He laughed. �You�re good at getting rid of people.�
�Are you hinting something? Don�t answer that,� she amended. �But go ahead.�
�Sure.� He sighed, then started walking around the lake, kicking at some fairy dust here and there. One or two fairy clumps still lived at Hogwarts, though they had almost all left the grounds since students had formed the practice of packing them in snowballs during the wintertime and throwing them at the Whomping Willow. They liked to come out at twilight, scrubbing the dust off of their wings, which had been termed �fairy dust�. It itched terribly, and, in contrast to Muggle perception, it didn�t make things or people fly.
�You remember Christmas-and what happened that night?�
She was running a bit to keep up with him, and he finally noticed that, slowing down. �Sorry.�
�Don�t mention it. Of course I remember.�
�Er-well, yes. I wanted to-I-er-�
�She is waiting impatiently for his answer. He hesitates to give it to her; anxiously, she bends forward. Will he ever tell her? Wait for the next episode, my friends; it�s airing next week at eight Monday night! And now we are greeted with the ever-popular-�
�Okay, okay, I�ll talk!�
�Phew. I thought for a minute you�d forgotten.�
Severus half-lifted a corner of his mouth as he reached down for a smooth stone. Reaching back, he threw it over the lake, where it skipped six times before finally sinking.
�I wanted to say I�m sorry for following you�and Potter. I guess I thought something was up�and I got sort of jealous�I never dreamed that Lupin was a-a-a werewolf. I just thought you were getting into something-and I told you how it was,� he pleaded, hands in a beseeching, helpless gesture; flung out in front of him.
�Black asked me what had been pushed through my head this time at dinner one night. I lost it�I point-blank pulled out my wand and told him to tell me where Potter went every month-I didn�t mention you. He told me�and told me how to get there.
�I never meant for you to get so close to being bitten by Lupin; I was being stupid. I don�t know why I didn�t run. And then you left�and Potter-�
�He saved your life,� Lily said curtly.
�Please don�t say that,� he winced. �I don�t want to be under an obligation to him.�
She took his arm. �It doesn�t matter what you want�when it comes to life�and the saving of it. It matters what happened�what people did�and what he did was something no one else there would have. He-he�s noble like that�and if you were, you�d want to repay him�You�ll get the chance someday--but I think, that when it comes to that�that it won�t be him that you�ll be saving, but someone dearer to him than he is to himself�he�s got a knack to get himself out of trouble, you know.�
�I know,� Severus frowned grimly. �I hate this. I won�t feel�I won�t feel right until I do something that gets me out of this�but the last thing I want to do is something for him.� He looked down into her dreamy face. �What you just said is going to be ringing in my head for the rest of my life; you know that, don�t you?�
Lily smiled. �You�ll eventually get tired of the everlasting bell.�
He sighed. �I suppose�but, well, what I wanted to say was that I�m sorry for following you�for being such a pillock�for everything, I guess.�
Steering him around an almost invisible inlet of the lake, Lily walked partly into the water; it was only up to the soles of her shoes, and she was still dry, but her eyes were fastened on the dusky glimmer and the candlelight sparkle of the ripples on the lake.
�Look�look out there. It�s huge�it could swallow you whole, if it wanted to�so much force, bonded together, and living�surviving�it could kill you, yet you trust it�hitherto it�s been almost harmless�but who knows what could happen before the next sunset��
Her voice diminished as she stared away from him, away from everything but the looming, grey-blue expanse of water, but her mind was on Tom�not on the lake.
Their N.E.W.T.s were coming up quickly; there only remained one Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Slytherin, before the sixth years would have to face the reality of the tests. Most of them had already started to study, naturally, Lily was among them. Everywhere she went, be it lunch, her bed before going to sleep, The Three Broomsticks, or an armchair in the common room, she had an opened, heavy book in front of her or on her lap. They all had impossibly illegible titles because of their age, gold corners at the edges, and some of them she pulled out her wand and muttered something over before opening them�those were trademarks of the books in the Restricted Section of the library; Dumbledore had given her a pass for them.
