Chapter 2
For Lily the best part of being home at Hogwarts was the feast at the beginning of the semester. She sat with her fellow Gryffindors as the first years stubbled in behind Professor Mcgonagall. Lily smiled as they huddled in groups in front of Professor Dumbledore and the sorting hat sitting calmly. McGonagall started to rattle off names and one by one children walked up to the sorting hat getting sorted through the houses. While most of them go to Gryffindor and she feels pride for her house she couldn't help but notice that the other half of them go to Slytherin as well. She glances over at the Slytherin table and they look smug as yet another first year walks over and smirks as they give away high fives. Lily meets Snape's eyes and he looks away quickly Lily looks down at her plate. She feels someone slide a turkey leg onto her plate, looking up confused she sees another one of James' friends Remus Lupin, He smiles softly at her. His shaggy brown hair pushed to the side, the scars across the bridge of his nose not as prominent as he probably covered them.
"I couldn't help but notice you don't have a lot of food on your plate"
He says sitting next to her, Lily feels a sense of comfort being next to him. He's a lot calmer than the other two but she feels like he will not agree. She smiles at him before pushes her food away from her for a second
" It's good to see you Lupin "
Lily smiles and Remus shakes his head pulling her food back in front of her before sitting down next to her
"It's nice to see you Evans, you know i can write you up for the little stunt you pulled on the train, do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Remus says pointing to his prefect badge resting neatly on his sweater. Lily rolled her eyes but smiled at him shyly before taking a bite of the turkey leg smashing her mashed potatoes. She points to her mouth full of food shaking her head, and he rolls his eyes chuckling gently
"You get more stubborn each year, how you became head girl this year amazes me"
Lupin says picking up a biscuit breaking it in half eating one half looking across the crowded great hall. As Lily finishes chewing she takes a sip of her pumpkin juice before turning towards Lupin once again
"How'd you know ?"
She questions and he smirks at her before putting the other half of the biscuit in his mouth.
"I have my ways"
He winks at her as he takes a string bean off her plate. Lily couldn't help but notice the slightly faded scars that litter his face like birthmarks, she remembers how she feared him in her first year because of the scars. How crazy that sounds to her now, he is the most compassionate of the three boys, the easiest to talk to In her opinion anyway.
She noticed he was staring at her in concern and she thought she must've been lost in thought for a little to long
"Evans come back to us "
He says jokingly, and she glared at him playfully and he laughed softly
"How did you find out ?"
She asks again and he shrugs. Lily crossed her arms across her chest and gave him her best "you better tell me now or I will curse you" look and he laughed again.
"You have a look that rivals Sniv- snape " he catches himself as her look deepens and he pulls out a list of names
"I might've taken this from the common room before dinner " he shrugs with a Mischievous smile creeping on his face. That's James' influence on him. I swear that boy is nothing but trouble
But you like the trouble don't you Evans
James? How'd he get in my head ?
She look around and he's sitting a few people down from me. His head down into his bowl of pudding but a smirk creeping on his lips
Something I learned over summer holiday, is it wonderful
I could hear the smirk in his voice and I rolled my eyes much to Lupin's confusion. I just shook my head at him dismissing the whole situation.
"So there was a list of prefects and head boy and girl in the common room? When did they start doing that?"
I ask to bring the conversation back to the original point, though I make a mental note to ask James about the mind thing when I see him next.
"They usually don't but i figure someone wanted to announce it "
He shrugs nonchalantly, obviously not worried about it. Lilly does the same before continuing to eat and talk about the upcoming year with some of the first years around her.
Later that evening Lily was walking around the castle, something she did when she needed time to herself. The castle was at its calmest at night, the moonlight creeped into the windows as the sounds of her feet echoed through the halls. She made her way to her secret spot, it was a little nook in between two paintings of old people she didn't care to know about. She curled her knees up to her chest as she sat down and just watched, she watched for the flying owls across the moonlit sky. She watched as the trees swayed in the distance to the light fall breeze, she didn't get this kind of peace often she was dealing with James and Snapes childish behavior or her sister's sour demeanor.
The thought of her sister pained her heart, she still recalls reading the letter her sister wrote to Dumbledore pleading to be able to come to Hogwarts. Though her sister would never admit it Lily believes she still wishes to be able to get on the train and experience what the wizarding world has to offer. She lays against the cold marble wall as she imagines how lost her sister would be at hogwarts, as selfish as it Sounds, she's happy Petunia wasn't here. Over the years she's become something Lily didn't recognize, very bitter and angry.
Lily recalls being called a freak and almost completely shut out of Petunia's life after her first year at Hogwarts. Which at the time hurt her, she only wished to be closer to her sister but as the years went on she expected to be shut out. Lily didn't care to admit it but she wished she was never magical, she wished she was no different than her sister then maybe they could be friends again. Wishful thinking she knew but the thought did cross her mind once or twice while they fought. But in the long run she was happy to be magical, she wouldn't have wanted a life any other way. She thought if she had a chose to never have magic again or keep her powers and be a "freak" to her sister, she'd pick being a freak anyday.
"I thought I'd find you here"
A small voice shocked her out of her thoughts, she turned towards the voice and saw Peter Pettigrew. A heavy set boy with slicked back blond hair, he has a pretty bad acne problem and the most wonderful blue eyes. He was friends with James and the boys, but less Mischievous and more timid.
"Hey Pete I didn't see you at the feast "
She smiled at him sliding over so he could sit down, but he stayed standing. He just shrugged with a small smile on his face. He always had a hard time talking to girls, it took him months to start talking to Lily. The boys always gave him shit for that
"Yeah I got off the train and got lost exploring again, w-was it good?"
He stuttered slightly as his small voice rang through Lily's ears, she smiled gently at him. He always liked to explore something they have in common. She wasn't as close to Peter as she was to the rest of the boys but they weren't strangers, they could hang out alone if need be
"It was great as usual, of course I ate to much so I had to walk around a bit obviously "
Lily jokes and a giggle leaves Peter's lips before he slips his hands in his pockets and starts shifting his weight back and forth on his heels. He always did this when he was nervous, Lily noted as she watched him In the moonlight he continued to shift his weight on his heels as the silence surrounded them. He cleared his throat before looking down at his feel
"Well i will see you later Lily"
He said softly before walking down the hall, leaving Lily by herself once again. She laid her head back against the wall closing her eyes letting the sounds of nature surround her as the woodland creatures came out for their nightly routine.
As Lily made her way back to the girls dorm of Gryffindor tower she couldn't help but over hear whispering, as she got closer to her dorm the whispering grew louder. As she turned a corner she saw a group of people in hooded robes talking in a circle. She decided to not disturb them but as she turned to go another way she noticed the whispering stopped and footsteps took its place. Maybe it was misplaced fear but Lily started running down the hallway and as she did the footsteps followed turning into an angry herd of people as they were chasing her.
Lily didn't know what she could've done to get chased but she was indeed getting followed every turn she made they were only a few yards behind her until she nearly slammed into the Portrait. Mumbling "pumpkin" waiting for the portrait to open she could hear the footsteps coming closer and she didn't even give the portrait time to open up fully before she ran in quickly praying that it'll close in time. She ran towards her door while getting weird looks by the people who were up late studying, at the moment she didn't care. Quickly she realized that whoever was following her didn't or couldn't follow her in. She pulled out the marauders map that James totally didn't know she had on her and looked at it. There were footsteps circling outside but there were no names attached, just the circling footsteps. But that couldn't be right there was almost always a name even for the ghosts the names appeared.