After spending six excruciating hours putting up with Lily and James' bickering, Gabriella felt extremely happy when the silhouette of an enchanting castle came in view.
"Hogwarts," Gabriella whispered to herself. She had a content smile on her face.
"For the millionth time Potter, no, I will NOT go out with you!" Lily yelled at James' face as she marched towards the castle.
Gabriella gave James a weak smile as she too, ran towards the castle to catch up with her friend.
"Don't sweat it, Prongs! Nothing you haven't been through before!" Sirius roared with laughter.
"Ha-ha, very funny Padfoot," James Glared at his best friend who smirked back in return.
"Coming, guys?" Jaacob Smith, a seventh year Ravenclaw student asked.
"We'll be there in a minute. Just waiting for Remus and Peter," Sirius answered.
"Well, you better hurry, I heard McGonagall's already handing out detentions to the latecomers!"
"Ah, we wouldn't want to break the tradition now, would we?" James smirked.
Jaacob laughed. "Well good luck then!" he said as he walked towards the castle.
-*-
A few minutes later, the last carriage arrived bringing the last four students to Hogwarts.
"I don't see why you made Lil and Gabby ride in the same carriage as James and Sirius! Are you asking for a world war to break out here?" Mary asked Vicky.
"I was bored! And don't you want something to talk about tonight? I'm sure Lily has much to tell us about their carriage ride!" Vicky grinned.
Mary laughed and shook her head.
"It was partly for Gabby too. She looked rather dull on the train; this ought to cheer her up!" Vicky said happily.
"Evening, ladies," Sirius smiled at the two girls.
"Evening," they said in a sing-song voice at the same time, skipping into the castle.
"Moony! Peter! Enjoyed the ride?" James asked.
"It was all right. I ran out of chocolate frogs on the way," Peter frowned.
"Yeah, and he made himself comfortable with mine," Remus hissed.
James and Sirius roared with laughter while Peter turned beet red. The Marauders slowly waltzed towards the Great Hall and earned themselves a week's worth of detention (excluding Remus who sprinted to the Great Hall as soon as he got out of the carriage). They made their usual grand entrance into the Great Hall and got stares from most of the female population of Hogwarts. Apart from being the most popular boys in school, they definitely had exceedingly good looks, except for Peter of course. Many still wonder how he got into their little group.
-*-
"The nerve of those two! Waltzing in as if they owned the entire castle," Lily spat as she murdered the roast lamb on her plate.
Vicky, Mary and Gabriella stared at their friend with worried faces.
"Er… Take it easy there, Lil," Gabriella gently touched her friends shoulder.
"Yeah, what in the world did the lamb do to you? Take it out on Potter if you must!" Vicky chewed on her baby carrot. Vicky was a vegetarian, hence the protectiveness she had over animals, dead or alive.
"They just annoy the heck out of me, Gab! They're a bunch of arrogant gits who think they control the entire school!" Lily glared at them hatefully.
"I think Remus isn't all that bad," Mary said as she helped herself to more mashed potato.
"Remus is such a gentleman! I don't know how he handles a bunch of hippogriffs like Potter and Black," Lily stuffed her mouth with potato to stop herself from cursing out loud.
"Well Lils! You just have to learn to live with it; we have a whole year ahead of us after all!" Gabriella said cheerfully, taking a sip of juice from her goblet.
Lily groaned and hid her face into her palms.
Gabby, Vicky and Mary giggled together and soon, the sorting of the first years begun.
-*-
After dinner, all the students headed back to their dorms to catch up with each other on the latest news and gossips. Lily, Gabby, Mary and Vicky stopped in front of the Gryffindor Portrait Lady with clueless faces.
"Lil, what did you say the password was again?" Vicky asked.
"I didn't tell you what the password was," Lily said matter-of-factly.
"Well, now would be a good time to tell us," Mary butted in.
"I don't KNOW what it is!" Lily exclaimed, looking very irritated.
Vicky instinctively stepped away from Lily and glared at her. "Chill, Lily! You could have just told us from the beginning," she muttered.
Gabby, who honestly had had enough of drama for the day decided to end the argument. "Guys, come on! Let's ask around, it'll definitely be more productive than arguing amongst ourselves."
The others nodded their heads and spread out to look for their housemates.
