get on the wretched train and be free. '-but I do wish you would become a bit more serious this year darling.' What? Regretfully pulling her attention away from her search Ambrosia turned back to her mother, who continued. 'It's just, you haven't been trying. If this were only your fifth year...but it's not. It's your last year and you are surrounded by plenty of people, from good families.' Not wanting to interrupt her mother, Ambrosia tried to look as if she understood what she was talking about. 'Some of them would, I daresay, fit very well. All of them are purebloods, except for the mistake,' Here she curled her lip distastefully, 'But you haven't made the effort to get to know any of them.' Ambrosia clenched her jaw, she understood what the conversation was about. 'Look at Edwin or Nicandro, you've known them since you were born, and I would wager that you don't even know their favourite colour.'

'Isn't it green?' Her mother's eyes flashed and Ambrosia stiffened, berating herself for her loose tongue. 'Don't be flippant.' Her mother snapped, 'If you were Arnold, I wouldn't be worried. But you have made very few friends in your house, and if you expect to have a career you need to ensure you'll be supported first.' Ambrosia didn't look at her, after a while she heard a sigh, and felt a finger push a strand of hair behind her ear. 'They don't hire witches Brosia, you know that. This is to make sure you won't be ostracised and penniless before you can even begin. It's a long climb for women, especially in these times, where they're more distrustful every day.' She was alluding to something Ambrosia really did not want to discuss with her, so instead she nodded, and accepted the chill kiss on the forehead. 'Study hard, and do try and at least be in a relationship by Christmas, for our sake if not for yours.' Smiling numbly, Ambrosia didn't commit the promise to words, instead bid her mother farewell, and as gracefully as she could, clambered onto the train, leaving the house of Flint behind her.

On the train she bumped into Magnolia Pooling and Edwin Avery, the former trying very hard to impress the latter. 'Ambrosia darling. How lovely to see you.' Unfortunately, before Ambrosia could even mutter a 'you too' Magnolia had grabbed hold of her wrist, and pulled her into a compartment. 'It's our last year, so we must all sit together. These friendships will last us a lifetime.' Turning her head to stifle a laugh, Ambrosia caught sight of her mother out of the window. She was standing close to Arnold, fussing over his clothing while he pushed her off good naturedly. A slight frown clouded her face at the scene. Arnold was always so at ease with their mother, could do no wrong because she would just shake her head and smile at her silly boy. As she watched he said something to make her laugh, and pretending to look scandalised she pulled him in for a hug, gazing around at all the other parents as if to present her son, show them how wonderful he was. 'Jelly slug?' Tearing her eyes away from her brother, Ambrosia turned to see Edwin holding out the proffered item, an attempt at a lazy grin on his face. In truth, there was nothing nonchalant about the boy, from his gelled hair to his ironed socks. Uncomfortable with his gaze scanning her face, Ambrosia very politely declined. Shrugging he remarked, 'Shame.' and tossed it into his own mouth. Facing the front Ambrosia noticed Magnolia giving her a very dirty look, to which Ambrosia smiled sweetly. 'Isn't it so lovely to be all together?' She couldn't help remarking, although she regretted it later when Edwin's arm swung over her shoulder as he heartily agreed. Praying for Elle to come and save her, Ambrosia wondered how long this train ride with them would be.

As it turned out, very long seeing as Giselle Yaxley did not make an appearance at all, and Ambrosia had to deal with not only Avery and Pooling, but also the delight of Lucienne Slughorn, Nicandro Parkinson and his new girlfriend Corisande Rosier. Her only solace was that she had been spared Malfoy and Snape, still as she listened to Corisande droning on and on about the NEWTs, and how she spent all summer talking with some bigshot witch in the ministry who was sure to have a job lined up for her, this thought wasn't incredibly comforting, and most of the ride was spent with Ambrosia in a large state of discomfort.

