Chapter Six
As always Lily reached the King's Cross Station twenty minutes before the departure. Her parents had helped her load her trunk in an empty compartment and were now standing with her on the platform nine and three quarters, exchanging some last minute words. Petunia, Lily's sister stood just an inch away from her family, occasionally muttering "freaks" under her breath, a painful expression etched on her scrawny face.
"It gets so lonely without you. Do write to us when you reach." said Rose, Lily's mother.
"I will mum. I'll miss you all so much." replied Lily, her voice wavering slightly. She hated saying goodbyes to her family.
"Are you guys quite done? Can we just go already? This whole place is a freak show." said an irritated Petunia who had just had a charmed paper plane flew past her ear. Lily's father had spent days trying to convince her to come with them to see off Lily. He tried to make it seem as if Petunia was coming of her own will, but Petunia had cornered Lily to tell her that she had only agreed to come because their father had in return promised to let Petunia stay over at Vernon's. Lily hadn't said anything. She knew how much Petunia hated coming here to the station to see Lily off. When they were young Petunia wasn't scared to hide the fact that she was upset because of Lily leaving. But over the years, Petunia had grown out of her childlike innocence and had started masking her sadness with anger and ultimately disgust for the wizardkind. Before Lily could say something to Petunia, a tall figure hunched over a trolley came crashing into the place where Lily and her family stood. The owl's cage on the trolley had slid off and was now rolling towards the end of the platform where the train was stationed. Lily quickly went over to get the owl's cage before it could roll off and get stuck between the train and the platform's edge. The owl was screeching angrily and was flapping its wings madly. Just as she was returning to where her family stood she noticed another boy had fallen on top of the first one, his trolley and belongings, too, lay askew, as they struggled to get up. No sooner did they get up that Lily realised who it was. She walked over to them with firm steps.
"What on earth do you think you're doing Potter, ramming your way into where my family is standing?" hissed Lily, dropping the owl on James's trolley which her father had pulled up from the ground. The owl too, screeched indignantly.
James's eyes grew wide as he looked from Lily to the two middle aged figures, standing next to her.
"Relax Evans, someone pushed us from behind when we were inside the barrier." replied Sirius the moment he realised James was too tongue tied to talk because of Lily's parents.
"You're James Potter?" asked Rose.
"Yeah .. I mean yes ma'am." answered a very flustered James, his hand shooting up to his hair, but for the first time not to ruffle it, but to flatten it.
"We've heard a lot about you." said Rose.
"Really?" asked James, his eyes growing wide with surprise, much to the horror of Lily whose eyes were just as wide but with panic.
"Nothing good though." said Lily's father, a twinkle in his eyes, but James couldn't have looked any more guilty than he did at the moment.
"I'm not surprised. I feel sorry for your daughter that she has to put with my son's antics throughout the year. She's a lovely girl." said James's mother, who had appeared at the scene after Sirius and had noticed the exchange between them.
"I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. I'm Euphemia Potter, James's mother." said Euphemia as she shook Lily's parents' hand.
"I'm Rose, this is John my husband, and Petunia my eldest daughter." replied a smiling Rose. To Lily's surprise and relief Petunia shook Mrs. Potter's hand and even managed a small smile even if it looked like a grimace.
Euphemia and Lily's parents talked until there were only five minutes left for the train to leave. Lily noticed James's father hadn't come to see him off. James, Sirius and Lily were standing there awkwardly and couldn't have thanked the blowing horn of the train enough which meant the disbanding of their little get together. Petunia all this while had stood scoffing at people using their wands and Lily had hoped no one would notice just how unaproving her sister was of the wizardkind. Lily however it seemed was out of luck today. When it was time to say goodbyes, Lily turned to Petunia after having said goodbye to her parents and Mrs. Potter.
"I'll see you on Christmas, Tuney." said Lily with a hopeful smile.
"I hope to God you don't."
Petunia's ice cold voice washed over Lily and she stood frozen to the ground as did everyone around her.
"PETUNIA!" roared her father, fuming.
"What dad?! She's a freak! She runs off to this school of freaks, for an entire year, she doesn't care about us. She doesn't call us and expects me to write to her as if we're living in our grandparents' time. And to top it all off we can't post the letter like a normal person. No. We've got to deal with freak birds instead. I'm better off staying away from her and her kind." sneered Petunia.
