When the Day Met the Night

Eleven year old Lily Evans could be seen through the steam emitting from the the enormous Hogwarts Express, as she tried to sum up the courage to actually get onto the train. It was harder than she'd expected, leaving her parents - and Tuney. She didn't understand why her sister didn't want Lily's help, for her to try and convince Professor Dumbledore to let Tuney go to school with her. But Petunia wouldn't listen, and it was like Lily didn't even have a sister anymore. Freak, she'd called her. Lily wasn't a freak. It was just what Petunia wanted her to be.

At least Mum and Dad are supportive, she figured, Unlike Severus' parents . . . Speaking of, where is he? He was right there a moment ago. . . .

No, Severus was still no where to be found - in other words, the eleven year old girl was alone. Luckily, Lily was very independent, and she finally took a deep breath and collected herself. There had to be someone on the train willing to help her - an authority figure of some sort? She shrugged - either way, she was going to Hogwarts, what her and Sev had dreamed about for what seemed like forever.

She nodded to herself, grabbed her trunk, and stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. The corridors were tumultuous, with kids yelling and running and throwing things all over the place and over other kids. Lily stumbled to the side as a group of giggling girls ran past her and she peered over the others heads to see where they were coming from. A certain pair of boys that caught her eye, and she found a frown forming on her face as she studied them closer. They were both black-haired, except the one with glasses had the worst case of bed-head Lily had ever seen. He also had hazel eyes, while the other had gray-ish blue were both equally loud and obnoxious, and Lily decided then and there that she did not like them very much.

They were throwing a wingless snitch back and forth (although, Lily did not know it was a snitch at the time), over the other kids passing through the corridor, laughing when it would try and take flight only for one of them to catch it once again. Lily didn't know why they had to make such a scene about it and tried to make her way through their little game with the least amount of contact with them as possible. Unfortunately, the girl next to Lily had flinched away when the snitch came dangerously close to smacking her in the face, sending her and Lily tumbling to the side. Lily fell on the wooden floor much lighter than she'd been expecting and looked up to find the boy in glasses had semi-cushioned her fall by grabbing her arm. She stared at him.

He grinned. "Hullo there. I'm James Potter. You alright?"

He rumpled his hair. She glared, ripping her arm from his grasp and getting up herself.

"I'm fine, no thanks to you," she snapped, turning to the girl who'd fallen next to her. "Are you alright?"

Lily reached down and helped the blonde girl up, who dusted off her clothes with a scowl on her face.

"Yeah, thanks," she sighed, then turned to the two boys with her hands on her hips. "Potter, Black, why don't you go play your little game somewhere else, where it doesn't inflict pain on everyone in the middle!"

The two boys glanced at each other, most obviously trying not to burst out laughing, and nodded.

"Sure thing, Meadowes." the other boy, Black, said, smirking.

"Anything you say, Dorcas." James grinned, saluting her.

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "Get out of here, James."

The two of them sauntered off to their compartment, but not without James glancing one last time at Lily. She rolled her eyes and turned away, picking up her trunk again.

"Who were those guys, anyway?" Lily asked the blonde distractedly, still angry.

"James Potter and Sirius Black," she sighed, shaking her head. "I've known James Potter since we were toddlers, and he's been causing trouble ever since. Our parents are friends, and I've spent so much time with him, he's almost like a brother I wish I never had," she chuckled, and they took that moment of peace to scooch into a compartment, out of the hustle and bustle of others trying to get to where they needed to be.

As they put their bags up, Dorcas continued, "I don't know much about Sirius Black, though - just that he's from the troublesome Black family. They've all been involved in bad news at Hogwarts - except Andromeda Black, I heard she was alright back in the day. She married Ted Tonks a while back, a Muggle-born. . . . Anyway, Sirius has this other cousin in Slytherin, Bellatrix Black, who's a year above us, and she's absolutely barking. Psychotic, even. But if James is hanging out with him, he can't be that bad. Potter may be a completely daft toerag, but if anything he has a good heart."

Lily found out quickly that Dorcas talked a lot. But if was good - Lily needed to be briefed on everything and everyone at Hogwarts. She realized how little she really knew - only a one-sided explanation from Severus (who was still nowhere to be found).

"Oh, I'm Dorcas Meadowes, by the way." the blonde added, smiling.

"Lily Evans." Lily replied, smiling back. Then, they heard an alarming BANG, sounding suspiciously like it came from the compartment the Potter and Black went into.

