The Tale of the Marauders and Lily Evans

Chapter 3

Hogwarts Express

That night, Lily lay on her bed, reading her schoolbooks. She learned all about Hogwarts in Hogwarts, A History. In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she read about all the fascinating beasts that roamed around the wizarding world. She learned about the popular wizarding game of Quidditch in Quidditch Through the Ages, and about the history of magic in A History of Magic. She found all her schoolbooks rather interesting.

Sometimes, Lily went over to Arabella's house on the weekends. When she was there Mrs. Figg would teach Lily about all kinds of wizard things. She found everything so new and exciting. It was at Arabella's house that Lily tasted her first Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The flavor was mint, and Lily just happened to hate mint. Mrs. Figg told her to think herself lucky; mint was far better than some other flavors in the box. She observed some doxys infest some old curtains, and watched a boggart pop out of a dark wardrobe.

Once, a muggle friend of her's, Trez Isnox, came to her house while Arabella was there doing the last of her holiday homework. Trez lived in the neighborhood and was a friend of Lily's, though Lily was closer to Arabella. Trez was quite a big bully to the smaller kids in the neighborhood. She put on loads of make-up, although she was only eleven. She didn't go to the same school as Arabella or Lily, but attended a boarding school all the way up north. She rarely came home, although when she did, Lily almost always invited her to her house. Although Arabella didn't like her, Trez was nice to Lily, as she had once fallen into a lake when the ice on it broke in winter. Lily, who had been in the water since she was two and had started swimming lessons when she was three and a half, had pulled her out. Trez had been nice to Lily ever since.

"Oh, hi," Trez said when she saw Arabella, who was frantically writing out sums. Turning to Lily, as she removed her jacker, Trez continued, "Lily! I haven't really seen you in a long time."

Lily saw something on her pale white arm as Trez took her jacket off. It was a tattoo. Since she knew lots of kids who had tattoos, Lily did not think much of it. Trez took out a small round mirror and started putting on more blush while kicking off her high heels.

"It's nice to see you, too, Trez," Lily said warmly. "I'm - er - going away to boarding school next year, so I won't be seeing you."

Trez looked surprised and a bit interested, and Arabella looked up from her homework, watching Trez with her eyebrows raised.

"That would be horrible! Where is this school?" Trez said.

"Um..." Lily hesitated, not sure what to say.

"What subjects do they teach there?" Trez continued, applying more lipstick and eyeliner.

"Er...His-"

"How nice!" Trez interrupted. "My school teaches similar things," she laughed.

"Lily, can I use the library for a minute?" Arabella asked, frowning down at the piece of paper she was holding.

"Sure," Lily said, turning away from Trez.

The Evans had a large library with quite a lot of books, fiction and non-fiction.

"I better be going," Trez said, standing up. "My family is moving to a new neighborhood that is far away from here today. I have to go back."

"Bye!" Lily said. "I might not ever see you again!"

"Oh, no," Trez said, and her smile got bigger. "We will see each other again. That is something I promise you."

***

That night, Mrs. Potter cooked a delicious dinner, as usual. Remus and Peter flooed home afterwards, and over the next few weeks, Remus read all of the school books they had bought until he practically memorized every single word in all of them. Peter forgot where he had put his new schoolbooks. He bent his wand when he accidentally sat on it, and his mother repaired it for him.

James and Sirius, surprisingly, were quiet for the next few weeks--quieter than usual, that is. they didn't get in trouble and misbehave that much, probably because of their excitement of going to Hogwarts.

***

A month later, Lily woke up, feeling extremely excited and nervous. It took her a minute to realize why: it was the day. The big day had arrived, at last! It was also her birthday.

She had packed everything the night before. Her parents had given her a huge amount of money to spend during the year. Mrs. Figg had taken it to Diagon Alley to be changed into Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. The money was stashed somewhere in her trunk. Mrs. Figg had also bought Lily's train ticket.

Lily tried to lift her trunk, but it was too heavy. She thundered down the stairs, and got herself a bowl, a carton of milk, a spoon, and a box of cereal. She poured the milk in the bowl, the cereal in the milk, and plopped the spoon into the milk.