A lot many people who had been waving at their kids had turned around to see what the fiasco was. It took Lily strength from every fibre of her being to turn away from where everyone stood and walk towards the train. Her vision was blurred because of the tears pricking at the back of her eye. She was vaguely aware of people turning around to look at her as Petunia kept screaming something at her. She hurried to board the train and almost stumbled. A girl who couldn't have been older than 13 gave Lily a hand and smiled at her kindly. Whatever was holding her from crying couldn't hold off any longer. As she took the little girl's hand to lightly hoist herself up she let out a small sob. She muttered a quick thank you and steered the girl away from the door saying it was dangerous to stand there. She held her head down as tears spilled down her cheeks as she entered the train still holding the girl's hand. The girl was looking at her curiously but didn't ask her anything. She found the carriage with her friends and unsure whether to say goodbye or not, she waved at Lily and quickly ran off inside her compartment. Her head still down Lily walked towards the compartment where her trunk was kept but it was already occupied by Marlene and Hestia. She quickly moved ahead and at the other end of the train she found an empty compartment which was labelled 'Out of Order'. There were no seats there but Lily sank down to the floor and braced her knees as she started crying, her body shaking. This year had taken an emotional toll on her. Petunia hadn't spoken to Lily at all unless it was absolutely necessary. Most of the time Petunia would run off to her boyfriend, who it had seemed to Lily was more or less fueling Petunia's feelings of hatred towards Lily. Then there was Severus, who would exploit every opportunity he'd get to sneer at Petunia and tell Lily how she was better off without her and the muggles who would all call Lily a freak if they got to know Lily was a witch. But at the end of it all Severus had called her a mudblood. Lily drifted off to sleep as she remembered that day in her second year when she had been called a mudblood. She'd asked Severus what it meant. He had told her how it was the worst thing one could call someone and how Lily was much more clever than the combined student population that might call her a mudblood.
Marlene hadn't seen Sirius around anywhere. She knew he was always late for the train but you could see the marauders roaming around the length of the train at least a hundred times before they reached school. He hadn't even come around to meet her. Why should he? It's not like he's your boyfriend. A voice scoffed inside her head.
It was true. Sirius wasn't her boyfriend. Last year had been rough. She had caught her boyfriend of seven months, John Dawlish, cheating on her a few months before they started with their OWLs. She hadn't been, what one could call, happy in her relationship but it had kept her mind off all the stress of the OWLs. Before she knew, she had already been with him for seven months. They hadn't been able to meet a lot because of the OWLs and Marlene wondered if that was why they drifted apart. The heat between them seemed to have simmered down after their first fight. It had been over Sirius. Marlene had been paired with Sirius in Potions last year. Sirius and Marlene had gotten off really well. Their dislike for Slytherins was mutual and so was their desire to prank them in their Potions class. They would spend time in library planning pranks under pretense of studying. The fact that Sirius and Marlene were also on the Quidditch team didn't help her case when John confronted her about Sirius. Marlene would probably not deny that she couldn't give John much time. She succumbed to John's accusations of not paying him much attention without realising that John was just as much at fault. Whenever she would go up to him he'd keep telling her just how much work he has to do. John was a prefect and his duties too kept him just as busy as Marlene's quidditch practice kept her. The second time when he'd cornered her regarding Sirius, Marlene had lost her temper and had made John count on his fingers as she listed off the number of times he had brushed her off. He had looked guilty and Marlene had left him with a warning that she'll break up with him if he brought up Sirius again. However the fact that she'd been dating him for seven months kept her from breaking up. She could feel it in her skin that John and her won't last a long time. She tried to brush off the thoughts that explicitly told her that she was far more happy when she was around Sirius. With John she had to force herself to even smile. After the time when she had warned him about bringing up Sirius, she felt even more guilty when he'd gush over her in whatever little time they could find for one another. In the last months of her dwindling relationship with John she had tried to speak to Sirius as little as possible hoping to redeem whatever was left between John and her. Sirius too had been quite furious with her. Sirius and Marlene had almost messed up one of the Quidditch matches because of not being on speaking terms with each other. They had only very narrowly been able to win. Woods, their captain who graduated last year had rained down on the two of them after the match.
