Class of 1978

Prologue

The past four years were a blur in all their kinds. A blur full of color, laughter, studying, mischief, frowns and memorable days, all tucked away in the back of their minds to either be tugged at and enjoyed at will or simply forgotten about.

Lily Evans could say without a doubt that her fondest memory was of the morning when her results came in from Year One at Hogwarts. Muttering the word 'first' under her breath, letting in roll on her tongue, relishing it's sweet taste. Looking at her parents' proud smiles, the way their eyes shone and how in that moment they only had eyes for her. Her first notable accomplishment. She had done it. She had waded into uncharted waters and walked out with her head held high in victory. Accomplishment.

It gave her some much needed confidence.

Accomplishment.

James Potter would scoff and smirk but would never admit that most of his thoughts were plagued by a certain redhead. Aggravating her was not his guilty pleasure; it was how she reacted to it. She would blush furiously and bow her head slightly so that curtain of red red locks would shield her face. She would hide behind that curtain.

But that only lasted a year, second year to be precise- during first year he himself was too preoccupied by the overwhelming newness of things to notice his fellow student body.

With a new year came a new reaction. She would narrow those emerald green eyes in distate, her lips forming the words of yet another scathing retort. And James would be blown away.

Angry was when Lily was the most beautiful.

It was also the only time she thought about him or noticed him.

Him? Well he was always thinking about her. He could not seem to get her out of his head.

But this wasn't love...was it?

Sirius Black would let out one of his bark-like laughs but there was one night that would come to mind and it wasn't even at Hogwarts. It was back in Grimmauld Place during an especially stormy night. Twelve year old Sirius had been watching the raindrops hit his window, begging him to let them in. The thunder was so loud he could feel it vibrating his bones. But what fascinated him was the lightning; jagged arcs of blinding yellow and white, temporarily overpowering the black black sky. And then it was gone, in a blink of an eye, and who knew when it would return?

It was remarkable how he heard the sniffling over the thunder but he did. There at the doorway stood his brother, looking much younger than what his ten years warranted- with wide eyes alight with panic and his body trembling all over.

The concerned big brother took over in an instant. "Reg, what happened? "

"I - I," he had a habit of stammering when scared. "I asked Mum if I could spend the night with her but-but she just told me to grow up and go to my own room."

His head was bowed as he spoke and then he looked through his long lashes at his elder brother and asked, almost shyly, "Si...can I spend the night with you?"

Sirius knew how scared Regulas was of thunderstorms- of their loud roars and abject darkness. And in that moment he did what his mother had never done; he let Reg act like the kid he was.

He patted the spot next to himself on the bed. "Do you even have to ask? "

They rode the storm out together. And truth be told, it felt so good to be needed by his family for a change.

Hestia Jones had to admit that she could not constrict herself to only one single memory, one single moment. All those days would peek out from the corners of her mind, rushing in. She would talk about her first night at Hogwarts when Sirius had caused her boat to sink and had stolen her shoes and- but she would break off mid-sentence, a laugh bubbling in the back of her throat because oh there was another time when-