Chapter One
'The Hogwarts Express'
'tell me the story
about how the sun
loved the moon so much
he died every night
to let her breathe'
Lily Evans stretched out her legs that were resting on the train seat opposite her and reached into the packet on her lap for another Sherbet Lemon drop. She unwrapped it slowly and then lazily flicked the page over of the Witch Weekly magazine she had been reading halfheartedly.
A mousy haired Mary Macdonald sat on the floor leaning her head against Lily's long legs. She had been telling her closest three friends about her family's holiday to the South of France they had taken that Summer, all the while painting her nails a dusty pale pink.
"You know what?" Mary continued as she sat cross legged. "I reckon I could live off pastries for the rest of my life." She had a wistful look on her face. "Bread too. And cheese. Ooh, and the wine…" she trailed off, hand hovering in the air, a large pink blob of nail varnish dripped onto the floor. Lily noticed she had nearly started to drool.
"Enough of the food talk Macdonald, get to the important stuff. How fit does Owen look now he's all bronzed and tan?" Marlene McKinnon said eagerly.
She was sat on the same bench as Lily, with her legs up, resting against Lily's left leg. Marlene lent down towards Mary eagerly and Lily saw that she was almost drooling too at the thought of Mary's older brother.
"Would you stop talking about him like that? It's really starting to creep me out." Mary shuddered, to which Marlene grinned and continued innocently. "Well I can't help that he's so bloody drop dead gorgeous and all I can think of is wanting to snog his fa-"
"Marlene! For the love of Merlin, do NOT finish that sentence." She blanched and shook her head in disgust.
Dorcas Meadowes suddenly shifted in her seat directly opposite Marlene and muttered "Talking of gorgeous…" under her breath as the compartment door slid open and Remus Lupin poked his head inside.
"Afternoon, girls." Remus smiled kindly and turned to look at Lily. "Ready?" Lily looked at him oddly and he sighed. "Prefects meeting?"
"Bugger." Lily groaned. She shoved the Lemon drops to the side and chucked the magazine into Marlene's lap.
"I'll wait out here, see the rest of you later on." With a small wave, Remus pulled the door shut. As Lily grabbed her cardigan and hastily shoved her wand into the inside pocket, Mary turned to look at Dorcas. "Remus Lupin, really? Not your usual type."
Dorcas sighed and said "There's just something about him, you know? That sort of mysterious, silent type." Marlene snorted at the dreamy look on Dorcas' face and Lily grinned as Dorcas grabbed the magazine and whacked Marlene around the head with it, hard.
"Hey!" she protested, trying to cover her face from the magazine's heavy blows.
Lily yanked on the handle and stepped into the corridor, sliding the door closed behind her. "Sorry, forgot all about it." She said, pulling her cardigan on.
They turned and started to walk towards the front of the train, towards the Prefects compartment. "How was your Summer?" Lily asked, fumbling with her Prefects badge trying to pin it in place.
Remus frowned then said, "Mum hasn't been too well, so stayed at home mostly. A bit boring really." She looked at him sadly. Mrs Lupin hadn't been very well during their last year of school either, Remus had even gone home to Idle Moor a few times throughout their Fifth Year to help his Dad care for her, each time returning with dark eyes and somehow looking even more exhausted that normal – as if that were somehow possible. Remus always looked permanently exhausted and as though he could do with catching up on a week's worth of sleep.
He waved off her sad look and said quickly, "Yours any better?" clearly trying to change the conversation.
Lily wrinkled up her nose. "Spent most of it trying to avoid Petunia and her new boyfriend." She said with a look of disgust. "But Benjy wrote and asked me to visit. I got the train to Oxford and stayed there for a few days, so I suppose it wasn't all bad." She shrugged and saw that Remus had raised his eyebrows.
When entering the Prefect's carriage, Lily gave a small wave and a friendly smile to two dark haired Sixth Year Ravenclaw girls, Emmaline Vance and Hestia Jones. They both waved back, Emmaline glanced at the new Head Girl – a tall, thin blonde Seventh Year Ravenclaw, with neatly trimmed fingernails and a perfectly pleated skirt – then back to Lily, raised her eyebrows and hissed something to Hestia out the corner of her mouth.
