Chapter 2: The Hogwarts Express

Smoke momentarily clouded her vision as Lily stepped out of the brick wall, which had just moments ago stood between platform nine and ten at Kings Cross Station. Turning round to check her parents had indeed made it through, she couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips. She could never get bored of magic. Crowds of students accompanied by their various pets, parents and piles of luggage blocked her view of the fire truck red steam train. A buzz of excitement filled the space as students rushed to greet friends, pet owls squawking and parents yelling about luggage and traffic. The three of them wandered over to the side of the stream train, her father pushing the trolley with her trunk and her mother with Miges' cage tucked under her arm. A loud scream of excitement and the sudden crash of arms round her neck alerted Lily of the presence of Marlene Mickinnon.

'My God, I've missed you, honestly its felt like you died this summer.' Marlene practically shouted in her ear.

Lily laughed as she pulled out of the embrace to look at her. Marlene had changed over the summer. Although her same tricky, deep set, blue eyes which stared at Lily under a pair of thick brown eyebrows, her hair which had been a brown, sort of long bob had been shaved down to a long mullet and dyed platinum blonde. She had a new silver hoop pierced in her nose which stood out against her pale skin. Her new looked matched her personality perfectly thought Lily. No one could deny Marlene stood out in a crowd.

'To be honest its felt like I would at some points just from boredom.' Lily couldn't help but glance at her parents at this response, and as she thought, guilt was plastered all over their faces. She knew it wasn't entirely their fault, but she still felt justified in taking a small amount of pleasure over their expressions.

'Come on, I've already got a carriage with Mary, I kicked a bunch of second years out of it so we better hurry before they tell a prefect, oh duh' she said as she smacked her forehead 'you're a prefect now you can just tell them to f off.

'Not exactly how I had planned on using the position…'

'Oh come on Lils don't be such a stick in the mud' Marlene rolled her eyes laughing as she picked up Lily's trunk with remarkable ease. 'I plan on using this to our advantage'

Lily turned to her parents as Marlene trundled off and onto the train. 'Thanks for dropping me off, guys, and… er….for everything this summer and stuff'

Her mother pulled her into a quick hug. 'Oh Lils I'm sorry it's been rough for you, we promise we will sort something better out for Christmas, now make sure you work hard this year those exams will be tough if they're of similar level to CSEs, make sure you revise lots and keep your head down, I know you do anyway but a little encouragement can't hurt.' Lily nodded earnestly. 'Write to us once you've settled in the first week, we will wait on your letter.'

Her father then pulled her in for a quick embrace 'Were so proud of you Lils, again well done on the prefect position. We will really miss you this year' he finished gruffly. 'Right… you better get on that train, if you're not careful Marlene will start using that badge'.

A final hug and wave as she stepped onto the train, Miges under her arm, as she turned to walk down the train following Marlene's rough direction. She felt almost relived at saying goodbye to her parents this year. Previous years she had shed a tear or two, especially in first year when the whole ordeal had felt rather traumatic. But now, school was a happier and much more exciting place to be than Forge Place could ever be. Even with the OWLs looming over her head. As she walked down the aisle she peeked inside each carriage. She waved at Frank Longbottom with his new shiny head boy badge pinned onto his knitted jumper, who was sat in a coach filled with other 7th years. He really wasn't bad looking she pondered thoughtfully, the new power suited him, or maybe he had just had a growth spurt. Alice Fortescue practically bounded out of her seat to congratulate Lily on her becoming prefect (Alice was the 6th year prefect for Gryffindor house) and Dirk Cresswell, a fourth year and fellow Gryffindor as well as slug club member, also gave an enthusiastic smile at her as she passed his carriage.

Finally, she found the carriage Marlene had no doubt stolen from a group of second years as there was a group in the previous carriage looking very sulky surrounded by fourth years. Disappointed she slid open the door, she had hoped to see Severus on her way but then again, she didn't want to be confronted by his group of Slytherins so perhaps it was for the best. Inside sat Marlene and Mary Mcdonald.

'God you took your time' exclaimed Marlene as Lily rested Midges next to her and sat down next to Mary.

'I was 10 minutes at most' Lily huffed as she turned in her seat to hug Mary. 'Anyway how have you been Mary, I missed you'

Mary smiled at her as they pulled away. Mary looked the same as always, dark skinned with large brown, doe like eyes. Framed by round silver glasses and with a mass of curly black hair surrounding her heart shaped face. The opposite of Marlene in every sense of the word. While Marlene was loud and brash, confident in herself so much so that it often tipped into an self-inflated ego, Mary was quiet and soft spoken with the shyness of a mouse. If Mary was a Mouse, Marlene was the Lion.

'Oh Lily I missed you too, I'm sorry I couldn't visit, it sounded like your summer was awful, was Petunia really that bad?

