Circa 1976: The Turning Point
By Minxie
Disclaimer: HP belongs to nobody but the magnificent J.K. Rowling herself : ).
Summary:A year of romance, intrigue, and adventure for the students at Hogwarts. Popular and dashing James Potter, of course, is very much in love with the lovely Lily Evans, but she is having none of it, despite his best efforts to woo her. His best friend Sirius Black, with his good looks and charm, is the ultimate ladies' man, with a different girl every week. When one particular girl, who's spent her entire time thus far at Hogwarts as rather plain and bookish blossoms into a beauty herself, Sirius can't help but notice. However, he soon finds himself in a predicament much like that of his best friend when his advances towards her are rejected. To what lengths will these two swaggering egotists go to win their sweethearts over? And will they change for the better in the process? You'll have to read on to find out ;).
Warning: will contain teen drama, oh so evil popular girls, wild pranks, heated snogging sessions, conspiring Slytherins... There also may be some darker elements later on...
Give it a shot, you might like it :). At least I hope...(crosses fingers)
Prologue
Dear Diary,
My mum got me this diary as a sixteenth birthday present just last week. This would be my first entry ever, and it should be made clear that I only do this to stop my dear mummy from nagging me to do it in the first place. I've always found diaries to be a silly waste of time, personally.
Anyways, I guess I should start by describing my life. My name is Kylie Hart. I'm the only daughter and child of Hyun and Randolph Hart. My maternal grandparents were Muggle Korean-Americans, and my mum came here to Britain to take part in the International Confederation of Wizards Junior League Competition that was held at Hogwarts years ago. That was when she met and eventually married my dad. Her sister, Min, lives in California with her daughter, Romola. The Hart family, from what my parents have told me, can be traced back for several centuries, and has always been a family of pureblood wizards and witches. That is, of course, until my dad decided to marry my Muggleborn mother against the very particular wishes of the rest of the family (some of them can be the worst when it comes to their stupid 'pureblood superiority' nonsense).
I guess you could say the Hart family is an aristocratic lot. All our wealth has been passed on and on for centuries, and so has the Hart manor. It's a nice place to live in and all, but sometimes I wonder if it would be much more comfortable to live in a tad bit smaller of a home… that didn't seem quite so "alive", if you know what I mean. I guess that's the cost of living in an old wizard family's house when you're surrounded by magical things and have to contend with doors that mysteriously vanish, moving staircases, ghosts, or portraits that like to gossip and spy on you. That sort of thing.
Anyhow, tomorrow I will be leaving to start my sixth year at Hogwarts. I was fortunate enough last year to do rather well on my O.W.Ls. I got nine, most of them with Outstanding marks, except for in Transfiguration (E), D.A.D.A (E), and Divination (P). I've never been very good at Transfig, and I've always hated Divination. I'm amazed I didn't get a D grade! The only classes I feel strong with are Charms and Ancient Runes… and that's about it. But, high marks mean taking those grueling N.E.W.T classes.
Of course, my parents insist that I take as many as possible, which is going to be horrible this year with all my other prefect duties. I mean, I'm not even supposed to be a prefect. There's usually just two per house, but our year is 'special' because we have a much bigger class, which apparently means you need three prefects per house instead. Sure the staff said that, but I think it's just because our class has so many more troublemakers than any others. My best friend, Lily Evans, is another girl prefect in my house, but I dunno why I got picked also, considering I'm hardly prefect material compared to others. But, whatever.
So, now that I'm on the subject of my friends... I'm in Gryffindor house, and there are six other girls. There's Lily, of course, who's definitely the nicest person I know. She's the studious, attentive one of our year. She's also been the most popular amongst the boys ever since they all decided she was worth looking at in our fourth year. (Honestly, males can be so shallow.) She ignores them all, of course, but that doesn't mean they've given up (I swear she got at least fifty love notes a week last year).
