The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Forty Three

On this chilly evening, however, parents whisked their children away faster than usual, trunks, animals and offspring in tow as they hurried through the station. It was an odd sight for the Muggles there to see the almost endless stream of people with strangely shaped packages and trunks - and usually wearing odd outfits too - wandering through the crowds and they often imagined that they were the students of some age-old public school which still stuck desperately to its traditions, where teachers and pupils haunted ancient halls in a world which they would never inhabit, completely unaware of just how special these teenagers were as they were chivvied along by their harassed parents.

“Now Lily,” her mother said as they finished cramming her belongings into the boot and jumped into the tiny car, “what’s happening at school?”

“Not much really,” she replied, “mostly it’s just work and Prefect duties I guess.”

“How’s your Head Boy?” her father asked. “Is he being helpful?”

Lily paused as she thought about how to answer her father’s question, smiling unconsciously as she thought of the day a couple of weeks ago when he had grabbed her and twirled her around the courtyard or when he had taken her out on his broom once night had fallen and they had flown through the stars. “Well he can be helpful when he wants to be,” she muttered, finally answering her parents’ questioning glances.

“And he’s easy to get on with?” May asked.

“Yes, we’ve actually become very close. We might be seeing each other over the holidays too.” Lily crossed her fingers as both sets of her parents’ eyes collided with hers in the rear-view mirror and felt herself tense up.

“Might you now?” her father said, finally tearing his away from hers after a second or two and focusing on the road again. “Why would that be?”

“It’s what friends do. I’ve been seeing Cassie every holiday for years.”

“That’s Cassie though,” he answered.

“Oh don’t be like that John; it’ll be nice to meet him. We’re just surprised dear,” May explained to Lily, “you sounded… a little put out about it when you got your letter in the summer.”

“Yeah well I was kind of wrong about him, just like I normally am.”

“You are pretty quick to judge,” her father chuckled. “It will be interesting to meet him though, I must say.”

“Why’s that?”

“Oh just… you know,” her mother replied airily.

“No, I don’t actually.”

“Well it’s just- you must know!”

“I really don’t Mum.”

“Well it’s taken so long for you to… and it took so long for us to learn anything about him; it took so long for you to actually tell us what you thought of him in the first place. You know I really thought that…”

“What did you think?” Lily’s stomach sank and she braced herself for the next sentence which would come out of her mother’s mouth - she already had an awful premonition of what it would be.

“I just thought that you two might… end up together. It would have been… amusing.”

“I don’t think you’re allowed to use my love life as a source of entertainment,” she sighed.

“Oh shush, I can do whatever I want; I’m your mother!” she chuckled. “But I suppose that if you’re still single then Mrs Stuart’s son will be happy.”