Chapter 116: The Final Journey Home

"It's going to be so weird waking up in the morning and realizing that I'm not in Gryffindor tower." Lily commented. It was morning and all students were supposed to return home for their vacation while the graduates would be officially out of Hogwarts. The girls had their breakfast and returned to hang out at their dormitory since that was the warmest place in the castle.

"Yeah, I'm going to miss this feeling too. It's just so strange not staying together." Stefanie added, sitting on one of the chairs.

"Don't forget our gathering next month. Keep us informed." Joey reminded who remained lying on her bed.

"No worries, I'll send you an owl everyday for a month before that gathering." Stefanie joked.

"Well, keep it to a week. I don't think I can handle owls on a daily basis even though I had used it nearly all my life." Samantha remarked as she stretched in her bed.

"The thought of leaving Hogwarts is so sad that it might just bring tears to me." Lily looked up at the ceiling. "How about we engrave our names somewhere in here like what we used to do??"

"Sure. But this time, where??" Joey looked at the bed across her.

"How about along the side of the door??" Lily jumped out of her bed and opened the door of their dormitory, pointing at the wall next to it.

"Sounds good to me." Stefanie agreed and went forward.

"Okay, you first??" Lily pointed at the top of the wall.

"What an irony. I'm the shortest but my name is the highest." Stefanie laughed and continued writing her name vertically.

"Stef Black. Hmm.. Sound good." Lily wrote her name as 'Lils Evans'. "Put the pet name we gave each other."

"What pet name?? Did we ever give each other any pet names to start with??" Samantha laughed and went forward for her turn. "Oh, you mean this. Alright, I put as Sam." With that, she wrote 'Sam Phillips' on the wall.

"Then I think I'll put Joe Johnson." Joey wrote down her name after Samantha. "This looks good, huh. And now the charm for permanency."

"Yeah." The three other girls nodded their head in agreement.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"Imagine the chaos." Sirius laughed. The Marauders were back in the dormitory doing some last minute planning for their little prank in the train later on. The four guys were lazing around in the warmth dormitory room after a hearty breakfast in the cold Hall earlier on.

"Yeah, everyone will be walking with their wand." James, who was resting in the comfort of his bed, pointed out. "They are not dumb, alright."

"I'm sure there are some dumbos around. The cold out there must have frozen some brains overnight." Remus added, sitting by the edge of his bed, spinning his wand. It was still snowing rather severely as some other seventh-years had attempted to stop the weather, but rather unsuccessfully of course, as it had just gotten colder that morning. Most of people in the paintings were frozen except the Fat Lady of Gryffindor. Remus had kindly cast the Warming Charm on her when he was at the Gryffindor entrance the night before.

"What about their emergency back-up?? We've to get it disrupted as well." James added while he attempted to do some flutter kicks.

"This must be one of the simplest plan we ever done this year." Sirius shook his head, lying on his stomach while his hands support his face. "Imagine the standard."

"The simplest things must just be the best things in life." Remus pointed out.

"Then I must be really grateful to the person who invented candles." James pointed his wand at the candle near his bed and ignited it with his wand.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"AHH!!" Joey jumped.

"Woah!! What happened??" Lily got a shocked with the sudden darkness.

"I bet it must be those guys up to something." Stefanie said calmly.

"Jeez, lumos." Samantha took out her wand and ignited it. Lily, Stefanie and Joey followed suit, afterall, that was the normal thing to do when witches got caught in darkness.

"AAAHHHHH!!"

"I didn't see that coming though." Stefanie admitted. "I knew they were up to something but not this."

"OOUCHH!!"

"I think as a Head Girl, I should get out there and do something about it." Lily stood up, intended to walk out of their cabin.

"Waaahh!!"

"We had already graduated. So theoretically, there's no Head Girl from Hogwarts at this point of time." Stefanie joked.

"Heellppp!!"

"I think we better do something. It seems rather chaotic out there." Joey stood out and followed Lily out, with her wand lit up in front of her.

"I don't remember Hogwarts Express being so dark before. The glass windows are opaque!!" Samantha pressed her face against the supposedly transparent glass windows at the corridor.

"Sam and I go this way." Stefanie pointed to her left. "You two go the other way." She pointed with her wand. "How's that??"

"Heeelppp!!" Some girl's voice echoed along the Hogwarts Express corridor.

"Sounds like something is wrong." Lily frowned and walked briskly at the opposite direction from Stefanie and Samantha. "Let's go."