Lily was sure she made out the words 'ready for the year from hell' and Lily let out a small laugh as she and Remus took their seats, quickly disguising it as a cough as the Head Girl shot a reproving look her way.
Lily smiled sweetly back at her, then when she eventually turned to the rest of the Prefects, Lily dragged her finger across her throat, lolling her tongue out of her mouth. Emmaline grinned and Hestia let out a loud snort, which was met with a glare from the irritated looking blonde Ravenclaw.
The Prefect meeting started as the newly appointed Head Girl and Head Boy – Isabella Whitmore & Samuel Cross – introduced themselves and then the newest Fifth Year Prefects. Isabella pulled out the old and tattered copy of 'A Prefects Guidebook to Peak Performance' and lay it on the table in front of them. She suggested a couple of new rules to be added that she'd apparently been thinking about over the Summer.
Of course Isabella would have spent her Summer thinking up new rules for a handbook that no one had even probably bothered to read for a hundred years, that's the sort of thing prim and proper Head Girl's did in their spare time, Lily thought as she rolled her eyes.
Looking out the window, she thought of how she had spent her Summer either lazed about on Primrose Hill, attempting at least to try and get a tan – instead, she'd burnt her nose and her stubbornly fair skin had merely broken out in even more freckles than usual – or she had lazed about in her bedroom glad for the cool shade, her record player turned up to the maximum volume trying to drone out the dull voices of Petunia and her boyfriend whenever he came to visit. Lily shuddered at the thought of anyone willingly calling Vernon Dursley their boyfriend.
She was sure of it; Petunia must be mad.
Her Summer hadn't been all that bad, in fact visiting Benjy had been the exact sort of distraction that she'd needed, and Oxford had been nice too. They had spent the days sunbathing in Port Meadow park and wandering round museums, then had spent the evenings at the same small table in the farthest corner of The Bear – the oldest pub in the city – with a pint each, and sharing a bag of salt and vinegar crisps.
She had enjoyed every second of the weekend away and hated the long train journey back to Birmingham and then the even longer bus ride to Cokeworth.
A thought popped into the back of Lily's head. Maybe she had enjoyed getting away from Cokeworth rather than spending time with Benjy himself.
Lily frowned and pushed the thought away quickly.
No, she thought firmly. She had enjoyed spending time with Benjy, it was nice to be able to talk to someone about muggle things without having to re-explain what a pen was every five seconds.
Mrs Fenwick was a muggle and had brought Benjy and his younger sister Brianna up surrounded in a muggle home with muggle objects. Mr Fenwick had incorporated some magic into their home – the mop was enchanted to clean the kitchen floor every night, the large ornate mirror in the hallway gave helpful tips about your appearance if you stood in front of it for too long, and the small bronze cuckoo clock on the sitting room wall hooted reminders about plans that had been made for that day.
It was a warm and inviting family home, much unlike the one Petunia was making in Norton Crescent at the Evans' house.
Lily rolled her eyes once more at one of Isabella's suggestions – "We should start scheduling more weekly meetings, it will make everything run much more smoothly" – and continued to gaze out the window as the countryside flew past, noting they must now be somewhere in the Peak District now as she saw the ruins of Peveril Castle in the distance.
"If you're wanting to even be considered for Head Girl next year Lily, maybe you should start to actually pay attention in these meetings." Isabella barked with an eyebrow raised furiously at her.
"Honestly, as if I'd be made Head Girl." muttered Lily sourly to the back of Isabella's head once she'd turned back to the rest of the Prefects and continued listing some more rules.
Remus grunted under his breath, sounding as though he agreed with her, which earned him an elbow to the ribs from a still scowling Lily.
Once Isabella had finished her long-winded speech about 'upholding the expectations we have been placed upon us' – earning yet another snort from Hestia Jones – she placed the Prefect guidebook back into her bag and the meeting was finally adjourned. Remus and Lily stood, stretched their legs and with a wave goodbye to the Ravenclaws started their walk back down the corridor.
"God, as if those meetings couldn't have gotten any worse." Lily whined, picking at her fingernails glumly as they reached the Gryffindor Sixth Year girls' compartment. "If I have to endure another year of Whitmore's compulsive need to check that bloody handbook every five seconds and I might just have to–" She was cut off as a loud bang came from the carriage directly next to hers, and they both jumped back with a fright.