Two other good friends of mine in Gryffindor are Taren Briggs and Kimmie Denton. Kimmie, when I first met her, was kind of a hardcore tomboy – she's always loved playing around and breaking the rules. She's definitely the most vivacious amongst our little group, and until recently (now that she's apparently grown out of the tomboyish stage) she's also been the one who dates the most. I lost track of how many boys she's dated (she's very fickle and never sticks with one guy for very long). Taren is a very outspoken, opinionated person, and loves to give advice and help out everyone with everything. She's very sweet, and is very studious like Lily – they're both the responsible/extra credit doing/non-stop working/no nonsense ones. If there's anyone who should've been a prefect instead of me, it's totally her. Anyhow, the three of them are my best friends in the whole world.
In Gryffindor there are also the Brooks twins, Opal and Ocean (why their parents gave them those names I have no idea). I don't really know what to say about those two. I mean, they're both really sweet and always mean well, but sometimes they can be the most annoying human beings on the planet. They're both blonde and very pretty, and they both know it, too. It has sadly made them rather full of themselves. Plus they tend to talk and talk and talk nonstop about the dullest things imaginable. I do my best to be as polite as possible, even though I can barely stand them. The last girl is Mallory Dodge, and I swear she is so much like the twins that they might as well have been triplets together instead. Those three have their own "we-love-hot-guys-and-shopping-obsessively" club together, and it takes up a lot of their time. They've survived the school years mostly from borrowing everyone else's notes or getting tutored by Lily or Taren.
As for me, I'm short and too skinny. (I personally would give anything to be at least a head taller! Have you any idea how hard it is to enforce your prefect authority when you're as tiny as I am?). I hate my hair and I wish my eyes were a different color. I have to wear glasses that I hate because they don't suit me at all. I play Seeker for my house team, something that I don't think boys find feminine enough. I've been on dates, sure, if you can call them that when your supposed 'date' spends the whole time ogling other females in the vicinity or treating you like just another one of their guy friends. Never had a boyfriend, and never been kissed… yet. But classes and homework take up all my time so who needs boyfriends anyway?
And that happens to bring me to another subject: the boys of our year.
During my time at Hogwarts, I've often wondered whether I was cursed to be stuck in the same year and house of the Marauders; a little 'clique', shall we say, of the most irritating pranksters imaginable. The worst are the ringleaders, James Potter and Sirius Black. They're almost like brothers because they're rarely seen apart, and they're famous at Hogwarts for their tendency of causing mayhem and breaking the rules whenever possible. It galls me that so many girls from the other houses are constantly nagging me about them, whether it's for information on their likes and dislikes, or if I could be so kind as to arrange for them to meet so that they can 'hook up'. Honestly! And just because they're extremely good looking and both play Quidditch like pros. How people can be so superficial is beyond me. (Personally, I could never like someone that egotistical, no matter how 'outrageously handsome' he was.)
It's actually rather amusing that James Potter, who can easily get whatever girl he wanted, has set his sights on Lily. Kimmie says it's a psychological thing. "You always want what you can't have." The same seems to apply to James and his fondness for Lily. I could almost feel sorry for him at his feeble attempts in wooing her… except he's like the biggest jerk on the planet so I don't really care at all.
No, wait, I take that back. Though James may be a git, that honorable title belongs only to Sirius Black. No one else I know could say the most asinine comments conceivable like he does. He is rude, conceited, and a womanizer. Until I met him I never knew someone could be so full of himself – so completely narcissistic! That prick irritates me to no end, and it totally gets on my nerves whenever some empty-headed girl completely disregards his less-than-saintly reputation and shamelessly flirts and pines for him. God, just because he happens to be a "total hottie!" (This I state with an appropriate role of my eyes.)
Now then, the other two amongst the Marauders aren't nearly as bad as James and Sirius. Remus Lupin, for instance, is actually a very respectable and nice fellow classmate. He's even a prefect. It's weird how Remus is so different compared to the other guys, and they're still best mates. He's the only one I can stand to be in the same room with. Plus he is a really good friend and one of the few boys I know considerate enough to listen to your opinions/problems and not burst out laughing at them like some people I know. The other one is Peter Pettigrew. He's a really timid boy who doesn't seem to be nearly as talented in classes as the other 'Marauders'. He's hardly ever seen not tailing after his heroes, James and Sirius, and seems more than willingly to be their lapdog.
