Shades of Perfection

Chapter Two

Friends Forever

"After dinner every night, we have to patrol the halls, just to make sure everyone is headed to their common room or to bed. The prefect's bathroom is on the fifth floor, and the password is 'snowy owl'. Boys' nights are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Girls have all of the other days. If any prefect is caught on the wrong night, the culprit will be punished and his prefect job revoked. So be careful."

James proceeded to tell the house prefects their passwords and what to do with the first years while I watched in absolute awe. Even I hadn't paid that much careful, meticulous attention to my Head Girl letter.

"Any questions? Okay then, everyone is dismissed. Don't forget to gather the first years after Dumbledore's speech in the great hall!"

"James, that was...brilliant. I'm so impressed." I thought I could detect a flicker of a smile, but I couldn't be sure. He was a mystery to me this year, so withdrawn, so unlike the show-off I thought I had come to, if not tolerate, at least expect. What could possibly have happened to shatter James's image of himself?

James, as usual, said nothing. He left the compartment to join the other Marauders (but did that name even apply to them this year? James didn't look quite up to planning pranks.)

When I again expressed my concerns to Ari and Caff, they only looked concerned for a moment.

"I know it seems like something is really wrong, but it could be temporary. I mean, he could be over it tomorrow, yeah? I don't think there's any cause to worry. Just wait it out for now, Lil." Arianna was so insistent that I simply pushed James to the back of my mind for the rest of the journey.

As I sat gazing out the window at the remnants of the summer crops, absently singing to myself, as usual, I thought about this coming year. Hogwarts was going to be different without the expectancy of spending the rest of my school years there. This was the last one. Everything would be different after this year. I had applied to six muggle universities, and hoped to become an Auror and work for the ministry. However fickle we found politics, the Ministry ran the wizarding world and did their best to...protect us. I sighed.

"What is it, Lily?" It was Caff, always willing to remedy any problem.

"Protection. We need it. I mean, we have each other, but what else? Sure, we have our network of support at home, but they could..." This part was hard for me. I had to get it out in the open, though. There was so much to think about, and because I thought of it, I felt like it was my responsibility to worry while I still could, before the effort to keep up the seemingly effortless grades I maintained overwhelmed me, and I was left with no room to think of anything else.

"They could just disappear. Any day, they could be gone. Some of our families aren't even wizards! What are they supposed to do?" I sat down, aware I had been pacing the compartment, Caffrey's green and Ari's periwinkle eyes following me. There was silence for a few moments while the two girls considered what I had said. Then Caffrey responded, her voice wavering,

"We will always have each other. Not just the three of us, either. There's James, and Remus, and Sirius, and Peter, and Dumbledore, and everyone at school." Now her voice was getting stronger. "Sure, there're the Slytherins, like Malfoy"-we all shuddered-"but we have each other. We can stand together no matter what. So can our families. They are there for us, and they're strong like we are. We will always have our support network," Caff smiled, triumphant. She was right.

We returned to comfortable silence, imagining what the future could have in store for us, each of us reminiscing about our past experiences and looking forward to our last year together like we had been since we learned what best friends were really for, back in our very first year.

"Hello, ladies," Sirius had come to visit us, and was now talking in a supposedly seductive voice that would have charmed any younger girl but just made us laugh at him. He crammed himself between Arianna and Caffrey, the latter of which promptly trotted over to my side of the compartment and plopped down next to me, leaving Ari and Sirius to whatever pinching and tickling they felt the need to do. The problem of them ever being boyfriend and girlfriend was that neither of them could picture it. They had just been friends for too long.

"Well, we're off to change into our robes," I said, dragging Caff and Ari with me to the changing compartments.

"You guys are so entertaining!" Caff exclaimed about Ari and Sirius. Ari just rolled her eyes-a skill at which the three of us were adept-and I burst into giggles. Soon we were all laughing and attracting glances from every compartment. I loved having friends like these. The three of us, like the four Marauders, were inseparable. Yet every day our friendship blossomed, forever affected by James, Remus, Sirius and even little Peter. We couldn't help it; we were a part of each other's lives, and that was never going to change. Even with Lord Voldemort's increasing power, I felt like we remained untouchable. I couldn't even fathom what would happen if anything destroyed that, shattered the untouchable confidence that the seven of us felt.

I didn't even think about James.