"Okay." Joey followed closely behind, looking into the passing cabins through the glass panel. "At least most of the students knew about lumos." Most of the students had their wands lit out and resuming their conversation before the blackout occurred, ignoring the chaos from the other cabins.

"Hey, you okay??" Lily and Joey helped a first-year up.

"Yeah, thanks." The first-year muttered an embarrassed 'thanks', avoiding eye contact with the two girls.

"Were we that shy a few years back??" Lily asked in amazement.

"I guess so. At least when I was in first-year, I didn't talk to the seventh-years before." Joey admitted.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"Why are you girls loitering around in the darkness??" Remus asked as Stefanie and Samantha approached them.

"Just as I expected." Stefanie shook her head. "Who else could have done this??"

"None other than the invincible Marauders." Sirius boasted.

"Make that invisible." Stefanie joked. "Anyway we heard someone calling for help earlier on."

"Settled. Just Malfoy and his dogs bullying some younger kid." James shrugged it off. "They had their retribution anyway."

"What did you guys do this time??" Samantha asked curiously.

"Nothing much actually. We just body-bind them and made them float around uncontrollably. Nothing serious, really." Sirius said nonchalantly.

"Okay, if you said that wasn't serious enough. They must have been knocking here and there." Samantha shook his head, laughing at the thought of four seventh-years Slytherins floating around the dark train, probably crashing into other students but yet could not do anything.

"Where are Lily and Joey?? I thought you girls were together??" James asked, noticing Lily's absence.

"They went the opposite direction from us. Anyway how long is this blackout going to last??" Samantha asked again. More and more students emerged from their cabins as time passed. It seemed romantic to walk along the wand light.

"There you are, I was wondering where were you." Yann walked towards the group. "This must be done by you guys." He grinned at the Marauders.

"That's right." Sirius admitted. "You two can get romantic at the same time. Can kill two birds with one stone." The group laughed at his joke.

"Well, since you spoke my thoughts, shall we??" Yann asked jokingly and earned a gentle slap from Samantha, who was laughing along with the rest.

"There isn't a need to show public display of affection, ya know?? We all know about you two." James teased the lovey-dovey couple.

"Alright, we make a move first." Yann directed Samantha back to his cabin, laughing along with them though they were the objects of their teasing.

"Yeah, it's about time you go find your missing Lily." Sirius taunted.

"She can take care of herself, I'm sure of that." James assured. "I don't need to be by her side to protect her every minute of the day."

"I agree with James with this. Lily is one of the toughest girl around." Stefanie nodded. "I think we can head back to our cabin. I don't think you guys actually had any yet, am I right??"

"No one knows us any better than you do." Remus said lovingly, placing his protective arm around Stefanie's shoulders.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"Where's Sam??" Lily asked as she entered the cabin, which was now filled with the Marauders. She took a seat beside James while Joey sat opposite her.

"Left shagging with Yann." James joked.

"You can't be serious." Joey asked in amusement.

"Never been more serious." Sirius claimed. "You can ask Stef." He pointed to Stefanie.

"No comments on that." Stefanie grinned broadly.

"Oh, well." The group laughed.

"So where did you girls went just now??" James asked.

"Just made a trip to the end of the train and back." Lily answered truthfully.

"And met a handful of first and second-years who kinda freaked out due to the blackout." Joey added. All seven wands lit up the dark cabin with a faint bluish glow.

"And we reminded them to use this charm." Lily lifted her wand up to face level.

"Can anyone actually forget this??" James asked in disbelief as he looked as he lit-up wand.

"You bet."

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"Ahh. Finally." Lily took a deep breath of the air at platform nine and three-quarters as she alighted from the train.

"Woah, it's so bright here." James squinted and blinked several times to adjust his eyes to the new light as he followed closely behind. At least he was not the only one who did that. Muttering a charm, he conjured his spectacles into a pair of cool-looking shades.

"Shall we get something to eat??" Sirius asked once all seven of them alighted and crowded near to one of the pillars near to the exit. As it was pitch-black in the train throughout the whole journey, the food cart never appeared.

"I'll make a move first." Joey excused herself. "See ya next month, bye everyone."

"See ya." Lily and Stefanie gave her a quick hug before she went towards the direction where her mother stood, beaming at her daughter in pride.

"Bye."

"Let's get out of her and apparate back to the manor." James suggested. The group of them moved swiftly and fairly easily through the crowd towards the exit out of platform nine and three-quarters.