Lily reached instinctively for her wand that was tucked in the inside of her cardigan.
Remus laughed, shaking his head and Lily turned to look at him with a concerned look on her face. Her hand was in her cardigan, fist curled around her wand.
"Idiots." He laughed again. "I left them playing Exploding Snap. Pete did say they should make it more interesting."
Lily felt herself relax and dropped her hand to her side.
She turned as the carriage door opened with a clatter and a dark cloud of smoke billowed out, followed by a dishevelled James Potter who was dusting off ash from his jumper.
"Alright, Evans?" he asked with a grin, taking his glasses off and wiping them clean.
Startled, Lily opened her mouth to reply but before she could get her words out, a furious looking Sirius Black stomped out of the compartment. A dark look cast across his face, every inch of his body from head to toe covered in ash, he gestured at James furiously.
"You bloody cheat! That's definitely against the rules, I demand a rematch." He wiped at his shirt roughly sending dust flying around the corridor. Lily bit her lip and tried not to laugh but couldn't help letting out a small giggle. James grinned at her and she notice that Remus had a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth too.
"Oh, sod off the lot of you." He grumbled and yanked the door back open. As the door gave a small 'click' as it closed, Lily heard a faint call of 'Scourgify' from Peter inside.
"Good Summer?" James asked her, pushing his glasses back up his nose. Remus looked at him nervously, trying to catch his eye.
Lily shrugged, "Not bad, thanks. Just the normal really. How was yo–" She was cut off again by a call of "Lily!" from behind her, a little way down the corridor.
Benjy Fenwick had his hand raised in a wave and was walking towards them. She smiled brightly over her shoulder and did not see James scowl and Remus rolling his eyes at his friend.
As he approached them, Benjy made a point of not looking at James. "Good Summer?" He asked her with a wink. James narrowed his eyes at Benjy and glanced at Lily with a slight frown.
"Yeah it was alright." She said airily, smiling at him. Remus cleared his throat and mumbled something about getting changed into his robes, moving past them and closing the door firmly shut behind him.
Lily saw a flash of silver in the doors reflection as it slid shut and turned her head to James. "Oh, I forgot to say!" She beamed up at him. "Congratulations, Marlene told me earlier."
"Thanks." James grinned proudly and she noticed that he puffed his chest out ever so slightly. "Thank God Dixon's gone, we might finally have a chance of winning the Cup."
A small silver badge sat pinned to the left-hand side of his dark maroon jumper. The letters QC were shining brightly, and if Lily didn't know any better, she might have thought James had spent hours polishing it.
"You made Captain?" Benjy asked with a look of bewilderment.
Lily frowned at his bluntness, if anyone deserved to be made Captain it was James, the boy was Quidditch mad. Lily suspected that if you were to cut James Potter open, he would probably bleed Quidditch. But he was a natural leader too, she thought defiantly. He was kind, and thoughtful, and–
"McGonagall wrote to me first week of Summer." James said, a proud look on his face. "Said she couldn't think of anyone else she'd rather have lifting the trophy after we end Hufflepuff's winning streak."
Benjy made a strangled noise in the back of his throat then scoffed at him. "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Potter. Gryffindor doesn't stand a ch–"
Caradoc Dearborn had stuck his head out of a compartment a fair way down the corridor in front of them and shouted "Oi, Fenwick!"
Benjy mumbled a goodbye to Lily, shot a sharp look at James then pushed past him and headed up towards the dark haired Ravenclaw.
"You're not thinking of cheering on the Hufflepuff's this year, are you?" James asked her in mock concern as Benjy glanced over his shoulder at them.
"What, and betray my own House? Wouldn't even dream of it." She nudged him in the side and smiled up at him.
He laughed then as another loud bang came from inside the compartment followed by shouts from what sounded like an even angrier sounding Sirius, James ran a hand through his hair and said, "Better get back in there before he hexes Peter's ears off." With a quick wave and wink at her, he slid the door open and disappeared inside.
With a strange feeling in her chest, Lily opened the door next to her and sat back down with Mary, Dorcas and Marlene. For some reason, she found herself feeling more eager than ever for the start of their Sixth year.