The Marauders. Bright Beginnings

Chapter One: The Journey to Hogwarts

She kissed her mother goodbye, hugged her father and gave her sister Petunia a shy smile. Then, Lily Evans got out of the Mini, grabbed her things and started to run. As she made her way towards King's Cross Station, pulling her trunk with one hand and carrying Jane Eyre's cage with the other, her dark red hair bounced up and down. She noticed people staring at her because of her Hogwarts robes, but didn't care. It was time to return to school and nothing would stop her!

When she reached the wall separating platforms 9 and 10 from each other, a panting Lily did not hesitate, but kept running, straight through the wall. Old habits die hard, and running against a wall at full speed still frightened her so much she automatically closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Lily not only found herself on Platform 9 ¾, surrounded by Hogwarts students and their parents, but bumped into a slim boy with greasy black hair that covered almost all of his face.

"Sorry!", she said, and then, when she recognized her best friend, cried out full of amazement, "Sev! It's so good to see you!"

Before her stood Severus Snape, her best friend since childhood. He had been the one to introduce her to the wizarding world and convince her she was not a freak. Upon their arrival at Hogwarts precisely four years ago, the two had been separated at the Sorting: Lily had become a member of Gryffindor house, while Severus was sorted into Slytherin. His housemates had changed him, and not for the better. Slytherins were known to disapprove of muggle-born witches and wizards, such as Lily, and she was afraid that the new friends Severus had made were exerting a bad influence on him. But for the moment, their friendship was stable and she was glad to see him.

"It's good to see you too, Lily", Severus mumbled and gave her a hug.

Liam Avery and Orpheus Mulciber, the two Slytherins he had been talking to, sniggered. Lily mentally told them to shove off and, surprisingly, it worked. They boarded the Hogwarts Express which glowed redder than ever, not without shooting her a hostile glance and mouthing "mudblood". Lily sighed.

"Why do you even bother to talk to them?", she asked, "I have a bad feeling about those two..."

"They're good company", Severus replied, "I like them."

"Good company, huh? They've called me mudblood about a-hundred-and-fifty times... I wouldn't exactly call that good company."

"They don't mean it personally, Lily. It's just the way they've been brought up."

"The way they've been brought up? Seriously, Sev?", said Lily annoyed, then interrupted herself. "Let's not argue on our first day of school. I see you've been made prefect", she said in an attempt to change the subject and pointed at the badge pinned to Severus' robes. "Congratulations, now we can go on patrol together."

"Together?", asked Severus confusedly. "But you're not wearing a badge..."

"Oh, right", she laughed, "I didn't want Tuney to get even more jealous than she already is." Lily pulled her badge from her pocket and pinned it to her robes. "Happy now?", she smirked and Severus nodded.

Behind them, the train whistle blew and Lily remembered she hadn't run all the way to Platform 9 ¾ just for fun. "Alright, then, Mr Prefect, let's board, shall we?", she joked and together, they got on the train.

After they had stowed away their luggage and their pets (Severus owned a toad called Puddles), the two proudly made their way to the prefects' carriage. They passed a compartment where James Potter and his friends were playing Exploding Snap while eating chocolate frogs.

Those four boys were a constant source of annoyance to Lily: James Potter and his best friend Sirius Black were known for hexing people whenever it suited them, especially Lily's best friend Severus Snape, whom they liked to call "Snivellus" and humiliate in front of everyone. The other two members of their little group, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, either stood by and did nothing (Lupin) or laughed and cheered at Potter and Black's exploits (Pettigrew). As if that was not annoying enough, Potter had cast an eye on Lily and was constantly asking her out - another reason why Lily was glad they did not see her and Severus when they passed the compartment as they were far too invested in their game of Exploding Snap.