Arriving at the station was a large relief, and before Edwin could even offer, she had sped off and jumped into the first carriage she could find. Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough and Corisande and Nicandro joined her. As the door shut and the carriage rode on, Corisande, flipping her long dark hair over her shoulder started flirting with Nicandro. Raising her eyebrows Ambrosia tried to render herself invisible-were they really going to do this right in front of her? Nicandro, to his credit, tried to stop her attempts constantly and kept shooting Ambrosia embarrassed looks, until Corisande, fed up with him turned to her and asked, 'So Brosia (she did not have the right to call her that), what do you think of Nicandro's hair?' Surprised, she turned to look at the boy in question, who shifted uncomfortably, 'She just cut it and is looking for compliments,' he supplied with a smile. Corisande shrieked (causing Ambrosia and Nicandro to jump, and then grin a bit at their shared reaction) and shoved him in the chest, 'What a thing to say. Honestly I was looking for compliments for you. Because you look so handsome.' She fluttered her eyes up at him, 'Besides,' here she turned to smile toothily at Ambrosia, 'A compliment to you is a compliment to me, as we are one now.' Oh dear Merlin. And she knew it was wrong, that it was cruel and unnecessary, but Ambrosia couldn't help but comment, 'How lucky you two are, to have found such a oneness near the beginning of your relationship.' Yes it was mean, but she had just spent an entire train ride with Corisande and was ready to be done with her. Nicandro just raised an eyebrow at her as Corisande vehemently agreed and twined her arm with Nicandro. This infuriated Ambrosia for some reason, and for the rest of the ride was content to just sit ignoring them as Corisande teased and giggled at her boyfriend.

Walking into the Great Hall, Ambrosia finally spotted Elle, and ran over to her. Slugging her in the shoulder with her bag she hissed, 'There you are, you prat. Why did you leave me alone?' Elle's face split open in joy and she winked at her friend, 'Family duties, trust me I didn't want to spend my train and carriage ride listening to Thaddeus preach at me, but apparently I need to be on my guard this last year at Hogwarts, for there are many unworthy purebloods who wish to steal me away.' Sticking out her tongue in disgust, Ambrosia happily slid on the bench next to the only housemate she actually liked, and stole a sip of her water. 'The pitcher doesn't even take magic to reach you know.' But the sorting had started, and everyone quieted down. A wobbly first year reached the stool, and right before she sat down Ambrosia saw Malfoy lean forward, and whisper 'Mudblood for certain.'

'RAVENCLAW.' Startled, Ambrosia looked at the malice in his gaze, and followed it right until it landed on the Gryffindor table, where his lip curled. He was staring distastefully at Mary Macdonald in particular- but she didn't want to think of the history there. Shifting her gaze from Mary it fell on the new Head Girl this year, she could see the badge winking at her. From the look on Malfoy's face he hadn't missed it either, and from the way he fingered his own prefect badge she could tell he was none too pleased with the decision. Idly Ambrosia wondered whether appointing a muggleborn for Head Girl in these times was a very clever move on Dumbledore's part, even if he were sending a message, he was putting Lily Evans in danger. Elle nudged her shoulder, 'Where's your head at?' she whispered and Ambrosia shook her thoughts off,

'Food.' She answered, and at that moment her stomach grumbled. A few amused glances were sent her way, and Elle smothered a laugh. Leaning her head on her best friend's shoulder she replied, 'Fair enough, we'll get to it soon.' Ambrosia, nodding but keeping a hand over her stomach in embarrassment missed the way Nicandro's eyes had lifted to her face, and how they lingered for a few seconds, before Corisande drew his attention away again.

Once in her sweet old dormitory, Ambrosia allowed herself to collapse on her bed, throwing her arms over her face. 'I'm not going to classes tomorrow Elle, just let me sleep through the whole morning.' Flopping beside her Elle murmured,

'Can't I'm afraid, I'll be sleeping as well.' Then she sat up suddenly, 'SHIT.' Pulling herself up as well, Ambrosia stretched like a cat before asking, 'Shit what?'

'Shit I forgot my bag in the common room.'

'Shit how did you forget your bag in the common room and can't you just get it tomorrow.'

'Shit it has your book in it that I forgot to give you back last year?'