It wasn't until one day, when Lily had been assigned patrol duties with John that she found out that John had been cheating on her. Lily had returned from her patrol white faced. It had taken a lot persuasion from Hestia and Marlene to finally have Lily speak up about what was eating her. Whichever turn Marlene had been expecting her relationship to take, it wasn't this one. Even if she did expect the sun to set on her relationship, this wasn't how she had imagined it would. The thought of cheating on her boyfriend or being cheated on by him was nowhere in her list of how they could possibly break up. (She had a list, yes). She had imagined mutually breaking up. Or being dumped. Or dumping John. Moping around and wallowing in her misery for weeks and then getting her shit together. But being cheated on was a new low that she didn't expect John would sink down to. She couldn't sleep all night. Anger was boiling inside of her and it didn't simmer down until it was well over seven in the morning. She had gone down for breakfast vaguely aware of Lily and Hestia following in her stead. She had taken her seat on the Gryffindor table with Lily and Hestia sitting on either side of her. John always came over to her during breakfast to meet her and she was waiting for just that. Lily had told her John didn't know that Lily had seen him snogging a girl. As usual John did come over. Marlene had gotten up from her seat and without any warning had started shooting hex after hex at John. When he tried to talk she hit him with a silencing spell. When he tried to run she hit him with a jelly leg jinx. On and on she went until no one could tell the face of John Dawlish from a troll. When she was done she had climbed the Gryffindor table and had roared, "That's for cheating on me!"
She was vaguely aware of a horrified McGonagall, standing next to a whimpering John, not being able to decide who to deal with first. The crowd in the Great Hall was cheering loudly. Even some Slytherins had joined in. It was only after the head of the Ravenclaw House had come over to take John to the Hospital Wing that McGonagall had moved to attend to Marlene. Gryffindor had lost fifty points and Marlene had earned herself two weeks worth of detention. It had been worth it.
However what couldn't be cured by shooting hexes at John was her growing anxiety about dating someone for the fear of being cheated on again. She had thought hexing John would help her forget about her failed attempt at the relationship. It did. But it brought another huge wave of constantly questioning herself, her ability to have a smooth happy relationship. Sirius and Marlene didn't talk much unless they were at quidditch practice. It was only after they had won the last match along with the Quidditch Cup, that a very drunk Marlene and a fairly drunk Sirius had kissed on the astronomy tower and swore that it won't happen again and promised not to tell anyone. Naturally, they had met up on the tower again on the next day and had kissed again, taking things a little ahead. They decided to not be exclusive. To let off steam without having to engage in the intricacies of a relationship. It had given Marlene a sense of control. A tiny voice in her head often asked about how she'd feel if Sirius would kiss another girl given that they're not exclusive. But she would shush the voice with the thoughts of Sirius kissing her. Her friends didn't know. Neither did James and if James didn't know, there was a thin chance the other two marauders would. Marlene and Sirius had met up all summer. Sometimes in the Diagon Alley, sometimes at her place given her parents had been spending an awful lot of time at work. They'd had sex in Marlene's bedroom. And that's when the tiny voice in her head questioning the exclusivity of her 'relationship' with Sirius had gotten louder. It was true that they had sex. And it was purely physical. And yet Marlene felt annoyed when Sirius didn't come over to meet her on the train. Liam on the other hand did. He was droning on and on about his school in North America. Hestia was barely looking up from her book while Marlene was vaguely nodding in his direction wondering where Sirius was and if she could just go over to kiss him.
Prefects' meeting was about to begin and Remus along with James, Sirius and Peter were waiting outside the crammed Prefects' Compartment for Lily. The clear plains of grasslands were slowly disappearing and were being replaced by trees and small patches of bushes here and there. They had been on the train for nearly four hours and there was no sign of Lily. Remus was quite positive that Lily would turn up for the Prefects' meeting.
"She won't miss it for the world." he had said.
