A/N: Hey guys, it's 28 here, posting this for my lil sis (she's busy drawing a pic for my PJO story)! So sorry about the long wait, things have been hectic, plus, we got distracted. It won't happen again, I swear! I hope you like it, please review! The corresponding picture for this chapter will be posted on deviantART soo, so please follow us on twitter ( FebBabes02) for updates on that! If you get bored, you can (shameless plug in) check out our original stories at FictionPress under the same name, or some of our other FanFics. We also have a Next-Gen one which is in desperate need of feedback!

Anyhow, please read, review, and, above all, enjoy :)

Lily lifted her bags into her mother's car. She stood there for a moment, before getting into a back seat. Her mother was already in the car and they were waiting for her dad to get in.

"Hurry up Robert!" called out Lily's mum. He got in the car and they started to drive to Kings Cross Station. As they drove, Lily thought about the next year. She had been overjoyed to see that she had gotten Head Girl, and had been wondering who the other head was. Amos Diggory from Hufflepuff might be the other Head, or maybe Remus. Lily didn't mind Remus; it was just his other two pricks of friends, James Potter and Sirius Black. Last year and the year before that, Lily had been asked out constantly by that arrogant toe rag James Potter. What was worse was that he was constantly playing pranks and hexing people. The only time Lily had seen them hex someone for a good reason, was when Bertram Aubrey was bullying a Hufflepuff first year and calling him a mud-blood. That was the only time when Lily 'didn't' see James hex someone when she actually did. Remus's other friend, Peter Pettigrew, was the type of boy that you didn't notice much. However, it was infuriating how he followed Black and Potter around like they were kings of the universe. Then Lily thought about her friends. She wondered what she would do in her spare time, now that she was Head Girl. She supposed she would just go down to the Gryffindor common room and find them there. Still, she would miss them being in her dorm, Dorcas and Alice giggling about boys, Marlene and Hestia debating about Quidditch. Lily rummaged around in the bag she had next to her and got out some letters that her friends had sent her.

Dear Lily,

How are you? I'm well; in fact I'm way more than well. I arrived home and was told that we're going to Africa. Unfortunately for my mum, it's not for fun, she got called over about some wyverns that had decided to come and rampage through a little muggle town that was fairly close to their den. Luckily no one was hurt, but there were heaps of injuries and it took a whole week to get it under control and do all the mind wipes. According to my mum the wyverns had taken it as a territorial threat and had tried to destroy the village. I think it's quite interesting. I'll be back just in time to get my books, have a night's sleep and then get to Kings Cross. Speaking of which, how were your grades? Mine were all fairly good, but I almost failed in Arithmancy. Getting back to Africa though, you should see me! I'm really tanned and my hair has gotten much lighter! Have you gone anywhere for the holidays? If you have, please tell me all about it, I want to hear everything. I've got to go now; my mum is calling me for lunch. Yum, African food is delicious!

Seeya soon,

Marlene

Lily,

You'll never guess where I am - Australia! It turns out that my Dad hde been planning this for weeks! Did I mention that I love my Dad? And even better - you know how he's muggleborn - we are going to do everything like muggles! I've taken my camera so I'll be able to show you everything! Australia is so beautiful and it's really sunny! We went to the Great Barrier Reef first and stayed in this little muggle hotel. Then we went to Queensland and went to all these beaches - we went to one beach that didn't even have any sand! It was all shells! Dad had hired this huge car and we went to New South Wales next. There were no Whales hee hee, but there were a lot places to fish! Dad spent a fortune on the trip, even not including the airplane. I told dad that we should at least apparate there but he refused. Something about doing everything muggle and he doesn't like apparating overseas. We traveled first class and it was really fun.

Next we went to Victoria. We went to Melbourne first and went to the museum. The dad took us to a place called the Yarra Valley and we just drove all the way through it. It was really beautiful with lots of rolling hills and vineyards. Anyway that's enough about Australia how about your holiday? I'm sure it was fun but it could never measure up to my holiday. Where did you go? What did you do? One last thing though, you would not believe the boys in Australia. Half of them had six packs. Not to mention their accents. They were so cute!

Bye,

Dorcas.

Lily rolled her eyes and smiled. Trust Dorcas to check out the boys when she was on holiday. Then again, Lily couldn't blame her. The way she described them she would probably be checking them out too!

Lily looked at her next letter and started to read it.

To Lily,

Unlike Marlene and Dorcas I didn't go very far. (I say this assuming you got a letter from them too!)I just went to London. I didn't go with my mother though, thank god. I went with my Auntie. We went to some of the biggest wizarding stores and got heaps! About five new dress robes, twenty really expensive eagle feather quills, and the owl I've been begging mum to get me for ages. You can obviously see that though because he brought you this letter. Isn't he handsome? Thank god I don't have to use mum's anymore because I swear that owl hates me. Where did you go for holidays? I hope somewhere fun. Did you get your exam results yet? I thought my results were pretty good but apparently not so to my mum. She got really mad at me because I didn't get very many O's, even though I got a lot of E's. I was really lucky to be able to go on my shopping trip. Even then my mum got really mad at my auntie for spoiling me. Anyway did you get Head Girl? I know either you or Hestia got it but I haven't gotten a response from Hestia yet. If she is off in another dream holiday destination I swear I am going to scream. I can't wait to get back to school. My mother is scaring me. Just the other day, she decided to spring clean the entire house! Including my bedroom. I get back from the local pool to find her chucking out half of my stuff. She got rid of all my posters Lily! I was about to scream! Here comes the monster herself. I'd better go.