There are three other Gryffindor boys in our year but they aren't counted amongst the Marauders. There's Kingsley Shacklebolt, and he's a lot like Remus in that he's got sense and respectability. There's also Dedalus Diggle, and I must say the word that comes to mind for him is silly. He's a sweet fellow and means well, but he's somewhat clumsy, and gets carried away with things easily. Quite a few accidents have happened in Charms and Transfiguration because of his antics, but they're more in the way of amusing rather than serious. There's also Tobias Randall (who goes by Toby), and he's basically a matey with everyone because he's such a friendly, laid-back guy. He's almost as popular with the ladies as the 'infamous duo' is, except he doesn't gloat about it half as much. He's also a Chaser on our house team (alongside Sirius and James).
I seem to be meticulously describing all my friends and anyone else I'm associated with, so I might as well talk about those few I don't like at all. Those people who are my 'enemies', or in a simplified term, the Slytherins. Somehow all the students in that house manage to become really unpleasant characters who seem to despise all Gryffindors and anyone who isn't pureblood. Even their head of house, Professor Hooke, doesn't like us. There's this one gang who loathes us the most, and are considered the 'Dark Arts fanatics'. Well, that's what James and Sirius always call them, and I can't help but agree. There's Rodolphus Lestrange and his older brother Rabastan (despicable boys, always up to no good), Cyril Avery (short sneaky guy, likes to start nasty rumors about people he doesn't like, particularly Gryffindors), Grigori Jugson and Eugene Thackeray (both all around bullies), Bartemius Crouch (would be a nice-looking kid if he wasn't so creepy and obsessed with Dark curses), and fifth year Regulus Black (Sirius' younger brother, never has a nice thing to say to anyone), to name a few. The girl's are as bad as the guys, too. Stringy haired Pascale Wilkes is spiteful and mean, and has never failed to send some awful remark at a Gryffindor whenever she sees one, especially to Lily. There's also Bellatrix Black, Sirius' cousin. She's vain, malicious, cruel hearted, and horribly callow. It's been extremely difficult keeping my temper in check in her presence. I am, after all, a prefect, and I'm supposed to be an example to other students. She and Severus Snape, they're the worst.
You could say Snape was the Marauder's worst enemy. He's a mean and slimy little oddball who came to school knowing more curses than most seventh year students. He's always hated James and Sirius, ever since they met as first years. I think he was jealous of their popularity, and he's apparently been determined to get them expelled for years. I'm so relieved that Lily's stopped hanging out with him after all these years - she knew Snape for a while before Hogwarts and apparently he was tolerable enough company once (something I find incredibly hard to believe - I think Lily may have exaggerated a bit, she's too nice)... At least she's finally seen the light when it comes to that creep.
I've certainly written a lot for someone who claims to be above diary writings, haven't I? I guess once I got started the words just kept coming. I could probably think of loads more to write about… but I'm not going to do it (at least not today). What I've written so far seems to have created a so-so picture of my life (most of it blurred by my own personal opinions and prejudices), so I'm going to bed. Big, early, hectic back-to-school morning to look forward to…
Kylie
Chapter One: The "Maraudettes"
"I'll send an owl as soon as I can, Mrs. Eliot," Kylie said, giving her old nanny (and now housekeeper) a warm hug.
"I'm sorry your parents couldn't be here to escort you instead, my dear. They're always very busy, of course," the elderly woman said anxiously.
"It's okay, I know," Kylie replied with a smile.
"Have a good year, darling," Mrs. Eliot said briskly as the beaming, petite girl clothed in billowy black school robes spun around to get onto the Hogwarts Express, having loaded her luggage already. She handed her the girl's bag. "Do remember your studies! You know how important they are! Your parents love you!"
"Yes, Mrs. Eliot. I know. Goodbye!"
