Chapter 61: Not-So-Great Beginning
"Am I being paranoid or is everyone looking rather glum around me??" Lily asked Arabella and Stefanie after the crossed over to platform nine and three quarters.
"I think everyone is fearful of what's going to happen." Stefanie said darkly.
"I'm not surprised. Anything might happen." Arabella commented grimly as the three girls carried their trunks over to the train.
"Where are the guys??" Stefanie asked.
"No idea. Let's board the train first." Lily suggested as she tugged her trunk along the crowded platform with her right hand and holding the Tinkerbell in her cage with her left hand.
"Luckily we don't have much belongings." Arabella joked, pulling her only trunk with her. Stefanie on the other hand, was pushing a trolley of two large trunks with her empty owl cage on top.
"And this is not even half of all your belongings." Lily teased Stefanie.
"Okok, I've too much necessities." Stefanie argued jokingly.
"Stef, there you are." A voice called out from the back.
"Where did you guys disappear to??" Lily asked.
"Nothing much. We were just mingling around." James said casually.
"Well, I doubt you guys are just mingling around." Lily commented. "Oh hi Pete, was wondering where are you."
"Hi girls." Peter said quietly. Stefanie and Arabella both replied with a short 'hi'.
"Let's get up faster and get a good compartment." James said and he led the way up with his trunk. Lily followed behind him and then Arabella.
"Let me help you." Remus offered and carried one of Stefanie's trunks along with his as he boarded the train after Stefanie's.
"Why do you always bring so many things??" Sirius asked Stefanie.
"They're necessities." Stefanie replied from the front.
"Look at my trunk." Sirius said, holding up his smaller but slightly bulging looking trunk. "Small and compact with all the necessities."
"Did you bring enough underwear to last the year??" Stefanie asked. Remus and Peter laughed at the joke.
"I brought the same amount as Remus and James." Sirius answered coolly. "Pete, you brought enough as well??" Peter nodded, grinning away. The four of them made their way quickly towards the last compartment to join James, Lily and Arabella who were already waiting inside.
"What took you guys so long??" James asked as they walked into the compartment with several trunks.
"Stef's luggage. Need any more details on its weigh??" Remus teased and earned a light slap on his hand from Stefanie.
"Understood clearly." Lily grinned.
"So are you guys gonna play any prank on the train this year??" Stefanie asked, changing the topic away regarding her heavy baggage.
"Definitely." James answered instantly.
"How can the Marauders not play any prank at any opportunity??" Sirius said in a pretended shock.
"Oh yeah, how can we forget that??" Arabella remarked.
"Nothing major actually."
"I assume you guys are not going to tell us what is it??"
"Duh!! That spoils our fun."
"Whatever."
Knock!!
"Hey Lily, James, prefects in the prefects compartment." Jun called out.
"For what??"
"A tradition I supposed. The rest are there already."
"Be right there." Lily said, taking out her uniform and prefect badge from her trunk. "Thanks Jun." Lily took her stuffs and headed towards the toilet to change.
"Why are you changing here??" Arabella asked James who took off his shirt and put on his uniform.
"Why not??"
"No one really wants to see you change here." Stefanie added. James was already in his uniform and pinning the prefect badge on it.
"Then don't look at me." James said all ready to leave. "But you just can't resist my charms."
"Oh please, we're not like the other girls who fancy the Marauders." Arabella remarked.
"Are you sure about that??" Remus teased.
"Sure about what??" Lily asked, coming back from the toilet in her uniform, with the badge pinned. She dumped her folded clothes into her trunk quickly. "Ready to go??"
"Don't forget the prank. I join you guys if possible. Keep me informed via the mirror." James said, closing the door of the compartment behind him.
"What mirror??" Stefanie asked.
"It's a two-way mirror." Sirius took out a small square mirror from his pocket. "It came in a pair. We got it for so many years and you didn't know about it??"
"Since when??" Arabella asked, looking at the mirror but only saw her own reflection.
"Since young. We forgot all about the mirror when we came Hogwarts until last summer we found one side of the mirror in James' room. Then I went to find mine. And bingo, there they are." Sirius said excitedly.
"You mean the mirror Mr. Potter and Mrs. Potter gave you two when we were ten??" Stefanie asked in sudden realization.
"That's the one."
"Children's stuffs." Arabella commented.