"Up so early, birthday girl?" a sleepy voice asked.

"Mom, it's past ten!" Lily exclaimed. "The train leaves at eleven."

"Remember that Mrs. Figg is going to have to bring you there. Your father and I have to work today."

Mr. Evans was a lawyer, and Mrs. Evans was a well-respected college professor. The Evans were actually quite rich, although they didn't show it.

"I remember. She has my ticket."

Mrs. Evans's eyes misted over, and she said softly, "I won't be able to see you again for a year . . ."

"Oh, mom, please don't cry," Lily begged. "Anyway, I'll be back for the Christmas holidays."

"That's what you say now," Mrs. Evans replied, "but as soon as it comes, you'll think, I don't want to go back. I want to stay here."

"No, I won't!" Lily protested.

She finished her cereal and excused herself. She went upstairs, showered, combed her hair, and changed into jeans and a T-shirt. She would change into her school robes later. By the time she went back down again, her father and Petunia were eating breakfast. Her father greeted her casually, and said "Happy birthday", but Petunia pretended, as usual, that Lily wasn't even in the room.

"Petunia, aren't you going to wish your sister a happy birthday?" Mr. Evans said sternly.

"No," Petunia said flatly, stalking out of the room. "I wasn't even aware I had a sister."

"You'd better get going, dear," Mrs. Evans said worriedly, glancing at her watch. It's quarter past ten. But you can't go without your birthday present, can you?"

Mrs. Evans smiled, and handed Lily a small velvet box. Lily opened it, and gasped.

"Oh, mom, dad, thank you!"

Inside was a gold locket and gold chain. The locket was shaped like a heart. On the heart were tiny emeralds, sapphires, pearls, rubies, diamonds, and all kinds of precious stones. In the middle, 'Lily Evans' was carved into the locket in fancy writing. Lily turned it around. On the back, in the same beautiful writing, was 'To our beloved daughter, with love from Mum & Dad.'

"Only you can open it," Mr. Evans said. "You have to put your index finger in the middle of the heart. If anyone else tries, it stays locked."

Lily tried, and the locket sprang open with a soft clink. Inside was a moving color picture of her, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Evans, Arabella, Hedna, Kit, and Mrs. Figg. On the other side was a list of names of all the people in the photo in the same fancy writing.

"Petunia's in there too, but she seems to have run off the edge of the picture," Mr. Evans said, shaking his head.

"If there ever is a time in which you need to contact us, just tell the people in the picture. This locket is made so that the people in the picture can go between the picture on our bedside table and the picture in the locket, and only those two, they can't go to any other painting, picture, photo, or portrait." Mrs. Evans explained.

Lily closed the locket with another soft clink.

"Mrs. Figg had it specially made in Melena's Magical Jewel Shop in Diagon Alleyon our request."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Lily cried, fastening the locket around her neck.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans smiled at their youngest daughter.

"Well, I'd better go and get your trunk, shall I?"

Mr. Evans went upstairs and hauled Lily's trunk down, and Lily carried her owl's cage down. She hurriedly kissed Kit goodbye, as she would be taking Hedna. Lily quickly turned back to her parents, and hugged and kissed them while Mrs. Figg, who had just arrived, pulled Lily's trunk into her car. Lily reminded her parents to feed Kit while she was gone.

"Goodbye, Petunia!" Lily called over her shoulder at her scowling sister. "I'll see you next summer!"

In the car a few minutes later, Mrs. Figg and Lily sat in silence. There was traffic and Mrs. Figg started drumming her fingers impatiently on the wheel. When they arrived, they had only five minutes before the train left. Quickly, Mrs. Figg dumped Lily's trunk and the owl cage on a trolley and wheeled it to the stone pillar. On one side of it, it said 9, and on the other side, it said 10.

Mrs. Figg gave Lily her ticket, told Lily to run straight at the stonewall, and she'd better be quick.

"I'll follow at your heels," Mrs. Figg said hurriedly. "Quick!"