Soon she was winding her way down the train corridor, looking for the prefect's compartments. Other students were still crowding the station platform even as the train's warning bell went off.
"Kylie!" Lily Evans cried, leaping to her feet as Kylie appeared in the compartment doorway. "It's so good to see you!"
"Hey, Lily," Kylie smiled, hugging her fiery-haired best friend and sitting down. "It's been ages, how are you?"
"Oh, terrible! My parents have been constantly fawning over me ever since I got my O.W.L. results and now Petunia hates me more than ever," sighed Lily, the sparkle fading momentarily from her jade green eyes.
"Hasn't your sister always been like that?"
"Yes, but now she won't even look at me. At least before she would acknowledge my existence by insulting me, but now it's as though she can't stand the sight of me!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Lil. You shouldn't let her get to you, though. She's just jealous, isn't she?"
Lily sighed with a shrug. "I… suppose… I don't see why she should be, though. I mean, she got angry when our parents favored me all the time, but I'm only home for the summers. She's with them the whole school year."
Kylie shrugged as well. "She probably wishes she could go to Hogwarts as well. Just think what it must be like, not using magic, ever."
Lily nodded, glancing out the window to the platform that was now devoid of students. "You know, it didn't make things any better with him sending me an owl every week," she muttered, her kind eyes suddenly flashing dangerously.
"I suppose you mean James?" asked Kylie, failing to suppress a chuckle. "Is he still trying to ask you out?"
"Yes, unfortunately," she replied, bristling. "Why can't he just go after some Hufflepuff girl? They all love him. Why me?"
"It's a guy thing," answered Kylie simply. "You know how they can be about manly pride."
"Indeed," Lily said, trailing off with a grumpy look.
A whistle went off, and the train started to move. The prefects from the other houses were now arriving in the large prefect compartment, including Remus Lupin. He greeted them with a nod of his sandy-brown head and sat down next to Lily.
"Hey," he said with a friendly smile.
"Hey Remus," Lily said brightly.
"Have a good summer?" asked Kylie.
"An interesting one, no doubt. Sirius ran away from his home last month," he answered thoughtfully.
"What? Why?" she blurted out with surprise, while Lily gave Remus a wide-eyed look.
"He had his reasons," he said quietly after a moment. "I probably would have too, having met that mother of his."
"Where did he go?" asked Lily curiously.
"To James' place," he replied. "I went there a few times myself this summer. Peter, too."
"Oh, I should have known," Lily said with a sigh. "You know I thought Sirius was giving James tips in all those notes he sent me all month. It certainly seemed like it."
Remus chortled. "Well… they were. James discussed you quite often."
Lily let out a derisive snort.
"I was just with him a moment ago," added Remus. "I think he wants to talk to you."
"He always wants to talk to me! And he always says the same thing!" cried Lily, folding her arms with an angry frown. "Does he think if he persists in annoying me I'll finally relent and go out with him?"
Remus smiled and shrugged. "He usually keeps those thoughts to himself. I wouldn't know."
Judging from the look on his face, Kylie assumed he knew exactly what James was thinking regarding Lily. She chose not to say anything except give him pointed look, raising one brow.
They were soon joined by the sixth year Hufflepuff prefects, Sedgewick Olsten, Pippa Simmons and Bellany Abbey, and then the Ravenclaws, Jack Davies, Florence Ashton and Xiu Chen. The Slytherin prefects, Bartemius Crouch Jr., Rodolphus Lestrange and Ursula Urvins sauntered past them, giving them dark looks before sitting with the other Slytherins.
Bellany was eagerly inquiring Remus about whether James and Sirius were currently single when the new Head Boy and Girl arrived to give instructions.
When all was said and done, Lily and Kylie said goodbye to Remus, intending to seek out Kimmie Denton and Taren Briggs before it was their turn to patrol the corridors. They found them soon enough in a compartment trading Chocolate Frog cards.
"There you two are! We've been waiting forever!" exclaimed Kimmie.
"So sorry to keep you. I trust you've been enjoying yourselves in our absence?" Kylie asked, grinning as they took a seat.
