Yay! I made it back. Please read and review!
The snow was falling heavily over the mountains and hills that surrounded the castle and in the distance, the roofs of the houses of the people of Hogsmede were becoming dusted with white flakes. The reds and golds of the Gryffindor common room offered a direct contrast to the cold world outside with a roaring fire and cosy chairs all around the circular room. The room was silent now, but students were slowly beginning to trickle in with their large trunks that were creating a pile in the corner to be taken down to the carriages heading towards Hogsmede Station and the Hogwarts Express.
It was a time of mixed emotions in the castle as many were excited to be returning home for the first time in over three months, but were also upset about the prospect of leaving the friends that had become like family to them, for the next two weeks. Some students were unable to go home at this time and watched in envy from the long tables in the great hall as their friends rushed their breakfasts and prepared to leave.
Lily, James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius were all leaving today and were saying goodbye to one another. The boys were used to being away from each other at this time as five years of friendship would suggest – and the fact that Sirius would be going to stay with James made it much easier this year for the friends who were like brothers – but Lily and James were not used to being away from each other for more than a few hours during their relationship, and as such were unwilling to leave each other's side that entire morning.
In fact, they had met up much earlier than usual, eaten breakfast quickly and then gone for a last minute walk around the grounds – despite the freezing temperature. They stopped on a hill beside the lake to exchange their gifts for Christmas (although Lily was adamant that neither should open them until Christmas day the next week) and enough love to get them through the next two weeks. It would seem strange to the majority of couples that it had taken them two months to exchange addresses for letters but they had not needed them before being separated in this way. There was one issue – Lily did not have an owl – and so they had drawn up a schedule that involved James sending a letter as soon as he got home and then Lily sending one, and the pair continuing like this for the duration of the holidays (with James' poor owl taking a day or two to recuperate when he arrived back home). And after a few hours of discussion, tears, love, excitement, and almost ever emotion on the spectrum, the pair was ready to leave.
The met James' friends at the gates to Hogwarts that were guarded by stone hogs upon high pillars on either side of the gate, and the group began to follow the stream of students heading towards the station at the bottom of the hill. Once aboard the scarlet train, they found a compartment towards the back that was completely empty and put down bags that they had carried on separate from their luggage. Lily and Remus then waved goodbye to their friends for now and left to head to the prefects' carriage for the standard meeting.
After the meeting, the pair spent ten minutes patrolling the corridor before heading back to the compartment that contained James, Sirius, and Peter.
"How was prefect duty?" James asked as they walked through the door, Lily rolled her eyes at him and flopped down on the bench beside him and throwing her legs over the top of his. "Not fun, huh?"
"Being a prefect is much more about telling first-years to stop running in the corridors than you'd expect." Lily complained, the time they'd spent on duty had not been interesting and the twenty minutes they'd been on patrol seemed to last forever
"That's why I've spent the past five and a half years showing Dumbledore that I am not prefect material." James laughed.
"I would like to know how Moony ended up with the job, though." Sirius teased, getting a sideways glare from Remus who already had a book out of his bag.
"Maybe he's supposed to keep you lot in line." Lily giggled, receiving a joking smack from James and a gasp from Sirius.
"New years' party at mine?" Sirius decided, looking around the room at the faces of his friends who smiled and nodded.
"By yours you mean mine, I'm assuming. Or are we all going to go and see the ancient house of black?" James asked, he was joking but wanted to make sure he wouldn't be seeing Sirius' mother who had not been fond off James on the few occasions they had met.
"Hey, what's yours is mine. That's what friends are for!"
Remus and Lily left a few minutes before the train pulled into King's Cross station to help with the logistics of a couple of hundred students leaving a train onto a relatively small platform and then make sure they left for the muggle station in small groups - even muggles may notice a hoard of teenagers running out of a wall. James, Peter, and Sirius were the last to go through the wall before Lily, Remus and the rest of the prefects joined them.
The boys refused to hug each other goodbye, although they did each hug Lily in turn and James gave her a long goodbye kiss, promising to write as soon as he got home. He and Sirius walked towards a couple who embraced them both and waved to the others before they left. Peter spotted his parents next, both small and a little round, who again embraced their son. Remus and Lily walked away towards the board which showed all the trains leaving that day as both had to get another train that would take them closer to home where their parents would meet them. They embraced, said their goodbyes and then Lily walked towards platform eleven and Remus platform three.
Lily was picked up from the train by her father, a man about the same height as Lily with her brilliant auburn hair (although much shorter and thinner than Lily's) who embraced her in a close hug before picking up her trunk and leading her to the car that was parked outside to take them home. Lily's house was a modern semi-detached house at the end of a small street just inside the village where they lived.
Lily's mother came out of the house in an apron and enclosed her youngest daughter in a close hug and led her into the house with her father carrying the bags behind her. In the living room sat Lily's sister Petunia, and whom Lily assumed was her boyfriend. Whilst Lily looked very much like her father, with his eyes and hair, Petunia looked very much like their mother: both were tall, blonde, and slim.
"Hiya, Tuney. Did you miss me?" She asked. Another way that the sisters were opposites was in their personalities; whilst Lily was bright and positive, Petunia was much more 'down to earth' (in her words) and so did not approve of Lily's 'abnormality'. She smiled slightly at her sister's arrival but did not show the enthusiasm that Lily had.
"Hello, Lily. How was school?" She raised her eyebrows and glared at Lily. Petunia was well aware of the fact that Lily was not allowed to talk about most aspects of her school in front of this stranger.
"It's been great! Although, being prefect isn't as good as I'd thought!" She laughed.
"You still hanging out with that wierdo from down the road?"
"Sev? No, we fell out a while ago now. I mainly hang out with my boyfriend, James, and his friends. How's the new job going?"
"Oh, it's great. This is my manager, Vernon Dudley, we started going out not long after you left for school so it only seemed right that I invited him over since he's practically family." From the looks on her parent's faces, this was not an agreed statement.
"And yet he's not…" Lily muttered before walking upstairs to her room.
I have another part of this chapter coming but I promised a week so here you go! Please review – Chescaannie :) xx