Alice

Lily sighed as she tried to imagine a mother like that. Lily's mother was very easy going and hardly ever made Lily angry with what she did. It was nice. Lily started reading the last letter, a letter from Hestia.

Dear Lily

Have you seen your results? I can't believe it you must be Head Girl! I don't mind though, you will have even more responsibilities now that you're Head Girl. I'm nowhere special for the holidays; I'm just staying at a beach not very far away from where I live. I guess I'm lucky though. My parents weren't even going to go anywhere but then they saw my exams results and were so pleased with me. Lily I got five O's! Apart from that there really isn't much to tell about my holiday. My younger brother is being an absolute prat. Guess what he did last night. He ripped my favourite book into little pieces. I know I can repair it, but I have to repair each page first. The only good thing about that is that he is grounded for the entire holiday. No enjoying the beach for him! I've got to go now; my dad is calling me for dinner.

Seeya,

Hestia

Lily could sympathize with Hestia. She had a sibling, just as annoying as Hestia's brother.

Lily put the letters back in her bag and got out a book. A few hours later, they arrived at the platform. Lily waved goodbye to her mother and went through the platform sign to arrive at platform nine and three quarters. Lily looked at her watch; it was 10:47 so she had plenty of time to get onto the train. But since she had nothing better to do, she decided to get on the train already. Her friends would already be on, and they would have baggied their favourite compartment, one right down the back. Lily dragged her trunk and her cat basket up to the compartment and stepped inside. She was greeted by a chorus of voices exclaiming about the holidays and how good it was to see her. Lily smiled and with considerable effort, put her trunk up above the seats. She sat next to her friend, Marlene, who was looking very tanned. Marlene was tall, slim with straight brown hair that went down to her hips. She had brown eyes.

"Wow Marlene, Look at you! Did you have fun in Africa?" she asked.

"Yeah! Those wyverns are vicious though, we were lucky no one got hurt," she replied.

"And you, Dorcas. How was Australia?" asked Lily.

"It was amazing! In fact I have an entire photo album of all the photos I took," she replied.

"Wow," said Alice.

"But we should hear about Hestia's holiday before we look at that - and I also want to show you my new dress robes," she continued.

Dorcas turned towards Hestia.

"How was your holiday," she asked with an air of impatience.

"Oh it was good, the main bright point was Daniel getting grounded, but you already know about that," said Hestia who could obviously see that Dorcas wanted to show everyone her photos. Alice got down her trunk and rummaged around inside it for a minute before pulling out five different dress robes. The first one was a pale pink with gold trim around it.

"Wow!" said Hestia enviously.

"Yeah, where did you get it?" said Dorcas agreeing with Hestia.

"Oh, it's this new shop near Flourish and Blots in Diagon alley," said Alice. She pulled out the second pair of robes. These were a navy blue colour with black lace around the neckline and the wrists.

"Those ones are really nice," admired Lily.

"I know, I got them mainly because of all the lace, it's so beautiful," said Alice.

The third pair of them was a dark black satin pair that had silver embroidery.

"Now that one I could see myself in," said Marlene approvingly.

The last two were corresponding ones with cream embroidery and gold material or vice versa. Alice kept her presentation of them short, as Dorcas was bouncing up and down in her seat, very impatient to show off her album.

Dorcas pulled out her album if you could call it that. It was at least twenty centimetres thick and forty centimetres long.

"Merlin! Dorcas is that filled with photos?" asked Alice.

"Yes," said Dorcas smugly "Do you have a problem with that?" Alice rolled her eyes, and motioned for Dorcas to open the album. Dorcas' smile grew wider and she opened the album. The first few pictures were very blurry.

"Dad also got me a new camera; it is the best one he could find allegedly. Anyway he tinkered with it a bit so that it runs on magic, and I was just getting used to it," explained Dorcas. The other girls nodded in response and she flipped over the page. Apparently Dorcas had gotten better at taking photos, because these ones were perfectly in focus. They displayed the interior of an aeroplane.

"Dad was amused when I started to explore the aeroplane," said Dorcas. "And then he started to be all patronizing, so I stopped."

The next picture showed Dorcas and a guy, with their arms over each-other's shoulders. Dorcas smiled.

"That was Ashley, I met him on the plane," she said.

They kept on flipping through the book, with Dorcas occasionally explaining something, or telling them someone's name. There was one photo that Lily really liked. Dorcas and her father had been at the beach, Dorcas explained, and he was taking photos of her. The one that Lily liked was a photo of Dorcas getting chased by another girl – Dorcas had said she was called Sam – out of the water. Dorcas was soaked, and had obviously only just spotted the camera because her wet hair was flying around her as she turned to look at it, laughter still on her face. They continued looking through the book. Halfway through the ride Marlene excused herself to 'Go to the toilet.' At this, Dorcas snorted.

"Please Marlene, we all know that your off to go snog Sirius, you don't need to try and hide it from us," she said, rolling her eyes.

And that was how they spent the remainder of the train ride, giggling and laughing while looking through the huge photo album.