The Marauders: Year Four

A Lovely Pigeon Lady

A Lovely Pigeon Lady

"We always hang about at my place," Ali Prewitt said, "Let's go to yours. I've never even seen your room and I've barely met your family."

There's a reason for it, thought Lily.

Lily had met up with Ali Prewitt to take in a film at the cinema. The girls had been inspired by some of the fashion in the movie and spent the remaining money their parents had given them on clothes from a second hand shop that they planned to alter with some of the sewing spells that Ali's mum had taught her. They were trying to decide whose house to go to make their creations and Ali had her hands clasped before her, "Pleeeeease? If we go back to my place, my sister's going to bother us and my mum's going to want to help and she'll never let me do my skirt the way I want to... Please?" She gave Lily wide begging eyes, "Frank will appreciate your willingness to avoid my mum once he sees how short I'd like to make my skirt." She smiled slyly.

Lily said, "Well I'm muggle-born don't forget... we can't do any magic in my house or we'll get in trouble."

"We can trim the fabric there at least and use pins to put the hems in place. We can sew it at my house later. I just want to get the design of it done away from home so my mum won't have time to say no!" She hopped up and down, "Please, please, please, please, Lily."

"Alright," Lily ceeded, knowing her parents wouldn't mind. They were always asking why Lily didn't bring her magical friends home with her. They didn't understand the politics of the wizarding world, that being muggle-born was a burden and that the more people who knew where they lived the more danger they were in. She'd never told them about the threat from Regulus Black and she kept them blissfully unaware of Voldemort and the terror that he potentially represented for them. They were better off not knowing, she reckoned. But they'd welcome Ali Prewitt, the pixie of a girl, with open arms, she knew. "We'll go to my house, then. But only for a little while, I'd rather avoid Petunia if I can."

Ali clapped, "Yay!" she said happily, and she hugged her bag from the muggle second hand shop to her chest happily as they walked along. "How do we get there? Do we floo?" she skipped along beside Lily.

"Far less magical than that," Lily answered and she took out her bus pass and pointed to the sign they were standing under. "We take the city bus."

Ali looked ecstatic, "A muggle bus, oh my stars, I've never - this is very exciting! Is it like the Knight Bus?" she asked.

"The what?" Lily asked, confused.

"The Knight Bus!" Ali exclaimed, unable to imagine somebody who didn't know what the Knight Bus was. When Lily confirmed that she didn't, Ali launched into a long winded description of the great purple double decker and the magical properties the vehicle possessed. She talked so long that the real bus came and they boarded on and had gone through several stops before Ali had finished her tales about the experiences she'd had on the noisy, disapparating bus.

"It sounds scary," Lily said. Br>
Ali looked around the city bus they were on, several people were asleep (one old man looked like he might even be dead, he was so asleep), and some children were fighting in the back. Several strange men, including a homeless man that was muttering jibberish to himself over and over and over, would peer periodically their direction. "Scarier than this?" Ali asked.

Lily said, "You do have a point there."

So they got off the very next stop and watched in relief as the city bus hissed and groaned away, rumbling off down the street. They were in a part of London that Lily had never been before other than on the bus and she looked around nervously as Ali stuck out her hand to summons the Knight Bus. "Where are we?" Lily mumbled, "I don't like this. We could get shot here if we're not careful."