"Not at all," sighed Taren, throwing back her shoulder-length dark hair over her shoulder. "James came by a little while ago to pester us about you, Lil, and then the Brooks twins stopped by to giggle and gossip with us before they left to look for James and Sirius. That's all."
Lily's eyes had flashed again at the mention of James, but she smiled anyway. "How are you guys? Kimmie! You dyed your hair!"
Kimmie nodded, beaming. "Got it done yesterday, d'you like it?" she asked, running a hand through her long wavy brown hair she'd recently highlighted with a shade of bright red.
"I like it," Kylie said. "My mum would never let me dye mine. I'm barely allowed to change it at all."
"Why should you?" Taren exclaimed, giving Kylie's ebony hair an admiring look. "You just need to not tie it up all the time because you have gorgeous hair!"
"Nah, I don't…" muttered Kylie. "I wish I was blonde. Or had something different."
"Pfeh, nonsense," said Kimmie with a grin. "We have enough blondes in Gryffindor as it is."
"Too many in Hogwarts. Do you remember that Narcissa Black?" asked Taren.
"God, don't remind me," said Kimmie with a grimace of distaste. "At least she's not at school anymore. Except now we have her lovely little sister to deal with instead."
"You know, I never thought Narcissa was all that bad. She was just cold and aloof," said Lily. "Occasionally she got a bit uppity, but she wasn't that loathsome. She often seemed lonely... I felt sorry for her sometimes."
"Lils, you feel sorry for everyone," sighed Kimmie with a smile. "You have too big a heart."
"I heard Narcissa got married," said Taren. "She's a Malfoy now."
"No way… You mean she married that Lucius Malfoy guy who graduated years ago?" asked Kylie with a grimace.
"The very same."
"She's got quite a unique taste in men… I almost feel sorry for her. Ooh, I got Merlin!" Kimmie said, opening her Chocolate Frog. "Who wants to swap?"
Their conversation moved on to other topics, which included the difficult N.E.W.T courses they'd be taking that year in preparation for the examinations in their seventh year, as well as the end-of-year ball that only sixth and seventh years were allowed to attend. Kimmie was already contemplating with them who she wanted to go with as her date.
"Casey Shipley has been writing to me all summer, and he keeps mentioning the ball," she stated, chewing on some Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.
"Well, clearly he's giving you hints. But wasn't he going out with that Simmons girl?" asked Lily.
There was a sudden shuffling from the corridor outside, and the door slid open to reveal the frame of a tall, lithe athletic figure in billowing Hogwarts robes. "Well, how are you doing, ladies?" Sirius Black asked slyly, shaking back his dark hair, his intense grey eyes taking in the room in a glance. He gave them a devilishly charming smile that was famous for often sending its female bearers into near swooning fits. "What are you all discussing so animatedly?"
Kylie bit back the retort that came instantly to mind, instead giving him a strained smile and saying lightly, "Oh, nothing you'd find interesting, I'm sure."
"Yes, well, I'm also sure that we can be the judge of that," he replied, sweeping into the compartment and sitting down beside her before any of them could say a word. James Potter was right behind him.
"Hey all, Remus had to do corridor patrol so we thought we might as well join you," he said with a grin not unlike his best friend's, one hand as usual rumpling up his unruly black hair as he sat down in the remaining empty seat, conveniently located next to Lily. She looked less than pleased.
"Is there something you want?" she asked dully.
"Evans!" James cried as though he'd just seen her. "What a pleasant surprise!"
"Oh, please," she muttered, not bothering to look at him.
"Why, Evans, you act as though you aren't happy to see me," he said, feigning a politely puzzled expression.
"Gee, I wonder why."
"Aw, come on, you aren't still mad about that sweet little birthday card I sent you, are you?"
Lily snorted. "I think 'sweet' isn't quite the right word to describe it, Potter."
"Whatever do you mean?" he asked innocently.