Lily's smile faltered slightly 'er no she wasn't great no. But we don't need to talk about that now' She adjusted her smile back to a beam 'how was the south of France? I can't believe you managed to visit that cave that Professor Binns had spoken about with the mermaids! Honestly when you spoke about those runes as well…'

'Yes well as much as I want to hear about your glorious ancient runes classes' Marlene interrupted sarcastically 'I have some very important news about MY summer to announce first and its time sensitive' she finished importantly.

Lily rolled her eyes amused but making sure first to give Mary a look saying, "Don't worry we can finish this later". 'Go on then'

Marlene leaned towards the two girls, barely containing her excitement. 'I have been talking to a boy'

This was hardly news to Lily and Mary, in fact Lily couldn't remember a time that Marlene wasn't entertaining a boy or two, all of who seemed to be desperately obsessed.

'Oh big news then' Mary huffed.

'Oy I was not finished'.

'Hurry up then, without the dramatic effects please.'

'Right. Fine. I'm talking to a boyyyyyy and his name is….' She drum rolled on her thighs, she couldn't help the dramatics, 'Sirius'

They started open mouthed.

'What'

'What'

'Yep' Marlene leaned back, happy with the effect she'd caused.

Lily recovered from the shock first 'Sorry, let me get this straight, the boy you've been talking about in your letter is Sirius? As in Sirius Black?'

'Yep' she was barley containing her smugness 'And I have invited him and all the marauders to share our carriage back to Hogwarts so you guys better budge up when they come in, actually on second thought can you put Miges…It is Miges right? She's so cute, In your lap Lils? then Sirius will sit next to me' she finished with a smirk.

'How on earth did this happen?'

'Look I'll explain later, I just wanted to warn you before they came.'

Mary seemed to finally recover, shutting her mouth. 'But what, how? When did this happen?'

Marlene sighed 'Look I'll tell you at feast. I don't want him coming into us talking about him'.

As if on queue the carriage door slid open and there stood Sirius Black.

'Well well well, look what we've stumbled across.'

He was handsome, Lily could give him that. With shoulder length, shiny black hair, grey eyes and high cheek bones giving him a haughty expression, Sirius was carelessly handsome. He had an easy smirk on his face which matched the elegance in his swagger into the compartment.

Behind him followed best friend, James Potter. Just the look of him made her eyes narrow in a glare. Potter had been making fun of Lily ever since her first day on the train. An arrogant boy whose egotistical nature could never be deflated by any number of rejections. Similar to Sirius, James had black hair and rather high cheek bones but that's where the resemblance stooped. James' hair was an untidy mop that stuck up at the back (which was only helped by him constantly running his fingers through it) he had hazel eyes rather than the dark pools of Sirius'. He was also taller and skinnier than Sirius, helped along by his quidditch obsession. His Hazel eyes started straight into Lily's as soon as he entered.

'Hi Evans, Merlin I've missed that glare' He winked with a cocky grin playing on his lips.

'Potter' she nodded curtly.

'Oh come on Evans' Sirius crooned with a mocked sadness. 'what does a man have to do to get your attention? he's been pining after you like a stray all summer long'

Lily just rolled her eyes. Which cracked them up. Maybe home was better in that sense. Forge Place had the wonderful lack of James Potter's presence.

'Hi guys'

Remus Lupin had entered behind the two, each had now sat down James next to Marlene (much to her annoyance) and Sirius next to Lily. Remus was actually a friend of Lily's. Well, she had thought they were best friends actually, on par with Mary and Marlene in fact but the lack of communication over summer had displaced this feeling.

'Remus' she smiled 'how are you?'

Very tall, at least 6'5, Remus always appeared almost the same height as James as he stopped over so badly. He also looked very shabby. Even his mousy brown hair seemed faded in colour. Remus had the unfortunate habit of looking worse every time Lily saw him. Some days she worried he would look worse and worse until all that was left was a pile of bones. She noticed a scar that had not been there at the end of fourth year starting at his left ear and ending at the centre of his chin. As well as increased bags under his eyes. She fought to stop her smile dropping and being replaced with a look of concern. Remus would hate that.

'I'm very well Lily' he really didn't look it. 'Sorry to hear about your summer, at least you kept busy though.'

This puzzled her, had she not said in her letters she was dying of boredom? 'er yeah somewhat I guess'. She replied as he sat down next to James who was still staring at her as though she was some sort of exotic snake in a zoo.

'Stop that Potter' she snapped.

'I'm ever so sorry Evans, I have just missed soaking in your beauty each day and night. This summer has been torture without you.'

'Sorry Night?' Marlene questioned 'what do you do? Stand at the end of her bed when she sleeps?'

'Yeah, Mate bit over kill there.' Sirius laughed.