"Apparating with this trunk isn't the most ideal thing to do." Lily spoke out while following closely behind James who was paving out the way for her.

"At least it beats flooing with it." Stefanie stated positively.

"I agree with that. I don't even want to try that again." Remus used to floo around with some large luggage in the past and somehow or rather they would end up crashing out together. "I rather go with the broom, or at least the car."

"Alright, this is a good spot." Sirius said as the six of them stood at an inconspicuous corner at King Cross Station.

"Alright, let's gather at my place an hour from now for dinner. Wormtail, will you be coming??" James asked.

"Yeah, I guess I can convince my dad." Peter muttered audibly, looking away.

"Let's go." Stefanie held her trunk and nodded to Lily.

"See you guys later."

"I'm going the same direction with you two." Before Sirius completed his sentence, Lily and Stefanie disappeared after two consecutive 'pops'.

"Don't be late." Remus cracked an old joke before apparating back to his house.

"Bye." With that, Peter apparated away.

"That's left us."

"What are we waiting for anyway??" Within a second, both guys 'popped' home.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"It's going to be fun staying together." Stefanie commented as both girls unpacked their luggage full of clothes and other stuffs.

"Yeah, I feel really comforted to have friends like you girls." Lily took out all her clothes and hung it up magically at one of Stefanie's walk-in wardrobes.

"We should get Belle to join us." Stefanie said, taking out her toiletries and placing them up at their usual positions in her bathroom.

"I wonder how she is doing. I think she knew that we would be back today." Lily looked up. "We owled her last week about it."

"But she didn't reply to our last letter. I wonder what happened."

"She said that she was quite busy with the orphanage and stuffs currently, perhaps she can join us here soon."

"Let's hope so. I certainly miss her."

"Me too. Are you going to shower??" Lily asked.

"Don't think so, otherwise we definitely won't make it at James' place in an hour time."

"Talk about two girls showering." Stefanie shot Lily a look. "Not together of course."

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

"Cheers!!" The six goblets clinked together. The group were just starting on their scrumptious dinner of International cuisine prepared by James' house elves.

"It had been so long since I last seen all of you. Oh my, you kids had grown so big already." Arabella joked. The irony was the fact that she was actually the youngest member among the group.

"Words can't describe how much we missed you." Lily said truthfully, giving Arabella a shaking side hug, nearly choking her as she attempted to put a slice of potato wedge into her mouth.

"I can describe how much we miss you using words. In simple words, we missed your company." Sirius said in between swallowing of food. Everyone looked up at stared at Sirius' outright confession. "What??"

"Nothing." Stefanie could not hide a giggle as she attempted to stop it by stuffing food into her mouth. The others managed to prevent a laughing spree by shoving food in as well. Arabella's face turned a deep shade of pink but remained silent nevertheless.

"Fine." Sirius continued munching his food, totally nonchalant about his friends' sudden weird behavior.

"Anyway how's life over at the orphanage??" James changed a new topic, while helping himself with a second helping of noodles.

"The usual. Younger kids come and older kids go. A few others like myself stayed and just take care of the whole place."

"Did Professor Plains visit you or something??" Lily asked, looking up from her steak.

"Not very often, the last time I saw her was about two months back. But we did owl each other regularly, like once or twice a week."

"That's really nice." Stefanie nodded. "I'm sure you two miss each other."

"Yeah, kind of." Arabella said with a distant look in her eyes with her fork still in her mouth.

"So shall we do some muggle stuffs later on??" Remus suggested, emptying the last few pieces of sushi and gyoza in front of him.

"Cool. What do you suggest??" Sirius agreed enthusiastically.

"Shall we catch a movie??" Lily suggested. "I think there's a show Charlie's Angels or something screening now."

"Or perhaps we could go to one of those carnivals downtown??" James gave another suggestion. "You know, those with thrilling upside-down rides and banging cars."

"Maybe we should hang out at those café or something??" Arabella added. "There are some nice place that serves great finger food and coffee around lately."

"Are we talking about nice food??" Sirius chipped in. "I need more nourishing food considering I'm still a growing man."

"The definition of man, for your information, is a grown up boy." The others laughed at Remus' teasing comment.

"We can definitely go somewhere that serve nice, good food." Sirius ignored Remus' statement. "And coffee as well."

"Didn't we just finished lunch, or was I hallucinating??" Lily added jokingly.

"You meant to say dinner, right??" Stefanie corrected.

"Oh yeah, we have been eating so much that I forgotten what meal we are having now."