"You're just jealous because you don't have any." Sirius taunted.
"Who says I'm jealous??"
"You admitted you are."
"Hello. Stop stop!!" Stefanie said, being the peacemaker between Sirius and Arabella.
"Ready for our prank??" Peter spoke up.
"That's an interesting mirror." Lily commented, looking at the plain square mirror. "It reminds me of muggle walkie talkie."
"What's that??" James asked puzzled.
"Muggle device. I don't know how to explain either. Something like this mirror but can't see the other person. Only can hear." Lily explained in simple form.
"I see." James said. "Show me what is a walkie talkie next time??"
"Not everyone owns them actually. People like security guards or work in the same building or something." Lily explained. "Sirius, Sirius." Lily called the mirror.
Sirius!! Sirius!!
"Who's calling me??" Sirius asked.
"Not me." Arabella said, looking up from her book and back again. Sirius turned to see Stefanie, who was engrossed in conversation and a game of wizard chess with Remus at the other side of the compartment. Peter had dozed off on his left.
Sirius!! Sirius!!
"Who's calling me??" Sirius looked up again. Once again, everyone ignored him totally. The voice sounds familiar though. Sounds like Lily.
"Sirius isn't responding. Are you sure this thing is working??" Lily asked James.
"It's working. We tested it before bring it along." James said, taking the mirror and keeping it in his pocket again.
"What's taking you two so long??" Penelope Patil, a seventh-year prefect asked teasingly.
"We don't know that we need to report here." James answered. "We didn't report here last year."
"We understand." Penelope laughed good-naturedly at the two sixth-years along with some other prefects.
"The Slytherins prefects are not here yet." Lily spotted out.
"Well, we don't bother if they are here or not most of the time." Lauren Lovegood, a seventh-year Ravenclaw prefect replied.
"Basically this compartment is solely for prefects only." Daniel Thomas told the fifth-year and sixth-year prefects who were in the compartment. "There's a crystal ball there which can look at all the compartments, making sure that the students are behaving themselves."
"And it's more spacious and comfortable than the normal compartments." Aloysius Goldstein, the seventh-year Ravenclaw prefect commented. He showed it by lying comfortably on one of the armchairs.
"We can just come here straight when we board the train right??" Eric Macmillan, fifth-year Ravenclaw prefect, asked.
"Definitely. It's pointless to carry the trunk all the way we can just dump it in here, right at the front of the train." Frank Longbottom, sixth-year Ravenclaw prefect, replied.
"Anyway we can practically sleep here." Jun Chang commented, lying leisurely on an armchair. There were around twenty-five armchairs in the huge and spacious room, which did not appear like a train compartment at all.
"Didn't know prefects can get such treatment." Lily commented.
"Yeah, if I know that, I would have come here last year." James said.
"And waste an opportunity of pranking in the train??" Lily teased.
"That reminds me." James muttered and took out the two-way mirror from the pocket.
"James Potter!!" Lily yelled at James.
"What??" James said in pretended innocence.
"What was that thing that you throw at me??" Lily screamed.
"I didn't mean to throw at you. Mis-aimed you see."
"Yeah right, a likely story."
"If you don't believe me, what can I say??"
"Hand one over."
"If you can take one from me, then I give you one." James said, running at the opposite direction of Lily. There were screams around the train as the Marauders were throwing some smelly stuff at students around the train.
"What is that thing you threw at me??" Lily yelled from the back. It was impossible for Lily to catch up with James.
"Dung-cum-soot bomb!!" James said, running dramatically slow and laughed at the soot-covered Lily.
"You!!" Lily said. She pulled out her wand and yelled 'stupe-' and she suddenly remembered that James had the protection chain and the charm will likely rebounded back to her. There was no other choice besides chasing after him.
"SIRIUS BLACK!!" Arabella screamed at Sirius who just threw a dung-cum-soot bomb at Arabella. Before she could say anything else, Sirius left the compartment with Remus and Peter, each holding a bag full of dung-cum-soot bombs.
"Bell, you certainly look, erm, black." Stefanie said, trying hard not to laugh at her furious friend who had a big patch of black soot covering the front of her shirt and some on her face.
"You're lucky that they didn't attack you because you're Remus' girlfriend." Arabella said, sounding less furious with the Marauders out of the compartment. "This thing stinks."