James and Sirius had been caught sneaking into the Forbidden Forest looking for an ingredient to a potion by the keeper of grounds; the recipe for which they had stolen from one of Lily�s books from the Restricted Section. Every evening, before they went to mop floors, polish door-handles, disembowel creatures for Professor Maar or Professor Cauldwell, or something of that sort, they could be heard moping and complaining all the way to their detention and quite some time beforehand. James� complaint that he�d miss Quidditch practice didn�t shake Professor McGonagall�s sentence.
[i]Study of Ancient Runes[/i] was getting harder, too. They were learning J.R.R. Tolkien�s [i]Quenyi[/i], his language for the High-Elves, which was based on a cult of small elvish creatures that lived somewhere in the Mediterranean. The Tolkien language was easier than the elvish one, but the structure and some of the words were similar, so by exam time, they were expected to know not only how to translate and write a few sentences in Quenyi, but to translate some of the elf-cult�s common phrases.
They were doing human Transfiguration in Professor McGonagall�s class, and more and more students were walking out of her classroom with cushions instead of legs or large, fluffy tails. It was much harder than most of them believed it was, and as Professor McGonagall had warned them that they would be changing themselves into an armchair for part of their exam, the common rooms were soon filled with muttered or shouted incantations, half-and-half armchairs and other things of that sort, and frustrated [i]Finite Incantatems.[/i]
Lily didn�t visit Tom any more that year. She had no wish to get in the middle of another fight between him and Litharelen, and Tom was busy now. More and more of the Slytherins were talking in hushed voices about their father�s new friend, or their new master, and she had seen one of the seventh years, one that had failed sixth year, pull up his left sleeve and show his peering friends the skull with the snake coming out of its mouth branded into his arm.
Rumors everywhere were slowly frightening people all over England. Tom had been gaining power since Lily had been in her fourth year, and he was planning to move to their country. It was terrifying to most people; the others didn�t care or were on Tom�s side.
But they didn�t know why they were afraid, and they weren�t nearly afraid enough. If Lily had reason to be and was afraid of pain and death, she would have been; she knew Tom better than anyone, except Litharelen, and she knew how dangerous he was, knew how cruel and heartless he could be, and she realized what a reign of terror the magical and Muggle world was in for.
But she couldn�t stop it. No will of a fifteen-year-old could stop the rise to power of one of the greatest wizards of all time, and she knew that all too well. Not even hers, though she had known him, was friendly with him, and had saved his fianc�e from an almost certain death. Litharelen hadn�t been able to turn his mind from its purpose, and if she couldn�t do it, then Lily was definitely not going to be able to.
Lily had tried to push all this out of her mind, but it kept coming back, it kept intruding, and she found herself reaching involuntarily for the chain around her neck, hoping some way to deter Tom�s mind from its purpose, before she came to her senses and retracted her hand.
She was getting along all right with the Marauders; at least with Sirius and Remus. Peter was too shy for her, and he never really talked much. Lily had always wondered why he, a tagalong nutcase, had ever been let into the Marauder group, but she supposed there had to be some quality of a danger-loving rulebreaker in him somewhere for the boys to like him that much.
James she didn�t see too often�he was usually poring over books in the common room with Serena, doing his detentions, making jokes about teachers in their classes, or he was at Quidditch practice. Lily had to smile every time she saw him with Serena�he had an odd light in his eyes that never came to light when he was speaking to anyone else. She didn�t know if Sirius and Remus had seen it; she didn�t think so, for she knew that they�d ridicule him beyond anything that was dear to anyone if they did.
Professor Dorvan was jumping the gun when it came to curses. They were only supposed to learn about the Unforgivable Curses in their seventh year, but without consulting anyone, Professor Dorvan was teaching them the ways to block the curses, though only one in five thousand wizards were capable of performing the countercurses only to the Cruciatus Curse, even if they weren�t rolling on the floor, screaming.
So far they had only practiced the words, though that was all they were going to be doing; their teacher had no intention of going to Azkaban for torturing her students. The Imperious Curse, though, they were facing; they were doing idiotic things like rummaging through their desks and making paper airplanes out of notes they had been passing, and then handing them to Professor Dorvan. They had learned not to pass notes in her class.
Professor Flitwick, the small Charms teacher, was trying to bury the steps to decorating a room with holiday trappings into their heads; he was trying as hard as he could to make them understand the basic principles of making snow non-melting, but the whole class seemed to have developed a sort of block about it, maybe because they were standing in a classroom with snow falling from the ceiling.