Lily faced the stone pillar, closed her eyes and ran. She daren't peek . . . she should be hitting the wall anytime soon . . . hey . . . wait a minute! Why wasn't she hitting the wall. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was standing on a platform with a magnificent scarlet train waiting. The platform was packed with people. A sign hanging overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. Looking behind her shoulders, she saw an iron archway where the ticket box had been, with Platform Nine and Three Quarters written on it. Amazingly, miraculously, she had done it.

"Come on, come on!" Mrs. Figg said quickly.

They wove through the crowd until they were next to the magnificent scarlet Hogwarts Express. Mrs. Figg helped Lily lift her trunk on to the train.

"Okay," Mrs. Figg said, suddenly turning business-like, "now you go along the back corridor until you find an empty compartment. Have a good year." She hugged Lily and turned.

"Oh . . . I forgot," Mrs. Figg said suddenly, turning back to where Lily stood, watching her. "Your mother gave this to me to give to you." She held out two aluminum foil-wrapped sandwiches. "I doubt you'll need them. A lady will come along with a trolley, selling sweets. Your mother gave you money; you'll be able to buy something to eat -"

Suddenly, a shrill whistle sounded, and guards walked along the train, closing all the doors.

"Happy birthday, dear, have a nice year at Hogwarts!" Mrs. Figg said so fast that Lily could hardly understand her.

Lily nodded and waved to Mrs. Figg, then turned to face the back corridor. She took a deep breath, and set off. She walked all the way to the back of the train and finally found an empty compartment.

***

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter woke up one day in their respective homes with a feeling of excitement. They realized, it was the day! The day they'd go to Hogwarts.

Fortunately for the Potters, especially James, Sirius was not at James' house on Sept. 1. However, James woke up at 4:30 in the morning, at about the time Sirius would have woken everybody up if he had been there. James groaned and turned over in his bed. He wanted to sleep more, especially as this was one of the precious few days when his human alarm clock was away.

One hour later, James admitted defeat and got out of bed, rubbing his eyes. He was very bored for the next few hours, with nothing to do. Time passed very slowly. By eight, Mr. Potter and Mrs. Potter were up. They seemed very surprised to see their son already up, listening to the WWN.

The house elves served breakfast at exactly 8:30. James excused himself afterwards, and went up to pack. He now realized that he probably should have packed yesterday, or maybe when he had just woken up. For the next hour he was busy packing, throwing all his stuff messily into his trunk. The result was that there wasn't enough room for all of his things.

"Mom!" James called, "Can you put a spell on my trunk? It's too full!"

"Coming, dear!" was the reply.

His mother was up in a minute. She looked disapprovingly at his trunk.

"I'll put a Locking Charm on it," Mrs. Potter decided. "You will be able to open it when you get to Hogwarts."

It was 10:00. James suddenly remembered that he had bought medicine for Jasper's injured wing at Diagon Alley, and he quickly got it and rubbed it onto Jasper's wing. The owl hooted gratefully, accepted an Owl Treat from James, although he wasn't really hungry, then put his head under his wing and fell asleep.

"Lazy owl," James muttered, shaking his head. In a much louder voice, he said, "Mom! We should get going! It's 10:15!"

Mr. Potter came up, and levitated James' trunk down to the first floor, where he pulled it into a Ministry car, which he had borrowed. James carried Jasper's owl cage and climbed in. Mr. Potter came in next. Mrs. Potter stood next to the car, watching her son and husband.

"James, behave yourself, won't you?" she said, kissing him through the window of the car. "Have a nice year!" she called as the car started.

"I should have given up on saying 'stay out of trouble' to James a long time ago," Mrs. Potter mused to herself, shaking her head, and waving to the car.

She watched as it steadily grew smaller, and when it finally disappeared around the bend, Mrs. Potter shook her head and went back inside to get ready for work.

When James and Mr. Potter arrived at the station, the driver found a trolley for James' trunk, then drove away. James, however paid no attention, as he had spotted someone.

"OI! Sirius!" James yelled at his best friend.

Sirius turned around and grinned.

"Hey!"

James and Sirius walked to the solid barrier.

"Well, ready for another day of chaos and mayhem?" James asked.

"Yep," Sirius replied, and together, they stepped through the barrier.

James took his trunk from his father, who had appeared behind him, said goodbye, and stepped onto the train with Sirius. They soon found Remus, who was with Peter, and they were both searching all the compartments on the train for James and Sirius.