'Hey! I was going for a sort of Romeo style' he looked knowingly over at Lily at the word Romeo. 'Oh yes Evans my dear. I have read the works of our greatest muggle love wizzes in order to win your affections this year, to be or to be that is the question.'

'Isn't it or to not to be?' Peter Pettigrew had just entered the compartment huffing out of breath, as the train started moving.

'Ah Wormtail that is where Shakespeare is wrong my friend, for me and Evans are only meant to be'

Still busy pondering over Remus, Lily could not to come up with any witty retort and instead resorted to a heavy scowl instead.

'I must say this is a new way of travelling, I don't think us lot have every hung out before' Peter commented timidly, his watery eyes darting around to glance at each member of the carriage. Peter was the shortest of the four. Pudgy with a pointed rat like face, his looks paled in comparison to his friend. However, he seemed so inherently kind and friendly that you couldn't help but like him. Especially when he was begging you for help with homework, Lily had fallen victim to his needy charm many times.

'Way to state the obvious Pete' Sirius retorted rolling his eyes.

'Welll er…I dunnno…' Peter started to stutter, but Remus quickly came to his rescue.

'Yes, this is rather unusual, don't suppose either of you two' he pointed at Marlene and Sirius 'Care to explain how this came about'.

He finished off the sentence in a rather high-pitched voice, very different from his normal low quiet tones. Though no one else except Lily seemed to notice this.

'Well' Marlene giggled 'My family had been over visiting Peter's family, part of some like big pure blood reunion thing, very dull, no offence Peter' she quickly added. Peter just shrugged in response. 'And well James and Sirius happened to be there too as James' family lives right round the corner from Peters and well there was loads of free drinks so we just grabbed a bottle of firewiskey and went off and yeah one thing after another and….'

'We snogged' Sirius finished bluntly with a smirk, leaning back in his chair.

'Well..yes' Marlene finished. 'We've been owling ever since.'

James lent forward to give Sirius' knee a smack of encouragement, before, clearly bored of a story, striking up a conversation about quidditch which Peter and Marlene happily joined in with.

'Well done on being prefects you two' Mary said as she leant forward to address Remus and Lily.

'Thank you, Mary,' Remus smiled, 'I am glad that I'll have at least one friend for patrols'

'Is that what we have to do?' asked Lily

And so their conversation carried on, discussing all their possible duties for prefects and wondering what the mysterious prefect bathrooms could possibly be like with Mary interjecting occasionally with rumours she had heard about who else had been picked. This continued until Remus stood up and announced it was 1 o'clock and him and Lily had to go.

'Go where?' asked James rudely.

'For a big snog Potter, we've been inspired by Marlene and Sirius' Lily teased as she got up to join Remus at the door.

'We've got to see the head boy and girl about our prefect duties' Remus sighed 'Don't be stupid James'

James' still looked suspicious as the two left the carriage.

'You're no fun' Lily laughed as she put her arm through the crook of Remus'. 'Are you sure your doing okay Remus? I can't help but worry about you sometimes.'

'Oh don't worry about me it's just the illness y'know' Remus brushed off. Lily peered at him cautiously. But, not wanting to pry, she dropped it. And they chatted about the exams for next year instead, as they walked all the way to the prefects carriage at the very end of the train.

Finally, they reached the carriage and as they slid open the doors, they were greeted with eighteen pairs of eyes. Of course all the prefects would be on time. A larger carriage than any others Lily had seen on the train, the compartment seemed magically stretched so two pairs from each House (A boy and girl from 5th and 6th year) could sit comfortably, with the head boy, Frank Longbottom, and head girl, Amelia Bones, sat at the end of the carriage opposite the door. The meeting past rather uneventfully. After being congratulated, Frank and Amelia went into the timetable they created for patrols which, to Lily's relief, meant partners of the same year and house, and then continued on a long-winded spiel about the responsibilities of prefects. By this time Lily had tuned out.

'Well, thanks everyone, and again well done!' Frank finally finished.

'Yes' added Amelia as the prefects started to leave. 'Carrow, Rosier don't forget to patrol the corridors throughout the journey, me and Frank will do the same' she finished with a smile. The two Slytherins smirked in reply, soaking up their newfound power.

By the time Lily and Remus returned back to the carriage the trolley had already been. Luckily for them, James, Sirius and Peter had seemed to have brough the entire stock and so they readily helped themselves.

The rest of the journey passed with more conversations about quidditch, games of exploding snap and the occasional row between Sirius and whoever he could wind up at the time. By the time they pulled up to Hogsmeade station everyone was exhausted. So much so that Lily had completely forgotten about leading the younger years to the mysteriously drawn carriages and had to hurriedly thrust her luggage at James that had a look of such joy on his face at the prospect of being asked to hold her cat that she quickly regretted her forgetfulness.