The last Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Slytherin, would decide not only which House won the Quidditch Cup, but which house won the House Cup, unless someone from the winning House did something stupid and lose about a hundred points or so.
Along with everyone else, Lily was excited and anxious for the game; though she wasn�t the kind of Quidditch lover like James, who would suffocate if he were taken off of his broomstick, it was fun to watch once in a while.
The teams were practicing late, and they would come in growling if a thunderstorm hit, complaining that Madam Hooch wouldn�t let them practice through the thunderstorms. Lily could see Madam Hooch�s point of view when she looked at the windows; whips of rain were lashing the windows, bolts of lightning wider than their fists were glancing down the golden hoops on the Quidditch field, and the sky, purple and dark blue, was lit up to a pale grey ever so often when one of those lightning bolts struck. Lily saw no reason why the team was complaining about being sent inside.
It was pouring water balloons the morning of the match, and Peeves couldn�t have been more delighted. He had pushed a melancholy ghost that haunted one of the girls� toilets to try to drown herself, and he was pleased with the result. So pleased, in fact, that he had cleaned out the Gryffindors� supply of red clothing. They appeared at breakfast in the regular black school robes, devoid of crimson cloaks, burgundy hoods, ruby scarves, and scarlet socks. Peeves was taken to task for that, but when Professor McGonagall found that he had put a few of the socks into the bread mixture, the students as a whole reached for their plates and shoved them as far away from them as possible.
Soon, however, the noisy group rose from their seats and made for the Quidditch field, where they trooped into their seats. Everyone was too excited about a good Quidditch game to notice that the members of the Gryffindor team were looking slightly more pale than was normal.
Most people had had the foresight to bring umbrellas; those that didn�t were sharing. Lily didn�t want to bother with one, so she had simply thrown on Severus� cape, pulled the hood on over her head, and charmed it with the [i]Impervius[/i] spell; it was repelling water now, and she was relatively dry; at least, she was less soaked than those that hadn�t brought umbrellas. Lily was kept busy for a few minutes, charming other people�s cloaks and robes, but then the game started, and they could almost forget about the rain.
The Ravenclaw commentator had been removed because of the biased comments, and a Slytherin boy with dark hair and icy grey eyes was commentating. They seemed to go through commentators awfully quickly, Lily thought, though the one before the Ravenclaw had graduated; she hadn�t been discharged.
Down on the field, the teams mounted their brooms. On Madam Hooch�s whistle, they rose into the air; there was a momentary squabble over the Quaffle, and then the commentary started.
�And they�re off! Quaffle goes to James Potter of Gryffindor; he�s heading up the field there, skirts a Bludger and a Beater, and makes his way around Slytherin Chaser Reynold Atherton�the Quaffle goes to Miranda Shaw of Gryffindor. She does a nice swerve underneath Slytherin Seeker Roger Knappett, leans forward�and the Quaffle goes to Rebecca Oxley of Gryffindor�Potter�Shaw�Potter�and Potter scores! Ten-zero to Gryffindor!�
The Gryffindors� cheers pierced the falling rain, and James, contrary to his usual feint of bowing exaggeratedly, was squinting through the sheets of water at something.
�Quaffle goes to Slytherin Chaser Charlotte Rowlands; she elbows Oxley in the side, dodges a Bludger�and the Quaffle is in the hands of Atherton�Rowlands�and Rowlands is heading up the field�flying, flying�aiming--!�
Suddenly, a large Bludger came hurtling from John�s direction when Reynolds had her arm raised to throw. It caught her off guard, despite the warning cries of her teammates, seized her in the side, and bowled her over several times; she was barely clinging on to her broom with her knees when it stopped hurtling. Climbing on top of her broom again, she shot a death glare at John, but it was too late; the Quaffle was in the hands of the Gryffindors, and the match went on.
