September
The violent breeze of Autumn threatened to slow down the Evans family as they piled into their car on the 1st September, 1976. A blonde woman in an oddly patterned kaftan threw a trunk into the boot of a Morris Marina, her husband's prized possession. He was sat in the driver's seat, his fingers tapped the steering wheel impatiently. He stopped for a moment to look up into the top left window of the house, and flinched when he made eye contact with the sour faced girl glaring into the garden below. To the neighbours and the outside world, the Evans family looked rather normal. And truthfully, most of them were.
Except for their youngest daughter.
Lily hauled her cat-cage into the garden, stopping to look behind her. Inside the doorway stood her sister's walrus of a boyfriend, Vernon. He'd grown a rather scraggly moustache while she had been at Hogwarts, and it wiggled in the wind. Lily fought back the urge to laugh (or vomit) and continued up to the car. Her cat, Bobbins, looked rather annoyed when she strapped the cage into the seat and slid in after him.
"Are you forgetting something?" Her father asked. Lily sat, and thought about what she could possibly be forgetting. She had her trunk in the boot, Bobbins was next to her, and her robes were in a plastic bag on her lap. What else could she possibly-
Her wand! Cripes, how could she have forgotten it? Her father chuckled as she dashed back into the house and past Vernon to retrieve her wand from her room. Petunia was sat on the other bed, combing her fingers through her damp hair. She paused to glare at her sister, and then went back to grooming herself.
Lily's relationship with her sister was most definitely a rocky one. Petunia would accuse Lily of using magic to steal her hairbrush or something, and then they would fight until Petunia eventually found whatever she'd lost, usually in the exact same place she had left it.
"Why haven't you left yet?" Petunia snapped. Lily rolled her eyes, but answered her sister as nicely as possible.
"I left my wand. Sorry for disturbing your special ritual."
"Hmmph. Vernon and I are going to this new cafe just outside of Cokeworth. It's got this really ace garden you can smoke in-"
"If Mum finds out you've been smoking-"
"She won't. And you're not going to tell her, are you?" For a moment, Lily really considered it. But she was already at odds with Petunia, and making her angrier wasn't a good idea.
If they were anywhere but their hometown, nobody would guess that they were sisters. Petunia had their mother's blonde hair, and she'd recently gotten it cut and styled to look just like Farrah Fawcett after watching 'Logan's Run'. Her eyes were a pale blue and beady, seemingly prying into your business, even when Petunia didn't mean to. Lily, on the other hand, had green eyes, and a mane of dark red hair that she let tumble down her back.
"Whatever, Petunia. I'm going now, goodbye" Lily called over her shoulder, Petunia said nothing, and turned her back to the door as Lily left.
"You okay, Lils?" Her mum asked. Lily nodded and slammed the car door shut. She could see Petunia glowering at her from the bedroom window. Lily's mum got into the front passenger seat and pushed a pair of sunglasses up on her head. "Are you sure you don't want to wait for Severus?"
Ouch. Lily felt that classic Gryffindor fire burn through her lungs. "I'm very sure, Mum." She replied coldly. Rosalie Evans exchanged a worried look with her husband, Harold, but never said a word. Harold started the car and drove away from the house. It would be a long drive to Kings Cross. To make the journey seem shorter, her Mum turned on the radio. Lily was forced to sit in the back as her parents belted out to Bob Dylan songs at the top of their lungs, badly. Every so often her dad's head would bob from side to side. Bobbins hissed after they went over a speedbump.
"Dad, slow down. Bobbins is rocking all over."
"Bobbins needs to cool down. I've got scratches all over my arms again." Lily had pried her cat from her father far too many times now, it was just better if they stayed away from each other. "And we're here! Kings Cross, m'lady." Her dad jogged to the car boot and began to drag her trunk towards the platform. He narrowly avoided backing into the heels of a haughty looking Muggle with an orange tan and a pantsuit. He ignored her irritated growl in his direction and pointed towards the barrier. "Look who's waiting, kiddo."
A dark haired girl was sat against the wall, her wand was tucked behind her ear. She was chewing gum. Heavy eyeliner had been smeared underneath her eyes, her hair was wild and a little greasy. Dorcas noticed Lily's mum first.
"Oh, Dorcas, hey. Nice boots." If Petunia had been there, she would have made a snide remark about punks, and how stupid Dorcas looked. But Petunia hadn't come with them for years, and that wouldn't change now.