Now with only five minutes for the meeting to begin he wasn't quite sure. Peter, Sirius and James had scanned the length of the train. James had peered inside the compartment of Marlene and Hestia hoping to find her there but on seeing Lily absent and Liam Bolte sitting next to Marlene he had decided not to drop in to ask about her. Sirius had gone over to check on the compartments on the end of the train towards the driver's coach. There had been a couple of compartments labelled 'Out of Order' that were locked. Thinking Lily would never bother even looking inside such a place he hadn't opened the door to check. The meeting had begun and Remus had entered the Prefects' Compartment leaving the other three boys outside. With every passing minute James got even more worried. If Lily missed a Prefects' meeting then she's anything but fine, he thought. He was counting minutes before the meeting ended, hoping Lily would turn up. But she didn't. The meeting was over in fifteen minutes and the prefects came pouring out. James spotted Snape. He tried swallowing his pride and asking if he had seen Lily. But before he could, Snape had his wand out.
"What are you doing here, Potter?" Snape hissed as people around them turned to look.
"Nothing that concerns you." replied James in a cold voice, gripping his wand.
"Where's Lily? Did you do something to upset her again? She didn't attend the meeting. I bet it was something to do with you. I saw you talking to her parents."
"I said, it's nothing that concer-"
A loud bang sounded through the carriage as James flew backwards. A series of loud bangs followed. James quickly got up and sent a hex towards Snape. Sirius was duelling with Avery and Peter with Mulciber. As James could see Snape was about to send a curse towards James but he quickly lowered his wand looking at something over James's shoulder. James turned around and saw a very dishevelled Lily standing there, looking exhausted.
"Lily!" said Snape, as he rushed his way towards her, knocking James on his way, "I was looking for you. You didn't attend the meeting. Did he do something again?" Snape asked, pointing at James.
"Nobody did anything Severus. I'm fine." replied Lily in a cold voice.
James watched her as she made her way towards the Prefects' compartment where the four students were previously duelling. Avery and Mulciber were both on the ground with a body binding hex on them. James followed her quickly as she approached Remus.
"I can't believe I missed the meeting!" said Lily, rubbing her eyes and stiffling a yawn.
"Don't worry, you didn't miss much. We've been assigned patrols for Tuesday and Sunday nights."
"Who's Head Boy and Girl?"
"Apparently it's Frank, but he wasn't here because he's still at St. Mungo's. Head Girl is from Hufflepuff, Mary Smith." replied Remus.
"Gotta go." said Sirius from behind James and rushed past them towards the other end. James made a mental note to ask Sirius where he keeps disappearing to.
"How was your summer?" asked Remus as they started moving towards their compartments.
"Eventful." replied Lily.
They stopped by Lily's compartment and noticed Liam talking Hestia's ears off. Lily groaned.
"Do you guys mind if I sit in your compartment. I can't listen to his school in America at all right now."
"No we don't." replied James as quickly as he could. But he wasn't quick enough as Liam had noticed the crowd and was now waving at them to join them. James and Lily groaned.
"Hey guys. Where have you been Lily?" asked Hestia.
"Hello, Hestia." said Remus as he took a seat next to her asking her about the book she was reading.
"Liam, this is Remus and Peter. I suppose you've met Lily and James here."
"Hi. It's nice to meet you. Yeah I met with them last week at the funeral."
"Where's Marlene?" asked James.
"She went to the loo." replied Hestia.
Lily sat between Liam and Peter while Remus sat between James and Hestia. As Lily had predicted, Liam launched into telling them the details about his school and everyone hoped for a miracle to shut him up. James watched Lily as she looked out of the window, a painful expression etched on her pretty face. Her dark blue blouse made her hair look brighter. Lily rested her head on the head rest and almost immediately looked towards him. James offered a small smile. She looked confusedly at him, before smiling back at him tiredly. James's heart jumped a little. He watched her as she moved her eyes back to watching the forests passing outside the window, occasionally drumming her fingers on her thighs or fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. Liam's rant just became a little bit bearable.
"Marlene it's Sirius. Open up." knocked Sirius on one of the empty compartments on the back of the train. He had noticed Marlene's dark hair from where he had been duelling with the Slytherins and had followed her. He hadn't had time to see her after he'd witnessed Lily's sister shouting. He along with James had said their quick goodbyes to Mrs. Potter and had dragged their trunks quickly into the train before running off to find Lily. After they had looked everywhere they waited with Remus outside the Prefects' compartment. Sirius was worried over just how disturbed Lily had looked, but quickly forgot about it all the moment he saw Marlene. He mentally cursed himself for not going over to meet with her before. He'd noticed Liam sitting in the same compartment from where Marlene had exited. It didn't help to know she was with Liam all this while.