Gabriella headed towards the Great Hall, hoping to find any Gryffindors lurking around.
James spotted Gabriella walking past and yelled, "Oy, Gabby!"
Gabriella turned around and saw a smirking Sirius Black with his friends hanging around the corridor.
"Have you by any chance seen Evans?" James asked Gabby.
"Yeah, we were just about to head towards our dorm when we realized we didn't know what the password was. Do you happen to know what it is?" Gabby asked Sirius.
Sirius gave her his trademark grin; "I don't know Gabby…" he started. Gabriella rolled her eyes and heaved an exasperated sigh. She always knew he would not pass up a golden opportunity like this to ask her out and add her name to his list of female conquests. In fact, given other circumstances, he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to ask any girl out.
"Please? It would mean a lot to me," Gabriella said sweetly.
"Well… I could, but there is one thing you could do for me- well, with me actually-" Sirius continued.
"It would mean a lot to Lily too," Gabriella added, shifting her gaze to James.
"It's 'Pink Hippogriffs'" James said immediately with a manic grin.
Sirius stopped mid-sentence, turned around and glared at James, "PRONGS!" he yelled.
"She said the 'L' word, Padfoot! You know how I am when ANYONE mentions her name, I couldn't help it!" James started explaining to a very livid-looking Sirius, slowly inching backwards with every word.
"Thank you very much, James!" Gabriella said happily, "Sleep tight, boys!" she added, winking at Sirius before she skipped off towards the Gryffindor portrait.
Despite himself, Sirius felt a smile tugging at his mouth. His anger towards his best friend slowly melted away and he found himself staring at the spot Gabriella was standing at and gave a genuine smile.
James looked at Remus (who had just recovered from his laughing fit which took place as soon as James blurted out the password) and Peter before walking towards Sirius, "You all right mate?" James asked.
Sirius tore his gaze away from the floor and looked at James who had a worried look on his handsome face.
For the countless time that day, Sirius found himself grinning at his best friend again, "Never been better, Prongs!" He said.
-*-
Back in the Sixth year girls dorm, Lily, Mary and Vicky were laughing their bottoms off at Gabriella's story. Gabby told them about the scene that took place and for the first time, Lily was actually enjoying talking about Potter.
Lily wiped off her tears and tried catching her breath. "That dope! He really has an issue, though it came in handy this time, I'm honestly quite freaked out," she said.
"It's nothing new, the poor guy practically worships you" Mary said.
"And the ground you walk on" Vicky added. The four girls giggled.
"But he's really nice once you get to know him, Lil," Gabriella said, putting her hand on Lily's shoulder.
"Yeah, he really can be a gentleman at times," Vicky said.
Mary nodded at her friends' comments and then said, " He can be a great friend too, Lily. Take it from us and…give him chance," She said.
"Guys, after everything he's done to not only me, but the rest of the female population in Hogwarts, it's quite difficult for me to change my opinion on him overnight. And his school history isn't exactly squeaky clean either," Lily said.
Mary, Vicky and Gabby nodded understandingly.
"It's not that important anyway, I'm in no rush to get involved in a relationship," Lily said as she covered herself with her blanket and turned off her night light.
The others followed her actions and prepared to sleep themselves.
"Besides, we have the entire year to match make James and Lily!" Gabriella said excitedly.
"Good night, Gabby!" Lily said sternly.
"Right she is and we better get some sleep ourselves. We're probably getting our timetables tomorrow so pray that we don't have double potions like last year," Vicky groaned.
"I don't mind having double potions tomorrow," Lily muttered sleepily.
"Said the potions nerd," Mary added cheekily.
"I said GOOD NIGHT!" Lily yelled as she tossed a pillow towards Mary.
The four girls laughed and finally decided to sleep. While the three of them were in slumber land, Gabriella stayed up a while longer to re-cap on that day's happenings. She smiled to herself and thought, this is definitely going to be an interesting year. With that said, she too, fell blissfully asleep.
-*-
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm as busy as ever right now, having to deal with picking the extra subjects i'll be taking next year. I will be going for the science stream. As you have noticed, i haven't really written much about Natasha and Evangeline and i'm wondering if i should stress more on them and their life too or should i just mention them once in a while? As usual, your opinions are deeply appreciated! And thanks to Naflower05 for being an awesome reviewer! Review please :D
-Dea