"Thanks. Lils, you want me to take Bobbins?"
"Where's all your stuff?"
"Already on board. Marlene found us a compartment, if we can get there before Fiona and Octavia." The other two girls in Gryffindor. Fiona Donaldson was mild mannered, if a little bossy. Octavia Harrow, on the other hand, should have been a Slytherin. She was fairly ambitious, and quite cunning, but had practically begged the Sorting Hat for Gryffindor to please her mother. Lily would have pitied her if Octavia wasn't so self-entitled.
"Here." Rosalie handed Bobbins' cage to Dorcas. Lily and her friend stopped outside the barrier so Lily could say goodbye to her parents. Harold trapped her in a tight hug, and Rosalie gave her a kiss on the cheek. As she pulled away, her Mum whispered "I can't believe you're leaving me with your sister." A joke that would be kept between Lily and her mum. Petunia was living with Vernon now, they'd moved onto a little flat. Lily's parents were secretly saving up to buy a house in Surrey for them, as far away from their home as possible.
Lily smiled at Dorcas, took a deep breath, and marched through the barrier. The whistle of the steam engine was the first delightful sound she heard on Platform 9 and 3/4. The sound made her feel at home, like she'd never been away from Hogwarts. Through the sea of students, both new and old, she spotted several face she recognised. A chubby faced girl stood with a boy and his mother, who sported green robes and a bright red handbag. A gang of haughty looking witches and wizards in green and silver; she knew them by their surnames. She glanced away when one locked eyes with her, his long hair fell into his dark eyes.
On the other side of the platform was a family with two sons, one in green and silver, the other had a red and gold tie hanging from his pocket. His top buttons were undone. Green eyes met grey, and Lily snorted in disgust and brushed through the crowds. She knew him far too well.
"The train won't be as packed this year." Dorcas added solemnly. "You-Know-Who and his followers are getting more and more violent. They attacked eight muggleborn families in the last two months." As fierce and stubborn as Dorcas was, she was as scared of the ongoing war as everyone else. "It's wack, man. In my opinion, if you have magic, you have magic. Your blood shouldn't matter." It meant a lot to Lily, especially coming from a Pureblood like Dorcas. Marlene, Octavia and Alice were also Purebloods. Fiona was a half-blood, whilst Mary and Lily were muggleborn students, and likely targets.
The fact that almost half of Lily's friends could be killed, including herself, was a heavy weight on her shoulders.
They dragged the Lily's things up and down the train to find Marlene. She wasn't too hard to spot; her mane of blonde hair had yet to be seen perm-less.
"Lily!" She bounced up and clutched Lily tightly, her nails threatening to break the skin. "You're here later than usual. I managed to score this ace compartment,it's right at the back, so we can avoid the crowds of firsties."
"Firsties? God, that is such a Sirius thing to say." Marlene went red, but didn't argue back. It was clear who she'd spent her summer with. Lily was amazed that her best friend could be so stupid. Sirius Black was- to put it plainly- a wanker. He and Marlene had been messing around since the middle of fifth year. As a Prefect, she'd been forced to report them more than once for smoking, getting high, and being found in broom closets together. She hoped Remus had also done the same, but he would likely have wilted under the pressure of reporting one of his fellow 'Marauders'.
Ugh, she hated them all. Well, not quite. Remus was okay, and Peter lived very close to Cokeworth, so she had to remain civil. But Black and Potter were prats.
"Are we sitting down or..." Dorcas slid past Lily and Marlene and flopped into the seat next to their other friend, Mary. She was deep into a book, only the top of her head was visible. "Earth to Mary." The tiny girl's head popped out of her book and grinned at the other three.
"Hey, I missed you guys."
"Fooey." Marlene scoffed. "You were having an ace time in America ALL summer."
"You're right, I was."
"Soo..." Marlene leaned forward and pressed her palms into Mary's knees. "Give me the skinny. Did you meet any cute guys?"
"MARLENE!" Lily hissed, pinching her side. She yelped and rubbed the spot, glaring at her.
"Oww, what? I was just asking."
"Uh huh." She didn't have the chance to respond, because the door slid open again to reveal a very flustered Fiona. She hunkered down in the seat next to Dorcas and pulled out a a pumpkin pasty.
"Anybody want some?" She offered it around. The pasty was stale and flaking. Lily turned her down politely, wrinkling her nose. Marlene was not as nice.