'Shit let's go and get it.' Nodding at the arrival of Narcissa, Corisande, Lucienne and Magnolia, the two girls slipped into the common room, where they found the item in question lounging against an armchair. Strapping it on and brandishing Ambrosia's book, Elle was quite content to skip back upstairs when the corner of Ambrosia's eye caught on something. Elle was already halfway up the stairs when Ambrosia turned back, just enough to see Arnold disappear to the boys dormitories, deep in conversation with Lucius Malfoy. A dark feeling settled in Ambrosia's stomach as she followed Elle up, Malfoy was always bad news.

The feast had been as good as it always was, and Lily was quite content to sleep off all that she had eaten when Gryffindor's prefect for this year came up to her. 'You are to meet Professor McGonagall in her office,' the boy said, offering her a twitchy smile. Sighing at the thought of her soft bed, Lily waved Marlene on and walked in the opposite direction to McGonagall (although not without excitement, as this obviously had to do with Head Girl duties).

Upon reaching the oak door she knocked twice, then stepped in. McGonagall's desk, despite the school year having just started, was already overflowing with parchment and quills, Books spilled off their shelves, the few scratches in the sides indicating where McGonagall had doubtless been irritated as a cat, and had taken it out on the furniture. The witch in question was sitting reading a document, but stood up when Lily entered. 'Perfect, where is Mr Potter?' Lily had long made her peace with the fact that Potter had been made Head Boy, after four sheets of parchment sent to Marlene dedicating her feelings on the subject, and the incident last summer...nevertheless, upon hearing his name Lily couldn't help but flinch slightly, curling her toes in her flats. 'I suspect he's being held up by his friends, we'll give him a moment.' During said moment, McGonagall resumed reading, after a polite enquiry after Lily's health, suggesting her mind was elsewhere, for Lily was a great favourite with her, and normally she always had time to talk with her. After fifteen minutes however, it became evident that the Mr Potter was not going to show. Rolling her eyes the Professor remarked, 'I suppose you have just come to school again. You'll simply have to relay what I have told you to Mr Potter. Now then,' and she went on to describe their duties for this year, their shared (yes, shared) office and how although this was a very important role, it was vital that they not let their studies drop. After finishing McGonagall looked like she wished dearly to say something else, but after hesitating for a moment she merely bid Lily goodnight, and told her she'd see her in the morning. 'Goodnight Professor,' Lily called, and shutting the door, turned the corner-

-right into someone else. 'Oof.' The person who had so rudely collided into her took a few steps back, his hand springing to his hair. Agrippa's sake. 'Running a but late Potter.' Lily snapped, straightening her robes, 'Wow a new record Lily, it's been five seconds since I've seen you and you're already pissed off.' Crossing her arms, Lily froze the gleam of mirth in his eyes,

'Look Potter. As much as I'd love to stay and chat and make daisy chains in the field-'

'-Daisy chains? If you're lucky and we run we might be able to make it outside you know-'

'But I want to do well this year.' Lily pressed on, ignoring him,

'-Rude-'

'That means that even though everything is a big fat joke to you, this won't be-you understand?' Furrowing his brow, a serious expression clouded his usually louche one, 'That means you'll be on time, you'll listen carefully and you will help me in this. Because if you slack off Potter so help me I will make you sorry.' Copying her stance Potter interrupted her,

'Hang on. Just because I miss one meeting-'

'-The FIRST meeting Potter. Impressions and all that-'

'-I get all this crap from you? I understand that to you I'm some rogue who apparently is a massive nuisance to you, but I got this role for a reason Evans. So if you're going to criticise my every move you can sod off.' He was red now, 'Maybe try giving me the benefit of the doubt for once.'

'When have you ever proved you deserve that? What were you even doing?'

'Something important.' Lily waited, but Potter didn't give her any more than that.

'That's it?'

'That's it.' Lily rolled her eyes,

'Unbelievable.'

'Maybe you should try something Evans, it's called trust.' With that he stalked off, leaving Lily standing in the corridor, fuming at the prat that she now had to spend the entire year with. As she stormed off to go complain about the whole evening to Marlene, McGonagall opened her office door and watched them march off, a slight smile curving her face. Then, shaking her head she shut the door again, and the corridor descended into darkness.