"I think they added some extra ingredients and charms onto the traditional dungbombs." Stefanie said, trying to clean off the soot on Arabella with magic but unsuccessful.
"They always do that. Water nor tissue nor magic is going to help. It would probably be around for who-knows-how-long." Arabella muttered, wiping the soot with her hand, which appeared to be stuck on her face permanently.
"That was good huh." James told Lily. He had bombed all the prefects as well, not letting anyone off.
"Haha. Very funny." Lily said sarcastically. She could smell that her shirt and face stink from the dung-cum-soot bomb.
"You must admit that it was an ingenious idea of the Marauders to incorporate permanent sticky soot into the current dungbomb." James said feeling proud of himself. Lily ignored James and went to chat with Jun and some other prefects instead. "Hey, I'm talking to you."
"I don't want to talk to you." Lily called back monotonously and got into an animated conversation with Jun and Hazel Abbot, both prefect victims of James' bombing game.
"Whatever." James muttered under his breath and left the prefects' compartment to find the rest of his friends.
"I don't believe you're going to ignore me for very long." James said before he climbed up a carriage at Hogsmeade Station. Lily went to join Arabella and Stefanie at another carriage instead.
"That jerky James. Look at this mess. And I stink." Lily said rather furiously.
"You're not the only one. That stupid Sirius." Arabella said angrily.
"Well, we have a rational Remus around." Stefanie joked, trying to make her two friends a little less angry.
"Remus and Peter aren't that bad. How dare that James and Sirius do something like that??" Lily said, frowning.
"Hm.. Why don't we have our nice little revenge??" Arabella said, suddenly having a smile on her face.
"Why do you suggest??" Stefanie asked curiously.
"If we tell you, you're bound to tell Remus." Lily said.
"I won't tell Remus until it's over. I promise." Stefanie said, holding up her right hand.
"Let's do something with their underwear." Arabella said.
"The old trick??" Lily asked, grinning away as well.
"Yes." Arabella smiled.
"Let's pretend that we're still angry with them. And do it tonight." Lily said.
"I'm not joining you two in this action. But promise you won't do on Remus." Stefanie requested.
"Don't worry, our targets are James and Sirius. We're not even touching Peter's." Lily assured Stefanie. The carriage came to a halt and they started heading towards the Great Hall together.
"Didn't do anything to the Sorting Hat song this year??" Stefanie asked the three guys. Stefanie and Remus were sitting in the middle, separating Lily and Arabella with James, Sirius and Peter.
"No time to do anything this year." James said while the school population clapped their hands after the Sorting Hat finished singing.
"Argh, Sorting Ceremony again." Sirius muttered. "I'm starved."
"You're always the same year after year, even after finishing everything on the food cart." James teased. He took a quick glance at Lily who did not even bothered to look up at him at all. Part of him felt a little hurt that Lily was ignoring him but he pushed the thought aside and concentrated something else instead. "So Stef, glad that Remus didn't do anything on you??"
"Definitely." Stefanie replied. "He better not try." She took a quick glance at Lily and Arabella who were sitting beside her and concentrating on the Sorting Ceremony. The stench of dungbomb had vanished after the train-ride but the soot covered uniforms and faces remained on most people. The Slytherins had more soot on them than the rest, and as for Severus Snape, he was practically covered with soot for head to toe.
"To all our new students, a warm welcome!!" Dumbledore said in a ringing voice with his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips. "And for our old students, welcome back to Hogwarts once again!! There is a time for speech-making, but now, it's time for food-eating!!" Food appeared instantly onto the five long tables and everyone tucked in and chattering excitedly.
"Ten galleons for Dumbledore going to announce something on Volcano later." Sirius said, with his mouth full.
"That's for sure." James said, helping himself to another serving of mashed potatoes.
This time it was rather quiet among the seven of them since Lily and Arabella were not on talking terms with James and Sirius. The Marauders talked among themselves while the three girls talked among themselves along with Samantha and Joey who were sitting next to them.
"Well, that's the end of the splendid feast, I ask for a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices." Dumbledore said. "First-years, as well as some of the older students ought to remember that the Forbidden Forest is out-of-bounds." Dumbledore had turned to look at the Marauders as he announced. "Mr. Filch had asked me to remind you all that magic is not allowed in corridors in between classes and a whole list of other things which can be checked at his office door. One more thing." Dumbledore broke into a serious tone. "As you all know that Lord Voldemort is rising into power and he had been out killing the innocent." Dumbledore paused and the students quivered at the most-feared name of the wizard world. "Remember that regardless what happens, Hogwarts and I will always be there to help you. I believe that's all for the announcement today. Good night."