�Quaffle goes to Oxley of Gryffindor; she�s heading up the field, throws�Quaffle to Shaw�Potter�Potter flying�Shaw�Potter�Oxley�no, no�Oxley dropped the Quaffle; it�s in the hands of Slytherin Chaser Gerard Fulford. Fulford flying towards the goalposts�Quaffle stolen from him by Potter�that was a snatch underneath the arm there, and Potter�s flying up the field��
Soon the score was fifty to thirty for Gryffindor, and the game was getting rougher. John was hitting Bludgers right and left, barely missing his teammates as the Slytherins bowled over and over, scarcely hanging on to their brooms. Besides that, if possible, the rain started to hurtle down even harder than it had been, and people were standing in puddles in the stands. Lily had resorted to performing the Impervius charm twice on cloaks, hoods, and robes, and she had started doing it to people�s shoes, too. Most of the students carrying umbrellas were soaked, including Lora and Sirius, who were sharing one, and wanted to see if they could last the game without drowning. Presently it didn�t look too good.
Up in the air, the match went on.
�Slytherin Chaser Atherton heading towards the goals�he aims�no, he throws the Quaffle to Fulford there�back to Atherton�Rowlands�Fulford�Rowlands�ROWLANDS SCORES!! SCORE IS EIGHTY TO SIXTY!�
The Slytherin end was cheering as hard as they could, though the Gryffindors were booeing with all their might. With renewed energy, the teams started to play again.
�Slytherin Beater Alan Greenwood launches nasty Bludger at Gryffindor Beater Shaw�she ducks, but not fast enough�OUCH!�that must have hurt, straight on the jaw!�
Miranda was sinking to the ground, grasping her mouth with both hands, only narrowly holding a scream of pain in. Lily almost ran down to her, but the crowd prevented her from moving at all.
�Oh, that must have [i]hurt![/i] But�wait�no, she�s up! She�s back in the air! And�the game continues!�
Anya had landed first, and she had sprinted over to Miranda, splashing her with mud. She had bent down, and Miranda had said something; straightway after that, both girls regained their brooms. Suddenly, everyone�s attention was drawn to both Anya and Knappett, the Slytherin Seeker, who were heading for a remote golden, gleaming point near the bottom of the goalposts.
Everyone was on the tips of their toes, holding their breath.
�Both Seekers heading for the Snitch! MacGregor pulls ahead�no, Knappett�they�re neck to neck�wait�where�d that Bludger come from�Winters hits a nasty one towards both of them�Knappett curls over�and�MACGREGOR CATCHES THE SNITCH�GRYFFINDOR WINS THE MATCH!�
Hordes of Gryffindors were pouring onto the muddy field, along with the rain, hugging the team members and lifting them onto their shoulders, cheering with all their might. All except Miranda; Madam Pomfrey immediately transported her to the hospital wing; her jaw was broken.
That was the only drop of uneasiness that the Gryffindors felt that day, as Professor Dumbledore presented Nigel with the Quidditch Cup and it was passed along to Anya, who raised it high above the crowds, almost crying with glee and happiness.
The rest of the afternoon and the night, while rain and bits of branches hit the windows and walls of the castle, the party in Gryffindor House raged. Lora and Sirius had managed to sneak the trophy out of its position in the trophy room, and it was standing proudly in the middle of the common room. James would have helped, but as one of the Quidditch heroes, his disappearance would have been noticed, and so would his reappearance from underneath an Invisibility Cloak. He was also rather incapable of moving without wincing and groaning a bit, as he seemed to be the major target for the Slytherin Beaters.
Remus, Sirius, Peter, and Lora had made their way down to the kitchens before the Gryffindors returned. Within a good quarter-hour, they were back with half of the food that had been made for the Gryffindor dinner table, including sausages, custards, pastries, puddings, ice cream, cakes, �clairs, treacle tarts�everything they could sneak out of the kitchens.
The house-elves were falling over each other to hand them as many platters and pitchers as they could, and they ended up having to make five trips each. Sirius and Remus made several secret trips to Hogsmeade for candy from Honeydukes and butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks, which was meanwhile giving them a discount, as they always bought such a large amount for the parties.
The result was magnificent. The common room was piled high with everything they could imagine when it came to sweets, and Gryffindor banners were smothering the windows and walls. Lora had even managed to lure a fairy into the room, and it took its place on top of the Quidditch cup, sparkling with glee.
Everyone was laughing that night, and everyone, including Serena, Elspeth, and Diana, stuffed their faces until they couldn�t hold any more.