The lock on the door clicked and Sirius found Marlene sitting on one of the broken seats.
"What are you doing here?" asked Sirius.
"Trying escape Liam's constant babble of his school. Honestly just how much can a person speak?" Marlene replied in an irritated tone.
Relief washed over Sirius as he heard Marlene talk about Liam with distaste. He quickly moved to sit opposite her not sure what to say next.
"Where have you been?" asked Marlene, cautiously, noted Sirius.
He told her all about the the fiasco with Lily's sister and the run in with the Snape and the other two Slytherins.
"Lily could do so well if those two would just disappear from her life. How is she now?"
"She looked disastrous honestly. It takes a toll on a person if their family hates them. But James, Remus and Peter are with her. She'll probably be fine. I hope James doesn't say anything stupid."
Marlene nodded. It was weird talking like this. Normally they'd just skip the small talk. Sitting here talking like this felt peaceful to Sirius. As he raised his head he saw her looking at him curiously.
"What?" Sirius asked.
"Nothing. It's just we don't usually talk this much." she replied, a small smile playing at her lips. Sirius couldn't help but mirror her smile.
"Yeah, it's weird." he replied, as he watched Marlene get up from her seat, taking a step towards where Sirius was sitting. Sirius held out his hand as he helped her onto his lap. She sat astride him and looked him in the eye before placing a kiss on his lips. He snaked his arms around her waist pulling her closer until she was straddling him. He could smell her hair as it fell around the sides of his head wrapping the two of them in a world of their own. He pulled her head towards him and kissed her softly, slowly deepening the kiss as he ran the back of his fingers down the length of her arm which rested on his chest. Her other arm fisted in his hair. He thought he'd lose his mind when he felt the warmth from her breasts which were pressed against his chest. He wanted her closer to him if that was even physically possible. She broke the kiss and Sirius groaned. He opened his eyes and saw Marlene's ocean blue eyes staring back at him. She was flushed from her neck up to her cheeks. Her eyes had gone dark and her breath heavy. Sirius could feel his erratic heart beat and a faint tickle in his stomach.
"Merlin, you're gorgeous." breathed Sirius before he could stop himself. He watched a very flustered Marlene looking anywhere but him. He wondered if he'd said something wrong. Marlene was confident, bold and crazy. He'd seen what she'd done to that Dawlish guy. Sirius knew that Marlene and him weren't exclusive but he'd never dare look at another girl so long as he was with Marlene. But he'd notice her going speechless if he complimented her. It bothered him. She didn't seem to mind when boys on the team ever complimented her. She'd accept the compliment gracefully. Was he doing something wrong? He wondered. He couldn't be doing anything wrong, he decided. After all, other girls loved it when he complimented them.
"What's wrong? Can't take a compliment, McKinnon?" asked Sirius, quirking an eyebrow at her.
"Nothing of the sort." Marlene replied as she straightened her blouse and prepared to get off Sirius's lap.
"Hey, no. Sit down. Let's talk." groaned Sirius as pulled Marlene back down towards himself and securely locking his arms around her back.
"Talk? What do you want to talk about?"
"I said you're gorgeous and got a confused expression from you."
Marlene to Sirius's surprise looked even more flustered.
"You're so entitled that I must pay you back for your compliment?"
"A small thank you would be nice." Sirius replied, sincerely.
"Thank you." Marlene said in a small voice, again looking anywhere but Sirius, her hands resting on Sirius's shirt started fidgeting. Sirius could tell she was nervous for some reason. And although he'd give anything to sit with her like this for the rest of the train ride, he decided to put her out of her misery.
"Okay, let's go before our friends notice we're missing." he said as he helped Marlene off his lap.
They decided to let Marlene go first so no one would notice them coming out of the carriage together. Sirius looked at her she opened the door and slipped outside without glancing at him. It's going to be a long year, he thought.
A/N: Okay so, I might be updating a little more frequently from now on as I'm done submitting my home assignments and now I've only got to worry about my end semester exams which I'm not quite sure will take place because of the lockdown.
I hope you guys are enjoying the story and surviving the lockdown well. Leave a review?
Take care of yourselves. Stay safe. The next update might be within this week. Until then. Lots of love.