"What I mean, Potter, is that your adorable little birthday card opened itself the second it arrived in the house, bursting into song and bombarding the sitting room with roses, right when my parents happened to be having some extremely important business partners over for dinner! Muggle business partners!" She was looking at him directly now, her cheeks flushed with crimson fury. Everyone in the compartment was watching the scene as if it were a particularly intense episode in a daytime TV drama.
"So you didn't hear the song?" James asked.
"Oh I heard it alright," Lily snapped. "Its screeching could be heard for miles and it shook the house like an earthquake! Do you know how humiliating it was when they all stared at me afterwards as if I'd walked in the room naked? The Accidental Magical Reversal Squad had to come and sort it out!"
James didn't reply. Apparently Lily talking about nakedness had caught him off guard. He quickly regained his composure, though. "Oh, well, I, uh, kinda thought it would be romantic," he said with a shrug.
"Romantic? Potter, a date in a pigsty would be more romantic than that!"
He looked at her quietly for a moment. "Oh… I'm really sorry, Evans," he replied apologetically.
Lily, who had clearly been prepared for some sort of snide remark, looked stunned.
"I didn't mean for you to get embarrassed," he continued. "I just wanted to give you something special for your birthday, you know? And I knew you would probably trash it, so I made sure it would open right away. I never meant to cause you any trouble. Please forgive me?"
The silence in the compartment was deafening. Lily was speechless. Kylie gaped soundlessly at him. As far as she knew, James had never truly apologized to anyone before. Well, at least not willingly. It felt like they'd entered a parallel universe.
A sudden muffled noise that sounded suspiciously like a smirk came from Sirius. She glimpsed at his face and knew at once that he was trying very hard not to laugh.
Oh, I see now… she thought with a wry smile. It was an act. And I almost thought James was being sincere for a second.
Lily was saved the trouble of answering James when the door slid open to reveal Remus.
"Hey, guys," he greeted with a smile. "Just finished my patrolling shift."
"Good, we'll do ours then!" Lily said, instantly jumping to her feet and hurrying out the door, giving Kylie a pointed look. Kylie said a quick goodbye to Kimmie, Taren and Remus, swept an appraising gaze over James and Sirius, and then followed Lily into the corridor.
"Was something wrong with Lily?" asked Remus curiously.
"Oh no. She's just pleasantly surprised," responded James smugly. Kimmie glanced suspiciously at him.
"More like befuddled," added Sirius.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Taren.
"It means, Taren, that James has once more fooled himself into thinking he can trick Lily into falling for him," explained Kimmie, absently thumbing through her cards.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" demanded James indignantly.
"You'll see."
Remus and Sirius chuckled.
"Ooh, that Potter! That bounder!" ranted Lily for probably the twentieth time since they'd left their compartment, after they'd both just finished breaking up a fight between some first years over the last Pumpkin Pasty. "I can't believe him! At first I really thought he'd accidentally sent that card to the sitting room instead of to my room, but now I know that he did it on purpose! And you know what else he did? He wrote to my parents and asked them when I would do my school shopping because he was 'one of my greatest friends at school', and they told him! So, of course, he chases me all over Diagon Alley, nagging me to let him carry my bags and insisting I share a sundae with him! Even when I said no thank you he still wouldn't leave me alone! I swear if he doesn't stop haunting my steps I might just go out with him to get him to go away!"
"That's exactly what he's hoping for, I think," Kylie replied, smiling. "And I don't think going out with him would make him 'go away', Lil."
"Right, right."
They passed an open compartment occupied by a bunch of Slytherins. Pascale Wilkes, eyeing them contemptuously through her stringy dark bangs, whispered something inaudible to her friends and the whole bunch of them laughed raucously, staring at them the whole time.
"Eww, shut the door before I pass out from that nasty Mudblood's stink!" cried Bellatrix Black maliciously to the great amusement of her pals.
Kylie immediately bristled up, ready to march straight in there and demonstrate some of the more creative jinxes and hexes she'd learned off of James and Sirius over the years, but Lily grabbed her wrist and yanked her quickly along the corridor.
"Just ignore them," she said, not sparing the Slytherins one glance and holding her head high defiantly.
As they made their way back to their own compartment, the unmistakable sound of two twittering blondes and their equally twittering companion reached their ears. They arrived to see Opal and Ocean Brooks and Mallory Dodge, looking as gorgeous as ever. They were on either sides of the room, seated next to Sirius or James, and they were laughing heartily at one of Sirius' jokes. Peter Pettigrew was there now, except he was sitting in the far corner, looking somewhat forgotten by the others (though that didn't seem to be bother him in the slightest). Remus, who Kylie knew had little respect for the frivolous Brooks twins, was reading a book quietly. Kimmie and Taren were apparently joined in the conversation, except they weren't giggling half as much as the twins were.
"Welcome back, you two," said Sirius, spotting them immediately and tilting his head in greeting. He looked very comfortable indeed between Ocean and Mallory who were sitting almost indecently close to him.
"Evans!" cried James. Kylie saw him quickly inch away from Opal so that they weren't sitting so close together.
He was probably going to say something else, except Opal interrupted him. "Hi Lily! Hi Kylie! I'm sorry, we seem to have stolen your seats." She was beaming at them cheerfully, but Kylie knew she wouldn't give up her seat next to James even to save her life.
"Fine by me," replied Lily, her tone dangerous as she looked scathingly at James. "We were just on our way back to the prefect carriage anyway, weren't we, Kylie?"
"That's right," she answered, suppressing her laughter at the disappointment etched all over James' face.
"We'll see you later, then," said Kimmie with a grin.
The rest of the trip went by relatively fast. Lily ranted a few more times about James, and they had to break up a few more little skirmishes and stop students from racing up and down the corridors. Soon darkness fell and the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station. They met up with Kimmie and Taren on the tiny platform and together made their way to where the carriages were lined up. The gamekeeper Hagrid was easily seen directing all the first years down to the lake, his booming voice reaching everyone's ears clearly.
As Kylie stepped up behind Taren into one of the carriages, she glanced up and spotted the Marauders in the carriage in front of them. The blonde trio wasn't with them, surprisingly. Sirius winked at them and then disappeared into their carriage, while James sent Lily an imploring look. She pretended not to see him.
"Come on, Kylie! Don't want the feast starting without us!" she said, stepping behind Kylie into the carriage.
The Sorting felt like it lasted an eternity, of course, and the wonderful start of term feast ended way too soon. It wasn't long before all the sixth year Gryffindor girls were settled comfortably once more in their familiar circular dormitory, the brightness of the almost full moon shining in through the windows.
"I have this feeling," said Kimmie from where she was rummaging through her trunk. "You know, like a premonition sorta thing."
"Whaddya mean, Kim?" asked Ocean and Opal simultaneously. They both gasped, "Jinx!" at the same time and then promptly burst into fits of giggles, quite forgetting what Kimmie had just said. Kylie and Taren covered their mouths to hide their smiles while Lily just rolled her eyes.
"It's gonna be one mad year," said Kimmie finally.
"You mean more mad than all the others so far?" asked Kylie, stifling a yawn.
Kimmie just shrugged and crawled into her own four-poster bed. "You never know with the classmates we've got," she replied quietly so only Kylie, whose bed was nearest to hers, could hear.
And there you have the first chapter!
A/N: I first got the idea for this fic ages ago… probably while I was reading OotP and we got that very insightful look into the lives of Harry's parents while they were at school. I'd always wanted to know exactly what happened during the 'good ol' days', and because I hate waiting for the next HP book to come out, I decided to write my own version about it.
A/N 7/30/07: Just a little note here - I've been going through and making tiny edits to the story, mostly to make it fit with canon better (such as the Snape/Lily story). I've meant to address the whole Slughorn issue (ever since book 6 came out 2 years ago) - my explanation for my fic is that Slughorn used to be Potions professor, except he retired a year or so earlier, maybe at the end of Lily, James' and everyone's fourth year (it would make sense, since he apparently wanted to go into hiding as soon as Voldemort's reign of terror really began). Then my story's Prof. Hooke came in to teach.