It was after the party that the real studying for the exams began; not only Lily was burying herself in the library. It was usually crowded during the evening hours they had free, and every single fifth, sixth, and seventh year was edgier, if possible, than they had been the last year.
The Gryffindors and some Slytherins were swamping Lily with requests to get them books from the Restricted Section of the library, and Madam Pomfrey was keeping her at her wits� ends for excuses on why she needed books entitled [i]Grotesque Transformations: The Secret Behind it all[/i] or [i]Transfigurations to be Avoided[/i].
Easter holidays went by so quickly that the students hardly noticed they had passed. Peter had actually asked James when they would start, a week after they had passed. It had provided a large laugh when James interrupted the common room�s studying, and Peter got several crumpled bits of parchment thrown at his head.
April and May passed quickly. Professor Dorvan was putting double the strength of the Imperious Curse on them, and they were finding it harder and harder to resist. Hardly anyone could throw it off, and when she advanced to triple the strength, they were starting to become desperate. Each and every student, including Lily, would be limping along to the Great Hall for dinner after doing impossible flips and handstands, and throwing the curse off in the middle of them.
James and Peter returned from Care of Magical Creatures with scars on their wrists; they were trying to tame griffins, creatures with the front legs and head of a giant eagle and body and hind legs of a lion. It was rumored that experts could tame it, but James said darkly that there were no experts in England, then, including Professor Kettleburn.
The morning of the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests was a beautiful day, in contrast to the storms and drizzles they had been having.
�We are cursed,� James mumbled as he dragged his feet into the Great Hall. �We are, quite simply, without a question of a doubt, cursed.�
�Cursed?� Lily sniffed, who was walking next to him. �How so?�
�We are! Normal people wouldn�t have to do this�this��
�James, it�s only an exam,� she stated wearily.
�Yeah, but an exam that could kill us!�
Lily groaned. �I give up.�
�That works. But sit next to me, okay? I haven�t quite figured out what the point is of burning dragon�s blood to make that acidy potion��
It was much harder than the Ordinary Wizarding Levels had been; in the first place, there were more questions, and they were covering things that most of the students had only heard once in a lifetime and never remembered, like what color the hippocampus was that was caught by merpeople off the shores of Scotland in 1949. The answer was pale blue, but some later revealed that they had given answers like �sixteen�.
The day passed more quickly than they thought it would; by three o�clock, the sixth year as a whole was finished, and they were free to leave. They weren�t free of studying yet, though; Lily, the Marauders, Lora, and quite a few others were hurrying to their books for tomorrow�s Divination test, an exam that most of them would very probably fail. Lily was surer of herself than most of the Gryffindors; she knew that she could make up things easily, and she was going to, if that was the only way to make a perfect grade in that class.
Professor Trelawney gave one of the most idiotic exams any of them had seen yet, though they were glad that they hadn�t received a harder assignment. They had to, using crystal balls, tea leaves, palms, and calculations, predict the amount of N.E.W.T.s they would receive.
Backwards psychology was needed here; all of the students except about one or two gave an impossible answer after giving up on the divination part. They told her that they would receive three N.E.W.T.s, which she loved; pessimism was her favorite aspect of her profession. She didn�t seem to recognize that no one, ever, had received three N.E.W.T.s; it was impossible to obtain below five.
Lily, on the other hand, knew almost exactly what score she was going to get, and, quite honestly, she told Professor Trelawney that she would accept twenty-two N.E.W.T.s, which was the amount of O.W.L.s she got last time. Professor Trelawney wasn�t too pleased, but she couldn�t fail Lily, because she knew that Lily [i]would[/i] get that many or more, since she had ranked at the top of the fifth years in the magical world.
Finally, after a long, grueling week of testing, they were free, liberated, released from the monotony of the Great Hall and the scratching of quills on parchment, they had no more classes or testing to sit through, and they could lie on the grass in front of the castle and blow soap bubbles at the giant squid�s eyes to their heart�s content.