"It's about time you showed up," Remus said.

"Yeah!" Peter agreed. "We've been looking all over for you guys!"

***

Lily opened her trunk to look for a book, but then something on the seat caught her attention. It was a wand. Lily looked at it, puzzled. She had not yet taken her wand out of her trunk. Could someone have left it there from last year? Lily picked it up, and it suddenly turned into a big green lizard with a loud pop. Lily screamed and dropped it. When it didn't move she realized that it was made of rubber, but it was so realistic that she had thought it was real.

The compartment door slid open and four boys came in.

"How dare you!" Lily shrieked through gritted teeth. She got out her wand, but before she picked it up, she looked carefully at it to make sure it was hers. Although it had been in her trunk, who knew what the boys could do.

Before she knew it, the boys had settled into the compartment. Lily narrowed her eyes, then stalked out of the compartment, dragging her trunk behind her.

She suddenly turned back, and in her fury, Lily said, "Lumos!"

The tip of her wand lighted. Lily flicked her wand at James, concentrating hard. To everyone's surprise, including Lily's, the light sailed off the end of her wand and traveled in the direction she had flicked. It hit James, and suddenly, he was glowing. There was a layer of bright light around him.

Everyone was staring at Lily, their mouths hanging open.

"How'd you do that?" Peter asked, amazed.

"Do what?" Lily said coldly.

"Oh, nothing, except perhaps say the lighting spell and then make it sail off the end of your wand and hit James, making him a glow," Sirius said sarcastically.

"I, like you, am going to Hogwarts. And unless I mistaken, people who go to Hogwarts have magic," Lily said acidly.

"But that was really powerful magic!" Sirius protested.

Lily stalked out, slamming the door behind her. As she left, she heard Sirius, Remus, and Peter burst out laughing at the glowing James. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Remus pull out a book and begin to read.

to Lily's dismay, The only compartment that had space for her was right next to the one that held the boys. The compartment

was not empty. A round-faced girl with dark hair was in it.

"Mind if I sit here?" Lily asked the girl.

"Not at all!" the girl said cheerfully, grinning at her. "I'm Alice Moore."

"I'm Lily Evans," Lily said as she settled herself onto the seat. "What house do you want to be in?"

"Oh, I don't know," Alice said thoughtfully. "All of my family's in Hufflepuff, but I don't think Gryffindor sounds too bad."

Meanwhile, next door, Sirius and Peter were still laughing.

"Shut up, you two, and try to help me and Remus look for a counter-curse!" James said angrily, pointing his wand at himself.

"Nox."

He stayed the same. James sighed.

"Finite Incantatem," Remus tried, pointing his wand at James.

No change.

"Finite," Sirius said, trying not to laugh.

Still no change.

"Hey, perhaps you have to flick your wand or something, since Evans flicked her wand to make me glow," James exclaimed.

Remus pointed his wand at James, and flicked his wand while he said, "Nox."

A small bead of blackness sailed off the tip of Remus's wand and hit James. Immediately he stopped glowing.

For the rest of the ride, James and Sirius planned pranks, Remus read, and Peter watched James and Sirius.

Alice and Lily became fast friends after their meeting. A lady with a trolley came, and Lily bought the sweets that she had tasted in Arabella's house. Lily had liked the Bott's Every Flavor Beans especially and bought two packets. She popped a white one inside her mouth, with Alice watching anxiously.

"Well?" Alice said. "What flavor is it?"

"Paper," Lily said as she chewed.

"Paper?" Alice made a face. "You actually like paper?"

"It's not bad," Lily said, shrugging.

Alice stared at Lily, than shook her head. "You are unbelievable."

They changed into robes as it was getting dark, and finally, the train started showing signs of slowing down.

"We're here!" Alice whispered. "I can't believe it!"

"We're almost there," Lily corrected her.

Suddenly, the train screeched to a halt. Everyone in the corridor started screaming and pushing. Lily and Alice finally squeezed through the door, with about ten other people trying to do the same thing at the same time.

Alice closed her eyes, muttering, "We're here, we're here, we're here. Please don't wake up, please don't wake up..."