Lily's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Are they really as bad as they seem?"

Dircas shrugged. "Like I said, James has a good heart. And they're funny, I'll give them that - funny, but immature. They're just . . . they're just boys is all."

"Oh." Lily mumbled, not convinced. She had a feeling that her discontent for the two, especially James Potter, would only grow.

XXX

The train was about ten minutes from departing and the two girls were having a lovely conversation - they were quickly becoming good friends. Lily had admitted to Dorcas she was Muggle-born and luckily the girl seemed to have no problem. Although Severus had told her it wasn't a big deal, she'd seen he was lying to make her feel better, and the fact that Dorcas didn't mind meant a lot to Lily. They were laughing about a joke Dorcas cracked when they heard more commotion outside.

"Oh, now what?" Lily grumbled.

"My money's on the Dynamic Duo." Dorcas muttered.

They were just about to continue their conversation when someone bolted into their compartment: a tall girl with long blonde hair slid the compartment door closed, clutching her suitcase. She turned to them, looking frazzled.

"Oh, hullo. I'm sorry, some boys just set off a dungbomb out there, is it alright if I sit with you?"

The girls nodded eagerly, and as the girl put her trunk away, they shared introductions. The girl was named Mary MacDonald, and she was a first year, like them.

"And did those pranksters happen to be black-haired and in our year?" Dorcas asked knowingly.

"Well, yes, two of them were," Mary replied as she sat down, "but there were two more. One was sort of skinny and pale and the other had these huge, watery eyes - kind of like a rat."

Lily and Dorcas shrugged and Mary stretched as she asked, "So what house do you two want to be in? I wouldn't mind Ravenclaw myself. But I suppose anything but Slytherin would be okay," she admitted, making a face. "Those people just creep me out."

"Well, I heard - " Lily started, but was cut off when their compartment door opened once again.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but it's not funny, you dungbrains! It's immature, and all four of you are mental!"

With that, the short, black-haired girl who was yelling slammed the door shut and turned to them.

"Can you believe those four? Merlin, it's going to be worse than Azkaban putting up with them for seven years," she scoffed, putting her trunk in the above compartment. She paused and looked down at the three girls, who looked rather startled. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Alice, Alice Prewett. May I stay with you?"

"Yes, go ahead." Mary allowed, shrugging.

They all exchanged introductions again and Lily was glad their compartment was full now. She was also glad that her and the other three girls semed to get along smashingly, and they were soon laughing at the way Alice screamed at the four boys that they all seemed to share a particular annoyance toward - some more than others.

XXX

"Prewett's the one who's mental," Sirius muttered, and looked to his new friend, James Potter. "Did you see the way she blew up at us? Like it was the end of the bloody world! It was only a dungbomb for Merlin's sake."

"I thought it was pretty impressive, the way she stood up to us." James mused as they made their way back to their compartment.

"Yeah, well, she does have two older brothers backing her up, too," Remus noted, "You know Gideon and Fabian Prewett? They just started being Auror's, and I've heard they're some of the best. Wouldn't want to mess with them."

James and Sirius shrugged and they closed the compartment door, plopped down in their seats and dug through the stash of candy. Remsu Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were the newest additions to the pranksters, and although Remus was a tad too disapproving and Peter a tad too nervous, the four seemed to take an immediate liking to each other, joking around like they'd known each other for years.

"You know, every single one of those girls in that compartment seem to hate us." Sirius pointed out as she munched on a chocolate frog.

"You two, not us." Remus said, grinning. Peter snickered.

"At least I don't really care," Sirius reasoned, then chuckled, "But Jamesy wouldn't stop making moony-eyes at that red head."

James scowled. "Was not! And I saw how you were looking at Dorcas. You think she's pretty, don't you?"

"Well, 'course I do," Sirius replied, "Doesn't mean I'm gonna go lookin' at her like you looked at that girl, though."

"It's alright, James," Peter assured him, "I've seen who you're talking about - she is pretty."

James nodded uncertainly, an unecessary feeling of jealousy rising in him.

"Good grief, I think he's jealous." Remus chuckled.

James rolled his eyes as his friends laughed, looking out the window. "Am not."

But he knew from the moment he saw the pretty red head that he liked her - a lot. And even though James knew he knew little about love, he thought he loved her, for whatever reason. And he had to get Dorcas to introduce them.

By the end of the year, Lily Evans would love him back.