It was even hotter than it had been last year, which seemed almost impossible. But it was more comfortable next to the lake, which offered cool breezes that flowed over them. Scattered all over the lawns, Hogwarts� student population sprawled, talking lazily to each other, performing Freezing charms on their friends� hair, and poking their not-so-well-liked classmates with Tarantallegra hexes, which, besides the rather embarrassing quickstep one was forced to do, made a sweat break out, and the teachers had forbidden anyone from even dipping their toes in the lake. Actually, they had threatened the loss of one hundred and fifty points to the student�s House that even waded into the lake, but they had gotten the idea.
Lily was sitting cross-legged in a group composed of Sirius, Remus, Peter, James, Lora, Amanda, and Eva. Serena, Elspeth, and Diana had gone inside, after they had learned how to perform the Freezing charm properly, at which they had received the idea to charm the atmosphere in their dormitory. Lily snickered to herself, and when they had vanished, she burst out laughing.
She had tried that before, and it hadn�t worked, at least not in the way she had thought it would. It simply froze one molecule of the air at a time, and it was an impossible task to charm an entire dormitory one molecule at a time before school let out.
James frowned�he knew what she was laughing at, and he filled his friends in, too. He was the only one that wasn�t laughing at the end of his small speech.
�You mean they�re going to be freezing air, one molecule at a time?�
�Oh, what [i]idiots![/i]�
�Well, looks like someone�s going to lose their temper rather soon.�
�Exactly; it would take them [i]years![/i]
James hit Sirius with the back of his hand. �Cut it out, will you?�
�Why?�
James glared at him.
�Oh, okay, okay! Fine. I won�t laugh now. May I snicker when she accidentally freezes herself?�
James glared at him.
�Okay, okay! Calmness�a virtue of great sorts�James, I won�t pick at her.�
Lora�s face widened into a smile, and James rounded on her. Her grin dropped.
�You ruin all the fun. Fine. I won�t, either.�
�Good.�
Lily couldn�t resist. �Just one little bitty snicker?�
It turned out that Serena didn�t lose her temper; and she didn�t do anything undignified of sorts. She simply reappeared, with her school robes off, and wearing only shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. It was no more extreme than anything anyone else was wearing, but on her it looked�well, it looked [i]vulgar.[/i] She had a talent for that.
Quickly, the week passed, and Professor McGonagall was handing out their marks at breakfast on Saturday. There were excited squeals and disgruntled groans; satisfied �Phew!�s and disappointed �But��s. The noises of tearing paper could be heard all through the Great Hall, into the entrance hall, and out onto the grounds.
James leaned back in his seat with a satisfied grin on his face after ripping his envelope in half and tearing his mutilated letter out. He had received thirteen N.E.W.T.s�he only had had twelve Ordinary Wizarding Levels last year. Coolly slurping a glass of pumpkin juice, he listened, pleased, to Serena�s congratulatory squeals.
On Lily�s part, she turned the parchment envelope over and over before opening it, fingering the ruby wax seal and her name written in sparkling emerald ink at least seven times prior to slitting it open with her butter-knife and pulling out her marks, also written in the glittery green liquid.
[i]Dear Miss Evans,
Your scores are, for the following classes:
Transfiguration: 115%
Potions: 119%
Defense Against the Dark Arts: 125%
Charms: 156%
Herbology: 121%
Astronomy: 132%
Divination: 97%
Anatomy: 119%
A Study of Ancient Runes: 128%
Dear Miss Evans,
We are pleased to inform you of your scores for the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s). We would like to remind you that these are internationally standardized exams and that your score reflects your progress in comparison to other young wizards and witches of your age.
The amount of Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests you may hope to obtain is thirty; though hardly five wizards and witches per magical school obtain above twelve.
Your placement is, out of the sixth year Hogwarts examinees: 1 out of 151
Your placement is, out of the sixth year European examinees: 1 out of 18,954
Your placement is, out of the sixth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools: 1 out of 10,984,853
You have earned the honorable degree of twenty-four (24) Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s).
With our congratulations, we are
The International Board of School Directors[/i]
Lily looked up in a daze. They used exactly the same wording as they had when they gave her her scores for the O.W.L.s, but still�her fifth year, her scores were tops, and now this�She floated in a sort of dreamland until her marks were snatched out of her hands.