The students gotten up and started heading towards their respective towers. The prefects of various houses were controlling the crowd and leading them up the moving staircases.
"Follow us. This way." Lily said gently to the ten frightened looking first-years as she and fifth-year prefect Eileen Abercrombie led the way up towards the Gryffindor tower. The second-years to seventh-years were walking slowly behind them with the four other prefects following.
"The password is Evanesco." Penelope came forward to tell the password to the Fat Lady as well as announced to the fellow students.
"What's Evaniso??" A first-year asked boldly.
"Evanesco is a spell to clear up the mess." Lily explained patiently as she directed the first-years to the common room or briefing.
"We're going to do Lily's birthday present tonight." Sirius told Remus and Stefanie. Arabella was walking ahead of them, deliberately ignoring Sirius.
"Bell, wait up." Stefanie ran in front to join Arabella. "The guys are doing Lily's birthday present tonight."
"Ooh."
"Guess ours have to wait then."
"Tell her that you're not into the mood of doing it tonight."
"Ok, no prob."
"So you girls keep Lily entertained tonight then." Remus came up to join the two girls leaving Sirius behind chatting with Peter.
"Leave that to us." Stefanie grinned and caught Arabella's eye.
"Good night, Lils." James called out to Lily who went up the girls' dormitory without turning around at all. She had ignored him totally for the whole night and he was feeling a little strange not in talking terms with one of his best friends.
"Hey Lils, you're back!!" Arabella said with unusual enthusisium.
"Why do you sound so excited to see me??" Lily asked Arabella in surprised.
"Let's do it tomorrow. I'm too tired to do it tonight." Arabella said, letting a yawn out her mouth.
"Alright then. I'm quite tired too. Might as well." Lily said agreeing as she gather her stuffs and wait for Stefanie to get out of the bathroom.
"I'm next." Arabella said.
"Whatever." Lily said wearily. "You all can bathe first. Wake me up when you guys are done." Lily said as she sat on the floor next to her bed and dozed off almost instantly.
"That was fast." Joey commented as she dashed towards the bathroom before Arabella had time to react.
"So are you." Arabella called out and sat down to unpack her stuffs for a while.
"Hey Sam, mind waking me up earlier tomorrow??" Stefanie asked Samantha, who is always the first to wake up among the five of them.
"What's the occasion??" Samantha asked.
"Just wanna meet up with Remus before breakfast." Stefanie replied airily.
"No prob. I assume you want to bathe first??"
"Jeez, you guessed it." Stefanie said, looking sheepishly.
"Next." Joey said as she came out of the bathroom, taking a wand to dry her hair. Arabella followed up next after the three of them looking clean and smelling good.
"Hey Lils, wake up. You next." Joey shook Lily a little vigorously.
"Huh??" Lily muttered sleepily. "What??"
"You next for the bathroom." Samantha said, laughing good-naturedly at her roommate.
"Thanks." Lily got up and collected her clothes and headed to the bathroom.
"Just in time." Arabella said, coming out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a purple colored towel.
"Thanks." Lily stripped off her clothes and dumped it into the laundry basket and let the warm water rained upon her, emptying her thoughts. After a quick bit of shampoo and conditioner, shower gel and facial cleanser, she dried herself with a towel and put on fresh nightclothes.
"Good night everyone." Arabella greeted sleepily. With a quick exchange of good nights, they tucked in their bed with curtains drawn. Lily dried herself with her wand and climbed up her comfortable four-poster bed and fell asleep instantly.
"Who are you??" Lily asked the stranger who was dressed in all black with the hood down.
"You don't need to know who I am." The male stranger replied in a deep raspy voice.
"Why can't I?? You appear in my dream."
"I come to your dream to take your soul with me."
"You can't do that." Lily shouted at the stranger.
"I've the power to do that and more greater things." Lily felt her soul being sucked out.
Lily sat upright on her bed, cold sweat dripping from her forehead. Phew, what a dream. Lily thought to herself and laid down in bed again. Soon after, she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.