"It smells rancid. How long have you had it?"
"Not long. I bought it yesterday, but I forgot about it and left it on the table." She pulled up her pet cage and placed it on her lap. "Sorry." Fiona munched on her pasty and pulled a face. "Ugh, you were right." She tore it apart, and fed it to the tiny kitten inside the cage instead. Lily found an elbow dug in her side before she could even begin to point out how idiotic it was to feed the cat a pasty.
"New pet?" Dorcas noted. "I thought you had an owl."
"I did. It died last week."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It was dad's owl before it was mine, it just got really old." She explained. Her new kitten was scraggly, and had long white hairs sprouting from its head, giving the appearance of eyebrows.
Octavia and Alice didn't turn up until after the train had left the station. Alice saw that there wouldn't be enough room for both, and she offered to sit with Octavia in another compartment. It left the five of them sitting rather comfortably.
Lily changed into her robes when the sky started to get dark. The Prefect badge pinned to her lapel was shiny, a sign of trust and authority. It would be Lily's job to escorts all the little ones to Gryffindor tower for their first night in Hogwarts.
She thought about what Dorcas had said, about the lack of muggleborn students this year. Lily couldn't imagine all those little kids, their smiling faces, all excited to learn magic and be apart of something amazing. And they would never get here. This war had to end soon. It had to.
"If he walks past here one more time..." Marlene growled. Lily glimpsed a boy in green lined robes disappear up the corridor. "I'm going to hex him so he can't move until Christmas."
"Don't bother. He wouldn't be stupid enough to do anything." Lily replied half-halfheartedly. Truthfully, she'd been ignoring him every time he ghosted past. She wanted nothing to do with him, not anymore.
"I hear he hangs around with all the wannabe Voldemort bootlickers. Mulciber, Avery, Rosier, you name it."
"Didn't picture Rosier as the Death Eater type."
"Neither did I, always thought he was too far up his own arse to follow someone like Voldemort." Dorcas sucked in a breath as Marlene said Voldemort again. All three of the girls opposite Lily and Marlene looked shocked.
Lily wasn't afraid of his name. He held no power here, or at Hogwarts. All he had here were a few teenagers who knew a handful of hexes, and not much else. Even Rosier wasn't smart enough to actually carry out some sort of attack at Hogwarts. Not while Dumbledore was Headmaster. It was rumoured that Voldemort's fear of the older wizard was so great, he'd purposefully forbidden his Death Eaters from attacking a larger amount of students, less Dumbledore decide to battle him face-to-face.
The school was in sight, according to Marlene. She had spotted the lights of the castle from the window. Now that everybody was in their robes, they could just sit back and wait to arrive.
Or they would have, if Peter Pettigrew hadn't thrown open the door to talk to them.
Peter was an unusal case. He was an arrogant prat, and a Marauder. But he was also much easier to talk to without wanting to cave his skull in with 'Hogwarts: A History'. One of his eyes often disturbed people, due to its odd colour. He suffered from a condition called Heterochromia, and so his left eye was mostly brown, with a dash of the same blue as his other eye, the normal one. It didn't stop him from gaining attention from the many girls in their year. Prat.
"Mary." His lilting Irish accent rolled the R. Mary's eyes glittered. They stared at each other for far too long, until the train slowed to a stop. "Would you like to come up to the castle with me?" She nodded, and silently glided alongside him and out of the train.
"Are you kidding me?" Dorcas said. She strolled outside, and Fiona followed after her.
"We'll be going then?" Marlene suggested. Lily and Marlene stepped out into the corridor, and jumped down onto the platform.
"Firs' years!" A loud voice bellowed. "Firs' years this way!" All the children streamed towards the giant man, leaving the path open for the older students to walk down. The carriages stood at the foot of the grounds overlooking the magnificent castle. The first years would arrive by boat, and risk the freezing September waters and the giant squid Alice had affectionately named Kyle.
Two carriages ahead of the girls, Mary was climbing in between Peter and another boy; one with messy black hair, and an ink stain on the back of his collar. Lily tried to burn a hole in the back of his head, but had no such luck. "Dammit. Why can't he just drown in the lake?"
"Wow, got some really twisted thoughts there, Evans." Marlene teased.
"Yeah yeah, let's just get up to the castle."
"I really hope they serve cheesecake this year."
"Me too Marlene, me too."