Sirius glanced up and down the parchment. �You [i]didn�t![/i]�
Lora, puzzled, leaned over. �What?�
�She got top scores. [i]Again.[/i]�
�Top scores�lemme see that.� James ripped the letter cleanly out of Sirius hands and nearly choked on his pumpkin juice.
�Ex[i]cuse[/i] me? What is this�[i]out of the sixth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools: 1 out of ten million something? And I thought I was good! You officially make me want to hit you!�[/i]
Smiling composedly, Lily retrieved her letter from his hands and folded it up, placing it in her pocket. Inside, however, she wasn�t nearly as unruffled as she appeared; she was tumbling and turning cartwheels and leaping off of two thousand-foot-high cliffs into the sea�
Eva simply beamed at her from across the table; she knew how her friend was feeling. �Lily, that�s wonderful!�
Eva herself had received nine O.W.L.s; she had done quite well, in comparison with some of the other fifth years. Amanda had nine, too; Lora had ten N.E.W.T.s; Sirius had twelve, Remus ten, and Peter seven. Lucius and Severus showed her theirs later on that day; each of them had eleven, and each pair of eyes that saw hers almost detached their own nerve cells and flicked themselves out of their skulls.
Almost unaware of them all, the holidays were coming up quickly. The morning of their departure, Lily was halfheartedly sitting on her bed, placing folded robes inside her trunk, and dreamily staring out of the window.
�I don�t want to go back. I feel more at home here than I ever will�with the people here�they�re more of a family to me than anyone else in the world. I know we fight, but so do siblings��
The sunlight poured onto her upturned face as she gazed at a flock of birds circling the sun.
Before they boarded the train, Professors McGonagall, Maar, Flitwick, and Dorvan were handing out end-of term notices saying they weren�t allowed to use magic over the summer�Lily and all the rest either made faces or groaned as they received these. Still, they used the rest of the time they had with each other to pile into compartments and to pull out games; Lily shared one with Lora, Eva, Amanda, and Vanessa. They had set up a game of chess on one of the seats; Lily and Eva were sitting on the two next to the chessboard; Amanda and Vanessa were challenging each other to a game of Exploding Snap, and Lora was building a card castle out of the remaining Exploding Snap cards, knocking it over and singeing someone�s sleeve whenever she thought they looked too interested in what they were doing.
Finally, Lily sat back and sighed, having just taken Eva�s queen. �You know, Eva�somehow I doubt whether anything�ll stay the same.�
Eva looked up, surprised. �What? Of course it will; what are you saying?�
�Nothing,� Lily checked herself. �I just wish things didn�t have to change��
�Nothing lasts forever,� Lora intoned, sounding exactly like a bad actress in a terribly written play�unbelievable and fake.
�I know, I know�still, it would be nice if it did,�
The Hogwarts express roared on through the countryside, spilling grey smoke into the air�
They all spattered out onto the platform at King�s Cross as soon as it stopped; in the case of James and Sirius, before it stopped. The platform was filled with waiting families and grinning siblings, shouting welcome banners for the former seventh years and some lower years, and a pleased, family-like racket and mayhem everywhere. Casting one longing glance at a child that was given a large kiss on the cheek by her mother and swung into the air by her father, she markedly turned her trolley towards the barrier. Closing her eyes to shut out the families all around her, she pushed her luggage through it.
Lily opened her eyes to the Muggle world of King�s Cross. It was as usual; hurried men and women in correct business suits were walking past with absolutely no consideration for the children that had popped through a stone wall. Lily cast a glance around, looking for her parent and sister, but she couldn�t find them; she had already walked to the entrance of the train station before she saw them hurrying towards her.
With a vague, uncertain smile on their faces, Petunia and her father greeted her. By now, Petunia was seventeen, and she was starting to look down on her little sister. Her father, on the other hand, almost froze at the half-glare Lily gave him before she remembered what James had tried to hammer into her head and checked herself.
�Hello, Father, Petunia,� she greeted them, more constrained than she had ever said anything to them before.
�Lily, you�re here�good. Er�let me get your trunk�you can�t carry that��
Lily felt herself surrounded by something unpleasant; the familiar, warm atmosphere that had surrounded her at Platform 9 and � had utterly vanished when she met her father and sister�a strain of something close to dislike had spread over the barrier between them. When her mother was alive, nothing had ever been like this�
