Changes

By Nicola_Padfoot

Authors Note: This is my first attempt at a fan fiction so don't be too brutal. My mum always says if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. You can flame all you like though, I don't mind too much, but do tell me why you don't like it, don't just write 'It stinks'. Oh yes, one more thing, my grammar isn't really that good. So, if you review don't comment on my grammatical errors. I think that's all I have to say. Oh no, there's just one more thing, please review. I'd like some feed back. Chow for now ;)

Disclaimer: Everything that you or J K Rowling recognise belongs to J K Rowling. The plot belongs to me; the place it's in does not. If it did I would be very rich by now! Oh yes, and whatever belongs to Warner Brothers belongs to them not me.

1. Coming Home

Serena looked outside of her window. For once she couldn't wait to get off the Hogwarts Express, and on to platform 9 ¾, and that was all thanks to Lily Evans, her best friend. She was staying with Lily for the summer holidays, which was nothing short of a godsend for Serena, as she lived in an orphanage for magical youngsters. It wasn't that the orphanage was horrible or anything. It was just that being there, reminded Serena that she was all alone in the world.

"When we get to my house Serena, we'll unpack, get changed and then we can go to my favourite restaurant for Dinner. Mum and Dad always spoil me when I come home," moaned Lily, "it makes Petunia even more spiteful towards me."

"You're lucky Lily, at least you have parents to spoil you, my mum's dead and my father's a serial killer," Serena's face contorted into a look of disgust, "Even thinking about him makes my stomach churn."

Lily didn't know what to say, so she just gave Serena a look of sympathy. Serena's father happened to be Tom Riddle, or Lord Voldemort as most people knew him. Serena bared no resemblance to him though. The thick glasses she wore made it hard to tell how pretty she was. She had beautiful green brown eyes that made the room light up when she walked into it. No boys noticed this of course. To them she was clever Serena, the girl whom always had at least seven books slung over her back, the one who could always help them with their homework. Lily was clever too, but she didn't wear thick glasses, and she cared a lot about her appearance. She wasn't vain or anything, she just had to keep up her appearance of being perfect. She only did it to get the Slytherins annoyed.

Just then the door to the compartment door swung open. James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were stood at the entrance.

"Hi," James said brightly, "can we sit in this compartment, Sirius let off a dung bomb in ours."

"Sure," Lily said chuckling at the Marauders antics.

Serena knew that Lily had had a crush on James since first year. She completely denied it of course, but Serena could see through her. James sat down next to Lily, which made her cheeks turn slightly pink. Sirius sat next to James and Remus sat next to Serena. Remus and Serena were good friends, mainly because of the way they were constantly shunned aside in life. Remus was shunned because he was a werewolf, and Serena was shunned because people thought she was evil, like her father.

"So, what are you guys doing this summer?" Sirius asked, he must have been bored, he was actually being civil.

"Serena is staying at mine for the summer, it's gonna be great, I've got everything planned," Lily had a mischievous look in her eyes.

"What's that then?" asked Remus, with a smile on his face, "you look like you're up to something."

"Believe me, she is, she won't even tell me about it," groaned Serena. She had an impatient look on her face.

"That's because it's about you silly, I'm not about to tell you your surprise now am I? Then it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?

Serena groaned inwardly, she hated surprises. They always turned out bad for her. She remembered in third year, when Lily set out to plan a surprise party for her in the Gryffindor common room, she was so happy, but it turned out bad. Lily had a magical karoke machine set up. She knew Serena had a passion for singing, she also knew that Serena was very good at it, but just as Serena got up to sing, she froze and ran up to the girls dorms, not coming down for two days straight. Sirius still wouldn't let her forget about it even now, over a year afterwards. He liked to remind her of it on a weekly basis. This killed Serena, she'd always had a crush on Sirius. Maybe because he was everything she wanted to be but couldn't. He was mischievous, funny, good looking and popular, but at the same time he was extremely clever.

For the rest of the journey, everyone chatted about what they were going to do over the summer. Peter Pettigrew joined them, later on. Sirius had great fun embarrassing Serena by trying to set her and Peter up together. It hurt Serena that Sirius thought she was so unpopular that she would go out with someone like Peter. Although she was just about as unpopular as him. Later they had visitors in their compartment in the form of Narcissa Hamilton and Caterina Ladenhead.

"Hello Lillian," Narcissa said in the sweetest, sickliest voice that she could muster, "Going back to the muggle world this summer?"

"And what would it have to do with you if I was?" whispered Lily, "What I do with my life has absolutely nothing to do with you!"

"You're right there Mudblood!" spat Narcissa, "I wouldn't want anything to do with you, or your filthy family!"

Lily got up ready to hit Narcissa; fire was raging in her eyes. Serena pulled Lily back down.

"She's not worth it Lily, she's just trying to wind you up, and if you hit her she's succeeded," Serena said angrily.

"Go on listen to your ugly friend, if you hit me I wouldn't fight back anyway, I wouldn't want to touch your Mudblood skin!" after these final insults, Narcissa stalked out of the room, Caterina following her.

"Why did you stop me from hitting her?" Lily shouted, "I could have taken her!"

"She isn't worth it Lily, and you know it, she would have reported it to school when we got back," Serena said to her soothingly, "Then you would have been in real trouble."

After that, the trip back to Kings-cross was a quiet one to say the least. When Severus Snape came to the compartment, James told him to get lost and that was the end of it. When they finally reached the station, the friends said their good-byes and went their separate ways.